Carnival Threatens to Pull out of the Cayman Islands

A battle is brewing between tender operators and cruise ship operators in the wake of Cayman Marine’s price increase for transporting passengers to and from vessels in George Town harbor.

While both sides say they hope for negotiations to find an amicable resolution, lines appear to be hardening as each blames the other. Meanwhile, Cayman’s cruise arrivals have seen an overall decline since 2006 and may be increasingly at risk due to this dispute, industry officials fear.

Cayman Marine Services, which operates about 16 tenders in the George Town harbor, has proposed a 75-cent price rise per passenger in three phases throughout 2013 – the company’s first increase in five years – intended to address rising costs for labor, fuel, maintenance and materials. The initial 25-cent rise started on 1 January.

Carnival Cruise Lines has taken exception to the idea, and while the company declined direct comment, Michele Paige, president of the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association, said the industry is “not happy” with the increases, suggesting it could “drastically affect” the number of ships and passengers arriving in Grand Cayman.

Carnival Cruise lines has 227 arrivals scheduled for Grand Cayman in 2013. On Friday, Government Information Services announced the company had decided to cut Cayman services due to redeployment of ships to alternate routes and the lack of berthing facilities, citing a “desire on the part of cruise lines to not have certain ships serviced by cruise tender”.

Vance Gulliksen, public relations executive at Carnival, declined to comment, saying only “since the FCCA already commented, we’re going to defer to them on this issue”.

He would not be drawn on reports that the company had threatened to withdraw from Cayman all its 2013 arrivals. Cruise schedules are set at least two years in advance. However, with tickets having been sold and contracts having been signed, altering an itinerary becomes difficult.