A cruel blow
was struck several weeks ago
when the two pioneers in
mass-volume Alaskan cruising
-- Holland America and
Princess Cruises --
announced that they were
withdrawing another two
ships from Alaska.
No fewer
than six cruise lines have
now cut the number of ships
they will be sending to
Alaska, partly in
retaliation for a $50-a-head
tax that the Alaska
legislature imposed on
passengers making the trip.
It is now expected that in
the 2010 season for Alaskan
sailing, which runs from May
through September, at least
100,000 fewer berths will be
available.
The result
has got to be a
strengthening of cruise
prices there and a decline
in the number and depth of
discounts offered. If you
have been considering an
Alaska cruise this year, it
might be wise to make your
bookings now instead of
waiting for a lowering of
prices later on; rates, in
my opinion, won't be lowered
this year.
A recent
caller to my Sunday radio
program asked whether it was
smart to pay an additional
$400 for a balcony cabin on
the ship he was considering
for a cruise of Alaskan
waters in June. I responded
that this was an unnecessary
extra expenditure.
On a
cruise of Alaska, almost all
passengers spend most of
their daytime hours on deck,
enjoying the full,
expansive, panoramas of the
Alaskan coast, which are far
more accessible from an open
deck than from your cabin's
balcony. Rangers of the U.S.
National Parks Service often
come on board to deliver a
lectured commentary (via
loudspeaker) on the natural
sights and phenomena --
especially of glaciers
``calving'' into the seas.
Those lectures, in my
experience, are far better
heard outdoors on deck than
from the balcony of your
cabin.
The
experience of Alaska from
the top open decks of your
cruise ship is so compelling
that on one or two days of
the cruise, Holland America
actually sets up outdoor
stoves upon those decks and
serves a picnic-style lunch
of barbecued Alaskan salmon.
Passengers spend the entire
day upon that deck, enjoying
the awesome views of Alaskan
coastal life: the bears
coming to the shore to
snatch fish, the whales
swimming close to shore and
periodically erupting
through the surface of the
sea, the eagles flying
overhead.
Alaska is
an important travel
experience. If you go to the
Web sites of the various
cruise discounters, you will
find summer 2010 cruises of
Alaska priced at $799 and
$899 per person for inside
cabins on one-week sailings
from Seattle, Vancouver and
Anchorage, Alaska (not
including airfare to those
cities). I very much doubt
the prices will go lower
than that, and urge you to
make your bookings now.
Source:
Frommers