Not necessarily even an average size ship holds around 3,000 people along with the additional crew. So have 2 or 3 of those in port & you have large crowds.
The most common Princess ship carried 1200 passengers in the early 2000s. Look at the passenger numbers now…is there any wonder ports are saying NO? And, places like Amsterdam are real cities with real economies not based on cruises ships. Cruisers see themselves in an exalted great white hope status…as if ports are Disney like created cities for their holiday pleasure.
The overcrowded ports are becoming a big problem with all these huge ships everywhere. At least the City is telling everyone the consequences of less revenue.
So sad to see the ships not porting out of Amsterdam. Flying into Schipol and taking the train to your hotel by Central was so convenient. If you went a couple of days before you sailed you could take in all that Amsterdam offers.
Hey Dan, great information especially about the river cruises. It’s no surprise given how popular Amsterdam is and how many river cruise ships there are currently. My wife and I have always wanted to go from Budapest to Amsterdam on a long river cruise, maybe will have to do it sooner than later.
I wonder what will happen when all the ports realize the cost of losing the tourism? In most cases, ships are in a port for only a few hours. I don't want to spend my time on a bus traveling to another city. When I could explore the city that has the port.
You do know that these “cruise ports” are real cities, with real business other than tourist kiosks? It is not a fake Disney city developed for cruisers pleasure. They will do fine without ships.
I suspect this is just the beginning of cruise ports worldwide cutting back on ships. This is the first I heard of river cruising being limited. It's not great for me, but I understand. About that residency at sea, how long can the company keep putting cruisers up at hotels and sending them on holidays before they are bankrupt?
I understand that some towns or cities are overwhelmed with maybe too many visitors, and they can limit the amount of cruisers per day, but with Amsterdam wanting NO cruise ships, that's a bit extreme. And they will loose out on lots of $$ spent in ports, at museums, restaurants, etc. They might be sorry for the decision afterwards.
Personally, I think that cities that want to eliminate cruise ships are hurting themselves. I understand that the local infrastructure is probably overwhelmed when multiple large ships are docked, however, I'd hope that they ciuld devise a plan to spread out the number of cruisers in port at any given time.
It is a choice. Some businesses loose money. The idea is that it will save money on infrastructure and livability for citizens and other kind of tourists. Amsterdam also kind of needs the area of the terminal for a bridge. Mind you, Rotterdam is a great city to visit and relatively close by train to say Delft, the Hague and Leiden. There are other places to visit besides Amsterdam in the Netherlands
Cities like Amsterdam are struggling with the effects of so many people crowding the streets and where there are crowds there is pollution and waste and a drain on local resources. There comes a tipping point when the disadvantages outweigh the benefits, and local people feel that living there is becoming unbearable. The economic benefit is weighed up against the down sides and as the numbers of cruise ships has increased so the issues have also. There’s also the issue of air quality When the Marella Discovery docked in Amsterdam recently it was estimated that the vessel produced the same amount of the pollutant nitrogen oxide as 30,000 trucks or 370,000 cars.
The countries that are telling their residents they can expect a large loss in money when they change how many cruise passengers they allow will just be expected to pay more taxes, most of those places already have ridiculously high taxes but have convinced the residents they should be happy. They built them some bicycle garages (cars are very expensive along with gas to run them) and it’s fun to ride in very cold weather. I think we will see other places, some new ones happy to welcome passengers. We cruisers will simply get more choices of places to go and there are plenty of things to do on the ships even if we have less ports. This will hurt the residents much more than cruisers.
I had scheduled a May 2024 British Isles cruise aboard a Celebrity ship that included Amsterdam as the last port of call. Luckily for me, I found out the Amsterdam city fathers were getting their "butts up on their backs" about the number and frequency of cruise ships using their ports including a potential shutdown of their cruise port. In the same breath, they planned to cut out public cannabis utilization and boarding up the public brothels to "clean up" their image. Well, I canceled the cruise and say the hell with them, Venice, Santorini, Mykonos, and everyone else who wants to give cruise lines the "cold shoulder" for various and sundry BS reasons!!....and BTW, I could CARE LESS ABOUT THE BROTHELS AND THEIR WEED!!!!......
Hello Don, thank you for all the news and information, you do a good job keeping everyone informed. I know it's sad for all these ports starting to limit cruise ships but can't blame them with all the mega ships. but I'm wondering how much is it going to hurt all the small and family own business's in these ports .
Last worth has not been said about Amsterdam limiting seacruises up to max 100 calls per year from 2026 till 2035 (this en last year there were 135 calls). This because in 2016 on special request of the City of Amsterdam the national government spent € 200 million extra ( total cost € 1 billion) in building an extra large new sealock in IJmuiden ( the largest in the world ) so the bigger en more cruiseships could easily reach Amsterdam City harbour. Now a couple years after completing the new big sealock in 2022 , the local council, says “sorry we changed our mind”. So the National government , which is no fan of the Amsterdam local government , could have saved a lot of money back in 2016 . I think as a penalty the new National government now will spent a €200 million less in desperately needed future Amsterdam infrastructure because they will be really pissed off by this Amsterdam (city council) decision. As this happens maybe they will changed their mind although the seems determined regardless of the financial consequences.
I had a cruise that was supposed to sail out of Amsterdam & got moved to Rotterdam, the Movenpick Hotel will take a major hit, Viking Cruise Line uses that hotel.
it's ironic that a city like Amsterdam, famous for its canals, waterways and ports should want to eliminate the maritime element of its heritage. I believe Amsterdam was once a major shipping center of the old Hanseatic League which built trading links throughout Europe and the world. Don't destroy your heritage, you'll never get it back.
The Netherlands is tiny. Yeah, Rotterdam (and IJmuiden) are not as close to Amsterdam centre as the current terminal, but they are closer than say Le Havre is to Paris. Not to mention, while Rotterdam is fairly modern, 15 minutes by train and you are in Delft or 25 and you are in the Hague. Come and visit some other parts of the Netherlands 😉
Time we love your channel we've been watching you for years but we're just curious why do you hate so much on Carnival , also the 14 day early check-in is only for platinum and Diamond just so you're aware
I do understand ports limiting cruise ships, but I am also saddened. I can't even think about the huge loss of revenue for these ports. The limit on river cruises is also sad. I guess Amsterdam will be a day trip/excursion for all ship passengers.
I particularly don’t understand cutting the river cruise ships. Cutting an ocean ship is equivalent to about 12 or more river ships as they typically carry 150 passengers or less. They also tend to overnight in their embarkation cities generating more commerce per capita than ocean vessels.
There is a metro station next to Rotterdam cruise terminal. about 1.5 hours from cruise terminal there to downtown Amsterdam by metro/train. Much of Amsterdam is now designed to be walked so you are better off than on a bus.
Happy Friday. With cruise ships getting bigger, it makes sense that ports are starting to limit the amount of people who can visit at one time. Hopefully Amsterdam doesn’t eliminate cruise ships completely.
This is an opportunity for other cities to become the cruise port . That would mean investments into cruise terminals, piers, lodging, restaurants, bussing to Amsterdam and they wont stop the bussing. Someone will win and someone will lose. They will get the visitors but not reap the financial rewards. This is what should also happen to Bar Harbor. Portland should invest in this and have bus trips to Bar Harbor.
The Amsterdam news does seem to be a bit strange why would they deliberately want to cut millions of Euros from the city's income ? I'm pretty sure they don't have the same issues as Venice so it's a strange one, maybe their leaders have been smoking something 'legal' ? I can see a backlash from the business owners on this one.
There does come a time when supply (cruise ports) become too saturated with demand (cruise passengers) and limits must be imposed due to lack of infrastructure. Port cities will then need to make the choice of limiting ships or adding more infrastructure.
these cities and counties that don’t want cruise ship the cruise lines should just find a new port to go to and give them exactly what they think they want until there is no tourism money.They will then start begging them to come back.
I agree that it can be a pain trying to figure out what time zone they are talking about when you want to be one of the first to log in for getting an early reservation. I also feel that there will be more and more ports limiting cruises - especially the giant ships. But I also think that as more ports limit cruise ships there will be other places that will want to bring ships in.
Booking Midnight my time. Lol imagine someone in another country being able to check-in before someone in Florida. Lol. I could check-in the day before a lot of people if it went by international time.
We are off to Rotterdam in December this year with P&O Iona for my wifes birthday and Christmas shopping now we went there back in February this year for my birthday on MSC Euriba I prefer P&O
Wow no Crystal while had a library that had few hours they had foreign language books and extensive travel library book choices. As I recall I think there was audio too.
It's frustrating if a port is too congested and huge lineups to get into certain eateries. I also dislike the thought of the locals losing a lot of their living. Darn if you do and darn if you don't.
Hi Don, It seems that there are more mega ships holding many more passengers and that is what's causing many of these overcrowded port issues.
Not necessarily even an average size ship holds around 3,000 people along with the additional crew. So have 2 or 3 of those in port & you have large crowds.
The mega ships don't go to the ports that are limiting ships / passengers.
The most common Princess ship carried 1200 passengers in the early 2000s. Look at the passenger numbers now…is there any wonder ports are saying NO? And, places like Amsterdam are real cities with real economies not based on cruises ships. Cruisers see themselves in an exalted great white hope status…as if ports are Disney like created cities for their holiday pleasure.
I’m glad the resident ship that keeps getting delayed is taking care of the guests. That’s refreshing.
Very few things are truly indispensable, as I think both cruise lines and port cities will discover...
Thanks for all your information. So many other cruise blogs are just rehash or fluff.
The overcrowded ports are becoming a big problem with all these huge ships everywhere. At least the City is telling everyone the consequences of less revenue.
So sad to see the ships not porting out of Amsterdam. Flying into Schipol and taking the train to your hotel by Central was so convenient. If you went a couple of days before you sailed you could take in all that Amsterdam offers.
Hey Dan, great information especially about the river cruises. It’s no surprise given how popular Amsterdam is and how many river cruise ships there are currently. My wife and I have always wanted to go from Budapest to Amsterdam on a long river cruise, maybe will have to do it sooner than later.
Carnival webpage has lost the shore excursions for up coming sailings. Leaving on the Luminosa in August
I wonder what will happen when all the ports realize the cost of losing the tourism? In most cases, ships are in a port for only a few hours. I don't want to spend my time on a bus traveling to another city. When I could explore the city that has the port.
You do know that these “cruise ports” are real cities, with real business other than tourist kiosks?
It is not a fake Disney city developed for cruisers pleasure. They will do fine without ships.
Sad to hear about ports limiting ships.
I suspect this is just the beginning of cruise ports worldwide cutting back on ships. This is the first I heard of river cruising being limited. It's not great for me, but I understand. About that residency at sea, how long can the company keep putting cruisers up at hotels and sending them on holidays before they are bankrupt?
I understand that some towns or cities are overwhelmed with maybe too many visitors, and they can limit the amount of cruisers per day, but with Amsterdam wanting NO cruise ships, that's a bit extreme. And they will loose out on lots of $$ spent in ports, at museums, restaurants, etc. They might be sorry for the decision afterwards.
Keep up the good work!
This seems like its happening more and more
Sorry to hear that Crystal line are partnering to have casinos. Horrible news.
The cruise line’s need to stop all these mega ships and go back to the refinery of smaller ships, as in the past. It’s getting out of hand now!
Hi Don, i always want to cruise (Crystal cruise) and i (personally) am happy that it will have casino on these cruises. ❤
I’m more likely to use the library than the casino. I guess I’ll continue to take my own reading material.
I can't believe they want to limit cruise ships and lose all that money
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Think these ports are shooting themselves in the foot. Going to be a huge financial hit
Life, in these ports, is not about cruise ship money.
Amsterdam being one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe will probably need cruise customers money 😀
I think these ports are shooting themselves in the foot. I wonder how they will deal with the financial hit.
I'm just shocked places are limiting ships. You would think countries want the tourist money?
Not a fan of mega ships. I get lost to easily. 😅
So sorry to hear Amsterdam is cutting cruise ships from their harbour.
They'll make more money with a casino vs a library. lol
Nobody needs to check in at midnight.
No Crystal for me until I receive my complete refund from 2021
It's too hard to get to Rotterdam
I would rather go to a casino than a library.
Personally, I think that cities that want to eliminate cruise ships are hurting themselves. I understand that the local infrastructure is probably overwhelmed when multiple large ships are docked, however, I'd hope that they ciuld devise a plan to spread out the number of cruisers in port at any given time.
It is a choice. Some businesses loose money. The idea is that it will save money on infrastructure and livability for citizens and other kind of tourists. Amsterdam also kind of needs the area of the terminal for a bridge. Mind you, Rotterdam is a great city to visit and relatively close by train to say Delft, the Hague and Leiden. There are other places to visit besides Amsterdam in the Netherlands
I'm sad to hear that Amsterdam is going to be cutting the number of river cruises in half----that has been a hub for the Rhine cruises forever!
I don’t agree with Amsterdam cutting cruise ships in half.
when that happened with the Titanic, both halves sunk.
😂😂😂😂
That was a good one.
Cities like Amsterdam are struggling with the effects of so many people crowding the streets and where there are crowds there is pollution and waste and a drain on local resources. There comes a tipping point when the disadvantages outweigh the benefits, and local people feel that living there is becoming unbearable. The economic benefit is weighed up against the down sides and as the numbers of cruise ships has increased so the issues have also. There’s also the issue of air quality When the Marella Discovery docked in Amsterdam recently it was estimated that the vessel produced the same amount of the pollutant nitrogen oxide as 30,000 trucks or 370,000 cars.
I can't blame ports limiting ships. I often think how I'd hate to live there with all the crowds!
Wow I never thought they would limit river cruises.
Yes if they limit the ships it sounds good at first for crowded ports but, then the monetary impact may have them rethink their decisions.
You'd hope so.
Why can't people pronounce the word library correctly? It has an R in it, not libary.
The countries that are telling their residents they can expect a large loss in money when they change how many cruise passengers they allow will just be expected to pay more taxes, most of those places already have ridiculously high taxes but have convinced the residents they should be happy. They built them some bicycle garages (cars are very expensive along with gas to run them) and it’s fun to ride in very cold weather.
I think we will see other places, some new ones happy to welcome passengers. We cruisers will simply get more choices of places to go and there are plenty of things to do on the ships even if we have less ports.
This will hurt the residents much more than cruisers.
I had scheduled a May 2024 British Isles cruise aboard a Celebrity ship that included Amsterdam as the last port of call. Luckily for me, I found out the Amsterdam city fathers were getting their "butts up on their backs" about the number and frequency of cruise ships using their ports including a potential shutdown of their cruise port. In the same breath, they planned to cut out public cannabis utilization and boarding up the public brothels to "clean up" their image. Well, I canceled the cruise and say the hell with them, Venice, Santorini, Mykonos, and everyone else who wants to give cruise lines the "cold shoulder" for various and sundry BS reasons!!....and BTW, I could CARE LESS ABOUT THE BROTHELS AND THEIR WEED!!!!......
Fortunately, the Carnival glitch didn't impact me. I was always able to log in at 9 pm to check in and get an early arrival time.
Hello Don, thank you for all the news and information, you do a good job keeping everyone informed. I know it's sad for all these ports starting to limit cruise ships but can't blame them with all the mega ships. but I'm wondering how much is it going to hurt all the small and family own business's in these ports .
Last worth has not been said about Amsterdam limiting seacruises up to max 100 calls per year from 2026 till 2035 (this en last year there were 135 calls). This because in 2016 on special request of the City of Amsterdam the national government spent € 200 million extra ( total cost € 1 billion) in building an extra large new sealock in IJmuiden ( the largest in the world ) so the bigger en more cruiseships could easily reach Amsterdam City harbour.
Now a couple years after completing the new big sealock in 2022 , the local council, says “sorry we changed our mind”. So the National government , which is no fan of the Amsterdam local government , could have saved a lot of money back in 2016 . I think as a penalty the new National government now will spent a €200 million less in desperately needed future Amsterdam infrastructure because they will be really pissed off by this Amsterdam (city council) decision. As this happens maybe they will changed their mind although the seems determined regardless of the financial consequences.
It might have been better to show the city how much money they would lose without the cruise ships.
The problem is if it isn't a home port, the average cruise passenger does not spend that much.
As Don said, Amsterdam will provide the numbers so I am pretty sure they know how much money they loose.
I had a cruise that was supposed to sail out of Amsterdam & got moved to Rotterdam, the Movenpick Hotel will take a major hit, Viking Cruise Line uses that hotel.
it's ironic that a city like Amsterdam, famous for its canals, waterways and ports should want to eliminate the maritime element of its heritage. I believe Amsterdam was once a major shipping center of the old Hanseatic League which built trading links throughout Europe and the world. Don't destroy your heritage, you'll never get it back.
The Netherlands is tiny. Yeah, Rotterdam (and IJmuiden) are not as close to Amsterdam centre as the current terminal, but they are closer than say Le Havre is to Paris. Not to mention, while Rotterdam is fairly modern, 15 minutes by train and you are in Delft or 25 and you are in the Hague. Come and visit some other parts of the Netherlands 😉
Don, do you have any news on the merger of benefits between Royal and Celebrity? Thank you and have a GREAT Weekend!
Time we love your channel we've been watching you for years but we're just curious why do you hate so much on Carnival , also the 14 day early check-in is only for platinum and Diamond just so you're aware
I do understand ports limiting cruise ships, but I am also saddened. I can't even think about the huge loss of revenue for these ports. The limit on river cruises is also sad. I guess Amsterdam will be a day trip/excursion for all ship passengers.
I particularly don’t understand cutting the river cruise ships. Cutting an ocean ship is equivalent to about 12 or more river ships as they typically carry 150 passengers or less. They also tend to overnight in their embarkation cities generating more commerce per capita than ocean vessels.
There is a metro station next to Rotterdam cruise terminal. about 1.5 hours from cruise terminal there to downtown Amsterdam by metro/train.
Much of Amsterdam is now designed to be walked so you are better off than on a bus.
Happy Friday. With cruise ships getting bigger, it makes sense that ports are starting to limit the amount of people who can visit at one time. Hopefully Amsterdam doesn’t eliminate cruise ships completely.
Sad to hear that Amsterdam is limiting river cruises. Sounds like it doesn't affect the one we have booked in 2025.
This is an opportunity for other cities to become the cruise port . That would mean investments into cruise terminals, piers, lodging, restaurants, bussing to Amsterdam and they wont stop the bussing. Someone will win and someone will lose. They will get the visitors but not reap the financial rewards. This is what should also happen to Bar Harbor. Portland should invest in this and have bus trips to Bar Harbor.
Good for Amsterdam
The Amsterdam news does seem to be a bit strange why would they deliberately want to cut millions of Euros from the city's income ? I'm pretty sure they don't have the same issues as Venice so it's a strange one, maybe their leaders have been smoking something 'legal' ?
I can see a backlash from the business owners on this one.
There does come a time when supply (cruise ports) become too saturated with demand (cruise passengers) and limits must be imposed due to lack of infrastructure. Port cities will then need to make the choice of limiting ships or adding more infrastructure.
Im thinking they have thought about this and they dont care. More and more cities are limiting mega ships
Hurting the hard working class people who depend on tourism
I think cruise ships have out sized themselves in some ports. The infrastructure of these cities can't handle that influx of that amount of people.
these cities and counties that don’t want cruise ship the cruise lines should just find a new port to go to and give them exactly what they think they want until there is no tourism money.They will then start begging them to come back.
What’s the good news for cutting back?
I think you right there will be a problem with to many cruise ships especially if the prices continue to go up and port going down
I agree that it can be a pain trying to figure out what time zone they are talking about when you want to be one of the first to log in for getting an early reservation. I also feel that there will be more and more ports limiting cruises - especially the giant ships. But I also think that as more ports limit cruise ships there will be other places that will want to bring ships in.
We can fly directly direct to Amsterdam, interesting ⚓️
I hope river cruises isn't cut back 50%,if it's true it might be because it cost as much to cruise river than major cruise lines
They will eventually miss all the cash. Then bring cruisers back.
Unfortunately it is a growing trend. Pretty soon they'll all be cruises to nowhere
With cruise ships getting bigger and carrying more passengers, it doesn’t surprise me ports are limiting the numbers of ships in ports
Sorry they are limiting the number of cruise ships
Doesn’t sound too promising for a world cruise
Bummer, want to experience Amsterdam
I do not like a casino. My first stop on any ship is the library.
It’s a shame the businesses are the ones that will suffer.
I wonder how these ports can loose all this income?
That is bad for Amsterdam. So a beautiful city.
Probably tired of all the fluffies
More ships with fewer places?
Who needs money right
Cruise ships are greedy
Glad to hear all the updates, yes I do think cruise lines may have to think about their ships and access to bucket list areas.
There will be blood
🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴
Thanks Don
Hi Don, have a great weekend!
Thanks for the info.
I was trying to check-in for my cruuse yesterday. The check-in button was lit up, but I couldn't actually check-in until after 3am.
Booking Midnight my time. Lol imagine someone in another country being able to check-in before someone in Florida. Lol. I could check-in the day before a lot of people if it went by international time.
We are off to Rotterdam in December this year with P&O Iona for my wifes birthday and Christmas shopping now we went there back in February this year for my birthday on MSC Euriba I prefer P&O
What Carnaval cruise ships do you recommend sailing on
Sometimes the best financial decision is not the best decision overall.
It's sad to hear about more limiting of cruise ships visiting ports.
Wow no Crystal while had a library that had few hours they had foreign language books and extensive travel library book choices. As I recall I think there was audio too.
It's frustrating if a port is too congested and huge lineups to get into certain eateries. I also dislike the thought of the locals losing a lot of their living. Darn if you do and darn if you don't.
Are the merchants complaining about less ships in port?
A huge growing trend for sure , but cities are gonna stop taking them 😢
I'm glad I don't have any inclination to live on a cruise ship!!
SO DON WHAT TIME ZONE WOULD CELEBRITY FOLLOW DO YOU KNOW
More and more ships and less places to go love your videos, Don
Hello Don, any update on what caused the fire on the Icon?