In hoping this is the end of cruises?

[nakedavengerreturns]

Carnival Cruises are in the shit following the Pandemic. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/31/carnival-cruises-seeks-6bn-funding-amid-coronavirus-fallout?CMP=ShareAndroidAppp_Facebook

AIBU in hoping this is the end of these disgusting floating effluent and
emission producing shit heaps that sully our global waters?

Cruising creates a lot of jobs and provides nice holidays. So no, I expect cruising will continue no matter how dirty it is, or how they use cheap labour with no minimum wage, or how they avoid paying taxes.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/21/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-and-its-supersized-pollution-problem

The carbon emissions of eating at a local restaurant on holiday won’t come close to the carbon emissions of eating on a cruise ship (where all the ingredients, the equipment, the cooks and servers and the customers are being transported.....)

Does that include the emissions of the power station, desalination plant, and sewage treatment works that the restaurant couldn't trade without? Just because they're not part of the restaurant doesn't mean you can forget about them. You need to compare like with like. Same with transport of goods to the restaurant, collection and disposal of food waste, travel and carbon footprint of the restaurant staff etc. When comparing, it's meaningless if you don't compare the full picture rather than just selecting bits that suit you!

OP Swan Hellenic used to be a small line with lecturers on board who would educate their willing customers about the significance of what they were about to see. I think it was 100 or so tourists max. they were comparatively expensive so my ma only went on two in 20 years.

2000 or more people crashing into a port is not viable nor is the size of the ship.

But clearly despite the desecration of the big cruise ships, there are still people fighting for them as this article from Orkney shows

www.heraldscotland.com/news/15526001.orkney-under-threat-from-cruise-ship-invaders/

I’ve just read in today’s “Dorset Echo” newspaper online that the P&O cruise ship “Britannia” is currently anchored in Weymouth Bay with no passengers. There is a photo of it (sorry I don’t know how to post links from my iPad here) and it is one of those mega ships.

In one of the comments underneath the report, someone posted that it’s much cheaper than berthing it at a dock such as Southampton or Portland. Someone else posted that “P&O cruise operations are suspended until at least May 15 at the moment, and most likely longer”.

I guess most of the employees on board are getting fed, but I know that many of the cabin attendants earn the vast amount of their wages by tips from passengers......they must be earning an absolute pittance right now and unable to remit any money home to feed their families :(

Holidays via cruise ships are no way as good at supporting local economies as a holiday via a flight, train or road. Because - people on cruise ships don’t eat all their meals locally and don’t sleep locally. Yes they might stop off and buy a few bits but don’t spend anywhere near the amount that tourists staying locally would. Cruise passengers will generally have their main meal on board and sleep on board.

I live in an area where cruise ships dock, they’re massively unpopular. In many cities we really don’t need the cruise ship passengers. Ask a resident of Barcelona or Venice.

There may be some areas of the world where cruise ships are beneficial financially, for example where tourists wouldn’t usually get to visit other means, I can see that.

But seeing the industry in the round, with the massive amount of pollution it produces and the limited benefits for local communities, it’s bad.

@CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate better an unequal society where only the rich can go abroad than an unequal world where only those who are born in certain countries can survive the impact of climate change or worse an uninhabitable planet. I am not perfect and am not changing as fast as I need to but I have made my peace with not going abroad again.

I do wonder if the ships that have had coronavirus on them will be popular when/if cruising starts again (and I think this might be a lot of ships that were/are infected). I know with norovirus it is difficult to eradicate and often rears it's head on subsequent cruises even after a deep clean. Would you be happy to get on a ship knowing that covid 19 might still be lurking in the uncleaned reaches of the a/c system?

I've never been on a cruise, so it isn't something I've put much thought into. But I would definitely think that planes do much more damage overall and I hope that this pandemic will result in a lifestyle change and the realisation that holidays don't have to mean going abroad. There are lovely places to visit in this country.

I wouldn't want aeroplane travel to stop altogether, as lots of people have family overseas, but there do need to be big changes.

If the environmental damage from cruise ships are as bad as you're saying, then that needs to be looked at, too, but I can't help thinking that reducing air travel is the more urgent priority.

I don't think you've helped your cause by being so aggressive about this, though, OP, as there are also economic considerations. Also, in the middle of a pandemic, the majority of people have more immediate concerns.

@swiftier
When a cruise ship docks they take on local produce food etc...and pay for them
They get rid of waste...using local companies...and paying for it.
They pay to dock in the first place,
They have crew changes...using the local hotels and airports in the process
They dock at a port which provides more local jobs in the first place!

The picture is MUCH bigger than you think

It’s just a destructive form of tourism. Dumping literally thousands of people on one tiny port that can’t cope. Cruise ship tourists won’t spend as much money as other kinds of tourists because they eat and sleep on the ship so it’s not contributing to the local economies like people try to tell themselves. At least tourists who fly in are likely to be staying at local hotels and eating out at restaurants etc
Again, typical waffle from someone who doesn't have a clue. As it is, those arriving from cruises are much more likely to spend money on excusions, organised by locals, and eat/drink in restaurants/bars, then their counterparts who come and rent villas and stay around the pool for 2 weeks.

As other knowledgeable posters have said, many of these places are very poor, had their industries totally ravaged, sending a very large proportion of people into unemployment (like the sugar industry on St Kitts Island), and tourism is everything to them. Cruises are perfect because it doesn't mean more ugly hotels being built in the island. Cruisers come, spend their money and off they go. These islands massively welcome the easy tourism that comes by cruise.

@dontdisturbmenow

I wonder if a Venetian would think it’s ‘waffle?’.

all the people saying they ruin tiny towns, the cruise industry is the only reason the tiny town in Greece I have spent a lot of my life (and have family in) is able to survive.
the destruction of the cruise industry would decimate whole areas and islands like that

I'll still be going on them after this is over, but will always book a balcony room from now on.

@nowaitaminute yeah, which is why cruise ships are terrible form of mass tourism and not beneficial for the local communities they visit. Like you say, customers on cruise ships get everything from the ship.... when you fly somewhere on holiday you use and spend money on local services, supporting the local economy.

Not on all inclusive holidays in compounds in Cancun or the Dominican Republic for example. And cruise ships use local tour guides and transport for excursions many of which will include a meal in a restaurant.

All the cruise ships I have been on have bought locally grown & caught food in port. Stopping cruises would mean some smaller places taking a huge loss to their economy. Excursions from cruises also employ guides & transport locally plus the places they visit rely on the trade.

@SerenDippitty All Inclusives are also not great for the local economy. The money for food and board goes to a big company rather than to locals.

I love to cruise, I’ve been on 11. I always have my lunch in local restaurants apart from from days at sea. I book tours with local companies, the restaurants, tour guides and shops seem quite happy to take my money.

We went on a Baltic cruise last Summer which included stops at several towns we'd never have visited otherwise. We spent on taxis, tour buses, shops, restaurants, tour guides, museums, and other attractions etc.

That is money those businesses wouldn't have got otherwise as we'd never have gone to those places any other way.

typical waffle from someone who doesn't have a clue

Very rude, and the original post was entirely accurate. The ships DO overwhelm ports and they are trying to stop them docking. But yes, money comes before environment. Maybe, just maybe, after all this, when we've discovered that nature does bite back, and don't forget the floods and the bush fires too, we'll start putting the environment ahead of profit. But going by some of the posts on here, I sadly doubt it.

Maybe, just maybe, after all this, when we've discovered that nature does bite back, and don't forget the floods and the bush fires too, we'll start putting the environment ahead of profit. But going by some of the posts on here, I sadly doubt it.

A balance is needed. Despite supporting foreign travel by air and boat, I also think it's gone too far, it's too cheap, too many people are doing it too often, etc. Rather than some extremists seeming to want to ban it all, how about some kind of middle ground of reducing travel, both for business, family and tourism? Rather than people having 2/3 foreign holidays per year, perhaps we need to price it so most can only afford 1. How about making it harder and more costly to fly to Amsterdam for a weekend stag do? Cruise ships have a place - perhaps there are too many - perhaps a reduction in number would be a good thing, but banning them would be a ridiculous over-reaction.

(Venice) is being destroyed ...

Makes a good headline doesn't it? But actually there are many reasons for Venice's predicament, a major one being ths sheer incompetence and corruption of those running the place

Take the MOSE flood barrier project - or rather, take the 35 who were arrested over it (including the mayor) - and put them in jail where they almost certainly belong

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27832890

My mate went on a Mediterranean cruise. She summed it up along these lines: when you stop at somewhere interesting you aren't there for long enough to appreciate it, but when you stop at somewhere ghastly you're stuck with it. You can stay on the ship, but then you're stuck with loads of people you'd normally cross the street to avoid.

It's not my cup of tea at all, and given what I now know about their impact on the places they stop at, and on the environment, I'd be quite happy if they all stopped tomorrow.

actually there are many reasons for Venice's predicament,

True, but many wrongs don't make a right. The objections to cruise ships apply elsewhere eg Dubrovnik.

I love to cruise, I’ve been on 11. I always have my lunch in local restaurants apart from from days at sea. I book tours with local companies, the restaurants, tour guides and shops seem quite happy to take my money.

Is that the 'floating apartment block' type of cruise ship or one of the smaller ones?

These places objecting to cruise ships.. Do the local authorities know that they don't actually have to give ships docking slots? If places like Venice don't want as many cruise ships, all they need to do is say no and not let as many go there. It's not as if cruise ships just randomly turn up and dock - it all has to be planned months/years in advance, agreed and paid for. The local authority in Venice is in full control and can limit the number of ships if it chose to do so. Local people annoyed should lobby their local authorities.