Cruise ships in La Spezia

Most who cruise the Med do so for the ports and very few will stay on the ship. More than ever the CT and all of Italy's (all of Europe) jewels need to be protected from over use. The ships just keep getting bigger. Not always a good thing.

Not that it makes makes much difference on a ship with about 7000 passengers, but quite a few passengers do actually stay on board at port stops. A lot with mobility problems will not venture to shore, some who find the excursions too expensive and are afraid to go on their own will say aboard. Some passengers like the chance to use the swimming pool ( in the case of this newest ship, 23 swimming pools ..... talk about excess.) and other amenities on the ship without bumping into other passengers. And then there are the elderly, the seasickness patients and the lazy layabouts who just want to sit on their verandahs and drink wine.

The thought of being on such an enormous vessel with almost 8000 people is off- putting, to say the least, to me, but not to hundreds of thousands of others.

"The thought of being on such an enormous vessel with almost 8000 people is off- putting, to say the least, to me, but not to hundreds of thousands of others." (emphasis mine)

And therein lies the problem, the cruise ship companies are not building bigger and bigger ships to attract more of the cruising public, it's the demand of that cruising public that is driving the need for bigger and more ships. And the same goes for the ports they visit. Yes, some ports are visited only because they are accessible to the bigger ships but most are scheduled (again) by demand, they are the ones the cruisers want to go to. True most of us here don't like the idea of just a few hours in a great city, but so many thousands of others just want that 'taste' of Europe and this is the easiest and cheapest way to do that without having to pack and unpack or drive, fly, or take the train from one city to another. Unfortunately there's really no end in sight - as long as the demand is there, they will continue to come. Only the refusal of the ports to allow the mega-monster ships to dock will slow it down, but it's hard for a city (or country) to turn down the mucho bucks the cruise lines pay for this privilege especially in this economic climate.

Looks like port schedule for this ship coincides with every-Saturday schedule for MSC Fantasia.

http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Italy/368-La_Spezia_cinque_Terre/June_2016/

I can vouch for the gelato at Black Dog in Chicago, I go whenever I am in the neighborhood. Is it better than Italy? I will find out in July.

Also will find out about cinque terre crowds on a July Saturday - we arrive in monterosso at 4:00 on a Saturday so hopefully everyone will be heading back to the ship by then.

And I'm already thinking about Black Dog gelato and pizza . . . I'll be in Chicago in July ☺

So Chani, will you be bringing me a Black Dog gelato in July?

Oh, yikes! I just happened to read this review yesterday, from which my favorite quote was, "Daddy, are we still on the ship?"

Chani,

Interesting article!. The thought of one (or more) of those leviathans docking in La Spezia or Livorno on the same day and regurgitating 5K-11K passengers into those five beautiful and tranquil small towns, is frankly rather depressing. I expect this might accelerate the efforts by local authorities in Liguria to put some kind of limits in place (although I can't imagine how they're going to do that?).

I don't have a problem with other tourists visiting the Cinque Terre, as I'm also a tourist. However, doing that on an industrial scale is just too much!

Laura,,

I also enjoyed the article that you linked. It reinforced my resolve never to travel on one of those floating amusement parks!

Interesting, well not really. but it did add another thing for me to check before we go this summer - each area we are planning to visit and adjust our schedule appropriately. 3 days in La Spezia for us, 4,000 one day, 8,000 one day and none one day. Hum, how to plan our time. One day Naples has 12,000 in port one day while we are in Sorrento, the other days are more reasonable. I had actually looked at cruising this winter and read amount the fine print you had to be back on board or maybe the process of boarding, 2 hours before the ship leaves port. The amount of time to actually see anything seemed so small and not worth it to me. Now to figure out how to plan our days with the influx.

Wow! We arrive Monterosso on June 15th and were going to make Thursday beach day and Friday hike day...looking at this schedule...think we may switch that!! Big ship in on Friday!! So glad I saw this post!! Thank you!!

It would be a mistake to adjust your trip based on cruise ship speculation. First, the landing schedules are not necessarily accurate, you can't know the travel proclivities of the passengers, and the effect of cruise passengers do not affect all aspects of the Cinque Terre. You can hike the higher trails without meeting many people at all. Most of the impact is in the 10am-4pm time period on the main streets of the villages and a little planning will minimize the effect for an informed traveler. There are also many many bus tours that arrive nearby or by transferring to the train and there's no way to estimate their schedules. Do a Google search for 'cinque terre crowding' and you'll find other ideas for insuring you have a good trip.

I last visited the Cinque Terre a few years ago (to take a relative from the US) and decided it wasn't worth it anymore (and it was early May, so not even highest season). I think it's time for those of you who have had the opportunity to see them already in the past, to try and explore other parts of the Italian coast that aren't as accessible to the Cruisaders.

In addition to the over-visited RS' favorites of Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast/Capri, I suggest you all try the following, if you haven't already:

Elba & the Tuscan Archipelago (Tuscany)
Mt. Argentario Peninsula (Tuscany)
Ponziane Islands (Latium)
Cilento (Campania)
Maratea (Basilicata)
Tropea (Calabria)
All coasts of Sicily and surrounding smaller isles
All coasts of Sardinia and surrounding smaller isles
Salento (Apulia)
Gargano Peninsula (Apulia)
Tremiti Islands (Apulia)
Mt Conero Coast (Marche)

The above list is not even exhaustive of all of Italy has to offer, but all of them will provide rewarding spectacular stretches of Mediterranean coast.

Thank you Roberto! I will look into those for our trip next year.

Loved the "Cruisaders" name! That really describes many of them.

Here's an article I found on the upcoming ticketing system that is scheduled to begin this summer. Rick Steves is mentioned although his name is spelled wrong. http://www.inquisitr.com/2805748/cinque-terre-italy-to-introduce-tourist-ticketing-system-due-to-overcrowding/

Does anyone know anything about getting tickets for this summer? Google has not led me to how to find out if space would still be available to visit in July or where to buy that kind of ticket. As we are scheduled to spend two days there, I thought we would just buy the ticket to ride trains and hike the open trails when we got there. Does anyone know if this system is actually up and running for this summer?

It sounds like what they are limiting is the access to the most popular hiking paths, not to the towns themselves.

The limit will be 1.5 million visitors per year, a significant drop from 2015’s total, but almost 4 times the number of visitors that came through the area in 2011. So there were about 400,000 visitors in 2011, and well over 1,500,000 4 years later.

Those of us who were there before 2012 were so lucky.

On another thread, Laura from Rick's office confirmed this proposal never came to completion. I think this is the same article I found and posted but currently there is no sort of ticketing system in place.

I wish people would quit spreading the rumors about tourist limits in CT based on months old articles in questionable media sources. Check one of their own websites such as this one: https://cinqueterre.a-turist.com/index or this one: https://www.incinqueterre.com/en/ and note the !IMPORTANT information. This website gives information on the tourist card that you can purchase that allows entrance to the National Park (hiking trails) and transportation on trains, etc. But I don't think there are limitations on how many can purchase the card http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.cinque.terre/Edettaglio.php?id=35593

And again regarding the ticketing rumor:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/cinque-terre-news

No, there are no limits on number of hiking cards that I know of. If a trail become dangerously worn/damaged due to overuse, they'll close it for repairs.

Memo to self...
"Think Cinque Terre. Book Chicago."

It's not just the number of passengers these cruising behemoths spew forth in smaller ports, but the pollution they spew forth at the same time.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/21/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-and-its-supersized-pollution-problem

Wife and I visited CT last year and loved it so much we're going again this year for a week. One difference though, we'll be heading to other villages between 11-4 on most, if not all, days. The evenings and nights are magical, the days are a bit too crowded. We'll head to Camogli, Lerici, Tellaro, up to Pignone, and couple other towns I'm researching. Would love any other suggestions

And all CT hiking will be early in the morning.