The borough released its updated cruise ship calendar on March 9, with ships reflecting a capacity for 18,777 passengers this summer, up from 17,170 in a Jan. 19 draft calendar.
That’s an increase of 1,607 in berth capacity for potential visitors aboard cruise ships, or 9% since January.
The bump reflects the addition of the Alaska Dream Cruises array of vessels heading to Wrangell — the 40-passenger Alaska Dream, 49-passenger Baranof Dream, 54-passenger Admiralty Dream, 74-passenger Chichagof Dream and 12-passenger Kruzof Explorer.
Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore on Friday said while the borough was expecting Alaska Dream Cruises to make stops, it did not know in January — when the first draft went out —when or how many, as the company has not announced its schedule.
Gone, though, from the March draft schedule is the 230-passenger Hanseatic Inspiration, a German vessel which was scheduled to make two stops in July and August.
Wrangell in 2019 saw about 21,500 cruise ship visitors before the pandemic clobbered tourism. The estimated capacity numbers for this summer are 88% of 2019’s, and a welcome improvement over no ships in 2020 and minimal visits last year.
Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska’s Wrangell port manager Fred Angerman Jr. handles shore operations for most of the larger cruise ships in Southeast Alaska. CLA’s Ketchikan branch planned to send a crew to Wrangell on Wednesday for a load test of the City Dock gangways.
“Normally, we’re the last stop, but with the ferries the way they are now, we’ll be the first stop. They’ll go around all of Southeast,” Angerman said Friday.
It’s still too early to pressure wash the gangways, he said. The port and harbors department doesn’t even have the water turned on at City Dock. “Once they know winter is over, they’ll turn the water on. I don’t want to do it too soon,” Angerman said.
“We have a lot of cleaning to do out there,” Port Director Steve Miller said Friday. Miller is advertising to hire temporary workers to prep and staff up for the summer. The gangway cleaning likely will be done in April.
“We always hire a couple of people every spring to help out around the harbors and the port, get our summer floats in (at City Dock) … and we’ll have security for the larger ships,” he said.
The summer floats are mainly used by jet boat and charter businesses and other tour companies to “pick up passengers and take them to destinations that they are selling tickets for,” as well as a launch point for kayaks and canoes,“ Miller said.
Among the larger ships scheduled to stop in Wrangell are the 593-foot, 684-passenger Oceania Cruises Regatta, for one stop; the 650-foot, 450-passenger Seabourn Odyssey, scheduled for nine stops; and a new ship to Wrangell, the 460-foot, 530-passenger electric hybrid Roald Amundsen, operated by Norway’s Hurtigruten Ships and touted as a “green pioneer” by the company. The ship has three restaurants onboard and a science center with lecture halls and a library inside.
The Amundsen makes its first stop on May 23, with seven port calls on the calendar as of March 9. Its 14-day Alaska cruises start at $6,100 per person.
Angerman said the invasion of Ukraine by Russia hasn’t appeared to have an effect on the calendar yet, but is “probably affecting a lot of things we don’t even know about. I do know Ukraine has a maritime school in Odessa.” The city on the Black Sea was surrounded by Russian forces as of last week.
There are several maritime academies in the port city, including the National University Odessa Maritime Academy with an enrollment of 8,441 students, and Odesa National Maritime Academy, with an enrollment of 9,500.
“There has been, over the years — there have been a few captains of these tour boats that have been Ukrainians,” Angerman said. “I don’t know if that is the case this year or not, but obviously that is a big deal.”
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