Better ask Barry: There’s no cruise to Santa Cruz

Bad pun alert: There is no cruise to Santa Cruz.

That is true when it comes to cruise ships. Historically, the large ships have made Monterey a port of call, but never Santa Cruz. A KION viewer asked us to look into it.

We asked a lot of people and just about everyone said it is something they’d never thought about.

“I don’t think it’s even been a topic with anybody, even like in our group of friends,” said Valerie Barbiteau, of Santa Cruz.

Marian Olin, the Santa Cruz port director, said, “I don’t recall ever getting a request from a company to have a cruise ship come to Santa Cruz harbor.”

There’s a simple reason they do not visit. The large ships will not fit.

“The harbor itself – the entrance channel – is only 20 feet deep,” Olin said.

As it is, the harbor has to be dredged to just reach that depth.

There doesn’t appear to be a formal ban on cruise ships docking in Santa Cruz. The closest thing the city could find to a ban was a warning to boaters that Santa Cruz is a nuclear free zone.

Maybe it’s just not a Santa Cruz thing.

“I feel like we’re more environmentally geared around here,” said Shawna Berry, who works on the Santa Cruz wharf. “We don’t do a lot of big things like that.”

John Haynes, the Monterey harbormaster, thinks Monterey is generally more cruise-friendly.

“I think we just have a lot to offer here in a very small space. The minute they hit the wharf, they have all the shops on the wharf and it’s a pretty short bus ride or walk over to the aquarium, Cannery Row and downtown,” he said.

Meanwhile, life in Santa Cruz goes on without the big ships.

“It’s a small, local community that focuses on community concerns, and we have tourism right here with the Boardwalk,” said Noreen Nolan, a Santa Cruz resident.

Fourteen cruise ships are scheduled to visit Monterey in 2019.

None will visit Santa Cruz, and it seems everybody is okay with that.

If you have a question for Barry, click here.