The town’s population could double for a day.
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam, with accommodations for just over 2,100 passengers plus a crew of more than 900, is scheduled to tie up at Wrangell at 8 a.m. Thursday, May 16, staying until 7 p.m.
It will be the ship’s only visit to Wrangell this summer.
It will be the largest ship to bring travelers to town, just beating out Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, which is scheduled to visit twice — July 18 and 29 — and can carry up to 2,081 passengers.
The Queen Elizabeth is actually a little longer, at 965 feet, stretching out a win over the Nieuw Amsterdam’s 936 feet. Both are close to the maximum length the City Dock can handle.
The two ships have more than twice the passenger capacity of any other vessel on the Wrangell cruise ship calendar.
The Nieuw Amsterdam is on a 14-day roundtrip cruise from Vancouver, British Columbia. Wrangell will be the next to the last stop on the southbound leg.
The town’s cruise visitor season started May 9 with the arrival of the 62-passenger Sea Lion. According to the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau cruise calendar, as many as 25,000 travelers could arrive in town through the last ship on Sept. 24, if all of the berths are full.
This is the first year that Holland America, one of the biggest players in the Alaska cruise trade, has included Wrangell on its advertised itineraries. One of its ships, the Nordam, added a late-scheduled stop here near the end of the 2022 season.
The company added a visit to Wrangell this summer to provide its passengers “a diverse itinerary … (and) experience new locations,” a Holland America official said last year.
Both the Nieuw Amsterdam and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth were built in Italian shipyards, and both entered service in 2010.
“There are many facts and features that make Wrangell unique,” Cunard describes in its advertising. “Not least because over the years this town has been ruled by four different nations — the Indigenous Tlingit people, Russia, England and the U.S. Evidence of Tlingit culture can be seen all over Wrangell, from the traditional tribal Shakes Community House to the many totem poles scattered throughout the town.”
The advertising also includes a note, particularly for foreign travelers: “Wrangell, like the rest of Alaska, uses US dollars.”
The Queen Elizabeth’s stops in town will come during back-to-back 11-day roundtrip cruises out of Vancouver.
The chamber of commerce is organizing a one-day public market at the downtown pavilion for the Nieuw Amsterdam’s arrival. Businesses and individuals can rent a table or a booth to sell foods or crafts, most anything they have to offer, said Tommy Wells, the chamber’s executive director.
Space is limited to three booths and 10 tables under the covered area, and advance registration is required. Call the chamber at 907-874-3901.
The mayor, borough manager and economic development director plan to meet the Nieuw Amsterdam at the dock. “We plan to be up front and center on most days when big ships are in,” said Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director.
The borough wants to see how the town handles the heavier visitor flow of the larger ships as it strives to promote Wrangell as a tourist destination while also ensuring the community is not overrun.
Reader Comments(0)