Princess Cruises’ Enchanted Princess is having multiple changes to her planned August 31, 2024 sailing due to local restrictions on cruise ship visits. Guests have been notified of the adjustments so they can reconsider their travel plans if preferred.

Enchanted Princess is scheduled to homeport from New York City for the autumn sailing season. The ship will be offering a total of ten 7-night cruises exploring popular ports in New England and Canada at the peak of the fall foliage period.

Unfortunately, the ship’s August 31 sailing will not be keeping to the original planned itinerary. Guests are being notified of not one, but two port of call adjustments for that cruise, with a third change shifting the time the ship will be visiting another destination.

“Please be advised that due to recent restrictions on cruise ships in Rockland, Maine, Enchanted Princess will no longer call to Rockland on Tuesday, September 3 and will instead call to Eastport, Maine,” the notification read. “Additionally, we will no longer call to Newport, Rhode Island on Sunday, September 1 and will instead spend the day at sea.”

Interestingly, while Princess Cruises cites “recent restrictions on cruise ships in Rockland” as the reason for changing the port of call, but Rockland voted in fall 2023 to raise limits and welcome more ships.

However, those new limits only permit one large ship (up to 3,000 guests) during each week in September and October. The 145,281-gross-ton, Royal-class Enchanted Princess still exceeds that limit with her capacity of 3,660 passengers.

No explanation has been offered for why Enchanted Princess will not be visiting Newport, but it may be due to sailing speeds and the additional distance to reach Eastport for the replacement visit.

Eastport is approximately 140 miles of sailing distance further northeast than Rockland, which would take an extra six hours of sailing at the ship’s typical speed of 25 miles per hour.

As one further adjustment to the itinerary, Enchanted Princess has also changed the time she will be visiting Boston, Massachusetts. While the port of call visit will still be on Monday, September 2, the ship will now be in port from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. rather than 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Overall, the number of hours in port while visiting Boston remains unchanged.

Read Also: Boston Begins What Will Be a Record-Breaking Cruise Season in 2024

This may mean, however, that travelers who have arranged private excursions may need to contact their tour providers to adapt to the new schedule. Tours arranged through Princess Cruises will be automatically adjusted or cancelled if necessary due to the itinerary changes.

Other Enchanted Princess Itinerary Changes

The itinerary change for Enchanted Princess‘s August 31 departure comes on the heels of several other changes for the ship’s autumn itineraries.

Due to cruise ship visitor caps being imposed in Bar Harbor, Maine, as many as eight of the ship’s other autumn itineraries have been adjusted to remove that port of call. Bar Harbor was never part of the August 31 sailing.

Autumn sailings to New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces are popular cruises, as guests have an amazing opportunity to see spectacular foliage and experience the wonderful culture and natural beauty of the region.

With more small communities imposing limits on the number of cruise ships or the total number of passengers who may be able to visit at once, however, these sailings may become more limited with fewer options for eager travelers.

Any cruise travelers with fall foliage sailings planned, no matter what cruise line, should stay in close communication with their line in case of itinerary adjustments, port cancellations, or other changes as these new restrictions come into more widespread practice.

Guests sailing aboard Princess Cruises’ Enchanted Princess during her fall 2024 deployment from New York will not be visiting all the planned ports of call. The cruise line has begun reaching out to booked guests to alert them to the change, as local visit restrictions are impacting multiple itineraries.

Because of local limits on cruise ship guests, Enchanted Princess is switching to a different port of call on the same date as planned on the original itineraries.

“Please be advised that due to restrictions affecting cruise ships in Bar Harbor, Maine, Enchanted Princess will no longer call to Bar Harbor,” the email notification read. “Instead, we will now call to Portland, Maine.”

Multiple itineraries are impacted by this change from late August through the end of October. The departure dates that had planned visits to Bar Harbor include the August 24, September 14, September 21, September 28, October 5, October 12, October 19, and October 26 sailings.

Guests booked on any of those 7-night cruises should stay alert to the possibility of itinerary changes and communication from the cruise line. At this time, the rest of the schedule and other ports of call – including Newport, Boston, Halifax, and on select dates, Saint John – are not affected.

Read Also: Boston Begins What Will Be a Record-Breaking Cruise Season for 2024

This change will be disappointing to some guests, as one of the most popular attractions in Bar Harbor is the opportunity to visit the famed Acadia National Park with its natural beauty and scenic vistas.

Portland is located roughly 115 miles southwest of Bar Harbor, and the two communities are quite different. Bar Harbor, for example, is a resort town with a population of just over 5,000 residents. Portland, on the other hand, is the largest city in Maine with a population of nearly 70,000.

This means each port of call has very different experiences to offer visitors. Travelers will not be able to enjoy the same opportunities in Portland that they would have in Bar Harbor, though the city will offer its own variety of unique attractions and experiences.

If guests have already booked shore excursions for Bar Harbor through Princess Cruises, those tours will be automatically cancelled and refunds issued back to the original form of payment. New excursion options for Portland will be made available within the next two weeks so travelers can plan for their time in the city.

Bar Harbor Limiting Visits

These changes for Enchanted Princess come as Bar Harbor has sought to limit cruise ship visits in an effort to preserve the town’s unique character and avoid overcrowding.

Unfortunately, the limit of 1,000 passengers per day will drastically restrict which ships can call on the destination. The severe cap was upheld by the US District Court for the District of Maine in early March after challenges from local businesses, many of which rely on tourists during the brief autumn season.

It should be noted that there are no limits in Bar Harbor that impact visitors arriving by automobiles, but the cap only applies to cruise ships.

The 145,281-gross-ton, Royal-class Enchanted Princess can welcome 3,660 passengers per sailing, and is also home to more than 1,300 international crew members. No ship in the Princess Cruises fleet has a capacity of under 1,000, meaning that no ship from the cruise line may be permitted to visit Bar Harbor.

Various ships from Norwegian Cruise Line and Holland America Line also have multiple visits to Bar Harbor planned for 2024, and may face similar itinerary changes.

American Cruise Lines also regularly visits Bar Harbor, but the small ships in the line fall well under the visitor cap for Bar Harbor, so their itineraries are unlikely to be impacted.

Similarly, other small luxury lines or expedition ships may likewise include Bar Harbor on various itineraries, and their smaller sizes can easily be accommodated under the new limitations.

In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of America on July 4, 2026, Princess Cruises has unveiled its new “Historic America Cruisetour,” a 14-night journey that blends a comprehensive land tour with a scenic Canada and New England cruise.

The cruisetour, which kicks off in 2025 from New York City, offers cruisers an in-depth exploration of the United States’ foundational history.

The itinerary begins with a seven-night land tour featuring stops in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and Gettysburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Each destination has been chosen for its significant contributions to American history.

Guests will then embark on the Enchanted Princess for a 7-day roundtrip cruise.

“Visiting our nation’s capital, nearby historic cities and landmarks always ranks high on travelers’ lists of places to visit in their lifetime,” said Terry Thornton, chief commercial officer at Princess Cruises. “We are making traveling to historic America easy, educational, and memorable with our knowledgeable and inspiring tour guides sharing the incredible stories of our country’s settlers, leaders, landmarks, and historic sites.”

The cruisetour includes hotel accommodations, motorcoach transportation, and most meals, alongside guided tours that highlight major historical sites.

Cruisetour Explores America’s Foundation

The Historic America cruisetour has 10 departure dates throughout August, September, and October 2025, beginning August 16 and ending with the last itinerary setting sail on October 18.

Guests will arrive in Washington, D.C., and explore its national monuments and museums, including an evening illumination tour of landmarks like the Lincoln and Vietnam War Memorials, with two full nights in a D.C.-area hotel.

Read Also: Princess Cruises Planning Largest-Ever European Season

The journey continues with visits to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Settlement in Virginia, home to the first permanent English settlement in North America. Travelers will enjoy dinner at a Colonial Williamsburg tavern, spend the night, and have a full day to enjoy the living-history Museum, which features costumed reenactors showcasing life in 18th-century Williamsburg.

The tour also includes visits to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in Virginia and the iconic Gettysburg Battlefield, offering insights into both the Revolutionary and Civil War eras. 

Finally, the land tour ends in Philadelphia, where guests will spend a full day and night visiting the Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross House, and other pivotal sites in the birthplace of American democracy, including Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.

After completing the land tour, guests will travel to New York City and board the 141,000-gross-ton Enchanted Princess to sail along the picturesque coastlines of New England and Canada. 

The 3,660-passenger cruise will call on Newport, Rhode Island, home to Gilded Age mansions and a vibrant waterfront; Boston, Massachusetts, which witnessed the start of the American Revolution; and Portland, Maine’s Old Port district.

The cruise also calls in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which became the refuge of Loyalists fleeing the newly independent American states.

Built in 2020 and launched in 2021 following the pandemic, the Enchanted Princess spends most of the year in the Caribbean, based in Fort Lauderdale, before relocating to New York City from August through October to visit New England and Canadian ports.

Its 2024 Canada and New England itineraries, as well as 7-night roundtrip voyages, stop in Newport, Boston, and Halifax and visit additional and varying ports, including Bar Harbor, Maine, and Saint John, New Brunswick. The 2025 cruisetour will be the first time the cruise will offer the extensive 7-night vacation package for these itineraries.