Cruise ships - curious to know more

[islandguy]

Seeing a big cruise ship yesterday made me think about how they handle their Samui port calls. If anybody knows about this(and I am sure there are many here) would be interested to know more about the subject. Here are some of my questions:

How deep a draft do these ships need (obviously not all the same)?

How far offshore of Nathon do they have to be to not get stuck?

What happens if they do go aground?

How do the ships' launches operate? Looks like a big door at the water level opens up and multiple launches capable of holding dozens of passengers are ferried to the pier.

Lots of minivans pick up passengers at the pier, where do they go?

Many other passengers walk around Nathon, seems like a big boost for the small shops there.

Where do these ships come from? What port near Bangkok do they use?

My impression is that cruise ships prefer to act as floating hotels, arriving into a new port early without a lot of time cruising during the day (pity, that). Are Bangkok and Singapore close enough for them to do this?

What ideas are the local government entities floating to take advantage of all this money (and make more for themselves)?

What kind of fees do the cruise lines pay here?

Thanks for any knowledge shared and whatever else you may have to add.

[PoorSucker]

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruises-to-ko-samui-thailand.html

http://www.cleancruising.com.au/port.asp?port=THUSM

[Rooo]

More Here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/683687-cruise-ships-visiting-koh-samui-2014/?p=8798283&hl=%2Bcruise+%2Bships

& Here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/787946-cruise-ships-visiting-koh-samui-in-2015/?p=8871078&hl=%2Bcruise+%2Bships

[islandguy]

Thanks PoorSucker. The first link was pretty funny, every post except one on the comments portion was for a taxi/tour. One offered German speaking guide(s), none had any prices. Pretty smart, really. The last one showed a selfie of a young woman whose profile said she worked at KFC. Do you prefer chicken legs or breast, K. Cruise?

Cruises with a port call in Vietnam or Singapore prior to Samui seem to have 36 hours between the port calls. Second link seems to show 57 port calls this year (hard to be sure without a clicker), with multiple days of 3 ships the same day and one day with 4!

Also thanks to Roo, the previous threads posted answer some more of my questions. Cruising in a huge sardine can is not for me, but the load on the islands infrastructure should be lighter than other categories of tourist, especially at the airport.

Still no idea about port fees, tender logistics details, or the really juicy scenario of one of these monsters stuck on a sand bar. Would they send down the aircraft carrier after a few days

[samuijimmy]

All I can add is a company from Phuket comes to act as "guides" and there is a local tie with Samui Ships and Trips, located just out of Nathon.... each time these ships come in.

Day tours spread out to various parts of the island and more likely only to upmarket resorts for lunch etc...

As for getting stuck in the sand bars that only happens in England .... ...(recently .... not heard if that has been resolved... it was a car cargo ship headed to Germany, if memory serves .... )

But seriously it is why they anchor so far out and bring the passengers in by small boats.... tides are high during the winter months.... during April is when the tides get much lower... No idea about Port fees, but I guess brings in money to the local economy.... .... (Phuket's too!)

[Tropicalevo]

The Queen Mary 2 had to change her route - the water was too shallow.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/787946-cruise-ships-visiting-koh-samui-in-2015/?hl=%2Bqueen+%2Bmary

[samuijimmy]

There has been two ships I have seen this week....

Wednesday's ship

Thursday's ship!

Too many people on one side... wanting to get off !

[Beng]

They do the classical half day around the island trip

Big Buddha

Viewpoint over Chaweng

Grandfather rock

Monkey picks coconuts

Mummyfied monk

Waterfall

Nathon

Maybe some shopping.....and back to the ship.

[samuijimmy]

Yesterdays ship, The Europa...