Despite protests from a local activist, the construction of a fifth cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau, Alaska has been cleared to move forward. The legality of the dock has been settled, but the project may still face challenges as it progresses.

The challenge, filed by Juneau resident Karla Hart in 2023, was based on public health and safety as well as whether the proposed new dock plan was acceptable with the city’s downtown waterfront development plans.

According to KTOO, Hart acknowledges that she wasn’t sure what the outcome would be when she filed the appeal challenging the plans for the dock, but now she does not plan on repeating her challenge.

“I don’t know what I expected when I originally filed it I just felt as if we didn’t have a fair public process in the very beginning and I think we need one,” Hart said. “I think that it’s good that now we move on with the real community discussion on whether we have a dock or not.”

Hart has long been active in attempting to slow cruise ship tourism in Juneau, and she will undoubtedly stay updated as the plan progresses.

The new floating steel dock is proposed by Huna Totem, an Alaska Native village corporation. Huna Totem has worked with cruise lines in several ways, including the development of the popular port of call at Icy Strait Point.

Development of the new dock along the Gastineau Channel in downtown Juneau would include underground bus and car parking at the site as well as retail space, restaurants, a welcome center, an extension of the Totem Pole Trail, and open park, and more.

Priority will be given to local Alaskan businesses to further economic development, and the project has been named Aak’w Landing in honor of native tribes.

While this most recent challenge has been surpassed, local leases must still be approved and other steps completed before work can officially begin on the project, which has not yet broken ground.

Residents of Juneau have been protesting the expansion of cruise tourism in Juneau in different ways. In early July, a petition was submitted to create “ship-free Saturdays” for the city, which is an additional limit from the current passenger restrictions of 16,000 cruise guests per day and just 12,000 on Saturdays.

Cruise Traffic Growing in Juneau

Annually, the capital of the Last Frontier welcomes more than 1.5 million cruise passengers, which makes Juneau the ninth-busiest passenger cruise port in the US. Despite the limited Alaska sailing season, Juneau sees more guests than Tampa, Los Angeles, Seattle, and several other US homeports.

To support the growth of the cruise industry in Juneau, Aak’w Landing is scheduled to be completed in multiple phases. By the 2026 sailing season, the critical infrastructure – the dock, underground parking, the welcome center, and initial retail space – should be completed and ready to welcome its first vessels.

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Additional retail space and the upper-level plaza is expected to be complete by the time ships begin arriving in 2027, while the Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Cultural Learning Center will be finished in phase three, which does not yet have a definitive debut date.

The sailing season in Juneau begins annually in late April and extends through the end of October. The city is a popular destination for cruise ships of different sizes, including vessels from Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Silversea, Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, and more.

The Scottish Port of Aberdeen celebrated a major milestone when it welcomed the largest ship ever to call at the remote destination in its 888-year history, the 3,800-guest Costa Favolosa.

The port, previously called Aberdeen Harbour, was created in 1136 by King David I of Scotland. The facility is even in the Guinness Book of Business Records as the oldest existing business in Great Britain.

The Costa Cruises ship, at 951 feet long (290 meters) called at the port’s year-old South Harbour, which can accommodate ships up to 985 feet long, enhancing Aberdeen’s appeal to cruise lines operating large vessels.

Before South Harbour opened in spring 2023, Aberdeen’s existing North Harbour facility could accommodate ships up to just 558 feet long.

The 113,216-gross ton ship visited the port on July 26, 2024 as one of the 60 cruise ship calls Aberdeen will enjoy during the current season, which runs from May to October. The number represents a 150% increase from calls in 2022.

Costa Favolosa’s guests received a warm welcome from the local population, including performances by the Robert Gordon College Pipe Band and the Alba Bagpipes, along with VisitAberdeenshire’s “Welcome to Aberdeenshire” volunteers, who greeted the cruise arrivals.

“Her arrival is testament to the hard work of many – the port team who delivered the transformational South Harbour, which enables us to welcome ships of this stature, our marine and operational teams, and all our CruiseAberdeenshire partners who have been focused on raising the profile of our amazing region and all it has to offer,” said Marlene Mitchell, Commercial Manager at Port of Aberdeen.

Other tourism officials were on hand to mark the arrival of the mega-ship, and to tout the port’s prospects for continued growth after receiving record cruise calls in 2023 and 2024.

“It’s thrilling to see Port of Aberdeen welcome Costa Favolosa, the largest cruise ship ever to call. The Port’s development of South Harbour is playing a key role in bringing more ships and more planned tourism benefit to the city and to Aberdeenshire as a whole,” said Ian McQuade, chairman of Cruise Britain.

The Port of Aberdeen, located at the mouth of the River Dee with easy access to the North Sea, issued a cruise status report in February 2024 that predicted more than 100 cruise ships will call at the destination by 2027. 

Such an increase in calls would mean a major financial windfall for the region since each port call represents £134 ($170) in local spending per cruise guest. That translates into £4.5 million ($5.7 million) for 2024 and would exceed £20 million ($25 million) in 2027, the report indicated.

Other cruise ships that made maiden calls to Aberdeen in July 2024 included Ambassador Cruises’ 1,400-guest Ambience and AIDA Cruises’ 2,000-guest AIDAsol.

Cruise guests arriving in Aberdeen can take advantage of shore excursions that visit key landmarks and focus on local culture. Sightseeing tours features Dunnattar Castle and Castle Fraser, plus Old Town Aberdeen. Walking tours and other activities are offered.

Costa Favolosa Sailing Northern Europe Until September

Costa Favolosa, which entered service in 2010, was at the tail-end of a 22-day Northern Europe cruise sailing roundtrip from Hamburg when she called at Aberdeen. The voyage had already called at four destinations in Iceland, two ports in Greenland, and the Orkney Islands before visiting Aberdeen. 

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The ship’s final call following Aberdeen was to Leith-Edinburgh before the cruise returned to Hamburg, where the ship will be based until mid-September.

On September 26, 2024, the ship sails a 12-day cruise to Savona, Italy, and begins a series of 2- to 12-day Mediterranean voyages sailing between Savona, Barcelona, and Marseille through mid-November. 

Several longer voyages are planned from the Mediterranean ports to South America, and starting in early December 2024, the ship will offer 3- to 8-day sailings between Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Montevideo, Uruguay, through March 2025. Costa Favolosa will return to the Mediterranean for summer 2025.