I said there is no reason why they should ban them if they are holding them for ports of call only. Obviously I wouldn't fly it on the ship or want anyone else flying them on the ship, but going to the point where I can't bring my personal camera to the islands with me where the ship has no jurisdiction is beyond ridiculous.
I can see the cruise line company's issues - and it's not just about on board safety. It could well be about the cruise line business as a whole. That means they well know that there's a growing backlash against Cruise ships from the locals - this is particularly true of Venice, Dubrovnik, and Barcelona where they are being swamped by tens of thousands of day trippers from the five or six cruise ships visiting each day, if not more, each now carrying upwards of four thousand passengers - now, it isn't going to exactly help their industry if everyone starts arriving with drones is it? Even 1% could easily become an issue, even in places like Norway where dozens of them flying around, .
On the plus side, my own view is that drones will become a lot cheaper, quieter and lighter as time goes on so making them more acceptable. Lets remember our mobile or cell phones were like bricks in the 90's, and one day we'll all probably be laughing at the noisy bricks we flew back in todays world.
Another issue I can see for cruise lines is the charging of batteries. Again, looking at it from their point of view, they need to minimise the risk of fire and prone to fire or not, it is an issue for them. My view is there are battery chargers they probably shouldn't be permitting on board - indeed, some phones are also on their prohibited list. Now, my workaround this is to take sufficient number of charged batteries but in the real world, of course many won't and it might just be a matter of time before a fire breaks out through the charging of all sorts of batteries and a fire far out at sea is not going to do the cruise ship industry any favours so again, they'll want to minimise that.
On the other hand, there's no stopping drones - I myself, don't think there should be a blanket ban but secure rooms where they can be stowed away and taken off ship at ports of call but another problem is that ships take upwards of ten years from design to taking on passengers and are then built to last thirty years and more with this sort of technology driving ahead, way beyond their expectations in the space of ten years such rooms have not been built in which means passengers get told to keep them in their cabins and warned that if they take it ashore then they may well have to leave it there if they wish to get back on the ship - and with that, they promptly go and fly them from their balconies risking the safety of fellow passengers.
A solution I'm considering is to just make do with a Tello - very light but capable of getting a little footage. Not the same as a Mavic or Phantom but better than nothing - and if they take that, well, its no major loss.