This Is The Most Unsettling Reason To Avoid Taking A Cruise If You're Looking For An Authentic Experience

Cruises promise a hassle-free way to explore the world: wake up somewhere new every morning while enjoying a floating resort of restaurants, pools, and entertainment. But if you're hoping for a truly authentic experience, one where you connect with local cultures, landscapes, and communities, you might want to think twice.

Take a look at popular Caribbean Cruise itineraries. Some of the most visited "ports" aren't traditional towns or cities at all; they're privately owned islands or fenced-off terminals created by cruise lines themselves. Places like Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at CocoCay or Carnival's Half Moon Cay are designed to keep tourists in a bubble. They are not real reflections of the places they claim to represent but sanitized versions of them, designed for revenue instead of genuine cultural exchange. It seems like cruise lines are not aware of what travelers today are looking for. For instance, a recent report from Trav Heir states that 86% of millennials say they travel to immerse themselves in culture and experiences, something you are not actually getting with many cruise trips.

Many locals are now shut out of beaches they once freely used, as cruise companies fence off and control these areas. Unless employed by the companies, access is often denied. "We feel like our island, our paradise, is being threatened," Ile-a-Vache local Pierre Kenold Alexis told TIME, afraid he and the other 14,000 residents will be shut off from their homes in Haiti. "If they are trying to push me out of my community, I will make a fuss."

Also, cruise lines design these private spaces to keep money circulating within their own ecosystem. That means food vendors, entertainers, shops, and even tour guides are often contracted directly by the cruise company. Local entrepreneurs — those who run family restaurants, craft markets, cultural tours — are shut out and left behind the fences, watching thousands of visitors dock just minutes away, unable to offer their services or share their stories. However, according to an American Express poll, 73% of travellers said it is important for them to help boost local small businesses in the destination they're in. This growing awareness makes the exclusion of local voices out of step with what travelers increasingly value.

If your goal is to understand a place and its people, then you might want to avoid taking a cruise. For instance, Journalist Jason Cochran wrote about how in Royal Caribbean's private island of Labadee, Haiti, locals asked tourists for money by extending their arms through the fence. When Cochran gave them bananas, he was asked not to do so again by one of the cruise line's employees. He and other tourists had to pretend they were in paradise, when outside the fences, 80% of Haitians live below the poverty line. Paradise is only a gated experience for tourists. The real island, town, or city is just out of reach.