Both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise lines are sending some of their biggest ships to Alaska for next summer’s cruises, in a market that has usually seen only smaller ships because of limited land facilities and environmental concerns.
The two ships, Ovation of the Seas and Norwegian Bliss, each can hold about 5,000 passengers, and both are among the world’s largest cruise ships, at over 160,000 tons each. For comparison, last year’s largest ships in the market were just over 100,000 tons, and most were in the 60,000 to 90,000-ton class.
The arrival of the two ships reflects unexpected changes in the cruise industry. Ovation was originally billed as specially-built for the China and Southeast Asia market, but softening demand in China combined with growing Alaska demand has moved it, for now. Other lines have also responded to the softening, with Princess moving one of its built-for-China ships to Australia for eight months.
But the big question for Alaska remains: What to do with all those passengers and all those ships. It’s a huge state, but most cruises focus in the southeast, calling at ports such as Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Glacier Bay. The towns are not large, some with fewer residents than a single shipload. Once beyond the endless strips of souvenir shops, visitors want to see the wild—and there may not be enough of that to survive the hordes.
Places like Skagway will be overwhelmed by these numbers of tourists. Such a small historic town will have the very thing people come to see completely distorted by this swarm of people. Not a good idea.