NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Another cruise ship originally bound for Baltimore will port in Norfolk Thursday morning. Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas will arrive between 4 and 5 a.m., and it could impact your morning and afternoon commutes.
Kianna Carrethers works at Three Ships, a coffee shop and cafe in downtown Norfolk. Before today, she wasn’t worried about her commute on Thursday.
“Now I am, yeah,” Carrethers said. “I mean I didn’t know it was going to be hectic like that in the morning.”
Some 2,200 passengers will be disembarking the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas between 7 and 11 a.m., while 58 buses will line up on Boush Street and Waterside Drive and take them back to Baltimore. Then, another 2,200 passengers will come into Norfolk, park at the MacArthur Center garage and be bused to the cruise terminal to embark on the next cruise. That will take place from noon to about 4:30 p.m.
“On Sunday, we had our first turnaround with Carnival and everything went really well. It was really smooth,” Rehn West with Nauticus told WAVY-TV 10. “Traffic delays were at the bare minimum. So, we’ve done a walkthrough with Royal Caribbean and all of our maritime partners, and the Norfolk police officers and we think that this should run very smoothly.”
10 On Your Side spoke with Marco Quiros Wednesday night. Quiros is from Bel Air, Maryland and made the commute a day early in a 15-passenger van ahead of the ship’s arrival. Quiros told us he wanted to scope out the terminal for when he picks up his 10 family members in the morning.
“I came early today but it’s better early than late. I’m here for my wife, practically all my family. My nieces, my sister-in-law, cousins,” Quiros said.
“It will be impactful, obviously, for traffic coming into downtown Norfolk,” Rhonda Robinett said.
Robinett works in the Truist building downtown. She has already prepared her employees for the potential traffic tie-ups.
“We understand it’s a need though,” she said. “I mean, Baltimore is suffering, so we just kind of all have to help out.”
Folks with Downtown Norfolk Council Ambassadors and cruise terminal staff will be directing traffic in the area.