In light of the City of Homer’s consideration of whether or not to implement policies on cruise ship landings and conduct in Homer, the June 28 arrival of the MS Westerdam provided key data to Homer commissions and organizations as to how the city might handle ships larger than those traditionally handled in the past.

The Westerdam, with nearly 2,000 passengers and 800 crew members and coming in at 936 feet in length and 82,348 displacement tons, was the largest cruise ship scheduled to stop in Homer this year. Too big to dock at the harbor’s Deep Water Dock, the ship instead anchored out in Kachemak Bay and lightered passengers into the harbor on smaller lifeboats. Passengers were dropped off at either Ramp 8 to meet their tour buses, if they were scheduled to go on a day excursion, or at Ramp 3 if they planned on simply walking around and shopping on the Spit.

The Westerdam’s arrival, however, was only possible because the large vessel fishing fleet was absent from the harbor on June 28. Three other cruise ships of similar size were turned away by Homer Port and Harbor earlier this year because there was not enough room in the harbor to allow them to come in.

Following the Westerdam’s departure, those who were directly involved with facilitating the day — including Port and Harbor staff, Port and Harbor advisory commissioners, economic development commissioners and staff from the Homer Chamber of Commerce — held a debriefing meeting.

Overall, the Westerdam’s landing and facilitation of visiting passengers was deemed largely a success.

“From our standpoint, it’s very impressive to see all the logistical work that Port and Harbor staff and Homer Tours staff did to put together a way to move that amount of people off the ship, that weren’t able to use the dock,” chamber executive director Brad Anderson said on July 2. “They had to come in in a different way than we’ve ever had to work with in the past.”

Anderson said that chamber staff and volunteers had a “blast” welcoming the Westerdam passengers into Homer.

“They just thoroughly enjoyed their visit here,” he said. “And talking to a number of businesses, they definitely saw an uptick in business opportunities for them. It ended up being a good day.”

Jan Knutson, chamber visitor center director, said that based on feedback gathered by chamber volunteer hosts, passengers were “very pleased about how welcoming Homer was” and “very impressed about how well this was organized and how smoothly it ran.”

Anderson did note the challenges brought on by the arrival of such a large cruise ship.

“The challenge of this size of ship not fitting into our normal dock situation — it does put a lot of extra stress on our infrastructure and abilities to make it work,” he said. “But we just couldn’t compliment the harbor office enough for the great job they did in coordinating everything.”

Homer Port Director Brian Hawkins told Homer News on July 3 that this success was due to the “max effort” on the part of all those who worked to make the day run smoothly.

“There was a tremendous effort from the chamber to make sure there were people out to direct and keep passengers moving and answer questions,” he said. “We appreciate the extra effort to facilitate this landing, and we do recognize it took a lot of extra people.”

Hawkins also noted that part of his reason for calling it a success was that no incidents or accidents occurred on June 28.

“There were two EMS callouts when the ship arrived; they came in with two people that needed transportation to the hospital. But that occurred on the ship, not on shore,” he said. “That’s not uncommon with a ship that size and that age class of people.”

From the total number of passengers aboard the Westerdam, approximately only 750 disembarked from the ship, according to Knutson. A “very large percentage” of the ship’s passengers were over 70 years of age, meaning that while some who disembarked did need accommodation which was provided for them, there were many who chose not to or were unable to disembark at all.

In a normal landing at the Deep Water Dock facility, Hawkins said, the ship comes to the dock, the gangway goes up, passengers disembark and meet their buses in the level, paved parking lot where there are also restrooms and shelters for them to utilize if needed.

“It’s designed to facilitate that kind of activity, along with normal freight,” he said. “That works very well; we’ve done 2,000-passenger ships in the past (that way) — that was a normal business day.”

When lightering passengers from the ship to the harbor, Hawkins said that they have to get special permission from the Coast Guard because the Homer Port and Harbor’s facility security plan needs to be amended and extra security people hired to allow for that kind of activity in the locations where the passengers were lightered to.

“It’s not the same experience at all,” he said. “It only worked because of the time of year — the larger vessels were at sea, so we had some space down in the harbor to do this. Earlier in the year, absolutely not — we had no dock space available.”

Hawkins said he would “not recommend (this) in the future.”

The Pratt Museum was one of the stops for the scheduled day excursions passengers were bused to. Executive Director Patty Relay said the museum had “an excellent experience.”

“I wholeheartedly support responsible cruise ship activity in Homer,” Relay said. “People are eager to be part of the Alaska experience, and it’s good for the economy.”

Relay, who came to Homer from Valdez, noted that Valdez “grew the cruise ship market there responsibly.”

“I am not saying we should be Juneau and oversaturate the market with 1.6 million visitors. But I think responsible cruise ship growth is good for the economy. Travel and tourism is really important; it’s an investment in the future. (Alaska is) one of the top destinations in the national market,” she said.

The Pratt Museum partnered with Homer Tours, Inc., owned by Homer City Council member Shelly Erickson, who facilitated the tour buses and excursions.

“(Shelly’s) company brought six tour buses to the museum, and we charge a bulk rate for that,” Relay said. “It keeps the museum doors open, but it’s also really a joy to see the smiles on people’s faces.

“It’s just a win-win,” she said. “It’s a win for the cruisers, and it’s a win for local businesses.”

Erickson agreed that Homer did a “wonderful job welcoming the guests,” and the passengers were “very happy” with their stop. She did note, however, some disappointment from visitors who had been to Homer on previous cruise ship stops.

“The people who had been here before, when they were on a ship that came to the dock, were disappointed because the things that they had been able to do from the dock, they weren’t able to do,” she said. “But that was really the only criticism we got.”

Erickson attributed this criticism to a combination of changes that have occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic, and to the Westerdam being required to anchor out in the bay and lighter passengers in.

“We have physical limitations that, when Holland (America) sold their ships, keeps them from coming to the dock to allow them all to have the full experience that they were used to,” she said.

Looking forward to the city’s continued efforts to examine the need for cruise ship policies and what those might look like, Erickson said that the experience on June 28 “solidified what we can and cannot do well.”

“It solidified where our infrastructure keeps us from being able to deal with much larger amounts of people,” she said. “It showed where the weaknesses are in our system and infrastructure. That’s not a bad thing — it’s actually really healthy to critically look at what we physically can do versus what we can’t do. We need to know what we can do, where we can do a really good job safely and efficiently.”

The Port and Harbor Advisory Commission will submit comments on their findings with regard to cruise ship policies to the city council at the council’s regular meeting on July 22.

The Economic Development Commission is currently scheduled to report back to the council in September.

The next cruise ship to arrive will be the Hanseatic Spirit on Thursday, July 11 at 6 a.m. The ship will remain in Homer overnight and depart on Friday, July 12 at 9 p.m.

Passengers on the MS Westerdam disembark tour buses at Ramp 8 in the Homer Harbor before boarding the lifeboat that will take them back to the cruise ship on Friday, June 28, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)

Passengers on the MS Westerdam wait in line to Ramp 8 in order to board the lifeboat that will take them back to the cruise ship on Friday, June 28, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)