Sign the Petition - No Cruise Ship Pier in the North

[Prop Joe]

I fear the location will kill the Conch fields the Spotted Eagle Rays feed on up there. Pristine Barracuda reef will get covered in silt from the thrusters used to dock the freaking things. I always loved diving up there. Such a shame...

 

[ggunn]

When Carnival expanded the southern port and added another pier, Paradise reef paid the price with all that dredging and silt stirred up and carried north in the current over the reef.

Paradise Reef is south of the cruise ship docks.

 

[deepsea21]

Paradise Reef is south of the cruise ship docks.

The near-shore shallow Paradise reef I've been diving for 15 years resides between the in-town cruise ship dock that can dock 2 cruise ships at a time and the southern port that now takes 6 at a time.

 

[mmmbelows]

Just what Coz needs... another 15,000 cruise ship tourists on top of what is there now packing into an island

Man, couldn't agree more, can't beleive they feel the need to pack yet more ships into Cozumel. At some point it's going to be more economical to bring the island to the cruise ships instead of the cruise ships to the island!

 

[drrich2]

"True that. The restaurants, hotels, dive businesses, etc. don't see much of that revenue."

A tangent worth some thought; cruise ship contribution to the local economy. I wonder how often people who've cruise-stopped at a destination are 'charmed' and decide to come back later for a land trip?

Richard.

 

[El Graduado]

Paradise Reef is south of the cruise ship docks.

The near-shore shallow Paradise reef I've been diving for 15 years resides between the in-town cruise ship dock that can dock 2 cruise ships at a time and the southern port that now takes 6 at a time.

Guess you two have figured out by now that there is a North Paradise Reef and a South Paradise Reef?

 

[deepsea21]

"True that. The restaurants, hotels, dive businesses, etc. don't see much of that revenue."

A tangent worth some thought; cruise ship contribution to the local economy. I wonder how often people who've cruise-stopped at a destination are 'charmed' and decide to come back later for a land trip?

Richard.

The sad reality is the vast majority of the $ spent by the cruise ship crowd NEVER makes it to the local economy. Virtually everything on the first few streets where the cruise tourists spend their $ is owned by corporations. Yes, some jobs were created but all those sales people aren't making any minimum wage comparable to that in the USA (even though everything they sell is priced in US dollars)!

Some old locals told me years ago when the government talked about adding a cruise ship port all the islanders were told how many millions and millions of dollars were going to be flowing into the island... New roads, sidewalks, infrastructure, sewer systems, expanded municipal water, hospitals, etc. would be built and everyone was going to enjoy a higher standard of living. Then, as soon as the cruise ships started coming there was a big SUCKING SOUND of all that cash be it port charges or cash flowing through the businesses on the 1st few streets being sucked off the island over to deep pockets on the mainland.

This is why I almost NEVER eat or shop in the cruise ship district (which is about anywhere you are walking on a fancy sidewalk that isn't tripping you up every few feet). We spend our $ on the back streets where everything is priced in PESOS and your $ actually makes it into the pockets of a local family and those who were lied to long ago. Of course everyone is friendly about everywhere on the island but local businesses outside the cruise ship district LOVE us divers who were, are, and hopefully always will be there staying on the island, behaving ourselves, and spending our $ on the back streets where the prices are best and the locals know we are the tourists they can always depend on.

 

[uncfnp]

"True that. The restaurants, hotels, dive businesses, etc. don't see much of that revenue."

A tangent worth some thought; cruise ship contribution to the local economy. I wonder how often people who've cruise-stopped at a destination are 'charmed' and decide to come back later for a land trip?

Richard.

Not in my case. My first and only Caribbean cruise had a stop in Cozumel. Its taken 2 decades and a strong positive SB forum to convince me to go back for the diving...

 

[mstevens]

an island with infrastructure that was built before anyone in the island had ever seen a cruise ship.

I'm pretty sure I disagree.

The electricity supply is very reliable (if eye-wateringly expensive) in all but the newest colonias. Water and sewer are reliable. Roads are pretty comparable to my local area in the US (Cozumel doesn't have frost heaves, but the end effect is similar in terms of surface quality). Phone (both landline and cellular) service is very good - cellular is much better than my local area in the US. We just switched ISP's because our cable company's speeds had dropped to unusable, but the DSL company is building out optical fiber rapidly. The airport is efficient and has free parking, and the ferry pier moves a lot of people. Every colonia has a park, there are playgrounds in every neighborhood including several that accommodate handicapped kids, there are multiple public libraries (including the one in the passenger jet), there are several public sports centers with tennis courts and pools (nicer than any I ever worked at in the US). There is public bus service that will get you almost anywhere. There are multiple good hospitals with good specialists. You can get many types of wonderful food delivered to your house night or day.

I'm pretty sure the island's infrastructure, by nearly every measure, has improved significantly since cruise ships began arriving. I wasn't there when ships began arriving and have no way of knowing whether cruises to the island have in balance been a good thing or a bad one. I do know that when my parents are at our house on the island the infrastructure there is better than that at their house about 2 miles from the town center of our little town in NH.

My NH home is not out in some backwater, and it's had time to develop infrastructure - Paul Revere cast the bell in the town clock and my house is older than the US Constitution. Some of our infrastructure was built before cruise ships existed. My parents live on a dirt road, can't get cable or broadband, have to have a generator due to frequent power outages, are on a well and septic, and my mobile phone doesn't work at their house (or at mine on Main Street, for that matter). Our town has no gas station. There is no food delivery of any type. Only a few towns in my entire state have any sort of bus service. If we need a neurosurgeon, dermatologist, or several other specialists we have to travel farther than the equivalent of the distance to Cancún to reach one, yet Cozumel has such specialists.

 

[diverokc]

I have many friends that work downtown. They are getting choked out by the cruise ship shops at the pier .that being said the island needs them to survive. Many many many of my friends makes money off tourism. Including my friend that makes grava and pulvo. As far as lying to the islanders about benefit of cruise ships ,the same things happen everywhere. In Oklahoma lottery was supposed to save education. Lol I think they just cut education again. Now like 48% cut.