Are big ships ruining ports around the world?

[ElaineKeagy]

Its not just the influx of cruise passengers; thousands of tourists arrive by plane, train, bus and auto everyday.

However if you go to the Rick Steves forum, bus tours and land travelers, you will learn that land travelers are oh so much more entitled to be touring Europe and that cruise travelers are second class citizens, not worthy of a visit to Rome or Venice.

 

 

 

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[Floridiana]

Sorry - Hapag-Loyd, not Lindblad, on a Spitsbergen call.

 

The bear didn't "seem" to threaten the guard. The bear injured the guard who was flown out by helicopter. But this has nothing to do with huge ships and overrun tourist destinations. The MS Bremen is a small expedition ship.

[Floridiana]

Its not just the influx of cruise passengers; thousands of tourists arrive by plane, train, bus and auto everyday.

However if you go to the Rick Steves forum, bus tours and land travelers, you will learn that land travelers are oh so much more entitled to be touring Europe and that cruise travelers are second class citizens, not worthy of a visit to Rome or Venice.

 

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I am not on that forum, but places Rick Steves recommends are overrun with tourists. Based on the questions asked on the TripAdvisor forum, there are only three places in Germany worth visiting. All recommended by Rick Steves. They are not on any cruise itinerary. I am sure that other guide books and sites are "guilty" as well. These places are well liked by visitors because they have the tourist infrastructure with certain popular shops.

.

[AncientWanderer]

I’ve noticed lots of new ports being developed that are interesting and appealing. The tourists are being spread around more. That, coupled with good stewardship by local officials in places like Venice, will probably make it all work out. I’m not as worried about the mega ships as I used to be.

[sail7seas]

Any place can be ruined by over-use. St. Thomas, Santorini, Venice, the Cinq Terre, Valletta, - the lord st goes on. Perhaps the sad fact is that many of those people doing the damage do not gain anything themselves. One of many thousands of cruise ship passengers clogging Santorini really cannot get any feel for the place.

 

A few places (like St. Barth’s) have taken steps to save themselves by severely restricting cruise ship access.

 

Even Rome is not “visible” during cruise ship “visiting hours”. When you can’t see the Spanish Steps because of all the tourist butts sitting on them, you start to understand the rationale of those who prefer to travel on land and off season.

 

 

 

Yet we sailed to St. Barth's twice and really liked it there. :)

[KirkNC]

I don't think there is any question that there are too many and too many big cruise ships but its supply and demand. Wait until we get another economic downturn, then there will be fewer.

[knittinggirl]

On our Radiance of the Seas cruise last summer, I read the reviews like I usually do.

 

 

 

Several recent reviewers at the time complained because they were forced to tender during embarkation in Sydney Australia, because they had one of Royal Caribbean's mega ships in port that day, and they didn't have enough room on the pier.

 

 

Radiance of the Seas at 90,000 tons vs Noordam with 82000 tons. And Radiance's 13 decks to Noordam's eleven decks.

 

 

 

Did that mean that our Noordam could fit under the bridge in Sydney, but the Radiance, just a little larger could not?

 

 

Loved those heated gangplanks in Australia!

[sail7seas]

I am not on that forum, but places Rick Steves recommends are overrun with tourists. Based on the questions asked on the TripAdvisor forum, there are only three places in Germany worth visiting. All recommended by Rick Steves. They are not on any cruise itinerary. I am sure that other guide books and sites are "guilty" as well. These places are well liked by visitors because they have the tourist infrastructure with certain popular shops.

.

 

We very much enjoyed our visit to Munich, followed by Vienna and Salzburg... land trip, no cruise ships :)

[navybankerteacher]

The bear didn't "seem" to threaten the guard. The bear injured the guard who was flown out by helicopter. But this has nothing to do with huge ships and overrun tourist destinations. The MS Bremen is a small expedition ship.

 

OK - if port call by a small ship can turn into such a damaging experience to the port - ever larger ships, carrying ever larger numbers of people will surely do more damage. The point of this thread is the damage cruise ships do to the ports they visit - and obviously the larger the ship the greater the potential damage.

 

The bottom line: the “success” of cruising is destroying the point of cruising.

[bUU]

10 ships with 200 passengers have the same number of tourists as 1 ship with 2000 passengers. The crying about large ships is deceitful. People are really crying about tourists other than themselves being able to afford to visit tourist destinations, nothing more.

 

This message may have been drafted using voice recognition. Please forgive any typos.

[sail7seas]

quote: b UU:The crying about large ships is deceitful. People are really crying about tourists other than themselves being able to afford to visit tourist destinations, nothing more.

 

 

 

I don't think so

 

and do not fathom why you said that?

Edited July 30, 2018 by sail7seas

[ellieanne]

I've been ranting about Tourist-Caused Damage for 25 years now, since I did my thesis. It's a real thing and real problem. And not only at port cities, but the numbers of cruise tourists definitely do not help things like wear patterns in museums or on historic walks. Many people do not understand how they, as just one person, can create such destruction.

 

My very first cruise was in 1998 and I really wanted to go to Charlottetown so I could take the Anne of Green Gables tour, but at the time, PEI was limiting calls to to every other year for each line. Unfortunately, my first cruise was on an off-year for HAL for a PEI call.

 

Since that first cruise, I've taken 10 more Canada/New England cruises and I have noticed a HUGE change in the port areas on the Canada/New England itineraries. It's not all for the better. Small cities like Saguenay and Sydney seem to have heavily invested in their port facilities and I know Sept-Iles was planning a massive port upgrade. But the cities are not really set up more more than one ship in port each day. The cities themselves do not have the infrastructure to handle an additional city's worth of people descending on them for the day.

 

I try to be conscious of my impact, and by extension, the ship's impact, on a city when I choose my cruises. But it's hard to weigh the desire to see the sights and the desire to save them. Cities are going to have to make tough choices in regard to tourist dollars in the long term. No-one will want to go to anywhere if the sights they wanted to see aren't there. And the new places have a golden opportunity to start out limiting calls and tourists in order to preserve the sights. But those are tough decisions and many politicians, while privately they see the need for long-term thinking and preservation, publicly chase the tourist dollar while it's there.

[navybankerteacher]

I don't think so

 

and do not fathom why you said that?

 

You were responding to a post which equated ten ships carrying 200 passengers (are there even ten of that size?) with one carrying 2,000 passengers (which certainly do not qualify as “large” - the sort of ship being discussed).

 

I share your puzzlement; perhaps just creating an opportunity to judge people negatively for expressing values he/she does not share

[OCruisers]

The original CBS spot didn't blame only cruise ships for overwhelming numbers of tourists.

The piece talked about several reasons for more and more people wanting to see the world. Part of the cause is due to travel becoming more affordable. Contributing to that is competition between cruise lines and the fact that the huge ships can hold per-passenger cost down. Of course, we all want to see all those iconic ports if we can. I'm so glad we've been able to see so many beautiful and historic places around the world, and cruising has enabled that. And, yes, we've taken that hour-long trip from the cruise port to Rome.

 

Per above ... so true.

More and more people are wanting to see these places and often do so "on their own" ... not on cruise ships.

[drowelf]

I am not on that forum, but places Rick Steves recommends are overrun with tourists. Based on the questions asked on the TripAdvisor forum, there are only three places in Germany worth visiting. All recommended by Rick Steves. They are not on any cruise itinerary. I am sure that other guide books and sites are "guilty" as well. These places are well liked by visitors because they have the tourist infrastructure with certain popular shops.

.

 

That pique my curiosity. What are the only 3 places in Germany worth visiting? I wonder if we already been to them and therefore never need to go to Germany again. ;p;p;p:cool:

[igraf]

I agree with you 100%. It is the local government that decides how many cruise ships are allowed to port at a given location.

 

igraf

 

 

 

....

OTOH, ruining a tourist destination is largely a function of local policies and regulations. Local authorities are well within their right to limit port visits or other methods to keep tourism within reason.

 

So, my answer to the question is No...it's not the big ships it is the local tourism policies that are impacting the sites.

 

If local authorities restrict or prohibit port visits by large ships, the cruise companies will modify their products....by using smaller ships or finding other ports to visit.

[whogo]

Yet we sailed to St. Barth's twice and really liked it there. :)

We cruised into St.Barth's and it was apparent the locals and yacht people did not like having us there.

[ThePenguin1]

On our Radiance of the Seas cruise last summer, I read the reviews like I usually do.

 

 

 

Several recent reviewers at the time complained because they were forced to tender during embarkation in Sydney Australia, because they had one of Royal Caribbean's mega ships in port that day, and they didn't have enough room on the pier.

 

 

Radiance of the Seas at 90,000 tons vs Noordam with 82000 tons. And Radiance's 13 decks to Noordam's eleven decks.

 

 

 

Did that mean that our Noordam could fit under the bridge in Sydney, but the Radiance, just a little larger could not?

 

 

Loved those heated gangplanks in Australia!

 

Both the Noordam and Radiance of the Seas will fit under the bridge, however i`m guessing they tendered to Circular Quay to make it easier for people to explore the City, as White Bay is more industrialized.

Edited July 31, 2018 by ThePenguin1
spelling

[RDC1]

The reality is that the number of tourists are increasing rapidly and are overwhelming tourists sites all over the world. While cruise ships impact some sites, areas that cruise ships don't visit or provide relatively few passenger visits are also getting overwhelmed. I would say that cruise ships provide less negative long term impact than does air bnb and other services that are impacting tourist areas by driving locals out as apartments and homes are being converted to vacation rentals.

 

Cruise ship passengers leave at the end of the day. They may make things more crowded when they are there, but at least we are not forcing locals away from city centers as home prices and rents go up due to supply being converted to vacation rentals.

[ellieanne]

The reality is that the number of tourists are increasing rapidly and are overwhelming tourists sites all over the world. While cruise ships impact some sites, areas that cruise ships don't visit or provide relatively few passenger visits are also getting overwhelmed. I would say that cruise ships provide less negative long term impact than does air bnb and other services that are impacting tourist areas by driving locals out as apartments and homes are being converted to vacation rentals.

 

Cruise ship passengers leave at the end of the day. They may make things more crowded when they are there, but at least we are not forcing locals away from city centers as home prices and rents go up due to supply being converted to vacation rentals.

 

That's true, but cruise ships do bring a higher environmental cost to the waters around the port.

[igraf]

What a bunch of hypocrites!

 

igraf

 

 

 

We cruised into St.Barth's and it was apparent the... yacht people did not like having us there.

[igraf]

Good point!

 

igraf

 

 

 

.....Cruise ship passengers leave at the end of the day. They may make things more crowded when they are there, but at least we are not forcing locals away from city centers as home prices and rents go up due to supply being converted to vacation rentals.

[ElaineKeagy]

I am not on that forum, but places Rick Steves recommends are overrun with tourists. Based on the questions asked on the TripAdvisor forum, there are only three places in Germany worth visiting. All recommended by Rick Steves. They are not on any cruise itinerary. I am sure that other guide books and sites are "guilty" as well. These places are well liked by visitors because they have the tourist infrastructure with certain popular shops.

 

.

 

 

 

I’ve read comments that blame Rick Steves for the single-handed ruination of the Cinque Terre. Seems it was relatively unknown until he promoted it as a “back door” must-see.

 

 

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[ElaineKeagy]

That pique my curiosity. What are the only 3 places in Germany worth visiting? I wonder if we already been to them and therefore never need to go to Germany again. ;p;p;p:cool:

 

 

 

I’m embarrassed to admit it but I own all the Rick Steves DVDs up to 2012. Based on those I’m guessing its: Munich, Berlin and Rothenburg on the Romantic Road.

 

 

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[Sir PMP]

Both the Noordam and Radiance of the Seas will fit under the bridge, however i`m guessing they tendered to Circular Quay to make it easier for people to explore the City, as White Bay is more industrialized.

 

They both don't fit under the bridge, the Amsterdam will, which is too bad ,because I'll be on her..