The Coral Adventurer’s 59-night circumnavigation of Australia is being sold in one segment and was 80 percent sold out more than 18 months in advance ahead of its November 2020 departure, according to Paul Chacko, managing director of the Australian expedition brand, in an interview for the 2019 Expedition Market Report by Cruise Industry News.
The company welcomed its new 120-guest ship, the Coral Adventurer, in April, taking delivery on April 1, with a first cruise departing from Singapore on April 24.
The newbuild joins the company’s existing three-ship fleet, including the 72-guest Coral Discoverer, 46-guest Coral Expeditions I and 42-guest Coral Expeditions II. A second newbuild follows late next year.
“The ship performed extremely well in rough sea conditions,” said Chacko. “We had three meter swells, and 25 knot winds and the ship was very stable and extremely quiet.”
The company’s core product is expedition sailings in the Kimberley region.
Building for 120 guests, the Coral Adventurer is the biggest ship in the company’s fleet, but the guest number was said to be the perfect balance for the experience, based on deployment and the guest experience.
“It would be more economical to operate a 150- or 160-guest ship; that is the nature of shipbuilding. The cost to add cabins is marginal but the loss of guest experience is significant,” said Chacko.
Also playing a part are the Xplorer boats, the company’s unique tenders. The fast boats can each take 60 guests and five expedition team members, and sail at speeds over 20 knots. The open air boats feature bathrooms, comfortable seating and refreshments aboard. Guests board the smaller boats on the main deck of Coral’s cruise vessels, and the boats are then are lowered in the water via a complex hydraulic system.
The Coral Adventurer was built with a shallow draft for its South Pacific and Australia deployment profile, as well as with 1,000 square meters of open deck space including a wrap-around promenade deck with panoramic views.
“The key feature for us is to maintain the Coral guest experience,” Chacko said. “People don’t want to wait in lines, and they like to have access to the expedition staff. As the market matures, guests will start seeing the benefits of a capable blue-water vessel that carries fewer guests.”
With a new ship now in the fleet, Chacko said they had built a ship on time, on budget and to spec.
The decision to add the Coral Adventurer was based on demand.
“We operated three ships, with our key itineraries running full,” said Chacko. “As we expand the fleet we will retire the older vessels and replace them. That is a long-term plan.”
New tonnage is more flexible, and further-reaching, allowing the company to add new deployments, such as a Darwin-to-Indonesia program on the Coral Adventurer, and additional tropical expeditions being planned.
“We are introducing new and innovative experiences and not replicating what others do; we will never go Polar.”
The company’s Cairns-based office has a strong culture, with many employees having long-time Coral backgrounds.
“The challenge is to maintain the culture of the company as we grow,” Chacko continued, “not to lose sight of who we are and what we do best, retaining those people and the culture of the company.”
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About the Expedition Market Report:
The 2019 Expedition Market Report by Cruise Industry News is a comprehensive overview of the booming expedition market, profiling 39 operators, over 40 new ships and projecting capacity growth through 2027. The 196-page PDF is a deep dive into all aspects of the expedition cruise market.
