By the slimmest of margins, residents in the picturesque Maine port of Bar Harbor have voted to maintain the town’s daily cap of 1,000 cruise guests, rejecting a proposal to significantly raise the limit.
The results of the ballot question at the town’s November 5, 2024, election show that 1,713 voters favored increasing the number of allowed cruise arrivals while 1,776 opposed the move — a difference of just 63 votes.
Bar Harbor is a popular port call for cruise ships operating New England and Eastern Canada voyages from ports such as Boston, New York, and Baltimore.
The town, with a population of just over 5,000 people, is a major tourist attraction thanks to its proximity to Acadia National Park, a destination that attracts more than 3.5 million visitors each year.
The growing cruise-tourism industry was thought by a majority of town residents to be detrimental to their quality of life and the area’s sensitive environment, according to a community survey in 2021.
The survey results became the catalyst for proposals to limit the impact of cruise ships calling at the destination, and in November 2022 local residents passed a law capping daily passenger arrivals at 1,000.
The ballot question that was rejected on November 5, 2024 asked for the daily cap to be repealed and a new daily debarkation limit, of 3,200 guests, to be adopted.
The 3,200 figure would have been slightly less than the 3,500-guest cap that had been in place prior to the 1,000-guest cap.
The cruise season in Bar Harbor typically runs from April to November, with the most sought-after months being June through October. The destination is a prime summer vacation spot, with access to hiking and swimming, and a top autumn season leaf-peeper getaway, thanks to its fall foliage colors.
Along with a higher daily cap, the 2024 proposal would have set monthly and annual caps starting in 2025 and continuing through 2029. Under the failed proposal, the annual cap would have been set at 200,000 guest arrivals.
The cap for April would have been 5,000; for May through August, 20,000; for September and October, 55,000; and for November, 5,000. Additionally, had the measure passed, no cruise ship would be allowed to call on July 4 of any year.
Although the cap of 1,000 guests per day has been in effect for two years, it has not resulted in a steep drop in cruise ship visits because port calls that were already scheduled at the time of the law’s passage in 2022 were grandfathered, meaning that those ship visits are allowed to operate as planned.
The lowered daily cap had prompted a long legal battle between the town and a local business group in Bar Harbor, the Association to Protect and Preserve Local Livelihoods (APPLL).
The group sued the town in the US District Court for the District of Maine in December 2022, but lost the case in February 2024, when Judge Lance Walker ruled in favor of the town.
Full Slate of Cruise Ships Set to Call in 2025
Most major cruise lines schedule their ships’ port calls about two years in advance, sometimes longer. For 2025, Bar Harbor is slated to welcome several large cruise ships on a regular basis, including Norwegian Cruise Line’s 2,400-guest Norwegian Jewel, the 4,000-guest Norwegian Getaway, and the 2,400-guest Norwegian Gem.
Read Also: 13 Impressive New Cruise Ships Arriving in 2025
Other notable ships that will call at the port in summer 2025 are several luxury vessels, including Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ 746-guest Seven Seas Splendor, Seabourn’s 458-guest Seabourn Sojourn, and Crystal’s 740-guest Crystal Serenity.
High-end ships such as Azamara’s 710-guest Azamara Quest and Oceania Cruises’ 1,200-guest Oceania Allura will be regular visitors to the port as well. Ships carrying fewer than 200 guests are not counted in Bar Harbor’s daily limit.
