Monterey to stop providing port services to cruise ships

[Italy52]

13 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Booked for April 8th cruise and our stop in Monterrey is still showing on my Personalizer and on the book a cruise page.  

 

We are on the same cruise --- Princess hasn't sent out any official notice yet --- at least I haven't seen anything and I have been checking my itinerary 2x a day.

[tipofthehook]

We visited Monterey only once out of all our Coastal cruising. Nice architecture and scenery but not a port that had a lot options for us. I’m glad we had that one visit though. I’m not mad that this port is no longer on the itinerary.

[KLM3164]

On 2/8/2023 at 11:53 AM, Italy52 said:

If we are stopping in Santa Barbara, wonder if there will be any excursions to purchase.

We did a tour in Santa Barbara last April that we would recommend. It was called Santa Barbara & Los Olivos: California's Riviera, Food And Wine. It had a nice variety of stops during the day and we loved the visit to the Saarloos + Sons Winery in Los Olivos. If this tour is offered on your sailing we would highly recommend it. 

[rj59]

On 2/8/2023 at 12:10 PM, startedwithamouse said:

Avalon? Maybe they can revisit that.  Tenders are pricey (not local) as they have to come over from Long Beach. Additionally, they're US wages.

I did a Celebrity Solstice stop there in January, and they just used the ship tenders, which were decent because they have outside seating on top. The ship only had 930 pax on board, though, whereas a fuller Discovery would be less pleasant. It's sort of a shame that wealthy NIMBY locals and misguided environmental activists get to hurt local businesses who could use the millions that off-season cruise ships provide, but I'm sure that alternate ports like Santa Barbara, Avalon, and Astoria will happily accept the spending and port fees. 

[donaldsc]

Good for Monterey.  I am sure that they get enough visitors w/o extras from the cruise ships that bring minimal money into the city.

 

DON