YORKTOWN, Va. (WAVY) – Princess Cruises held a special meeting Monday to explain more about the cruise coming to Yorktown.

Princess Cruises announced in February it was adding Yorktown to its itinerary.

“To sail to Yorktown as part of our itineraries on three different occasions in the summer of 2024,” Vicki Johnson, Senior Vice President of Communication for Princess Cruises, told a packed crowd at the American Revolution Museum.

There is even hope for more trips moving forward.

“You’ve got an amazing story here to tell and we want to share that story to others in the world,” Johnson said.

The Island Princess and Emerald Princess, two of the smaller cruise ships in the fleet, will essentially anchor down far off the shore then four tender boats will bring guests to the historic town.

“We insert guests directly into the … commerce engine, which is the tourism you love and then we take them away,” said John Padgett, Princess Cruises president. “No cars, no parking lots, no crowding. It’s kind of the silver bullet for Yorktown.”

About a dozen people who live in Yorktown’s villages stood outside with signs and shirts against the cruise line coming to Yorktown.

“We are a small village. Our streets are tiny. We are not made. We don’t have the infrastructure to support that,” Angier Brock said.

She said there hasn’t been much shared with locals and they worry about the environment and possible harm to shipwreck sites.

“Way too big for this tiny town,” Brock said. “Dwarfs, all our monuments. … We don’t need more particulate matter thrown up into our air. We don’t need any more despots in our waters.”

She even questioned how much business will come into Yorktown with shore excursions to Williamsburg and Jamestown already lined up.

“It seems like there isn’t a whole lot for the village, maybe not for York County,” she said. “Most of the business sounds like it’ll be in Norfolk, Williamsburg and Jamestown.”

One resident told me he wants more information about the plans.

“We need a little more transparency in our local government,” Jose Longoria said.

Princess Cruises touched on some of these concerns in the meeting.

Padgett told the audience the cruise line has the most sustainable engineering machine and has no intentions to disrupt historical artifacts.

“The success of this business is a healthy ocean. If the oceans aren’t healthy, this business model doesn’t work,” said Jeff Corwin, Nature and Adventure Ambassador for Princess Cruises.

There are only a few months left of 2023 and the cruise line is putting the finishing touches to make the Historic Triangle a great destination to visit.

Brock said the plan is wrong on so many levels. She said there are other ways to share the town’s history.