The Norwegian Bliss prepares to leave Juneau on June 5, 2018. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)
In a step toward a limited, late summer cruise season, Norwegian Cruise Line has signed an agreement with the state of Alaska and several of Alaska’s port operators.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office announced the agreement on Thursday, which lays out a set of protocols that will guide the resumption of Norwegian cruises in Alaska. All cruise companies who want to operate in the United States this year have to enter into these kinds of agreements with U.S. ports in order to sail with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s blessing.
“I was quite honestly skeptical that it would actually happen, but I’m just over the moon that it’s actually going to happen, and we’re going to have cruise ships back in Alaska this summer,” said John Binkley, chairman of Ward Cove Dock Group, which owns a new privately-owned cruise ship dock just north of Ketchikan.
The first Norwegian ship would set sail for Alaska in early August. Weeklong voyages would run through late October and visit Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay National Park and Hoonah’s Icy Strait Point. Trips through the end of August would include port calls in Skagway, too.
The agreement says one Norwegian ship would run through Southeast Alaska once a week. On Monday, the company said the 4,000-passenger Bliss would run the route, but it lists four potential vessels for its Alaska itineraries, giving it some flexibility.
“We thank the State of Alaska for facilitating the development of this agreement, the first agreement that will be submitted to CDC for their approval for Alaska,” Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings president and CEO Frank Del Rio said in a statement provided by the governor’s office.
The multi-port agreement aims to fulfill a CDC requirement. It lays out safety procedures to prevent COVID-19 from coming aboard and outlines the Norwegian’s plan to respond to cases during voyages.
Notably, the company says it plans to sail only with fully vaccinated guests and crew and allow cruise tourists to explore port towns independently in line with updated CDC rules. If COVID-19 cases arise on board, infected and exposed people would be quarantined in specially designated staterooms. The agreement says they’ll rely on medical facilities onboard the ship to handle cases and “remove the affected individuals from the region following applicable transportation, medical care services, and housing requirements.”
The agreement also sketches out procedures for port operators, including a requirement that 95% of port staff be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The CDC must approve the plan before ships can set sail.
“Norwegian will be submitting the agreement to the CDC this week, and the CDC has committed to a five day turnaround,” governor’s office spokesperson Lauren Giliam said Thursday. Norwegian did not respond to inquiries seeking clarification on the agreement.
As of Thursday, private dock owners in Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau and Hoonah have signed on, as has the Alaska state health department and Hoonah’s city government.
The president and CEO of Huna Totem Corporation, which owns Hoonah’s Icy Strait Point cruise port, said the agreement is a model for other Southeast ports.
“Collaborating with the Governor’s team, the City of Hoonah, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, and the other ports, we created a template to follow for safe operation, getting Alaska back to business,” Huna Totem’s Russell Dick said in the governor’s office’s statement.
Local officials in other Southeast ports say there are still details to work out. Ketchikan’s port director, Mark Hilson, says city officials have yet to sign off on the agreement.
“For each port community that hasn’t signed on, there probably is some tailoring to do and some work to do to get it to a point where the municipal entities are comfortable adopting it,” Hilson said. “But it is progress, and that’s very much appreciated.”
The final agreement will need approval from Ketchikan’s City Council. Hilson says it’s unclear whether Norwegian plans to visit Ketchikan’s city-owned port — the cruise line has a preferential berthing deal with the Ward Cove dock north of city limits — but he says the agreement serves as a model for other Alaska cruise lines.
Juneau’s City Manager Rorie Watt says he’s waiting on an updated cruise ship calendar from Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska — the company that schedules cruise ship port calls — before he signs on.
Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata says his local assembly has not yet green-lit the agreement; he says his community was just added to the document on Wednesday. He said Skagway has “a couple of concerns that we want to address,” but says he doesn’t think they’ll present an issue “after tweaks are made.”
Cremata earlier this year said he was concerned Skagway would be unable to fulfill a CDC requirement for shoreside hospital space for COVID-19 patients. The cruise company’s framework sidesteps that issue — if a passenger must be disembarked for COVID-19 treatment, they’d be sent to a Seattle hospital. But Norwegian also says its vaccination requirement makes outbreaks unlikely.
The agreement does not make clear whether Norwegian would bypass or restrict visitors in port communities with a major COVID-19 outbreak. That’s been a worry in Ketchikan, which in recent weeks has seen record-breaking spread of the disease. Ketchikan has already missed out on two port calls from small cruise ships because of the outbreak.
Ketchikan port director Hilson says he expects other lines that visit Alaska — like Princess, Holland America and Royal Caribbean — will soon submit their own proposed safety protocols.
“We’re expecting to hear from them shortly,” he said.
Holland America and Princess say they plan to restart Alaska cruises in late July.
This story was produced as part of a collaboration between KRBD and Alaska’s Energy Desk.
