Thread: How to Choose a More Eco Friendly Cruise

Environmental awareness and concerns about the cruise industry has been a topic increasingly on my mind and the mind of many other Cruise Line Fans out there. I wanted to try and assemble some thoughts and guidelines about how to be a more responsible cruise tourist.

1. Plan and Pack Ahead of Time: When vacationing, continue to reduce, reuse or recycle (when possible) at all times. Try to pack ahead of time, using a good list of durable, re-useable items that come in handy while on vacation. You'll want to avoid having to buy pre-packaged, single items replacements for forgotten toothpaste or dental floss.

2. Travel By Train or Bus: Can you get to your port of embarkation via a train or a bus? How about starting a Roll Call on CruiseLineFans.com and arranging for a ride share? Its a much greener way to travel and can cut out serious CO2 emissions impact out of your trip.

3. Try a Smaller Ship: Most of the major cruise lines are members of the CLIA, which does include an environmental management requirement for membership. Its seemingly still up for debate how effective these standards really are, in reality. As a result, if you really want to cruise and cruise in the most environmentally responsible way possible, try out a smaller line or luxury eco-cruise company, like Linbald Expeditions, small ship tours like Gulet tours, or a whale watching cruises off NewFoundland.

For more information about responsible cruise tourism, I suggest a couple of resources:

Conservation International - Center for Environmental Leadership in Business

Cruise Ship Discharges | US EPA

Here are a few highlight from the cruise line community, making attempts to go above and beyond current CLIA or maritime regulations.

Carnival Cruise Lines: ALL waste on board is either incinerated, recycled, or offloaded for disposal on land. Carnival Spirit and Carnival Triumph maintain gray water purification systems and ocean water quality monitoring systems.

Costa Cruises: In 2005, Costa Cruises won the Green Star award from RINA, in Italy, its country of operation, for all 11 ships in its fleet at the time. The award is presented to Italian companies who adhere to the highest of environmental standards recognized by the Italian Shipping Register.

Cruise North Expeditions: Cruise North currently sails a 122 passenger vessel, which explores Arctic wildlife and unique wilderness areas along the coast of northern Labrador. They won a Green List award from Conde Nast Traveler in 2006.

Holland America: ALL of Holland America's ships feature non-perchloroethylene dry cleaning, low flow toilets and showers, a towel reuse program and an extensive onboard recycling effort.

Linbald Expeditions: The grandaddy of eco cruising and green travel. They are dedicated to sustainable travel and conservation of the regions they visit. Chefs on board even use locally sourced food in your meals. Awesome!

ResponsibleTravel.com: Here is a collection of Gulet cruises, small ship/group expeditions and the site is dedicated to responsible and eco-friendly travel.

CruiseLineFans is going to be writing more about the issues surrounding the tourism industry's impact on the environment and how we , as Cruise Line Fans, can help to reduce our personal impact and spread more awareness about the ecological wonderlands we use the cruise ships to visit.

• Do you have some concerns that we might be able to investigate?
  
• DO you have some tips about how to reduce, reuse or recycle items commonly used on board ship? Start a new thread in this sub forum!

Let's get talking about the issue and see what type of information we can bring to the forefront.

p.s. I always encourage cruisers to write to their favorite cruise company and express your concerns about their impact on the environment.