Possible ports on the east coast

[Eng23]

Any good ports there?

Not really. Wilmington maybe?

[Cuizer2]

Obviously if you think that all Norfolk has is a naval yard, you have not been to Norfolk in a long time if at all. The metro Norfolk area has almost 3 million people living here between all the cities in the area. We have a very popular east coast beach vacation city here, we do have the largest Naval Base in the world here, we have many large businesses located here, we are served by two commercial airports here, we have a harbor that is deeper and larger than Baltimore with no bridge height restrictions.

It is just as easy to get to Norfolk as it is Baltimore.

 

Yet Baltimore has two year round cruise ships and Norfolk has one part time cruise ship (but lots of navy ships).

[Eng23]

like a Freedom (dare I say Oasis), Solstice, or Dream class ship in Norfolk, to quote Field of Dreams, "people will come".

 

I don't think money and demographics matter if there is a better quality ship to draw people in.

It wasn't that the people were not coming. The ships were sailing full, the makeshift terminal first being used was over taxed, the people were and still are here. The main problem was the cruiselines were not seeing the kind of profit due to having lower rates to fill the ship up. With the size of the new terminal you still could not put a Freedom Class ship in Norfolk let alone an Oasis size ship. The terminal could not handle that kind of passenger volume. I think the largest size ship the terminal could handle would be a Voyager Class from Royal Caribbean. Carnival brings in the Glory which is similar in size to a Voyager Class ship. The harbor is deep enough to handle any kind of ship.

[tanelicus]

It wasn't that the people were not coming. The ships were sailing full, the makeshift terminal first being used was over taxed, the people were and still are here. The main problem was the cruiselines were not seeing the kind of profit due to having lower rates to fill the ship up. With the size of the new terminal you still could not put a Freedom Class ship in Norfolk let alone an Oasis size ship. The terminal could not handle that kind of passenger volume. I think the largest size ship the terminal could handle would be a Voyager Class from Royal Caribbean. Carnival brings in the Glory which is similar in size to a Voyager Class ship. The harbor is deep enough to handle any kind of ship.

 

What your saying makes complete sense.

 

Maybe Norfolk will make a suitable terminal. It seems that's how its usually done.

 

In this regard it seems like its kind of Norfolks fault to some extent.

 

The real problem as well is the extra time it takes a ship to get to the Caribbean from the north. Many people can only get seven days off of work. To fill up a big ship a cruise line of course needs large groups of people.

 

I would imagine the biggest spenders are people between the ages mid-20's to mid 50's.

[Keasel]

The state of Maryland needs to think big and develop a new, larger cruise port just south of the Bay Bridge, near Annapolis. Growth in the Maryland cruise industry is limited by the current port only being able to handle one ship at a time and the bridges forcing only the older, smaller ships to travel there. A location just south of the Bay Bridge is a little farther from BWI airport than the current port (but it's a less congested drive) and it would be closer to DCA. Anyone flying in a day or two early can stay in Baltimore, Washington, or Annapolis. This port would serve the same driving region as the current port. It would probably take a long-term commitment by one or more cruise lines to get this moving, but the demographics for long-term success seem to be there (much more so than Norfolk or Mobile).

[mikedw]

There was some talk in Baltimore last year about building a second cruise terminal on the other side of Locust Point, just across 95 from where the present one is. I think the state needs a commitment from a third cruise line before anything will happen with that.

[tanelicus]

There was some talk in Baltimore last year about building a second cruise terminal on the other side of Locust Point, just across 95 from where the present one is. I think the state needs a commitment from a third cruise line before anything will happen with that.

 

Seems like they are limiting themselves with the current port. Baltimore is accessible from many different vantage points, and I would consider its market not only DC/Baltimore area, but all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, parts of Kentucky, NC and Tenn.

 

There's potential.

 

The biggest disadvantage is the extra day or two sailing time as far as the bigger ships. Many people aren't interested in just going to the Bahamas and Key West.

[Cuizer2]

Seems like they are limiting themselves with the current port. Baltimore is accessible from many different vantage points, and I would consider its market not only DC/Baltimore area, but all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, parts of Kentucky, NC and Tenn.

 

There's potential.

 

The biggest disadvantage is the extra day or two sailing time as far as the bigger ships. Many people aren't interested in just going to the Bahamas and Key West.

 

The extra days at sea were a big plus for me. If you go on the twelve night cruise you spend five days at sea and six days in port. I enjoyed it so much I'll likely book it again.

[mikedw]

In a perfect world they would build a who new cruise terminal around Annapolis, but unfortunately I don't ever see that happening. There are really no deep water harbors south of Baltimore until the Norfolk area. In order to build one it would be a major undertaking and the enviromentalist in the state would fight it for decades in the courts.