After a successful debut season piloting Newport’s newest tour boat last year, Captain Jeff O’Brien's Gansett Cruises will be branching out. During the Fall 2008 season, he and his crew will partner with the east coast’s leading destination management company to offer harbor tours to guests arriving on both the Princess Cruises and Cunard Line.

Gansett Cruises, whose principal tour boat typically circles the harbor as well as the giant ocean liners as they lie at anchor in Narragansett Bay, made its mark on the industry in 2007 by offering what it calls “harbor tours with a different view.” That view happens to be up-close and personal, both with the sights and landmarks along the shore and with the hospitality offered by Gansett’s crew. O’Brien, a 25-year veteran of the upscale charter boat industry says, “The crew and I like to give every person the feeling you get from being a guest aboard a luxury yacht, even though they’re only aboard for 90 minutes. We want to make the tour and the boat ride memorable for everyone.” On each trip aboard O’Brien’s meticulously restored Maine-built wooden vessel, the crew lays out a spread of Rhode Island foods and beverages so that guests get a true taste of the “local flavor.” As a preview to the harbor tour, the ships’ guests will take an hour-long motorcoach tour featuring expert commentary about the destination's renowned Gilded Age mansions and scenic Ocean Drive.

The level of service on Gansett Cruises harbor tours is wholly compatible with the excellent shore excursions that have become the hallmark of the cruise line industry as well as a standard for Destination New England. DNE has worked for many years to develop creative and innovative shore excursions Tom Anderson, company co-owner and director of product development and operations for DNE, says, “This new specialty tour is the best of both - it allows the guests to experience Newport by land and sea. Guests will see all of Newport in an intimate and unique way.” The company provides similar receptive services for cruise lines calling at ports all along the Atlantic seaboard. Among Anderson’s strengths is his ability to work with local historians, community leaders, teachers and experienced tour leaders to create safe yet exciting shore excursions for his clients.

The current 2008 schedule calls for the ships of Princess Cruises will make 13 calls in Newport, and the Cunard Line, featuring the QE2 and the QM2, will make 2 calls. Although each vessel disembarks thousands of passengers during their short half-day stay in Newport, only a select few will be fortunate enough to take advantage of the limited seats available for the Gansett Cruises harbor tour of Newport. The M/V Gansett, which offers daily tours and private charters, is U.S.C.G. certified for 48 passengers and provides modern ameneties aboard.

During the entire spring, summer and fall 2008 season, Gansett Cruises will partner with Wyndham Vacation Resorts to offer specialty cruises to all their guests. In 2007, the Wyndham guests in this highly popular seaport sampled the different Gansett Cruises tours and “flavor of Rhode Island” menus served on board and, as a result of excellent reviews from last year’s participants resort executives decided to double, and likely, triple the number of Gansett tours reserved for Wyndham guests this year. Wyndham’s vacationers will take advantage of a discounted rate to participate in these specially scheduled harbor tours, and they will receive the weekly timetable for the special Gansett Cruises as they check into their rooms.

Wyndham Vacation Resorts operates several properties in the area - Long Wharf Resort, the Inn on Long Wharf, Newport Onshore and the Inn on the Harbor – all in Newport, and the Overlook and the Bay Voyage both in Jamestown. Established in 1969, the corporation is one of the leading vacation ownership companies in the United States. More than 500,000 families enjoy the Wyndham Vacation Resorts lifestyle all across the country. In 2006, more than 300,000 families took advantage of vacation packages and the long list of activities that each of the properties offers for their enjoyment.

The resort’s agents and Gansett Cruises will offer a weekly morning harbor tour, which the boat’s crew feels is the best time of day to enjoy the beauty and quiet of the waterfront, in addition to one, and possibly more, evening “cocktail cruises” per week. “We call them ‘cocktail cruises’ because the first thing we do as we leave the dock is to make sure that every Wyndham guest is served a complementary beverage from the ship’s bar,” says O’Brien.

The tour season for Gansett Cruises is begins in early May. Although each of the Wyndham properties has hundreds of guests checking into their area resorts, only a few will be able to pre-reserve the limited seats available. The M/V Gansett, which also offers daily tours and private charters, is U.S.C.G. certified for 49 passengers and provides modern amenities aboard.

Captain O’Brien decided not just any old boat would do for his venture – he spent more than a year looking for the right one -- a vintage vessel deisgned by Mainer Giffy Full. Everybody with a boat knows who Giffy Full is! The boat is a classic. O’Brien spent nearly 2 years in Maine, RI, and other places restoring the boat. It was a total wreck when O’Brien bought it, but it has been finely restored, all the way down to the varished mahogany and shiny brass faucets in the boat's "head".

“Luckily,” says O’Brien, a Newporter who previously captained for private luxury yacht owners such as O.L. Pitts of Forth Worth, Texas, “there were no glitches in the sea trials for the boat or in getting the U.S. Coast Guard Certification. It all went according to plan.” In fact, traditional seaworthiness was built into this vintage wooden vessel from the start. Built in 1969, its design was the concept of Giffy Full (a Mainer who, among other things invented a knot that was subsequently named for him). It was constructed by Beal and Bunker, also of Maine to be used in the state as a recreational boat, ferrying people between the coast and the islands. Later owners used it as a lobster boat, home ported in Newport. Back it went to Maine again after that, which is where O’Brien found it and bought it in 2004.

Gansett Cruises, operating off Bowen’s Ferry Landing in Newport, claims to have “harbor tours with a different view.” It’s a point well made – it so happens that each of the guest speakers on board gives his or her own perspective of life and times in Newport. Many crewmembers grew up on these waters. Some are fascinated by its history, others by its natural wonders. “Each host on board has a unique story to tell, and I encourage that. It’s nothing like a ‘canned’ tour,” he says, “which is what I didn’t want.” Many of the boat’s private charter clients who have been booking the boat for events such as weddings and parties, invite the guides along, too, just so they can hear their entertiaining stories and personal experiences.

“For example, in the evenings, we set out trays of ‘Stuffies,’ Rhode Island stuffed quahogs hot out of the oven, and passengers can just help themselves to one. It’s included in the price, so they don’t pay extra for that,” O'Brien explains. Yacht Club brand soda, cold juice and spring water, as well as brewed Autocrat coffee in the morning, are also compliments of the captain. Other R.I. specialties, such as fresh-churned Warwick ice cream and Del’s Frozen Lemonade are on the daily menu. “Most tour boats charge their guests for food and refreshments, but I just like to ask th e crew to set the table on the aft deck, so that people feel at home when they’re with us,” says O’Brien. (Beer and wine are available at the boat’s cash bar). With so much food on the table, with drinks iced down in the on-deck coolers, with its colorful striped deck cushions, its crisp sun canopy overhead and its brightly varnished woodwork all about, the Gansett is not only seaworthy, it’s see-worthy, too.