Clipper Cruise Line

M/S Clipper Adventurer

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Operator: Clipper Cruise Line
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1975 / 1998
Length / Tonnage: 330 / 4,364
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 61 / 122
Officers / Crew: European / American / Filipino
Operating Area: Year-round Western Europe, Mediterranean, Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, East Coast of the U.S. and South America, Antarctica.

From the Titovo Brodogradiliste shipyards at Krajlevica in the former Jugoslavia came a series of eight 4,200 sister ships for the Merchant Marine Ministry of the Soviet government...Conceived to operate pleasure cruises as well as operate either liner voyages or research trips, these ships were designed for long range operations under the most severe weather conditions Mother Nature can provide at sea...Designed to operate safely and be comfortable in regions as diverse as the high Arctic to Cuba or West Africa, Eastern Siberia to Southern Chile, these ships were assigned to several different Soviet steamship lines... Second of this group of sisters named for Soviet/Russian opera singers and actresses was the ALLA TARASOVA. Her hull ice strengthened for navigation in the Arctic, she joined her immediately elder sister MARIA YERMOLOVA in the fleet of the Murmansk Shipping Company...when the Soviets said they had these ships built to work in icy conditions as well as heat, they weren't kidding...and the ALLA TARASOVA quickly proved herself at home both in the high Arctic on voyages to such out of the way places as Spitzbergen and the islands north of the great Russian land mass and in warmer places like Britain and Western Europe. Once made available for charters to Western cruise/tour operators, the ALLA TARASOVA found favor with operators of expedition cruises to places like Antarctica, Siberia and Chile...her passengers liked her, too, for she was an "oddball", a Soviet liner complete with a mostly Soviet crew yet with a large Western presence in the hotel department to assure passengers that they would not have to eat the "slop" reputed to feature so heavily on so many menus throughout the length and breadth of the Soviet Union...

I don't need to tell you that it's not just the former Soviet people who fell on hard times with the collapse of the USSR... Soviet steamship companies, once earners of enough foreign currency for the Government to subsidize all operations and make good on all ruble losses, just could not make it on their own in a free market and one by one, almost all of the old Soviet passenger and cruise liners disappeared from the seas; only those on long term charters seemed to remain in service...yet even some of them went on the block...The ALLA TARASOVA was one to come up for sale...

From St. Louis, Missouri, seemingly as unlikely a place as there could be for an ocean going cruise line to be headquartered, Clipper Cruise Line had been negotiating to purchase one of the many research vessels from her former Soviet owners...one of the many "PROFESOR" ships, though with an "Admiral" name, the ADMIRAL LAZAREV, if I remember correctly, was going to come in to Clipper's fleet and after a thorough rebuilding and a much needed redecoration, would start sailing as the CLIPPER ADVENTURER...well, other's bad luck was Clipper's good fortune, for the ALLA TARASOVA came available before much money had changed hands and the American company, now a division of INTRAV, the travel outfit which offers the most amazing tours and travel packages imagineable (hey...I could almost salivate over some of those trips...like their round the world in a private L-1011 jet, configured for about 80 First Class passengers!!!!), was able to pick up the ALLA TARASOVA instead.That was actually a stroke of luck because the design and arrangement of the ALLA TARASOVA led itself to a relatively easy and very rational conversion into the high class cruise ship CLIPPER ADVENTURER.

I think she's a very special ship. She's warm and welcoming and her crew is tops...friendly, efficient and gracious!!! I'll tell you right here, the ship is beautifully decorated and say no more about it. Need to know her color schemes? Get a brochure...trust me on this one, inside and out, this small cruise ship is a beauty...Adapted for both expedition or soft adventure cruising, the CLIPPER ADVENTURER stands out for many things, not least of which is Clipper's special lecture program. An ever popular draw, Clipper invites lecturers who don't talk down to passengers from some ivory tower, rather, Clipper seeks out experts who talk with you and travel with you and are part of the cruise life. Another feature of Clipper is the small number of passengers the ship takes...after a while a genuine camaraderie develops...and I know that a great many friendships have sprung forth among Clipper passengers. I loved the clubby feeling here, the sense that people knew who I was and that I was welcome here...it's so rare theses days, but it's what I grew up with when I was a kid and teen travelling aboard ships like the CRISTOFORO COLOMBO.

Under an awning on Boat Deck is a neato wooden patio table surrounded by five wide, wooden chairs....from one of them I like to look out over the open deck and beyond to the ship's wake as she motors through the seas (YEAH, that's right...I said MOTOR...she has NO sails, she isn't a steam ship...she's powered by a pair of nifty M.A.N. diesels each capable of approximately 2,640 horse power...so she, like all motorships including that motorboat QE2 MOTORS)...There are deck chairs both out there and on the broad open promenades flanking the deckhouse.. Within, the ship's LIBRARY is nothing short of a joy...a comfortable lounge with great chairs...it has excellent lighting, a few big windows so you won't miss any passing scenery and besides being a place to read, you can play cards, or play a board game. It is quite well stocked with books about the places the ship visits or has visited. The other thing I so like about the ship's Library is the beverage bar...where you can help yourself to complimentary coffee, tea, iced tea, lemonade or juice 24 hours a day...a feature duplicated in the Main Lounge...forward on the deck below... That room, enlarged since the ship's Soviet days to be able to seat all passengers at one time, is a true success...With a full service bar on the port side, the soft drink bar aft, the Main Lounge ably serves as living room, breakfast room, lecture hall, music room, dance hall...you get the idea...it's fitted with all the equipment you could need to provide a venue for entertainment or amusement, or snacking...and when it comes to snacks...Clipper doesn't stint... But as much as I like both Lounge and Library, there's a lounge I like even more...the 45 seat Clipper Club, midships on the same deck as the Lounge...It, too, has a bar, and acts more like a club than any other I have seen at sea so far...maybe it's the decor, exquisite as a fine jewel in a proper setting, or the natural clubby feeling that develops when a small number of congenial passengers travels together for more than a few days... if the Clipper Club sent out applications for membership, you'd be a fool not to join!

Both sides of the ship have a glass enclosed promenade on this deck, that forward on port side has been arranged as a smoking alcove...it's the ONLY enclosed space where smokers may light up...this ship is otherwise NON-SMOKING, a policy I thought helps keep her so pristine and shiny! Besides her dining room, beauty parlor and boutique, the CLIPPER ADVENTURER has a small gym and sauna, but she has neither swimming pool nor passenger elevator...so if either of those items are a "MUST" for you, don't say you haven't been forewarned. Two more things the CLIPPER ADVENTURER doesn't have...are BINGO and a casino, two items I gladly eschew... So you'll win no jackpot here, but the increased level of serenity is reward enough for me...similarly, there is not much organized entertainment...When the ship is in port of an evening, local talent comes aboard to play music, lecture or instruct. At sea, evenings bring a movie or a lecture, a party, or quiet relaxation and conversation...an art so many other lines have worked to extinguish in their ships in order to get passengers to spend money...NOT Clipper, a real class act!

In her dining room, big windows on both sides and out to the stern allow every table a good view...but are you coming in here to squint out the windows or to eat? Able to accommodate all passengers at a single seating, the CLIPPER ADVENTURER's dining room is a great setting for some outstanding food. I can tell you without exaggeration, some of the food her kitchens dish up is OUT OF THIS WORLD...delicious, extraordinary and fantastic...There were a couple of things that I thought were only "Good"...and considering how good a lot of the offerings were... "Good" just didn't seem to make it...but who am I kidding?

The CLIPPER ADVENTURER's food is up there with the best of them. True, there are no elaborate menus offering many choices of any course, but this isn't one of those coffee shops with a couple of hundred menu items where the cheesburger reigns supreme anyway....Consider the menu here table d'hôte...you can always order off the menu if you don't see something that appeals...BUT PLEASE...do it early if you can...the menus are available for your inspection at both bars...The kitchen is run by graduates of some of America's greatest culinary iinstitutes, and the American waitstaff, seconded by ever pleasant hotel manager and his assistant hotel manager, both always pitch in to make the service run ever smoother...dining here is a joy! A daily treat is the "Clipper Chipper", the homemade cookies served late every afternoon...they're SOOOOOO GOOOD!

At about 150 square feet CLIPPER ADVENTURER's standard cabins don't pretend to be palaces at sea...yet each is so well executed, and with enough storage space for a cruise of about a month, that the size is compensated by other things...Beds feature goose down comforters above and below you, though is you prefer, more standard American bedding is yours for the asking....there is piped in music, though neither television nor video recorder...nor is there a telephone...I found the cabin a great place to sleep, my bed a comfortable spot to read a few pages, the bathroom compact yet perfectly equipped and the cabin cleanliness UNBEATABLE. For you fans of high ticket cabins...and honestly a cruise on the CLIPPER ADVENTURER does NOT come cheap...and yet I think she is worth every penny...there are both some larger luxury grade cabins and a few suites... Do the cabins lack for anything? Not really, but if Clipper wanted to loan us bathrobes for use on board, I wouldn't squawk...

With per diem prices in the $500 per person rate, expect passengers here to be pretty well fixed...yet I was thrilled by the lack of pretense, the easy going manner of the crowd on this little beauty...I think it fair to say, Clipper passengers are better educated than most, discerning and well travelled....there are a lot of nature lovers here and the erudition level is quite high....Few Clipper passengers are fans of the mass market cruise ships, nor do "high-end"lines like Seabourn, Silversea or Crystal much impress Clipper repeaters...they can afford those lines, and many have been in ships of those companies, yet prefer it here, where the attitude and ambiance are subtle and no one reeks of new cash...

Befitting her role as an expedition ship, the CLIPPER ADVENTURER can go almost anywhere...well..not on LAND, of course, but wherever deep water welcomes ocean going ships...For the 1998-99 season, she will venture to Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Greenland/Canadian Arctic, the East Coast of US, the East Coast of South America and highlight of all for so many intending passengers...Antarctica.

From the moment Clipper had announced the impending conversion of a PROFESOR class ship into the CLIPPER ADVENTURER, I had been chomping at the bid to get a look at her...the announcement that the ALLA TARASOVA would be the ship so treated REALLY got me going because I had long thought that all eight sisters would make DANDY little cruise liners for specialty markets...and Clipper sure did prove me right! Clipper's cruise philosophy combined with a ship like this one, converted to the highest standards of the contemporary cruise trade and decorated so well makes the CLIPPER ADVENTURER a natural! Have you ever discovered someplace you liked so much, where you felt so perfectly at ease, so perfectly at home, so looked after that the LAST thing you wanted to do was to open your mouth and spill the beans lest that spot be overrun by the many? For me the CLIPPER ADVENTURER is that kind of place and I gotta tell you...I didn't really want to let you all in on this secret...with the sale of the STELLA MARIS, for my money, I think the CLIPPER ADVENTURER is now the best little ship in the world!