What is the status of Skagway for 2023 season?

[eileeshb]

Someone on Norwegian Bliss is posting this week’s daily newsletters on Facebook , here’s a screenshot of the page with the shuttle bus operating at Skagway for Norwegian’s ship docked at RRA.

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by eileeshb
Clarify the source

[kayehall]

8 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

I hope it works out.

 

We are supposed to be at the RRA dock in June.

 

They already cancelled our stop in Juneau and I don't want another sea day.

Why did they cancel Juneau?

[eileeshb]

15 hours ago, kayehall said:

Why did they cancel Juneau?

Juneau passed a new ordinance or some such limiting the cruise port to 5 ships per day

[SportsFanatic]

16 hours ago, eileeshb said:

Someone on Norwegian Bliss is posting this week’s daily newsletters on Facebook , here’s a screenshot of the page with the shuttle bus operating at Skagway for Norwegian’s ship docked at RRA.

 

 

[SportsFanatic]

Just now, SportsFanatic said:

 

Hello, thanks for posting. I am an able to read though as it’s blurry for me, can you tell me where to find this or can  post a clearer screenshot? Thank you 

[eileeshb]

Just now, SportsFanatic said:

Hello, thanks for posting. I am an able to read though as it’s blurry for me, can you tell me where to find this or can  post a clearer screenshot? Thank you 

I got it from the Norwegian bliss group on Facebook 

[LB_NJ]

18 hours ago, kayehall said:

Why did they cancel Juneau?

They never really said.

[Stelladoro]

We will be on the HAL Koningsdam in Sept which is scheduled to dock at ORE in Skagway. This sounds like an industrial dock. If anyone is familiar with this dock, will we require a shuttle service? We booked the train excursion with HAL, so assume they will look after transportation to train. If we want to stay in town a bit after excursion, wonder how we get back to the ship on our own..

[Kathscof]

14 minutes ago, Stelladoro said:

We will be on the HAL Koningsdam in Sept which is scheduled to dock at ORE in Skagway. This sounds like an industrial dock. If anyone is familiar with this dock, will we require a shuttle service? We booked the train excursion with HAL, so assume they will look after transportation to train. If we want to stay in town a bit after excursion, wonder how we get back to the ship on our own..

I don't know the goings on or anything, but that one seems to be even closer to the center of town than the railroad one.  If it is industrial and unsafe for people to be walking unaccompanied, they would definitely come up with a plan for that, but I doubt that either of those are likely to be true.  You can just walk back to the ship (or at least the dock) when you are done.  

[eileeshb]

24 minutes ago, Stelladoro said:

We will be on the HAL Koningsdam in Sept which is scheduled to dock at ORE in Skagway. This sounds like an industrial dock. If anyone is familiar with this dock, will we require a shuttle service? We booked the train excursion with HAL, so assume they will look after transportation to train. If we want to stay in town a bit after excursion, wonder how we get back to the ship on our own..

It’s only the railroad dock that is impacted the 2 smaller piers should be operating as normal as they did last year. 

[david,Mississauga]

19 hours ago, kayehall said:

Why did they cancel Juneau?

 

The closest thing to a reason that Cunard gave us was "operational reasons."  The Queen Elizabeth had been scheduled for Juneau on the 22nd of June. There are now only four ships booked for that day. On many other days there are five or six ships booked.

[LB_NJ]

6 minutes ago, david,Mississauga said:

 

The closest thing to a reason that Cunard gave us was "operational reasons."  The Queen Elizabeth had been scheduled for Juneau on the 22nd of June. There are now only four ships booked for that day. On many other days there are five or six ships booked.

If we can't do Skagway I have no idea where they will substitute.

[SuzieQ521]

2 hours ago, eileeshb said:

It’s only the railroad dock that is impacted the 2 smaller piers should be operating as normal as they did last year. 

 

So is it safe to assume that our Royal Princess cruise (scheduled for RRF) will likely need to use shuttles as well next month? Thanks 

[naturelovergirl]

7 minutes ago, SuzieQ521 said:

 

So is it safe to assume that our Royal Princess cruise (scheduled for RRF) will likely need to use shuttles as well next month? Thanks 

The way I have read of what is planned- RRF docking will use tender boats and RRA will use the shuttles

[LB_NJ]

Any word from anyone on the Norwegian Bliss on how it went?

[cruisingrob21]

probably worth watching here next tuesday to see what the situation is:

 

https://www.cruisingearth.com/ship-webcams/norwegian-cruise-line/norwegian-bliss/

 

 

[SuzieQ521]

1 hour ago, cruisingrob21 said:

probably worth watching here next tuesday to see what the situation is:

 

https://www.cruisingearth.com/ship-webcams/norwegian-cruise-line/norwegian-bliss/

 

 

I think the Bliss was in Skagway yesterday. From the NCL page, it appears that they had to take shuttle buses and some said the wait time for those was 45min to 1 hour.

[wolfie11]

4 hours ago, Stelladoro said:

We will be on the HAL Koningsdam in Sept which is scheduled to dock at ORE in Skagway. This sounds like an industrial dock. If anyone is familiar with this dock, will we require a shuttle service? We booked the train excursion with HAL, so assume they will look after transportation to train. If we want to stay in town a bit after excursion, wonder how we get back to the ship on our own..

The Ore Dock is the closest to the camera.  It is used daily for cruise ships.  The Smart bus stops there and the train pulls up to load passengers.  The far dock with the two ships is the Railroad Dock which is causing all the current problems. The middle dock the ferry is passing is the Broadway Dock.

[cruisingrob21]

29 minutes ago, SuzieQ521 said:

I think the Bliss was in Skagway yesterday. From the NCL page, it appears that they had to take shuttle buses and some said the wait time for those was 45min to 1 hour.

Did it say that was after arrival or all day?  I have to imagine that its similar to tender operations in that there are waves after arrival, around lunch, and near the end of the port call.  But either way, one has to wonder how much the cruise passengers (and cruise lines) will put up with.

[SuzieQ521]

1 hour ago, cruisingrob21 said:

Did it say that was after arrival or all day?  I have to imagine that its similar to tender operations in that there are waves after arrival, around lunch, and near the end of the port call.  But either way, one has to wonder how much the cruise passengers (and cruise lines) will put up with.

 

Looks like they arrived at 7 am; this person said 45 min wait at 10 am:

 

 

[SuzieQ521]

1 hour ago, wolfie11 said:

The Ore Dock is the closest to the camera.  It is used daily for cruise ships.  The Smart bus stops there and the train pulls up to load passengers.  The far dock with the two ships is the Railroad Dock which is causing all the current problems. The middle dock the ferry is passing is the Broadway Dock.

 

Thanks for that image. So if our Princess cruise has to do a tender boat next month from RRF, it looks like a very short boat ride.

[Panhandle Couple]

1 hour ago, cruisingrob21 said:

Did it say that was after arrival or all day?  I have to imagine that its similar to tender operations in that there are waves after arrival, around lunch, and near the end of the port call.  But either way, one has to wonder how much the cruise passengers (and cruise lines) will put up with.

Tender isn't a great option there.  The waves there are usually small.  See the picture above, the harbor is well protected except from the south.  The issue with tenders is that the small boat marina is not very big, and all the berths are probably taken for the season.  Getting larger tenders there is a problem due to distance and simply parking them when not in use.  Additionally, Alaska had to cancel 1 large ferry ship this year due to lack of employees.

Bus drivers and busses are easier to obtain, and are cheaper and easier than boats. 

 

 

[Panhandle Couple]

5 hours ago, Kathscof said:

I don't know the goings on or anything, but that one seems to be even closer to the center of town than the railroad one.  If it is industrial and unsafe for people to be walking unaccompanied, they would definitely come up with a plan for that, but I doubt that either of those are likely to be true.  You can just walk back to the ship (or at least the dock) when you are done.  

We haven't used the ORE dock, but it seems closer to town than the RRA and probably the RRF.  Skagway is not that big, to walk from the end of RRA to the end of town is a little over 1 mile, maybe 1 and 1/2 miles.   And the brew pub is certainly closer to the ORE and Broadway docks.

[wolfie11]

52 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Tender isn't a great option there.  The waves there are usually small.  See the picture above, the harbor is well protected except from the south.  The issue with tenders is that the small boat marina is not very big, and all the berths are probably taken for the season.  Getting larger tenders there is a problem due to distance and simply parking them when not in use.  Additionally, Alaska had to cancel 1 large ferry ship this year due to lack of employees.

Bus drivers and busses are easier to obtain, and are cheaper and easier than boats. 

 

 

I'm assuming they are using the ship's tenders as they usually do when tendering.  There is no need for other boats.

[Buckeye10640]

4 hours ago, SuzieQ521 said:

 

So is it safe to assume that our Royal Princess cruise (scheduled for RRF) will likely need to use shuttles as well next month? Thanks 

Also sailing on the Royal next month. Where have you found the dock location?