From May to September, passengers from almost two dozen different cruise ships spill into Wrangell and recede like the ebb and flow of the tides. On days when the large vessels like the Queen Elizabeth arrive, it’s impossible not to notice. Cruisegoers walk through town, practically doubling the population of the community in minutes, before continuing on to the next port.

Cruise berths coming to Wrangell almost doubled for the 2026 season from the previous year. Visiting ships are providing capacity for nearly 75,000 guests over the five-month season, up from almost 42,000 the previous year.

The borough directly profits from the ships docking here through a variety of taxes and fees. Businesses also navigate how to make money from this seasonal increase in visitors that varies greatly from week to week and ship to ship.

“I don’t expect that everybody that comes off the boat buys stuff from every store,” said Bonnie Ritchie, who sells jewelry at a kiosk near the City Dock, “I like to see the boats here because we know that they bring money.”

Ritchie has been selling jewelry near the cruise ship dock for five years — this year in a stand her husband built on a small piece of land rented from the borough — and said she has noticed an increase in sales with the higher passenger numbers from what she was selling last year.

But not every boat is created equal. Ritchie said the American Cruise Lines vessels are usually pretty good for her, but that guests from the Ritz-Carlton’s Luminara luxury cruise vessel show no interest in her jewelry.

“Each passenger or profile of ship has, in my opinion, a different spending sort of profile,” said Kate Thomas, the borough’s director of economic development.

Kristy Herman, who owns the Canoe Lagoon oyster farm with her husband Brian, said business at their storefront off Front Street is actually down this year. The hit-or-miss business can make it hard for her to schedule between having the storefront open or working her other job at a grocery store for guaranteed money.

“I’ve had one day with the Queen (Elizabeth) in. I did $60,” Herman said, “Doesn’t pay me to be here. Doesn’t pay the electricity. I’m like, ‘I should have worked at IGA that day.’”

Because of the type of business license Canoe Lagoon has, they are unable to shuck their shellfish for customers, which Herman said can drive away those looking for fresh oysters to eat.

Instead, the Hermans have been looking for other ways to work with cruise companies to make money, in addition to the four restaurants they ship oysters to each week (three in Arizona, one in Alaska). For a couple years, she said they had worked with American Cruise Lines to provide fresh seafood to their ships, but the agreement fell apart.

Recently they have teamed up with tour company Alaska Waters and Oceanview Gardens to provide food-based shore excursions for passengers on the Luminara. She said it has been pretty successful so far, but they are still feeling it out.

When the Luminara docked on Aug. 20, four guests took part in the excursions according to Herman, for around $1,000 per guest split between the three businesses. 

For the borough, cruise ships are the primary source of tourism revenue, according to Thomas. The number of independent travelers has been declining since the early 2000s with cuts to the Alaska Marine Highway System. 

The borough benefits from the ships in several ways, including wharfage fees, port tie-up fees and the state commercial passenger vessel “head tax.” That only applies to ships with more than 250 passengers traveling through Alaska waters for more than one night. Wrangell receives $5 per guest of the $34.50 tax collected by the state.

The borough this year received a one-time bonus of $375,000 in passenger fees collected by the state over several years that went unspent. The borough will use that money to help fund its downtown waterfront fill project, Borough Manager Mason Villarma announced at the assembly meeting Aug 25.

Increased money spent at businesses also means more sales tax to the borough, although the actual tax collections will not be clear until the numbers for this fiscal quarter are available in November.

“Let’s just assume on a dollars and cents that we increase the sales tax collection for this quarter by $50,000 to $100,000,” Thomas said, “I mean that, year over year, makes a significant difference.”