“Get Out of Here,” Yells French Mayor as Royal Caribbean Ignores Port Ban

The outspoken Mayor of Nice and President of the region took to the water to personally confront the master and officer of Royal Caribbean International’s Voyager of the Seas for breaking the region’s new ban on large cruise ships. Aboard a police boat with a television news crew, Mayor Christian Estrosi was denied boarding and ignored by the officers, prompting him to yell “Get lost,” “Get out of here,” and “You are nobody,” at the ship.

Royal Caribbean International’s massive 137,276 gross ton cruise ship, Voyager of the Seas, once one of the largest in the world with capacity for 3,600 passengers, anchored off Villefranche at 0630 on July 3. Port officials highlighted that the ship was on a scheduled and approved port call, but for the mayor, it was a test of the ban imposed on large cruise ships. 

Effective July 1, Villefranche and Nice instituted a ban prohibiting cruise ships with a capacity of over 2,500 passengers from disembarking in the bay. Estrosi highlights that the Voyager of the Seas arrived with 3,114 passengers aboard (plus approximately 1,200 crew according to Royal Caribbean’s fact sheet). Villefrance-sur-Mer says it is restricting cruise ships to one a day and a maximum of 65 port calls a year, while Nice imposed a limit on ships with more than 450 passengers.

Estrosi traveled to the anchored cruise ship with a formal letter notifying the master of the violation. The letter demands that passengers not disembark and that the cruise ship “organize, without delay,” its departure from territorial waters. 

The video shows the angry mayor being ignored by an officer on the landing platform, and motioned to go away. Estrosi said he asked for permission to deliver the letter to the master of the cruise ship, but was denied boarding, and the officer on the gangway refused to take the notification. Estrosi can be heard yelling, “Where is the captain?” He later said the ship had “flouted the rules,” refused to listen, and called the ship and its crew “arrogant.”

Returning to shore, Estrosi posted the confrontation on social media and talked to local news reporters. He said he was contacting officials from the prefects and the Minister for Ecological Transition, asking them to take action. 

“I will not give up. I call on all relevant authorities to take the utmost firmness on this issue. I intend to strictly enforce the decision,” he said. The ban Estrosi contends is to fight maritime pollution, preserve air quality, and protect residents’ living conditions.

Voyager of the Seas arrived with over 3,100 passengers despite the ban with caps cruise ships at 2,500 passengers (Estrosi on X)

Estrosi, in January 2025, had called for a ban on cruise ships and signed an order limiting the ships to under 690 feet (190 meters) in length and less than 900 passengers. He later compromised on the 2,500-passenger capacity limit while saying mega ships would have to go to Cannes or Marseille. Cannes has now adopted a rule limiting cruise ships to 1,000 passengers starting January 2026.

The Cruise Lines International (CLIA) trade association is calling for the involvement of the French federal government. It described the “apparent illegality” of Mayor Estrosi’s behavior and called it a contradiction of its Sustainable Cruises Charter for the Mediterranean, signed by member cruise lines in June.

Voyager of the Seas departed Villefranche as scheduled on Thursday evening. The ship continues its cruise and is now in Ajaccio, France, on the island of Corsica. The published itineraries for the ship show additional port calls scheduled for Nice on September 20 and September 25, as well as other trips visiting Cannes or Marseille.