Tourists donned raincoats and ponchos yesterday as they disembarked Juneau’s final cruise ship of the season. The Norwegian Encore berthed at the Alaska Steamship Dock in the afternoon and departed late that evening.
Wesley Kinney, dock representative with Alaska Travel Adventures, said he’s already looking forward to the down season. After a summer spent working on the docks and organizing tours, he’ll spend the off-season cleaning kayaks and servicing buses in the warehouse.
On peak days in the summer, the docks accept five ships and up to 21,000 people. Final counts for this latest cruise season have not yet been released, but summer 2024 saw about 1.68 million passengers and 1.64 million the year before, according to the City and Borough of Juneau tourism data.
Kinney said he likes working the docks, “helping people experience Juneau,” but he’s looking forward to his other role, especially given the wetter weather.
“For us locals it’s fine, but tourists, all they do is complain, they complain about this rain,” Kinney said.
Tourists Rosona Taranta and Harlan Griffin intentionally booked the very last cruise arrival of the season. Hailing from the Sierra Nevadas in California, they wanted to experience October in Southeast Alaska.
“We were looking for colder, rainier, hopefully snowier weather,” Taranta said. “We’ve been married almost 43 years, and this trip has been 43 years in the planning.”
Discussions of the end of the tourist season come amid years-long debate about the cruise industry and its impact on Juneau.
Activists gathered the signatures needed to put “Ship-Free Saturday” on last fall’s ballot, arguing for a once-a-week reprieve from the current of tourists. Voters rejected the measure.
Meanwhile, the City and Borough of Juneau signed voluntary, nonbinding agreements with Cruise Lines International Association to cap ship traffic. A five-ship daily limit is already in effect, and starting in 2026, there will be a daily cap of 16,000 cruise passengers, with a 12,000 limit on Saturdays.
According to the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska calendar, the first ship of the 2026 is set to arrive on April 27.
Tour stalls line up along Alaska Steamship Dock on Tuesday for passengers of the season’s final cruise ship. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)
