Cruise industry seeing summer boom with pandemic restrictions lifted

The cruise industry is seeing a spike in demand as more people are looking to spend their vacations on the water this year. 

 This is the first full summer without travel restrictions since the pandemic and cruiser goers are excited to get back to their wanderlust. 

“We always need to travel,” said cruise passenger Angela O’Daniel. “It connects us to other people and other places.” 

One “Holland America” cruise ship heading to Alaska from Seattle has more than 2,000 people on board. 

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“I really wanted to see whales on my 40th birthday,” said cruise passenger Lisa Bujak. “And the easiest way to do that is an Alaskan cruise guaranteed to see whales. So that’s why we chose it.” 

“Holland America” is just one of several cruise lines seeing more people come on board this summer. 

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“Guests have booked earlier than we’ve ever seen before,” said Holland America’s Senior Vice President of Revenue Management Beth Bodensteiner. “Ships are full throughout the summer at this point. And guests are booking into 2024.”

The Cruise Line International Association expects 31.5 million people to cruise this year. That would surpass the nearly 30 million people who cruised in 2019, the last normal year before the pandemic. 

“This summer has been fantastic,” Bodensteiner said. “I think better than we anticipated. It’s been really great to see cruising back to where it was pre-Covid.” 

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“Holland America has seen more people cruising because of what it costs to fly. According to Hopper, a domestic round trip ticket costs $306 on average and a round trip to Europe costs an average of $1,167.

“We do see a lot of people coming to the Seattle or Vancouver home ports that are within the drive market and can avoid that high airfare that we’re seeing this summer,” Bodensteiner said.

Some cruise passengers took into account how expensive it is to fly when planning their cruise.  

Bujak said, “It was just, as long as you make it here, everything else is taken care of.”

Cruise ships could have even more passengers in the coming years. The Cruise Line International Association is predicting 36 million people to cruise in 2024 and more than 37 million people to cruise in 2025.