Letter: Transportation problems help explain why cruise ships are pulling out

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18: Dear Sir,

With regard to your article in the Bermuda Sun on Wednesday I think there can be no doubt that the main reason cruise ships are withdrawing from Bermuda is due to irate passengers and bad feedback to the cruise lines about the lack of transportation by buses and ferries to carry the huge number of people that these ships bring.

Salt would have also been rubbed into the wound by comments like ‘the Bermudians must fill up the bus or ferry first then cruise ship passengers can board’.

Letters by people on board these ships were even written to the newspapers on this subject with one passenger from the US saying that the situation was so unpleasant they would keep their US dollars at home or take them elsewhere.

People work hard and pay for a vacation to have a good time not to be repeatedly subjected to what happened in Bermuda this summer. The cruise lines know this and don’t want to get a bad reputation and lose business due to inadequate service in a destination resulting in disgruntled and dissatisfied passengers. They need to make a living too.

We all know about the problems of large cruise liners docking in Hamilton and St George’s but  there is no problem in Dockyard where more than one mega liner can be accommodated at a time yet the cruise ships are  cancelling their visits there so the size of docking is not entirely to blame.

I was in Dockyard several times this summer and saw the crowds of passengers  waiting in the heat for transport. It really was bad.  I don’t know how they managed to stay so patient.

It is a great pity Bermuda can’t come to grips with this problem. Other places manage to do it with fleets of chartered buses that passengers have to get in line and pay for but the line moves very quickly and the buses are only for cruise passengers.  I understand there is a shortage of qualified bus drivers but even if drivers were brought in from abroad for the season or more Bermudians could be trained or private large vehicle operators could be employed seasonally it would make sense not to lose the cruise ship business.

I’m afraid it’s another case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted!

Maybe one day Bermuda will ‘get it’ but I won’t hold my breath on that one.

Rosanna Cox

Devonshire