UnCruise Offers + Insider Tips On The Best UnCruise Experiences, Wines & Wildlife

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UnCruise Offers + Expert Shares Her Insider Tips

By Heidi Sarna & Julie Brigham

I had an interesting e-chat with Julie Brigham, a passionate UnCruise staffer who has worn many hats over the years.

UnCruise, a family-operated business helmed by Captain Dan Blanchard, is known for delivering high-quality and very personal small-ship cruise experiences aboard its fleet of 22- to 86-passenger ships.

When you “meet” Julie in the conversation below, you’ll get a good feel for why adventure travel lovers keep coming back to UnCruise for memorable hands-on travel experiences in Alaska, Pacific Northwest, Baja California, Hawaii, Galapagos & Central America.

At least one third of UnCruise passengers are repeaters. It’s addictive!

UnCruise Offers + Expert Tips from Julie Brigham

UnCruise’s Julie Brigham. * Photo: Julie Brigham

QC: Julie, tell us what exactly you do for UnCruise?

Julie: I have worn many hats over my five years at UnCruise – I did a brief stint as a steward, worked behind the bar for three seasons, then moved up to Food & Beverage Manager and Hotel Manager.

Last year, I had the pleasure of organizing the beverage program for the whole company as we gradually started sailing again after the worst of the pandemic.

Currently, I’m mostly working out of my home in Seattle as a recruiter for our galley, hotel, and guest adventures personnel.

Recruiting is wonderful, but my stints as the sommelier on the Columbia and Snake River itineraries continue to be the most fun I’ve ever had at a job, and that’s saying something!

QC: What makes working for UnCruise special?

Julie: I initially joined the company to continue my travel habit in a more sustainable way. (Previously, I would work 80+ hours per week at multiple bars and restaurants in Seattle to save up money, take off and travel until my savings dwindled, then come home and do it all over again.)

UnCruise was the best of both worlds — we work 12 hours per day/7 days per week when we’re onboard, so I could bulk up my savings account, but we were sailing in the most beautiful places you can imagine, so I felt like I was fulfilling my vagabond urges in the process.

We generally have two to three weeks off between rotations, so I would travel during those breaks.

UnCruise's Julie Brigham offers expert tips

Julie Brigham is a traveler at heart. * Photo: Julie Brigham

The thing that surprised me was how much I fell in love with my co-workers and the company in general.

The vast majority of people who work for UnCruise (and quite a few of our guests!) have a tendency to be wanderers and to be extraordinarily curious about everything from the natural world to the human history of a place.

It was exciting to talk to people who were as enthusiastic as I am about these things.

At UnCruise, we also strive to facilitate our crew pursuing their career goals, which meant that my sommelier certification tests (through the Court of Master Sommeliers) were partially covered by tuition reimbursement.

Further, my interest in wine and beverage was rewarded with more and more challenging positions, encouraging me to keep studying and learning.

I never thought I would find a long-term career here, but now I know that I will be here as long as they’ll still have me!

Julie fell in love with her fellow UnCruise crew. * Photo: UnCruise

QC: Please give us a taste of your wine story.

Julie: Before starting at UnCruise, I had worked in the restaurant industry for 15+ years.

I’ve been a barista, slung pizza, been a server in multiple fine-dining establishments, and mixed craft cocktails at some of Seattle’s premier bars. I’ve always been an avid learner, so along the way I collected an extensive library of reference books on cooking techniques, ingredients, flavor affinities, cocktails and the long, fascinating history of humans’ interaction with fermented and distilled beverages, including wine.

Julie Brigham has been a Food & Beverage Manager as well as a bartender aboard the UnCruise fleet. * Photo: Julie Brigham

And I’ve also been really lucky in my professional mentors; they fomented my knowledge and ignited the spark in me to dive deep into the well of information on these subjects.

Somewhere along the way, I started to understand what a magical substance wine is, and how tiny tweaks in the winemaking process can have a huge influence on the finished product.

As an onboard Food & Beverage Manager for UnCruise, you get to do a lot of professional development for your employees, so I was able to really break down the various parts of this daunting subject and hopefully to make them approachable and fun.

I channeled these lessons into my onboard presentations for our UnCruise wine itinerary, which is very much a reflection of the way that I myself would like to see the subject presented. I hope that our guests can learn something on this cruise, whether they are complete newbies to wine or fellow wine professionals.

QC: Any favorite wines in the Pacific Northwest, where UnCruise offers expeditions on the Columbia & Snake Rivers, as well as San Juan Islands?

Julie: As far as my favorite Pacific Northwest wines and wineries go, it’s really hard to narrow it down.

We are fortunate to be able to visit Dunham Cellars in Walla Walla and Maryhill Vineyard in Goldendale, both of whom make consistently wonderful wines. I’m a member of both, as well as L’Ecole No. 41.

I also love the range of Oregon wines that we get to play with on board. Some favorites are the Andrew Rich “Volcanic” Pinot Noir out of Yamhill-Carleton, the Brave Cellars Momtazi Vineyards Pinot Noirs and the Anne-Amie Muller Thurgau and Pinot Gris from Willamette Valley, and the Oregon Territory Tempranillo out of Umpqua Valley.

Two Mountain makes reliably delicious Riesling and Bordeaux varietals out in Yakima Valley, and you’ll see them featured year-round on our onboard wine lists for that reason.

Lastly, Vital, Foundry Vineyards, and Cadence are making excellent and complicated reds out of Walla Walla, and I’m totally in love with their blending finesse.

Photo: Vital Wines

QC: Have you cruised on all the UnCruise routes?

Julie: All of them except for the Galapagos and the Panama-Costa Rica-Belize trips. I keep volunteering to go down and work anywhere they’ll have me, but there are other, more qualified folks who have already filled the spots.

I’m pretty good with wine and beverage, but you don’t want to see my engineering skills in action!

QC: Finally, can you share your five favorite UnCruise experiences?

Julie: Here they are —

1.. “Tron Dolphins” in the Sea of Cortez.

We try to find patches of bioluminescence while cruising at night, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, we will have pods of dolphins riding the bow who get covered in the glow-in-the-dark phytoplankton.

It’s truly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

2.. “Spirit” & “Glacier Bears” in Alaska.

There are fewer than 500 of each worldwide, but there are a few islands that we pass on the Seattle-Juneau or Juneau-Seattle trips where there are higher concentrations of them, and probably one out of five times we catch glimpses.

They are naturally mutated all-white or glacial blue-black bears, and feature in the lore of the Tlingit and Haida people who were the first human inhabitants of the Tongass National Forest.

A “spirit bear.” * Photo: UnCruise

3.. Going to a Pā’ina on Moloka’i.

We have a special relationship with the Molokai locals (we are the only cruise company allowed to stop there), and our guests are treated to a night of incredible food, music, and dancing on our final night in Moloka’i. BEST MEAL EVER, in a stunningly beautiful location.

Hawaiian hospitality is legendary.

4.. Island Life.

Whether it’s the cat sanctuary on Lana’i, the salt flats and white sand beaches on Isla Espiritu Santo in Baja, bushwhacking through the uninhabited islands in the Alaskan Fjords, or listening to birdsong in the peaceful woods on San Juan Island, going to places where most humans never set foot is absolutely dreamy.

Lana’i Cat Sanctuary. * Photo: Judi Cohen

5.. Tiny towns!

Haines, Ketchikan, La Paz, Kona, Port Townsend, Sitka — we really get to see how the locals live in these ports, and they’re great for quirky souvenirs, yummy snacks, and general people-watching.