Don't Believe The Hype: Alcúdia and cruises

I guess you could say that it looked quite impressive, even with its sails down. I said to some old Mallorcan woman who was just staring vacantly in its general direction through the wire fencing that it was "impresionante". Not that I really meant it. It was more a case of finding something to say. She seemed somewhat startled by the fact that someone would say anything, but she agreed.

It would have looked a great deal more impressive had one been able to get up close. I knew there was little chance of doing so, but I asked the port cop anyway. You need to be accredited, he said, which I pretty much suspected would be his answer. I hadn't necessarily wanted to get right by it, just to be able to go up onto the elevated walkway so that I might get a decent opportunity of taking a photo, rather than taking one with the lens through the fence and at ground level, the result of which was useless.

Accreditation and all that, but was there not something to be said for letting people get up close? It was, after all, the first time a cruise ship (of sorts) had come to Alcúdia. The old Mallorcan woman would probably have relished the opportunity of staring vacantly from less of a distance. Should more of an occasion not have been made of this maiden cruise voyage to Alcúdia?

Perhaps they realised that it wasn't quite as it seemed. Don't believe the hype. I wonder who first coined this expression. Was it from the sixties? Ralph Nader maybe? Sounds like the sort of thing he would have said. It doesn't really matter, but hype there had been regarding Sea Cloud's visit to Alcúdia. The first cruise ship. The only problem was, as I came to realise when trying to trace the ship's movements, that it wasn't a cruise as such. Not a scheduled one, as it wasn't listed anywhere. A charter doesn't carry quite the same weight as a scheduled cruise does, and I assume that it had to have been a charter.

Consequently, and despite the spin that has come and will come not least from Alcúdia town hall, Sea Cloud's appearance doesn't mean a great deal. Not in terms of future cruise ships coming to Alcúdia.

The pre-Sea Cloud hype extended to all manner of possibilities. Excursions around Alcúdia, more custom for local restaurants and shops, putting Alcúdia on the cruise map, even combatting seasonality. The only one of these that might be said to have some substance is that to do with the map. But then presumably cruise lines already know. They only have to look at a map.

I shook my head with amused disbelief at the apologetic table that had been laid out with a white cloth near to the entrance (and exit) to the terminal. There were a few "siurells", examples of local product, and some leaflets, one for the local restaurant association. It was pitiable in truth. The ship was in port for sic hours, there were only 47 passengers, they were travelling on a ship with five-star dining, and the hype would have it that the restaurants would suddenly be inundated with high-net-worth custom from a ship that would normally set you back around three and a half grand for a seven-day cruise. By the time I got down to the port, it was gone eleven. The ship had been in port for over three hours and was due to set sail at two. I counted at least 20 passengers who were already returning. So much for the excursions, so much for the local restaurants.

As I was walking away from the terminal, my less than adequate photos about to be deleted, I wondered what first impressions a visitor on a cruise ship would have. As you leave the terminal area and head towards the Paseo Marítimo, there isn't, if I am being honest, anything that is particularly remarkable. In fact, there isn't anything remarkable. Pleasant, but then so are many places. And what of the sight as you come into port? To quote Son Fe Mick, who commented on my previous article about Sea Cloud (22 July, "The Phantom Cruise'"), there is a "bloody great rusty power station. When are they going to knock it down and build a 1000 year old cathedral?" The point is very well made. Enter Palma by sea and the cathedral dominates the landscape. Enter Alcúdia and it is an abandoned power station.

An architect friend of mine, who hadn't know the background to the power station and plans for its redevelopment (now almost certainly also abandoned) until I told him, was amazed at the idea that they would keep the chimneys, which is what the plans envisaged. Industrial heritage and its preservation is fine, but only in the right context. Alcúdia's power station isn't Battersea's. It isn't the Tate Modern, which was part of the inspiration for the plans. It should be removed, and that includes the chimneys. But chances are that it won't be, and so future cruise passengers (two ships are scheduled for next year but won't have that many more passengers than Sea Cloud) will be confronted with the sight of the power station.

Alcúdia as a cruise destination. Nice idea, but don't believe the hype.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Sea Cloud's stop in Alcúdia

On the same day as a largish cruise ship moored in the harbour in Port Sóller for the first time, so the first cruise ship pulled into Alcúdia's commercial port, the ship in fact being the 80-year-old barque Sea Cloud. The ship was in port for six hours before setting off for Barcelona.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

The Phantom Cruise? Sea Cloud in Alcúdia

26 July will go down in the annals of Alcúdia's history.

What great days there have been over the years. The day they officially opened the first roundabout and then unveiled the most un-horselike sculpture known to Western civilisation. The day they opened the bypass behind Bellevue and put an end to the coal trucks lumbering along the coast road to the power station. The day that Lidl opened.

Yet even these landmark days will be as nothing compared with when the first cruise ship arrives. The town band will be there, pipers to pipe the ship into dock. In fact, the pipers might well be there, too, a frightful bagpipe wailing at an hour when most would prefer to still be asleep. The folk dancers will ball their bot in their own peculiar Mallorcan way. Men may even wear hats, and the lady mayor will eschew the jeans she wore for the day when the market opened in the port and favour a summer frock.

Ships can sometimes be venerable because of their age. Cruise ships, as a rule, tend not to be particularly venerable. The multi-decked, all-inclusive on the high seas colossi that bounce over the waves of the Mediterranean are of far more recent vintage. Such cruise ships have not yet taken to arriving in Alcúdia. The length of time it has been hoped that Alcúdia might one day be able to welcome a cruise ship is to be marked by a ship that is suitably old. Eighty years old in fact.

Sea Cloud is not what you tend of think of when it comes to the cruise liner. Apart from its age, it isn't particularly big. Like some ships which have undergone transformation into becoming cruisers, Sea Cloud was originally a recreational ship; one of the finer of its time. It did, though, lend itself to the war effort; it was a weather ship with the US Navy during World War II. Its masts were removed but they are now back, all four of them. When Sea Cloud arrives in Alcúdia, one trusts the sails will all be in full billow. It will be a sight to behold, no question, but does it genuinely mark the start of a golden age of cruise ships coming into Alcúdia's expensive new terminal?

This is the hope of course. There will now be two and not just one ship next year. But three in two years do not constitute a golden age. Alcúdia will always have to contend with a ruddy great port on the south side of the island, to say nothing of those in Menorca.

The further hope is that cruise ships will bring with them a plenitude of passengers that they will disgorge in order for them to offer their patronage to the hostelries and businesses of the port. The great excitement, other than that generated by Sea Cloud being the first cruise ship, is that it will be carrying a payload with very deep pockets. Sea Cloud isn't exactly cheap, and its luxurious suites suggest anything but cheapness.

Not being cheap equals being exclusive. The leviathans of the waves that transport hundreds of passengers aren't exclusive, hence they produce the numbers that can be boasted about who end up in Palma's port and are then taken off to some caves on an excursion coach. Alcúdia will not be able to claim hundreds. It won't even be able to claim one hundred, or even fifty. Sea Cloud will have 47 passengers, 17 shy of its capacity. There will in fact be more crew.

The magnificent 47, once they have negotiated the prancing and the piping, once they have received gifts (what are they and who's paying for them?), once they have passed an array of gastronomic products that will be on display, will head off into the Alcúdia morning. Or will they? It is being said that they will be able to undertake an excursion of the town and maybe they will. But they only have six hours and they'll be off at two in the afternoon. Six hours and that'll be it for a year, until 6 August, 2013 when "The World" will arrive; not the whole world, you understand, but a ship by that name.

The only slight concern I have regarding the arrival of Sea Cloud is that, according to its schedule, it isn't actually due to be coming to Alcúdia on 26 July. Presumably it must be, but on its website there is no mention of the fact. There is a cruise that starts in Barcelona the following day, and one that will end today in Nice. I confess to being somewhat confused. Is it a genuine cruise or what exactly is it, and so who are the 47?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia anticipates its first cruise ship on 26 July

The first cruise ship to use the new terminal at Alcúdia's commercial port is scheduled to dock at eight o'clock in the morning this coming Thursday (26 July). Sea Cloud, a four-mast luxury sailing ship will bring 47 passengers, so hardly a big ship, but it marks what is hoped will be the development of Alcúdia as a cruise destination. Two ships are now due to come to Alcúdia in 2013.

See more: Diario de Mallorca