BAR HARBOR – More cruise ships than ever will drop anchor here this summer, bringing thousands of tourists to one of the most sought-after vacation spots in Maine.

Town officials expect as many as 100,000 visitors this year from 64 cruise liners, including upward of 30,000 crew members. The season gets under way May 27, when the Rotterdam makes its maiden voyage into Bar Harbor with 1,600 passengers, and will continue through late October.

Cruise line business here has grown every year since the late 1980s, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have fueled an even greater interest in the luxury liners as Americans look for closer-to-home vacation venues.

“What we’ve had all along is what [visitors] want. They want down-home America right now and that’s what Maine is,” Clare Wood, director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, said Friday.

Wood, who closely tracks the cruise liners’ schedules and anticipated passenger numbers, said Maine offers visitors not only a view of the rugged, rocky coast and scenic New England beauty, but also quaint villages and towns rich with history and culture.

“They’re not coming for the tan,” Wood said, “but for the historical, cultural and environmental experience.”

Among the ships that will visit Bar Harbor this year include Norwegian Dream, which can hold up to 2,100 passengers; the Golden Princess, with as many as 2,600 passengers; and Brilliance of the Seas, which a capacity of 2,500 passengers.

The popular Queen Elizabeth 2, a Cunard Line Ltd. vessel, will make one appearance this year on Sunday, Aug. 11. As with all of the ships, the passengers will get an entire day to tour Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island, which includes the popular Acadia National Park.

But unlike the QE2, most all of the other ships will make numerous daylong stops in Bar Harbor on their way to or from Canadian ports of call.

Harbormaster Charlie Phippin said 56 cruise ships docked in Bar Harbor last year and 60 already have reserved dates for next summer. Both Phippin and Wood said the tourism boost the ships bring to town is valuable and welcomed, but it also brings significant challenges to this small town of 4,800 residents.

Phippen said the most important duty for the ship captains is making sure they follow the designated routes into the harbor to avoid damaging fishing gear or interfering with the working waterfront.

Each ship is guided into the harbor by Pen Bay River Pilots, a Belfast-based company, which then shuttles their passengers from the cruise liners to the town dock with smaller boats.

The ships also must carefully observe the harbor speed limits to keep down their wakes and reduce disruption to all the other vessels – some of them tiny in comparison to the ships, which can measure as much as 1,000 feet in length.

“It can get pretty chaotic, but it’s nothing that we can’t handle,” Phippin said.

This summer, for the first time, the U.S. Coast Guard will board some of the cruise ships to ensure that the crew is in full control of the vessel. That, too, will be a visible reminder of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Also for security reasons, the Town Council voted this year to limit to two the number of ships that can dock at any one time.

Wood, meanwhile, said some people might be surprised to learn that without careful planning, the ocean liners and their eager vacationers can actually do more harm than good to Bar Harbor businesses.

A chief concern of harbor restaurants and retail shops, for instance, is ensuring that the crowds are not so huge that service suffers and people have a disappointing first visit to the harbor.

That’s particularly important, according to Wood, because many cruise ship passengers scope out destinations for full vacations in the future.

“I think they’re great fun,” Antje Ludwig, a clerk at Sherman’s Book & Stationary Shop, said Sunday of the ship passengers who frequent the Main Street shop for small gifts, books and magazines. “I think it’s a big boost for us. They’re very nice, friendly and relaxed.”

Bar Harbor, which includes a huge tract of Acadia, receives millions of visitors annually, the majority of whom arrive during the height of the tourism season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Wood said she and other business leaders are working hard to expand the tourism season deeper into the fall and earlier in the spring, not only to even out the peaks, but also to make Bar Harbor a profitable place for more specialized businesses.

“It’s almost impossible for a small business owner to survive on three months’ business,” Wood said. “If we can stabilize the season, that will feed more unique stores that tend to operate on much smaller profit margins.”

Wood said restaurants and retail shops make out best in a tourism town like Bar Harbor, especially shops that sell less-expensive goods. But to attract art galleries and other high-end businesses, the town needs a better year-round business climate.

“Cruise ships do a really nice job extending our season for us,” Wood said.