By the slimmest of margins, residents within the picturesque Maine port of Bar Harbor have voted to keep up the city’s every day cap of 1,000 cruise friends, rejecting a proposal to considerably elevate the restrict.
The outcomes of the poll query on the city’s November 5, 2024, election present that 1,713 voters favored rising the variety of allowed cruise arrivals whereas 1,776 opposed the transfer — a distinction of simply 63 votes.
Bar Harbor is a well-liked port name for cruise ships working New England and Japanese Canada voyages from ports reminiscent of Boston, New York, and Baltimore.
The city, with a inhabitants of simply over 5,000 folks, is a significant vacationer attraction due to its proximity to Acadia Nationwide Park, a vacation spot that pulls greater than 3.5 million guests every year.
The rising cruise-tourism business was thought by a majority of city residents to be detrimental to their high quality of life and the world’s delicate setting, in accordance with a group survey in 2021.
The survey outcomes turned the catalyst for proposals to restrict the impression of cruise ships calling on the vacation spot, and in November 2022 native residents handed a legislation capping every day passenger arrivals at 1,000.
The poll query that was rejected on November 5, 2024 requested for the every day cap to be repealed and a brand new every day debarkation restrict, of three,200 friends, to be adopted.
The three,200 determine would have been barely lower than the three,500-guest cap that had been in place previous to the 1,000-guest cap.
The cruise season in Bar Harbor usually runs from April to November, with essentially the most sought-after months being June by means of October. The vacation spot is a primary summer time trip spot, with entry to climbing and swimming, and a high autumn season leaf-peeper getaway, due to its fall foliage colours.
Together with a better every day cap, the 2024 proposal would have set month-to-month and annual caps beginning in 2025 and persevering with by means of 2029. Underneath the failed proposal, the annual cap would have been set at 200,000 visitor arrivals.
The cap for April would have been 5,000; for Could by means of August, 20,000; for September and October, 55,000; and for November, 5,000. Moreover, had the measure handed, no cruise ship can be allowed to name on July 4 of any yr.
Though the cap of 1,000 friends per day has been in impact for 2 years, it has not resulted in a steep drop in cruise ship visits as a result of port calls that had been already scheduled on the time of the legislation’s passage in 2022 had been grandfathered, that means that these ship visits are allowed to function as deliberate.
The lowered every day cap had prompted an extended authorized battle between the city and an area enterprise group in Bar Harbor, the Affiliation to Defend and Protect Native Livelihoods (APPLL).
The group sued the city within the US District Court docket for the District of Maine in December 2022, however misplaced the case in February 2024, when Decide Lance Walker dominated in favor of the city.
Full Slate of Cruise Ships Set to Name in 2025
Most main cruise traces schedule their ships’ port calls about two years upfront, typically longer. For 2025, Bar Harbor is slated to welcome a number of massive cruise ships frequently, together with Norwegian Cruise Line’s 2,400-guest Norwegian Jewel, the 4,000-guest Norwegian Getaway, and the two,400-guest Norwegian Gem.
Learn Additionally: 13 Spectacular New Cruise Ships Arriving in 2025
Different notable ships that can name on the port in summer time 2025 are a number of luxurious vessels, together with Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ 746-guest Seven Seas Splendor, Seabourn’s 458-guest Seabourn Sojourn, and Crystal’s 740-guest Crystal Serenity.
Excessive-end ships reminiscent of Azamara’s 710-guest Azamara Quest and Oceania Cruises’ 1,200-guest Oceania Allura can be common guests to the port as properly. Ships carrying fewer than 200 friends should not counted in Bar Harbor’s every day restrict.
