As someone who lives in a tourist area, I think Airbnb is a bigger issue than day tourists. Many of the homes and apartments in my area are now just Airbnbs. That makes it much harder for locals to buy or rent a place to live, and ruins the character of our neighborhoods. Day tourists spend money and go home - a good thing for our local economy.
Do you live in an area where cruise ships call? In Southeast Alaska, year round housing is impacted by AirBnB, but even moreso by the thousands of non-resident seasonal employees required to staff the shore excursions, shops, and other cruise businesses, all of them wanting inexpensive seasonal housing.
I despise Airbnb, I don't live in a tourist area but a small lake neighborhood in Texas. We have little turnover of homes, the last three have been snapped up by greedy investors and turned into short term rentals. We have had to call the sheriff due to renters trespassing onto our property. Airbnb is no help at all when you complain.
A lot of the the time the money doesn't go to the local economy as the shops/tours are all tied to the cruise lines in one way, shape or form. That's actually one of the reasons for protests in Alaska.
Cruise companies went all in on the mega ship idea to cram more people on, now they are finding out not everyplace wants 4,000 from one ship invading the town for a day.
@@sadjaxxwho wants to go on vacation with 5 thousand people? You think you’ve seen Italy in four hours?😂 Can’t imagine the crowds..nightmare time for sure.
The backlash is not surprising. I remember visiting Santorini with five ships in port, - somewhere in the region of 20,000+ visitors. It was total gridlock, Nobody moving quickly anywhere. The megaships have killed the cruising golden goose.
I did that too, this summer. I think we had 5 ships, but it might have been 6. Was a complete waste, and I 100% understand that people protest that sort of stuff.
When we were there there was an actual fist fight in the two hour long queue to get the funicular back to the port. It was madness and not at all enjoyable.
I agree with Venice banning ships. Having stayed in Venice many times over 40 years, seeing the enormous ships being towed down the Giudecca was frightening. And Venice is absolutely tiny, as a city.
@@notinterested6343 If you knew anything about the issue of Venice sinking, you'd know that cruise ships have actually been found to have a negative impact on the foundations of the buildings. The movement of massive amounts of water, combined with the added water pollution, have a detrimental effect. Plus the thousands of passengers every day adding to the use of motorboats which also damage the foundations.
@@quicksesh No, Venice was sinking well before cruise ships. The interesting one is that they tried to do some engineering about it and it didn't work or had to be rectified. So maybe mismanagement is a greater issue. Where is all the money going?
@@le13579 you are partially correct. Yes Venice has been sinking for centuries but the advent of large vessels in the canal cause the rate of sinking to increase exponentially. The reason is that large vessels displace a massive amount of water and as they progress forwards this volume of water moves, in a narrow channel this pushes a volume of water forwards and up and the sheer weight of it starts to undermine the pilings, stonework and protection around the buildings. Add this to the lateral wave pattern caused by a volumetric hull, which causes further surface erosion, you have a big problem. The defence you mentioned was more to do with the aqua alta, and was a flood protection (not a protection to the sinking) and yes, due to engineering mistakes, corrupt local officials it has been an unmitigated disaster, but the aqua alta is an occurrence that happens when specific criteria are met, whereas the sinking is on going and exacerbated by the large vessels displacing and pushing the water each time they transit.
I agree, too! Hopefully, this will convince the major cruise lines to begin building more smaller, clean fuel ships, as people have been asking for some time. This could propel that change. 😊
@@JuanitasGrandaughter Re Fuel the cruise ships carry two fuel types, the cheap and nasty for the high sea and cleaner more expensive for port. If regulations apply that is.
I do not blame them one bit. The cruise ships are getting too big. Two mega-ships in a port can really swamp the locals. The solution is to Bring back smaller ships.
Yep I think so too!...Like Gary highlighted - many of these destinations do not have the space and/or the infrastructure to accommodate both the locals and the thousands that can show up suddenly if a couple of mega ships pull into port. Also - swamping some of these destinations with thousands of visitors in a short space of time - will only damage what makes these destinations so prized by the people who live there and the tourists who want to visit (so everyone loses - i.e. the people who call these places home, and the people who would love to visit, and the companies that operate these ships). I think if some of these cruise ship companies spent more time thinking about the long term sustainability of their business model when it comes to some of these destinations (instead of maybe being to focused on short term returns?) - then maybe we would see less mega vessels and more modestly sized ships being launched (maybe the ship development could include time spent forging working partnerships between both different cruise lines as well as the areas the companies would like their ships to operate so that the number of ships/passengers visiting an area in a particular season would be capped to a reasonable amount; based on Gary's overview - it does seem like things are trending in that direction...what I find surprising though is that when cruise ship companies ordered some of these mega-ships in the first place, they couldn't foresee the issue...or maybe they did and just ignored the potential problems)....
I agree! Also for the Central and Local Governments to clearly consider what is economically and structurally viable for the local community and get that information out quickly. It’s not for us as tourists to decide which places are the ones we’ll be welcome at! Sooner or later, as a result of the protests, someone will get hurt! (Because people will be people)! 😮
yes, bring back smaller ones and also we need to go back to the era when the flag of your ship had to match where the owner is from.... I would never go on one of those FoC ships like Royal Carribbean etc. Only Linbad/Nat Geo (the four of theirs that are US Flag), Costa, Holland America, Viking, Aida, Ponant, the UK flagged ships on P&O and the US Flag ship on NCL (Pride of America). 🙂
@@caroleceres YES!!!!!....sigh...unfortunately an all too common phenomenon in so many industries (i.e. hyper focus on short term profits and/or investor returns at the expense of the long term health of the organization)...
@@caroleceres "the bottom line for the mega cruise ship companies is money! " How is that different from a car manufacturer, an airline, or a hotel? For that matter, how is that different from you when you look for a job? Do you look for the employer that pays the least to show the world you don't care about making money?
How ironic that the cruise lines keep building bigger ships with more passengers when the ports have started limiting the size of ships and the number of passengers/tourists per day.
The cruise industry needs this wake up call. Stop concentrating on increasing ship size, and start thinking about a quality experience for paying customers. Yes, this includes Ports of Call that aren't uncomfortably crowded and unreceptive to cruise travellers.
As a Pilot working in a cruise port, I can tell you that the cruise companies have only themselves to blame for some of the local resistance. In my port, to get from the ship to the main city the cruise companies were charging passengers $30 pp on their buses. If the passengers walked to the local bus stop, they could get a local City bus for $2. Of course, word spread via social media. Within a week of the first ships arriving at the restart after Covid, the local buses were completely full of cruise passengers. Locals trying to get to work in the city watched the buses pass their stops full. This persisted for months. A sure way to breed distrust of this industry and once trust is lost, it's very very hard to get it back.
@@pilotg2426we love watching the Pilots embarking on the ships, we try and spot it happening. We admire the sheer nerve it takes to time it right for the rope ladder. We don't like the way ships are getting bigger at all.
As an example, Old Dubrovnik & Kotor are each a mile or so square. They can’t handle 6-8K people dropping in for 5 hrs. Dubrovnik has 3 rubber ducky stores but no hardware store & only a couple of small groceries. It is in danger of losing its World Heritage status because of the daily influx of tourists, primarily cruisers. AirBnB is a different issue. They don’t pay hotel taxes, and more importantly, have reduced available housing all around the world making it more expensive for locals not only to rent but to buy a home.
AirBnB is definitely the worst aspect of tourism for residents because it removes long term rentals for locals and it basically turns them into hotels without the taxes that hotels pay. There's a reason that there are zoning regulations in cities and that hotels are not allowed in residential areas. Cities have to make sure that their citizens have available housing and don't have to move hours away to find any affordable housing
@@nataliajimenez1870 I agree completely. I live in a tourist-friendly city with Air BnB restrictive laws but the apartment building I live in has several Air BnBs, including the apartment above me which creates all sorts of noise issues for me as well. In order to prosecute the owners of these apartments, the police need evidence, including ongoing advertising but the owners have developed some clever tricks to ensure their ads are not visible unless absolutely necessary for bookings. It's been 6 years now and I can't consistently find the ad to help with prosecution of the offenders.
@@notyourtypicalwatchreview2563 It depends on the local government. In my town all visitors, regardless of their accommodation, have to pay a nightly tourist tax.
Cruise-lines only have themselves to blame. In 2023 I went on a cruise in the Mediterranean. One port was Santorini. On the same morning 3 other ships also arrived there. So, 4 large cruise ship, dumping thousands of people on the small area of Santorini. We didn’t even bother getting off, just enjoying the view from the ship.
Same with us in September 2023. The line for the gondola was 2 hours. So we grabbed a Greek salad and Saganaki on the dock and headed back to our ship. We’ve been there before so it wasn’t that painful of a decision. Some people say take a shore excursion that will drop you off in town. But the gondola queue was 2 hours getting down.
@@wenchefauske6898 In fact they do regulate it. There is a limit on the number of cruiseships on any day. And next year they want number even going down.
the big problem with cruises is that everything is done so that cruisers spend only on board the ship and not in the port of call, so it's normal that no one is interested in tourists who leave only a few bucks a day in a city that's suffocating with tourists.
As someone that lives near one of the small cruise ports, I welcome the restrictions. The mega ships bring in way too many people, while most are polite, we are seeing more and more entitled jerks. We live here for a reason, and while we welcome tourists and visitors, we cannot handle 3-5 cruise ships at a time. We don't have the infrastructure or space.
I can understand 3-5 ships at the same time is a lot. As a passenger it is not so much fun either, i.m.h.o. Since it is not possible to enjoy the place & culture in this way as I think is the case for you as a resident as well. I as a tourist experience it a day you everyday. I live in a very touristy place and do appreciate and recognize what tourism can bring, but also what negative comes with that. I do think the way to accomplish change is through local government.
@@SoloonaCruisethat’s absolutely the correct approach! Local government should be advising Central Government, so that both the HEALTH as well as the Wealth of the resident community is considered. If X number of ships are given permission to dock at any one time, then they will! I hope that these protests aid in stimulating that discussion and decision making.
Something like Hurtigurten is a good solution. At least I can stay assured the locals are more comfortable with, and well rewarded for their hospitality, even if it means extra cost. Unfortunately these are not usually available. Say, for Alaska I doubt the Marine Highway ferry appeals to anyone other than backpackers, but even that is very limited - between Juneau / Glacier Bay to Whitter you actually have to take a cruise, as AMH services are suspended there.
I am not a fan of the “mega” ships. Too many people. We stopped in Grand Cayman and spoke with the locals. The port can’t support the larger ships mainly because they tender people into port and do not have a true dock.
@@yt_energy Celebrity Millennium at 2,200-passengers is the largest ship I have sailed, but that was two decades ago, and since then I have sailed only on ships of 1,000 or fewer in passengers.
With all due respect, you are part of the problem too. If 5,000 show up, it doesn’t matter much if the come on one ship or five. As they say, you aren’t in traffic, you are traffic.
A huge 6,000 ship emptied out into Portland Maine it was horrendous for this small town in New England. We were staying there for a week and witnessed the day before and the day after what a difference!
Absolutely right. And as they are all inclusive the passengers spend almost nothing in local places,but take lots of photos and often act in a very entitled was while contributing nothing.
@@domp51From 2022 The City of Portland charges cruise ships a flat fee of $13 per person on board. Using the capacity projections on the 2023 schedule, the city can expect to make between $18,616 and $58,500 in 2023 on each ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers. Should this referendum pass and these ships seek alternative ports, the City of Portland could expect to lose somewhere between $1.2 million and $3.9 million in tax revenue. Passengers’ spending while in port also makes a significant financial impact. It was estimated by Digital Research Inc. that, on average, a cruise ship passenger spends approximately $70 while on shore. In total, it was determined that those disembarking from cruise ships spent $13.3 million shopping, $7.7 million on dining, $2.2 million on entertainment, $1.5 million on transportation, and $4.3 million on other expenses.
@@coolbreeze253 it was swamped as cruise visitors didn’t travel more than 1/4 mile square from the Port apart from a limited number of small excursions.
Conversely not much of an experience/value for the Tourists. eg There are only so many Tour guides etc. The mega-ships are looking at 8-9000 pax PER ship.
When we visited Noumea the reception staff told us "stay in the hotel on Sunday if you can. It's the day that cruise ships come in and locals hate them so everyone is grumpy"
A month ago I was in beautiful Flam in Norway . I had been there before the pandemic and it was gorgeous. Imagine my dismay to arrive in Flam by train and to see a gigantic cruise ship dwarfing this beautiful town. You could hardly see Flam because the ship just dwarfed it. I can understand why ports are banning these behemoths.
I was in the Merchant Marine in the 70's to 80's and each port was like an old familiar neighborhood. Not crowded. We had our favorite cafes, restaurants and hot spots that we made the rounds of. We might be the only two or three Americans in that port. Then, one day in Toulon, France while sitting at our favorite outdoor cafe enjoying a chef recommended meal, there was a new MacDonalds across the street. And that was the beginning of the end of my love of travel. We looked at each other, shook our heads in despair.
They probably ideally want the passengers to stay on the ship. Which works when cruising to beaches in the Caribbean... stay on ship, go out to the beach for the day, not feeling the beach one day, explore the ship... but might not work for people who care about the ports. I'll be going on the Sky Princess to see the eclipse in 2026, and I might not get off the ship at all ports depending on how crowded it's likely to be. Seeing Spain would be nice, but being squashed in tourist towns is not nice. Fortunately the ship seems like there will be enough to do there for me to not worry about it.
@oliverstemp9132 you would still be cruising moving around water. Cruisers disdain land resorts with lots of local sightseeing, and activities. So it just be that water motion they want.
Mega ships are ruining it for all of us. Those huge ships should just ‘cruise’ around and let their passengers partake of all the amusements and activities onboard.
Part of the problem that I haven't really heard expressed is that many of the Cities where Mega Ships arrive and drop 8000 tourists who come and use facilities, maybe buy lunch, a few baubles and get back on the Ship for Dinner and sail away. Many of these cities already have a very lucrative Land Tourist Business. Those Tourists spend on all their meals at local Restaurants, Transportation and extremely high room rates in season. The crowds that pack these cities interfere with the experience of those Land Tourists paying thousands of dollars more. Not only are the Cruise Passengers overcrowding and spend very little while in Port but because of the overcrowding, they are chasing many of the Lucrative Land Tourists away. I know first hand that this is a problem for Key West and Bar Harbor, Maine. I suspect it is for many more Port Cities.
Since you brought that up. Last year I went to Bar Harbor, I drove. 1 day a NCL ship came in I just came in from a boat tour before lunch. You had to push your way through the crowds on the streets. I luckily found a spot to eat and went to the local buses to get back to the hotel. I went into town another time. That town is too small for ships no wonder they don’t want ships there. That was the only one that week. I could imagine that town with 2 at the same time and the national park.
We did a road trip around New England a few years back and naively didn't realise that Bar Harbor was a cruise ship hot-spot; we were there 3 nights and couldn't do any of the whale watching and some other trips as the cruise lines had booked them out weeks/months in advance. We tend to avoid major cruise destinations now when land travelling.
As an occasional NCL cruiser, I totally agree with the locals. Some of these cruise ports are ridiculous overcrowded (especially Santorini) and when you only have a limited time to vist, it can really stress you out.
One big cause is all these " I'll build the biggest ship" and the race to 7000+ passenger ships, they swamp the town, and then another big ship coming in on top of it. These cruise companies have only themeslfs to blame
But the irony is .. they built these ships for a very specific market, with the intention that the ship was the destination and you remained on board to have even more dollars liberated from your pocket, then it all got a bit out of hand with all the mass market companies building their own fleet of mega ships, but the market they were intended for got saturated, so they peddled these vessels around other regions, and now it is a mess..
I don’t blame those cities. Cruise ships are getting way too big. I always sail on medium size ships preferably less than 2000 passengers but even that can be a lot of people visiting a city. I prefer to cruise in the off season when the ship I’m on may be the only one at the port. We are more welcome then and we also enjoy having fewer people around.
While I fully support locals protesting cruise ships, they should get to say what their city does, what I do not support at all is the harassment and assault of those who do go and yes squirting someone with water is assault as minor as it sounds. The locals should protest their governments, they should protest the elected officials, not those who are just doing what the local government has said is OK to do.
The cruise industry wields enormous power, unified through CLIA, with offices in all key cruise regions. Unfortunately, ordinary citizens don't have equal seats at the table. If we're talking assault, the cruise industry assaults our air with massive levels of pollution that is forced upon every citizen who is breathing. The assault us with noise from ships and from all of the tours related to ships. They assault us with crowds that make it impossible to transit our city at a pace of someone living there, not visiting. If you cannot bear being squirted with water as part of legal protesting against overtourism and cruise tourism, then perhaps you should be much more aware of how you travel and where you choose to go. When you choose to book a cruise, you are supporting the massive industry that is cruise and that has been forcing itself, on its terms, onto communities.
@@karlahart_AK Air pollution by cheap bunker fuel is a problem and banned in some Australian ports,These Ships carry two types, Also provision of electrical power at the terminals is becoming available.
@@karlahart_AK it is not the cruise passengers fault that they are being allowed to visit such places as yours. I get that ordinary local citizens don't sit on the board with CLIA but that doesn't mean you don't have power. Your government has power, you protest your government with regard to the assault your all facing as a result of these cruise ships, you don't assault innocent people, are you folks not civilized?! Perhaps the port you live in is part of an itinerary that does welcome cruisers and so as a result if a person wants to see those other ports your port is part of it. Believe you me, I will be happy to stay on board the ship and indulge in the luxuries there as opposed to handing folks like you MY hard earned cash. When tourism has stopped and that has typically been a good part of the economy will yous now be bribing folks to return?! I live in a resort town. Our economy is tourism, without it we will become a ghost town. Every year can be a struggle indeed, and it's always a relief when the season is over, but those winter months can be long and devastating if tourism was down as reserves to get through the winter will also be down. All that said, I do enjoy the smaller ships, and would definitely support and advocate a more environmentally friendly fuel system.
The elected officials of the local government want the bans as well. Have you not been paying attention? And causing inconvenience for others is a standard way of bringing protests to attention. The only people who are against that are often people who do not want to say they are against that cause, so they say they are against the inconvenience.
I shake my head when I see cruise ships the size of small cities. If you think about it from the perspective of the locals, 5 or 6 mega ships descending on one port in one day is like an invasion. In Europe, these places have been around for centuries, if not millenia, so losing out on tourism dollars is not an existential threat to them. I did not enjoy my stop in Santorini as part of my Med cruise...most of the few precious hours I had there were spent in long lines or battling crowds. There has to be a better way to manage this.
These cities welcome the smaller ships flooding in 10s of thousand illegals a day that bring in nothing. All negative cash flow. Glad I took the failing continent off my list of places I would like to go to.
What did they think was going to happen when they built the docks for such mega ships? They didn't magically appear ready for 5-6 megaships. They just didn't like what they signed up for (which is fine).
It's definitely the fault of the greedy cruise lines building massive ships holding thousands of passengers. I don't blame any country or region for banning or limiting them. This can't be sustained.
When it was 1500-2000 passengers per ship, and 1-2 ships per day, no one complained. But 5 ships with 4000-6000 passengers each? Totally overwhelmning to the local infrastructure and frankly the quality of life for locals. My small town gets inundated with visitors from the Alaska sailings, and it has completely changed the type of shops on our main street.
Last year, I went on a ship holding 6500 passengers. It was a truly dreadful experience .I’m going back to the smaller ships now. The craze toward bigger and bigger vessels will burn itself out, hopefully.
5 ships in one port 5,000 per ship is 25,000 people in one port. That's insane. Imagine stepping out your front door were you live and seeing 25,000 people who don't care about your privacy or property walking across your front lawn every day!
Sure but that can be managed. Either only one in the morning and one in the afternoon or one per day. Not cancelling. Or limiting the number of people allowed off the ship
@@smvsspould. A sports match is attended mostly by people from the area or within that region/country, and it’s only a few hours, what, once in a couple or three weeks? All at one venue (the sports stadium) So why are you comparing two very different things ?
@@sorbabaric1 Where I live (Orlando, FL) there is either a NBA game or concert at the KIA center at least 3-4 days per week and it holds 18,000. Plus a block away from that there's a soccer stadium that hosts 2-3 events a week that holds 12,000 and another block away is a football stadium that holds 50,000+ that has events 2-3 times per month. Not to mention Disney World that has upwards of 100,000 visitors per day, Universal with over 80,000 per day and seaworld with 25,000 per day. Sometimes they all operate at the same time. On those days, if I'm not going to one of those events I avoid the areas and take different routes but have never complained that I live in a city with a lot of crowds and a lot of people.
The problem is the amount of people on the ships getting off all at the same time for a few hours, not spending much money, just clogging the ports up. I get why the local are not happy. It's got out of hand and the cruise ships are going to start having problems with quotas being applied.
Soon these new Mega ships can only sail to their Private Islands. Suits me as for me cruising is about exploring the world, not a floating resort going to a private resort. I will stay away from these MegaShips. Bring back the smaller ships to new exotic destinations.
Same We went to Japan and sailed on Celebrity Millennium and even at 24 years old (with at least 2 upgrades) it was a perfect size not so big I was worried when my teens ran off in the evening to the teen room and still big enough so everyone had something to do most of the time.
@@LMFuquaHow was the cruise? We are on the September 12th sailing of Millennium out of Yokohama. We are flying in one week early to explore Tokyo area before cruise.
@MB-uy5kh It was fantastic. We want to go back as soon as possible. We loved the ship and we loved each port. Our favorite day was Osaka and Nara. (We stayed 2 days in Osaka and spent half of one of those days in Nara highly recommended.) Every port was lovely as was the staff.
I was in Barcelona on a cruise and even being off season there were numerous ships there. The crowds in town were just madding it hard on everyone. The cruise industry should get together and police itself because it's becoming intolerable for these ports.
My transatlantic ended in Barcelona in mid April. This time we stayed for 5 days before heading to other destinations. This stay was dreadful as the city was over run by tourists…yes I appreciate the irony.
We have said for a long time the mega ships will be banned and multiple ships at one time is ridiculous. Where ever we have stopped, I always make sure that we buy something other than just a beer or coffee to aid in actual income to the areas. Too many people just rush back to the ship for food etc and never actually experience where they are. Cruise lines only have themselves to blame for this.
Though not in a port, I do live in a huge tourist area, and I honestly get it. Tourism needs to be well managed for a good balance between visitors and locals.
I went on a large ship cruise about 15 years ago throughout the Mediterranean. Even when we went in late September all the cities we went to were super crowded. We switched to river boat cruises. I 100% support locals wanting to limit these huge ships unloading thousands of tourists a day.
I fully understand why these ports are trying to control the number of tourist. We went to Santorini for the 2nd time in June 2024. You could barely walk through some of the alleys it was so insanely crowded. Was not an enjoyable experience. The 1st time we went in 2014 it was wonderful. We also went to Dubrovnik on the 2024 trip and while there were decent crowds it was not overcrowded. Difference was that Dubrovnik had instituted restrictions on the number of cruise ship passengers per day.
There's no need for mega cruise ships. They are like traveling shopping malls/theme parks, at some point you have to ask what the point is. Just stay home and go to Six Flags if that is what you want. Or, just let those ships putter around at sea without calling at ports. When I travel to Europe, I fly into one spot and then I use the trains to get around the continent. I get around just like the locals - I walk, I ride the public bus, I ride the train. I wouldn't do it any other way.
Selfishly I say after twenty years of cruising, I’m glad to have gotten to visit so many ports. I agree some ports are now impossible to enjoy cause we are the problem. On that note, my kids and grandkids won’t have the same experience of cruising, but fortunately four generations of us manage to find a few places to be together with the locals.
A very thought provoking video, Gary. We have sailed exclusively with Cunard and had the pleasure of meeting you and Mark. We have thoroughly enjoyed the cruising experience both at sea and in port. This year we are taking our first not-Cunard cruise, sailing on P&O's Arvia. While I am looking forward to the cruise, I am dreading the thought of 5,000+ people herding off the ship and swamping the ports. I will let you know how it goes.
I swapped my Arvia cruise for an Arcadia one. I truly didn’t fancy flying to and from the Caribbean (8 hours), before and especially after the cruise. Hopefully my final P&O cruise… I hope that you won’t be dismayed by it and are able to enjoy all that it has to offer. Just the thought of walking for “miles” to get to the restaurants is daunting. Now that we’ve experienced Saga ships, we won’t be going elsewhere. 🤗
We canceled an October cruise because there were going to be 14,000 cruisers in Santorini and 16,000 in Barcelona; too many big ships have ruined the cruise experience…
As ports become more exclusive, booking fewer ships, the cost of cruises will rise even more. Supply vs demand. The French Polynesian islands have also banned ships in the lagoons too.
@@ExestentialCrisis exact , still i don't like those megaships but it is clear that "tourism" will be banned in future... only the very rich will be allowed to travel, and for me this will soon be the case for airplanes to
@@ExestentialCrisis No. The wealthy, and also the true back-packer visitors, can stay awhile to actually experience a genuine destination, while the entitled day-trippers who just want their tick-box selfie pics can enjoy their bogus mega-ship faux-glam atmosphere and leave local cultures be.
It must be pretty awful to live somewhere where thousands of tourists get dropped off on your doorstep daily, and the shops and restaurants cater to tourists not locals
The answer to excess demand is usually higher prices. Seems like dramatically higher port fees would be the answer, rather than trying to guess at the appropriate number of visitors. Charge what you need to charge to support the infrastructure, and the megaships likely go away.
We were booked on a med cruise, after reading about these issues and seeing videos like this. We canceled the trip, I didn’t want to be arrested for pummelling some jackass who sprayed me with a water gun or worse. In the past they have certainly gobbled up the tourist dollars. We have decided to look for somewhere that appreciates tourism. As of the moment I will never visit Europe, I hope they don’t come looking for my countries help in the future.
Thank you for your information. Frankly, I’m happy about it. I was in Juneau last summer and there were more than 10 ships in Port. It took about 45 minutes to get into town and there were way too many people on the streets walking around to be enjoyable. I got on the next shuttle back and went back to the ship. The restrictions will just force me to plan ahead further in the future, and that’s just fine.
The largest ships will eventually just be floating resorts which are unable to visits any ports apart from the uome port. They will just sail out for say 7 days and back again.
Excellent topic Gary! I support limiting the number of passengers who can arrive at a port. Juneau was an absolute ZOO in mid-May and I don’t blame the locals for resisting the megaship trend. It’s unpleasant for the cruisers too. Mendenhall glacier was overrun and it wasn’t a good experience. We’re going back to AK, but won’t go into the town of Juneau to shop or eat, only a whale watching excursion. Limiting access will raise prices, but better that than a really miserable experience in overcrowded ports.
This is concerning! We are taking our first Mediterranean cruise in early September- leaving from Athens and returning to Barcelona! We have booked two nights in each of those cities at the beginning and end of our cruise. Now I’m wondering if we will be welcome or mistreated there!
I guess that you'll be welcomed by those that earn from your staying, but I don't think you'll be harassed by the locals. Just bear in mind that we hate what overtourism - cruise ships, but mostly Airbnbs - is doing to the cities, with rents for houses skyrocketing and the local economy aggressively targeting tourists. 5000 people overcrowding the city for a few hours is not our main concern, the unbearable cost of living and the fear of seeing our cities turned into theme parks is.
What I love about this channel is he is exactly the kind of "Cruise ship expert" who will bore you with uninvited advice for the first three days of your cruise, and you will want to avoid him. But in this format it's super handy and well researched advice. TH-cam is the perfect medium for this man.
Thanks Gary, great info. If the ports don't want cruise ships with thousands of people, there's a reason or reasons for this. Good for the towns affected. If a person want to visit these places, take a car or a flight and stay a few days.
I'm not a cruise passenger, but my local town of Aberdeen in the UK has started welcoming cruise ships with the recently opened harbour extension. At the moment the town is in a honeymoon phase with the new arrivals. A lot of visitors end up in Old Aberdeen, as well as excursions to Royal Deeside. It gets me thinking though, there are a lot of areas in the UK on the coast that would no doubt welcome the money coming in from cruise passengers. It does have the potential to improve economic prospects for struggling areas.
Too many cruise tourists stop at cities to see the sights, but not really drop any substantial money on hotels, meals, ect. There is also a limit on infrastructure and quality of life.
Took a Princess Cruise to the Med last summer (2023). In Gibraltar as we navigated the clogged streets and floods of tourists in a pedestrian traffic jam in 100 degree heat, we felt like salmon swimming upstream.... not that fun. Shops were jammed with loookiloos not spending money. I remember asking my husband what on earth the locals did to avoid this miserable mess. One cool thing we did on our own though was the museum in Gibraltar. It has AC and was basically empty. We spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around. I lived in a tourist town and we would time our errands so as not to get caught in ferry traffic. Lots of cursing if we got stuck behind the lines of tourists. I think then year I worked on the ferries we had 5 million people come through our teeny islands and towns. I totally understand the frustration. Somehow there needs to be a balance.
we have only just started cruising, but avoid the megaships purely for this reason, I imagine 5 arriving in one day is total hell, we usually sail on ships with a maximum of 3k passengers (which is still a lot in our eyes), but in some places this is still too many. Perhaps these resorts will realise that they need some tourism and rather than banning completely will all go the route of setting a reduced number of passengers at any one time, giving kudos to the smaller ships and lines that promote this. It will make cruising more expensive, but hopefully more pleasurable for both passenger and more importantly the places we visit.
The cruise lines keep almost all the tourism dollars and the communities get very little. I can see the restrictions becoming more and more and more. I see ports charging 4100 to $200 per passenger for cruise ships to dock in the near future
I understand the local population. This spring I was in Valencia Duvrovnik and Barcelona and those cities were a nightmare. Several cruises docked the same day. Horrible. Also I understand the people who live in the cities were there is an embarcation day due to the AirBnB
Very informative, thanks. I'm off to Maine in a few days (though not Bar Harbor) and will be visiting the three islands you mentioned in French Polynesia in a couple of months.
Mega ships lost their shirt by building massive piles of junk and now no where to go. Many cruise lines will go bankrupt what a waste of investment. Passengers don't spend much time and money in port, just walk around and back to the buffet.
All these cruise lines that keep building bigger and bigger ships are not thinking it through! I can’t blame these ports for not welcoming so many cruise passengers. Will be sailing in Europe next summer- Viking Cruises - less than 1,000 passengers.
It’s crazy that places almost entirely dependent on tourism are protesting tourism. Never before have so many people had the luxury of travel- so overcrowding is good in that sense. However, for various reasons I think the party is soon to be over and tourist hotspots (including my own town) will be wishing for the good old days.
I live in Greenwich, and the place gets pretty packed in the summer. I cannot even begin to fathom what the place would be like, if a few mega ships came and tipped ten or so thousand people.
The cruise lines have invested heavily in the past couple of years in these mega ship monstrosities. Its all about raking in the $$$ for them, but its interesting to see the ports dont want them coming in.
At least Barcelona being a home base for alot of ships benifits from jobs in provisioning the ships, guests staying in hotels before/ after trips, and airport taxes from coming in and out of town. If your town is just a cruise port where tourists are dumped off to take some pictures and hang out on the beach, it doesn't generate much economic impact.
I just don't understand who thought it was a good idea to drop THOUSANDS of people in a port at one time for a few hours! I cannot imagine what a nightmare the new mega ships are for local infrastructure and logistics.
Very interesting. So what I am getting a picture of from your videos is that cruise companies have gone so big countries don't want them in too big a numbers. Combine that with the ones deemed too dangerous to go to. The ones that you didn't actually visit in the first place, just a toy island off the coast. And you are left with floating palaces travelling around and handing you a set of binoculars so you can get a glimpse of a country sailing past at a safe distance. Or you could save lots of money and fly to an actual country for a holiday.
I was amazed that you mentioned Svalbard and cruise ships!! There would be no room. We were there in 2018 on a sailing ship Rembrandt Van Rhyne taking 28 passengers and 10 crew. Run by a Dutch company We only saw one or two ships when we were sailing around The only other ships we saw were in port two run by the same company taking about 110 passengers each. One of which we sailed on in Antarctica in 2014. There was also a smallish National Geographic ship in port. I really like your videos
Several years back we went to Bar Harbor for about a week. We stayed in a campground and used their shuttle system on most days. We did venture into Bar Harbor a couple times for a few hours. It was a friendly quiet town where the locals/tourist were filling restaurants but not overwhelming them. On one of the days a couple of cruise ships were in: the place changed! The sidewalks were too crowded making it difficult to even explore some of the shops. There were signs up for discounts with your seapass etc too. If I lived there just for the summer I would love to be able to experience the town, at least on some days without day trippers. When I went on one cruise there it seemed like the number of tours were at the max that Acadia and the surrounding area could handle. I’d vote for fewer people and maybe not everyday.
I was there last year, a cruise in and out of Boston that stopped on the way back. The ship had about 2500-3000 capacity and had to tender pretty far offshore. This was late May so it was just before the season started. I don't know how many of us disembarked but the town wasn't crowded at all. Now that same ship isn't allowed there and it's hardly a mega. Just my opinion - it was a nice enough town but still a tourist trap. I don't know how all those small businesses are going to survive when they make practically all of their income during the summertime.
@@elisaastorino2881 there are a lot of tourist that come for a week exploring Arcadia or renting cottage. It’s hard to make reservations at times. They might lose a few t shirt companies but the cool nights certainly can require a light sweat shirt.
@@elisaastorino2881 I was there on the Summit when they ran a tender aground not taking the longways around. The locals said that tenders run into islands in the fog too. We had another ship in with us, the Dawn. On that trip we were very we came back to have a late lunch in a very packed restaurant, we were late getting off so it seemed not crowded at all. I did the summit again into bar harbor and I believe with another ship. We did tours and that was crowded as there really isn’t any staging area. We came back late to a very crowded restaurant and difficulty walking in some areas. We I was there on a mid summer land tour it seemed that the ship dumped so many passengers that they were walking 2-3 deep in the streets. We were doing other things so I’m not sure how much it calmed down. We did beat a rush for the restaurant that day, different restaurant.
As a Greek, i might love cruise ships but there's has to be a limit. In Mykonos and Santorini the situation has gone out of control. Recently the mayor of Santorini said to the locals to stay into their homes because 5 (!) cruise ships had arrived at the same time and 17k people were about to visit the island. Thats the definition of overtourism and ot needs to stop. Cruise ship companies need to explore more options into the greek islands. Greece has so many beautiful islands. Ios, Syros, Chios, Astypalea, Skyros, Skiathos and so so on. The greek islands arent just Mykonos (which is overated) and Santorini. Everyone needs to understand this!
I'm all for restricting all mega ships. Spain, Greece, Italy, they're all correct; between Airbnb and the megaships, these beautiful places have become nightmares.
I did a voyage on SeaDream last year through the Adriatic. Because the ship is so small we could dock at Venice and Moore just offshore from Dubrovnik. A Viking ship was doing a similar itinerary to us. But their ship had to dock quite some distance away and ferry passengers to Dubrovnik by bus.
I don't understand the rhetoric that seems to unfold where people chanting: ban tourists(which bring in money) and simultaneously chanting: welcome refugees(which isn't booming the economy at all). It feels like that the locals want to feel more like good people rather than boosting their own economy 😢
Absolutely right. Whether you like it or not, the facts are that refugees (illegal, let's call a spade a spade) cost those countries plenty. It's exactly like our southern border situation - they come with their hands out, bring drugs and violent crime to places that were always safe, and the EU leadership is using them for political capital. My relatives in Italy have told me all about it.
My family took our first European Cruise leaving Barcelona in 2007 on Disney’s very first Mediterranean Cruise. It was absolutely wonderful. It was on one of Disney’s original smaller ships, the Disney Magic. It sailed on my daughter’s 15th birthday. We loved Barcelona. It is a beautiful city and we enjoyed the 3 days we spent there before the ship sailed. I imagine those with the size of cruise ships these days and the number of lines sailing that the city is completely overrun. As would many cities. OMG! Bar Harbour, what a terrible idea. It’s a beautiful area which will be completely ruined by cruise ships.
Eventually, cruise lines will start offering trips to nowhere. Basically, embark, head out into international waters, and then anchor for a week. Saves a ton of fuel, lots to do on the boats and anything goes. Pricnig for those cruises could be much less than anything offered AND the cruise lines have captive wallets. Can't see it going any other way...
One issue - in the United States (a large cruise market) foreign flagged ships (which are nearly every cruise ship in the world) must make a stop at a foreign port before returning to the United States. On my Alaska cruise last year this was Victoria in British Columbia, Canada and a lot of cruises out of Florida stop in Nassau in the Bahamas for this reason.
@@mikebarnes2294 Interesting, I did not know that. So then "Cruises to nowhere" will either have to include a stop in Bahamas (or closest foreign port) OR start flying an American flag to skip the charade. I doubt the flag change will happen due to tax and liability issues but I stand by the idea of going nowhere fast...
Cruising allows middle class people to visit places they would never would other wise be able to visit. By limiting exotic locations to small ships with fewer passengers, it limits travel options for many. Compromise needs to be emphasized on all fronts.
I'm good with the restrictions, but not elimination, because I don't like crowds or destinations that have become too commercialized and cater solely to tourists. However, I prefer cruises on smaller ships for the convenience of sampling many places and only having to unpack once.
I believe the locals are right to ban huge ships, large numbers of tourists (who we know are out of control at times) and then when I get to visit via another mode of transportation it won't be as disgusting as waiting in line at Disneyland. I planned a RC cruise on the Symphony of the seas for my sons and I. After we could finally go after covid it was a nightmare. It was like being in line at Disneyland. What was also most likely my last mega ship cruise - the food had gone downhill to feed the masses and the people are not friendly as they were in the 80's on cruises.
As someone that enjoys cruising and enjoys the really large ships due to the amount of onboard amenity space, I think all these towns are actually being perfectly reasonable. Cruise companies need to order ships that are smaller but still provide a high quality experience
As someone who lives in a tourist area, I think Airbnb is a bigger issue than day tourists. Many of the homes and apartments in my area are now just Airbnbs. That makes it much harder for locals to buy or rent a place to live, and ruins the character of our neighborhoods. Day tourists spend money and go home - a good thing for our local economy.
Do you live in an area where cruise ships call?
In Southeast Alaska, year round housing is impacted by AirBnB, but even moreso by the thousands of non-resident seasonal employees required to staff the shore excursions, shops, and other cruise businesses, all of them wanting inexpensive seasonal housing.
I despise Airbnb, I don't live in a tourist area but a small lake neighborhood in Texas. We have little turnover of homes, the last three have been snapped up by greedy investors and turned into short term rentals. We have had to call the sheriff due to renters trespassing onto our property. Airbnb is no help at all when you complain.
A lot of the the time the money doesn't go to the local economy as the shops/tours are all tied to the cruise lines in one way, shape or form. That's actually one of the reasons for protests in Alaska.
@@gilded_lady Why can't a local start their own shop? Do the cruise ships not allow it?
Air b and b definitely negatively impacting rents
Cruise companies went all in on the mega ship idea to cram more people on, now they are finding out not everyplace wants 4,000 from one ship invading the town for a day.
It must be a nightmare. I don't see how it could be otherwise.
Agreed- but how could the cruise lines be so shortsighted??? It’s not like this problem couldn’t have been foreseen!
Exactly my thought.
Or 3000 EACH from 3 ships as has happened in Barcelona. It's a nightmare, and isn't even fun for the cruise passengers!
@@sadjaxxwho wants to go on vacation with 5 thousand people? You think you’ve seen Italy in four hours?😂 Can’t imagine the crowds..nightmare time for sure.
The backlash is not surprising. I remember visiting Santorini with five ships in port, - somewhere in the region of 20,000+ visitors. It was total gridlock, Nobody moving quickly anywhere.
The megaships have killed the cruising golden goose.
I did that too, this summer. I think we had 5 ships, but it might have been 6. Was a complete waste, and I 100% understand that people protest that sort of stuff.
Agree
Compared with the island's population of 16000. Yes - way too many.
When we were there there was an actual fist fight in the two hour long queue to get the funicular back to the port. It was madness and not at all enjoyable.
I agree with Venice banning ships. Having stayed in Venice many times over 40 years, seeing the enormous ships being towed down the Giudecca was frightening. And Venice is absolutely tiny, as a city.
Venice is sinking into the ocean. They have much bigger issues they need to worry about.
@@notinterested6343 If you knew anything about the issue of Venice sinking, you'd know that cruise ships have actually been found to have a negative impact on the foundations of the buildings. The movement of massive amounts of water, combined with the added water pollution, have a detrimental effect. Plus the thousands of passengers every day adding to the use of motorboats which also damage the foundations.
@@notinterested6343 also part of the issue is the erosion of the piling/foundations of the buildings which was caused by the wash of large vessels.
@@quicksesh No, Venice was sinking well before cruise ships.
The interesting one is that they tried to do some engineering about it and it didn't work or had to be rectified. So maybe mismanagement is a greater issue. Where is all the money going?
@@le13579 you are partially correct. Yes Venice has been sinking for centuries but the advent of large vessels in the canal cause the rate of sinking to increase exponentially. The reason is that large vessels displace a massive amount of water and as they progress forwards this volume of water moves, in a narrow channel this pushes a volume of water forwards and up and the sheer weight of it starts to undermine the pilings, stonework and protection around the buildings. Add this to the lateral wave pattern caused by a volumetric hull, which causes further surface erosion, you have a big problem.
The defence you mentioned was more to do with the aqua alta, and was a flood protection (not a protection to the sinking) and yes, due to engineering mistakes, corrupt local officials it has been an unmitigated disaster, but the aqua alta is an occurrence that happens when specific criteria are met, whereas the sinking is on going and exacerbated by the large vessels displacing and pushing the water each time they transit.
Its good to limit it honestly. It has been ridiculous trying to visit somewhere overrun by cruise ships, and the people are no longer friendly.
Agreed, all of them rushing around because they only have 8 hours on land
@@antifugazi Yes and a lot of those 8 hours standing in queues to see a highlight only because of the volume of fellow tourists,,
I agree, too! Hopefully, this will convince the major cruise lines to begin building more smaller, clean fuel ships, as people have been asking for some time. This could propel that change. 😊
@@JuanitasGrandaughter Re Fuel the cruise ships carry two fuel types, the cheap and nasty for the high sea and cleaner more expensive for port. If regulations apply that is.
@@baobo67 I should have specified Liquid Natural Gas (LNG.). Apologies!
I do not blame them one bit. The cruise ships are getting too big. Two mega-ships in a port can really swamp the locals. The solution is to Bring back smaller ships.
Yep I think so too!...Like Gary highlighted - many of these destinations do not have the space and/or the infrastructure to accommodate both the locals and the thousands that can show up suddenly if a couple of mega ships pull into port. Also - swamping some of these destinations with thousands of visitors in a short space of time - will only damage what makes these destinations so prized by the people who live there and the tourists who want to visit (so everyone loses - i.e. the people who call these places home, and the people who would love to visit, and the companies that operate these ships). I think if some of these cruise ship companies spent more time thinking about the long term sustainability of their business model when it comes to some of these destinations (instead of maybe being to focused on short term returns?) - then maybe we would see less mega vessels and more modestly sized ships being launched (maybe the ship development could include time spent forging working partnerships between both different cruise lines as well as the areas the companies would like their ships to operate so that the number of ships/passengers visiting an area in a particular season would be capped to a reasonable amount; based on Gary's overview - it does seem like things are trending in that direction...what I find surprising though is that when cruise ship companies ordered some of these mega-ships in the first place, they couldn't foresee the issue...or maybe they did and just ignored the potential problems)....
I agree! Also for the Central and Local Governments to clearly consider what is economically and structurally viable for the local community and get that information out quickly.
It’s not for us as tourists to decide which places are the ones we’ll be welcome at! Sooner or later, as a result of the protests, someone will get hurt!
(Because people will be people)! 😮
yes, bring back smaller ones and also we need to go back to the era when the flag of your ship had to match where the owner is from.... I would never go on one of those FoC ships like Royal Carribbean etc. Only Linbad/Nat Geo (the four of theirs that are US Flag), Costa, Holland America, Viking, Aida, Ponant, the UK flagged ships on P&O and the US Flag ship on NCL (Pride of America). 🙂
@@caroleceres YES!!!!!....sigh...unfortunately an all too common phenomenon in so many industries (i.e. hyper focus on short term profits and/or investor returns at the expense of the long term health of the organization)...
@@caroleceres "the bottom line for the mega cruise ship companies is money! " How is that different from a car manufacturer, an airline, or a hotel?
For that matter, how is that different from you when you look for a job? Do you look for the employer that pays the least to show the world you don't care about making money?
How ironic that the cruise lines keep building bigger ships with more passengers when the ports have started limiting the size of ships and the number of passengers/tourists per day.
Wonder how long it will be before Mega Ships go the way of the Airbus A380 (too much fixed cost and too few places to use them strategically).
The cruise industry needs this wake up call. Stop concentrating on increasing ship size, and start thinking about a quality experience for paying customers. Yes, this includes Ports of Call that aren't uncomfortably crowded and unreceptive to cruise travellers.
As a Pilot working in a cruise port, I can tell you that the cruise companies have only themselves to blame for some of the local resistance. In my port, to get from the ship to the main city the cruise companies were charging passengers $30 pp on their buses. If the passengers walked to the local bus stop, they could get a local City bus for $2. Of course, word spread via social media. Within a week of the first ships arriving at the restart after Covid, the local buses were completely full of cruise passengers. Locals trying to get to work in the city watched the buses pass their stops full. This persisted for months. A sure way to breed distrust of this industry and once trust is lost, it's very very hard to get it back.
Do you get helicoptered to ships in your role?
No, we use a Pilot Launch and then a rope ladder.
@@pilotg2426 Thanks for replying.
@@pilotg2426we love watching the Pilots embarking on the ships, we try and spot it happening. We admire the sheer nerve it takes to time it right for the rope ladder. We don't like the way ships are getting bigger at all.
As an example, Old Dubrovnik & Kotor are each a mile or so square. They can’t handle 6-8K people dropping in for 5 hrs. Dubrovnik has 3 rubber ducky stores but no hardware store & only a couple of small groceries. It is in danger of losing its World Heritage status because of the daily influx of tourists, primarily cruisers. AirBnB is a different issue. They don’t pay hotel taxes, and more importantly, have reduced available housing all around the world making it more expensive for locals not only to rent but to buy a home.
AirBnB is definitely the worst aspect of tourism for residents because it removes long term rentals for locals and it basically turns them into hotels without the taxes that hotels pay. There's a reason that there are zoning regulations in cities and that hotels are not allowed in residential areas. Cities have to make sure that their citizens have available housing and don't have to move hours away to find any affordable housing
I did not know about Airbnb not paying hotel taxes. I hadn’t really thought about it, but it seems they should.
@@nataliajimenez1870 I agree completely. I live in a tourist-friendly city with Air BnB restrictive laws but the apartment building I live in has several Air BnBs, including the apartment above me which creates all sorts of noise issues for me as well. In order to prosecute the owners of these apartments, the police need evidence, including ongoing advertising but the owners have developed some clever tricks to ensure their ads are not visible unless absolutely necessary for bookings. It's been 6 years now and I can't consistently find the ad to help with prosecution of the offenders.
@@notyourtypicalwatchreview2563 It depends on the local government. In my town all visitors, regardless of their accommodation, have to pay a nightly tourist tax.
I have been to Debrovnic when cruise passengers flood the place. One can hardly walk.
Cruise-lines only have themselves to blame. In 2023 I went on a cruise in the Mediterranean. One port was Santorini. On the same morning 3 other ships also arrived there. So, 4 large cruise ship, dumping thousands of people on the small area of Santorini. We didn’t even bother getting off, just enjoying the view from the ship.
The government in Greece and Santorini can regulate how many ships arriving during a day. They dont. We have the same problem in norway.
Same with us in September 2023. The line for the gondola was 2 hours. So we grabbed a Greek salad and Saganaki on the dock and headed back to our ship. We’ve been there before so it wasn’t that painful of a decision. Some people say take a shore excursion that will drop you off in town. But the gondola queue was 2 hours getting down.
And there lies the problem.
"Let's go to Santorini without going to Santorini"
@@wenchefauske6898 In fact they do regulate it. There is a limit on the number of cruiseships on any day. And next year they want number even going down.
the big problem with cruises is that everything is done so that cruisers spend only on board the ship and not in the port of call, so it's normal that no one is interested in tourists who leave only a few bucks a day in a city that's suffocating with tourists.
As someone that lives near one of the small cruise ports, I welcome the restrictions. The mega ships bring in way too many people, while most are polite, we are seeing more and more entitled jerks. We live here for a reason, and while we welcome tourists and visitors, we cannot handle 3-5 cruise ships at a time. We don't have the infrastructure or space.
Let me know where, so I can avoid it. I don't want to go where I'm not wanted.
I can understand 3-5 ships at the same time is a lot. As a passenger it is not so much fun either, i.m.h.o. Since it is not possible to enjoy the place & culture in this way as I think is the case for you as a resident as well. I as a tourist experience it a day you everyday. I live in a very touristy place and do appreciate and recognize what tourism can bring, but also what negative comes with that. I do think the way to accomplish change is through local government.
@@SoloonaCruise I also live in a major tourist destination, and I'm smart enough to be grateful to them dumping money into our economy.
@@SoloonaCruisethat’s absolutely the correct approach!
Local government should be advising Central Government, so that both the HEALTH as well as the Wealth of the resident community is considered.
If X number of ships are given permission to dock at any one time, then they will!
I hope that these protests aid in stimulating that discussion and decision making.
Something like Hurtigurten is a good solution. At least I can stay assured the locals are more comfortable with, and well rewarded for their hospitality, even if it means extra cost. Unfortunately these are not usually available. Say, for Alaska I doubt the Marine Highway ferry appeals to anyone other than backpackers, but even that is very limited - between Juneau / Glacier Bay to Whitter you actually have to take a cruise, as AMH services are suspended there.
It’s those mega ships, which have gotten enormous, ruining these ports for everyone else. I sail only on the small ships.
I am not a fan of the “mega” ships. Too many people. We stopped in Grand Cayman and spoke with the locals. The port can’t support the larger ships mainly because they tender people into port and do not have a true dock.
what is the largest ship that you have ever sailed?
@@yt_energy Celebrity Millennium at 2,200-passengers is the largest ship I have sailed, but that was two decades ago, and since then I have sailed only on ships of 1,000 or fewer in passengers.
@@apfelstrudel714 which ships have less than 1,000?
With all due respect, you are part of the problem too. If 5,000 show up, it doesn’t matter much if the come on one ship or five. As they say, you aren’t in traffic, you are traffic.
A huge 6,000 ship emptied out into Portland Maine it was horrendous for this small town in New England. We were staying there for a week and witnessed the day before and the day after what a difference!
Absolutely right. And as they are all inclusive the passengers spend almost nothing in local places,but take lots of photos and often act in a very entitled was while contributing nothing.
@@domp51From 2022
The City of Portland charges cruise ships a flat fee of $13 per person on board. Using the capacity projections on the 2023 schedule, the city can expect to make between $18,616 and $58,500 in 2023 on each ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers. Should this referendum pass and these ships seek alternative ports, the City of Portland could expect to lose somewhere between $1.2 million and $3.9 million in tax revenue.
Passengers’ spending while in port also makes a significant financial impact. It was estimated by Digital Research Inc. that, on average, a cruise ship passenger spends approximately $70 while on shore. In total, it was determined that those disembarking from cruise ships spent $13.3 million shopping, $7.7 million on dining, $2.2 million on entertainment, $1.5 million on transportation, and $4.3 million on other expenses.
Portland might be a small city but it certainly isn't a small town'
@@coolbreeze253 it was swamped as cruise visitors didn’t travel more than 1/4 mile square from the Port apart from a limited number of small excursions.
Conversely not much of an experience/value for the Tourists. eg There are only so many Tour guides etc. The mega-ships are looking at 8-9000 pax PER ship.
This was an essential summary of the current and near-term restrictions in various ports. Thanks for posting this.
The cruise lines caused this problem by building thesemega ships.
And by cruisers being idiots and poor guests.
@@amberanthony883 and the loony locals for assaulting and screaming at tourists.
@@amberanthony883 agree!
When we visited Noumea the reception staff told us "stay in the hotel on Sunday if you can. It's the day that cruise ships come in and locals hate them so everyone is grumpy"
A month ago I was in beautiful Flam in Norway . I had been there before the pandemic and it was gorgeous. Imagine my dismay to arrive in Flam by train and to see a gigantic cruise ship dwarfing this beautiful town. You could hardly see Flam because the ship just dwarfed it. I can understand why ports are banning these behemoths.
I was in the Merchant Marine in the 70's to 80's and each port was like an old familiar neighborhood. Not crowded. We had our favorite cafes, restaurants and hot spots that we made the rounds of. We might be the only two or three Americans in that port. Then, one day in Toulon, France while sitting at our favorite outdoor cafe enjoying a chef recommended meal, there was a new MacDonalds across the street. And that was the beginning of the end of my love of travel. We looked at each other, shook our heads in despair.
As a cruise passenger it’s nice to see restrictions as well
Ships are becoming too big - where the hell did the designers think they could go??
They probably ideally want the passengers to stay on the ship. Which works when cruising to beaches in the Caribbean... stay on ship, go out to the beach for the day, not feeling the beach one day, explore the ship... but might not work for people who care about the ports.
I'll be going on the Sky Princess to see the eclipse in 2026, and I might not get off the ship at all ports depending on how crowded it's likely to be. Seeing Spain would be nice, but being squashed in tourist towns is not nice. Fortunately the ship seems like there will be enough to do there for me to not worry about it.
They are creating resorts at sea, vs vessels that can visit new places. Not an issue if that is made known, AND that's what people want to pay for.
@@joywebster2678but the thing is, if you’re designing ships that are so big you don’t need to get off, what’s the point of being on a ship.
@oliverstemp9132 you would still be cruising moving around water. Cruisers disdain land resorts with lots of local sightseeing, and activities. So it just be that water motion they want.
@@joywebster2678 should probably just go to a land resort by the sea then.
Mega ships are ruining it for all of us. Those huge ships should just ‘cruise’ around and let their passengers partake of all the amusements and activities onboard.
@@karenenea4172 yes, that would be fine and long as they aren't dumping untreated sewage and garbage I to the water while they are doing it!
I'm amazed that the giant cruise ship lines never anticipated any backlash from the ports they constantly overburden. Greed has it's limits.
Yes. One wonders just how intelligent these GEOs actually are. Like Boeing the just chase the almighty dollar.
Part of the problem that I haven't really heard expressed is that many of the Cities where Mega Ships arrive and drop 8000 tourists who come and use facilities, maybe buy lunch, a few baubles and get back on the Ship for Dinner and sail away. Many of these cities already have a very lucrative Land Tourist Business. Those Tourists spend on all their meals at local Restaurants, Transportation and extremely high room rates in season. The crowds that pack these cities interfere with the experience of those Land Tourists paying thousands of dollars more. Not only are the Cruise Passengers overcrowding and spend very little while in Port but because of the overcrowding, they are chasing many of the Lucrative Land Tourists away. I know first hand that this is a problem for Key West and Bar Harbor, Maine. I suspect it is for many more Port Cities.
Since you brought that up. Last year I went to Bar Harbor, I drove.
1 day a NCL ship came in I just came in from a boat tour before lunch. You had to push your way through the crowds on the streets. I luckily found a spot to eat and went to the local buses to get back to the hotel. I went into town another time.
That town is too small for ships no wonder they don’t want ships there.
That was the only one that week. I could imagine that town with 2 at the same time and the national park.
We did a road trip around New England a few years back and naively didn't realise that Bar Harbor was a cruise ship hot-spot; we were there 3 nights and couldn't do any of the whale watching and some other trips as the cruise lines had booked them out weeks/months in advance. We tend to avoid major cruise destinations now when land travelling.
This is a problem everywhere these monsters are docking.
As an occasional NCL cruiser, I totally agree with the locals. Some of these cruise ports are ridiculous overcrowded (especially Santorini) and when you only have a limited time to vist, it can really stress you out.
Cruise ship ports are becoming more restrictive at the same time cruise lines are building ever larger ships. I sense a problem here...
Send them to Antartica.
One big cause is all these " I'll build the biggest ship" and the race to 7000+ passenger ships, they swamp the town, and then another big ship coming in on top of it. These cruise companies have only themeslfs to blame
Royal Carribean to blame.
But the irony is .. they built these ships for a very specific market, with the intention that the ship was the destination and you remained on board to have even more dollars liberated from your pocket, then it all got a bit out of hand with all the mass market companies building their own fleet of mega ships, but the market they were intended for got saturated, so they peddled these vessels around other regions, and now it is a mess..
I don’t blame those cities. Cruise ships are getting way too big. I always sail on medium size ships preferably less than 2000 passengers but even that can be a lot of people visiting a city. I prefer to cruise in the off season when the ship I’m on may be the only one at the port. We are more welcome then and we also enjoy having fewer people around.
you are a hero
While I fully support locals protesting cruise ships, they should get to say what their city does, what I do not support at all is the harassment and assault of those who do go and yes squirting someone with water is assault as minor as it sounds. The locals should protest their governments, they should protest the elected officials, not those who are just doing what the local government has said is OK to do.
The cruise industry wields enormous power, unified through CLIA, with offices in all key cruise regions. Unfortunately, ordinary citizens don't have equal seats at the table. If we're talking assault, the cruise industry assaults our air with massive levels of pollution that is forced upon every citizen who is breathing. The assault us with noise from ships and from all of the tours related to ships. They assault us with crowds that make it impossible to transit our city at a pace of someone living there, not visiting. If you cannot bear being squirted with water as part of legal protesting against overtourism and cruise tourism, then perhaps you should be much more aware of how you travel and where you choose to go. When you choose to book a cruise, you are supporting the massive industry that is cruise and that has been forcing itself, on its terms, onto communities.
@@karlahart_AK Air pollution by cheap bunker fuel is a problem and banned in some Australian ports,These Ships carry two types, Also provision of electrical power at the terminals is becoming available.
@@karlahart_AK it is not the cruise passengers fault that they are being allowed to visit such places as yours. I get that ordinary local citizens don't sit on the board with CLIA but that doesn't mean you don't have power. Your government has power, you protest your government with regard to the assault your all facing as a result of these cruise ships, you don't assault innocent people, are you folks not civilized?! Perhaps the port you live in is part of an itinerary that does welcome cruisers and so as a result if a person wants to see those other ports your port is part of it. Believe you me, I will be happy to stay on board the ship and indulge in the luxuries there as opposed to handing folks like you MY hard earned cash. When tourism has stopped and that has typically been a good part of the economy will yous now be bribing folks to return?!
I live in a resort town. Our economy is tourism, without it we will become a ghost town. Every year can be a struggle indeed, and it's always a relief when the season is over, but those winter months can be long and devastating if tourism was down as reserves to get through the winter will also be down.
All that said, I do enjoy the smaller ships, and would definitely support and advocate a more environmentally friendly fuel system.
The elected officials of the local government want the bans as well. Have you not been paying attention? And causing inconvenience for others is a standard way of bringing protests to attention. The only people who are against that are often people who do not want to say they are against that cause, so they say they are against the inconvenience.
@@houghi3826 What twaddle.
I shake my head when I see cruise ships the size of small cities. If you think about it from the perspective of the locals, 5 or 6 mega ships descending on one port in one day is like an invasion. In Europe, these places have been around for centuries, if not millenia, so losing out on tourism dollars is not an existential threat to them. I did not enjoy my stop in Santorini as part of my Med cruise...most of the few precious hours I had there were spent in long lines or battling crowds. There has to be a better way to manage this.
These cities welcome the smaller ships flooding in 10s of thousand illegals a day that bring in nothing. All negative cash flow. Glad I took the failing continent off my list of places I would like to go to.
All countries in Europe are going down and have nothing left than tourism ... still i understand that 4 or 5 megaships a day is to much
What did they think was going to happen when they built the docks for such mega ships? They didn't magically appear ready for 5-6 megaships. They just didn't like what they signed up for (which is fine).
It's definitely the fault of the greedy cruise lines building massive ships holding thousands of passengers. I don't blame any country or region for banning or limiting them. This can't be sustained.
The "greedy cruise lines" are building bigger shots because their customer bosses wanted them!
When it was 1500-2000 passengers per ship, and 1-2 ships per day, no one complained. But 5 ships with 4000-6000 passengers each? Totally overwhelmning to the local infrastructure and frankly the quality of life for locals. My small town gets inundated with visitors from the Alaska sailings, and it has completely changed the type of shops on our main street.
Last year, I went on a ship holding 6500 passengers. It was a truly dreadful experience .I’m going back to the smaller ships now. The craze toward bigger and bigger vessels will burn itself out, hopefully.
And still the major cruise lines invest in more megaships. I refuse to sail them, so I don't blame ports for wanting to ban them.
In any case, in 10 years' time, there will hardly be a port in the rich part of the world that will accept mega ships.
Me too! Way too big!
5 ships in one port 5,000 per ship is 25,000 people in one port. That's insane. Imagine stepping out your front door were you live and seeing 25,000 people who don't care about your privacy or property walking across your front lawn every day!
Thats still far less than a sports match and I dont see anybody banning those.
Sure but that can be managed. Either only one in the morning and one in the afternoon or one per day. Not cancelling.
Or limiting the number of people allowed off the ship
@@jupo9928 that would cause fights on board.
@@smvsspould. A sports match is attended mostly by people from the area or within that region/country, and it’s only a few hours, what, once in a couple or three weeks?
All at one venue (the sports stadium)
So why are you comparing two very different things ?
@@sorbabaric1 Where I live (Orlando, FL) there is either a NBA game or concert at the KIA center at least 3-4 days per week and it holds 18,000. Plus a block away from that there's a soccer stadium that hosts 2-3 events a week that holds 12,000 and another block away is a football stadium that holds 50,000+ that has events 2-3 times per month. Not to mention Disney World that has upwards of 100,000 visitors per day, Universal with over 80,000 per day and seaworld with 25,000 per day. Sometimes they all operate at the same time. On those days, if I'm not going to one of those events I avoid the areas and take different routes but have never complained that I live in a city with a lot of crowds and a lot of people.
The problem is the amount of people on the ships getting off all at the same time for a few hours, not spending much money, just clogging the ports up. I get why the local are not happy. It's got out of hand and the cruise ships are going to start having problems with quotas being applied.
Soon these new Mega ships can only sail to their Private Islands. Suits me as for me cruising is about exploring the world, not a floating resort going to a private resort. I will stay away from these MegaShips. Bring back the smaller ships to new exotic destinations.
Same We went to Japan and sailed on Celebrity Millennium and even at 24 years old (with at least 2 upgrades) it was a perfect size not so big I was worried when my teens ran off in the evening to the teen room and still big enough so everyone had something to do most of the time.
same here.
@@LMFuquaHow was the cruise? We are on the September 12th sailing of Millennium out of Yokohama. We are flying in one week early to explore Tokyo area before cruise.
@MB-uy5kh It was fantastic. We want to go back as soon as possible. We loved the ship and we loved each port. Our favorite day was Osaka and Nara. (We stayed 2 days in Osaka and spent half of one of those days in Nara highly recommended.)
Every port was lovely as was the staff.
Mega cruise ships cant go into the mediterranian anyway
I was in Barcelona on a cruise and even being off season there were numerous ships there. The crowds in town were just madding it hard on everyone. The cruise industry should get together and police itself because it's becoming intolerable for these ports.
I experienced the crowds sholder to sholder in April, my god it was a zoo! I was on vacation for a week. Never again will I go to Barcelona.
@@helenorgarycrevonis2022 Interesting! I was in Barcelona in October and it just felt like a normal busy city.
My transatlantic ended in Barcelona in mid April. This time we stayed for 5 days before heading to other destinations. This stay was dreadful as the city was over run by tourists…yes I appreciate the irony.
We have said for a long time the mega ships will be banned and multiple ships at one time is ridiculous.
Where ever we have stopped, I always make sure that we buy something other than just a beer or coffee to aid in actual income to the areas.
Too many people just rush back to the ship for food etc and never actually experience where they are.
Cruise lines only have themselves to blame for this.
Though not in a port, I do live in a huge tourist area, and I honestly get it. Tourism needs to be well managed for a good balance between visitors and locals.
I went on a large ship cruise about 15 years ago throughout the Mediterranean. Even when we went in late September all the cities we went to were super crowded. We switched to river boat cruises. I 100% support locals wanting to limit these huge ships unloading thousands of tourists a day.
About the biggest ships, I do sympathise. A few giant ships in a smaller place all at once would be a challenge for locals. Thank you for the video!
The megaships are just too big. You can't just dump >5000 people per ship in a port and not create a nightmare.
More like 20K since more than one ship pulls in per day.
Yes you can. You just need a large port. At this size the cruise ships should just stick to the ports big enough for military ships to visit.
@@griffenspellblade3563 Like Townsville?
I do not blame the destinations not wanting to be over run by large numbers. Good for them. I only cruise on smaller ships.
I fully understand why these ports are trying to control the number of tourist.
We went to Santorini for the 2nd time in June 2024. You could barely walk through some of the alleys it was so insanely crowded. Was not an enjoyable experience. The 1st time we went in 2014 it was wonderful.
We also went to Dubrovnik on the 2024 trip and while there were decent crowds it was not overcrowded. Difference was that Dubrovnik had instituted restrictions on the number of cruise ship passengers per day.
We were on a small cruise ship in Juneau, but with three mega ships in port it was crazy busy.
There's no need for mega cruise ships. They are like traveling shopping malls/theme parks, at some point you have to ask what the point is. Just stay home and go to Six Flags if that is what you want. Or, just let those ships putter around at sea without calling at ports. When I travel to Europe, I fly into one spot and then I use the trains to get around the continent. I get around just like the locals - I walk, I ride the public bus, I ride the train. I wouldn't do it any other way.
You actually get to see Europe, rather than a brief excursion from a harbour. A far better plan.
You can travel like that in Europe but most of the world doesn't offer that kind of infrastructure.
Selfishly I say after twenty years of cruising, I’m glad to have gotten to visit so many ports. I agree some ports are now impossible to enjoy cause we are the problem. On that note, my kids and grandkids won’t have the same experience of cruising, but fortunately four generations of us manage to find a few places to be together with the locals.
Some years ago I was in Flam, Norway, locals were unhappy about the air pollution from these ships.
A very thought provoking video, Gary. We have sailed exclusively with Cunard and had the pleasure of meeting you and Mark. We have thoroughly enjoyed the cruising experience both at sea and in port. This year we are taking our first not-Cunard cruise, sailing on P&O's Arvia. While I am looking forward to the cruise, I am dreading the thought of 5,000+ people herding off the ship and swamping the ports. I will let you know how it goes.
I swapped my Arvia cruise for an Arcadia one. I truly didn’t fancy flying to and from the Caribbean (8 hours), before and especially after the cruise. Hopefully my final P&O cruise…
I hope that you won’t be dismayed by it and are able to enjoy all that it has to offer. Just the thought of walking for “miles” to get to the restaurants is daunting.
Now that we’ve experienced Saga ships, we won’t be going elsewhere. 🤗
The P&O name is being retired by Carnival in March 2025. We love Cunard too, look forward to your review of Arvia.
@@Tolpuddle581A curious effort to appear down market.
We canceled an October cruise because there were going to be 14,000 cruisers in Santorini and 16,000 in Barcelona; too many big ships have ruined the cruise experience…
Great video!! Thanks for putting all this together for us.
As ports become more exclusive, booking fewer ships, the cost of cruises will rise even more. Supply vs demand. The French Polynesian islands have also banned ships in the lagoons too.
Yep, just another way to make sure only the wealthiest can experience those ports.
@@ExestentialCrisis exact , still i don't like those megaships but it is clear that "tourism" will be banned in future... only the very rich will be allowed to travel, and for me this will soon be the case for airplanes to
Quite right in my opinion; some awareness that their lagoons aren't common property might not go amiss.
@@ExestentialCrisis No. The wealthy, and also the true back-packer visitors, can stay awhile to actually experience a genuine destination, while the entitled day-trippers who just want their tick-box selfie pics can enjoy their bogus mega-ship faux-glam atmosphere and leave local cultures be.
In my opinion, you always have the very best informational videos. No beating around the bush, just good information. Thanks so much.
Thanks! Great to hear this, appreciate you watching
It must be pretty awful to live somewhere where thousands of tourists get dropped off on your doorstep daily, and the shops and restaurants cater to tourists not locals
Also as a land tourist. The place’s mood changes in a sudden. It’s amazing.
The answer to excess demand is usually higher prices. Seems like dramatically higher port fees would be the answer, rather than trying to guess at the appropriate number of visitors. Charge what you need to charge to support the infrastructure, and the megaships likely go away.
My first cruise was on a ship from Norwegian with 35000 ton, about 500 passengers. Would love to see that again.
Had to be boring as hell on there and everybody asleep at 9pm
@@choco.es.unlimitedI always sail small ships. Plenty to do, no lines, and NOBODY goes to bed at 9:00!
We were booked on a med cruise, after reading about these issues and seeing videos like this. We canceled the trip, I didn’t want to be arrested for pummelling some jackass who sprayed me with a water gun or worse. In the past they have certainly gobbled up the tourist dollars. We have decided to look for somewhere that appreciates tourism. As of the moment I will never visit Europe, I hope they don’t come looking for my countries help in the future.
Thank you for your information. Frankly, I’m happy about it. I was in Juneau last summer and there were more than 10 ships in Port. It took about 45 minutes to get into town and there were way too many people on the streets walking around to be enjoyable. I got on the next shuttle back and went back to the ship. The restrictions will just force me to plan ahead further in the future, and that’s just fine.
The largest ships will eventually just be floating resorts which are unable to visits any ports apart from the uome port. They will just sail out for say 7 days and back again.
So pleased to hear this, cruise ships bring very little value to a community.
Excellent topic Gary!
I support limiting the number of passengers who can arrive at a port. Juneau was an absolute ZOO in mid-May and I don’t blame the locals for resisting the megaship trend. It’s unpleasant for the cruisers too. Mendenhall glacier was overrun and it wasn’t a good experience. We’re going back to AK, but won’t go into the town of Juneau to shop or eat, only a whale watching excursion. Limiting access will raise prices, but better that than a really miserable experience in overcrowded ports.
This is concerning! We are taking our first Mediterranean cruise in early September- leaving from Athens and returning to Barcelona! We have booked two nights in each of those cities at the beginning and end of our cruise. Now I’m wondering if we will be welcome or mistreated there!
you are not welcome. what do you mean by mistreated? It's their home - they can treat foreigners however they wish.
I guess that you'll be welcomed by those that earn from your staying, but I don't think you'll be harassed by the locals.
Just bear in mind that we hate what overtourism - cruise ships, but mostly Airbnbs - is doing to the cities, with rents for houses skyrocketing and the local economy aggressively targeting tourists. 5000 people overcrowding the city for a few hours is not our main concern, the unbearable cost of living and the fear of seeing our cities turned into theme parks is.
@@yt_energy As much as I agree with the bans you are wrong they absolutely cannot treat tourists how they want that's absolutely not true at all
Don't worry. You will be fine. Have a great time and enjoy yourself. Don't listen to these trolls.
@@notinterested6343 why would you send her somewhere where she is not wanted?
What I love about this channel is he is exactly the kind of "Cruise ship expert" who will bore you with uninvited advice for the first three days of your cruise, and you will want to avoid him. But in this format it's super handy and well researched advice. TH-cam is the perfect medium for this man.
Thanks Gary, great info. If the ports don't want cruise ships with thousands of people, there's a reason or reasons for this. Good for the towns affected. If a person want to visit these places, take a car or a flight and stay a few days.
I'm not a cruise passenger, but my local town of Aberdeen in the UK has started welcoming cruise ships with the recently opened harbour extension. At the moment the town is in a honeymoon phase with the new arrivals. A lot of visitors end up in Old Aberdeen, as well as excursions to Royal Deeside.
It gets me thinking though, there are a lot of areas in the UK on the coast that would no doubt welcome the money coming in from cruise passengers. It does have the potential to improve economic prospects for struggling areas.
Very well compiled. Thank you.
Too many cruise tourists stop at cities to see the sights, but not really drop any substantial money on hotels, meals, ect. There is also a limit on infrastructure and quality of life.
I guess because of the limited time. Eg I only have half a day so there is not enough time to spend the money
Took a Princess Cruise to the Med last summer (2023). In Gibraltar as we navigated the clogged streets and floods of tourists in a pedestrian traffic jam in 100 degree heat, we felt like salmon swimming upstream.... not that fun. Shops were jammed with loookiloos not spending money. I remember asking my husband what on earth the locals did to avoid this miserable mess. One cool thing we did on our own though was the museum in Gibraltar. It has AC and was basically empty. We spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around. I lived in a tourist town and we would time our errands so as not to get caught in ferry traffic. Lots of cursing if we got stuck behind the lines of tourists. I think then year I worked on the ferries we had 5 million people come through our teeny islands and towns. I totally understand the frustration. Somehow there needs to be a balance.
we have only just started cruising, but avoid the megaships purely for this reason, I imagine 5 arriving in one day is total hell, we usually sail on ships with a maximum of 3k passengers (which is still a lot in our eyes), but in some places this is still too many. Perhaps these resorts will realise that they need some tourism and rather than banning completely will all go the route of setting a reduced number of passengers at any one time, giving kudos to the smaller ships and lines that promote this. It will make cruising more expensive, but hopefully more pleasurable for both passenger and more importantly the places we visit.
The cruise lines keep almost all the tourism dollars and the communities get very little. I can see the restrictions becoming more and more and more. I see ports charging 4100 to $200 per passenger for cruise ships to dock in the near future
I understand the local population. This spring I was in Valencia Duvrovnik and Barcelona and those cities were a nightmare. Several cruises docked the same day. Horrible.
Also I understand the people who live in the cities were there is an embarcation day due to the AirBnB
Very informative, thanks. I'm off to Maine in a few days (though not Bar Harbor) and will be visiting the three islands you mentioned in French Polynesia in a couple of months.
Mega ships lost their shirt by building massive piles of junk and now no where to go.
Many cruise lines will go bankrupt what a waste of investment.
Passengers don't spend much time and money in port, just walk around and back to the buffet.
Inevitable. Good for places pushing back.
All these cruise lines that keep building bigger and bigger ships are not thinking it through! I can’t blame these ports for not welcoming so many cruise passengers. Will be sailing in Europe next summer- Viking Cruises - less than 1,000 passengers.
Every locality should have the right to limit this.
I think it makes sense.
It’s crazy that places almost entirely dependent on tourism are protesting tourism. Never before have so many people had the luxury of travel- so overcrowding is good in that sense. However, for various reasons I think the party is soon to be over and tourist hotspots (including my own town) will be wishing for the good old days.
Experienced a bit of this in June. Had to miss two ports - Santorini and Kotor.
I live in Greenwich, and the place gets pretty packed in the summer. I cannot even begin to fathom what the place would be like, if a few mega ships came and tipped ten or so thousand people.
The cruise lines have invested heavily in the past couple of years in these mega ship monstrosities.
Its all about raking in the $$$ for them, but its interesting to see the ports dont want them coming in.
I also agree with them
They make the cruise ship bigger and bigger. 4000-6000 per ship and they add more ship to come
That's CRAZY!
At least Barcelona being a home base for alot of ships benifits from jobs in provisioning the ships, guests staying in hotels before/ after trips, and airport taxes from coming in and out of town. If your town is just a cruise port where tourists are dumped off to take some pictures and hang out on the beach, it doesn't generate much economic impact.
I just don't understand who thought it was a good idea to drop THOUSANDS of people in a port at one time for a few hours! I cannot imagine what a nightmare the new mega ships are for local infrastructure and logistics.
Very interesting. So what I am getting a picture of from your videos is that cruise companies have gone so big countries don't want them in too big a numbers. Combine that with the ones deemed too dangerous to go to. The ones that you didn't actually visit in the first place, just a toy island off the coast. And you are left with floating palaces travelling around and handing you a set of binoculars so you can get a glimpse of a country sailing past at a safe distance. Or you could save lots of money and fly to an actual country for a holiday.
I was amazed that you mentioned Svalbard and cruise ships!! There would be no room. We were there in 2018 on a sailing ship Rembrandt Van Rhyne taking 28 passengers and 10 crew. Run by a Dutch company We only saw one or two ships when we were sailing around The only other ships we saw were in port two run by the same company taking about 110 passengers each. One of which we sailed on in Antarctica in 2014. There was also a smallish National Geographic ship in port. I really like your videos
Several years back we went to Bar Harbor for about a week. We stayed in a campground and used their shuttle system on most days. We did venture into Bar Harbor a couple times for a few hours. It was a friendly quiet town where the locals/tourist were filling restaurants but not overwhelming them. On one of the days a couple of cruise ships were in: the place changed! The sidewalks were too crowded making it difficult to even explore some of the shops. There were signs up for discounts with your seapass etc too. If I lived there just for the summer I would love to be able to experience the town, at least on some days without day trippers.
When I went on one cruise there it seemed like the number of tours were at the max that Acadia and the surrounding area could handle. I’d vote for fewer people and maybe not everyday.
I was there last year, a cruise in and out of Boston that stopped on the way back. The ship had about 2500-3000 capacity and had to tender pretty far offshore. This was late May so it was just before the season started. I don't know how many of us disembarked but the town wasn't crowded at all. Now that same ship isn't allowed there and it's hardly a mega.
Just my opinion - it was a nice enough town but still a tourist trap. I don't know how all those small businesses are going to survive when they make practically all of their income during the summertime.
@@elisaastorino2881 there are a lot of tourist that come for a week exploring Arcadia or renting cottage. It’s hard to make reservations at times. They might lose a few t shirt companies but the cool nights certainly can require a light sweat shirt.
@@elisaastorino2881 I was there on the Summit when they ran a tender aground not taking the longways around. The locals said that tenders run into islands in the fog too. We had another ship in with us, the Dawn. On that trip we were very we came back to have a late lunch in a very packed restaurant, we were late getting off so it seemed not crowded at all. I did the summit again into bar harbor and I believe with another ship. We did tours and that was crowded as there really isn’t any staging area. We came back late to a very crowded restaurant and difficulty walking in some areas.
We I was there on a mid summer land tour it seemed that the ship dumped so many passengers that they were walking 2-3 deep in the streets. We were doing other things so I’m not sure how much it calmed down. We did beat a rush for the restaurant that day, different restaurant.
As a Greek, i might love cruise ships but there's has to be a limit. In Mykonos and Santorini the situation has gone out of control. Recently the mayor of Santorini said to the locals to stay into their homes because 5 (!) cruise ships had arrived at the same time and 17k people were about to visit the island. Thats the definition of overtourism and ot needs to stop. Cruise ship companies need to explore more options into the greek islands. Greece has so many beautiful islands. Ios, Syros, Chios, Astypalea, Skyros, Skiathos and so so on. The greek islands arent just Mykonos (which is overated) and Santorini. Everyone needs to understand this!
I'm all for restricting all mega ships. Spain, Greece, Italy, they're all correct; between Airbnb and the megaships, these beautiful places have become nightmares.
I did a voyage on SeaDream last year through the Adriatic. Because the ship is so small we could dock at Venice and Moore just offshore from Dubrovnik. A Viking ship was doing a similar itinerary to us. But their ship had to dock quite some distance away and ferry passengers to Dubrovnik by bus.
Not before time. The new mega ships are gross.
Absolutely right that destinations control their visitor type and numbers. Long overdue in many cases.
I don't understand the rhetoric that seems to unfold where people chanting: ban tourists(which bring in money) and simultaneously chanting: welcome refugees(which isn't booming the economy at all). It feels like that the locals want to feel more like good people rather than boosting their own economy 😢
Absolutely right. Whether you like it or not, the facts are that refugees (illegal, let's call a spade a spade) cost those countries plenty. It's exactly like our southern border situation - they come with their hands out, bring drugs and violent crime to places that were always safe, and the EU leadership is using them for political capital. My relatives in Italy have told me all about it.
Save up for a stay at Mar A Lago...
My family took our first European Cruise leaving Barcelona in 2007 on Disney’s very first Mediterranean Cruise. It was absolutely wonderful. It was on one of Disney’s original smaller ships, the Disney Magic. It sailed on my daughter’s 15th birthday.
We loved Barcelona. It is a beautiful city and we enjoyed the 3 days we spent there before the ship sailed.
I imagine those with the size of cruise ships these days and the number of lines sailing that the city is completely overrun.
As would many cities.
OMG! Bar Harbour, what a terrible idea. It’s a beautiful area which will be completely ruined by cruise ships.
Eventually, cruise lines will start offering trips to nowhere. Basically, embark, head out into international waters, and then anchor for a week. Saves a ton of fuel, lots to do on the boats and anything goes. Pricnig for those cruises could be much less than anything offered AND the cruise lines have captive wallets. Can't see it going any other way...
One issue - in the United States (a large cruise market) foreign flagged ships (which are nearly every cruise ship in the world) must make a stop at a foreign port before returning to the United States. On my Alaska cruise last year this was Victoria in British Columbia, Canada and a lot of cruises out of Florida stop in Nassau in the Bahamas for this reason.
@@mikebarnes2294 Interesting, I did not know that. So then "Cruises to nowhere" will either have to include a stop in Bahamas (or closest foreign port) OR start flying an American flag to skip the charade. I doubt the flag change will happen due to tax and liability issues but I stand by the idea of going nowhere fast...
Cruising allows middle class people to visit places they would never would other wise be able to visit. By limiting exotic locations to small ships with fewer passengers, it limits travel options for many. Compromise needs to be emphasized on all fronts.
I'm good with the restrictions, but not elimination, because I don't like crowds or destinations that have become too commercialized and cater solely to tourists. However, I prefer cruises on smaller ships for the convenience of sampling many places and only having to unpack once.
I believe the locals are right to ban huge ships, large numbers of tourists (who we know are out of control at times) and then when I get to visit via another mode of transportation it won't be as disgusting as waiting in line at Disneyland. I planned a RC cruise on the Symphony of the seas for my sons and I. After we could finally go after covid it was a nightmare. It was like being in line at Disneyland. What was also most likely my last mega ship cruise - the food had gone downhill to feed the masses and the people are not friendly as they were in the 80's on cruises.
As someone that enjoys cruising and enjoys the really large ships due to the amount of onboard amenity space, I think all these towns are actually being perfectly reasonable. Cruise companies need to order ships that are smaller but still provide a high quality experience