When we visited a number of years ago, the place was overrun anyway, and there were no cruise ships there when we were there. So many people ...traffic to get off the island could take hours. And mostly NY, MA, and NJ plates, with the associated stereotypical attitudes. The congestion almost ruined the trip for us (thankfully after a couple of days we were able to find a few places where other people weren't and enjoyed that immensely...it's a beautiful place), and is the reason we haven't been back. The locals were awesome...the other visitors not so much. If our experience was any indication, there are plenty of tourists to keep the shops open, even without the cruise ships.

another vote to let the cruise ships in.

I'm a free market kind of guy, within limits. In this case I don't see that the cruisers are doing any real damage. Heck they aren't even taking up a parking space while there.

Local citizens should have say what goes on in their town, not outsider businesses (many of which are foreign based).

I lived in Sequim Wa on the Olympic Peninsula for a year. It's the first big town if you're driving around the Olympic Peninsula from the north. The traffic through town was horrendous every summer weekend.

They finished the Highway bypass just before Labor Day Weekend. So traffic could go around the town and not through the main street. The next week 3 businesses closed.

There were few enough jobs out there to begin with and the bypass killed more. The people who moved there because it was a nice quiet place did everything in their power to keep it that way. They came with money so they didn't need any opportunity to make any.

I had grown accustomed to eating and it took the year to realize there would never be a meaningful job out there so I moved back to the I5 corridor.

Remember Maine was originally Massachusetts and broke off, but it is now on it's way to becoming a more northern vision of the liberal utopia. Kill off tourism, your business dont need the money. Focus on pronouns and genders it will keep business alive and well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: spunk639,

quote:

Originally posted by spunk639:
Remember Maine was originally Massachusetts and broke off, but it is now on it's way to becoming a more northern vision of the liberal utopia. Kill off tourism, your business dont need the money. Focus on pronouns and genders it will keep businessalice and well.

Maybe below Augusta, but that gender shit don't fly up here.

Yet.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

How do you go about controlling the number of the cruise ship passenger that leave the ship on any given day??? ..

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Cruise ships have clear schedules. Docking fees are paid in advance. You are thinking of the early 40s when some guy sat in a booth collecting tolls. Most all passengers embark at the designated sites. They count and recount the number so they do not leave some hapless cruiser behind.

^^^^^ My op about the counting the exiting passengers is for the headcount for passengers going onshore for the headcount mandates for maxamine number of people allowed going on shore and nothing about returning passengers prior to sailing departure. ....drill sgt.

Been to Bar Harbor twice, both times on a cruise. In 2011 ate haddock at the Fish House Grill -- wonderful (my favorite fish). Acadia Park is very enjoyable.

I don't think forcing the ships to limit the number of passengers who can debark would go over very will with the cruise lines -- they might just refuse to stop there at all.

flashguy

During my visit about six years ago BH was a busy place. I did not notice any cruise ships in the harbor. The downtown area was more than full of cars and business seemed to be hopping. I do not like that level of congestion in a “small town” vacation setting. I agree with letting the residents vote decide the future of crowd limits. Remember this is a place that banned automobiles at the beginning of that age.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I don't think forcing the ships to limit the number of passengers who can debark would go over very will with the cruise lines -- they might just refuse to stop there at all.

flashguy

My response, living in a major mountain resort town, is who cares what the cruise lines want or think! The people who live there have ultimate decision authority over their town.

We get lots of local-ish tourists year round. Main Street was hopping last evening, and the concert was sold out at the old-time theater. Come ski season we'll have plenty of fly-ins from around the globe. During the summer we get plenty of hikers and mountain bikers. The film and music festivals bring in another bump of visitors.

Descriptions on this thread of the current situation in Bar Harbor aside from cruise ships sounds much like here - lots of tourists. We, and Bar Harbor, are not like we were 20 years ago. Much of the big profit doesn't go to locals, it goes to investors and big corporations far away. Employees cannot afford to live in town.

The town is, quite literally, used by rich outsiders and corporations as a backdrop for their big money operation. So far, there is some semblance of authentic small town America. It is worth preserving.

Not all growth is good.

I read this really confused, thinking why would a cruise ship stop there? I've been there, and other than I remember going into small outdoor/sporting goods store to buy a pair of shoe laces, I have zero recollection of the place other than it being just another dinky little town.

I'm curious who's going on these east coast cruises? But my opinion of the coast of Maine was kind of skewed I guess, while it was pretty, I was unimpressed. Having grown up on the water/beach, and having spent so much time in the "mountains", I was like "it's mountains at the beach, okay." I assumed if you were from a flat land locked state you'd be very impressed.

My wife and I visited Bar Harbor in mid October 1988. It was a great trip. Acadia was very quiet. One of the best moments of the trip was having a picnic lunch in a grove in Acadia. For about 1 1/2 hours it was just my wife and I. Great memory.

We visited Mt. Desert Island in early September of this year. Bonkers. Bar Harbor was overrun with cruise ship passengers. Acadia was very crowded. We considered hiking the Pinnacle trail but it was so overrun it wasn't safe. We did secure a reservation to watch sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, a bucket list item for me, it was spectacular.

We spent more time in areas outside MDI including the Schoodic Peninsula, kayaking and areas south of MDI. One place we really liked was the Maine Coastal Botanical Garden in Boothbay. Beautiful. We thought we would spend an hour, we spent 3 and could have spent more. The Maine Maritime Museum was also very interesting.