Icy Strait Point celebrated its 20th anniversary with guests sailing aboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, as well as 20 employees who have been a part of the Alaska destination since it opened on May 23, 2004, according to a press release.

Huna Totem Corporation, which owns and operates Icy Strait Point, has built partnerships in Alaska and beyond to develop new destinations inspired by the Icy Strait Point model, such as Port Klawock, which opened on May 6, 2024, on Prince of Wales Island.

 “I am so incredibly proud of how far we’ve come, and more importantly, I am very proud of our team and community,” said Russell Dick, president and CEO of Huna Totem Corporation. “We developed Icy Strait Point to honor and share our culture, and we built it true to our mission and values. We respect the land and support our community, and that is crystal clear to any guest we welcome at Icy Strait Point.”

Director of Special Projects Johan Dybdahl said: “We’ve come an incredibly long way since that first day. We worked and worked all through the night to be ready for the first ship call, and the next morning all the employees lined up on the boardwalk to watch the Celebrity Mercury come in. It was incredible. People were whooping and hollering. Others were in tears. And then the ship sailed right past us at the cannery and anchored in front of town instead. Guests had to tender back to us. But people in the community woke up that first day with a gigantic ship right in front of town. There was so much excitement in the air.”