Alaska Reopens To Cruising in 2021!

The first cruise ship in nearly two years has been welcomed back to Alaska

Alaska Reopens To Cruising in 2021!

Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas visited Ketchikan, Alaska after a cease of operations due to the Covis-19 Pandemic.

Since Alaska has a short cruising season, (normally late May to late September), the last cruise ship that visited the Alaskan cruise ports was in late September 2019.

This 2021 cruise season will be shorter than in the past, but due to legislatures needing to request an exception for cruise lines to sail in Alaskan waters without having to stop in a foreign port (i.e. Canada).

This 135 year old maritime law is called the Passenger Vessel Service Act of 1886 is similar to the Jones Act for merchant ships.

With Alaska suffering from one of its main streams of income from tourism, the Biden Administration created the Alaskan Tourism Restoration Act that allows cruise ships to depart from US ports, such as Seattle and cruise in Alaska with the permission to not have to stop in Canada.

This Restoration Act allows 51 specific named cruise ships to depart from Seattle to Alaska and back bypassing Canada entirely.

Cruise ships tourism attributes to 1 in 10 jobs in Alaska which depends on tourism for their income.

So it was a very happy day in Seattle and Ketchikan when the Serenade of the Seas returned to cruising Alaska

The 2021 season will be shorter than in the past starting here in mid-July and ceasing for the season in late September.

In 2019 Alaska welcomed 1.4 cruise passengers at their multiple cruise ports, that is an approximate 800 million dollars for tourism that was lost in 2020.