Close to 2,000 people filed up a ramp from a converted cargo shed to the
Grandeur of the Seas yesterday, the initial crop of passengers on the first
cruise ship of the season in Baltimore.
Having found steady interest since 2001, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. was
the only line to return a ship to the state-owned industrial waterfront in
Dundalk.
Cruise and Maryland officials say interest has not waned locally or
nationally this year, although 2005 will be a time of transition as the port
of Baltimore readies a new, less cargo-filled home at another public terminal
in South Locust Point. A new chief executive hailing from the U.S. cruise
capital of Miami also moves this year to take the port’s helm.
There will be 28 cruises lasting five to nine nights to Bermuda and the
Caribbean, down from a high of about 60 last year. But it’s more in line with
what officials in the industry and in Baltimore expect from a relatively new
entry in the cruise business that is not located on the Atlantic.
Baltimore and other ports between New York and Florida – the top two East
Coast states for cruising – became popular after the 2001 terrorist attacks
stamped out flying for a time. Baltimore specifically benefited when ships
were diverted from New York to Dundalk and cruise lines discovered that people
liked it.
“We’re considered a drive-to port,” said Lisa Ellis Marr, manager of cruise
market development for the Maryland Port Administration.
“People like the fact that they can get into their car in New Jersey, drive
here, park their car, get on a ship and go on vacation. And that’s why the new
homeland cruise ports have come up throughout the country, not just in
Baltimore,” she said. “We’re close to about 36 million people and make it easy
for them to drive and park adjacent to the building.”
Even if the passengers do not stay the night in Baltimore, eat in a
restaurant or see a sight – which some choose to do – they help the local
economy when they buy gas and pay highway and tunnel tolls, Marr noted. They
also may see something that makes them come back on another vacation.
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The state, which owns the Dundalk and Locust Point docks, decided that
investing heavily in a new, more posh terminal would be too big an investment
for such a nascent business. Consultants have warned Baltimore officials that
the business isn’t likely to grow to the proportion of the most popular cruise
ports.
There is room to grow, however. More people than ever are cruising,
according to the Cruise Lines International Association. A record 10.5 million
people took a cruise in 2004, up almost 11 percent, and the group predicts
about 11 million will cruise this year.
Baltimore ranked in the middle of the pack as the 14th busiest U.S. cruise
port, according to a 2003 survey by the association’s sister trade group,
International Council of Cruise Lines, using the most recent data. The port
had 57,000 passengers, about the same number that boarded in Boston, San
Francisco and San Diego. But it had far fewer than ports in Florida, where the
top three ports each topped a million passengers, and New York, where closer
to a half-million people boarded.
The Caribbean remains a popular destination, with about half of all U.S.
cruises headed there, according to Robert Sharak, executive vice president and
chief marketing officer for Cruise Lines International. Europe and Alaska also
are popular. This year, all the Baltimore cruises will head to the Caribbean
or Bermuda.
Attracting new cruise lines along with new destinations has gotten more
competitive with the growing number of participating North American ports,
which now totals 30, according to the association. Most are U.S. ports, and
many had been around for years but not used much for cruising before 2001.
Royal Caribbean is the only one of five lines that have served Baltimore to
return this year. Port officials and the lines said ships were promised
elsewhere.
Many of the new drive-to ports should benefit because cruise lines can use
them to draw cost-conscious people. Those ports don’t require flights, hotel
stays or extra days of travel. “Consumers are responding well to this focus on
cost savings and convenience,” Sharak said.