Excursion requirements for Alaska

[phoenix_dream]

Maybe this has been discussed, but couldn't find it.  As it stands now (and I know it can change) are we required to book Celebrity shore excursions on the Alaska sailings this year?  Getting emails about pre-cruising discounts on excursions but been to Alaska many times and would definitely prefer to go out on our own.  Has anyone heard anything?

[iamaqt2]

All ports are allowing independent excursion.

Edited July 6, 2021 by iamaqt2

[phoenix_dream]

On 7/6/2021 at 1:36 PM, iamaqt2 said:

All ports are allowing independent excursion.

Thank you!  That's good to know.

[Northern Aurora]

There are a surprising number of visitors on independent land trips in Alaska currently.  Few rental cars are available and the hotels which are open (not all are this summer) are experiencing strong bookings.  No masks are required in the state.  As far as I know none of the ports are going to require any special requirements for cruise visitors.  

[TeeRick]

On 7/7/2021 at 4:59 PM, Northern Aurora said:

There are a surprising number of visitors on independent land trips in Alaska currently.  Few rental cars are available and the hotels which are open (not all are this summer) are experiencing strong bookings.  No masks are required in the state.  As far as I know none of the ports are going to require any special requirements for cruise visitors.  

Is Alaska experiencing a labor shortage like many parts of the USA?  In my area in PA some restaurants are closed due to no available employees.

[keesar]

47 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Is Alaska experiencing a labor shortage like many parts of the USA?  In my area in PA some restaurants are closed due to no available employees.

 

If you can take home more money by being. unemployed and not going in to work, then there is no financial incentive to working.   But that is another story...

 

 

[iamaqt2]

15 minutes ago, keesar said:

 

If you can take home more money by being. unemployed and not going in to work, then there is no financial incentive to working.   But that is another story...

 

 

If you can make more money on unemployment than working, then employers aren't paying a living wage.

[Denny01]

According to a number of Alaska sites, yes, they are facing major labor shortages. And yes, part can be attributed to unemployment payments, but in truth, many who lost jobs that were lower paying found other ways to make more money which means employers have to think about actually paying more than minimum.

 

Also, many of the tourist areas have the surge in visitors/customers now, but the labor force left the areas, such as mine, and there just aren’t the workers available. Many of our workers were from overseas, yes Mexico and so on but many were young Europeans mainly from Eastern Europe, who aren’t here because they cant due to the Pandemic. 

 

So its not even close that its the unemployment insurance payments that are being blamed so they can cut them out, its workers Not going back to min-wage jobs and not having the workforce as available as us customers. 

 

So we can bemoan the Cruise Lines have jacked up the prices, but just wait to see the prices for private tours, car rentals, port restaurants and trinkets and so on you want to take home. 

 

Den

[TeeRick]

13 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

According to a number of Alaska sites, yes, they are facing major labor shortages. And yes, part can be attributed to unemployment payments, but in truth, many who lost jobs that were lower paying found other ways to make more money which means employers have to think about actually paying more than minimum.

 

Also, many of the tourist areas have the surge in visitors/customers now, but the labor force left the areas, such as mine, and there just aren’t the workers available. Many of our workers were from overseas, yes Mexico and so on but many were young Europeans mainly from Eastern Europe, who aren’t here because they cant due to the Pandemic. 

 

So its not even close that its the unemployment insurance payments that are being blamed so they can cut them out, its workers Not going back to min-wage jobs and not having the workforce as available as us customers. 

 

So we can bemoan the Cruise Lines have jacked up the prices, but just wait to see the prices for private tours, car rentals, port restaurants and trinkets and so on you want to take home. 

 

Den

The pandemic continues to affect us in many ways other than virus infections.  We can now go out to dinner because restrictions were lifted.  But restaurants are closed due to labor shortages.  The Deli section in my local supermarket is closed - no labor.  Gasoline prices have surged - nobody to drive the tanker trucks the primary reason.  Prices on meats are at an all time high.  I agree that in our usual vacation spot in Maine the seasonal employees are usually from Canada and eastern Europe.  This year many shops and restaurants are closed.  Everybody has a "hiring" sign.  

[phoenix_dream]

23 hours ago, Denny01 said:

According to a number of Alaska sites, yes, they are facing major labor shortages. And yes, part can be attributed to unemployment payments, but in truth, many who lost jobs that were lower paying found other ways to make more money which means employers have to think about actually paying more than minimum.

 

Also, many of the tourist areas have the surge in visitors/customers now, but the labor force left the areas, such as mine, and there just aren’t the workers available. Many of our workers were from overseas, yes Mexico and so on but many were young Europeans mainly from Eastern Europe, who aren’t here because they cant due to the Pandemic. 

 

So its not even close that its the unemployment insurance payments that are being blamed so they can cut them out, its workers Not going back to min-wage jobs and not having the workforce as available as us customers. 

 

So we can bemoan the Cruise Lines have jacked up the prices, but just wait to see the prices for private tours, car rentals, port restaurants and trinkets and so on you want to take home. 

 

Den

I guess this also begs the question - if there were so many supposedly better ways to make more money out there all along, why were these folks in these "lower paying" jobs to begin with?  It just doesn't all add up when logic is applied.  I know studies have shown that ending extra unemployment does not necessarily immediately fix the labor shortage.  And there are of course other reasons people aren't going back to work, like concern about leaving their unvaccinated young children in child care.  But part of me suspects that as weeks and months go by, the situation will change.  If people banked that extra money (which was often much more than the wage they were making - and I know several real life examples of that), then when that stash runs out they may re-think their plans to not work.  It is also interesting to note that even businesses who are offering increased wages and signing bonuses are also not able to find people to work.  So logic says, there is a lot more to the story than just increasing wages.  Time will tell.

[cruisestitch]

In our area there were a lot of J-1 visa employees.  Now there are none.  And that has made the labor shortage worse.

[kennystwin]

I did a land trip to Alaska in May and will be cruising in August. The labor shortage is real for anyone dependent on seasonal workers. Plus, I suspect it will be worse in the cruise ports as they can only commit for 6-8 weeks for the seasonal workers vs. all summer for the land destinations. Like everything else now, things will be different this year and that applies to the excursions as well. I suspect that even scheduled/committed excursions will be cancelled if the planned seasonal workers don't show. Be flexible. Expect changes.

[Turtles06]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:01 PM, iamaqt2 said:

If you can make more money on unemployment than working, then employers aren't paying a living wage.

Thank you, I was going to say the same thing. 

[phoenix_dream]

On 7/10/2021 at 11:01 AM, iamaqt2 said:

If you can make more money on unemployment than working, then employers aren't paying a living wage.

Not all wages are meant to be "living wages".  Example - a granddaughter of a friend of mine worked a few hours on a few days a week doing dog walking for some spending money for college.  She ended up getting $900 a week in unemployment (her standard amount, plus the $600).  She just now finally went back to work after a year and a half.  I can't believe anyone would consider that fair (to tax payers who earned that money), or reasonable by any logical stretch of the imagination.  This is a real life example of what is happening to some of the work force.  Not everyone of course - some wages should be raised - but forgive me if I don't think she should be making a "living wage" walking a dog a few times a week for a few hours. 

[iamaqt2]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

Not all wages are meant to be "living wages".  Example - a granddaughter of a friend of mine worked a few hours on a few days a week doing dog walking for some spending money for college.  She ended up getting $900 a week in unemployment (her standard amount, plus the $600).  She just now finally went back to work after a year and a half.  I can't believe anyone would consider that fair (to tax payers who earned that money), or reasonable by any logical stretch of the imagination.  This is a real life example of what is happening to some of the work force.  Not everyone of course - some wages should be raised - but forgive me if I don't think she should be making a "living wage" walking a dog a few times a week for a few hours. 

That's more of an exception than the rule. It wasn't a perfectly rolled out plan, but it kept people from going hungry and becoming homeless.

The 2021 US Federal poverty wage limit for a family of 4 is $26,500.  That's unacceptable.  No one can live on that, and yet 13.7 % of Americans meet that threshold.  Millions of Americans work 2 or more jobs just to subsist.  

I'll use Florida as an example since so many cruisers sail from there.

Say a hotel housekeeper is working 40 hours a week. Florida minimum wage is $8.56. So said housekeeper working full time is only making $17,804 annually.  No one can live on that, so now the housekeeper also works an additional 20-30 hours a week at a second job. 

No one should have to work 70 hours a week to "live".  It's far past time for large corporations to start paying their workers and quit worrying about mega bonuses for the CEO and shareholders.

[TeeRick]

13 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

No one should have to work 70 hours a week to "live".  It's far past time for large corporations to start paying their workers and quit worrying about mega bonuses for the CEO and shareholders.

Maybe true for some but the vast majority of these types of workers do not work for major corporations with rich CEO's.  They work for small businesses (with no stock or shareholders) which are struggling to survive. Particularly in the tourist areas in places like the ports in Alaska that we are referring to in this thread.  Restaurants.  Small hotels.  Shops.  Local tour providers.  Guides. Local transportation providers.  These type of seasonal jobs have been supplemented with students, foreign labor, retirees, etc. in the past.  Those sources have dried up.

[sanger727]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:01 PM, iamaqt2 said:

If you can make more money on unemployment than working, then employers aren't paying a living wage.

 

That's not really true. In Alaska you max out at $370 a week unemployment if you make $42,000 a year. That's $20 an hour.  When people were getting an extra $600 a week in unemployment, you would make more on unemployment than you did working. If $20 an hour isn't a living wage, I don't know what is...

[K12Guy]

23 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

So logic says, there is a lot more to the story than just increasing wages.  Time will tell.

True that, but there are those who want to blame everything on wages paid and capital profit policies. The bottom line may be that some of those who haven't been working will eventually run out of savings (never a good idea) and will have to return to the work force, and perhaps not in that 'upper' paying job they had wished for. I still recall when my son graduated high school and decided to not attend college. He applied for a ton of good paying jobs he didn't qualify for and he didn't even get an interview. After his six years in the military things looked brighter for him.

 

So, it's going to take time and I think the cruise line is really having problems with getting veteran staff back and attracting new crew, along with the CDC requirements. Imagine a fully vaccinated Captain having to quarantine for 15 days just for appearance sake. Such a waste of time and effort, but it makes some folks feel better, I suppose.

[K12Guy]

15 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

quit worrying about mega bonuses for the CEO and shareholders.

Maybe a few CEO types should try to subsist on entry level wages for three months.... that would be interesting, right?

[TeeRick]

On 7/12/2021 at 11:25 AM, K12Guy said:

Maybe a few CEO types should try to subsist on entry level wages for three months.... that would be interesting, right?

Undercover Boss on CBS?

[K12Guy]

25 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Undercover Boss on CBS?

When I wrote those words I was trying to remember the TV show, but I don't watch much TV so it didn't pop up. The real value would be for the CEO to have to subsist for three months on entry level wages. One week of wages might not fill the tank on his Bentley, however.

[TeeRick]

3 minutes ago, K12Guy said:

When I wrote those words I was trying to remember the TV show, but I don't watch much TV so it didn't pop up. The real value would be for the CEO to have to subsist for three months on entry level wages. One week of wages might not fill the tank on his Bentley, however.

or her Bentley.

[K12Guy]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

or her Bentley.

Point. It used to be that ladies were more understanding and compassionate. Some of the ladies of today are as bad, or worse, than the guys who don't give a rip about other humans. But then I recall as a teenager when young ladies would rip me for my bad driving. Today, some of the young ladies are the worst in the crowd.