Well most everyone in coastal Alaska has had an opinion on the AMH. I live five houses away from a Ferry terminal. Yes service is just a small fraction of what it was. Schedules have been cut. Prices seem unreasonable.After an aborted reservation I booked a trip. Leaving Bellingham, it is about 38 hours to Wrangell. I was in America working on a house for sale in Portland and wanted to move my boat to Alaska.
FORGET about what it use to ....cost. .(22s use to cost a buck a box). GET OVER IT...Compared to shipping a boat by tug AMH was about 40% the price of by barge...and my boat was inside and available as opposed to lashed on top of a container pitching about in open seas. Someone who knows these things said shipping by tug is more expensive due to higher damage claims...adds up!
Loading started at 3:00 I was there two hours early. As an added complication I shipped the boat and trailer...no tow rig. At the check in the tally man said I had the wrong ticket (!) 'Pull over there and get the right ticket I will be over there in a while" I did. He was. And about then the loadmaster stepped up and told my friend who drove me there in his Suburban..."Follow me" We were loaded first with ease.
Great service that just stayed great the whole trip.
The Matanuska is the second oldest ship in the fleet. I rode it 25 years ago...(sat in the same seat most of the time...as only 4 seats in the recliner deck have decent reading lights) Yes I mean the same seat as 25 years ago.... Folks had pets in their rigs so there was a 15 minute access to the car deck every six hours. Saw whales all the usual stuff...breakfast on china $9 maybe the same price it was 25 years ago (?) Cost 22" boat and myself less than $1500 .Met a young man from Pittsburgh heading North, looking for work.10 years an elevator mechanic. I hooked him up with an interview in KTN. Met a gal heading to Port Protection escaping from the misery of Seattle with her '99 4 runner, old brown dog and two adult daughters...and a backpack of hope
.Gone from the old days were Seniors killing time also no top deck full of hippies camping out because no cabins were available. But, Friends it is still there.
The fall schedule is online.Sad but at least two stops in the little villages.maybe 60 riders to KTN 40 got off another 30 boarded. Six off in Wrangell all had a vehicle two with boats. Backed up the truck and the unloadmaster hitched us up and we were the last off maybe 15 minutes after tie up.
It is still a pretty good choice given the universal travel complications we all have suffered thease last two years.
