Looking for an Alaska Cruise?
The Governor of Alaska and cruise line representatives seem to have reached a tentative agreement to reduce by 25% the “head tax” for Alaska cruise ship passengers to $34.50, in exchange for discontinuing a lawsuit brought by the cruise lines. The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by the legislature probably as part of a tourism marketing bill. It may however be too late for the 2011 Alaska Cruise season which will see a drastic reduction in sailings over the 2010 cruise season. Most major operators have reduced 2011 capacity as they reposition ships to the hopefully more lucrative European market. Among the major repositionings is Royal Caribbean which will relocate 10 of its 22 ship fleet to Europe. Princess Cruise follows suit with 7 ships, the Crown and Grand out of Southampton, the Emerald out of Copenhagen for the Baltic and the Ruby and Emerald in the Mediterranean. The Ocean Princess and Pacific Princess will sail smaller more intimate ports. Norwegian Cruise Line will locate the new Epic in Europe as will Carnival with the Carnival Magic. The norm will also be longer cruises and port stays with the shorter 7 day cruises in short supply.
The upshot of it all is: if you are looking to cruise to Alaska do it in 2010 rather than 2011 because prices are most likely to go up. If a Europe Cruise is on the horizon for you in 2011 then expect larger than already large crowds in popular European destinations. The crowds in the popular Turkey destination of Ephesus in November of 2009 already shocked us compared to those of earlier years.
