On many days during cruise season, as many as seven ships, each carrying an average of 1,600 people, are docked in Juneau, population 30,000. Skagway's 825 year-round residents are even more swamped when ships are in town.
This causes problems. Roads are clogged with tour buses, and the air hums with the near-constant overhead buzz of floatplanes and helicopters taking tourists on "flight-seeing" trips. In a region known for the beauty of its natural setting, pollution is a huge issue, affecting land, sea, sky and wildlife. Restrictions against waste disposal and smoky emissions are stricter here than anywhere in the world. Alaska has the authority to inspect ships, regulate pollution and penalize violators.
In addition, cruise lines can be assessed $1-per-passenger fees, which the state uses to fund environmental needs. On a local level, Juneau is now charging cruise lines an additional $5-per-person fee. But an announcement by lawmakers in Haines, a town 80 miles north of Juneau, that would limit the number of cruise ships backfired when Royal Caribbean and Celebrity dropped it as a port of call.
For its part, the cruise industry is interested in maintaining Alaska's natural environment, even if the commitment has to a lot do with self-interest. "What's unique about Alaska for cruising – unlike Florida, where you're only sailing in state waters to turn around – is that you are in state waters for much of the time," says Princess's Brown. "These restrictions are proper, and protecting the environment is the right thing to do."
It's not just talk. Ships from Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Celebrity have been outfitted with gas turbine engines, which limit smokestack pollution. Princess, with help from environmentalists in Juneau, designed a cruise dock that allows its ships to plug into electric power when in port – so it can turn off its engines altogether.
Yet, despite tighter restrictions, accidents still happen. Last year, the 2,002-passenger Norwegian Sky was found to have trailed a half-mile-long stream of waste through the Inside Passage. Rhapsody of the Seas accidentally discharged some 200 gallons of laundry wastewater. It was thought – though never proven – that a cruise ship was responsible for a collision with a pregnant humpback whale, an endangered species, that instantly killed the mammal near Glacier Bay.
Inside Passage Jam
Having been warned that the proliferation of cruise ships was a pervasive problem, I was pleasantly surprised to see few ships as we traveled through the Inside Passage. Ships that cruise along the Inside Passage, which varies from wide to barely navigable in places, are tightly choreographed and must adhere to strict schedules.
On our last day "at sea," we traveled south, toward Vancouver, in a wide stretch of channel. Celebrity's sister ship Mercury, at least a thousand feet east of us, was also sailing in a southerly direction. Suddenly, Carnival Spirit came chugging up the channel from the south, headed for the expanse between us. When it passed, it created the illusion of an eclipse-at-sea, obliterating the view of the smaller Mercury for a few minutes. There were more people hanging over the rail watching that spectacle than those who, at the same moment, were watching a humpback whale perform acrobatics on the starboard side.
Carolyn Spencer Brown is a California-based freelance writer.
DETAILS: Cruising Alaska
Alaska's Inside Passage, the world's longest sheltered inland waterway, extends for almost 1,000 miles from Bellingham, Wash., to Skagway, Alaska. Most of the big mass-market cruise lines, such as Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, Princess and Royal Caribbean, sail this route.
On the luxury end, there are fewer players; this season, the choice is between the 940-passenger Crystal Harmony and the 490-passenger Radisson Seven Seas Navigator. Crystal is the only line to offer a 12-day round-trip itinerary from San Francisco; most of Radisson's voyages are of the seven-day variety.
Cruise West is the biggest player among small, more destination-oriented cruise lines; it largely dominates the Alaskan scene in its category.
ITINERARIES: Mass-market cruise lines typically offer two varieties: "Inside Passage" and "Gulf of Alaska." Both last seven days and visit, basically, the same roster of ports, mixing and matching between Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Sitka. Both also include a half-day visit to one of Alaska's major glaciers (passengers watch from the rail – this is not a port of call).
