Cruise ships have returned to Key West. Locals gathered to protest one ship’s arrival

Cruise ships began returning to Key West two weeks ago, ending a 20-month shutdown due to the pandemic.

On a small island with a tourism-dependent economy known for a laid back, party on attitude, the big return is creating enough discontent to draw a protest downtown on a Thursday morning.

It’s been a little more than a year since voters put limits to drastically reduce the industry’s role in Key West — only to have state lawmakers later cancel out their decisions, which included capping the number of people who come to the island at 1,500 per day and barring ships with a capacity of 1,300 or more from disembarking at all.

Activists said cruise ships are responsible for spreading COVID-19 and damage to a fragile environment.

Several business owners, though, were relieved state lawmakers took action, saying they rely on the passengers to make a living in expensive Key West.

About 200 people on Thursday morning showed up to send a message to cruise lines that large ships holding a few thousand passengers aren’t welcomed by all in Key West.

They were protesting the arrival of the Norwegian Dawn, gathering at the city-owned Mallory Pier, holding signs and flags denoting support for Safer Cleaner Ships, a group that says it stands for responsible tourism that requires smaller ships coming to town.

“We are not done fighting this,” said Arlo Haskell, one of the group’s organizers, addressing the crowd with a microphone and speaker. “We are far from done.”

On the water nearby, more protesters were aboard a flotilla of about 20 boats sporting Safer Cleaner Ships flags.

They all watched the ship, which Norwegian says is a 965-foot ship that can hold about 3,300 people, including crew members, dock nearby at the privately owned Pier B located at the Opal Key Resort and Marina.

Passengers there were greeted at Pier B by banners that read, “Welcome to Key West Cruise Ship Passengers.”

“There are a lot of people that feel the other way,” said Tom McMurrain, Pier B’s manager, adding that people showed up to welcome the passengers. “Everybody should be welcomed to come to Key West. It’s always been that way. People come by bus and by plane. There should not be a limitation.”

In all, a total of 2,134 people were on the ship — 1,061 passengers and 1,073 crew members — according to Pier B.

The Key West City Commission is holding a special workshop Monday at 5 p.m. at City Hall to discuss how to handle the island’s cruise ship traffic through local regulations and rules and offer direction to the city manager and city attorney.

Voters in November 2020 approved limits on the number of people who can hit the streets each day and banned the largest ships from coming at all. Each of the three referendums passed by 60 percent.

But that vote was canceled out by new legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in June.

“We rely on cruise ships to survive,” said Steven Nekhaila, who owns several businesses in the Keys, including two Wendy’s fast food restaurants in Key West.

Tourists have filled Key West this year even without the cruise ships, which in 2019 brought nearly 1 million people to the island.

But the recent influx of tourists is largely due to other vacation destinations, such as Europe, closing to tourists due to COVID-19, Nekhaila said.

“I don’t think it’s wise to anticipate this continuing,” he said. “We’re going to return to 2019 levels.”