Cruise ships docked in Bermuda permitted to open casinos at night

Posted on 4 October, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Cruise ships docked in Bermuda permitted to open casinos at night

By Tom Stieghorst

Ministers in Bermuda approved legislation allowing cruise ships to open their casinos during the evening while still docked.

In exchange, the government will get a license fee for ships that carry more than 2,000 passengers.

Casinos could only open between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. and only for passengers, not for residents of Bermuda.

Proponents argued that most cruise ship passengers are back on the ship after 9 p.m., so the casinos do not compete with local attractions. They also argued that the change will help keep Bermuda competitive with other cruise ports.

Opponents said local bars and restaurants will suffer as fewer people leave the ship in the evening, and that the decision should have been put off until after a promised referendum on gaming in Bermuda.

Key West voters say no to large cruise ships

Posted on 3 October, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Key West voters say no to large cruise ships

By Tom Stieghorst

Key West residents have voted against asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study widening the ship channel to accommodate larger cruise ships.

The vote was 4,531-1,630 against the study, according to newspaper reports.

Dredging the channel from 300 feet to 450 feet in width would displace 150,000 cubic yards of seafloor protected by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The $3 million study would lay out the economic benefits and environmental costs of the project.

Cruise passengers spend about $80 million annually in Key West.

The vote pitted some business interests against a group called Key West Committee for Responsible Tourism, which opposes the project.

Carnival to build new Barcelona cruise terminal

Posted on 30 September, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival to build new Barcelona cruise terminal

By Tom Stieghorst

Carnival Corp. and the port of Barcelona reached an agreement on the construction of a new $27 million cruise terminal that will handle post-Panamax sized ships.

The terminal will be about 107,000 square feet, large enough to accommodate 4,500 people. It is expected to open in 2016.

Carnival already operates a terminal at the port, which will be expanded by about 14,000 square feet. Both terminals are on the Adossat Wharf.

Carnival will invest the $27 million and run the terminal as a concession. The port will invest about $2.7 million on roads and other infrastructure and about $2 million on signage.

Barcelona is the fourth-busiest cruise port in the world, with an estimated passenger volume of 2.6 million passengers this year.

Post-Panamax ships

Post-Panamax or over-Panamax denote ships larger than Panamax that do not fit in the canal, such as supertankers and the largest modern container ships. The “largest oil tanker in the world”—whichever ship held the title at the time—has not been able to transit the Panama Canal at least since the Idemitsu Maru was launched in the 1960s; it carried about 150,000 deadweight tons. All US Navy aircraft carriers since USS Midway have been in the post-Panamax class