Princess adds one ship to SE lineup

A Princess cruise ship that would have been bound for Europe during next summer's tourist season will sail to Alaska ports instead, said Kirby Day, Princess Cruises spokesman in Juneau.

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Day said the Regal Princess, which had been scheduled to sail in Europe and the Baltics, will travel to Juneau, Victoria, Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway and Tracy Arm next season. Day said this will bring six Princess ships into port a total of 103 times in the 2002 summer season beginning May 29. This past summer, Princess docked in Juneau 92 times.

The change was made because some people are still afraid to travel overseas, Day said. By leaving from a U.S. port that travelers can drive to, Princess hopes to increase its passengers.

But neither Day nor local business owners are holding their collective breath for a glut of tourists next season.

"There are hundreds of thousands of people out of work in the Lower 48. It's a terrible situation down there," Day said. "If people are seeing this as something that is going to be a big boon for Juneau or that we will fill the ships, they may be mistaken.

"We hope its going to be a good summer and we are going to stay positive and move forward. But we all have to be cautious and look ahead and be prepared for whatever happens," he said.

Day said Princess is anticipating 207,000 passengers for next year's season, up from its 190,000 in the just-ended season. Day also said there are no definite plans to cancel other overseas tours next season.

Holland America Lines and Celebrity Cruises also have replaced European tours with Alaska tours, said spokesmen for the companies. But Erik Elvejord of Holland America said there will be three fewer stops in Juneau because it also has added a Pacific Northwest trip to its tour packages.

"We usually run 118 cruises to Alaska and this year we will run 115," Elvejord said. "We've added the shorter three- or four-day tours of the Pacific Northwest, which will leave out of California, where it can be available to literally millions of people who are right there and can drive to get on the ship."

He also said that because Juneau has a limited number of berths available for cruise ships, the company thought it wise to limit the number of tours.

Day said in addition to avoiding waterway traffic, Princess has been looking over next year's scheduling in order to best coordinate the times when Princess passengers will be in port.

"Certain circles will panic when they see the schedule for next season," Day said. " We revised our itineraries so the schedule is different every week to mitigate the impacts to the downtown."

He said Princess tried to schedule its times in port when there were other ships.

Local businesses said they are not sure what to expect from the changes.

"One would assume if there were more trips to Juneau there'd be more people, but that may not be the case," said Rod Swope of Galligaskins, a downtown clothing and gift shop. "There were way more ships this year than last year, but the passenger numbers were way down."

And Murray Damitio, owner of the Hangar on the Wharf, said it was too soon to tell how these changes would affect downtown business.

"No one can really say right now," he said. "I guess we'll all just have to wait and see."

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Melanie Plenda may be reached at mplenda@juneauempire.com.