Cruising to Alaska (day 8)

Our ship returned to Seattle early, around 6:00 am. We grabbed a last breakfast, vacated our cabin and began the tedious disembarkation of 4,000 passengers. We were broken into groups and had to wait in one of the public lounges until our luggage tag color was called. 

Overall, we enjoyed the experience, but were disappointed by what we didn’t see when the Captain decided to turn around on day 4 without any good reason or credit! In truth we realized that we didn't get what we came for, namely seeing beautiful Alaska landscapes. We came to the conclusion that these cruises are more hype than picturesque itineraries. 

We felt that cruises are on a mission to separate the guests from their money (excursion and drinks are excessively priced), create an addiction for this form of leisure travel, and inserting all kinds of opportunities to spend more money in their casino, their huge jewelry and watch stores and in their art gallery. 

This amounts to huge sums of money, consider this, while the global cruise industry will be getting close to the 60 billion dollar mark in 2025 : for the full year 2024, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. reported record revenue of $9.48 billion (up 11% from 2023) and a GAAP net income of $910.3 million (up 448% from 2023). 

The company also saw a strong increase in its Adjusted EBITDA, which grew 32% to a record $2.45 billion, and significantly improved its Net Leverage to 5.3 times. Definitely not your favorite charity! All this to say that one experience was fine, but we don’t feel the urge to do it again… 

We then boarded a shuttle to Seattle airport in Tacoma, left 30 minutes late, flew by Mt. Rainier and landed in Salt Lake at the remote Alaska Air concourse where it took us 30 minutes to walk back to the curb and catch a cab home. At long last, we were done with the cruise, its routine, its claustrophobic ambiance and ready and happy to reclaim our home!