Ships Using LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) Will Venice and Key West allow large ships to return? What do you think?

[Phillip Diamond Plus]

Does anyone know about LNG for cruise ships?

According to news articles, LNG seems to be the fuel of the future because it greatly reduces pollution!

Questions: Can older Vision and Radiance ships be converted to use LNG?  Royal Caribbean says it is testing LNG on an Oasis ship, so maybe this class can be converted?

What do you think? Will cruise ports like Venice and Key West, with environmental concerns,  begin welcoming  large ships again if they use LNG?

  Any comments?

 

 

 

[twangster]

So far the ships that use LNG or the ships that are will use LNG once they are built are too big for either.

The environmental concerns are hogwash.  They don't want the volume of tourists.  Some businesses like hotels realize no revenue from day tourists so they lobby hard against the cruise industry.  Using the environment talking point is just a means to an end to garner support for their real agenda.  

[Galveston Steve]

Royal has announced the Icon Class of ships and say they will use LNG fuel and fuel cells. Very few details have been revealed about Icon Class but the first ship is now scheduled for delivery 3rd quarter 2023. 

[cruisellama]

Its about "optics" (how things look).   I thought the Venice issue was tided also to "wake" impact from larger ships.  Not sure the Conch Republic ban will be sustained by the state - most likely some sort of compromise to control number of people at anytime.  We like Key West - but it does get too crowded at times and that takes away  from its charm.   

Although -  I remember being in an aft balcony cabin and watching the soot collect on the white towels placed on lounge chairs while sitting in port. There was no breeze at the time, and air was still so it was just raining from the stack - didn't spend too much time out there when I saw that.

[twangster]

There were three ballot questions related to cruise ships.  One of them involved the environment.

It asked if ships should be prioritized based on their history of environmental violations.  That sounds okay at first glance but how would the City of Key West implement such a measure?

The City would need to research and rank all cruise ships around the world.  They would need to establish a scorecard for each ship.  What criteria would be used to count violations?  Many countries around the world don't publish ship violations for the world to see.  A ship sailing in Russian waters could have a major fuel leak and the world never knows.  A ship that spends more time in US waters could have more violations but perhaps minor violations like not having a spill kit available on the right deck. 

Who pays for the City to do all this research and develop the ranking system?  Key West citizens.

Should a ship that has minor violations have lower priority compared to a ship that comes to the US for the first time that may have major violations not made public?  US flagged ships face more inspections of a higher caliber.  Not having a sign in the right place is a violation.  This puts US flagged ships at a disadvantage over foreign ships. 

How does priority work?  A ship applies for permission to visit and the City looks at the rankings it has spent millions to create.   It grants permission but then a ship with a higher score applies to visit.  Do they kick out the lower scoring ship?  That makes planning cruise itineraries very difficult.  "Sorry ship XYZ, you were supposed to come next week but a better ship asked to come so your visit has been revoked".

Basically this was the "Carnival" question on the ballot.  Someone read some news stories about Carnival and thought up this question.

Banana republic sounds about right.

[L454S]

Agree with twangster on this one. It has nothing to do with "environmental" concerns in Key West......locals who hate crowds!

Even in Venice, it is the locals who hate the crowds. Had local students as tour guides a couple times there who stated this without reservation. Ships wake is a joke compared to the Vaporetto, Alilaguna, and thousand water taxis going down the grand canal and secondary canals.