Home port: Seattle strikes gold on Alaska cruises

Seattle long has been a marine gateway to Alaska, starting with fortune-seekers who stampeded onto Alaska-bound ships during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush.

This summer, the city is striking a different type of gold, thanks to a dramatic growth in cruises to Alaska from Seattle. The city's downtown waterfront will bustle with camera-toting passengers, and Seattle is giving Vancouver, B.C., traditionally the major port for Alaska cruises, a run for the money with the Canadian city facing the first drop in its cruise business in 20 years.

Three major companies — Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises — are basing ships in Seattle for weeklong cruises to Alaska this summer. There will be almost 100 cruise-ship calls in the city, up from 75 last year and six in 1999 when Seattle-based cruises began.

The ships are expected to infuse about $70 million into the local economy this season, says the Port of Seattle, and bring nearly 400,000 visits by passengers to the city, up from about 250,000 last year. (Passengers are counted both coming and going in port statistics, meaning the number of actual travelers is half of that.)

Behind the boom

Seattle's boom in cruises stems from a convergence of world and local events.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Iraq war and the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in Asia have prompted cruise lines to move ships away from hot spots and caused travelers to look for closer-to-home destinations.

Such events also caused many Americans, the world's biggest cruise market, to prefer ports to which they can drive or take a direct flight, and prefer cruise destinations — such as Alaska — that seem sure to remain untouched by world events.

Alaska now is "the world's third most popular cruise destination," according to Bob Sharak, executive director of the Cruise Lines International Association, after the Caribbean and Europe.

While Miami remains the epicenter of cruising in the United States, more ships are sailing from New York City, Boston, New Orleans and other U.S. ports, including Seattle.

In Seattle, port officials and the downtown business community have worked for 15 years to bring cruise ships to the city, said Mick Shultz, a Port of Seattle spokesman.

During this year's cruise season, the glossy white liners, laden with restaurants, pools, gyms and other pleasures, will dock at two terminals on the Seattle waterfront.

The first ship of the May-to-September season was to arrive last Friday at the Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal at the north end of the downtown waterfront. The terminal opened two years ago and can handle one megaship — the big new liners that are almost 14 stories tall — at a time.

Seattle's newest cruise dock, the $16.5 million Terminal 30 at the south end of downtown, hosts its first ship on May 17.

Terminal 30 has been a fast-track job. The port began construction in February at the former container-shipping dock, where two cruise ships will be able to dock at the same time. The terminal's 95,000-square-foot, warehouselike building won't win any design awards, but it has lots of space for processing passengers and baggage.

Norwegian, Holland America and Princess — the big three in the Seattle market although other lines' ships also will call here on daylong visits — begin and end their weeklong Alaska cruises on Saturdays and Sundays. On many summer weekends, four ships will be in port.

With the ships holding approximately 1,400 to 2,200 passengers each, the waterfront and downtown are expected to buzz with tourists fanning out to shops, museums, restaurants and hotels and the Pike Place Market.

The port estimates local revenue from the cruise business will be about $70 million this year, said Shultz, from souvenir sales; hotel stays at the beginning or end of cruises; supplying the ships with food and fuel; and other spending.

Competing with Vancouver

For the past 20 years, Vancouver, B.C., has reaped the economic benefits of the Alaska cruise business. It's still the big player, with more than 1.1 million passenger visits and 342 ships calls last year. This year, however, the estimated sailings have declined to 305.

"In addition to a changed travel industry, we are experiencing increasingly tough competition from the Port of Seattle and other U.S. ports," said Gordon Houston, the president and CEO of the Vancouver Port Authority.

Beyond its new cruise terminal, Seattle benefits from quicker air service from U.S. cities and fewer border hassles. U.S. passengers departing from Vancouver, B.C., on Alaska cruises often flew into Seattle and were bused across the border.

New, faster ships also have made it easy to do a weeklong round trip from Seattle along the British Columbia coast to Southeast Alaska.

"We looked closely at both cities, and in the end we decided to deploy a second ship in Seattle," said Andy Stuart, the senior vice president of marketing for Norwegian Cruise Line.

"We've seen a big pickup in demand from within a four- or five-hour driving radius (of Seattle). We weren't seeing that in Vancouver." About 20 percent of passengers taking cruises from Seattle are "drive-market" passengers, said Stuart.

Norwegian was a pioneer in 2000 in basing Alaska cruises in Seattle.

"People pooh-poohed it and said it would never work, that the only way was to go from Vancouver," said Stuart. "But it's been very successful, and our ships are sailing full."

Seattle-based Holland America is home-porting a ship in Seattle for a second season this year, and increasing the number of sailings from 19 to 21, said Erik Elvejord, public-relations director. Holland America also is considering home-porting a second ship in Seattle next year, said Elvejord.

Cruise control

Not everything is rosy in the local cruise business.

Environmental groups have raised concerns about cruise liners' wastewater emissions, pointing to controversy and government fines for some ships' illegal dumping in Alaska in recent years.

Last fall, when construction of Terminal 30 was being debated, there were concerns about the increase in local property taxes to help pay for that and other Port of Seattle projects.

And one cruise line, Royal Caribbean, has pulled out of the Seattle market after running three- and four-day Pacific Northwest cruises last year from Seattle to Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., saying they weren't an economic success.

Still, the port is steaming ahead, optimistic about the future for the cruise industry in Seattle.

Next on its wish list: More ships using the terminals on weekdays when the Alaska cruise liners are at sea. "Now, we want customers during the week," said Port of Seattle spokeswoman Rosie Courtney.

Kristin Jackson: 206-464-2271 or kjackson@seattletimes.com