Port of Portland | Working waterfront and future developments

[TC_zoid]

Cruise ship schedule for 2023. It's a record number of passengers including the Costa Venizia (5260), and then there's Disney Magic. Love them or hate them, they are coming and in your face.

https://maine.portcall.com/#!?tab=2&port=Portland

 

[nomc]

Cruise ship schedule for 2023. It's a record number of passengers including the Costa Venizia (5260), and then there's Disney Magic. Love them or hate them, they are coming and in your face.

https://maine.portcall.com/#!?tab=2&port=Portland

Is that the largest that's come through?

 

[Portlander]

It will be rebranded as the Carnival Venizia this spring and will operate along the east coast and the Caribbean after a few years of doing cruises in east Asia. The Liberty of the Seas which will visit Portland numerous times this year is a little larger (1111 ft to 1061 ft) and their passenger capacities are similar with the Carnival Venizia having a slight edge dependent on single or double occupancy numbers.

 

[Cosakita18]

For the most part, this seems like the usual "cast of characters" although to my knowledge this may be the first time Disney has brought a ship to Portland. Overall, it seems like we have more - but smaller - ships calling as compared to pre-covid times. Some of these ships aren't much bigger than an average ferry.

"Zaandam" and "Mein Schiff" are regulars on the New England & Maritimes circuit and (as the names might suggest) cater almost exclusively to Dutch and German visitors on package holiday tours.

As an aside..."Zaandam" was the first cruise ship to experience a major outbreak of Covid during all the confusion and chaos of March 2020... It ended up stranded on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal and denied transit through the Canal while hundreds of passengers were sick

Another aside.... I've noticed that for some reason it seems like the German tourists ~LOVE~ Renys on Congress St...Go there on a day that one of those ships is in town and you won't hear a word of English spoken in that store.

 

[TC_zoid]

For the most part, this seems like the usual "cast of characters" although this may be the first time Disney has brought a ship to Portland. Overall, it seems like we have more - but smaller - ships calling as compared to pre-covid times. Some of these ships aren't much bigger than an average ferry.

"Zaandam" and "Mein Schiff" are regulars on the New England & Maritimes circuit and (as the names might suggest) cater almost exclusively to Dutch and German visitors on package holiday tours.

As an aside..."Zaandam" was the first cruise ship to experience a major outbreak of Covid during all the confusion and chaos of March 2020... It ended up stranded on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal and denied transit through the Canal while hundreds of passengers were sick

Another aside.... I've noticed that for some reason it seems like the German tourists ~LOVE~ Renys on Congress St...Go there on a day that one of those ships is in town and you won't hear a word of English spoken in that store.

That's because "It's a Maine adventure" and "It's kinda like winning the lottery." Lol.

 

[markhb]

Is that the largest that's come through?

Probably; the Queen Mary 2 was the world's largest cruise ship when it visited here, but that's still a lot smaller in terms of capacity. The original schedule for 2020 had the Oasis of the Seas coming, which was one of the world's largest at the time (Royal's new Icon class is larger), but we know how that turned out.

 

[Cosakita18]

A ship like the Oasis Class is definitely pushing the upper limit of what the facilities and geography of Portland harbor can handle. A ship that big would only be able to berth at the Ocean Gateway terminal and would likely need to coordinate arrival and departure times with high tide.

 

[Portlander]

Oasis Class ships have a draft of 30.5 feet and would have no issues at the Ocean Gateway deepwater berth which has an average depth of 55' at low tide and can accommodate 1200 ft vessels. The Maine State Pier is dredged to an an average of 32' at low tide which would be pushing it and is limited to vessels less than 1000 ft. Portland Harbor's main shipping channel depth is 35' but needs to be dredged with some of the smaller piers being neglected for over 70 years. Lets hope our Senators can finally secure the additional funding that will be added to the money already set aside by the State and cities of Portland and South Portland to get this important transportation project moving forward.

 

[TC_zoid]

I remember a few years ago it happened. Perhaps it was a miscalculation, and the tide was going out, and so a cruise ship had to leave early without a few passengers. But they were then ferried out to the ship before it sailed out of the harbor.

 

[Cosakita18]

Oasis Class ships have a draft of 30.5 feet and would have no issues at the Ocean Gateway deepwater berth which has an average depth of 55' at low tide and can accommodate 1200 ft vessels. The Maine State Pier is dredged to an an average of 32' at low tide which would be pushing it and is limited to vessels less than 1000 ft. Portland Harbor's main shipping channel depth is 35' but needs to be dredged with some of the smaller piers being neglected for over 70 years. Lets hope our Senators can finally secure the additional funding that will be added to the money already set aside by the State and cities of Portland and South Portland to get this important transportation project moving forward.

Back in the summer I was talking to a friend who works for Eimskip, and he told me that whenever a large ship enters the inner harbor....the ships keel is basically scraping the bottom in a lot of cases. Portland isn't alone in dealing with harbor draft issues...but if significant dredging isn't done soon it will seriously jeopardize our seaport (both for cruise ships and commercial shipping)

 

[PWMFlyer]

The construction fencing has gone up so a good sign for a construction start to the cold storage building.

 

[Acomes]

 

[Cosakita18]

Awesome photo!

In a few months time....we'll be seeing some much larger ships from that viewpoint. Eimskip recently bought a secondhand ship called "ElbSummer" to be added to the Iceland-North America rotation.

This will be the largest container ship to ever call in Portland. 520 feet long and capable of carrying 1,100 TEU

 

[PWMFlyer]

Flying back home I noticed that for years the Pier has had a square hole in it. Did the city run out of money not to fill it in? This is valuable dock space. that could be utilized.

 

[nomc]

Still wondering what happened to the third crane - was it decommissioned? Is it off for repairs?

 

[Portlander]

PWMFlyer just missed the Cold Storage site so we could see if there was any construction activity from above. Not sure about your lost crane, I only remember one large mobile crane and was pleased when a second was added a short while ago. Cosakita may know the answer, he's our resident port specialist!

 

[PWMFlyer]

 

[Cosakita18]

Still wondering what happened to the third crane - was it decommissioned? Is it off for repairs?

The third crane (the old blue and yellow one) was sent up to the port of Eastport for use there. The new Liebherr cranes have a much higher capacity and can work larger ships and there was need for a third crane at the IMT.

Flying back home I noticed that for years the Pier has had a square hole in it. Did the city run out of money not to fill it in? This is valuable dock space. that could be utilized.

I believe the intention is to infill that section of the pier similar to the infill project they completed in 2019. That would give the two cranes about 700 feet of workable frontage and allow the IMT to handle ships up to about ~2,000 TEU

That angular pier you see sticking out from beneath the Casco Bay Bridge is the original bow door loading ramp for the Scotia Prince back when the IMT was a ferry terminal.

 

[Portlander]

As Cosakita shared on Friday, the 9 rail cars of steel beams have been unloaded, two cranes and a construction trailer on site. We should be good to go and thanks for the additional photo PWMFlyer.

 

[PWMFlyer]

Looks like the Port Authority is going to build racks to store reefer units that can be hooked up to power units. Height will be 50ft