Several cruise lines cut Carribean: will this affect your gay cruising?

Is the Caribbean is losing its appeal as a cruise destination? Four major cruise lines recently announced that they are pulling ALL ships out of the Florida-Caribbean market in the Spring/Summer 2011 Season. The lines are Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity and Holland America. All are moving their ships to Europe and other areas.

Royal Caribbean and Carnival are keeping a handful of big ships and older ships in the Florida-Caribbean area during the summer months.

Famed travel writer Arthur Frommer wrote a big piece on this for Canada’s Toronto Star newspaper, where he lays out possibilities for the change:

“It is entirely possible…[Americans have tired]  of Caribbean ports (like Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas) that have been converted into giant shopping malls. They have wearied of being dumped on artificial private beaches in which the only local residents are employees of the cruise line; there’s consumer fatigue with fake villages.” Arthur Frommer in the Toronto Star.

Frommer further asserts that cruise company executives “have removed cruising from the experience of travel [by replacing] authentic foreign countries with fake replicas of foreign countries.”

Personally I think it’s simply that these destinations were never really sexy to start with. With few exceptions, the islands all seem very similar, and few of them has done a good job of making me believe there’s much to do if I even get off the ship there.  I’ll never forget RSVP’s legendary comedian and host Danny Williams joke in the bingo hall as our ship sailed away from Guadaloupe; he called it Gaudapoop. 1,500 gays had not been terribly impressed with the place. (In all fairness, I realize that we are talking about 3rd world islands, and that few are equipped to actually provide thevacation experience most Americans want).

Since my first Caribbean cruise in 1988,  island cruising for me has never been much about the destinations (notable exceptions being Puerto Rico and Curacao…I do also quite like the Caribbean’s mainland destinations including Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela). It has been more about the ships themselves, and my experience with my partner or whomever else I travel with. If the Caribbean islands want American cruisers to keep coming, I think they need to do a better job of differentiating their cultures, highlighting their natural resources, and dropping the shopping altogether.

What do you think?

Share