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CRUISE LOG

New online tool helps cruisers avoid crowded ports

Johanna Jainchill, special for USA TODAY

This item was written by Johanna Jainchill, who covers the travel industry for Travel Weekly. Jainchill is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.

Cruise ships docked at Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas.

If you love big ship cruising but hate crowded ports, a new online tool will help you to better plan cruise vacations.

Developed by an online cruise seller, the CruiseWise Port Crowd Calculator shows potential cruisers how many ships are scheduled to arrive in any port worldwide over the next year.

The tool allows users to view any given day over the next year, or to "View By Itinerary" to see all the ports for an upcoming cruise.

Destinations are color-coded based on how busy they are, and are ranked as "Uncrowded," "Normal," "Busy," or "Very Busy," depending on the day.

The Calculator's creator noted that St. Thomas, which normally has about 5,400 cruise visitors per day, will have 24,000 on Dec. 26, a fact that would help crowd-shy cruisers plan their itineraries away from that date.

Steve Davis, CruiseWise co-founder, said that his team was inspired by a company that put together a Disney theme parks "crowd calculator" and "the experience we've had of showing up in a port that's totally overwhelmed by ships."

"It will be the first tool of its kind to leverage cruise industry data in a way that makes it much easier for people to make better decisions about how they want to travel," Davis said.

While CruiseWise sells cruises on its website, its Port Crowd Calculator is available free to anyone.