Portland’s cruise ship season begins on Monday with the scheduled 1 p.m. arrival of the 100-passenger Clelia II.
Owned by the Great Lakes Cruise Co., the yacht-like vessel departed West Palm Beach, Fla., on May 17 and has been traveling up the East Coast. It is scheduled to depart Portland on Monday at 10:30 p.m. bound for Bar Harbor.
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A record 71 ships, carrying an estimated 78,630 passengers, are scheduled to call on Portland this year.
Bar Harbor also expects a record year. All told, 118 cruise ships are scheduled to visit Bar Harbor this season.
Amy Powers of CruiseMaine, a tourism marketing organization, said Maine is benefiting from several changes in the cruise industry.
The cruise lines have been busy in recent years building new boats, and they are sending their older boats to the Northeast, she said.
The port of New York has created more berthing space, so the cruise lines have more flexibility and can increase the number of voyages.
Also, stepped-up environmental regulations in Alaska and a new state ”head tax” there have prompted cruise lines to move more of their business to the East Coast, Powers said. Alaska’s traffic is down 14 percent this year.
”Those three things have really played a big role in the growth of the industry in the Northeast.
In Portland, September will be the busiest month, with 20 ships scheduled to call. Sixteen ships are scheduled for both August and October.
The last ship of the season, the 940-passenger Crystal Symphony, is tentatively scheduled to make its first visit to Portland on Oct. 29.
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