DESCRIPTION: Rare possibly unrecorded large format travel poster for Exploration Cruise Lines ca. 1985.
This promotional poster for Exploration Cruise Lines presents a stylized map of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, built around the slogan “Nobody Gets You Closer to Alaska.” The map combines illustrated geographic features—such as Glacier Bay, Frederick Sound, the Gulf of Alaska, Yakutat Bay, and the Inside Passage—with small icons marking wildlife including bears, eagles, whales, seals, and mountain goats. Port calls and route segments are clearly labeled: Sitka, Juneau, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Seward, Prince Rupert, and other locations appear along color-coded itineraries for the Great Rivers Explorer and Pacific-Northwest Explorer. Insets summarize key regions (“Outside, the Inside Passage,” “Yakutat Bay,” “The Inside Passage and Beyond,” and “Alaska for the Independent Traveler”), highlighting landmarks such as Columbia Glacier, Hubbard Glacier, the Kenai Peninsula, Denali National Park, and the Misty Fiords National Monument.
The lower section features a large depiction of an Exploration Cruise Lines vessel entering Alaskan waters, together with the company’s name and sunburst logo. Text blocks emphasize the line’s focus on remote scenery, wildlife viewing, and smaller-ship access to narrow channels and glacial bays. A sidebar provides a simplified Inside Passage index and distances between ports, reinforcing the company’s claim of operating close-in routes not accessible to larger cruise ships. As a surviving piece of cruise-line ephemera from a short-lived 1980s operator, the poster documents how Exploration Cruise Lines marketed its Alaskan itineraries and presents a period design that blends infographic mapping with illustrative regional imagery.
Exploration Cruise Lines operated during the mid-1980s as a small, specialty cruise company offering itineraries in Alaska and other coastal regions. The line used vessels such as the North Star and marketed itself as a more intimate alternative to the major cruise operators, emphasizing exploratory and scenic routes. Contemporary advertisements from 1986 promote their Alaska cruises, indicating that the company was positioned toward adventure-oriented travel during a period when the Alaskan cruise market was expanding rapidly.
By 1988 the company had entered serious financial and legal trouble. According to contemporaneous reporting, Exploration Cruise Lines became involved in a dispute with its parent company—Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.—and subsequently filed for protection from creditors. The company canceled upcoming voyages and soon ceased operations entirely. By the end of the decade, Exploration Cruise Lines had disappeared from the cruise market, leaving behind only a small body of advertising ephemera and scattered references in news archives documenting its short-lived attempt to compete in the niche expedition-style cruise segment.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1985
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Gulf of Alaska
CONDITION: Good.
Folds, some a bit creased but could flatten nicely before framing.
COLORING: Process color.
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 33
" x
21 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 130
PRICE: $365
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