Press "Enter" to skip to content

Ship shape: First cruise ship passengers of the year greeted with fewer snags organizing tours – but a few during them

0 0
Read Time:2 Minute, 48 Second

A year ago the first cruise passengers in Longyearbyen were a couple merely planning to walk into town to discover possible activities. This year the first passengers were a couple expressing anxiety about being among the relative few taking that approach.

“We’re looking for a trip,” the woman said while walking hurriedly through the parking lot. “We’re not sure we’ll get something because we didn’t book anything on the ship.”

cruisewaterguns
Tour guides carrying bottles of water and rifles prepare to depart with a busload of passengers from the first cruise ship of the season for a day hike Wednesday morning. Photo by Mark Sabbatini / Icepeople.

The difference is intentional as local tour operators are building on an effort initiated last year to improve coordination of activities with cruise lines. While many hundreds of passengers clustered the streets between the dock and Longyearbyen immediately upon arrival last year, this year nearly all of the visitors disembarking from the 2,100-passsenger AIDAluna did so in clustered groups that immediately boarded buses, tour vans and wheeled dogsleds.

“It’s a cross network so now the people know what they are going to do when they get into Longyearbyen,” said Thomas Nilsen, office manager of Arctic Autorent, immediately after ending a phone call telling a visitor no vehicles were spontaneously available.

Tourism officials have said better coordination is needed as Longyearbyen seeks an increase in visitors to help replace lost coal mining jobs. That applies in particular to high-volume days where upwards of 5,000 people may visit during the day, stretching the capacity of tour operators, museums, shops and eateries to their limits. Among the goals is offering tours that conclude in the center of town, allowing visitors to go shopping or independently explore afterward.

Marco and Caroline Carogiehl, left, take a selfie against a backdrop of fellow cruise ship passengers departing on a wheeled dogsledding trip Wednesday morning at Longyearbyen Harbor. Photo by Mark Sabbatini / Icepeople.

Still, this being Svalbard, some passengers who didn’t book tours got at least as much amusement out of watching those who did. Two wheeled dogsleds at the dock, for example, attracted plenty of onlookers who watched both dog teams get comically snarled within meters of starting out.

“I like the dogs, but I don’t think they’re so happy,” said Caroline Carogiehl, a resident of Tirol, Austria, visiting with her husband Marco.

The couple said their initial plans consisted of “walking to the village and looking,” although they also hoped to see more than just civilization.

“I would like it if we could go hiking around, but I don’t know if we can do so on our own,” she said.

As is tradition, a group of locals – about two dozen this year – gathered starting at about 730 a.m. on the ridge across from the harbor to wave flags and greet the first ship to arrive. Those aboard the ship with a strong pair of binoculars might have been able to spot an only-in-Svalbard touch among the welcoming party since Ronny Brunvoll, head of the local tourism bureau, was responsible for standing polar bear guard duty with a rifle. However, all of the locals departed before the first passenger actually disembarked at about 8:20 a.m.

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%