These 17 Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans

These 17 Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans

It feels to me like the world is getting smaller for cruise passengers. I keep seeing reports of yet another port banning, reducing how many ships or the size of ships that can call there. And even in ports without cruise restrictions, more locals seem to be protesting about cruise passengers being there once we get off the ship. These ports are about to impact your cruise plans.

Some regions and ports are moving faster than others on restricting our cruise port options, with Europe and the Mediterranean the most dramatic, so let’s start there.

These Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans – Mediterranean

I feel the Mediterranean issue is blowing up even more due to the combination of a massive land tourism business, and that tourism is concentrated to a few key months, particularly in the July/August period when Europe effectively closes.

It’s important to understand that the way people vacation in Europe is different to, say, the United States, as many European countries pretty much close factories and some businesses at one time, and huge numbers all go on vacation at the same time.

So, let’s look at what’s happening in the Mediterranean

Barcelona

Barcelona is the busiest cruise port within Europe, and a major embarkation port. The Mayor, City Council and large numbers of locals are trying to slash tourism and the number of cruise ships calling.

Just before I wrote this, there was a large protest by Neighbourhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth focused on the Las Ramblas, close to the cruise port and a major tourist spot. This included them spraying cruise passengers and tourists eating in open air restaurants, with water pistols, and chanting for tourists to go home.

The city’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, supports their call to cut the number of cruise terminals and ship calls. Currently, there are five terminals in Barcelona, and two more are planned or under construction.

So, we are likely to see over the coming years, potentially a reduction in ships going into Barcelona.

Valencia

In other parts of Spain there are similar moves.

Valencia’s Mayor, María José Catalá, has said she plans to ban of mega cruise ships from 2026 to reduce overcrowding and congestions, and will only allow smaller ships to call.

Further afield, popular Spanish territories are also making moves.

Palma, Mallorca

Palma on Mallorca is a key cruise port on Western Mediterranean itineraries, and as I wrote this there have also been well-attended anti-tourist protests organised by a group called “Menys Turisme, Més Vida” (“Less Tourism, More Life”).

The mayor, Jaime Martinez, has told local media he plans to bring in cruise ship limits and wants to ban mega ships, to focus on smaller ships, and give priority to ships that home port there.

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands, a group of Spanish Islands in the Atlantic, are a popular cruise destination but are also seeing recently anti-tourism demonstrations under the banner “Canarias tiene un límite” (The Canaries have a limit) with a claimed 57,000 attending one that happened at the start of the season.

They are currently focused on getting the state to limit land tourism numbers and clamp down on things like Airbnb lets, and not yet proposed specific cruise ships limits – yet.

Greece

Greece is another huge cruise area, with around seven million passengers every year, with two famous islands that everyone wants to visit (Santorini and Mykonos) rammed full of visitors in the season. Having experienced them I can confirm they are really packed.

The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told Bloomberg, as I was working on this, that he’s looking at placing restrictions on cruise ships, particularly calling in those islands, from next year. He has not yet confirmed what they are but suggested  it will include the number and size of ships.

So, you should keep a lookout for the specifics to come.

Venice

Of course, there are other ports that have had restrictions for some time, like Venice, that since 2021, banned ships over 25,000 tons from entering the lagoon and to sail down past St Marks Square.

So, only cruise lines with very small ships like SeaDream, Windstar, Uniworld, and Ponant can still enter there.

The big ships now will call at ports like Trieste or Ravenna, which are a couple of hours from Venice.

Some small ship lines like Azamara can get into industrial zone of Marghera or Fusina on the mainland side.

But any port stop on your itinerary that says Venice could really mean docking hours away.

Dubrovnik

Another place that has had restrictions since 2018 is the UNESCO World Heritage Site city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia. They capped the number of cruise ships to two per day, with 5,000 and 8,000 passengers a day, which is why many cruise lines shifted to call at other Croatian cities, like Split.

Let’s take a step back and look at the rest of Europe.

Norway

There are restrictions coming for Norway and the Fjords.

In 2018, the Norwegian parliament voted for zero emissions requirements by 2026, so any ship that wasn’t electric wouldn’t be allowed in. This was recently pushed back to 2035.

However, the current proposal is that from 2026, only ships powered by alternative fuels like liquified natural gas, LNG will be allowed to visit the fjords. And this is going to rule out many major cruise lines because, although many cruise lines are introducing LNG ships, they are not all in service.

So, if you’re planning a Fjords cruise from 2026 make sure you are checking the latest restrictions.

There’s also been anti-cruise protests in several ports, including Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, and Flam with a protest group called “Cruise Not Welcome”, putting up posters and handing out flyers telling cruise passengers they were not welcome.

Svalbard

Norway is also putting restrictions on the Arctic Island of  Svalbard, from 2025 only ships of up to 200 passengers can call there.

These Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans – Northern Europe

Are there other parts of Europe restricting cruises? Yes!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is trying to cut tourism, even running ads in some countries like the UK asking people to “Stay Away”, and they are now on cruising too.

They plan to cut cruise ships that come into the harbour by half, from 200 to 100 by 2026, and banning them outright by 2035.

They originally spoke about moving cruise lines to terminals outside the city, and there are ports outside the city that I have been to including the industrial port city of IJmuiden, which is about 18 miles from Amsterdam.

Many cruise lines are already shifting from Amsterdam to the huge port city of Rotterdam, which is close enough to Amsterdam to run excursion to.

Bruges

The city of Bruges in Belgium has also reduced the number of cruise ships docking at Zeebrugge, which is the port to get to Bruges, from five to two, because they felt that Bruges was basically becoming a tourist trap centre with too many shops catering only to cruise passengers, selling chocolate and beer.

Iceland

Another growing cruise destination, Iceland, has started to bring in restrictions on cruise ships too.

Isafjordur, the third-biggest cruise port after Reykjavik and Akureyri, has now limited the number of cruise passengers to 5,000 a day. A dramatic reduction from what it was, as Gylfi Ólafsson, chair of the Isafjordur Council, said that the reason is they don’t have the infrastructure, and the town was being too swamped.

But restrictions are not just building in Europe and the Mediterranean, another major cruise region, Alaska, is starting to see more restrictions too.

These Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans – Alaska

Glacier Bay

In Alaska, one of the most magnificent places to go is Glacier Bay. However, the National Park Service that runs it, has the limited the number of cruise ships to two that can enter it each day since the 1980s.

The most recent 10-year licenses to call into Glacier Bay came into effect from 2019 and only allow in: Princess Cruises, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Line, Cunard, Seabourn, Viking, and Royal Caribbean. So, if you want to go into Glacier Bay, which I highly recommend, you must cruise on one of those cruise lines.

However, there is more going on in Alaska

Juneau

Juneau, the capital of Alaska, gets busy. I was there this season and there were five ships in, it was so busy.

Juneau has reached an agreement with the cruise industry, to restrict the number of passengers from 2026 to 16,000 per day, and 12,000 on Saturday. So, the locals have more space and things to do in their own town.

However, this could get stricter because, at the time of writing, there is a proposal which is going to be voted on in a ballot which proposes a ban cruise ships with 250 or more passengers from visiting on Saturdays, and on July the fourth.

By the time you read this, that proposal may have been voted on, but whatever the outcome there will be fewer cruise passengers able to call on Juneau on any day.

These Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans – Canada

Whilst in North America, I want to talk about Canada.

Bar Harbour in Maine held a voter-initiated ballot, and as a result limited the amount of daily cruise passengers to 1,000 per day, which basically reduced by half the amount of cruise ships that could go there.

At the time of writing, some businesses and tour companies are suing the town, claiming that the restriction violates federal maritime law and USA constitutions. So, another one to keep an eye on but already many liens have dropped the port from future cruises.

These Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans – Caribbean

The Caribbean, the busiest cruise region in the world, is seeing limited new restrictions as many of the islands are focused on cruise tourism.

However, there is an ongoing issue on Caribbean itineraries, related to Key West.

Key West residents have had a long battle around the number and size of cruise ships that can dock there. During the pandemic, they voted to limit cruise ships, banning cruise ships carrying more than 1,300 passengers and crew.

However, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida overruled it. Then there was a less strict resolution, allowing one ship per day to dock within the harbour. That was then overruled. So, there is an ongoing battle around what happens there.

These Ports Are About To Ruin Your Cruise Plans – French Polynesia

Once we get to more exotic places, there are also restrictions.

Last year I went to French Polynesia, which is magnificent.

Since 2020, they have limited the type of ships that can go there.

Any ship based in the region sailing year-round, cannot have more than 700 passengers. Any ship over 3,500 cannot call into any island at all, and those up to 3,500 passengers can only call into Tahiti, Moorea, or Raiatea.

Some islands, like Bora Bora, have additional restrictions. For example, only 1,200 passengers are allowed to disembark in Bora Bora in any one day.

As you can see, the cruise world is getting smaller and tighter, and I suspect there’s likely to be more and more pressure as it goes, around this whole area. What do you think? Leave a comment.