5/30/09

Season for cruisin’ already under way

BAR HARBOR, Maine — With the arrival Friday morning of the Holland America cruise ship Maasdam in Frenchman Bay, Bar Harbor got its third cruise ship visit of nearly 100 expected for the 2009 season.

Besides the 96 cruise ship visits scheduled for Bar Harbor this summer and fall, 50 other such visits are planned for other Maine ports. Portland, with 37 scheduled cruise ship stops, is expected to be the second-busiest cruise ship destination in Maine.

Officials said Friday that despite whatever concerns there may be about the economy and the swine flu virus, expectations for this summer’s cruise ship season in Maine are high.

Amy Powers of CruiseMaine USA said Friday that the number of cruise passengers expected to stop in Portland this summer is about 15,000 higher than last year, when ships carrying 70,000 passengers included Portland on their itineraries.

Rockland, she added, is expected to get its first large cruise ship visit in recent memory when the Royal Caribbean ship Jewel of the Seas drops anchor in Penobscot Bay on Oct. 4.

In Bar Harbor, the 96 visits scheduled for this year are one visit fewer than the number of cruise ship visits Bar Harbor had in 2008. Town Councilor Paul Paradis, who has been the head of the town’s cruise ship study task force, said Friday that with a cap of two large cruise ships a day in town, there is not much room for boosting the number of Bar Harbor’s cruise ship visits.

“I’m not sure we have a lot more capacity,” Paradis said. “I’ll think you’ll see us hover between 130,000 and 160,000 passengers.”

An estimated 144,000 cruise ship passengers visited Bar Harbor last year, Paradis said. Based on economic calculations from a 2005 University of Maine study, those passengers likely spent $14.4 million in Bar Harbor and surrounding towns.

Paradis said that he went down to the waterfront on Friday to watch passengers board tenders for rides back to the Maasdam. Most of them seemed to be carrying bags of items they bought in local shops, he said.

“There were a lot,” he said. “I think that’s a positive thing.”

Powers said that cruise ship bookings for Maine ports in 2010 are looking “fantastic.” She said that bookings for both this year and next are doing well, in part because cruise ship companies are offering heavily discounted fares. This bodes well for Bar Harbor, Portland and smaller cruise ship destinations that get significant cruise ship traffic, she said.

“The number of [expected] passengers is good. The number of ships scheduled to visit is good,” Powers said. “We’re prepared. We’re ready.”

As for concerns about swine flu breaking out on a cruise ship in Maine, officials said precautionary steps are being taken but they do not think the illness is more likely to arrive in Maine by boat than by other means.

Powers said that the cruise ship industry, and specifically the Cruise Lines International Association, has pledged to put its passengers through more stringent screening protocols for influenza before they will be allowed to board any CLIA member ship. Crew members will be subject to the same increased screening measures, she said.

Ralph Pinkham of Hancock County Emergency Management Agency said Friday that emergency preparedness officials at all government levels in Maine have been following recommendations made by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which include steps geared toward cruise ships. Aside from the usual steps of quarantine and testing if swine flue were to appear, he said, the Coast Guard could prohibit anyone on a ship with an illness outbreak from coming ashore.

“Those measures have been in place for years,” Pinkham said. “I think the cruise ship industry has had a good deal of experience” controlling such outbreaks.

Among the ships expected to visit Bar Harbor this year is the Queen Victoria, a Cunard vessel that is a sister ship to the huge Queen Mary 2. The Queen Victoria, which was launched in 2007, is scheduled to visit Bar Harbor on Sept. 30. The local Chamber of Commerce hopes to throw a welcome party for the ship similar to one it threw for the QM2’s first visit in 2004, when it held a formal reception and closed down parts of the local downtown’s streets to vehicle traffic.

The QM2, which is 1,132 feet long and can carry more than 3,000 passengers, is expected to stop in Bar Harbor on Oct. 5 and Nov. 1. The Explorer of the Seas, another larger ship, is scheduled to make four stops, two in September and two in October.

More information about cruise ships expected to visit Bar Harbor this year may be found at www.barharbormaine.gov/document/0000/302.pdf.

###

The CruiseMaine Coalition in partnership with the Maine Port Authority and the communities of Bangor, Belfast, Boothbay Harbor, Bar Harbor, Bucksport, Camden, Eastport, Freeport, Kennebunk-Kennebunkport, Portland, Rockland and several Associate Members including Chase Leavitt & Co., Discover New England, Down East Magazine, FlyBangor, GetEtched, Maine & Co., Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Tourism Association, Maine Department of Transportation, Penobscot Bay & River Pilot’s Association, and the Washington County Commissioner’s Office works to promote these communities to the travel trade, travel media and cruise industry as attractive cruise destinations. We also provide the relative community and business support necessary for these areas to become and remain viable, productive cruise destinations while promoting cultural preservation and responsible tourism.