The 2019 cruise season is just around the corner. Starting in April and ending in October, about 57 cruise ships are scheduled to stop at the city dock. To get ahead of the upcoming busy season, city officials and businessmen all came together on Wed. Jan. 9 to discuss what the city’s priorities should be for the upcoming and future cruise seasons.
The largest of these ships is Holland America’s Maasdam, 719 ft. in length and capable of carrying 1,258 passengers. According to a draft schedule provided by Carol Rushmore, Wrangell’s economic development director, an estimated 20,000 tourists will visit Wrangell via cruise ships this year. This is an increase from the roughly 16,000 tourists who came to Wrangell last year. The cruise ships are an important part of Wrangell’s tourism economy.
A large portion of the discussion revolved around ways to improve Wrangell’s appearance for people stepping off the ships. The city’s “presentation” needs work, said Sylvia Ettefagh with Alaska Vistas. She suggested some beautification projects around city dock like putting up some flower gardens, or park benches.
Other ideas raised in the meeting included better signage to help direct people through town and the construction of bathrooms near the dock and out by Petroglyph Beach. Renovations to the boardwalk up to the Mt. Dewey trail were also discussed.
Ettefagh suggested the city see about getting trash picked up more regularly in the parking lot at Reliance Harbor. Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen agreed that the trash in the parking lot was a problem, and said that the city was looking into updating their nuisance abatement codes to help enforce cleanliness around the city.
Besides beautification projects, improving the staging area by city dock seemed to be another big priority for people at the meeting. The cul-de-sac at the dock grows very crowded during the cruise season, with tourists, vendors, tour buses, and charter companies all crowding into a compact area.
There were various proposals on how to create more room, or some semblance of organization. One that garnered a lot of popularity was the construction of a covered area on the dock itself, leading from the ship to shore This covered area would work as booths for vendors, on one side of the dock, while tourists could pass by with relative ease on the other half. This would also allow for more space in the cul-de-sac for tour guides to meet their customers by pushing the vendors up ahead onto the dock itself.
Another idea that was widely approved of by those attending the meeting was the addition of another float to city dock. An extra float would allow more room for charter boats to dock and meet up with the tourists hiring their services.
It was agreed that the ideas for an extra float, and a covered area for vendors on the dock were worth researching further. Von Bargen explained that this was just a brainstorming and discussion meeting. More meetings for further brainstorming and concrete planning of goals and priorities for future cruise seasons will be announced as the season draws closer.
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