ROCKLAND — Local business owner Nate Luce has mixed feelings about the cruise ships that visit this small seaside city from late May through early October.

His ambivalence spiked this year after city officials increased the total number – from six to nine – of the larger cruise ships allowed to visit each September and October.

The city is preparing for a modest increase to seven big ships this fall, starting next week, but the number of passengers arriving in the harbor will increase dramatically to 21,832 – almost 50% more than last year, and four times the number of passengers the city saw in 2022.

City councilors unanimously endorsed the increase, encouraged by Maine tourism officials and the regional chamber of commerce. At the same time, just up the coast in Bar Harbor, a continuing battle to tamp down intense cruise ship traffic stands as a stark example of what Luce and others worry could happen here.

Like many in this city of nearly 7,000, Luce doesn’t mind the 30 or so smaller cruise ships with 100-200 guests that arrive spring through fall, like the American Eagle and the American Constitution docked in the harbor behind him.

Their passengers are “charming,” he said. They’re also liable to stop by Luce Spirits distillery and tasting room on Main Street and take home a bottle of his handcrafted gin, aquavit, absinthe or black walnut liqueur.

But the larger ships, like the Zuiderdam arriving Sept. 8 with 1,900 guests, or the Celebrity Eclipse, arriving Sept. 9 with 3,000 guests, flood the waterfront and downtown with lanyard-wearing tourists eager buy a lobster roll, find a public toilet and see Mainers in their natural habitat.

“It leaves you feeling a little like a zoo animal,” said Luce, 36. “It definitely adds an order of chaos to Main Street.”

And while Maine tourism officials estimate that visitors spend $30 million annually across eight port communities, Luce and others question how much of that money comes from the larger cruise ships and who gets a slice of it.

“I have not seen any financial benefit from the larger cruise ships,” Luce said. “I try to keep an open mind. I get that tourists come and want to spend money. But the real focus for us is year-round business.”

Luce, like others, also admits to having a general “nervousness” about the potential “Bar Harborization” of Rockland.

“First and foremost, I’m concerned about the long-term health of the community,” he said.

PRIME BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Connie Sawyer doesn’t want Rockland to become like Bar Harbor, either. She purchased the Seagull Cottage gift shops in Rockland and Camden in 2016, after working in banking for 25 years.

“I don’t want to end up like Bar Harbor, but I think what we’re getting for larger ship visits is a comfortable amount,” Sawyer said.

To bolster the success of the larger ship visits, Sawyer is trying to get more businesses to be open when they arrive. Four of the seven large ships visiting this fall will arrive on Sunday or Monday, when many shops and restaurants are closed.

“How can they enjoy coming to Rockland if half of the places are closed?” Sawyer said. “This is our busy season. Let’s support the cruise ships that are coming and give them a reason to come back.”

Sawyer’s measured support is justified, said Sarah Flink, executive director of CruiseMaine, a branch of the Maine Office of Tourism.

“Over half of our cruisers to Maine are first-time visitors,” Flink said during a recent meeting with the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce. “That introduces brand new people who’ve never been to the state to fall in love with Maine (and) to go back and tell their friends and family how much they enjoyed it.”

Cruise visitors to Rockland are expected to quadruple in the next few years, from 5,010 in 2022 to a projected 22,356 in 2025, Flink said. The seven larger cruise ships expected this fall, including the Queen Mary 2 on Sept. 24, will bring in 17,400 passengers who will spend an estimated $1.9 million while here. Eight of the larger ships have scheduled coastal New England cruises in 2025 that include Rockland, according to portcall.com, an online schedule maintained by CruiseMaine.

While Sawyer hopes business owners unite to welcome the larger ships, some can’t see a benefit to staying open and catering to cruise passengers who aren’t likely to become customers. They also question the wider impacts of larger cruise ships on the community and the environment.

“It’s a lot of wear and tear on a small town,” said Emily Seymour, 32, co-owner of Curator Consignment on Main Street.

“Our business doesn’t benefit from cruise ship traffic,” she continued. “Some people are nice, but it’s a lot of people, and having those big ships here isn’t good for the harbor.”

Seymour agrees that some local businesses benefit because the cruise ships offer shore excursions for activities such as lobster bakes, harbor tours and even visits to the Owls Head Transportation Museum and the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay.

“I know it benefits some businesses that I like,” she said, “but if they’re just buying trinkets made in China, who does it really benefit?”

Seymour said a family friend recently signed up to be an Uber driver so he can provide transportation to cruise passengers.

“So maybe he will benefit from it,” she said.

Revenue from visiting ships helps support harbor infrastructure improvements, as well as provides income for local retail establishments and restaurants.

BAR HARBOR’S EXAMPLE

Valerie Peacock understands why some Rockland residents are afraid to follow in Bar Harbor’s wake.

“We sometimes joke that even we don’t want to be Bar Harbor,” said Peacock, chair of the Bar Harbor Town Council.

She also understands concerns about the impact of larger ships, which Bar Harbor has been struggling to cap for several years, including through lingering court battles.

“There is a scale to the larger ships that is overwhelming,” Peacock said. “You’ll see hundreds of people gathered in one spot. The smaller ships don’t do that.”

As cruise passenger numbers have increased, so have visitors to neighboring Acadia National Park, which attracted 3.88 million people in 2023 – 35% more than the annual average of 2.87 million visitors in the decade from 2010-2019, the National Park Service reported.

“The town is feeling overwhelmed in general,” Peacock continued. “We’re paying for trash removal and waste water treatment for millions of people, and the residents are footing the bill for a lot of it.”

This fall, Bar Harbor officials will try once again to control cruise ship impacts that have escalated over the last 30 years. The town drew roughly 270,000 cruise ship passengers in 2019, then experienced a post-pandemic rebound to 298,089 passengers in 2022. That November, town voters capped the number of passengers allowed ashore each day at 1,000 – a local ordinance that was challenged by a group of business owners, was upheld by a federal judge in February and is now being reviewed on appeal.

Last month (Aug. 27), Bar Harbor councilors approved a cruise ship licensing proposal that will be on the Nov. 5 municipal ballot. It would cap daily passenger visitation at 3,200, with a yearly cap of 200,000. It also calls for 10 days without the larger ships in the harbor in both September and October, and no cruise ships would be allowed on the Fourth of July.

Cruise ship companies would be required to sign five-year contracts subject to annual renewals after two years, Peacock said. From the third year on, councilors could vote to reduce or end passenger visits altogether – a decision that also would require a local referendum before taking effect.

The council approved the licensing scheme 6-1, and the cruise companies and dock owners already have signed contracts negotiated by town staff, Peacock said. It will be a go if voters agree and effectively end the current court battle.

She offers some advice to other communities looking to grow their economies in similar ways.

“Make sure you have a way to go back if it doesn’t work out,” she said. “We’re trying to undo something that built up over time. It’s really complicated and messy and it has cost a lot of community and staff time and energy and legal fees. It’s really hard to go backward.”

IT’S AN EXPERIMENT

Jeff and Mary Heckman stepped off the American Eagle in Rockland in late August ready for a lobster bake and a harbor tour on a lobster boat. It was a bucket-list trip for the New Jersey couple, especially Jeff, a retired military serviceman with happy memories of camping in Maine as a Boy Scout.

They planned to eat all the lobster they could during their getaway. Before they boarded, they enjoyed a massive pair of lobster rolls served with fries and coleslaw at The Lobstah Buoy food truck in Bangor. The meal cost well over $100.

“It was a fatty,” Jeff Heckman said of his sandwich. “Best lobster rolls we ever had.”

In preparation to welcome more big ships and passengers, CruiseMaine and the Penobscot Bay chamber have formed Port Share Promise Midcoast to provide passenger support and a variety of welcoming services.

Portable toilets will be installed near the Rockland Public Landing, along with an information kiosk that will be staffed by paid and volunteer workers. Shuttle service will be available to passengers who want to visit Rockland’s breakwater or check out nearby Camden.

And Port Share Promise will provide an online feedback form to submit suggestions, concerns or complaints, including from locals who say they avoid the waterfront and downtown area when big cruise ships visit.

“The city has agreed to this and we know they’re coming,” said Shannon Landwehr, chamber president and CEO. “We want to manage and mitigate the impact of that influx for residents, businesses and visitors.”

Landwehr and others emphasize that only one additional big ship is visiting Rockland this year. And with each of the seven big ships, some passengers will stay on board, some will go on excursions and some will venture into town.

“About half of the passengers come ashore,” said Capt. Molly Eddy, Rockland’s harbor master. “It’s a small increase. It’s an experiment. If it doesn’t work out, we can always go back.”

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