BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 17, 2020
Maine stands to lose about 50 of its scheduled cruise ship visits this year, the result of a Canadian ban on cruise ship visits in that country until July 1. The Canadian ban has such a large effect on Maine cruise ship visits because the majority of visits that Bar Harbor and Portland — Maine’s two busiest cruise ship ports — get each year are from foreign-flagged vessels that make stops in Maine while traveling to and from Canada. Those vessels have to stop in a foreign country under a 100-year-old federal law.