Icy Strait Point will welcome two new cruise ships during Alaska’s 2014 summer season.
Celebrity Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line will each send an additional ship to call on Icy Strait Point, the Celebrity Solstice and the Norwegian Pearl respectively.
The Celebrity Century and Millennium ships and the Norwegian Sun already visit the Alaska Native cruise ship destination regularly.
In total Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and Holland America Line will make 73 ship calls on Icy Strait Point between May and September 2014.
“We’re only 10 years old. It’s rewarding to see a growing demand for the experiences we offer to travelers,” said Johan Dybdahl, Icy Strait Point director of special projects and community relations. Dybdahl grew up in Hoonah, Alaska’s largest Tlingit village, on the site where Icy Strait Point now stands and has been involved in its development and operation from the beginning.
Approximately 130,000 travelers are arriving this summer — double the volume of Icy Strait Point’s first season in 2004. More than a million cruise guests have visited since 2004.
Approximately 70,000 of those travelers have taken a ride on one of the destination’s most popular excursions — the ZipRider zip line, which opened in May 2007.
The world’s highest and largest zip line, the ZipRider features six side-by-side cables that release six guests simultaneously for a thrill ride, dropping 1,300 feet from the top of a mountain to the shore below at Icy Strait Point. Guests travel nearly 5,330 feet, reaching speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.
