The first, large foreign-flag cruise ship departed July 19, signaling the return of the cruise industry to the Port of Seattle and Alaska. Royal Caribbean International’s cruise ship the Serenade of the Seas kicked off the abbreviated Alaska cruise season with the first departure by a large cruise ship to Alaska since September 2019.
While smaller, American cruise ships had resumed the Alaska cruise season in May, the return of the large, foreign-flag ships required a special act of the U.S. Congress to waive American cabotage laws.
After the passage of the legislation, seven cruise lines announced plans to sail cruises all from the Port of Seattle to Alaska. A total of eight cruise ships will sail to Alaska this year, with nine cruises scheduled for July as the industry resumes operations later this week and continuing into early August. The Port of Seattle said that a total of 83 voyages are planned for this year, which will each bring an estimated $4.2 million to the local economy.
While the cruise lines welcomed the opportunity to resume sailing to Alaska, the cruise season is greatly abbreviated and remains under the restrictions of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alaska, before the pandemic, had been one of the cruise industry’s strongest markets. In 2019, 37 cruise ships sailed 577 voyages to Alaska carrying a total of 1.36 million passengers according to the industry group CLIA Alaska. The cruise line organization had projected 1.44 million passengers would sail to Alaska in 2020 before the pandemic forced a global shutdown of cruising.