1 Million cruise visitors: will this be the season?

• Author: Kalytiak, Tracy
• Position: TOURISM

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Sid and Rosie Wilson love to cruise and have visited ports on just about every continent. They frequently fly to Alaska because their daughter lives there, but decided they wanted to explore the Alaska that cruise visitors see.

"I wanted to see for myself the beauty (in Southeast) I've heard so many people rave about," says Wilson, 72, of Little Rock, Ark. "We wanted to possibly spot some of the wildlife, a bear or moose, get king crab legs from their source. We enjoy the wonderful summer climate- it's an escape from the Lower 48--getting away from that heat is like the cherry on top of a sundae."

The mammoth (and not-so-mammoth) cruise ships that ply Alaska waters help hundreds of thousands of people like the Wilsons find their bliss.

Tax relief and a reviving economy are enabling cruise lines that operate or want to operate here to ramp up for what they expect will be a burgeoning season.

Bruce Bustamante, vice president of community and public affairs for Princess Cruises, says that this year, the Star Princess is a new ship that will be added to the Alaska fleet.

"With that deployment, we will move the Sapphire Princess to a Gulf crossing," Bustamante says. "The last two years, the Sapphire served the Southeast Alaska round-trip market."

The Princess Coral, Island, Diamond, Sapphire, Golden, Sea and Star Princess ships serve the Alaska market. The passenger capacity on the Coral and Island Princess ships is 1,700 passengers. The Diamond and Sapphire ships have a capacity of 2,670 passengers; the Golden and Star have capacity for 2,590 passengers and the Sea Princess can hold 1,990 passengers.

Princess ships, from early May until mid September, will call on Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia, and Victoria, British Columbia; Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Whittier.

Bustamante says most of Princess's tours and cruise itineraries will remain the same as last year's. "However, with the addition of a fourth Gulf crossing ship, our inventory of berths will increase by nearly 50,000 for the summer season," he says.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Cruise lines benefit Alaska and its residents in countless ways.

Princess delivers hundreds of thousands of visitors to Alaska and those visitors travel through Southeast to the Railbelt and as far north as Fairbanks, Bustamante says.

"The economic impact reaches as many as 1,000 Alaska vendors, which contributes to the overall economic health and employment in the state," he says. "Holland...