They’ll be back: This year’s inaugural American Cruise Line visits to the North Olympic Peninsula were so popular that more stops have been scheduled for spring and fall 2014, said Don Johnson, West Coast operations manager for the cruise line.
“All the Puget Sound trips have been very popular,” he said.
According to the cruise line’s website, 22 trips on the eight-day Puget Sound tour, which includes stops in Port Angeles and Port Townsend, have been scheduled.
Ten were scheduled this year.
“A few people have booked Puget Sound for next year already,” Johnson said.
The cruises, beginning and ending in Seattle, also stop in Anacortes, Friday Harbor and Poulsbo.
Weekly tours have been added for the entire month of April through to the first week in June and from the first two weeks in August through to the first week of November, according to the cruise line website.
The 102-foot cruise vessel American Spirit, which Johnson captains, stopped in Port Angeles and Port Townsend weekly in May and September, and for the first two weeks of October.
Johnson said the fall visits were the most popular and averaged between 70 and 80 passengers each, almost filling the 98-passenger-capacity cruise ship by the end of its 2013 runs.
“The whole season was very good for us,” Johnson said.
“The people really liked these trips.”
At the Port Angeles City Council meeting last week, Councilman Patrick Downie said he and Russ Veenema, executive director of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, had estimated that the cruise passengers had roughly $96,000 worth of impact on the Port Angeles community.
“I frankly think that’s quite significant,” Downie said.
Veenema said Friday that the amount was calculated by adding the money taken in by the various tours offered in Port Angeles to the moorage fees the city was paid for the vessel to dock at City Pier.
Veenema said he also tried to estimate how much cruise passengers spent on downtown businesses, though he said this number was more difficult to pin down.
“We used about $45 per person [per visit], roughly,” he said.
“We know they were impacting the downtown.”
Overall, Veenema said, he heard positive feedback from owners of local businesses, such as Willie Nelson’s All Points Charters & Tours, which hosted such trips as a tour of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.
“They all just loved it,” Veenema said.
He added that he has not yet spoken with representatives from the cruise line about what changes, if any, could be made to the tours and other activities that will be planned for passengers in Port Angeles.
“What they asked last year was for us to cut back so there were more people on each tour as opposed to a few people on a lot of tours,” Veenema said.
In addition to Hurricane Ridge, Port Angeles organizers offered tours of Lake Crescent and the historic underground of the city.
“I’m very pleased that Port Angeles is starting to get on the radar of cruise lines, whether they be big or small,” Veenema said.
Christina Pivarnik, marketing director for the city of Port Townsend, said she and other organizers have not determined a dollar figure for impact on the city, though she knows the passengers made the most of the downtown shops.
“I know they did quite a lot of shopping,” Pivarnik said.
“All in all, I think it was very, very successful and a really positive experience for the whole community.”
Pivarnik said she heard that passengers enjoyed the activities lined up for them in Port Townsend, which included tours of Fort Worden State Park and the Northwest Maritime Center.
“We worked very hard to make sure that everyone felt really welcomed,” Pivarnik said.
“I know that everyone just opened their arms enthusiastically to the group.”
Looking toward next year, Pivarnik said she’ll likely start talking with the cruise line in January to see whether any changes are need to the Port Townsend activities.
“I would think it would just be minor tweaks, but I don’t yet know what those are,” Pivarnik said.
The American Cruise Line Puget Sound tours cost between $3,750 and $4,985.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
