France

[Gatorbuff]

Any opinions if disney will still port in France if protests are still going on.

 

[Marc D]

Of course they will. We were in Paris during the protest a few weeks ago and saw absolutely nothing, even though we were using public transports and walking everywhere. Media reports are like a microscope, especially when reporting things from distant countries. They focus on a small number of localized problems and make them seem like they are generalized. The content and tone from the local reports we saw were miles away from what was shown in NA concerning the supposed "riots", focusing instead on issues and mentioning in passing the 30 or 40 arrests made when a few bad elements threw rocks at police.

 

[tennisfan]

The only concern really is if public sector staff are still taking industrial action, might possibly be an issues if port staff strike as ship can't be tied up. Been caught up before when doing a day trip to France and port staff called a strike for an hour so we couldn't get off ship until ship was eventually tied up.

Also only back in March staff called industrial action which effected the ferry crossings.

 

[Marc D]

The only concern really is if public sector staff are still taking industrial action, might possibly be an issues if port staff strike as ship can't be tied up. Been caught up before when doing a day trip to France and port staff called a strike for an hour so we couldn't get off ship until ship was eventually tied up.

Also only back in March staff called industrial action which effected the ferry crossings.

That is a risk you always encounter in France, and why I would never rely on public transports or trains when there are important time constraints, like the need to get back to a cruise ship before departure. Striking and protesting in the streets is the real French national sport, and the current situation is simply a further example of that. And yet, France is the most visited country in the world.

The only time you can be sure you won't have a problem is if you are visiting during a long holiday, like Easter weekend. The only thing that will prevent the French from striking is the prospect of not taking advantage of a holiday.

(BTW, I've lived there for many years and otherwise traveled the country extensively before and since)

 

[tennisfan]

That is a risk you always encounter in France, and why I would never rely on public transports or trains when there are important time constraints, like the need to get back to a cruise ship before departure. Striking and protesting in the streets is the real French national sport, and the current situation is simply a further example of that. And yet, France is the most visited country in the world.

The only time you can be sure you won't have a problem is if you are visiting during a long holiday, like Easter weekend. The only thing that will prevent the French from striking is the prospect of not taking advantage of a holiday.

(BTW, I've lived there for many years and otherwise traveled the country extensively before and since)

Not disputing that, just stating that there is the risk of not being able to dock for a time due not being able to tie the ship up if it comes into port. I would imagine that if its known in advance they can cancel the port

 

[Marc D]

Not disputing that, just stating that there is the risk of not being able to dock for a time due not being able to tie the ship up if it comes into port. I would imagine that if its known in advance they can cancel the port

Of course, but OP was asking about protests - what I read to be public safety concerns - and not the possibility of not having the necessary workers to dock the ship. If the port can't accommodate the ship, they will reroute or replace for a sea day. But I doubt they will reroute the ship based simply on what you can see on the news.

 

[kiford]

Only if they are striking at the ports or the port workers themselves are striking. We were in Corsica when there were protests. It definitely held up the bus we were taking for our tour but the ship still docked. The protestors weren't violent, they just blocked traffic as much as they could for as long as possible.

 

[KristaZ]

Not Disney - but I was on a Princess Cruise last month when there were protests in Marseille. It was pretty peaceful, but they were specifically blocking the port. Traffic was just blocked getting in and out, so everyone was just stuck at the port until it cleared.

 

[Dug720]

It honestly will depend on what is going on. When I was on Celebrity in Feb 2020, we skipped Costa Maya because there was some kind of protest going on with bus drivers or taxi drivers or something. The Celebrity Reflection was in port the day before and their passengers felt the impact both with cruise ship excursions and private excursions. Captain Kate on the Edge was in contact with the captain on the Reflection as well as the corporate office and the executive decision was made to skip the port for us.

I'd imagine that in cases like this there would be inter-line communication about the actual effect on the ground and decisions would be made to skip if passenger safety was questionable due to the unrest.

 

[auntlynne]

My opinion is you won’t know far in advance. Maybe day before, day of.

I don’t think I would make any independent tour reservations for France that were non-refundable.