Check Cruise Ship Schedules
Check the number of cruse ships scheduled to visit a port town before planning a visit in order to avoid the thousands of t-shirt buying masses of people. Just do an internet search on "Cruise Ships i...
Forum Discussion
thanks fanrgs, for the info on the Garden City CG. That has been a problem with several of the campgrounds in Alaska, that are built on leased government land. Sea Otter in Valdez, was a favorite of ours till their lease expired and the city wouldn't renew it. (a bit of politics got involved I hear)
So in town, that will leave Mountain View, not too desirable looking, the last time I walked by it and the one down by the docks, Pullen Creek RV, which is also built on City, Borough or State land, as I am not sure which government entity owns the port facility.
None of the SE towns that don't already have a good deep water dock are likely to build one. Just too expensive, if all the big ships stopping are cruise ships. There are not going to bypass a place, where they want to stop, just because of no deep water dockage available. They will just tender the guests into town on their launches as they do currently at many places.
The only places you tend to find the nice deep water docks are where the commercial cargo ships come into to load and unload. Places where they need to be able to pull a train car up next to or be able to run a heavy fork lift in and out of to move material or conveyer belt load a ship. I know there have been several law suits between the cruise lines and the state of Alaska of the years on docking fees, etc. I have seen the passengers in K Town (as Ketchikan is known by some in Alaska)Sitka and Juneau get taken to shore by launches. The deep water ports, that I am familiar with are at Skagway, Haines (probably built by the US military to support Fort Seward, located there) Whittier( remember the weather is always XXXXier in Whittier), Anchorage, Kodiak and the new facility built to handle the zinc mines north of Kotzebue at the Red Dog deposits, operated by the NANA Native Corp.
When I was living in Nome in the early 60s, the summer freight and fuel came in on a government ship, North Star, owned and/or leased by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to supply the coastal small villages. They had to anchor about 2 miles off shore, in the Bering Sea and then use local small barges to lighter the supplies into the port of Nome. They also had some freight launches to deliver to other places, such as King Island (not far from Nome) and on up the coast. We had to order a year's supply of groceries back then and one year they damaged some of my shipment, so they were quick to get me a claim form, which I filled out and mailed in. I am still waiting to hear from them on the claim, 48 years later. LOL
So the gist of all this verbiage, is check out the cruise schedules of anywhere you may want to spend time and if you find large crowds of excited, funny dressed people, in a great hurry much of the time it seems, then you may want to visit these places on non-ship days such as perhaps weekends and other days of no ships arriving. They are only there for the day and leave in early evening to wander the high seas.
So in town, that will leave Mountain View, not too desirable looking, the last time I walked by it and the one down by the docks, Pullen Creek RV, which is also built on City, Borough or State land, as I am not sure which government entity owns the port facility.
None of the SE towns that don't already have a good deep water dock are likely to build one. Just too expensive, if all the big ships stopping are cruise ships. There are not going to bypass a place, where they want to stop, just because of no deep water dockage available. They will just tender the guests into town on their launches as they do currently at many places.
The only places you tend to find the nice deep water docks are where the commercial cargo ships come into to load and unload. Places where they need to be able to pull a train car up next to or be able to run a heavy fork lift in and out of to move material or conveyer belt load a ship. I know there have been several law suits between the cruise lines and the state of Alaska of the years on docking fees, etc. I have seen the passengers in K Town (as Ketchikan is known by some in Alaska)Sitka and Juneau get taken to shore by launches. The deep water ports, that I am familiar with are at Skagway, Haines (probably built by the US military to support Fort Seward, located there) Whittier( remember the weather is always XXXXier in Whittier), Anchorage, Kodiak and the new facility built to handle the zinc mines north of Kotzebue at the Red Dog deposits, operated by the NANA Native Corp.
When I was living in Nome in the early 60s, the summer freight and fuel came in on a government ship, North Star, owned and/or leased by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to supply the coastal small villages. They had to anchor about 2 miles off shore, in the Bering Sea and then use local small barges to lighter the supplies into the port of Nome. They also had some freight launches to deliver to other places, such as King Island (not far from Nome) and on up the coast. We had to order a year's supply of groceries back then and one year they damaged some of my shipment, so they were quick to get me a claim form, which I filled out and mailed in. I am still waiting to hear from them on the claim, 48 years later. LOL
So the gist of all this verbiage, is check out the cruise schedules of anywhere you may want to spend time and if you find large crowds of excited, funny dressed people, in a great hurry much of the time it seems, then you may want to visit these places on non-ship days such as perhaps weekends and other days of no ships arriving. They are only there for the day and leave in early evening to wander the high seas.
