Avoiding cruise ship crowds

If you want to know which sites are heavily frequented, go to the ship's website and look at the excursions they are offering. The All Aboard time for most ships is an hour before sailing.

The no ship day would seem the logical choice for seeing the major sites, providing it's not a day where many of these sites are closed ( like Mondays in Paris)

Tom,

I'm never concerned about the cruise ship hordes. Whether I'm in the Cinque Terre, Santorini or wherever, I seem to find ways to function despite them.

The port of Gibraltar publishes a schedule of what ships are coming to port. http://www.gibraltarport.com/schedules

It's actually quite interesting to see which cruise lines go to Gibraltar, how long they will be there, and what country the ship is registered. Those who want to visit Gibraltar without cruise ship traffic can know in advance the days when ships won't dock. Tom, perhaps the port of Stockholm offers a similar website.

Why are some people always picking on cruise ship tourists? Like they are some plague to be avoided. The big bus tours are just as bad. And then there are the river boat people. When I was a professor, we used to have a standing joke about how great the university would be if we just didn't have to put up with students. Tourists are tourists and if we didn't have them, many of the places we frequent would be substantial less.

I think some of these sarcastic replies are totally uncalled for. It was a straight forward question and deserves respectful answers. If you can't answer the question you don't need to post just to rag on the OP for asking it.

I've never been on a cruise ship to Sweden, but having been to Stockholm I would think the most popular excursions for passengers docking there would be: old town, city hall (and the Nobel prize banquet room), Skansen open air museum, Vasa museum, or a boat cruise through the archipelago. So, old town, Skansen, and Vasa museum would probably be the most crowded when a ship is in port, and would be the venues you would want to visit on 'no-ship' days.

It's good advice to check the ship's websites to see what excursions they offer or cruisecritic.com under ports.

Go to Gamla Stan and the Vasa on the day when no cruise ships are in town. Go to the Historiskamuseet and the Fotografiska on the day when all three are in town. Go to the Medeltidsmuseet and Skansen on the day when just one is in port.

Well said Nancy. OP is just looking for some straight forward advice. I do not understand why posters read so much into a simple question.

All aboard is generally 30 to 60 minutes before sailing.

For day one do the thing farthest away or least common site. On the no ship day spend your time at the most popular places.

My only visit was way back in June 2009 and I was a cruiser on a 3000-passenger ship with an overnight in Stockholm. A friend and I spent almost all our time in port in Stockholm and it was never very crowded anywhere. I can't say if there were other ships in port then. We wandered through the old town, visited several museums and had dinner in town.

Maybe on day one, head out to Skansen. It's spread out so even with lots of visitors, it shouldn't feel too crowded and now that most (all?) ships don't overnight there, maybe few cruisers visit at all.

On another note, our stop in Helsinki was on June 21 (midsummer) which is a holiday and half the sights were closed and most of the locals were out of town. The cruise ship did not alert us to this, so many plans were scuttled on the spot. I think it's a holiday all over Scandinavia. Tallinn is small so our ship pretty much filled the old town. I was one of the first off (we docked around 7 am) the ship and for the first hour or so, the streets were pretty quiet, but by noon, there didn't appear to be an empty seat at any cafe.

I could post this in the Sweden forum but the same issue will come up
for us in other countries on this trip and I suspect the answer will
be the same.

I can't help you with Stockholm, but in case your ship docks in Warnemünde/Germany: Warnemünde is NOT the port of Berlin. Berlin is 3 hours away from Warnemünde. Don't do the trip to Berlin offered by the cruise companies. This trip is expensive, you waste 6+ hours on the Autobahn, and you don't see much of Berlin in just 5 hours or so. Instead explore the coast, either on your own (costs less than 30€ for two) or book the "Mega Mecklenburg Tour" of Friends of Dave (read the reviews):
https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionReview-g187364-d1647222-Reviews-FriendsofDaveTours-WarnemundeRostockMecklenburgWestPomerania.html#REVIEWS

On the "Mega Mecklenburg Tour" you see a olds fishermens village, a medieval town (World Heritage Site), and a 19th century fairytale castle.

We cruise a lot and having many ships in port can make it difficult to enjoy some ports. The ports that we have encountered problems were in Alaska and Santorini in Greece. If the port is rather small, with many ships, it fills up easy. In ports that can handle many ships, like St. Thomas, it is not as big a deal.

The crowd problem is compounded if your ship is tendering rather than docked.

I generally plan what I want to see regardless of the crowds, since I usually organize tours or join other tours. If you are DIY, then that is different.

Thanks for helpful replies.

First off I made a mistake, the first day is just 2 ships in port because Holland America is listed twice: once the 14 day roundtrip from Rotterdam and once the 32 day trip with extension to Boston via Iceland and Greenland. Note that contrary to above this ship does spend the night in Stockholm arriving the day before. The other ship arrives at 8 am and leaves at 6 pm.

I do recognize that water is the best vantage point for some places like SE Alaska, parts of Norway, the Galapagos, Antarctica, and other places.

I have seen places where cruise ship tour arrivals change the experience drastically. Last December we stayed at Uxmal, the Mayan ruin in the Yucatan, so we could have a quiet morning there before the tour buses from Merida arrived. We did and it's vital in appreciating such places to have times with tranquility. Later in the morning it became busier, then around noon we were ready to depart but I ran around re-taking some pictures with better light. Then the buses from the cruise ship arrived https://www.shoreexcursioneer.com/progreso/uxmal-mayan-ruins.html, who even knew that cruising from Texas or Mobile or New Orleans was now a big deal? Since Uxmal is out of reach of daytrippers from Cancun or Playa del Carmen I thought a major influx impossible. The place became swamped and circus-like with many loud, heavy, scantily dressed people posing for pictures in front of structures and it was a relief to get out of there.

Another time sitting in wonderful Old San Juan, really one of the great sights of the western hemisphere, enjoying a sunset by the water next to 2 enormous cruise ships, and marveling at their size. In less than the time it takes to eat an ice cream cone, the debarkation began and in just seconds the peace turned into a cacophony of teeming masses, like when a person kicks a log and it becomes black with ants immediately: identical, nameless, faceless hordes with tour directors and bus drivers and taxis screaming for passengers and, ice cream cones still unfinished, we ran.

Bottom line for Stockholm: the old town is also part of the cruise sphere of interest so first day go someplace less popular, maybe that royal palace on the island west of the city, or a day trip to Upsala.

Also thanks for the June 21 reminder, will plan around that, maybe hiking or visiting people.

Norma: "Oh, dear, oh dear! I do sometimes take a cruise and I am so sorry if I get in your way when I go ashore. How ghastly for you to have to deal with fellow Americans or Canadians who "inundate" the very places that you were expecting to have all to yourselves."

First, why do you assume that only Canadians and Americans cruise? Seems a little myopic. Nor did the OP say anywhere that he wanted the tourist sights all to himself. No need to put words in his mouth.

One cruise ship can dump several thousand people into a port all at once. Multiply that effect by the number of ships due in. We've seen as many as 5 in port at the same time, including one of the mega ships. (Not in Stockholm). You can't tell me that these numbers will not have an effect at the most popular tourist sights. Some ports are better than others at dispersing crowds.

Frank: "Why are some people always picking on cruise ship tourists? Like they are some plague to be avoided. The big bus tours are just as bad. And then there are the river boat people."

See my previous remarks. Busses hold what-50 people tops? River boats only carry a couple hundred. Big difference to the thousands on only one cruise ship.

I have only once experienced a sudden influx of cruise ship people; I was in Tallinn in mid-Sept so it was a bit past the season and I felt like I'd had the lovely walled city all to myself for a whole week (not really, of course there were smatterings of others here and there) and that Saturday I was out exploring and heading up a stairway to Nevsky Cathedral and in the blink of an eye there were hundreds of people bearing down on me. It was almost frightening. I turned back and went several blocks out of the way and approached from another street.

My thought on this as in all crowd situations is to go counter-standard usually. If you stop somewhere, there is #1 attraction and #2. Start at #2. Everyone else will start at #1. We stopped at Plitvice Lakes Park. There was a bus to the top of the park and most walked back. Instead, we walked up to the top and took the bus back . Both directions were uncrowded.

CJean is right, there may be a couple of thousand passengers disembarking to see the sights at any particular port. Of course, many do not get off at every port, preferring to partake of what the ship offers that day. Not all who choose to see the sights go to the same place. They disperse, some on private excursions, some on ship excursions, some opting to see what the port itself has to offer, on foot or on a HO HO bus. And of course, CJean is right again in saying not all cruise passengers are North Americans, but on American owned cruise ships, the only ones I have ever been on, I'll wager about 98% are. But whether cruisers are American, Canadian, Himalayan, German or Hungarian, they should not be despised for being where all tourists want to be.

Groups have different behavior than individuals. Groups have a sense of ownership over what is in their path, that it's their personal playground. This is valid for any group but it's scalable: the bigger the crowd the greater the feelings of ownership or entitlement.

I am sorry but that doesn't make a lot of sense.

"I am sorry but that doesn't make a lot of sense"

Actually, it does. There are entire branches of Psychology and Sociology that deal with the dynamics of crowd behavior.

Are the dynamics of "group behaviour" broken down by nationality?

Tom, I think you are making a false assumption that the cruise ship passengers actually do stick together, even in a largish city like Stockholm. I was in Dubrovnik recently when there was a cruise ship in town, and the cruise ship passengers did not stick together. Certainly the city was crowded, but it also was on the previous day when the cruise ship was not there. The ships have to tender in Dubrovnik, so I saw the cruise ship passengers come and go in dribs and drabs. I certainly did not see big groups of passengers sticking together. The same was true when I was in Trieste earlier on the same trip with a cruise ship docked in town. I did see one small bus with cruise ship passengers on a tour, but I did not see great crowds of them in Trieste. I have personally never been on a cruise, so I have no personal bias in their favour.

I also think the bigger the city you go to, the less visible the cruise ship crowds are. Here in Sydney, I used to work a block away from the cruise terminal, and I never even noticed the cruise ship passengers. The commuters coming out of Circular Quay train station were far more noticeable and greater in number.

I probably digressed too far, and yes a city isn't a restricted site so not the same thing as I experienced at Uxmal.

As these ships get more numerous and the ease of getting places increases more and more I do wonder what the future will bring. Imagine the crowding in San Marco in Venice if anyone could just apparate there with a toss of floo powder.

Don't know why everyone's getting in such a fluff. People come on this forum all the time asking for advice on how to best avoid crowds in popular cities/tourist sights ie: Paris museums, Versailles, Venice, etc. and responses are usually kept civil and they are not chastised for asking the question, but rather they are given good suggestions on how to avoid those crowds. Apparently, if the words 'cruise ship passengers' are used, that brings out the snark around here.

Nowhere did the OP say anything disparaging about cruise ship passengers, he simply supplied some numbers he thought were relevant and asked about which venues may be more crowded on days when one or more ships are in port. A simple logical question. People ask about the effect of cruise ships being in port on Venice tourist venues all the time and don't get remarks like on this thread.

I've been a cruise ship passenger and I've been on big bus tours and I've visited tourist spots as a solo traveler. I've suffered crowds in many places, some from hordes of cruise ship passengers being let loose on a small venue all at once, and some just because it was a popular spot and I was there during peak season and during peak days and times. I've asked on here for advice on how best to minimize and/or avoid crowds and have been given good answers. Just curious what made this particular post so unique?

Really the cruise ship crowds go the same places as everyone else, and on pretty much the same buses and schedule as the big bus crowds. If you want to avoid them, the best bet is to see the biggest sights first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon.

I've taken a number of cruises, including into Stockholm. I've never taken their shore excursions, I always leave the ship at the first possible moment and am on my way while the tour groups are still forming up (and don't return to the ship until it's time). I can't recall running into any of these big groups at Vasa or Skansen nor did I see any big groups walking through Gamla Stan. I'd say they become part of the overall crowd rather than being a crowd unto themselves. There are probably some people who just get off the ship and wander around the immediate area, so there may be larger than normal groups in the port area for awhile.

In Stockholm as I recall, only a limited number of ships can dock within walking distance of Gamla Stan. The rest are further out and have to be transported into town.