Just curious..if we are catering to cruise ships, why don't we have public facilities..yesterday having lunch at Plazita Limena a group of cruise ship passengers went thru the dining room and proceeded to use the loo..it was annoying and unfair IMHO to the owners who will have to pump their septic due to the overuse by people not even sustaining the island's economy...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Could not get onto Jibe City's beach...had to head down to the far end to swim..the pod people took over JC and BWP.

I agree Ann, it's a problem for sure, and not fair to the owners of the restaurants.

I would wager you would not want to use one of those after it had been in the Bonaire heat for a day or two!

What is the cost to flush a toilet on Bonaire?

I do know water is expensive.

Disgusting!! I do sympathize with the restaurants since I strongly suspect the pod people do not chose to pay for lunch at the local establishments.
And to add insult to injury, I believe the cruise ship operators are only being charged a dollar or two per head by the government.
Contrast that to what WE pay when we arrive via air & spend tons of money on the island for transport, accommodations, food and diving!

ask the TCB .. they are the agency bringing these ships in .. the focus is numbers .. not quality ..nor impact .. the ships this year are many not desired in many ports .. the power of the cruise ship tourism and impact is solely with the TCB .... ask any of us directly involved in providing services to the cruise ship market .. the majority of us are appalled ....the TCB makes the decisions.. ask them to wake up and see how the decisions are negatively affecting many ..make TCB accountable .

rant over .. there are many many public loos available in the playa and along or on the tour destinations .. i often work in the playa and direct them to the public ones provided .. there are number of them located by the customs building ...

NO, Pietri there aren't. the only open "public loos" are the ones next to City Cafe and Wannadive. I understood previously that City Cafe were given a donation by TCB, Government or someone, to make them available, but this year I see that for some cruise ships there is someone outside them trying to collect 50c (US) a visit.
Th only other accessible toilets are inside restaurants, inside Harbourside Mall (locked) or in the Palm gallery (locked).
The "Porta-Loos" that were near the North Pier last year are not there this season -it was apparently deemed too expensive to put them there.
BTW Grunt, they were not left to stand in the sun for dys, they were put out fresh each cruise ship day and were actually in good clean condition. I know because I often used them late in the day.
In spite of the fact that many people would rather see the island's tourism income decrease,
given that the income from the cruise ships has a big positive impact on many people on the island - drivers, tour operators, guides, shops etc., shouldn't TCB make sure there are adequate facilities for the people spending that money here. Shouldn't they also provide more trash bins on cruise ship days and make some effort to keep the areas near the piers clean?
Many cruise visitors say that this is by far the best and cleanest island they visit, why not try to keepo that up?

the public loos seem to vary .. sometimes i see them and then not .. since if i am not touring i am at the rochaline at the salt shop .. i have not seen anyone outside the city cafe loos charging for a while ...and a few times there has been public loos at the north pier and other locations in town .. it is spotty and looks to me that TCB just doesn't care to be responsible... i agree with you that cruise tourism is here to stay but the TCB is very neglect in providing basic services, cleaning up areas and relating to the various impacts the day wave of cruisers causes .. i am glad that the people in the stores and involved directly in working with the cruisers are doing such a great job in handling the multiple problems TCB has put on their shoulders by not doing their job ...generally the cruise visitors are very impressed by bonaire and it is because of the hard work of the service, shop and street people .. not TCB.

there is an undercurrent of conflict between the dive oriented tourists and the cruise industry .. this is the season for these conflicts and hostilities to be put aside .... both sectors will always be present ... and we all need to work together in harmony and hope that TCB takes on the discord and problems they have created .... phil ...see you on the square today

I have close communications with the GM in Tourism Ms. Croes Tjin...she in turn always forwards my messages to the proper authority (they have been changing often so I am not always sure who to email)...I appreciate her close communication. On this matter Ms. Croes Tjin agrees completely and Loos are set up at various tourist points on tourists routes. Plans are to have more in town. IMHO we should cater to small boutique lines and let the mega ships head to ports that WANT this industry and cater to the masses. Sadly my friends and I cannot book any boat trips nor find many days to get to Klein Bonaire during high season...and windsurf, pfft..See ya in the Spring when the beach is back to normal.

Time for American divers to boycott Bonaire until they solve the sewage problem! Instead of "leading by example," the Bonaire motto should be "pollute for free!"--which is what Nolly Oleana in the government said about the Freewinds (they are allowed to dump their sewage for free, like everyone else!)

Is this a policy you would expect from an island that prides itself on environmental stewardship? And now the cruise ship visitors are trashing Klein Bonaire and Lac Bay in addition?

The only way Ms. Croes and her TCB cronies will take these issues seriously is for American divers to take their money elsewhere and inform them exactly why.

Divers are being taken for granted while cruise ship visitors add to the growing pollution problem killing the reefs. As one divemaster said to me, "The American divers will always come; they don't care about the sewage!"

since i have been working with the cruise tourism almost from the beginning .. 25 years plus ..i heartily agree .. the small lines used to come here and were great.. as well as the larger prestigious ships ... to sell bonaire as a shopping destination is ridiculous .. not even duty free here .. this is a lot of the focus of the ships arriving here.... to shop and to get to a beach... generally there is no interest in our special beauty and nature -TCB should market us for what we are ..

Couldn't the store/restaurant owners just post a sigh saying "Washrooms for the use of our patrons only" That's what the business' do here. It forced the city to deal with the lack of public facilities. We have a large cruise line destination business here, 1 day last fall...19!

The cruise ships do not love Bonaire as much as they love a new port of call.
The number of ships and capacity of same continues to increase, but not the number of islands.
The solution seems to find new places to pull into.
A cruise ship is a business that does not care about the reefs, as they make little or no profit from them.
If the government of Bonaire sees more profit from cruise ships than from divers the ships will win.
Look at the diving on other Caribbean islands with heavy cruise traffic.
'nuff said.

from what I understand many boats cannot do VEN anymore so they come here...when we lived across from Playa Lechi many a cruise ship passengers came to our gate and asked what was there to do ...they had walked to the end of the street in confusion..many used the main road instead of the seaside promenade...jeepers...

Sorry,I don't know and understand very good english. But when I red all this articles in "Bonaire Talk", I get a vague suspicion - do the new owners of Sorobon Beach Resort make free the way for a huge Cruise-Ship pier ? Could now big business at last clear an obstacle out of the way? Do I see ghosts? Andy

I find it hard to believe that TCB (who serve at the pleasure of the elected government, as I understand it) calls all these shots without the 'ok' of 'the island government', the elected officials.

Andy, Lac Bay is way too shallow for cruise ships!!

Lac Bay is only just deep enough at low tide for my 32 cm skeg !