Sleek cruise ship turns heads in Port Royal. Here’s why it docked in Battery Creek

An elegant cruise ship was seen plying the waters of Battery Creek over the weekend where its double-hulled bow turned heads and had residents wondering if more ships would be returning to Port Royal’s marina in the future.

The answer is yes.

The 241-foot-long American Liberty, a small cruise ship designed specifically for near-shore cruising, was christened in August in Newport, Rhode Island by American Cruise Lines. Now it’s meandering through the intracoastal waters of the southeast coast. The ship is one of the cruise ship company’s new “coastal cats,” and was docked at the Safe Harbor Marinas facilities in Port Royal. It was hard to miss by motorists crossing the Bell Bridge or locals on their way to the town’s popular beach and boardwalk.

American Liberty is a different kind of cruise ship

“I just love seeing the pretty lights on the boats coming and going,” said Norma Cooler, a resident who took photographs of the American Liberty, which accommodates 100 guests and features 4 decks and a unique catamaran bow and an unusual number of amenities for a small ship including private balconies, outdoor and indoor lounges, a restaurant and cafe and fitness center.

This “coastal cat” category of vessel is in stark contrast to the dozen or more decks that a typical “oasis class” ship will offer. Those ships often feature deck top pools, water slides and other attractions.

The sight of the cruise ship tied up in Port Royal was a surprise because American Cruise Lines, the country’s largest river and intracoastal waterway cruise ship operator, usually docks at Waterfront Park in neighboring Beaufort during its popular Lowcountry excursions.

But that’s changing, at least for the foreseeable future. In July, the city of Beaufort informed the Connecticut-based company it could no longer dock at Waterfront Park due to deterioration of the underwater pilings that support it. That development was a disappointment for downtown businesses that rely on the tourist income that sails in with the ships. But city officials, fearful that the weight of the vessels would put undue pressure on the aging waterfront infrastructure, said they had no choice.

So American Cruise Lines has made alternative docking arrangements with Safe Harbor Marinas in Port Royal, where the marina owner and operator is in the process of developing Port Royal’s deep harbor with a new marina. After docking in Port Royal, the company is busing its passengers to Beaufort where the itinerary includes various tours including horse-drawn carriage rides through the city’s historic district.

Between Nov. 17 and Jan. 1, American Cruise Line ships will dock 18 times in Port Royal, including a double docking by two ships over Thanksgiving and one ship on New Year’s Day.

By docking in Port Royal and busing guests to Beaufort, American Cruise Lines is fulfilling agreements it has with Beaufort companies that provide tours of the city for passengers while the ships are in port of call, said Robb Wells, president and CEO of Visit Beaufort, Port Royal, and Sea Islands, which markets northern Beaufort County. Those itineraries include tours featuring antebellum homes, locations where Hollywood films have been made and Gullah-Geechee culture and history.

“This is as good a solution, given the circumstances,” Wells said. “It’s very important to a lot of our retail partners downtown that they know American Cruise Lines is still bringing some of that business in.”

Cruise ships typically bring about 2,730 visitors to Beaufort a year. The ships usually cruise into the area late in the evening with the passengers disembarking the following morning for a day of sightseeing before the ships leave early the following morning.

But some of those visitors might be spending more time in Port Royal in the future, said Alexa Paolella, an American Cruise Lines spokeswoman.

All of the stops the company previously made in Beaufort are now in Port Royal, she said. And although the company is currently busing passengers to Beaufort, “We may be adding options in and around Port Royal,” Paolella said.

It’s possible, she added, that the company could end up docking in both locations in the future because it has multiple boats with different itineraries. The company, she added, is always looking to expand docking options and relationships with communities. “It may not ultimately end up either or,” Paolella said of docking in Beaufort or Port Royal.

Currently, cruise ships that are stopping in Port Royal and Hilton Head this fall and early winter are part of southeast and holiday cruises from Charleston to Amelia Island, Fla.

American Cruise Lines has 21 small cruise ships that operate in rivers and in coastal areas across the country. Five different boats alone are used in Southeast Sea Islands cruise, Paolella said, which has an “incredibly popular itinerary.”

The popularity of river cruising, she said, is increasing and the company has increased its fleet from 7 to 21 ships in the past nine years, with all of the smaller ships built by the famous shipyard Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland.

The American Liberty that showed up in Port Royal is part of a new fleet called the Coastal Cats designed for inland exploration, offering “rare access into small ports and ability to travel on almost any river or waterway in the U.S.”

But the small ships, which can carry 100 passengers, still offer the luxuries of larger ships that can carry up to 5,000 passengers.

“We’re talking a very, very different animal,” Paolella said. “These are more equivalent to some people’s large personal yachts. Which is why we are able often to dock in the heart of the communities.”

The last time cruise ships were docked in Port Royal came during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 when two ships owned by Victory Cruise Line waited out the pandemic along the wharf because of cruise ship restrictions.

Port Royal residents have mixed feelings about having cruise ships stop in the town, said Cooler, the Port Royal resident. Some people don’t want to see cruise ships because “we want to keep our town small,” she said. However, the ships are welcomed by some business people who want to see passengers “enjoy our village” as well, she added.

Whenever American Cruise Lines adds a port of call, it tries to add short excursions throughout the community but “we try not to swamp people with guests,” said Paolella, noting that no ship in the fleet can carry more than 180 people.

The river and coastal cruises are destination driven, and less about the ships, which is one reason demand is increasing, Paolella said.

“It’s culturally-focused cruising,” Paolella said. “I think you have a lot of boomers, retired mature adults who have cruised all over the world and in particular are now interested in cruising closer to home.”

American Cruise Lines has introduced 19 of the 22 U.S.-built cruise ships launched over the past two decades, she said.