The 2018 cruise season comes to an end, celebrating 20 years of cruise in Seattle
Twenty years ago, cruise was a novelty in Seattle. Today it makes up a half billion dollar industry. The inaugural cruise season brought 6,615 passengers to town with six vessels calling in port. In 2018, 216 vessel calls and 1,100,600 estimated revenue passengers were projected at the Port of Seattle cruise terminals.
The last cruise ship of the 2018 season will depart from Terminal 91 in Seattle on October 10 on a one-week voyage to Alaska. This season brought the first of the new megaships to Seattle, the Norwegian Bliss with 4,000 passengers. She’s the largest cruise ship on the West Coast, is custom-built for Alaska cruising, and recently became the largest passenger vessel to transit the Panama Canal.
Next year brings the arrival of the Bliss’s sister ship to Seattle, the Joy, in April of 2019. She will join the Bliss in offering seven-day cruises to Alaska.
Every season, the cruise industry provides more than 4,000 local jobs and $501 million to the local economy. The cruise industry generates $18.9 million annually in state and local tax revenues.
