Norwegian Cruise Line was the first operator to resume ticket sales for voyages to Alaska after Congress passed a bill that could help save the state’s annual summer pilgrimage of cruise ship visitors.
Norwegian’s sailings will start the first week of August.
A few hours after the House approved the measure last Thursday, following earlier passage by the Senate, Carnival Corp. joined Norwegian on the calendar. Carnival’s three largest cruise lines said they would run one ship each between Seattle and the bigger ports in Southeast Alaska starting late July:
• Holland America Cruise Line announced 10 sailings between Seattle and Alaska, with the first departing July 24.
• Princess Cruise Line also announced 10 sailings, July 25 through its last Seattle departure on Sept. 26.
• Carnival Cruise Line will run weekly sailings starting July 27, ending mid-September.
Then on Monday, shortly before President Joe Biden signed the measure into law, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines announced it will send two ships to Alaska this summer. Its first sailing out of Seattle is scheduled for July 19, according to its website.
If the six ships scheduled for Alaska cruises fill near capacity, they could bring close to 200,000 visitors north this summer, down from the industry’s 1.3 million expected last year before the pandemic put a stop to cruising.
The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, co-sponsored by the state’s two U.S. senators, passed Congress unanimously and will temporarily allow large cruise ships to skip a required stop in a Canadian port while traveling between Seattle and Alaska.
Most large cruise ships visiting Alaska are registered in foreign countries. Federal law prohibits foreign-registered ships from sailing between U.S. ports without stopping at a foreign port along the way — and Canada has closed its ports to cruise ship traffic to protect against the spread of COVID-19.
The congressional action came too late to save the entire summer and also too late to prevent cruise lines from redirecting many of their ships to the Caribbean and elsewhere to operate this year.
Separate from the maritime law, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is requiring that cruise ship operators submit plans for preventing and dealing with COVID-19 cases, and either run a test cruise to try out their protocols or require that 98% of the ship’s crew and 95% of passengers be fully vaccinated.
Norwegian Cruise Line announced earlier this month that it will require passengers and crew to show proof of vaccination.
“We remain optimistic that by working with the CDC and local port and government authorities in the destinations we visit that we will be able to resume safe cruising in the U.S. this summer,” a Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson in an email to Anchorage TV station KTUU on May 18.
“This legislation is literally a lifeline for so many of Alaska’s small businesses that were struggling, and it means jobs for more Alaskans this summer,” said Sarah Leonard, president of the Alaska Travel Industry Association.
“While there is still work to be done, the cruise industry is one step closer to sailing in Alaska this year,” said Laziza Lambert, a spokeswoman for an industry group, the Cruise Lines International Association.
Canada and the United States both stopped cruise travel last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the U.S. has moved toward a resumption of cruise voyages, Canada has kept its ban in place.
Small cruise ships and vessels registered in the U.S. have not been affected by the hurdles, and several are already sailing.
Though the operators of some of the largest ships in the Alaska fleet are selling tickets and making plans to work at least a couple of months this summer, onshore tour operators report they need to see how many bookings they get before deciding how many employees they need to add and how quickly they need to get ready for the big ships.
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