We Are UnCruise - Meet The Crew
When you step on board an UnCruise you begin an adventure. You will love the food, the fun, the activities, and most of all the people. UnCruise is who we are because of the people that make up the team. As IE Magazine discovered in their interview of CEO and Founder Dan Blanchard for their Top 10 Inspiring Leaders of 2022, Dan built the company on the quality of his people. UnCruise believes in promotion from within the company, with equal opportunities for people of different backgrounds, colors, genders, sexuality, and economic status. A willingness to work hard and help each other, along with an engaging passion for the areas we sail, is what matters the most. Crew consider themselves family.
Today we will meet 3 of our crew to find out what they do, what they love about boat life, and some of their best experiences aboard.
Derius Wilson
Q: How did you come to work for UnCruise?
A: I was called and offered a job by a good friend of mine.
Q: What is your background?
A: My background is in environmental science and hotel services. I’m currently working on getting my therapy license.
Q: Where do you live when you aren’t UnCruising?
A: I live in Dallas when I’m not working on the boats, and I also travel a lot!
Q: What career would you choose if you weren’t on board?
A: If I wasn’t on board, I would choose to be a counselor. I love helping people and giving them advice, but I’m also a good listener and good at understanding people.
Q: What is your official title? What do you call it when you explain it to people?
A: I am a lead steward, so I supervise the hotel team.
Q: What qualifications do you have to have for your position?
A: Stewards must have Servsafe Manager certification as well as a food and beverage handler’s certificate and liquor license.
Q: Did you start in a different position and advance to your current position? Could someone do this with promotions within the company?
A: I started as a steward and was promoted to lead steward.
Q: What do you do during the week when you are onboard?
A: I supervise the steward team and help around where I’m needed. Answering guest questions; being a helping hand to the hotel department; and going off the boat on skiff tours and doing the activities with the guides and guests.
Q: What do you love about boat life?
A: What I love about boat life is my crew! They are amazing and fun and wonderful. We all have bonding moments – we’re like family! Outside of the wonderful gallery staff, the activities are out of the world. We love crew beach game nights and movie nights. I really love and appreciate the guests. I even sing and perform for them. They love it, and it makes me happy that they enjoy it. And you can’t forget the amazing cool wildlife – Alaska’s mountains and bears, and the whales breaching – it’s beautiful. Amazing and I love it.
Bener Durman
Q: How did you come to work for UnCruise?
A: I found UnCruise Adventures through an online search. I googled what is the best adventure cruise lines, and the answer was UnCruise Adventures! After reading both guest and employee reviews, I sent an application and was hired after 4 interviews. I have been working with UnCruise since the beginning of the 2022 SE Alaska summer season.
Q: What is your background?
A: I grew up in the hospitality industry. I have been working since I was 15 years old in various positions in restaurants, bars, hotels, and cruise ships. I’ve owned two restaurants. I started working as a bartender and worked my way up. I worked for a luxury small ship cruise line company as a hotel general manager, and I managed and renovated 4 ships in their off season. All these years, I was feeling the lack of connection with nature deeply. I started searching for a company that would help me to fill that gap. I am so happy that I found UnCruise Adventures. Finally I get to experience nature to the highest while I am continuing my profession. Consider, I was born in Ankara, Turkiye, which is the other side of the world! When I experience and explore the areas such as Fords Terror or Misty Fjords, I’m aware that I am one of the one in a million people who get to see and experience these places. I appreciate UCA so much for what they have accomplished.
Q: Where do you live when you aren’t UnCruising?
A: Home is Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but I am making my plans to move to SE Alaska permanently. My goal is the get land and build a self sufficient cabin.
Q: What career would you choose if you weren’t on board?
A: If I wasn’t on board, I would continue managing hotels, but I am planning to continue working on board for the next 10 years.
Q: What is your official title? What do you call it when you explain it to people?
A: My official title with UCA is Hotel Manager. I am responsible for all shipboard hotel accommodations, guest services, and food and beverage operations.
Q: What qualifications do you have to have for your position?
A: To do this job for UnCruise you must have several certifications. I have the Safe Serve Manager certification, TWIC card, Bar Smarts Certificate, Alaska Charr License, basic first aid / CPR certificate, and some others as well. To manage a business, especially if it’s an onboard operation, requires certain skill sets and maturity. Managers should be able to understand & support their guests’ and crew’s concerns at all times. Ships are our home, not only our work place.
Q: Did you start in a different position and advance to your current position? Could someone do this with promotions within the company?
A: I started as a Hotel Manager, but yes, a “promote from within” mentality is a priority here. Someone can start working as a steward and be promoted to Hotel Manager if they are great performers. As UCA and onboard managers, we support our employees fully on this matter.
Q: What do you do during the week when you are onboard?
A: As a Hotel Manager, I simply care of my guests’ concerns and their accommodations. I also manage inventory and make sure we have enough resources for the week. Food & Beverage services and cabin services are my main responsibilities for daily operations.
Q: What do you love about boat life?
A: I love the experience, the adventure, and the people. Your team becomes your family when you are onboard. That’s the best part of it.
Q: What is the coolest wildlife sighting you can think of that you have had on an UnCruise?
A: My best one was the orcas. In my first week, by midnight of the first day there were four orcas. I was close enough to touch them! That was amazing. And of course, the whales are such magical creatures.
Ben Marolf
Q: How did you come to work for UnCruise?
A: I found UnCruise in 2014. I was a passenger aboard the Wilderness Adventurer on a trip from Juneau to Ketchikan. My grandfather took his grandchildren on the trip as a gift. I realized during that trip that I wanted to come back and work for UnCruise as a guide. I started in 2018 as an Expedition Guide, and then Lead Guide on Wilderness Explorer, and have been Expedition Leader on the Wilderness Discoverer since 2021.
Q: What is your background?
A: I have a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from St Olaf College and did a 2 year graduate fellowship through Hamline University in Environmental Education. Before joining UnCruise, I was a graduate fellow and naturalist at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro, MN; a high country wilderness guide in the Rocky Mountains; and the Commodore of a sailing school in McGregor Bay, Ontario.
Q: Where do you live when you aren’t UnCruising?
A: Salt Lake City, Utah.
Q: What career would you choose if you weren’t on board?
A: Mountaineering guide. I spend my off-season exploring the mountain west and climbing all over Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, etc.
Q: What is your official title? What do you call it when you explain it to people?
A: My title is Expedition Leader. I explain to folks that I spend my summers managing a phenomenal team of guides and planning and executing trips around Southeast Alaska via the worlds finest vessel, the M/V Wilderness Discoverer – The Jewel of the Fleet. I tell them I spend my days kayaking with whales, watching bears eat salmon, and skiffing around glaciers.
Q: What qualifications do you have to have for your position?
A: I have my Wilderness First Responder, multiple degrees in related fields, have spent decades on the water, over a decade as a guide, and have been managing effective teams since 2013. I have spent years working in bear country, am a team ambassador for a kayaking company, and have made a career out of outdoor recreation.
Q: Did you start in a different position and advance to your current position? Could someone do this with promotions within the company?
A: I spent one year as an Expedition Guide, one year as a Lead Guide, and then became Expedition Leader. It is a pretty common track amongst the expedition teams fleet-wide.
Q: What do you do during the week when you are onboard?
A: I create itineraries, find the wildlife hot-spots, create daily schedules and ops plans for guests, and find time to get my crew off of the boat so they can explore Alaska while working onboard in different departments.
Q: What do you love about boat life?
A: The family onboard. Working as a cohesive team with a shared mentality of success creates wonderful, lasting relationships. Some of my dearest friends are people I have met during my tenure with UnCruise.
Q: What is the coolest wildlife sighting you can think of that you have had on an UnCruise?
A: I was on a skiff tour with my bosun at the time, Bronwyn. We were watching a mother and calf humpback whale for a while, and then they disappeared for a few minutes. All of a sudden, I looked down off of the skiff and the baby was just 2-3 feet under the water, staring right at us. Mom was right behind baby, and was so big that it was impossible to tell exactly what I was looking at. She brought baby right up to us, twice. They swam off after a thorough investigation. It was incredible.