Limiting cruise ship visits or charging more for people visiting has become a growing trend, mostly in European ports. In some cases, it's about making sure the port does not get overwhelmed.
Santorini, Greece for example, has a cable car or a very steep staircase that visitors have to use to enter the city. The wait to board the cable car, which takes you from the port to the city can be very long (think multiple hours) when the port is full.
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That's a bad experience for cruisers, so it makes sense for the city to raise prices per passenger to try to cut down on traffic. In other cases, cities want to balance tourism and quality of life for locals.
This phenomenon is not unique to Europe. Key West, Florida, has placed limits on how many cruise ships can be in port, and Juneau, Alaska, considered a rule that would do that, but local voters shot it down.
Now, another popular cruise port had a vote that was not good news for major cruise lines. It flew below the radar, which makes sense given that it took place on the same day as the presidential election, but Tony from La Lido Loca shared the news on the latest edition of his popular YouTube show.
Maine port stays off-limits to major cruise lines
Transcript:
Cruise news time and well, the people have spoken, the votes are in, and I can say this, this vote, this vote is bad for cruises, and I got to tell you about a couple that got straight up shamed, shamed by an entertainer on my cruise. Yeah, cruise news and my views. Let's talk about it.
Hey, what's up, everybody. Welcome to La Lida Loca. I'm your host, Tony, here with the latest cruise news and views for your face, for your face on a Wednesday, Wednesday, the 6th of November, 2024.
And yeah, yesterday was the big day. Certainly, there are people who are happy today. There are people that are unhappy today.
And it's, it's one of those things. It's one of those things that we go through as a country and as a person of faith. I'm not big into the political process. I vote, like I said because people have given their lives so that we can vote.
But yeah, I'm just praying for peace for everybody today. And it, you know, as I said, it's, it's good, and it's bad. And depending on your perspective, that's how you're going to feel.
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But you know, we, we move forward, we move forward. And again, I'm praying for peace for everybody, but we do need to talk about the ramifications of the election yesterday. And specifically, we need to talk about the election in Bar Harbor, Maine.
There was a cruise item on the ballot yesterday. And the outcome of that, I feel like is bad for cruises. On the ballot yesterday was the initiative to increase the limit of cruise passengers in Bar Harbor, on any given day from 1,000 to 3,200 cruise passengers.
Also, there was going to be a cap of 200,000 cruise passengers per year. You may remember it was just back in 2022 when the town actually voted to impose this 1,000 cruise passenger limit. And while the people spoke yesterday and they said, nah, we're not going to increase the limit.
We're going to keep it exactly as it is. Unofficial results of that vote is 1,776 people voted to keep the 1,000 limit and 1,713 people voted to increase it to 3,200. So the increasers lost.
Ironically, the town doesn't even enforce the 1,000 cruise passenger limit because they're afraid they're going to get sued. It's an interesting thing. I think the, I think the result of all of this activity in Bar Harbor, at least if I was the person that was in charge of the cruise company, I would just be less inclined to go to Bar Harbor.
Most modern cruise ships have more than 1,000 cruise passengers. So that knocks out the mass market lines, your Carnivals, your Norwegians, your Royal. Most of them don't have a cruise ship that only has 1,000 cruise passengers.
So again, for me, for the headache of it, I would probably just stop going there. Of course, if they already have things on the books and they're not enforcing the 1,000 maximum capacity limit right now, then I guess you still go there. Either way, it's bad for cruising.
It bumps me out as a cruiser because I would love to go to Bar Harbor on a cruise ship. I certainly could drive to Bar Harbor and spend some time there, which I think would be fine, but I like to cruise. It's the will of the people.
If they say no more than 1,000, then it's no more than 1,000, but kind of a bummer. What do you think? Do you think this is a good or a bad vote there in Bar Harbor? Leave a comment below.
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Holland America Line celebrates history
Cruise news story number two is somewhat related to my travels today.
I did get off of the MS Eurodam 7 a.m. this morning, drove back home from Fort Lauderdale. Here I am. What's going on? But look, I tell you what, that was only my third Holland America Line cruise, and I'm impressed every time that I go.
And one of the things that impresses me about Holland America Line is its history. And they show that history off pretty well in a show about Holland America's history, about the 150 years of Holland America Line. 150 years is a long time for a company to be around.
Of course, it started in the Netherlands. It's a Dutch company, and it really started by being a transport of people that were migrating to the United States. So interestingly, if you had relatives that maybe passed through Ellis Island that came from Europe, there's a good chance that they traveled on a Holland America Line ship.
But then eventually it transitioned over to cruising as we know it. But one of the ways that they stay connected to their history is they reuse the names of their cruise ships, like their newest cruise ship, the Rotterdam, is actually the seventh iteration of the Rotterdam. And all that to say, the cruise news story today is that one of their cruise ships is having their 25th birthday.
We're talking about the MS Volendam that came into service back in 1999. And this MS Volendam is the third MS Volendam in Holland America Line's history. Interestingly enough, though, the MS Eurodam, I think there's only one.
So it's a one of a kind. I say all this because, again, I haven't spent a lot of time on Holland America ships. I didn't get paid to go on the ship.
We paid our own way, and we went with family members, just a short four-day cruise. But I just want to say that this is a different kind of cruising. If you like Celebrity, if you like Princess, give Holland America Line a try.
It's not full of, you know, ancient old people, as some have stereotyped it. A wonderful time with great food, good entertainment, and a lot of cool spaces to hang out with family. The Crow's Nest, the area for gaming, it's really nice.
But yeah, happy birthday, Volendam. Happy 25th birthday. Now, I got to tell you about a little cruise passenger shaming, and we'll see if they were right to be shamed or not right to be shamed.
A cruise ship pet peeve
My biggest pet peeves really are attached to going to the theater. I think the theater is a place where you go and watch a presentation. And because you go and watch a presentation, you watch people who have practiced and are there to perform for your enjoyment.
If you're there for that, then I think there's a contract, a social contract at play, where you should do some things as an audience member. And one of those things that you should do is not talk during a performance. But I think the biggest thing that annoys me during a performance is when somebody comes in late, and they don't just sit in the back.
For some reason, you come into a performance 20, 30, minutes late, and you think you still deserve to sit in the first or second row. There might be an empty seat up there. But if you come in 20 or 30 minutes or five minutes late, I think you have forfeited your right to sit up close to the stage.
It's rude to the audience trying to watch the show. It's rude to the performer performing the show. But on this last cruise, I met a couple.
I didn't really meet them. They walked by me during the show. There was a couple that did not believe the same way that I believed.
And 20 minutes into a 35-minute show, they wandered up the aisle in front of the whole theater while the guy was performing and sat right there in the second row. Now, interestingly, the person that was performing was a comedian, and he was performing with a dummy. So he was a ventriloquist.
And look, if the glasses aren't a dead giveaway, I'll just tell it to you straight. I'm a huge nerd. I love circus arts.
I love jugglers and acrobats. I love magicians. And I love ventriloquists.
And so the thing that I'd never seen before was the ventriloquist using his dummy to shame people. And that's exactly what happened. As this couple made their way to the front of the theater, the dummy started saying, hey, you guys doing OK? But it wasn't the dummy because the dummy is not real.
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He's not really talking. Hey, are you guys OK? And they kind of stopped. And they went, yeah, we're all right.
They kept going to the seat. And as they were starting to sit down, he's like, hey, are you sure you don't need anything? And they got settled in their seat. They're like, no, no, we don't need anything.
And then the dummy kind of leans forward and opens his eyes really big. And he goes, well, how about a watch? The show started 20 minutes ago. And I thought it was great because they were ashamed by an inanimate object that was voiced by a talented man that didn't move his lips.
I guess we all have our ways of doing things. And that certainly makes sense for ventriloquists to shame people like that. If it were me and I had the power, I would have just banned them.
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Banned. Banned. Do not walk to the front of the stage when you're late for a show.
I don't know. It's not going to ruin my cruise or anything like that. It's just simple etiquette.
Look, the late showcomer is just one of 15 people that are the rudest cruise passengers. Check out the full list here. Thanks for watching the show today.
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