How many ships/people were on your busiest port call?

Hey everyone. My DW and I decided to take a spontaneous cruise so we leave in about 60 days. Our final port is Cozumel. We have been there many times but saw that at this point, there are going to be 6 ships in port which is about 22,000 people by a certain website.

What has been your busiest port of call in your many adventures and how did you handle it?

Have a great Friday everyone!

I believe the most (since I started paying attention to that kind of thing) was in Cozumel with 6 ships and 17,000 people. Oasis or Allure was also supposed to be there that day, but was out for a repair that week I believe.

I think Cozumel normally has many ships, so it was par for the course and we enjoyed our day there. We did the Cozumel Bar Hop and I believe there were around 40 people on the tour bus. The other time I did the Bar Hop, they used vans.

Our busiest port of call was Charlotte Amalie. I don't remember the exact number of cruise ships in port that day, but it was several. The streets are narrow so it was very crowded plus you had to allow extra time to return to the ship due to traffic. However, it is our favorite Caribbean port so we always enjoy it even though we have seen a huge increase in traffic since we first explored it in 1977.

7 in Grand Cayman. It was not a very good port stop. there were people everywhere and the lines for the tenders were long. I do not like tendering anyway.

Hey everyone. My DW and I decided to take a spontaneous cruise so we leave in about 60 days. Our final port is Cozumel. We have been there many times but saw that at this point, there are going to be 6 ships in port which is about 22,000 people by a certain website.

 

What has been your busiest port of call in your many adventures and how did you handle it?

 

Have a great Friday everyone!

I've had 5 or 6 ships in Nassau and Cozumel. Those ports seem to handle it ok. With Cozumel, some of the beach clubs fill up fast, so you would want to book early. In Nassau, the line to get through security can get long.

7 in Grand Cayman. It was not a very good port stop. there were people everywhere and the lines for the tenders were long. I do not like tendering anyway.

With tendering that would be a problem. I haven't had more than 3-4 when in Caymen.

We had the

Norwegian Breakaway

Disney Fantasy

An Aida Cruise ship

Independence Of the Seas

In St Maarten..Pretty crowded if you ask me, especially at Maho Beach. But surprisingly the wait for taxis was quick

We were on Oasis and rerouted to Cozumel along with some other ships due to a hurricane. Plus the ships that would have been there normally. Waiting for our excursion we watched a steady flow of people coming up from the pier. However the shops and area around the port didn't feel any more crowded than other times we have been there.

One thing about Cozumel is that there are multiple piers and they don't all go into the same port area. That helps cut down on the crowd.

Nassau on the other hand seems to feel like it is a single file line to get out of the port area, and the vendors know it and are waiting for you.

The most I have ever encountered was 32000 passenger movements at Barcelona.

The worst crowding I have ever encountered was in Dubrovnik. I was there at a conference and they had so many ships in that people could hardly move in a very large area of the city. Dubrovnik now has many ships that only call for part of the day to reduce crowding.

While some websites just do passenger counts based on double occupancy of the ship, ports should actually count passenger movements.

For instance, Cruise TT had the Vision call in Barcelona on the 8th of August as 11,399, but the port was actually much more crowded as they show that 24,570 passengers actually moved through the port on that date.

With so many new ships, that get larger and larger, it is more unusual to get into a port where yours is the only ship there. If more than 2 of the largest ships are docked it is bound to be crowded.

Many of the ports now have more than 1 docking area.

We were in Cozumel once and there were 7 ships. First time that I ever seen ship (Vision) tender in Cozumel.

Jan 29 2016 looks like it will be a peak for Cozumel. Currently showing 6 ships with 22,000+ people, but Navigator is missing from the list (will be there on a charter), so make that 7 ships with closer to 26,000!

Hey everyone. My DW and I decided to take a spontaneous cruise so we leave in about 60 days. Our final port is Cozumel. We have been there many times but saw that at this point, there are going to be 6 ships in port which is about 22,000 people by a certain website.

 

What has been your busiest port of call in your many adventures and how did you handle it?

 

Have a great Friday everyone!

We've been in Nassau and Cozumel with 6 ships.

Couldn't tender at Coco Cay, so the Capt. took us to Nassau, nice gesture, but just too crowded .

Cozumel was crowded, but OK!

The most I have ever encountered was 32000 passenger movements at Barcelona.

 

The worst crowding I have ever encountered was in Dubrovnik. I was there at a conference and they had so many ships in that people could hardly move in a very large area of the city. Dubrovnik now has many ships that only call for part of the day to reduce crowding.

 

While some websites just do passenger counts based on double occupancy of the ship, ports should actually count passenger movements.

 

For instance, Cruise TT had the Vision call in Barcelona on the 8th of August as 11,399, but the port was actually much more crowded as they show that 24,570 passengers actually moved through the port on that date.

The worst we've encountered in the Med was Civitavecchia (Rome) cause the traffic in and out of the city is worse then a NY rush hour!:D

Each port only accepts what they can handle...nothing you can do about it...so why worry?

Hurricane in the Eastern Caribbean forced every ship into a Western route. We were on Disney Magic, and counted 14 ships in Cozumel the day we were there.

Santorini with eight ships. It was an absolute nightmare :mad:

The most ships I have seen was 7 or 8 in Grand Cayman. Plus, there were two add'l ships on the other side of the island. The port and the pier itself was teeming with pax wall to wall.

December of last year we were in St Marten traveling on the Jewel of the seas. Six ships is way too much for a small island. The port area seemed overwhelmed. It was a hassle getting from the ship to the port and back again. My husband is handicapped and every time we tried to catch a shuttle to go into port, people would just jump on before the handicapped people. It was a mess.

My busiest port was St Maarten as well during one of my Explorer sailings. That's when I first saw one of the big ships (Oasis). I didn't really notice though until we got to Maho beach ... the crowd there was insane, but made the experience that much better.

Hurricane in the Eastern Caribbean forced every ship into a Western route. We were on Disney Magic, and counted 14 ships in Cozumel the day we were there.

Yikes. You'd think they'd turn some away. That's some overcrowding!

Worst we had was around 25000 in St Maarten. We did a non ship sponsored excursion boat tour of the island specifically so we wouldn't hit any of the crowds. Best idea I ever had. By far my favorite excursion we've done. Not much time for shopping though...

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We had 7 in Cozumel in February. I would recommend someplace like Nachi Cocum which limits the number of people. Although, they may already be full 60 days out.. worth a try to avoid all those people.

mac_tlc

Ugh, if I'm reading correctly, there will be 7 ships in St. Thomas with us on 12/2:eek:

Another site says 4.... guess I'll find out soon enough!

7 in Grand Cayman. It was not a very good port stop. there were people everywhere and the lines for the tenders were long. I do not like tendering anyway.

We stopped in Grand Cayman in March on Vision; there were 6 ships including ours. Fortunately, Grand Cayman now provides BIG tender ships so RCI doesn't have to use their own tender ships. These tender ships hold 400 people so tendering was quick and fast. But the city was packed with people.

6 large ships in St Thomas on January 7th 2015. Over 22,000 passengers.

NCL Gem & Getaway, Regal & Ruby Princess, Carnival Conquest and RCCL Oasis of the Seas.

Busy, busy day, but seemed to cope ok