In 2001 the Huna Totem Corporation began development of America’s only private cruise ship destination and in 2004, it welcomed its first ship. Icy Strait Point grew steadily each year except for the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, thriving as a cruise port that preserves the character of the local village and Tlingit culture as much as possible.
The painting above includes the two huge cruise ships in port at the time we were there, and our smaller ship, Regatta. from which we needed to tender ashore. Tendering, in the ship’s lifeboats – which were nowhere near as the luxurious as the ship itself ─ was required quite frequently on this cruise because the number of cruise ships plying South-east Alaska often exceeds the docking facilities available. I’ll write more about that in my blog post about Klawock in two weeks.
Map showing the northernmost portion of our cruise
