–– from KOMO News —
The biggest cruise ship ever to be homeported on the West Coast has docked in downtown Seattle.
The Norwegian Bliss – more than 20 stories high – will be christened Wednesday in the Emerald City, just days before it kicks off a season of cruises to Alaska.
The massive vessel is Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest and largest ship, with a capacity of about 4,000 passengers. The ship’s seven-day cruises to Alaska begin next month and will include port calls in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, British Columbia.
The ship’s features include a race course for electric go-karts, laser tag, a waterslide with a tube that swooshes you along the side of the ship and an observation lounge for enjoying Alaskan scenery.
It’s also got a mojito bar, cigar lounge, brew house, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville At Sea and Q Smokehouse, a Texas barbecue restaurant.
Because it was built to run out of Seattle, there is also an on-board Starbucks – and a brewery and wine bar with local booze. Each time the mammoth ship pulls into Seattle, it will inject an estimated $3 million into the local economy, port officials say.
But the Norwegian Bliss isn’t the only mega-ship to make port calls in Seattle
Royal Caribbean is bringing an even bigger ship to town. The Ovation of the Seas is complete with a built-in crane for sightseeing , iFly skydiving and countless other features onboard.
If you would stand the Ovation up, it’s twice as tall as the Space Needle and carries nearly 5,000 people.
Read More: komonews.com/news/local/norwegian-cruise-lines-biggest-ship-arrives-in-seattle
Why these folks aren’t just going to Vegas instead is a puzzle to me. The numbers will overrun every small town visited.
Industrial tourism at its worse! This is totally offensive to me.
Things like this will RUIN any rural small environment. Tourists = death to small communities because they all want to move there then change everything to be what they just left thereby ruining the character of that area. I’ve seen it happen multiple times.
And it is happening to our island now. Tourists rule and locals beware. I cannot think of anything more horrible than being stuck on a ship with 4000 people onboard. Luckily it won
It is happenong to our own Eastsound. Luckily this ship cannot dock there. Remember tourists rule and locals beware. Our money is not as important.
That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen afloat, except for a human turd floating from a cities waste system in the old days. PEG manning, you are right. If they need all of the amusements its time to go to Las Vegas.
Can we do anything to stop it???? They won’t need to dock here, they will transport the tourists from the giant ship via huge inflatables into Eastsound/Obstruction/Doe Bay and anywhere else they want to go. Is this our HOME or not?
Merry–they won’t be stopping here in any event–their itineraries are based on the distances they can travel, etc. This is an Alaska cruise and at most they may someday visit Victoria.