Comments on: Cruising: Travel’s “Dirty Little Secret”?

By: Mark H

Mark H — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:37:58 +0000

Good to see a balanced article. Like most people, I try to be environmentally conscious. However I do think that the green lobby do more damage with biased, barely credible reports than they would do with well-researched, balanced reports even if the headline numbers are smaller. Saying that, some of the data I have seen from the hotel/flight/cruise/travel industries suffer from exactly the same criticism. I look forward to any updates on this.

By: Paul Motter

Paul Motter — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:39:39 +0000

I admit I am not an environmental expert so I really appreciate this article – if there is MORE to it I would love to see it at editor at cruisemates dot com.

I want to point this out about the QM2 stats above. First of QM2 making a transatlantic voyage is NOT your average cruise. That is far more miles than most ships cover in 6 days, she is sailing full-time non-stop. Furthermore, she is going at top speed and she is a 5-engine Maserati compared to the average Volvo that most ships are.

Most cruise ships top out at ~ 21 knots. A maritime engineer will tel you that a ship going ~30 knots (as QM2 does on transatlantics) burns far more fuel per knot than an average ship. That is the nature of ship’s engines, they get less efiicient at top speed.

I definitely see this as an abnormal calculation for the “average” cruise. I love your vision to think to calculate what people would burn on land just eating and driving, Brilliant. Please let me know if you take this further.

By: Anil

Anil — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:50:56 +0000

I think the message got lost in all the bickering. Your post is one of the best I’ve seen on a legitimate topic – I don’t know of any research resources to point you to but if I come across any will be sure to email them over.

By: Boomergirl50

Boomergirl50 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:11:16 +0000

The blogosphere needs more responsible reporting and less drama queens. This is a good example of what responsible reporting is. Thank you for a good read.

By: Marc

Marc — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:03:30 +0000

Thanks, Donna!

I deliberately avoided using at any cruise industry sources for this part of the report (or even looking at them before publishing), since it would be too easy to dismiss them as “propaganda”.

I’m looking at their side of the story in the next chapter, and will be asking some tough questions of them, too.

By: Donna Hull

Donna Hull — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:57:22 +0000

I appreciate your balanced post backed up by thorough research. Although this is a cruise industry source, you might find this information helpful.

http://www.cruising.org/industry/environment.cfm