The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Spanish Wells’ chief councillor yesterday said there is “no turning back” on the community’s opposition to Crystal Cruises, adding that residents felt “dissed” by both the Government and the cruise line.

Robert Roberts told Tribune Business that Monday’s town meeting on Crystal Cruises’ decision to select the island as a port-of-call for its upcoming seven-night Bahamas’ cruises went “extremely well” with most residents maintaining their disagreement with the move.

He added that a register he kept showed at least 190 people, or some 20 percent of Spanish Wells’ population, attended. While acknowledging that Crystal Cruises guests are more upscale than the traditional “red cup, soda” cruise ship passenger, Mr Roberts argued: “It’s taken us seven to ten years to build what we have, and why would you want to mess with something that is not broken? 

“We have been building upon that. Even though 2020 has set everybody back in the tourism market, 2019 was probably one of the best years on record. Towards the latter part of las year it definitely picked up. This year, if hurricanes and natural disasters stay away, we will probably exceed 2019.

“I don’t want to say we don’t need Crystal Cruises; we just don’t want them calling on Spanish Wells. We could never say never, but at this juncture the overwhelming majority is very, very satisfied with what we have been able to build over the years.” 

Mr Roberts said Spanish Wells was now waiting on Crystal Cruises’ response, and added: “If you are not welcome somewhere, it’s going to be very hard to go there.” The local council has written to the cruise line three times already, asking for information on their itinerary and their plans, but Mr Roberts said they have yet to receive a reply.

Crystal Cruises did pay a courtesy call on Mr Roberts, with the island administrator in attendance, on May 11 as part of their assessment to determine if Spanish Wells was suitable as a cruise ship port-of-call. 

Mr Roberts said he had asked Crystal Cruises for a written outline of its intentions, and it replied with a “generic proposal” that he believes requires more clarification. The cruise line, though, has not responded to the council’s requests. 

“This is a huge embarrassment for Crystal Cruises and the Government as well; you can’t do an itinerary before consultation,” he argued. “Even though they still may have gotten a ‘no’ from the Spanish Wells community, it would not have been this messy for all parties involved. 

“The way that the district council felt that they were left out of initial decisions without any discussion, that created a whole lot of animosity. So even if people were on the fence and still willing to sit and listen, when your district council was dissed and not brought up to speed with what was going on, there was no turning back. They were pretty upset with that.”

Crystal Cruises earlier this week sought to reassure Spanish Wells residents that its passengers will not overwhelm the community during their weekly call, while also pledging that its vessel will not harm Egg Island’s environment.

Kevin Jones, chief strategy officer for Crystal’s parent, Genting Americas, and the cruise line’s corporate manager, told Tribune Business via an e-mailed response that the cruise line would transport passengers to the north Eleuthera community via “staggered” tenders that would be limited to “fewer than 100 people” so that the number of visitors to Spanish Wells would be restricted.

And, pledging that there will be no dredging to facilitate the Crystal Serenity anchoring at Egg Island, he said all the anchorage positions had been approved working in collaboration with local ports facilities teams.

“We are reiterating to stakeholders that there would be absolutely no dredging. Crystal Serenity is helmed by Captain Birger Vorland, a 17-year veteran of Crystal who has more than 45 years of mariner experience. The Captain and the bridge officers utilise electronic charts as well as local yachting charts, and would use radar and sonar technology to monitor our position at all times,” said Mr Jones.

As for passenger movements, he added: “Our plan would be to spread guests around the islands by staggering tour shore excursions’ departure times throughout the morning and afternoon, thus controlling the number of guests on the islands at any given time.

“Guests going ashore would be limited by the capacity and frequency of the tenders. Tenders would be limited to fewer than 100 people. We would never have two tenders ashore at the same time, and we would control the speed of the tender operations so there is a limited flow of guests arriving on an island at any given time.”