Over the past couple of years, Eastport has seen targeted growth in the cruise ship market.
Over the past couple of years, Eastport has seen targeted growth in the cruise ship market.
“We’ve seen a lot of vessels that used to visit Bar Harbor and are now coming to Eastport,” says Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority.
When Gardner was hired in 2007, one task was finding a way to make the city better known to the cruise industry. In 2025, Eastport received 23 ships with a record combined passenger capacity of around 30,000.
Most were smaller with fewer than 750 passengers and many with only a couple of hundred. Two larger vessels carried around 4,000 passengers each.
“It’s a great thing for Eastport,” Gardner says. “It’s a perfect balance. We don’t have to change who we are.”
For 2026, 14 vessels are scheduled, with total passenger capacity of 16,000 to 17,000.
“We’re taking a needed approach for how to do this,” he says. “We want to make sure that whatever growth comes to Eastport is the right approach.”
That includes the authority’s commitment to one ship on any given day.
“We don’t want to overload and we don’t want to ruin the experience,” he says. “One thing people say they like about Eastport the most is that we’re authentic. They feel welcome because the whole day is about them. If we bring in multiple ships, we would ruin that.”
Gardner credits the growing cruise market and the extension of the visitor season from early April to November for the launch of several new downtown businesses over the past year.
For 2026, “we’re looking at another strong year. A strong year doesn’t always have to beat the year before. That’s important to note.”
