Cruise Ship Industry Plans For
Bigger Ships

Corporate executives of the international cruise ship industry met in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in March to discuss growth and building larger ships. With almost 26 million passengers in 2017, 25,000 agents globally, $6.8 billion in new vessels in 2017, 80 ships in development and 26 new ships on order, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, the message was bigger — bigger ships, more ports and more passengers.

On the panel at the Seatrade Cruise Global annual conference in Florida were presidents of Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., and Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.

Wall Street likes the cruise ship industry as much as it liked the big-box-store malls. A two-story race track is planned for a 2018 Norwegian ship. Frank Del Rio, a Norwegian Cruise Line executive, is reported to have said, “No idea is absurd anymore. These ships are big. Anything can fit on them, and they are only going to get bigger.” The U.S. Flag Cruise Ship Competitive Act of 1991 made cruise ships casinos. “Vegas” floating without municipal burdens.

Not all coastal communities where cruise ships call are as impressed as the investors in cruise line stocks. According to a 2009 report by the US Environmental Protection Agency: “Traditional Type II [marine sanitation devices] routinely fail to treat sewage to meet the current EPA standards and are inadequate to protect US waters.” Cruise ships use an estimated 1 million tons of fuel and dump a billion tons of sewage annually.

Raw sewage is supposed to be dumped 12 miles out to sea. Which, depending on the bay and the direction the tide is running, could end up being not out to sea at all.

The need for a break from the boat ride is not lost on the cruise ship industry. Ports of call are important for passengers and for resupplying the ship. The relationship with the port of the City of Juneau, Alaska, has been strained over fees paid to the port by cruise ships. A cruise ship company is arguing the fees can only be spent on projects that benefit the cruise ship industry. The city of Juneau has spent a reported $283,000 on lawyer fees defending the expenditures for an extension of a cruise ship dock that unfortunately included a statue of a whale.