Bar Harbor likely to see cruise ship slump, but other ports remain strong
Photo / courtesy of CruiseMaine
Sarah Flink of CruiseMaine predicts Bar Harbor will see cruise ship visitation slump while demand remains strong in Portland and Rockland and Eastport will see significant increases.
Bar Harbor has seen political and legal challenges around cruise ship visitation in recent years, with several pending legal cases as the local conversation evolves.
“The reductions in Bar Harbor will continue in the 2025 season, with only around 67,000 passengers scheduled to visit, which is down from a peak of nearly 300,000 scheduled in 2022,” says Sarah Flink, executive director of CruiseMaine.
Demand for cruise visits to Portland, Rockland and Eastport is strong, but the outlook varies based on several factors including sailing times from other cruise ports in the region, certain customs and border protection restrictions and, in Rockland’s case, a local ordinance limiting the cruise season.
“Portland and Rockland will see comparable cruise visitation to what they saw in 2024, while Eastport will see significant increases next year,” Flink says.
American Cruise Lines is expanding its presence in Maine with their fleet of small, domestic ships scheduled to visit Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Belfast, Bucksport and Bangor in 2025. Looking ahead, there is potential to expand into Camden and Castine, which have hosted the line in the past.
A program called PortShare Promise started in Portland in 2023 with a pilot season, then evolved in 2024 and will continue in 2025, administered by Visit Portland on behalf of the Cruise Portland Maine consortium. Discussions are underway about changes and funding for 2025.
A PortShare Promise pilot launched in 2024 in the midcoast, focused on ship visits to Rockland and shoreside visitation to surrounding areas. The program’s status for 2025 is unclear, since its administrator, Penobscot Bay Chamber of Commerce, recently closed.
“Globally, demand for cruise travel is growing, and the Canada-New England itinerary — of which Maine is a key part — is poised to be part of that growth as much as each community chooses to be,” Flink says. “Fall continues to be our strongest season, for a mostly retired or semi-retired demographic. However, we are making inroads with younger travelers, including those with children, in the spring and summer.”
She continues, “Overall, we expect Maine’s numbers to be about the same as 2024, but with a notably different distribution across ports.”
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