PORT ANGELES — The city’s population could briefly swell by more than 1,000 people Saturday afternoon and evening when the mammoth ms Statendam cruise ship docks for 10 hours at the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1.
As of Tuesday, 708 passengers, with a crew of 580, were booked for the trip, Holland America Line spokesman Erik Elvejord said in an email.
The stopover on the North Olympic Peninsula is part of a Fort Lauderdale-Vancouver, B.C.-Panama Canal trip with an option to debark in San Diego, he said.
The Statendam will leave San Diego on Wednesday and will be at sea Thursday and Friday before entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Friday, Erin Hoover, a spokeswoman for Holland America Line, said Monday.
The vessel will dock from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.
Unlike other years, the cruise ship will not visit Port Townsend.
Instead, it will set sail Saturday night for Canada, arriving at Vancouver, B.C., at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Elvejord noted that Holland America has visited Port Townsend in the past.
“We try to offer different ports each year to keep things fresh and different,” he said.
The Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce is organizing a welcome for the Statendam and is still looking for volunteers for the late afternoon hours to answer visitors’ questions, chamber Executive Director Russ Veenema said Monday.
Contact Veenema at russ@portangeles.org.
The chamber’s red-jacketed Ambassadors will greet the ship.
The chamber also will set up three tables with brochures on Port Angeles and Olympic National Park, and will be selling downtown shuttle tickets for $5.
“We’re going to give them shuttle tickets and try to give them a nice, warm welcome,” Veenema said.
The shuttle will conduct round trips of the downtown area from First Street near the pier to the Laurel Street fountain to Lincoln Street and will stop by the chamber-run visitor center on Railroad Avenue, where cruise ship passengers can walk along the waterfront or visit the Feiro Marine Life Center, Veenema said.
Holland America also is offering its passengers trips that will cost adults $95 to go to Hurricane Ridge, $100 to visit Lake Crescent and Madison Falls, and $105 to go wine-tasting at Olympic Cellars Winery, Camaraderie Cellars and Harbinger Winery, according to a trip itinerary.
This will be the second consecutive year the Statendam will tie up in Port Angeles.
Veenema said cruise ship visits to the city have a noticeable economic impact.
“Every time a ship comes in, the feedback that we receive from the merchants downtown has always been very, very positive,” he said.
“When you get essentially 800 to 1,000 people who are dropped on a few blocks of downtown, they are going to spend some money.”
Port Marine Terminal Manager Mike Nimmo said Monday the port will make $9,369 in dockage fees from the Statendam’s visit, along with a $243.50 security fee for each eight-hour shift and an $8.53-per-passenger transit fee that will total $6,039 if all 708 passengers come to Port Angeles.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
