Cruise line will be a more regular visitor to Bremerton's waterfront in 2023
Just five years after adding Kitsap County to its Puget Sound itinerary, American Cruise Lines will significantly increase its presence on the Bremerton waterfront this spring and summer.
Two ships will make 45 stops combined at the Harborside Marina, starting next Friday, April 14, through mid-November. One, the American Constellation, has been coming to Bremerton since 2018, when it made a one-night stop, and regularly since 2019, other than a year off in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. In 2022 the American Constellation made seven dockings. This spring the vessel is joined by the American Spirit, two of the Connecticut-based tour company's vessels that run trips around Puget Sound for a vacation that's tailored to non-Northwesterners, according to CEO Jim Rothlin from the Port of Bremerton, which announced the expansion.
"Hardly anybody was from the state of Washington," Rothlin said of the visitors American Cruise Lines brings to the region. "They came from outside the state, even outside the country... For the demographic they get, they like the activities we have here, they like things that are unique."
Rothlin pointed to the Navy Museum in downtown Bremerton, Port Orchard's Elandan Gardens, and the USS Turner Joy Naval Destroyer Museum, located just down the boardwalk from where the cruise ships will dock, as the most popular excursions offered on tour itineraries. This year the Port of Bremerton has purchased a golf carts to offer rides to cruise visitors up the hill from the marina into downtown Bremerton, and John Hansen of the Turner Joy said his organization has done the same. Hansen said the ships, which hold from 90 to 180 passengers, have been helpful to museum attendance and at times send as many as 70 visitors to the museum on a single stop and the Turner Joy has catered to the visitors by offering discounts or custom souvenirs.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/cruise-line-will-be-a-more-regular-visitor-to-bremerton-s-waterfront-in-2023/ar-AA19yB37
