Expedition Cruise Experts & Logistics

EXCEL was founded by Victoria (Underwood) Wheatley, a travel industry professional who has worked in a wide variety of management-level positions coordinating expedition ship operations with a number of leading companies since 1986. She has also served as cruise director on board expedition cruise ships as well as a luxury square-rigger visiting hundreds of ports of call around the world and worked as a port coordinator overseeing passenger turnarounds in Caribbean and North American ports for one of the large luxury cruise lines. She is well known in the industry and respected for her expertise in the recruitment of award-winning teams serving as expedition staff.

Victoria is considered to be a key authority in polar tourism, especially in the regulatory and environmental aspect of ship and yacht operations in the Antarctic and Arctic. Her expertise is sought after to assist individuals and organizations of any size in complying with the multitude of governmental regulations and permits, including the preparation of environmental impact assessments.

In 1999 Victoria was selected to serve as the U.S. tourism industry’s Private Sector Advisor to the Department of State, in which capacity she counsels State and the other U.S. agencies active in Antarctic-related matters (National Science Foundation, EPA, NOAA and Coast Guard) about all aspects of the Antarctic tourism industry, including cruise- and yacht-based vessel operations as well fly/cruise and land-based tourism. In this role she attends the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings as part of the U.S. Delegation, provides recommendations to the U.S. government about the development of their tourism policies, gives input to proposed regulations and advises on tourism-related issues that arise at the meeting and during the year.

The ocean has dominated Victoria’s life since 1986; however her love of water – and especially ships – goes even further back than that. A distant relative of Donald McKay, the man who designed and built the first clipper ships for American ship owners in the mid-nineteenth century – some 32 in all – including the “Queen of the Clippers,” the Flying Cloud, Victoria has always been obsessed with ships and this obsession has always included a fascination with travel in general. To this day, she is convinced she was bitten by the ‘travel bug’ when she was a young child, as her most vivid memories of her childhood are the stories her maternal grandparents told her following their travels around the world.

After graduating from the University of Washington, it was a natural transition that she start down the path of her own travel odyssey. Since then, Victoria has worked for some of the top companies in the cruise industry as operations manager, director of expedition cruise operations and, more recently, as an industry consultant. Her work has included tour planning and itinerary development, operations, logistics, the recruitment and management of expedition cruise staff working on vessels in remote locations around the world, the development of highly-acclaimed educational programs and the coordination of vessel operations to remote and sensitive environments, including destinations under rigorous permitting/authorization regimes.

The desire to ‘run away to sea’ has always been a distraction and she has satisfied this urge by frequently working aboard expedition vessels, cruise ships and even a square rigger. She has traveled to all seven continents, to over 100 countries, and participated in well over 100 cruises, including more than 50 cruises to Antarctica and more than 30 to the Arctic alone.

In 1999 Victoria was tapped as the industry expert to represent the commercial interests of the U.S.-based companies who conduct activities in Antarctica by serving as the U.S. government’s Antarctic private sector advisor. In this capacity she is responsible for providing informed views on the commercial tourism industry and advice on technical issues, such as proposed industry and visitor regulations and management plans; as well as legal, policy and liability matters and potential environmental impact from human visitation to the government agencies with an interest in Antarctic matters (Department of State, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). She sits on the U.S. delegation at the annually-held Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and advises on an ‘as needed’ basis during the course of the year.

Since 2010 she has worked as an industry consultant offering management support and operational and technical assistance on a worldwide basis to the expedition travel and cruise industry. To date she has assisted more than 35 companies as well as two industry associations — the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO). She is one of the few who has a detailed understanding of the complex environmental regulations and regulatory regimes that operators must contend with in carrying out activities in these remote locations. Her unique skill set — spanning now more than 25 years – has made her expertise particularly in demand by operators large and small.

John Delaney, Sr. Vice President Sales & Marketing at Seabourn Cruise Line, LTD     (Currently President of Windstar Cruise Line)

John was a client of Victoria’s

Victoria’s extensive Antarctic and expedition experience, combined with her exceptional attention to detail, make her an outstanding consulting resource in her field. I would highly recommend her and be happy to provide more information on her attributes to anyone considering hiring her. Her work for Seabourn Cruise Line was excellent.

Conrad Combrink, Senior Vice President Strategic Development Expeditions and Experiences at Silversea

Conrad worked with Victoria in different groups

We were thrilled that Victoria accepted the challenge to assist us in developing various Environmental Documents for our Expedition fleet. Victoria is one of the most dedicated, and detail-oriented professionals I know.

I truly appreciate Victoria’s ability to make sense out complex requirements and her honest and open feedback during the process was refreshing.

I have the utmost respect for Victoria and cannot image going through the various regulatory processes without her assistance.

John McKeon, at Polar Latitudes

John was a client of Victoria’s

We at Polar Latitudes are thrilled with our association with Victoria. Since 2010 she has managed very complicated regulatory processes for us and everything has been as smooth as we could want. She offers a terrific value as well.

Ian Michael Shaw, Director of Expedition Operations at Polar Latitudes

Ian Michael was a client of Victoria’s

Victoria has been instrumental in guiding our new company with government and non-government agencies as well as permitting authorities and stakeholders. Her expertise is unmatched and her results are comprehensive, thorough, and timely. She has gone above and beyond the call on several of our projects. We are certain to maintain Victoria’s consultancy throughout the growth of our company and happily recommend her to others.

David Rootes,  Member at Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions LLC

David worked with Victoria but at different companies

Victoria is a great colleague, with a fine eye for detail and always delivers on time.

Jannie Cloete,  Cruise Director,  Abercrombie & Kent (Currently Director Silversea Experiences at Silversea Cruises)

Jannie reported directly to Victoria

I have had the great pleasure and privilege to work for and with Victoria Wheatley during my tenure as senior Cruise Director with Abercrombie & Kent. There are very few out there, if any with greater knowledge, better organization, attention to detail and support to staff 24/7 while on an expedition.

Victoria’s management skills when it comes to staff are excellent. Her recruiting of multi-national staff and ensuring a smooth operation through training and preparation for the season in Antarctica was a big part of the success of our operation.

Her in-depth knowledge of the areas, the rules to play by as well as the motivation to staff to excel while on an A&K cruise, is legendary. I have learned a lot working with her and hope that our paths will cross again in the not to distant future.

If I was starting my own business, there is no doubt in my mind on who will receive the first offer to join: Victoria Wheatley!

Suzana Machado D’Oliveira,  Expedition Leader, Naturalist, Lecturer, Abercrombie & Kent

Suzana reported directly to Victoria

I have worked with Victoria for 23 years. Over these years she has always impressed me with her commitment, dedication, and focus. Responsible for creating the highly regarded educational program on board Abercrombie and Kent expedition cruise ships, she has always demonstrated an attention to detail and thoroughness.

She has always led by example, setting a high standard for herself, and in turn bringing out the best in all of us. At the same time, she has always found time to be both a boss and a friend treating us with the utmost respect and consideration.

Whoever has the privilege of working with Victoria can be certain that she excels in everything she does. Thank you for all that you have done for our community!

Fabio Saturni,  Foreign Service Officer at U.S. Department of State

Victoria worked with Fabio in the same group

During the four years that I was a Senior Adviser in the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Victoria was always invited to serve as a private sector representative on the official U.S. delegation to the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. As deputy head of the delegation, I worked very closely with her to plan and develop our policies, as well as the strategies for achieving them. The expertise and objective advice she provided were absolutely invaluable. Her ability to anticipate problems, build bridges between competing interests, and find and negotiate solutions to complex issues was often the essential element to achieving our success.

Kim Crosbie,  Polhavet AB

Victoria worked with Kim in the same group

I have worked with Victoria for several years while we were representing the Antarctic tourist industry and IAATO at the international Antarctic Treaty meetings. All of us on the team benefited enormously from Victoria’s extensive contributions, detailed knowledge and understanding of the the often complex multinational system. She has an incredible depth of knowledge of the Antarctic Tour Industry both from a field and office perspective and is extremely capable at setting that understanding within the governance context. I have no hesitation in recommending Victoria.

 Lorraine Betts, Owner, Ship To Shore, Inc.

Lorraine was a client of Victoria’s

Victoria is an excellent project manager; we have contracted her services on a consulting basis on a number of occasions since 2002 to assist with cruise-related, marketing and our web retail business. She is highly respected in the expedition travel and cruise industry and has built up an incredible database of useful and pertinent experience, along with world travel contacts and vendors. I would highly recommend Victoria for any position she thought suitable to undertake.

Victoria Wheatley

PO Box 389

Manson, WA 98831  USA

Victoria@excelinc.us

Cell: 858.699.8867

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/victoriawheatley/22/556/5b8