No more Alaska cruises for me

[NightOne]

1897 Skagway resident "why are all these people coming here?"

[david,Mississauga]

Our first cruise to Alaska was in 1972.  It was a small (300 passengers) Canadian Pacific Railway ship, Princess Patricia,  from Vancouver.  We were the only ship in the ports we visited and Glacier Bay.  At that time the Canadian National Railway also had a small ship, the Prince George.  Unless my memory has failed me the only large ship was P&O's Oronsay which was based in San Francisco at the time.  Other than the Alaska ferries that was it.

 

It wasn't until 2015 that we took another cruise to Alaska.  We have taken a few more since then.  The largest ship I will travel on to Alaska is the Queen Elizabeth - a Vista-class - with 2,000 passengers.  Last month we were in Juneau with two other ships, one of which was huge.  I don't remember the name, so I have been calling it "Monstrosity of the Seas."

[9tee2Sea]

everyone is talking about the " monster ships" destroying the town with so many passengers getting off at the same time.  This is where a very good Port Agent would be needed.  The agent could schedule only 1 ship , or 2 ( max passenger count of 7,000 of all ships in port), to be able to dock in port.  They could have them depart no later than 5pm.  The towns would get a relatively small amount of tourists during the day ( making shop keepers happy), and would give residents a fairly tourist free evening.  Have a strict docking schedule, is much better than having no cruise ship tourists at all.  ALL the cruise lines have to get together and discuss docking privileges, times and days.  Obviously, it's probably just my simple mind speaking , but I do believe with proper Port Management, things can change for the better.  BTW...I LOVE Alaska cruises.   They are my go to cruise, when I  don't want to travel far, but still be away for 7 days on a ship

[Coral]

25 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

everyone is talking about the " monster ships" destroying the town with so many passengers getting off at the same time.  This is where a very good Port Agent would be needed.  The agent could schedule only 1 ship , or 2 ( max passenger count of 7,000 of all ships in port), to be able to dock in port.  They could have them depart no later than 5pm.  The towns would get a relatively small amount of tourists during the day ( making shop keepers happy), and would give residents a fairly tourist free evening.  Have a strict docking schedule, is much better than having no cruise ship tourists at all.  ALL the cruise lines have to get together and discuss docking privileges, times and days.  Obviously, it's probably just my simple mind speaking , but I do believe with proper Port Management, things can change for the better.  BTW...I LOVE Alaska cruises.   They are my go to cruise, when I  don't want to travel far, but still be away for 7 days on a ship

This is involves the city passes laws.

 

All I can say is things were much better when ships were less than 120,000 tons (or even smaller). The best thing would be for lines to send their smaller ships to Alaska as opposed to their larger ships. Though the ships don't care about how crowded the ports are. They won't do anything until local laws are passed (example would be Bar Harbor, etc...).

[Heidi13]

10 hours ago, 9tee2Sea said:

everyone is talking about the " monster ships" destroying the town with so many passengers getting off at the same time.  This is where a very good Port Agent would be needed.  The agent could schedule only 1 ship , or 2 ( max passenger count of 7,000 of all ships in port), to be able to dock in port.  They could have them depart no later than 5pm.  The towns would get a relatively small amount of tourists during the day ( making shop keepers happy), and would give residents a fairly tourist free evening.  Have a strict docking schedule, is much better than having no cruise ship tourists at all.  ALL the cruise lines have to get together and discuss docking privileges, times and days.  Obviously, it's probably just my simple mind speaking , but I do believe with proper Port Management, things can change for the better.  BTW...I LOVE Alaska cruises.   They are my go to cruise, when I  don't want to travel far, but still be away for 7 days on a ship

 

I believe you are confusing the roles of Port Management and Ship's Agent. The Ship's Agent has no involvement in the port management, as they are the ship owner's local (administrative) representative.

 

Ports are managed by an executive team, which includes the Harbourmaster. Their role is generally to maximise port revenues, by bringing in more ships/cargo.

 

Since many ports operate independent of the local city/towns, the port often has competing interests to those of the local towns. As we are now seeing in Alaska, it is the towns that are pushing back and trying to limit the number of ships. If the towns pass local laws limiting ships and/or pax, the port management will have to manage bookings accordingly.

 

Without limitations, the port will continue increasing revenues by booking even larger and more ships, up to the limit of berthing and anchoring spaces.

[Travel-and-See]

Why does a town want less business? Aren't these the same towns that said cruise ships were everything during Covid? 

[zqvol]

7 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

Why does a town want less business? Aren't these the same towns that said cruise ships were everything during Covid? 

Because too much of a good thing can be a bad thing

[Glaciers]

8 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

Why does a town want less business? Aren't these the same towns that said cruise ships were everything during Covid? 

Having all of those cruisers in town can be pretty overwhelming and inconvenient for the folks that live there. Packed restaurants, packed roads with cars and buses. Even in Seattle, that can more easily absorb all the summer tourists, we find that waiting until the off season is much more manageable when we want to go to some of our favorite restaurants and venues.

[wolfie11]

10 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

Why does a town want less business? Aren't these the same towns that said cruise ships were everything during Covid? 

That’s what the cruise ships and politicians who take money from the cruise lines would like you to believe.  There’s a big difference between the cruise line rhetoric and what the average Juneau or Sitka resident, who has a well-paying year-round job and is raising a family, will tell you.  A very small percentage of Alaskans are dependent on the cruise ships for a living.  The rest of the population has to put up with up to 20,000 people invading their town every single day of the short summer season we get in Alaska and they are getting fed up.