Newport Online

After recently announcing a new partnership with the destination management company that offers harbor tours for the guests arriving in Newport aboard Princess Cruises and Cunard Line, Captain Jeff O’Brien of Gansett Cruises of Newport, Rhode Island has announced that during the entire spring, summer and fall 2008 season, he and his crew will partner with Wyndham Vacation Resorts, Inc., the destination’s largest vacation ownership corporation, 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, Inc. 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.

Gansett Cruises, whose principal tour boat typically circles the harbor on five runs daily, 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.”

The current tour season for Gansett Cruises is scheduled to begin on May 9th. 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.

www.gansettcruises.com