Port Talks

Due to a heavy fog, a Royal Caribbean ship suffered a delay in deportation on Monday at the Port of Galveston on and has consequentially angered several passengers on board. Despite the fact that this situation was out of the control of the cruise lines and they were only delayed to preserve the safety of passengers on board, many passengers considered it to be the last straw of their visit. "This is my first cruise ever. I've been in hotels for the past three nights. I've had to buy my own food. Carnival has not treated us good. The refund is not acceptable. More needs to be done for everyone on that Ecstasy ship," a passenger told Click2Houston.

The maritime authorities made the decision to close the port when the fog got out of control and made successful navigation impossible. Carnival Cruise lines released a statement explaining the effect of the weather delays and offering their apologies as well as monetary and discount compensations.

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The Port of Seattle is still celebrating the achievement of its best cruise season in 2010, with a record number of cruise ship calls and passengers. With a total of 223 dockings-- twelve homeported vessels and six ports of call-- the port finally surpassed its record. A total of 931,698 revenue passengers had also been through the Port's two cruise terminals, surpassing yet another record.

“The cruise business brings jobs, and each ship call brings $1.9 million to King County,” said Port of Seattle Commission President Bill Bryant. “The 2010 cruise season is good economic news for our region.” Along with this $1.9 million, the cruise industry has also generated a catastrophic $425 million in business revenue as well as $18.9 million in state and local taxes. The industry has created 4,447 jobs in 2010 as well.

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The Port of San Diego is giving back to the city by spending all of the money it earns to improve the region's infrastructure. Since the port began in 1962, it has spent approximately $1.7 billion on these kinds of projects in surrounding member cities such as Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego.

This is all part of an appropriately titled Capital Improvement Program that puts the funds the Port earns in a savings account to be used only for improvement projects in member cities. The projects that have been completed thus far include: the development of the original San Diego Convention Center, the demolition of the BF Goodrich South Campus in order to make room for redevelopment along the Chula Vista waterfront, the dredging of the basin to produce Nation City's Pier 32 Marina and finally, the recently completed Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier in San Diego. Other basic renovations have also been made, including the building of new public restrooms in Port parks and an eight-story public parking facility.

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A recent fire on the Nassau waterfront has destroyed several buildings that acted as main attractions to cruise passengers who visit the busy Bahamas port on an almost daily basis. Though earlier reports claimed that visiting cruise ships were not permitted to debark passengers, a spokeswoman from Disney confirmed that passengers from both Disney Dream and Carnival Glory were allowed to debark, they were just delayed from the fire.

According to Bahamas new outlets, the fire started before 8 a.m. local time and began at the Betty K building on the waterfront before rapidly spreading to East and Bay Streets, areas which include several popular buildings. According to the Tribune, "Police estimate the entire block of buildings affected by the fire -- including the Bacardi building and the Green Parrot Crew Pub -- has been extensively damaged and is not salvageable." Luckily, no serious injuries or deaths have been reported.

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