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Originally posted by Grant:
Major changes to the Alaska market are coming for 2010. Some say owing to a down turn in the market, others say Alaska's $50 head tax is the root cause of folks staying away.
RCI has also pulled a ship from Alaska, but I don't follow RCIs activities so I don't know which ship was involved.

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RCI's SERENADE OF THE SEAS is being withdrawn from Alaska in 2010.

Mickey Arison has said Carnival will reduce deployment in the region further in 2011, if yields do not improve. He has spoken very critically of the Head Tax.

The itineraries out of Vancouver seemed to always have had a slight advantage because they didnt have to travel the excess distance that the ones out of Seattle did, therefore being able to spend more time in Alaska, go a greater distance, or have better ports of call.

The Inside Passage from Vancouver is more spectacular than taking the more exposed western route. However, I think that it is cheaper for Americans to fly to Seattle & many prefer to join their ship in the USA.

I would like to see a healthy balance between the two ports.

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Originally posted by bcscot:
I don't think that Victoria is a waste, if only they stopped for longer. Graham.

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That was my intent just probably not worded right.

I've been to Victoria twice and in both instances we pulled in at 8am and left after 8pm. One was a repositioning cruise on Galaxy, the other on Cruise West.

A nice long day in Victoria allowed a 4-hour trip to Butchart Gardens. In addition longer stays allow a chance to see the Butterfly Gardens, and chance to take in tea at the Empress Hotel as well as see the Royal London Wax Museum. We even took in an open air bike-taxi ride around the downtown area and it was amazing.

Yes, I think that Victoria is the nicest port stop in the whole BC/Alaska area & I am surprised that they do not make more of it. Maybe the port charges are higher than the little places.

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Originally posted by bcscot:
I don't think that Victoria is a waste, if only they stopped for longer. Vancouver's loss is Victoria's gain!

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Actually, this is not true at all...Victoria's gain is by far much less than Vancouver's loss.

Victoria gains extra passengers for an evening; however, they also lose the pre and post guests from the vancouver based cruises.

Vancouver loses a huge amount of pre and post business along with those guests that fly in the day of the cruise and spend here as well.

Vancouver is clearly the biggest loser in this regard.

At the end of the day, as has been pointed out, the cruise lines are moving ships to other itineraries which make more money for them and if they haven't left Alaska completely, Seattle presents a more economically feasible city for a majority of the guests to get to. I have heard the Port of Vancouver state that they have talked to airlines about this - but clearly with little impact.

[ 04-02-2009: Message edited by: Jekyll ]

http://cybercruises.com/cruisecolumn_apr06.htm

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Originally posted by Kevin Griffin, London:
What will Vancouver do to fight back?

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Unfortunately,I don't think it is something that "Vancouver" can do alone - I think the issues - airline costs/border security are out of the scope of the city - it is simply the recipient of programmes which make it a harder city for most Americans to get to than Seattle.

If a non US ship calls in Cuba I think I am correct in saying they are then restricted from calling in US ports which is why Non US ships that do call there (Fred Olsen for instance) home port out of Barbados and do not call at US ports during that cruise.

"The Passenger Service Act (PSA) requires that domestic ocean passenger transportation be provided only by ships that are U.S.-owned, U.S.-built and operated by U.S. crews."

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HAL adds 14-day Alaska option in 2010
30/3/2009
Holland America Line is introducing 14-day ‘Alaskan Adventurer’ cruises on the Amsterdam in 2010, which will sail round-trip from Seattle and call at Anchorage for the first time.
The 1,380-passenger ship will be the first of a major line to regularly visit Anchorage. The Amsterdam will also stop at Homer and Kodiak, two less frequented ports.

The itinerary reduces HAL’s overall 2010 Alaska deployment by 10 departures and approximately 11,000 passengers. The 10 new 14-day sailings replace 20 seven-day sailings between Vancouver and Seward.

The ‘Alaskan Adventurer’ cruises depart May 17 through Sept. 6 next year and include the Inside Passage and Tracy Arm Fjord with the twin Sawyer Glaciers. The Amsterdam also cruises by Hubbard Glacier in Yakutat Bay.

Ports are Ketchikan, Skagway, Sitka, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak, Juneau and Victoria.

Holland America’s 2010 Alaska schedule includes eight ships offering 149 total departures.

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