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#62732 02/09/03 01:55 PM
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,054
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I'm of two minds (at least) about cruises stopping in Belize City. For one thing, I've been tapped by Fodor's to do the Belize section of the new edition of Fodor's Caribbean Ports of Call, the first time Belize will be included. So if anyone is set up to do a great job with cruise day-trippers and wants a plug, let me know.

The problem is, though, that Belize has been getting around 125,000 international visitors a year. Now, suddenly, we're getting 350,000 cruise passengers a year, and more. Sometimes, such as on Christmas Day, there are four ships in port at one time. It just overwhelms places like the Belize Zoo, cave tubing areas, Altun Ha and Hol Chan. It's a situation that's not always good for the regular visitors to Belize, for the sites and even for the cruise passengers.

But there are lots of places in Belize that are crying for tourists and who as yet get very few visitors, cruise ship or otherwise. One solution is to develop new destinations and new activies for cruise passengers. I'd love to see small groups going to less-known destinations that need the cruise business. The new Museum of Belize in Belize City, for example, is wonderful, but a lot of passengers are afraid to walk the short distance there from the Tourist Village.

I think Belize has to manage its cruise business better, or it's going to hurt rather than benefit overall tourism. I don't know that we can expect any changes, though, until after the elections.

--Lan Sluder


Lan Sluder/Belize First
http://www.belizefirst.com
#62733 02/09/03 03:41 PM
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 13
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I agree with you 100%. My husband and I were saying the exact same thing a couple days ago sitting at the Tourist village. Some new tours would benefit everyone involved. Has anyone been to shark and ray alley lately? I think they should change the name to Ray alley. frown

#62734 02/10/03 12:21 AM
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 61
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Cruise ships and the masses it brings do nothing but destroy everything in its path!!! Has anybody been to a place and seen how wonderful it was before 'cruise ships'? I have, and it's not a pretty site what they do, yes many of the locals like it, IF they are in the tourist industry.

Coz has been mentioned, I remember when there were no ships, then one per week, then two, now it seems they are waiting at the docks to tie up. I remember eating at the hotel restaurant we were staying at 'LeCieba' over looking the ocean a couple miles out of town, one boat per week. Now you see them there all the time. Have you seen the shuttle ferries that come over from Cancun? Can you image the shuttle ferries with hundreds of people each from Belize City to AC? It could happen.

Roatan is another place they are invading, to bad, such a beautiful Island. Life will never be the same there either.

I would like to see the cruise ship and their cliental stay out to sea and party, they don't need to come inland and destroy the natural beauty of any paradise.

Sorry if I stepped on any toes here, but I no time for cruise boats.

#62735 02/10/03 01:26 AM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,537
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Don't we all agree about this topic? The easiest sulution would be to stop the growth, but that will never happened, so... regulate, or like Lan Sluder puts it: "I think Belize has to manage its cruise business better"

How?... the people that make the money on them don't care, I haven't seen idea's on the 2 active topics about cruise ships, and to be honest I wouldn't know either... any suggestions?


Live and let live
#62736 02/10/03 12:29 PM
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,364
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lan,
pls tell them that the no. #1 place to visit is TIKAL.
belize gets the port tax and no more cruisers.
gay

#62737 02/28/03 04:19 AM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,537
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I heared that Patty Arceo is going to look into the cruise ship matter on Ambergris Caye, after complaints from resorts and tour operators!


Live and let live
#62738 02/28/03 08:39 AM
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 19
S
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S
Most savvy travelers to a destination which also attracts cruise ship traffic learn how to avoid different spots at different times to avoid the crowds. Visitors to the BVI, for example, know that you simply don't go to the Baths midday on cruise ship days (and the cruise ship schedule is widely circulated).

But what you can't avoid, and what I alluded to in my trip report, is the messes the cruise ship passengers leave behind. Goff's Caye, for example, is turning into a trash dump. For crying out loud -- how appealing is it to find diapers (the bright blue swim diapers) on the beach??!! It's only a small consolation that the daytrippers haven't left their trash on other cayes on the reef, but who will prevent that from happening?

Many of the merchants in the BVI complain that cruise ship business is steered to a select few vendors. Meanwhile, restaurants and beach bars on Cane Garden Bay (for example) are used only for their toilets, without any money being spent on-site (the passengers just go back to their buffet on board). Afterwards, the proprietors -- who got nothing out of their cruise ship passengers' visit in the first place -- spend a few hours cleaning TRASH off the beach. Is this the case in Belize, too?

Now, I appreciate that not all cruise ship passengers behave in this thoughtless, insensitive way. And I will support people's right to travel. BUT some of the bad apples are ruining it for the rest of us, and that isn't right.

#62739 02/28/03 01:08 PM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 40
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I guess at best the cruises are a "mixed" blessing. A couple we know went on a cruise and got off at Belize City. Her take of the "country" - from what she saw in the city, wasn't good. She can't understand why we enjoy AC (but she's never been there). She only got driven around in a taxi with a broken out windshield and talked of people trying to sell jars of mayo and ketchup out of their refigerators on the street. We've been to AC 3 times in the past couple of years and Shark/Ray Alley each trip. Last Nov. on our last trip we were quite disappointed to only see a few yellow tails. NO sharks or rays (of course we boasted about what a great spot to the friends we drug along). Maybe like Disney, they need to "close down" a site after it's overrun to reduce the congestion. Maybe the Tourism Board could "push" some of the other islands or sites that could use the tourist $ and no one visits. I know, here we go with more beaurocracy, but I agree with the popular opinion, the cruise ships may be helping the economy but are not the best thing to happen to the environment or the solitude that so many of us enjoy about AC. We purchased a lot on AC because we enjoy it for "what it is" now it's changing......


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