Cruise West and Royal Caribbean to Pull Ships

It seems Alaska is in trouble with losing its steam as a favorite Cruising region with two major Cruises pulling out their ships to the region in coming days. The Associated Press reported that Royal Caribbean will be pulling its Serenade of the Seas out of the region by 2010. This move will lead to stop of services of two major ships – Rhapsody of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas. The Juneau Empire has reported that such move will amount to a loss of $37 million revenue collected from passengers and cruise line. Small ship line Cruise West further reported that three of its eight ships in cruise line which usually sail in Alaska will not return the coming summer. According to Jerrol Golden of Cruise West the move is modification of deployment to meet the present booking demands and trends, but the line’s Alaska routes are still being offered.

Perhaps the economy is the main culprit of this shrinking demand of cruise lines. But besides the economy there are other issues to that are fueling the loss of cruise lines. According to John Binkley, Alaska Cruise Association President, the controversial head tax that was implemented in 2006 is also one of the reasons for which Royal Caribbean is withdrawing. The new stringent discharge rules too can be responsible for this.