This extended run thought is nice, but I do not believe it is going to happen. I live in the Caribbean and we get many cruise ships through here a month. They come into port in the morning and leave evenings.

The passengers do excursions, most of them quite short and then they get back on the ship and sail to the next port, where the cycle is repeated. That is how they make their money.

To do what is proposed here, luggage would have to come off another ship would have to pick them up and they are not going to make money doing that.

Well.. you never know. The cruise lines do try to sell extended packages to the international visitors that involve the Rocky Mountaineer or the Alaska Railroad. Long term we could see all sorts of things. Only time will tell.

I have attached a copy of our trip story to Alaska. There are a number of pictures of the WP&Y, including the steam engine.

Don't forget that the Alaska Marine Highway also regularly serves Skagway. One of my trips to Skagway involved taking via to Prince Rupert, then one way on the Alaska Marine Highway to Skagway. The WP&Y offered a one-way option to the end of the line with a bus connection continuing on the Whitehorse. After spending some time in Whitehorse, I continued on to Anchorage on an airline called Air North. At the time (early 1990's) it was on a DC3. So while going to Whitehorse (and beyond) on a cruise line might be problematic, offering such an option to Alaska Ferry passengers might be attractive.

Several of the cruise ship firms operate trips from Skagway through Whitehorse and then to Alaska, either direct or through Dawson City. To do this, they own some of the hotels along the route. This used to be heavily promoted, but about five years ago many cut back on this option. Some of the route was even replaced by air service.

The Dawson City route is always fun as the road west from Dawson City almost all the way to Tok is dirt, and the big tour buses just seem to be out of their natural element. I've driven it with my 4-wheel pickup, and it was a challenge in a few places.

The latest data that I have is about 85% (that is actually down from 90% or more a decade ago) of the tourist to Alaska come on a cruise. The ship tour companies already own a large number of the businesses, such as the hotels, jewelry and souvenir stores, bus lines, etc. They show up in spring and unload much of the merchandise, equipment, and even employees on the first boat. The reverse happens in the fall. Much of the equipment heads to the Caribbean or western Pacific where the cruise ships run routes through the winter.

The folks on the Alaska Marine Highway are often regulars, workers, or folks who have been there before and want a more customized trip. A large percentage have a vehicle. I've ridden from Bellingham and Prince Rupert, and with and without my truck, often meeting people along the route. The Alaska ferries even run Juneau to Whittier where you can connect directly with the Alaska Railroad.

Looking at the purchase of the WP&Y, it looks like just another attempt to control the entire tour. Already, the WP&Y runs about 10-12 trains a day for the cruise ships during the summer, about 5 in the am, 5 after lunch, and a couple late afternoon. The vast majority are to the border and back for a three hour cruise, er...train ride.

If you really want to have fun, stay in Skagway a few days and watch the big ships arrive at sunrise, tens of thousands of people hit the town about 9am, the rush for the onboard dinner buffet about 4-5pm, and the town empty and the ships sail off about 7pm. After that, the town is quiet and all yours. The same thing happens at Ketchikan and Juneau, other major cruise ship stops.

Bart

The same type thing also happens on Mackinaw Island which is only reachable by boat or plane.

Once the ferries make their last run of the day, the nature of the place changes.

Of course the Grand Hotel is railroad related because it was built circa 1886 by a partnership between the GRI, MC and a steamship company.

Bob H

An unrelated side note:

Ketchikan (permanent population 8,900 or so) is also the location where the famed "Bridge to Nowhere" was supposed to be constructed to Gravina Island (population 50, more or less), at an estimated cost of $390 million, to replace a ferry. The proposed bridge became the starring example of "pork-barrel" earmarks in Federal budgets, highlighted repeatedly as "wasteful spending," and served to help kill the Congressional practice.

Deliberately and conveniently left out of virtually every article about the proposed bridge: 1) Ketchikan's major, but largely unknown outside of Alaska, as a cruise port; 2) the 1,000-foot channel it would have spanned served not only cruise ships, but multiple long-distance ferry services; 3) Gravina Island is also the location of Ketchikan International Airport, serving not only the cruise ship industry but freight service to the southern tip of Alaska.