Harry Krause wrote:


As much as I hate flying, if I were heading for Tahiti, I'd go there on
a plane, so I could get there and enjoy the islands. Being cooped up on
a cruise ship way offshore for a week is not my idea of fun.

Now, a cruise that hugged the shoreline on the way to Alaska I might
enjoy. Lots to see.

Several cruise lines make weekly departures from Seattle and do 6 day
cruises to AK and back.

The industry is considered a mixed blessing in some of the small towns
in AK. Yes, the folks from Hoboken and Omaha bring a lot of welcome
cash with them- but a lot of the shops that are set up nearest the
cruise ship docks are owned and operated by.....guess who....the cruise
ship companies. The money that gets brought to town by the ship's
passengers leaves town the same night in the purser's safe. At best,
the industry creates a few seasonal, mini-wage jobs for retail clerks
and benefits those businesses just beyond the cruise ship's "inner
circle" capable of competing with the cruise company's business model
or offering something truly unique. (Some of the cruise ship company's
"native craftwork" is made in China. I guess that if you live in China,
you're a native-- of China.)

Some of these "cruise ships" are about 20 stories tall. They look out
of scale moored in Elliott Bay in front of the Seattle Skyline, so of
course they tower over every shoreside structure and literally blot out
the sun at some of the smaller towns up in SE AK. When the cruise ship
hits town, the population literally doubles or triples for a day.

One of the biggest challenges has been pollution from these gargantuan
monsters. They have holding tanks the size of Olympic swimming pools
and when you dump a million gallons of raw sewage it really doesn't
matter if you're 3.1 miles from shore, or not.

All in all, however, the Inside Passage to AK is stunningly beautiful
and a cruise ship makes as much sense for most people as trying to
charter a boat. Probably less expensive, and if one isn't used to some
of the "isms" of our regional waters there would need to be a lot of
time spent every day with the Coast Pilot orother resource and
extensive chart work to make a safe passage.