By the Associated Press
and Sentinel Staff
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing in the U.S., Carnival Cruise Line is canceling its last remaining sailings to Alaska this summer, a company spokesperson said Monday.
“Carnival had already pretty much canceled most of their ships coming to Alaska,” Visit Sitka Director Laurie Booyse said today. “We were only going to see their ship one time, toward the end of September.”
The cancellation of that visit will reduce the number of tourists in Sitka by about 2,600, Booyse said. If no further cruises are canceled, Sitka can still expect about 61,000 cruise ship passengers between August and October, down by almost three-quarters from the original projection of 215,000.
The announcement referred only to Carnival Cruise Line and not the other brands under the umbrella of Carnival Corp., spokesperson Vance Gulliksen told The Associated Press.
Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, which also fall under Carnival Corp., announced major reductions in Alaska cruises last month.
Many cruises for the 2020 season were canceled in March and April, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued “No Sail” orders, which will remain in effect until late July.
“With the changes that came down a while back, we lost all of Princess ships in Sitka,” Booyse said. “Holland canceled all of their ships except for two, one of which we do still have on our schedule.”
The one Holland America ship remaining on Sitka’s schedule is the Eurodam, with a capacity of 2,104 passengers. The Konigsdam also remains on Holland America’s calendar for Southeast Alaska, but it does not stop in Sitka.
Booyse emphasized that those involved in Sitka’s tourism industry are in a holding pattern, for now.
“We’re still waiting. I will guess that there will be people looking to travel,” she said. “The Cruise Lines International Association is working really closely with the White House and CDC to put in place safeguards that both the administration and CDC feel comfortable with.”
The CDC is not the only authority that has a say in opening cruise traffic to Alaska.
“If the No Sail order is lifted, we also have to see if the Port of Seattle and Port of Vancouver open,” Booyse said.
She added that, in addition to cruise sailings being allowed again, people need to feel comfortable on the ships.
“Will people feel comfortable getting back on the ships? Will they feel more comfortable being on a large ship they feel is being regulated more stringently or will they feel more comfortable on a smaller ship?” Booyse asked.
“If we don’t have guests this summer, it’s going to be a very different winter,” she said, referring to the losses to the Sitka economy.
The number of cruise visitors to Alaska grew from 480,000 in 1996 to almost 1.4 million last year, according to a report by state Labor Department economists Neal Fried and Karinne Wiebold.
Mike Tibbles, with Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said so far 419 voyages to Alaska, with a passenger capacity of 825,200, have been canceled.
