WEEK AHEAD: Cruise-ship season ends Monday

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news

(Norwegian Sun, photographed in 2018 by Carolyn Newman)

When Elliott Bay-watchers see that ship head out tomorrow (Monday, October 30th) from Pier 66 downtown, they’ll be seeing the end of this year’s Seattle cruise season, according to the Port of Seattle. The 2,000-passenger-capacity Norwegian Sun is scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning after a 10-day Alaska cruise and head out at 4 pm tomorrow on a 20-day “repositioning voyage” that’ll take it down the Pacific Coast to the Panama Canal and eventually to the Bahamas. In a media advisory, the port says this season “brought a record 1.7 million revenue passengers, or over 800,000 unique passengers through Port of Seattle cruise terminals, on 291 homeported cruise voyages.”

Cruise October 29, 2023 (7:22 pm)

Anybody knows how I can sign up for last minute cruises where I heard it is very cheap …an empty seat is a wasted seatThey notify you when there are empty seats and ready to set sail the last minute

Watertowerjim October 30, 2023 (5:53 am)

Your local travel agent should know, or call them individually. I will tell you that the shorter, repositioning cruises are not really representative of a true 7-day or longer trip. They are typically packed and have very little itinerary content and visit locations where the lines don’t have a lot of scale or experience. . They often scare people from ever cruising again – which is too bad – because it’s such an easy, comfortable – hassle free vacation. Look for a 7-day Alaska next summer would be my advice.
CarDriver October 30, 2023 (6:36 am)

Any travel agent can give you information or try calling the cruise line directly to see what they say.
me on 28th Ave SW October 30, 2023 (2:19 pm)

I’ve used https://www.vacationstogo.com/

SL October 30, 2023 (2:19 am)

It’s unfortunate that our leadership kowtows to the cruise companies – these drifting herds of overfed passengers disembark for a few hours, spend almost nothing, and destroy the prospect of strong local consumer base spending at small businesses downtown/Pike Place Market.

skeeter October 30, 2023 (1:32 pm)

That has not been my experience. My family did a cruise from Seattle last summer. Virtually every passenger we talked to had spend 2+ days in Seattle before/after the cruise. These visitors stay in local hotels, eat at local restaurants, shop at local shops, etc. Yes, cruising has environmental and sustainability concerns. But concluding that cruise tourism doesn’t benefit Seattle is just wrong.
- Watertowerjim October 31, 2023 (6:18 am)
  
  Exactly. It’s millions of dollars being circulated that otherwise would not. It’s a huge boon. They have work to do on the environmental side (they’ve made great strides but are doing more) but imagine the carbon footprint of 4,000 people flying to every port of call on an Alaska cruise, overnighting in a hotel and using transportation in each location. It’s way bigger than the footprint of all those people traveling as one. Scale is a good thing sometimes.
CarDriver October 30, 2023 (5:08 pm)

SL. Your description of what actually goes on and the local people that benefit financially has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese at Pike Place Market.

Sorry, comment time is over.