The fate of the 2021 Alaska tourism season is still largely unknown to the major international cruise lines that operate ships with thousands of passengers, but small ship operators are preparing to tour the Inside Passage again.
Alaska Dream Cruises is one of those companies in a unique position not to comply with the strict guidelines of major cruise lines.
Marketing director Zak Kirkpatrick said in an interview that the Sitka-based travel company has seen a “surge” in cruise bookings this spring and summer and that wider reservation requests for the company are returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Canada’s Department of Transportation moved again on February 4 prevent cruise ships from calling at their ports in 2021, The only practical option for ships sailing from west coast ports to Alaska is effectively eliminated to comply with the Passenger Vessel Services Act. Nineteenth century law required foreign-built ships, which are all the world’s major cruise lines, to travel between US ports to stop in a foreign port en route.
However, Kirkpatrick noted that the Alaska Dream Cruises ships were built in America and will remain in southeastern Alaska. The company’s six ships carry between 10 and 76 passengers, which adds leeway outside of the Centers for Disease Control’s cruise ship policies and mandates that apply to ships that can carry 250 passengers or more.
Kirkpatrick said those booking with Alaska Dream Cruises this year will largely be in the 60+ age group that traditionally makes up most of the company’s cruise customers.
“That correlates with a lot of people who are waiting for the first wave of vaccinations or who feel like they will be in the summer,” he said. “There seems to be a pent-up demand. People look forward to traveling and we are going through all the necessary safety and health protocols to welcome them back this year. “
The company could add trips outside of its normal schedule in late September if demand is there, Kirkpatrick also said.
Alaska Marine Highway Systems spokesman Sam Dapcevich said it was too early to say whether the state ferry system, which has long been used by some travelers as an alternative to the large ships with its service in Bellingham, Washington, Due to the cruise ship situation, there will be an increase in the number of drivers because the summer ferry schedule has just opened for booking on February 24th, but the system officials are expecting more traffic.
He also noted that the summer ferry schedule has been expanded to include an additional sailing per month across the Gulf of Alaska to accommodate drivers affected by Canada’s border closure.
Alaska Dream Cruises is one of three smaller cruise lines scheduled to operate in southeastern waters this summer. The other are UnCruise Adventures from Seattle and American Cruise Lines from Connecticut, according to Steve Danishek, president of TMA Travel in Seattle.
Many of the company’s ships are small, bespoke cruise ships, but much of the collective fleet are also reconfigured fishing and work vessels. These smaller ships – some American cruise lines carry up to 175 passengers – are also used to visit the southeastern communities that the massive ships cannot reach.
Un-Cruise Adventures’ small tour boat Wilderness Adventurer will be seen tied up in Juneau Harbor on Monday, April 27, 2020. (James Brooks / ADN)
In Wrangell, one such community, tour operators are still feeling the impact that large cruise lines don’t have through excursion contracts with the cruise companies, even if they’re not directly in a port of call for the big ships, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Stephanie Cook said in an interview .
“It’s a great income for the charter companies as well as the businesses in the community,” said Cook of the major cruise lines. “(Canada’s announcement) was definitely a hit with us, but we’re excited about the ships we can get: the smaller ones. We’re just trying to get our way and be grateful for what we hope we have. “
The Wrangell Chamber Visitor Panel is working on a new branding for independent air travelers who they hope will get it ready in time for the summer, said Cook, who said the group of companies is among those in the entire Southeast who “just try to get creative to be and consider alternative solutions “for the large cruise lines.
According to Kirkpatrick, Alaska Dream Cruises’ parent company Allen Marine is in a similar situation. Allen Marine mainly offers day trips such as whale watching and guided beach tours for the major cruise lines. The company’s executives are currently working on plans for independent visitor tours with their fleet of day catamarans, he stressed, while emphasizing that a quick return of the large ships and their over a million passengers is still of vital importance.
Allen Marine and Alaska Dream Cruises previously employed around 180 full-time employees, according to Kirkpatrick, a number that dropped to fewer than 50 shortly after the pandemic broke out when it became clear there would be no crossings last year.
“It’s just impossible to overstate how important it is to our economy,” he said.
To that end, Rep. Don Young instituted the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act at the home on February 24th. The bill would provide a temporary “workaround” for the requirements of the Passenger Vessel Service Act by treating travel between Washington and Alaska as “international travel,” according to a statement from Young’s office.
“We have made significant strides in the fight against COVID-19,” Young said in a prepared statement. “The vaccinations keep increasing and the daily cases are decreasing. As the 2021 cruise season begins (early May), I am confident that we will be in a strong position to allow cruises to resume with proper security. “
Staff in Senator Dan Sullivan’s office said he and Senator Lisa Murkowski are working on similar bills to be submitted to the Senate that have been consumed by confirmatory hearings recently.
Cruise ship officials have also considered the possibility that Canadian officials may be more receptive to limited and strategic port calls if the number of national cases of COVID-19 generally remains on a downward trend and many cruise ship passengers have been vaccinated.
