considered cruise ship passengers 'tourists'. They are not on land long enough even to be called day trippers. They get just enough time to hit all the garbage filled, $5 stores, grab a Chinese made souvenir cup of vile watered down beer and some fast food. Dump all the garbage on the street and waddle their fat asses back to the ship. The rest are too fat or old even for that, they get the tour train fiasco.

The math here says it all.

Not a single one of the more upscale destinations, or even just the nicer bars and shops, get even a passing glance, not that any of these disgorged sheep could afford to pay a visit even if they wanted too. Same goes for those self serving lobbyists who try and convince the people of Key West that somehow these, $300 for a 4 day cruise, asshats, are going to come back to Key West in the future and spend some actual money on a longer stay. PROVE IT. They just spent their entire years spare cash on the cruise.

The ONLY benefits to these visits are the fees paid to the City by the Cruise lines, the few tacky, shit filled shops, bars and fake "historical recreations", on the first 4 blocks and the tour train operator/plastic faux key west salesman.

simple , let's raise the disembarcation fee to $80 and let the market sort it out..

As all of the facts have emerged, it's clear that very few of us want more cruise ships and more passengers dumped on our streets, destroying our quality of life.

Only Swift, Rossi and the T-shirt shops profit from them.

Contact your city commissioner and ask him or her to propose a new ordinance limiting passenger numbers and raising disembarkation fees.

Forget widening... question now is, do we want cruise ships at all?

Duval street is a dump lined with t-shirt shops, bars, and overpriced restaurants. Any pretense otherwise is a joke. Bring the cruise ship passengers in by the thousands. They buy a t-shirt, spend money, and leave.