HAL Abandons Haines and Seward

[tkwbear]

Seward and Haines are 2 of my favorite Alaska ports. However, according to the current schedule, Haines will only be visited twice in 2020, and Seward will be abandoned the following year in favor of Whittier. The Haines call will be replaced by Skagway on both Northbound and Southbound itineraries as well as the Maasdam 14 day itinerary. NCL has wisely pulled out of Skagway, which freed up dock space. Oddly they are moving to Icy Straight Point, which is a forgettable port as well.

 

I have been to Skagway all I want to. It's a tourist trap and little more. The train ride was okay once. Soapy's Smith's grave is not interesting. Haines is the real Alaska. Yes, there is a ferry between the ports, but you run a risk taking it due to weather.

 

Whittier is a dreadful little town, but it is closer to Anchorage. Seward is an amazing place that I visited long before I ever cruised. 

 

Looks like I will be using another line for future Alaskan cruises, which I like to do yearly.

 

 

https://www.chilkatvalleynews.com/story/2019/09/19/news/haines-stands-to-lose-half-its-cruise-traffic/13169.html

[Shmoo here]

47 minutes ago, tkwbear said:

Seward and Haines are 2 of my favorite Alaska ports. However, according to the current schedule, Haines will only be visited twice in 2020, and Seward will be abandoned the following year in favor of Whittier. The Haines call will be replaced by Skagway on both Northbound and Southbound itineraries as well as the Maasdam 14 day itinerary. NCL has wisely pulled out of Skagway, which freed up dock space. Oddly they are moving to Icy Straight Point, which is a forgettable port as well.

 

I have been to Skagway all I want to. It's a tourist trap and little more. The train ride was okay once. Soapy's Smith's grave is not interesting. Haines is the real Alaska. Yes, there is a ferry between the ports, but you run a risk taking it due to weather.

 

Whittier is a dreadful little town, but it is closer to Anchorage. Seward is an amazing place that I visited long before I ever cruised. 

 

Looks like I will be using another line for future Alaskan cruises, which I like to do yearly.

 

 

https://www.chilkatvalleynews.com/story/2019/09/19/news/haines-stands-to-lose-half-its-cruise-traffic/13169.html

I thought HAL was avoiding Seward due to the major port facilities remodel.  

[dockman]

I agree that Seward is a delightful town to visit.  I was fortunate to visit in an RV and camped along the waterfront RV area that caters to lots of folks.  Enjoyed walking paths along the waterfront and walking the marina area as well as the downtown area.  The cruise facilities are not all that great and it was pouring rain last time i boarded the westerdam there which made for some very wet folks as five minutes or so walk from bus drop off to ship with very little cover available.  Would seem that Seward needs to invest in some tent type covers if they want to grow as a cruise start/finish place...or maybe they don't much want to just be a turnaround port where most pax spend little or no money in local shops, hotels, restaurants....seemed to me that Seward tourist economy was doing just fine as an RV destination.

 

Skagway was fun first couple of times but really is a big tourist trap .  Haines much more "alaskan" in my opinion.

[tkwbear]

36 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

I thought HAL was avoiding Seward due to the major port facilities remodel.  

I don't think so since the old facilities, which seem to work fine, will be available during the remodel. I do admit you can get pretty wet between the terminal and the ship.

 

https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2019/09/27/alaska-railroad-seeks-to-overhaul-and-expand-seward-cruise-ship-terminal/

Edited December 17, 2019 by tkwbear

[baw53]

I am on a 2 week Maasdam cruise out of Vancouver on June 1st and it will be in Haines on the 5th .There was a post a while back re some Maasdam itinerary changes.( Skagway instead of Haines) As I had booked a days fly fishing for my hubby and myself with a guide in Haines I contacted HAL , and was assured this particular cruise was not affected by the changes.It is still available ,I just checked  ( although the price has increased significantly since I booked it) 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for the information.

 

We first visited Seward many years ago and enjoyed our day there as it was a turn-around day for us.

 

We also visited Haines via another cruise line and enjoyed our day there with a great salmon dinner and show.

 

The first time we visited Skagway was back in the 80's when it was a quaint little town not taken over by all the Caribbean jewelry people.

[summer slope]

Loved Haines for the Eagle river tour.  Took the fast ferry over from Skagway.

[Himself]

I do not feel bad about losing Haines. I would have preferred that Haines would have been replaced by Sitka.

[VennDiagram]

We are very sorry to see Haines removed from the itineraries.  It is a slice of real-life Alaska ❤️

[RuthC]

I never thought of Haines as being a frequent HAL port. I've cruised to Alaska 9 times, on every itinerary, and have had Haines as a port only once. It was a nice change from Skagway on the 21-day Maasdam cruise last summer. It did not appear on the 7-day one-way, either direction, when I took that itinerary. 

I did enjoy my stop there, and would like to stop there again. But truth be told, I much prefer Skagway. Perhaps it's familiarity, but there is so much history there. I always find something new to do in Skagway. (and no, I don't shop.)

[Himself]

Both Skagway and Sitka have a lot of history in them. Sitka was the Russian Capital of Alaska and Skagway has a gold mining history.  The town itself is a National Park..

[thyme2go]

This is so disappointing to read!   We've sailed to Alaska numerous times with HAL.........BUT,   Skagway and Whittier are two ports we avoid.  This undermines their "unique" destination storyline, doesn't it?

 

 

 

[tkwbear]

On 12/18/2019 at 8:33 AM, Himself said:

I do not feel bad about losing Haines. I would have preferred that Haines would have been replaced by Sitka.

Sitka is a great port. That would have been easier to take.

[Himself]

8 hours ago, tkwbear said:

Sitka is a great port. That would have been easier to take.

I was not that fond of Haines. I preferred both Sitka and Skagway to Haines.  It is just my opinion.

[Hlitner]

We would prefer to avoid any Alaskan port with a Diamonds International sign :).

 

Hank