Cruise passengers are usually bussed to sights around Cornwall using Tamar Coaches of Plymouth for transporting the visitors around, arranging them to get to Falmouth in the circumstances outlined would have been difficult if not impossible. I have sympathies for all involved but some leeway should be given. An explanation of the limited opportunities open on arrival in the port, given on board, might have given passengers an expectation and numbers might have decided to stay on board whilst in Falmouth Bay.

 
We went into Falmouth some years back on a cruise. Much smaller ship, 400 pax, and went alongside. Had a great day..........got the train to St Ives 

 
My favourite day out locally. Great food options, followed by an afternoon enjoying waterside hosteleries.

Can thoroughly recommend https://www.bodegaeighteen.com/ for tapas fans !

 
Many years ago - well, on 12 August 2010, to be exact- Coffee Shop forum member / FGW staff member Ollie and I enjoyed a 'line bash' down to Falmouth.  We travelled on his FGW Staff Promo One Day Ranger - which cost just £5.00.  I have that ticket in front of me as I type.

We had a grand day out: fairly smooth journey down and we both enjoyed opening the droplights to get a whiff of sea air going over the Royal Albert Bridge on an HST.  Changed at Truro for the Falmouth Line, had a bit of a nose around the Penryn passing loop (which was very new, then) and went on to Falmouth.

There, we strolled around the town, found an excellent fish and chip shop to buy lunch, then we walked up to Pendennis Castle. That is fascinating, going back to the time of Henry VIII and being significant as the departure point for 'the greatest raid of all' - the attack on St Nazaire - during the Second World War.

We then returned to the trains for our homeward journey. The only slight delay was at Par, due to rail delays, but we found an excellent pub there, while were waiting.

Fair enough, there were only two of us, but we found plenty to fill our time constructively in Falmouth during our brief visit.

CfN.

 
A colleague was on that cruise.

His Facebook post said that he had a great day in Falmouth, with a nice walk, a pasty, and a trip to a local pub for a beer.

 
I'm in Falmouth most days and whilst I noticed it was slightly busier than normal for mid week, late October, it was nowhere close to what there is mid summer. I tend to gauge it by how far you can walk in a straight line without having dodge people and it wasn't really a problem.

I think the "nothing to do" people are use to having things laid out for them, as you would probably expect on a cruise. Sometimes you just have to think for yourself.

I doubt that all 6000 came ashore anyway as due to the MSC Virtuosa's size it had to be moored out in Falmouth Bay and the passengers tendered ashore in the ships lifeboats. Due to the weather, it would not have been a pleasant trip.

 
Well, 6,000 is a lot of people for what is not a large town centre, confined to a peninsula, but if you don't have that many the National Maritime Museum Cornwall and Pendennis Castle are both well worth a visit. I would imagine both would be absolutely overwhelmed by that number of visitors, and cannot imagine it is remotely possible to arrange a large number of visits to Cornish sites at short notice to absorb them.

I have some sympathy with the cruise line operators having to find something to occupy that number of people for a day. Do they simply go back to Southampton and offer a refund of most of the cost? With the benefit of hindsight, that might have been better, albeit guaranteeing spoilt holidays for all.

 
From the Western Daily Echo