Cruise ports / Berths

[Eglesbrech]

On the other hand can you imagine the uproar when a berth had to be changed because the port needed to change it. No way is that happening.

 

In this case of course the port puts on the shuttles and therefore it is in their interest not to have a ship out there.

 

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Back to the original premis. Cruises used to always be at convenient berths and now they are not.

[terrierjohn]

Back to the original premis. Cruises used to always be at convenient berths and now they are not.

Clearly I am not as old as you, or maybe just that I have not been cruising as long, but we have always experienced good and bad berths. And as Dai comments some bad ones are improving as cruising becomes more popular, but with that increase comes problems as ports struggle to fund these improvements.

[daiB]

Back to the original premis. Cruises used to always be at convenient berths and now they are not.

 

 

 

That is only if you agree with the premise, which I do not. I cannot think of one of the places we have been too more than once where the berth was more inconvenient than now.

 

A number are better.

 

But it depends how far you go back.

 

 

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[Eglesbrech]

Clearly I am not as old as you, or maybe just that I have not been cruising as long, but we have always experienced good and bad berths. And as Dai comments some bad ones are improving as cruising becomes more popular, but with that increase comes problems as ports struggle to fund these improvements.

 

I think the increase in traffic is the real issue. You seldom used to see more than one ship in port most places other than the real tourist magnets like Barcelona or Venice. To accommodate more and bigger ships the facilities get pushed out for example the terminal in Malaga is way out of town now and requires a shuttle, it used to be just a nice strole away. Dubrovnic used to be at anchor and a tender right into the old city now virtually all ships dock miles away and shuttle in.

 

We were in Palma recently, the normal berth is quite a walk along the promenade but doable in a reasonable time. For the first time ever, in my experience at least, our ship was docked beyond the Navel base in a set of berths I have never seen in my life before and the port sheet advised it was an hour and a half walk to the city which is too much for most people considering it was the same back.

 

And yes I go back a while but less of the old please:). I remember cruising into Gibralter long before it built a cruise terminal and had reclaimed some of the current land.

 

 

Everything changes I suppose, somethings for the better and some for the worse.

[Josy1953]

Two I can think of are Lisbon and Lanzarote. And in both cases the berths are nearer the city/town. Both still have shuttle buses but are easily walkable. Or in my case scooterable. I may have invented that word.

 

 

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It's interesting to see that you say that the Lanzarote berth is now nearer to town. I agree that it is nearer than the previous berth but the first time we went to Lanzarote in the 80s on Canberra we walked off the ship and were in the town. The next time we visited we were disappointed to find ourselves way out and having to use the shuttle. There were lots of passenger grumbles about using the shuttle and this was in the days when all shuttles were free but people seemed to prefer to dock somewhere walkable. We still try to walk whenever we can but walking through an industrial port is not pleasurable so we look at where we are now before deciding whether to walk or to take the shuttle.