RCCL announces port change for 2021 will Celebrity follow?

[ISLANDFAN]

RCCL has just announced that sailings scheduled for Venice in 2021 will now depart and arrive in Ravenna Italy. Shuttle service will be provided free of charge from Venice airport and return, about a 2 hour drive. Will Celebrity also make the change? We have a 10 day round trip on the Constellation booked in September 2021.  

[WestLakeGirl]

 If I knew what Celebrity was going to do, i could make a fortune😳

[Luckynana]

Visiting and sailing from Venice has been on my bucket list.  I finally booked a cruise on Celebrity leaving Venice in October, 2021.  I, for one, sincerely hope Celebrity doesn't change this for us.  I knew the day was coming that ships would no longer be coming and going to Venice...I was just hoping it wouldn't happen until I was able to enjoy the experience of Venice on a ship.

[bluwes]

This has been on the cards for  number of years.  I firmly believe all cruise lines will follow this lead

[Ride-The-Waves]

This is an action taken by Venice to help protect the city, not taken by the cruise line.  Smaller ships can still moor at Venice.

[WonderMan3]

27 minutes ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

This is an action taken by Venice to help protect the city, not taken by the cruise line.  Smaller ships can still moor at Venice.

 I thought the larger ships were already banned from Venice?

[Redtravel]

Venice has threatened for years to close to cruise traffic. They finally did it.  Venice is beautiful from afar.  Nice when uncrowned and dry. Been up close in aqua altar.  Nothing charming in having wet feet or having to carry luggage high to avoid getting soaked.  After my last time in Venice embarking a cruise, I said never embark or disembark there.  It’s too inconvenient.  Ravena is charming.  

[luv2travel90266]

9 hours ago, ISLANDFAN said:

RCCL has just announced that sailings scheduled for Venice in 2021 will now depart and arrive in Ravenna Italy. Shuttle service will be provided free of charge from Venice airport and return, about a 2 hour drive. Will Celebrity also make the change? We have a 10 day round trip on the Constellation booked in September 2021.  

I’m doing that itinerary in Oct 2021. Was hoping to spend 3 days in Venice before the cruise so will need to do some juggling  if the embarkation is moved. They were previously suggested a move just up the coast a few minutes to Fuscia 

 

RON WERNER 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-49276730

[ShonaTay56]

There was an item on our national news that covered venice during the lockdown and the locals are all rethinking the decisions that have been made because they now realise that they need the tourists, so who knows what will happen. 

[bEwAbG]

Now is the time to do it.  The locals who insist on ruining their city for a buck are already having to adapt due to the virus and lack of tourists.  By the time cruising restarts, the worst of it will be over.  Plenty of people will still visit in the future.  No need to have these cruise ship hordes in the mix.  Cruisers will still add on a stay at the beginning or end of their trip.

[ECCruise]

3 hours ago, ShonaTay56 said:

There was an item on our national news that covered venice during the lockdown and the locals are all rethinking the decisions that have been made because they now realise that they need the tourists, so who knows what will happen. 

I am seeing something a bit different.  Some tourism, si.  Overtourism as with cruise ships, no.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/world/europe/coronavirus-venice-tourists.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/19/venice-tourism-covid-19-coronavirus-green-tourism

[Bruin Steve]

No first-hand information here, but...

 

I don't think this has that much to do with Covid-19, more with the discussion that has been going on for a few years regarding the tourist overcrowding in Venice.

 

And, I think this is NOT some unilateral move by RCCL.  I imagine that, behind the scenes, there has been some negotiation going on between the Venice government and the cruise line companies.  Perhaps they have asked to corporations (on the whole, not the individual lines) to voluntarily cut down their port visits.  If I'm running Venice, I ask for fewer visits, but, more importantly, embarkations and disembarkations rather than one-day stops or overnights...and I'd rather have the companies more upscale lines rather than the more middle market lines...also smaller rather than larger ships to keep the numbers, pollution and other impacts down a little while keeping up the number of people likely to spend a pre- or post-cruise stay locally.  Net effect is to decrease the total number of visits, decrease the number of visitors only flooding the port for the day but not spending much money, etc.

 

If you follow that logic, it would make sense for Royal Caribbean to give up the visits for the larger RCCL ships and keep the visits for Azamara and Celebrity.  Ending itineraries in Ravenna or Trieste increases the chances that some of those passengers would book hotels in Venice before or after...but gets rid of the people just crowding the town for the day.  I am guessing they want to maximize their profits from lower numbers of tourists--not get rid of tourism altogether.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see other cruise companies making similar concessions...