Cruise line to make Bangor its home port

BANGOR – A summertime storm that forced a 165-foot cruise ship to seek safe harbor here last summer has also blown an economic opportunity this way.

Beginning on July 25, 2003, the American Cruise Lines vessel American Eagle will call the Bangor waterfront its home port through Sept. 6, 2003, offering week-long cruises from the city to a selected half-dozen harbors on the Maine coastline.

“This is very much a part of what we have been hoping for and planning for for some time,” said Bangor Mayor Michael Crowley, referencing the cruise ship’s arrival in relation to the city’s $183 million plan to revamp its once-industrial waterfront.

The American Eagle made the city an impromptu port of call in August when rough waters and strong winds prompted the vessel’s captain to seek shelter in the calmer waters of the Penobscot River, stopping in Belfast and Bangor.

On the Bangor waterfront that day, city officials greeted the 49 passengers and 19 crew with a host of souvenirs, a short oral history of the city and an offering of brownies and root beer.

While the warm welcome did help lure the vessel back to Bangor this summer, the cruise line’s decision to move its embarking point from Portland to Bangor was also an effort to avoid the occasionally rough waters in and around Casco Bay, according to officials at the Haddam, Conn.-based American Cruise Lines.

“The seas would sometimes be questionable,” said the company’s marketing director, Tim Beebe. “This totally eliminates that question mark.”

Bangor officials welcomed the move, which they said could pump between $500,000 and $750,000 into the local economy.

Passengers will depart the Bangor waterfront early Saturday afternoon, making stops in coastal communities including Rockland, Camden, Castine and Bar Harbor.

The ship will return to Bangor on Friday, at which time, city officials hope, passengers will take full advantage of the city’s restaurants, hotels and shops.

Crowley also said the ship’s summer schedule will coincide nicely with a number of events planned in the city, including the second year of the National Folk Festival, which could draw upwards of 100,000 people to the waterfront in 2003.

News of the vessel’s arrival is expected to expedite the city’s efforts to renovate or replace its existing docking system, which Crowley said needed to be upgraded to effectively handle the regular presence of the American Eagle.

Some city officials have put the cost of upgrading the city’s docking network at about $850,000.

The city’s business and economic development director, Jonathan Daniels, said the officials would explore using some of the $15 million in state and federal funds already dedicated to waterfront restoration to upgrade the docks.

“This forces us to focus a bit quicker than we had anticipated,” said Daniels, who had called American Cruise Lines officials about the prospect of moving their embarking port shortly after their unplanned stop last summer. “But it’s a wonderful opportunity.”

American Cruise Lines offers cruise options on two ships along the East Coast from Florida to Maine.