PORTLAND – A new cruise line will bring a pair of unique ships and hundreds of visitors for extended stays in the Old Port when it comes to Portland Harbor next summer.

The luxury vessels being built by Delta Queen Coastal Voyages will carry 226 passengers each on East Coast cruises.

The ships, the Cape May Light and the Cape Cod Light, are designed to replicate the elegant steamships that plied New England’s coastal waters in the late 1800s.

The five visits to the Portland waterfront will last 24 hours, rather than the typical 10, as one group of passengers gets off and another goes aboard. Portland will be the starting or ending point for some of the cruises, and passengers will be offered a night and a day in downtown Portland at the beginning or end of the trip.

Delta Queen Coastal Voyages is a subsidiary of American Classic Voyages Co. of New Orleans. The company operates the Delta Queen Steamboat Co., which offers traditional and popular riverboat cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers.

A seven-night cruise between Portland and Providence, R.I., will cost $2,585 per person. A seven-night cruise between Portland and Halifax, Nova Scotia, will cost $2,885. Each cruise will include daily stops and excursions along the way.