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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2015
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Tourists exit the Norwegian Pearl after it docked along Pier 1 in September.
Cruise ships: Passengers help grow local economy
Continued from Page 1C
Longshoremen fanned out forward and aft of
the vessel, hauling in lines and tying the ves-
sel up. A forklift idled in the middle of the pier,
ready to lift the Port’s gangway into place for
departing passengers. The entire operation took
about 40 minutes, from the ship pulling up to
the dock, to passengers walking off after an in-
spection by U.S. Customs and Border Protec-
tion of¿cers.
Rick Yelton, the Port’s senior patrolman and
facilities security of¿cer, said the 1orwegian
Pearl took eight longshoremen to tie up, while
adding about seven part-time security of¿cers to
his staff for the day. Like 4-H’ers herding live-
stock to auction, they set up a gated pathway
down the dock, around the Port’s Pier of¿c-
es and into a pop-up market of Astoria Sunday
Market vendors.
Welcoming wagon
“They’re kind of part of the welcoming wag-
on,” Cyndi Mudge, director of the market, said
of her 20 or so vendors who set up tents at the
Port, offering homemade trinkets, toiletries,
clothing and other accessories to line up along
the pathway cruisers take to waiting buses and
the Astoria Riverwalk.
For Michael Wentworth, a Clatsop Cruise
Host volunteer and a former cruiser himself, the
market and open feel of Astoria is a refreshing
difference. At some ports, he said, cruisers are
limited to sponsored merchandise peddled at the
ship.
After the market comes what looks like
a quarantine station. A corps of cruise hosts,
mostly retirees, provides tips and directs pas-
sengers to a walk-through Conex hut where they
can buy mass transit passes. About 50 spread
out between Pier 1 and downtown last week to
provide cruisers direction and tips.
“A lot of the ports in the Caribbean are not this
organized,” said John Craddock, who was on a
cruise with his wife, Sandy, from Victoria, British
Columbia. “You have to ¿nd your own way.”
Conner said the individual attention is part of
why Astoria gets such a high satisfaction rating
with cruise lines.
Sunset Empire Transit District plays a ma-
jor role, Conner said, organizing shuttles to
downtown and places like the Astoria Column.
He said there is even a special route set up to
take the ships’ crews to Costco to shop without
paying a sales tax. The crew on the 1orwegian
Pearl includes about 60 nationalities, many hop-
ing to send items home to their families.
“I would dare say there’s no other entity in
Clatsop County that purchases more from Cost-
co than the cruise ship crew,” Conner said, de-
scribing the parade of everything from candy to
Àatscreen TVs crew members carry back onto
the ship before leaving. Costco, he added, even
donates to the cruise hosts for helping coordi-
nate the route.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Line crews aboard the Norwegian Pearl prepare to lower ropes to tie the cruise ship in as it approaches the docks along Pier 1 in
Astoria in September.
‘I would dare say there’s no other entity in
Clatsop County that purchases more from
Costco than the cruise ship crew.’
Bruce Conner
owner of Sundial Travel and Cruise Center, describing the parade of everything from candy to flatscreen
TVs crew members carry back onto the ship before leaving. Costco, he added, even donates to the cruise
hosts for helping coordinate the route.’
For Ruxandra Petty, a Romanian shore ex-
cursion manager on the 1orwegian Pearl, the
day was turning out slow. With only 1,700 pas-
sengers out of a capacity of nearly 2,400, Petty
said she had to cut the shore excursions down
to three idling buses, ready to whisk cruisers
down to Seaside, Cannon Beach, Fort Clatsop
and Fort Stevens State Park.
More than half the passengers were from
Canada, and Conner said the weakness of the
country’s currency — one Canadian dollar to 77
U.S. cents — might have cut into what is usual-
ly a sold-out ship.
By that evening, Port staff counted down all
the passengers returning to the ship. The last
people to disembark are a motley crew from
Astor Street Opry Co. “Shanghaied in Astoria,”
who get paid to perform their Scandinavian
special on 1orwegian Cruise Line ships. As
the ship leaves port and turns downriver, local
audiophile James Carruthers blasts his horns, a
uniquely Astorian goodbye he extends to each
visiting ship.
Michael Wentworth is one of about 50
Clatsop Cruise Host volunteers who
helped disembarking passengers find
their way around Astoria in late Septem-
ber after leaving the Norwegian Pearl.
Edward Stratton
The Daily Astorian
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