It’s not like old times of 1.3 million cruise ship visitors to Southeast Alaska, but it’s the start of the best it’s going to be this summer.
The first large cruise ship to stop at an Alaska port since 2019 is scheduled to tie up in Ketchikan on Friday, though Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas will not be anywhere close to its 2,476-passenger capacity. It’s a trial voyage, at a roughly 10% passenger load, intended to test out COVID-19 protocols and show federal health regulators that the company can deal with any infections should they occur.
“They will run through all their protocols,” said Brian Salerno, senior vice president for maritime policy with the industry group Cruise Lines International Association, in Washington, D.C.
The trial voyage is to ensure that “everybody knows what to do and how to do it,” Salerno said July 2. That includes limiting the seating density in restaurants, markings on the deck to encourage distancing, even “what happens if somebody shows up in the ship hospital with a fever.”
Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel will be aboard the ship for the voyage, he said.
The first cruise ship to board passengers and leave a U.S. port was June 27, in Florida, with Texas, California, Alaska and Northeast cruises to Bermuda to follow, Salerno said. “We always knew this would be a gradual resumption.”
The return of New England cruises will likely depend on when Canada reopens its border.
In addition to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil remain closed to cruises, he said.
Worldwide, cruise ships carried about 30 million passengers a year pre-COVID, with almost half of that total aboard ships leaving ports in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, Salerno said. The past 12 months, that global total was close to 600,000.
No ships called on Alaska last year. Smaller cruise boats resumed voyages in Southeast last month, but it’s the 1,000-foot-long, multideck ships that can accommodate as many 1,500 to 4,000 passengers that drive the industry.
Market surveys show strong, pent-up demand among people who want to travel, Salerno said. While most operators are requiring their passengers be fully vaccinated, cruise lines that cater to families may return a little slower, while they wait for children to catch up with adults on vaccination rates, he said.
The cruise line industry association and Ketchikan are planning a welcoming event to commemorate the first cruise ship, with Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and company officials on the dock.
The Serenade of the Seas will return to Southeast on a regular sailing later in the month, as will ships from Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruise Lines and Celebrity Cruises. Carnival Cruise Line will return the first week of August.
Ketchikan will see six or seven of the large ships each week in August and September. Juneau will be visited by eight or nine ships some weeks. Sitka, Skagway and Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) are also on this summer’s limited cruise itineraries, according to the schedule published by Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, which manages shore services for the ships.
In total, larger vessels are scheduled for almost 80 voyages to Southeast from late July to early October, according to the Cruise Lines Agencies’ posted calendar. Depending on passenger loads, that could bring the region around 200,000 visitors, plus crew.
The other operator of large ships, Disney Cruise Line, has not announced any plans to return to Alaska this year.
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