Maine to bust through cruise record in 2019

THE US state of Maine is expected to see 658,000 passengers arrive via its 12 cruise ship ports in 2019, representing a 17% increase on the total recorded last year.

Cruise officials are anticipating the year to end with a total of 430 ship visits, with more than half of all passengers arriving in the popular cruise port of Bar Harbor - the gateway to Acadia National Park.

The state’s city of Portland is experiencing strong demand said the city’s Port Manager Kathy Alves.

“The demand for Portland is still strong, we are not seeing it level off,” she said.

However she cautioned that numbers might be curtailed by infrastructure constraints.

“The only limiting factor will be capacity - it can’t handle vessels larger than the Anthem of the Seas, a nearly 5,000-passenger ship due to visit the city five times in Sep and Oct,” Alves added.

Portland is booked out to 2022.