First cruise ship of the season to arrive this week

The Noordam, the season’s first and largest cruise ship, is scheduled to arrive on Thursday in Nome, carrying about 1,600 passengers.
The Noordam is the sister ship to the Westerdam, which visited Nome nearly exactly one year ago on June 19.
The Noordam plans to anchor offshore and ferry passengers ashore with tenders, coming to land in small groups.
Visitors will arrive in town from just after 8 a.m. until around 5 p.m.
Robin Johnson with Nome Discovery Tours, who is helping to coordinate the visit, said that she’s not yet sure how many visitors will be coming into Nome, but they will come in waves.
“It’s not going to be like this mass invasion of 1,600 people all at the same time,” she said.
Harbormaster Lucas Stotts said that the Noordam is the biggest cruise this year in terms of length, tonnage and total amount of visitors.
There will be a landing site set up for the tourists at the Small Boat Harbor. “We’ll be blocking off sections for floats for the tenders to come in, other sections of floats for them to do baggage on, having space for busses to turn around,” he said. “Same as always, and it hopefully should go over real smooth.”
Visitors will be bussed around town via school bus and some shuttle vans, staged from the small boat harbor. “There’s a lot of people with mobility issues,” said Johnson. “We like to be able to provide access to the museum and different places for them.”
There are several options for visitors checking out Nome. Some visitors will be arriving earlier in the day, for hikes up Newton Peak and at Dredge 5.
There will be a gold panning demonstration with Augie Krutzsch at AKAU Gold, sled dog presentations and a walking tour of historic spots in Nome. “We have people just out walking. Most people will just be exploring on their own in town on foot,” said Johnson
In town, the Midnight Sun Craft and Music Fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mini Convention Center. King Island Native Community will put on a cultural presentation at Old St. Joe’s.
The Bering Sea Lions Club Midnight Sun Chicken Feed will take place in front of Breaker’s Bar on Front Street.
Johnson said that different groups will provide food sales in the school bus stops along Front Street.
Visitors can roam Nome and check out local businesses. “If you want them to come into your business, put a sign on your window that says, ‘Welcome to Nome,’” she suggested.
Nome is the northernmost land visit for the Noordam, but it comes after a planned visit to the northernmost point above the Arctic Circle the day before. After Nome, visitors will head south towards Seattle.
Looking ahead to the rest of the summer season, seven more cruise ships are scheduled to arrive in Nome, about half of last year’s total of 15. There are no ships scheduled in July, and then seven come in quick succession from August 11 through September 16.
Johnson said this doesn’t necessarily mean anything beyond schedule changes from the cruise lines. “Different companies come through, and they might come through this way three or four years in a row, but then they change where they take their passengers,” she said. “They might come up to this area for three years, and then we don’t see them again for six years, and then they’re back for three years.”
Stotts said that in the past, Nome wouldn’t see many ships in June. July, August and September were the busy months. “Apparently for this year it just worked out that we’re not going to have any in July.”