Serenade of the Seas used Dynamic Positioning technology to visit Skagway without docking on Thursday. (Mike Swasey photo)

Skagway’s tourism department announced on Thursday that two Norwegian Cruise Lines ships, the Bliss and the Encore will not make their scheduled calls to Skagway for the rest of the 2022 cruise season. That’s a loss of up to 25,000 passengers during a season that’s already seen fewer than anticipated visitors because of rockslide activity on the Railroad Dock and ships sailing partially full.

Also on Thursday, a Royal Caribbean ship The Serenade of the Seas used Dynamic Positioning to call on Skagway without berthing at a physical dock because of high winds. It allowed the ship to park diagonally in the harbor without dropping an anchor. KHNS’ Mike Swasey spoke with Cruise Lines Agencies of Alaska’s Skagway Port Manager Steward Stevens for more on both topics.

SwaseyStew, thanks for joining us. Can you tell us more about Dynamic Positioning?

Stevens – The reason they really want to do it is they knew if they tied up, they might not be able to tender because the wave action coming around the stern of the boat made it unsafe for the tenders. So they positioned themselves with global positioning. It’s a system that almost all of them have, I believe, it’s kind of like autopilot, of course, you have to watch it the whole time. And the pods and the thrusters, that can keep it in position. 

If you noticed they had the ship angled so that it kind of broke the wind for the tenders to come off of their port side and into the small boat harbor.

Swasey Yeah.

Stevens – That’s kind of one of the biggest reasons they did that.

SwaseySo you’re saying most ships have the capability to do that? Is that something other ships could consider doing, say if we had difficulty remediating the rock slide issue on the Railroad Dock

Stevens – Well, I don’t think they really like to do it, they’re burning fuel the whole time. It’s probably pretty spendy.   

SwaseyDid it help overall with the tendering process from that ship? Were they able to tender in an efficient manner? 

Stevens – Yeah, yeah, it worked pretty well, actually, I was watching them. The ship broke the waves and the wind. So you know, they’re in the lee of it, and able to just scoot around.

SwaseyAnd then a couple of ships have decided to cancel their calls to Skagway, the Norwegian Bliss, and Encore. That’s up to 25,000 people that were expected to come that are no longer coming to Skagway. There’s been a lot of talk about them trying to figure out a tendering option, I guess. The reason they didn’t come was what?

Stevens – They don’t have their own tenders was the big problem. You know, their company and our company were trying to figure out a tendering system from maybe the fast ferries out of Juneau. Goldbelt, I think has a couple and Allen Marine. The heights of the tenders don’t match up with the tender deck heights, or the tender dock inside the small boat harbor. Got to figure into account October weather, (and) darkness. All those things were factors in their decision, or, Norwegian’s decision, not to do it.

SwaseyAnd if I’m correct, the only dock that they could actually dock at would be the Railroad Dock.

Stevens – Correct. Yeah, (the) Railroad Dock is the only dock that’s big enough to handle those two ships. 

SwaseyOkay. And then, of course, with the aft position, we have to tender. So they were hoping something would happen in which they got the green light to allow their passengers to walk off, or that they would be able to hire tenders to help them offload passengers. Is that right?

Stevens – Yeah, their biggest hope was we’d be able to mitigate it somehow, the slide area so that people could actually come down the dock and exit that way. We were looking at it for two or three weeks trying to figure out if it would work with the other fast ferries. But…

SwaseySo when is the last ship coming to Skagway this year, then?

Stevens – I believe it would be October 8. The Norwegian Spirit I believe. 

SwaseyWhere will they be docking?

Stevens – They’ll be (at) Broadway (Dock). 

SwaseyStew, thanks for taking the time I appreciate it.

Stevens – You’re welcome.

An updated cruise ship calendar can be found here.