Cruise lines tell CIG they won’t tender mega-ships
Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas
(CNS): Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has told Cayman’s tourism minister that they will not tender their mega cruise ships, while Carnival has said it is unlikely to consider tenders for the mega class of vessels. In the latest statement from the tourism minister regarding the controversial proposed cruise berthing dock, Moses Kirkconnell said the cruise lines are transitioning to megaships and have more of them under construction. Given that in 2014 approximately 82% of Cayman’s cruise business came from Carnival and Royal Caribbean, he asked them about their future plans and was told that tendering is not something they are willing to consider.
According to a statement from the tourism ministry, Adam Goldstein, President and COO of Royal Caribbean Cruises said, “When Royal Caribbean International launched Oasis Class ships 6 years ago it was never intended that these vessels would be tendered. Royal has never tendered these ships and we have no plans for tendering them in the future.”
Despite claims regarding the cruise industry’s concerns about environmental responsibility and the well-publicised details of the significant destruction cruise berthing would cause to the Cayman Islands’ coral reefs and marine environment, the cruise lines are still insisting that they want piers or nothing.
Giora Israel, Senior Vice President of Global Port and Destination Development for the Carnival Corporation, also said piers would influence future itineraries.
“The key for a smooth operation of large ships in transit ports is the availability of piers / berthing facilities. The itinerary planning executives at our various cruise brands that will operate those ships in the future, will consider the availability of piers/ berthing facilities as a key element in considering a port or destination, and are unlikely to consider tender ports for such class of vessels.”
Carnival announced earlier this year it had started a construction programme for larger ships, the first of which is to be delivered in 2018.
“These state-of-the art ships will have a capacity of over 6,000 passengers and will use for the first time in the cruise industry the environmentally friendly LNG. The ships will require berthing facilities that can efficiently operate in all the destinations where they will operate in the future,” Israel added.
Kirkconnell said that the comments were made by the cruise bosses during meetings at a recent cruise conference in Mexico when he discussed the issues with the cruise lines and Cayman’s own plans.
“As more of these mega-ships are introduced it is becoming clearer that if Cayman wants to seriously be considered as a cruise tourism destination into the future, we have to provide the services and facilities cruise lines require, otherwise our cruise tourism business will sail past Grand Cayman to other destinations,” Kirkconnell added.
He said that talks had begun with the cruise lines about the financing of the piers and were ongoing.
“Whatever agreement is reached for financing the piers will be an arrangement that is unique to Cayman and developed to suit our particular needs,” he said, without giving away any suggestion as to how the $200 million plus project will be paid for.
“Our goal is to partner with cruise lines and arrive at a formula that will not only fund the piers but will ensure that they are owned by the people of the Cayman Islands. While these discussions are complex and sensitive, we are aware of the significant interest from the community and we will continue to keep the public informed of developments as much as we can,” the minister stated.
The government has said that it will not be giving the cruise ships retail opportunities but the current design proposal for the two piers to accommodate the mega-ships includes some seven acres of upland development, which government has made no comment about. Local economic experts believe that CIG will be forced to offer retail space to the cruise lines to get their financial support over and above passenger commitments and, as a result, they will take the lion’s share of any increase in cruise passenger spending, undermining the purpose of the facility.
The project remains extremely controversial due to the doubts surrounding any economic benefit, weighed against the massive environmental damage and the certain economic loss that will cause.
The issue continues to polarize the community. Hundreds of people from all walks of life came out to show their opposition to the proposal recently at a recent peaceful protest. Environment Minister Wayne Panton has also raised his concerns that the balance between damage to the environment versus the possible economic benefits had not yet been struck.
Although the cruise lines say they do not want tendering and this will play a part in itinerary plans, those opposing the project believe it is possible for government to call their bluff because Cayman is a particularly popular destination among passengers and regardless of the threats they will not remove the destination from their itineraries and eventually will tender.
Category: development, Local News
http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2012/07/articles/pollution-1/royal-caribbeans-new-port-in-falmouth-jamaica-at-what-cost-to-the-environment/
Those opposing the dock believe the bigger ships can eventually tender because half of them work in the tender company or sister companies of the tender guys. I don’t blame them for defending their business but at least come clean with your real motives and stop pretending you are environmentalists when your only goal is to keep the tenders running.
Bottom line is these mega ships have never tendered and will never tender just as the RCCL president stated.
Sonny: What do a Kirkbot and a Politician have in common?
Daddy: Both have thumbs.
Sonny: What is the difference between a Kirkbot and a Politician?
Daddy: The Politician mainly just sits on his thumbs.
When this dock is finally built and there is very little environmental damage and the only fallout in the diving industry was self inflicted through the pro tender guys trying to push their case to the world, people are going to look out and say holy cow, how did we let them pull us along this far. All at the same time standing in the middle of a flourishing downtown.
11.44 so speaks the qualified expert on Coral destruction. I wonder why he hasn’t published his thoughts in a proper forum?
This cruise pier has been needed for decades. Every tourism minister for the last I don’t know how many terms have tried to get the pier built. Without the massive push from the pro tender group this would never have been made an issue.
I never heard of people diving the balboa until now. Sre there is snorkeling on eden rock and cali and cheeseburger but all these can be protected.
Mr Premier, please grow some kahunas and remove your Deputy Premier from the Tourism Portfolio, as well as his cousin from the Deputy Chairmanship of the Port Authority. You can leave the Deputy’s brother in law at the CIAA which is not too bad except for the jewelry store at the Airport. Your Deputy and his cousin are conflicted with the development of the Port for the obvious reason of. the family’s business in the affected area. It is simply no way that they can be objective in their decision making, otherwise we will kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Also please take a lesson from St Kitts and see how they decide on an additional pier per yesterday’s Cayman Reporter.
This one really annoyed the Kirkbots. You would think they would be programmed to “smooth” responses across the posts to avoid glaring interference like this.
The port Authority has absolutely no say in the development of cruise piers, and be thankful we have a tourism minister that does not make decisions based on commissions.
Oh yeah…. so which Ministry does the Port Authority fall under?
Deputy Chairman of the Port Authority Board Gerry Kirkconnell has influence XXXXXX
A clear conflict of interests would sited if it was the udp in power or anywhere else in the world except for ppmville. SMH
You want the Premier to grow some Hawaiian surfer chiefs?
Deputy Premier why dont you put the cruise ship business in Little Cayman, like the proposal for cruise concept was in the late 1980’s when Sir Vassell was Minister?
But we suppose that would destroy the environment over there and it won’t happen.
For sale: Grand Cayman. The price: the biggest pile of pirate t-shirts you can imagine.
Georgetown is a lovely harbour. We do not need 8 acres of concrete (brought to you by the folks who built the school) in the middle of it.
Close the Turtle farm, use the land in place for the shore side shops. Build one finger dock for two ships. Ask Mr Dart to extend the bypass. You would be 10 minutes by bus or taxi to the beach or places to go to North Sound, 20 minutes to Downtown.
Lets ease into the 21st century while keeping a foot firmly in the past.
Agreeing with this anon 2:17pm. I don’t know why they never explored this?????
Cruise ships are destroying the region.
Each new 6000 passenger ship, 3000 rooms, may as well shut down a tourist town.
All you have to do is travel the region, look at the number of deserted hotels in Montego Bay. On the North Coast of Dominican Republic, the number of deserted properties is staggering.
Not just the mom and pop 20-50 room properties either. Large 500+ room all inclusive beach front properties are closed and decaying. Low end hotels and all inclusive properties that employ thousands of locals within the region are closing because of the super low cost price of cruise travel.
There is a mantra here that people will come here on a cruise and decide to come and stay here for a week…. Big deal. That number is so low we would be better at looking at the conversion rate at the Ritz Carleton.
I would be willing to bet that on a percentage basis, more people have visited the Ritz and gone on to buy a condo here than have spent the day here on a cruise and decided to come back for a vacation.
Extend the runway!
Even the ritz was below 10% occupancy this summer. Hotels can’t fill the void andand definitely not the jobs. Between Cuba and the next hotels planned here to over expand the rooms available le Cayman better have a dock on the way.
3.14…that is complete rubbish…until end September/October there were virtually no rooms to be had on Island…got to love the kirkbots, just make it up to suit their cause…
I checked on Royal Caribbean’s web page and verified on the Port website. We will have the Anthem of the Seas (from the Quantum class) docking here on Dec 5th with appx 4100ppl!!! This is a huge ship which will have to be tendered. We really need people who understand our business and who are not short sighted when negotiating on our behalf. As long as we keep this island in high demand the cruise ships will always dock here. We have to decide on our product what are we selling, and stick with it. The minute we destroy our natural resources and our uniqueness it will be an easy itin change. We need to drive OUR business not anyone else!! There are several ships over a majority of Royal Caribbean’s fleet that will dock here we don’t need 1 ship with 4000+ppl we can properly cater to 2 or more smaller ships with the same amount of people. Figure out a solution that is best for US as a whole where we are in control of OUR own product!!!!! We have the asset lets keep it that way!!!
The anthem is similar capacity as the freedom class. Anthem only calls into cayman 3 times in the next 12 months. There is a huge difference between getting an Oasis class every week and a quantum once a quarter at best. I less we have berthing we will keep losing ships period.
Anthem of the seas has the same passenger count as Freedom, and only comes here 3 times in the whole season as part of a 12 day itinerary from New York. It still doesn’t change the fact that we can’t get these passengers ashore in less than 4 hours and that in 2016 a 3rd Oasis class ship will be in the Caribbean and Carnival are building 4 mega ships, so in 5 years we’ll be off the itineraries for 7 ships. For every new mega ship they retire 1 or 2 smaller ships.
Read the title of the article again, or should I say for the first time, Reason.
The Cayman Island Government and people should not have to pay for a poorly planned Red Roofed plaza. Some waterfront businesses, that are pushing this port monstrosity down our throats, have poor management in place and haven’t evolved with the times. They failed to see the shift in the cruise industry, from small ships with affluent passengers to large ships with lower income tourists, so why should we follow their view for the future?
We need to invest in properly marketing our tourism product to the world, not be held hostage by a cruise companies’ decision to stop or not stop here. Let people see the kind of stress free, non crowded paradise that we have here and they will come with their money in tow.
Fix the dump. Move this small island to 100% renewable energy so that we don’t have to endure the burden and exploitation by the hands of CUC and the fuel companies who raise the cost of living unnecessarily. These are the types of projects the Government, if they are brave enough and wise enough, should be looking to execute.
You need to remember that these are old and as yet unfulfilled promises made in exchange for help at the polls. The frightening part of their insistence to dredge on at all costs is that it is Mac’s ticket back to the fore.
Let me make clear that Mac’s plan was to build a port in West Bay (better location than GT), and he was going to have China build it, not use our tax payer $$$. So, while I am all for throwing his name out there when merited, this is not one instance where it will work. Mac, had a better plan for a port, this plan by the PPM administration is all for a few already rich Caymanian people versus a port that will benefit us all as a Country. Give a dog his due, as they say.
The Chinese were not going to gift $300,000,000.to the Cayman Islands…but the dog you refer to was certainly demanding his bone.
Ha Ha. He dam near got his bone too. Thank God the UK intervened in THAT one.”Not use the tax payer $$$”. How incredibly stupid can some people BE?
If tacky is what we are going for they should really just convert that thing in to a Red Roof Inn and a Pizza Hut and move on with life.
We’ll be non crowded when Cuba opens to the US and all the stay over tourists go there and all the ships are sailing by if we didn’t build a dock! .
If Cuba opening up affects our tourism product that negatively, then a dock expansion won’t save us. It will only put us in a worse situation financially to address that new situation.
You probably think building another red roof plaza is a good idea too…
Due to our close proximity to Cuba we would most likely see a boost in cruise tourism because of the popularity Cuba will have, unlike stay over guests, cruise ships will visit 3- 4 ports on a cruise, if we build a dock we can be 1 of those ports as its likely to be larger ships on the Cuba runs to cope with the demand.
So instead we should all bow down to the tender company, who are the main push against the dock?
The pro dock people are always saying if the dock isn’t expanded the ships will stop coming. So which is it? The ships will stop coming and the tenders will have nothing to tender or the same ships will keep coming in record setting numbers???
with what money? Talk is cheap. The cruise line will invest, a mutually beneficial project. The dump is a loss for everyone. You can’t just simply find investors who will give a mutually beneficial deal to the government.
Who does this dock expansion benefit? You and the cruise lines? If the government can throw 200-300 million at this bad idea, they can afford to address better projects.
Spot on! The smaller ships are the luxury cruisers choice.Even the thumbsdownbots working in the stores on the waterfront would agree, less volume more money.
Who really wants to be trying to sell a $3,000 watch or necklace to a person who only paid $400 or $500 for their four day cruise out of Florida?
I bet they will still tender all the non mega ships they are using right now.
this isn’t about now, this is about our future!
the future, when the cruiselines have moved their ships to the Mediterrean, ok
Tell me what percentage of Carnival and Royal ships are in the Med through the winter months
As spokesman for the cruise line stated “We have an environmental policy on our website but it is really just PR hocus-pocus. We want money. And we want to dock in places that know they are our b$$$h. If it a choice between the environment or money, we choose the money option.”
Bigger is not necessarily better, as the new Pirates of the Caribbean would have us believe.
Kirkbots out in full force. Or more likely one person with a lot of time on their hands, who has learned how to clear cookies/cache from their browser history and like or dislike the comments as much as they want. Let’s see how much they “dislike” this comment. Or perhaps they’ll leave it alone. I hope CNS readers are smart enough not to form opinions based on the number of ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’. There is obvious vote manipulation going on here. Just goes to show the mentality of the pro-porters.
Again, why then do you fear a referendum on the matter?
Kirkbots do not know the meaning of fear.
I actually know for a fact that there are employees that have been ‘instructed’ by their employers to upvote any comments in favor of the port so I am not sure who you think you are fooling.
I’m assuming you worked on the schools projects previously.
You want your kids to grow up to sell pirate t-shirts?
better they have a job than they grow up to rob people
Hey “CS” could mean a lot of things eh!
I guess you have the tenderbots on your side then?
Until these statements are committed to paper in black and white for all to see in; along with a written unconditional commitment to actually use these waste of money piers on a frequent basis, the statements upon which this whole article are based, are pure heresay.
I’d trade all the Carnival ships in the world to get the couple of mega ships from Royal once week.
The Bots are back in town…
And they have said, unequivocally, that they will come if the pier s are built, right?
They might have said it , but they are wrong. Anyone can see that. I sees it.
Yes! Plus if they skin in the game they will up the numbers to make sure they recoup their investment.
There are no guarantees in any business venture, but you have to spend money to make money. We have a historical record of attracting cruise tourism and there is every indication that improved infrastructure will continue the growth of that vital sector of our economy. A $200 million investment in Cayman’s port is not going to be a waste of money no matter what the future holds. In case you missed it, we do live on an island and we do depend on the sea and the seaport for virtually everything.
No 10.18-you make sensible business plans, not half baked poorly thought out decisions based on your desire for the filthy lucre while everyone else can go to hell.
Well said @ 11:18am!
Cayman will struggle to manage over 2million cruise passengers as stated by Bud Johnson from Atlantis submarine.
Realistically if Grand Cayman’s tourism product and physical infrastructure cannot accommodate those numbers what is the real justification for going forward with the CBF? The formula being used is quantity over quality but there is currently NO plan or substance to any National Development Plan, Tourism Management Plan, National Conservation Plan. CIG should proceed with caution before it commits to a project that it cannot afford and will dramatically alter George Town Grand Cayman. Btw this is a project that will conservatively cost over 300 million in construction costs alone.
Unfortunately, there is no cohesion tying any of the big ideas together in order to make any of these proposed projects viable especially since there is no cost benefit analysis completed to support or justify the proposals. Ask PWC if they could confidently justify the projections for the CBF in the Outline Business Case?
Therefore If Cayman cannot afford these expensive projects or monuments to political egos they should not mortgage our futures. Build what you can afford not what you want!
Perhaps the pro port lobbyist and business owners driving the process who are so confident in the CBF should put “skin in the game” by assisting CIG with financing as they are projected to be primary beneficiaries and lead by example.
Overall, a classic problem of failed project management by successive governments. Reminds me of the malfunction junction designed by politicians in the late 1980’s.
Because they are appointed they think they know best and “Lord it Over” people.
What really qualifies them so?
Just know the right church people and you can teach a project management class with a made up PhD degree from only their God knows where.
I’m not sure why it took this long for people to realize that the big ships won’t tender. They don’t even go to the islands in the Bahamas that they own themselves if they don’t have a dock. Why would they not be visiting islands that they control completely if they thought tendering was the right way? It is obvious that if you want to stay in the cruise business you need a dock. But some people in Cayman like to dismiss the inconvenient truths if it doesn’t suit them.
They don’t come to see or use docks. They come to enjoy a pleasant Caribbean island.
Yes but if there is no dock they will not come
People built churches and are still waiting for Jesus to come…2000 years later, and see how people managed to screw those churches up so much?
Jets will work wonders
They are preserving the beautiful beaches and water of their islands for the wealthy stayover tourists.
The murky water will be for the other class…
Let’s face it. We are NOT ready for prime time mega-crowds! Dumping 6,000 to 12,000 people at one time in George Town is nothing but insanity! We should continue with what we have until this problem…….. and the DESTRUCTION OF OUR UNDERWATER WONDERLAND is circumvented.
have you not seen pictures of the other ports? They are diving right next to the piers and when the ships leave they do night dives under the piers. The piers are teeming with underwater life. You build structure in the water and it grows coral and becomes a home. Part of where these piers are built will be where the anchors have torn apart the ocean bottom, this will mean we gain underwater habitat not lose it.
We did it fine in 2004-2008. Get your facts straight. Town and the island were full of stores and very lively. It was great energy, not like it has been of recent years, dead and emptying.
The fact is, we only have so many hotel rooms and condos. We can’t simply say lets get more stayover. During the Christmas period the hotels are already at capacity. You can’t just say build more hotels because, one there is not much room to build on the beach anymore, plus it is very expensive. So an investor will not build if it does not make a good business model. During the slow summer months, the hotels we have are already empty and down to 8% occupancy. So the island relies on the cruises to bring people to our island. We can’t just cut them off, it would make no sense.
Yes you can build more hotels and we are, and many more to come I hope. Loads of room. We are not NYC.
and when Cuba opens to the US all our hotels will be empty again, while we stand to benefit from cruise tourism, being so close to Cuba, however we need to be prepared for this and that would include a dock and revival of George Town, due to the popularity of Cuba it will be getting the larger ships.
Different market, different argument, but pro-porters don’t understand anything other than their own point.
Precisely 7.39 and when that happens they will stop coming because Cayman cannot cope with it, and passengers will complain about overcrowding etc etc..however the kirkbots cannot see past the end of there scrooge noses.
But don’t these same cruise lines tender at their own private islands? If so, why the double standard
Any private islands that are tender only are not visited by the mega ships
Very clearly the cruise lines are moving towards mega ships and very clearly we have a choice between losing an entire industry or a fraction of our many thousands of coral heads. Wake up Cayman.
The largest ships right now, Oasis class from Royal Caribbean, only call on Labadee which is Royal’s private destination in Haiti and has a pier. Prior to Oasis they tendered but the pier was constructed as Royal stated they would not tender this class of ships and never have.
If the tender company wanted to try to pretend the Genesis Class ships would tender they wouldn’t have needed an FOI. They fully know and knew the answer long before and that is that Royal looked at the possibility and decided against it. End of story.
Now here we are several years worth of missing these ships later and they are still trying to protect their out of date business model. $5.50 per person with no competition can do a lot to a person.
The writing is on the wall for the Cayman Islands. Either you get with the times or you get left behind. We have been calling the industries bluff for 6 years now and the Oasis ships keep sailing right by Cayman. Cayman is losing some of the Royal Caribbean ships already because more mega ships are launching and somehow people keep pretending it isn’t happening.
For Anonymous 7:18. And that’s the way uh-huh, uh-huh I like it! Skru those crowds!
Somebody please tell me, WHAT the tourists will do when they enter GT???
What is there to do in Town, the Capital? Open a bank account? Go for a run on the submarine? Go “window-shopping” at Guy Harvey’s (cuz tourists ain’t buying his expensive stuff!)…..go for a helicopter ride (if you can afford one)….
People on here glorifying the port like it is going to save our economy. How?
While it will create a FEW jobs, you also lose jobs too!
Please let me know how we can accommodate 12,000 people in the Capital with thousands of residents who work in the Capital; major congestion of traffic, and a horrible experience for all.
Oh, we’re going to build a dock, but the Dump reaches its capacity in 2021, we’re going to build a dock with piss-poor public transportation. We’re going to build a dock but not shut down the center of the Capital to accommodate the masses and allow street vendors, musicians, artists etc. to be apart of this initiative?
As a Country, we do not need to take 5 steps ahead only to have to take 10 steps back in the future.
Everyone asked for it from the horses mouth and now you have it. Cayman will NOT be included in any future cruise itinerary planning unless docks are built.
Hooray ? And U have seen that in writing on the Cruise ship letterhead signed by the appropriate person(s$). Shiver my timbers but some mothers raised some stupid chilundren.
They won’t come at all, pier or no pier. We don’t want them anyway.
we want to be unemployed, we want beggars on the streets and crime in our neighborhoods
Yeh 8.22, all a pier will do is concentrate those scum down in GT to rob the hoards of tourists, as those people never want to work in the first place.
I cannot believe our people prefer the cruise lines go elsewhere. The cruise dollar trickles down, making contributions to many fields of our economy. This island is one, large reef. There are so many reefs around us, why sacrifice a very lucrative form of iincome which trickles down to almost every part of our economy. I support the cruise pier 100%.
Believe it, Anonymous! Most of “our people” don’t want it. If you don’t believe it, get a referendum.
Is that the “crowd” of under 300 people speaking? Most of which were kids and expats? Really good show of voter count right there lol
Then why are you so afraid of Referendum? The question has been asked many times, the answer has not been forthcoming.
Its more accurate than all you pro-porters running round thumbing up the same articles on CNS with different devices to make it look like everybody is voting pro-port, when in reality most are against it.
Caymanian, the kirkbots never mention a referendum because they know they will lose it. They can write and fiddle the voting on here as much as they like, they cannot fiddle a referendum. If they really thought they could win, they would suggest such a thing, as it would validate them, right? So now we know, they are afraid…and with good reason
It’s time to stop talking pro port people show us the documents, they will not come, where are they. More is not always better, we were better off when we were only a population of 20 or so thousand people. Most residents are in bed now by 8pm afraid to go out. Prosperity eh. Greed is sinking these Islands and most of them are not even Caymanians. Get the doe and leave after the place is ruined is the motto. It is well known that the more people in town the less business is done by the merchants as sales personnel have to spend their time watching the supposedly purchaser, why, you guessed it. The merchants themselves are going around making those statements, so why are they supporting the port? GREED. No gurintee that 7MB and dive sites between SW and NW point will not be affected, why take the chance as we could loose everything that made us famous. Just make what we have more affordable and attractive.
That’s not how you spell guarantee. I gurintee that.
Other than the typo, the post is spot on accurate though.
As for CIG claiming they will not be letting the cruise lines move into retail outlets in GT I’d like to see how they plan to stop it happening. At least two of the current retail outlets in GT are nothing more than branches of regional chains that are effectively owned by Carnival. CIG also have to deal with the fact that most of the property that will be impacted by the dock is in private ownership and a lot of it is owned, albeit through front companies, by one man. In short – they can’t control what happens there.
CIG makes a lot of claims that aren’t 100% true, don’t they!
“At least two of the current retail outlets in GT are nothing more than branches of regional chains that are effectively owned by Carnival…..” Really? Which ones? Please elaborate, or are you just scaremongering again? Seriously – Carnival are not in the retail business. If they were they would run the stores on their own ships and they don’t!
Sounds good to me – just keep on sailing to the other port then, buddy-boys.
In most instances quality trumps quantity. Would hate to see our port, capital, roads and tourist attractions become overrun like some commercialised Disney World roller coaster ride.
The Cayman Islands is a pristine and tranquil destination. We became that way thanks to a low number of people at any given time, and is the ONLY way we shall maintain said qualities.
– Whodatis
When the quality comes in quantity and the only way to get it is through a dock that would seem to scuttle your horrible attempt at logic buddy boy.
Believe me friend, the stuff that comes off that cruise ship is budget class and definitely not quality!
We actually became that because we have had cruises coming and a big part of our economy for the last 40 years.
Quality is normally greater than quality. But with the cruise industry they quality cruisers are on the biggest ships, therefore meaning quantity and quality come together. Seems like a bonus. We get more better quality cruisers if the pier is built.
“Quality is normally greater than quality.”??? What have you been smoking. mister bot?
LMAO – You are so delusional and clearly have no idea of the cruise ship passenger business. The mega cruise ships are actively marketing themselves to customers on a tight budget – just as the smaller ships before them did. All inclusive deals to discourage the passengers from disembarking, and only alcohol they can buy must be bought on board the ship, not in our shops. Food is served free on board the ship as is refreshments. Ain’t much money getting spent on shore except those poor souls who are fool enough to use Cayman taxis.
Cayman Islands government does not need to make money. All that money made from the cruise ship taxes can be made up by collecting the garbage fees that are due to them.
It’s simple mathematics. Bringing in more people to the island doesn’t mean more people will go on tours or buy things. I mean it’s a better chance than if they don’t come.
Cayman should build their own cruise ship, and feature Cayman on the itinerary every cruise. Then we could really turn our backs on the cruise companies. We don’t need anyone else, Cayman can survive without visitors. We don’t need any. Think about how pristine it was before anyone came here. Let’s go back.
-Who
If you find yourself in a hole Who, just stop digging.
Wasn’t me poster – just a Whodatis wannabe apparently.
– Whodatis
I agree whodatis, we should go back to where there were no houses either. We’d be the land that time lost. Imagine how many people would want to visit then, but then we wouldn’t let them because they destroy it. It’s a genius plan!
Don’t be led astray.
Someone signed that ridiculous pretending to be yours truly.
Says a lot really.
– Whodatis
😀 Nice one, poster.
However, you may be onto something there Re: “Cayman should build their own cruise ship, and feature Cayman on the itinerary every cruise.”
Interested in a partnership? Inbox me via the modern avenues.
– Whodatis
Yes. Let us go back. That would be wonderful. I was happy then.
Have to agree with you WHO. I propose that we get all the gay cruise ships come in. Cayman will welcome them with open arms. Have you thought about that kirkbots?
10.16…complete silence around your comment. All anti porters, me included, lets make sure that if the 30 pieces of silver Judas pro-porters do get their way, that we invite every single gay cruise into Cayman and organize a gay pride parade in town for each one….lets see how that works for Cayman. Oh lord no, they might catch “gay” if they took their cash and the lord would be offended. As if he wasn’t already by their lies and greed on here…And lets see what the world press says when those gay cruise ships are met by the haters…the same people who love cash so much they are prepared to betray their own!! I for one will p*ss myself laughing…and they asked for it…
And there it is, from the horse’s mouth. Now they say call a conglomerate’s bluff??? We’ve been calling it for three years now, and they still haven’t come.
Who on Earth wants mega-cruise ships whose passengers and crew will increase our population, for 8 hours, by nearly 10% – and that is just ONE Oasis ship, on top of the other cruises in port on that day.
Were you here in the early 2000’s? We had 8 ships multiple days. It’s nothing new to cayman. The whole island was firing on all cylinders during those years. There were new businesses opening for tours and retail all over the island. It was a sight to see. These ships would give opportunity to those who don’t have it now.
Cayman can handle the traffic, but will handle it better once George Town has some tweaks. With a little outside the box thinking, and three years to get it done (the piers will take approx 3 years) we can create the nicest town in the Caribbean, and inject life into the taxi and tour operators.
The ruling merchants should be very happy with this news. Dredge & wreck!
Ok, so many unknowns and yet the pro port robber barons steam on with their, at best, whimsical and unfounded claims. What remarkably good Caymanians they are. From the school of ” facts don’t matter as long as we make our money”. I don’t generally believe in boycotts, but think these people need to be hit where it hurts them most, their wallets. Boycott them Cayman, you know who they are!!
You mean the government? It’s the government moving this forward, no one else buddy. You may hate some people, so come out and say that, don’t act like its a new thing. Jealousy makes you say stupid things sometimes.
What whimsical claim is that? Please indulge us.
Which facts are you relying on? I think you have it the wrong way buddy.
The only money hungry people are those that want to hold Cayman back in the dark ages to protect their shuttle boat monopoly.
One thing you have right is that we need to boycott the greedy people running the tenders that want to hold Cayman hostage for the next generation.
Looks like Cayman is boycotting you my friend.
Nah 7.30, just the kirkbots. They think it’s not obvious. Kind of proves my first point, it’s so obvious that one or a few clear cache and troll again and that through their greed they can’t see that it’s that obvious. You can’t fix stupid. Or greed.
Good news for Cayman. Let them trudge somewhere else.
Typical ignorant garbage. Only a dummy would throw away an entire industry when other pillars of the economy are under threat. Be careful what you wish for, one day you might wake up and find cayman back in the sand roads and smoke pot days.
Yes! Yes! Back to the sand roads! I wish. Everyone was happy.
Why cut your nose off to spite your face, bozo?
Wow, some folks just don’t take not getting their own way lightly.