Portland Cruise Ship Season Begins Friday with Independence Visit
Nearly 70,000 passengers are scheduled to visit Portland this year
What: This Friday, the cruise ship Independence, an American Cruise Line ship, will call to port in Portland officially kicking-off the 2012 cruise ship season for the city. Fifty-nine ships carrying 69,373 passengers and 26,425 crew are expected to call to the Port of Portland from June to October. The Carnival Glory, with 2,974 passengers and 1,160 crew, is the first large cruise ship visit scheduled for the season, and will be berthing at the Portland Ocean Terminal Monday, June 4, 2012. Other cruise ships expected to call to port this season include The World, which serves as a residence with one hundred and sixty-five units from apartments to studios owned by several hundred people from more than forty different countries. The residents live aboard the ship as it slowly circumnavigates the globe providing for a one-of-a-kind vacation home. The Port of Portland will also welcome a new cruise line, Oceania, this season with two visits by the MV Regatta.
The Independence will head north Saturday (CORRECTED) for Boothbay Harbor, carrying ninety-eight passengers, for the first of eighteen Maine Coast and Harbors seven-night cruises. Two American Cruise Line ships, American Glory and Independence will home port in Portland at the Ocean Gateway International Marine Terminal this season. Beginning her sail in Boston, Carnival Glory arrives to port Monday and at the end of the day will continue to sail north toward Canada.
In an economic impact study from the University of Maine at Orono, researchers found that in 2008 47,841 passengers from thirty-one cruise ships spent $80 to $110 in the Greater Portland area generating $5.8 million to $8 million for the regional economy and creating 69 to 96 full and part time jobs.
