Wrangell Sentinel -

The last of this year’s record of 1,646,862 cruise ship passengers left Juneau on Oct. 25. It was dark, temperatures were below freezing and a steady wind was blowing.

All of which suited Shane Carl, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, just fine. “I wanted to experience cold,” he said. “I knew it would be cold because the summers I hear are warmish, I heard. And I wanted to see the northern lights. But also the prices were great. It was toward the end of the season and I knew there’d be a lot of sales. And it did not disappoint.”

The 1,936-passenger Norwegian Sun was the final ship of...