Legions of tourists elbowing their way through narrow streets and alleyways, crowding shops and restaurants and swamping iconic attractions: It’s a scene repeated in cruise hot spots around the world as countless cruise passengers join with land-based visitors to overwhelm popular-yet-fragile destinations.
Indeed, when multiple megaships dock in a city all at once, their thousands of passengers can overload the destination’s infrastructure and degrade its appeal with excessive noise and crowds.
Cruise ports are increasingly pushing back. Local residents are driven not only by the need to counteract overtourism but also a desire to curb pollution and preserve the quality of life in stressed destinations. In a wave of cruise ship bans and restrictions, destinations from Amsterdam to Venice are trying to reshape how or whether vessels can visit their cities in an effort to stop them from being loved to death.
Your desire to visit top tourist hot spots by sea might be at odds with the wishes of local residents, who would rather you come by land and keep your ships far from their shores. Here are nine ports that might not want you — given that they have proposed ship restrictions, limited the number of ships and/or passengers that can visit or are banning ships outright — and where to go instead.
Amsterdam
As of July 2024, this Dutch capital city and booming tourist destination plans to limit the number of ocean cruise ships that can dock in its harbor to 100 per year by 2026, down from the current 190. It will ban them altogether by 2035. Meanwhile, it is considering a possible relocation of the passenger terminal to Coenhaven in northwest Amsterdam.
The plan is part of an effort to reduce what the city council calls “nuisance” tourism caused by cruise ships, which it says are polluting the city with crowds and emissions. As part of this initiative, by 2027, all ships docking at the Amsterdam terminal will have to use shore power only, significantly reducing their environmental impact.
Alternative port: Rotterdam, another city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world, known for its maritime heritage
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor has long been a stop for cruises to New England and Canada. It serves as the gateway to the popular Acadia National Park and its landmark Cadillac Mountain.
To counteract overcrowding and congestion, in 2022 voters in Bar Harbor approved a limit on the number of cruise ship passengers who can come ashore to 1,000 per day. That’s roughly half the number that have typically poured into this scenic resort town of 5,500. After a years-long battle, a federal district court ruled in February 2024 that the town can legally impose such limits.
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However, the town is allowing cruise calls for this year’s May-to-October season that were booked before November 2022 to exceed the 1,000-person daily landing cap. The new reduction will go into full effect in 2025.
That doesn’t mean the controversy is over. Local business owners are appealing the court decision, saying it’s hurting business.
Alternative port: Portland, a beautiful walkable port and the largest city in Maine
Related: Best cruises to Canada and New England
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Ever since Dubrovnik served as the fictional King’s Landing in the hit HBO show “Game of Thrones,” it has catapulted into the tourist stratosphere. With only 42,000 inhabitants, this hot spot on Croatia’s popular Dalmatian Coast now counts 36 tourists for every resident, amounting to an onslaught of 1.5 million per year.
No wonder, then, that in 2019 it capped the number of ships that can visit to just two per day carrying a total of 5,000 visitors. To reduce overcrowding on its ancient, cobbled streets, the scenic city is also trying to improve the flow of cruisers through the historic Old City by arranging a better schedule of ship arrivals and departures.
Alternative port: Zadar or Split, also historic, but less visited, cities on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast
Juneau, Alaska
Each year, Alaska’s capital city welcomes a crush of cruise ship passengers to see the famed Juneau Icefield and its crown jewel, the fast-shrinking Mendenhall Glacier. Now, residents are pushing back against a tourism boom that saw 1.6 million cruise passengers arrive last year during the April through October season. On the busiest days, about 20,000 visitors, equal to two-thirds of the city’s population, gush from the ships.
With Juneau experiencing firsthand the effects of climate change, city leaders and major cruise lines including Carnival Corp., Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Group agreed in 2023 to a limit of five large ships a day starting in 2024. As many as seven daily ships arrived last year.
They also agreed to a daily cap of 16,000 cruise passengers Sundays through Fridays and 12,000 on Saturdays, which will take effect in 2026.
Some residents think these limits don’t go far enough. A measure to ban ships with 250 or more passengers from docking on Saturdays and on July 4 (when locals flock to a downtown parade) will appear on the Oct. 1 municipal ballot. Since the city is accessible only by water or air, many residents hope this will reduce the traffic, congested trails and buzz of sightseeing helicopters transporting visitors to the Mendenhall and other glaciers.
Alternative port: Icy Strait Point, a much smaller Alaskan port surrounded by unspoiled wilderness
Related: Best Alaska cruises for every type of traveler
Key West, Florida
The verdict is in. Following a four-year battle between residents and the state government to reduce the size and number of cruise ships that can dock in Key West, the government has prevailed.
In March 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis approved an expanded lease deal to allow Key West to welcome larger ships to cruise around its fragile reefs for the next 25 years. The new lease for the state-controlled Pier B overrules the ongoing objections of the majority of the residents of this 4-square-mile resort island at Florida’s southern tip.
In 2020, residents had approved a referendum to cap the number of people who could come ashore to 1,500 a day, limit the size of ships to no more than 1,300 people and restrict ship arrivals to only one a day. Instead, the new ruling expands the pier area, allowing it to accept ships that are nearly 50 feet longer.
On the other hand, Key West has been able to impose those 2020 passenger and size restrictions at the historic town-owned Mallory Square pier.
Alternative port: Nassau, a larger tropical island destination able to handle much more cruise traffic
Monterey, California
In a move intended to protect the coastal environment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest protected ocean area in the continental United States, this port, about two hours south of San Francisco, terminated passenger landing services such as security clearance for cruise ships in February 2023.
Although not an outright ban, the decision makes it extremely difficult for ships to visit. As a result, no cruises have visited since the restriction went into effect. Before the pandemic, up to a dozen ships typically stopped in Monterey each year on sailings to Alaska and Mexico.
Alternative port: San Francisco, California’s iconic city and popular port for many cruise lines
Mykonos and Santorini, Greece
With as many as 17,000 cruise ship passengers surging onto Santorini on peak days in high summer season, the white-washed Insta-famous island is buckling under the social and environmental stress. Some 800 ships called on the island of just 15,000 residents in 2023, a 17% increase over 2022.
In response, in June 2024, Santorini Mayor Nikos Zorzos proposed capping the number of daily passengers at 8,000, restricting ship berths or creating a bidding process for ships to secure slots.
Similar measures, backed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, would also apply to neighboring tourist-magnet Mykonos, and could be implemented as early as 2025. Each island welcomed about 1.2 million cruise ship passengers in 2023, a more than 50% jump over 2022.
The Greek government is also considering a 20 euro tax on cruise passengers visiting its popular and overcrowded island destinations.
Alternative port: Naxos, another fetching but less-popular Greek island in the Aegean Sea
Related: Best Greece cruises: Top 5 ships sailing the Greek isles
Venice, Italy
To protect the environmental, artistic and cultural heritage of this iconic Italian city, large cruise ships were banned from sailing through its historic center starting in August 2021. Instead of cruising past famed St. Mark’s Square and up the narrow Giudecca Canal to dock in the city-center terminals, ships weighing more than 25,000 tons and longer than 590 feet are now rerouted through the Venetian Lagoon, where they dock at the mainland industrial ports of Marghera or Fusina.
The rule allows entry only to river vessels and small ships operated by Emerald, Ponant, Ritz-Carlton, Scenic, Sea Cloud, Star Clippers, SeaDream Yacht Club and Windstar lines.
With Venice under severe stress from overtourism and environmental pressures, this change followed a UNESCO recommendation to add the city to its list of World Heritage in Danger, partly because of the presence of cruise ships. Still, Venice is expected to welcome 540,000 cruise passengers in 2024, about 9% more than in 2023.
Alternative ports: Ravenna or Trieste, much less touristy but historically interesting ports in northern Italy
Bottom line
So what is a cruiser to do? If a port is limiting the number of daily passengers, consider a cruise line with smaller ships that carry fewer than 800 guests each, such as American Cruise Line, Atlas Ocean Voyages, Crystal, Emerald Cruises, Paul Gauguin Cruises, Ponant, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Scenic, Seabourn, Sea Cloud, Star Clippers, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea, UnCruise Adventures and Windstar.
Or book early to get a cabin on the big ships that can call. Look for sailings during shoulder season, when not as many ships or tourists will be descending on popular destinations.
If a port is now off-limits, consider itineraries that visit alternative ports, such as those identified above. You might need to adjust your vacation dreams, but locals will appreciate your decision.
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