Note: I’m beginning a section on this blog dedicated to cruising and cruise information. I’ll be posting photos and reviews of my past cruises, as well as cruise industry news.
Do they want us?
Some folks really like cruising. Some communities love them. Some folks hate them in regard to whether they should open their communities ports to them.
This story in the NYTimes discusses the debate going on in SC and other coastal towns around the US. Several communities/states are debating issues right now about Cruising:
In Key West, Fla., voters will decide this fall whether to spend $3 million toward widening a channel that leads to the city’s ports, where 350 cruise ships arrive each year. A deeper channel would allow a new, larger class of cruise ships to dock. Business owners and residents worry that the dredging would hurt fragile coral reefs and overwhelm the town.
In Alaska on Tuesday, state lawmakers rolled back tough wastewater standards mandated by voters in 2006. The bill, backed by Gov. Sean Parnell, will allow the 36 cruise ships that travel Alaska’s waters each year to discharge wastewater with less treatment than it currently receives.
I’m a fan of cruising, but want the communities we visit to welcome us – not despise us. Aside from maintaining good environmental protocols (let’s be good stewards of our oceans and minimize our impact on them), I’m all for communities debating whether they want cruisers like my wife and I coming to their communities to spend our vacation dollars. I’d love to visit Alaska, New Orleans, Mobile, and Charleston… but, if those communities decide they don’t want us, we can spend our vacation dollars in ports that do: Jamaica, Mexico, Haiti, etc.
From my time in the small town newspaper business, there are always those who naysay anything that will change a status quo or look at altering one brick, one board, or even change out a rusted street sign that adds character. Those folks deserve to have their say. But, the community at large needs to decide if they want the dollars that cruisers like my wife and I bring.