Cruise ships in Skagway will not be hot berthing this summer. But this means slightly fewer visitors will come to town.
Last Thursday, ports director Cody Jennings updated the Skagway Borough Assembly on the latest berthing arrangements at the railroad dock. The dock usually can accommodate two of the largest cruise ships, but this year some cruise companies are refusing to berth at a section of the dock that is in a rock fall zone.
This does not leave enough room for two large ships.
An earlier plan would have had the large ships spend half a day each in Skagway. This arrangement is called hot berthing. In her report to the assembly Jennings said cruise companies are aiming to reduce or eliminate the number of hot berthing days.
Jennings: “Cruise line agencies sent out an update advising us that the Quantum will no longer call on Skagway for the season, however with that loss we are going to be able to keep the hot berthing days to a minimum, in fact possibly not at all.”
The quantum is one of the larger ships. It would have brought around 75 thousand visitors to skagway this summer, out of an expected total of 1.2 millions.
Jennings said some of the other ships will berth as scheduled, and some ships will trade berths to maximize docking capacity. On three occasions a ship will call on Skagway a day earlier or later than originally scheduled. One ship will test the new arrangement on April 17th before committing for the rest of the season.
Jennings said the skagway tourism office is the best source to get up to date information.
Jennings: “The tourism office has put the schedule out, please get on their mailing list, they are getting updates out to the community as quickly as we receive them, it’s a good mechanism that we have in place, if there is a dock change or schedule change, it’s a great way to reach our tourism industry folks, so that’s the mechanism we are using.”
Mayor Andrew Cremata drew knowing laughter from the crowd when, along with thanking Jennings, he suggested the updated schedule was definitive and might remain accurate throughout the season.