Is this it for cruise holidays?

[slowmotion]

Cruises should be filed under “You know you are old when…”

....like golf?

 

[Dave7]

OK, you are thinking of different cruises to the ones I was.

I thought you meant the yacht sized coastal Croatian cruises, which only tend to go between Split or Trogir and Dubrovnik. They don't cross the Adriatic.

Ahhh no, i wasnt very clear in my comment.

 

[T4tomo]

I personally don't like the whole concept of cruise holidays. Port destinations get overrun with a mass influx of tourists for a short time, who spend negligible amounts in the local economy compared to a proper tourist as the passenger spend goes to the multi national cruise company, who generally employ cheap "foreign" labour and dodge taxes in most of the jurisdictions that they visit or source passengers from.

It interesting no one has really commented on this point, particularly the cruise fans.

I think the river cruise companies are somewhat exempt from this point, as will employ and source food and supplies more locally too. We may consider a river cruise at some point, although a tow path cycle tour with baggage transfer would probably deliver the same itinerary with more freedom.

Also do you really see the best of a destination when you get disgorged with hundreds if not thousands of other passengers for the same 6 hour period. Often multiple cruise ships dock at same ports at same time.

I've seen this in a couple of places from "the other side".

In Kefalonia, the hotel noted cruise ships pop into Argostolion 2-3 days a week. They said keep an eye out a breakfast ans if you see a cruise ship(s) coming up the channel, choose another day to visit. Instead of seeing the charming quiet town we visited they would see a busy place overrun with tourists.
I also visit Mallorca a lot, on one occasion we stayed a few days in Port Soller for a change. That was fine as the number of non resident visitors is controlled somewhat by the limited capacity of the tram from down Soller Town. We visited Soller Town one day, which is tiny and by 11am had become horrendous, as the historic train from Palma disgorged carriage after carriage of mainly cruise ship passengers taking the trip up. We physically couldn't get the tram back to Port Soller, but were smart enough to walk 5 mins to get a mercifully deserted local bus back.
Palma itself is having well documented issues & protests with over tourism - there are usually 3 or 4 mega cruise ships moored up in Palma harbour.
Venice is literally being destroyed by cruise ships.