At least three cruise lines have tweaked their 2026 itineraries to avoid the Tracy Arm Fjord south of Juneau, citing safety concerns after a major tsunami struck the area last August.
Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises have all notified customers that their ships this summer will not be visiting the area, which offers sweeping views of the Sawyer Glacier.
The move comes in the runup to this year’s cruise ship season, and months after a landslide triggered a tsunami in the fjord last August. The event was one of the largest on record.
The cruise companies say they have been closely monitoring the area and made the decision to skip Tracy Arm based on the state of the waterway and current geologic conditions.
“As guest safety remains our top priority, and current waterway conditions are not suitable for cruise ship navigation in Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaskan itineraries will instead visit the Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier,” Royal Caribbean said in an emailed statement.
Carnival and Holland America said they, too, will swap in the nearby Endicott Arm.
Experts say the safety precaution is a good one.
“Anytime you collapse the side of a mountain, I think it’s a safe assumption to assume that you’ve got an unstable mountainside, right? It is perfectly reasonable, or geologically reasonable, that there could be follow-on activity,” said Mike West, the Alaska state seismologist and director of the Alaska Earthquake Center.
Put simply, he said, “the earth is getting used to its new arrangement.”
But West emphasized that it’s not necessarily fair to assume other deep, narrow fjords are any safer. Landslide and tsunami risk is widespread in Southeast Alaska, and scientists have no tangible way to quantify that risk in specific places — including the Endicott Arm.
“How much safer is it?” West said. “What’s the risk?”
Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, echoed that point.
“This is a natural part of our landscape, to have landslides and gravitational releases of material that are close to the water,” Snider said.
Indeed, two of the largest tsunamis on record happened in Southeast. One was last year’s event in Tracy Arm. The other happened in 1958 in Lituya Bay, between Gustavus and Yakutat. The two events had the highest runup numbers – measured by the highest water mark left on land – in recorded history.
“They’re extraordinary, unusual events that can happen with little to no notice at all,” Snider said. “And because of that, we have to stress those natural hazard warning signs that very well could be the only alert that you get during an event like that.”
Those signs could include frothy or gurgling water; prolonged, strong shaking – or a roar from a nearby hillside.
