By Patrick Anderson
Staff Writer
—
The largest cruise ship ever to call on Cape Ann drops anchor this morning in Gloucester Harbor, carrying 2,100 passengers and the hopes of the local tourist industry for more big boats in the future.
The arrival of the 11-decked, 936-foot MS Eurodam, expected in the outer harbor around 9 a.m., marks the return to Gloucester of the Holland America Line after a four-year hiatus when the city's stature as a port of call dwindled to a low point last year.
Today's visit, about the length of the work day, will be one of four to the city for the Eurodam this year and the ship is scheduled to return for four more visits in both 2011 and 2012.
"It is the largest ship we have ever had," said Sheree DeLorenzo of Cruiseport Gloucester, where Eurodam passengers will land before heading to area sites. "We are very excited to have them."
When Gloucester first waded into the cruise industry five years ago with the development of Cruiseport Gloucester, Holland America was the first major international line to test the port. Its ships Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which are both in the 780-foot, 1,400-passenger range, made at least seven visits between 2004 and 2006.
This time around, the Eurodam, which features Asian and Italian restaurants, two bars, a lounge, a photo studio and jewelry store, started its cruise in New York City on its way to Quebec City.
In addition to Gloucester, the ship is making stops along the way in Newport, R.I., Bar Harbor, Maine, Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, Charlottestown on Prince Edward Island, and Saguenay, Quebec.
While Frank Elliot, the man who first sold Cruiseport as a destination, has since been replaced by majority owner James Davis, the connections Elliot built with Holland America are paying off now.
"It is a port that has been great in the past, and gives us some diversity in our itineraries," Holland America spokesman Erik Elvejord said Tuesday about the decision to return to Gloucester. "It has been well-received and the good news is, we will be here for a couple more years."
In the beginning, large boats like the Eurodam were thought to be only part of the city's cruise ship portfolio, with smaller niche and boutique operators expected to be an even larger part.
But in the last few years — and through the recession — the trend in the still growing international cruise industry is for bigger and bigger boats.
"One change in the industry is a trend toward larger ships," said Elliot, who remains an active figure in the Boston cruise industry. "In the days when I was owner of Cruiseport Gloucester, a large ship would be the Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The economics are such that the trend is always going to toward bigger."
So far, the move toward larger ships looks like a mixed blessing for Gloucester. The city should benefit from more cruises and cruise passengers in general, but does not feature a large enough or deep enough harbor to handle giant ships easily.
Built in 2008, the Dutch-flagged, Eurodam will not only stay outside the Inner Harbor; as of last night, it was unknown whether the ship would even anchor inside the Dog Bar breakwater or stop just outside it, according to harbor pilot Bob Plair.
Having to anchor outside the full protection of a harbor can be a big negative for safety-conscious cruiselines, which often skip destinations because of bad whether rather than transfer large numbers of passengers, many elderly, to tender boats to take them ashore.
Although the benefit of pulling in cruise ships is felt most directly at Cruiseport, nearly all of Gloucester retail, restaurant and customer businesses get a boost by having more than a thousand tourists loose on the town without automobiles.
According to Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Hastings, around 60 percent of passengers on a cruise will get off the ship, with around 30 percent of those embarking on pre-paid excursions and the remaining 30 percent hanging around in town.
Based on those numbers, around 630 cruise visitors will be on their own in Gloucester, while another 630 are off on excursions such as a whale watch, bus tours of historic sites in Gloucester and Rockport, a bus tour to the Salem Witch Museum, a tour featuring the Beauport Sleeper McCann Museum, a bus tour featuring Hammond Castle, a bus tour to Boston and a tour to Bearskin Neck in Rockport.
In addition to its passengers, the Eurodam also has a crew of 929, more than half of whom are allowed to leave the ship while it is in port, DeLorenzo said.
Hastings also said each passenger on a large ship like the Eurodam spends between $120 to $180 while in port, while each passenger on smaller boutique cruises spend up to $300 per day.
To take advantage of those potential Eurodam dollars, the city and chamber have organized a welcoming party at Cruiseport and Cape Ann Transportation Authority trolleys will be stopping at Cruiseport to provide shuttle service.
"The cruise industry is a very small universe and they compete, are aggressive and are all friends who talk about shore experiences," Hastings said. "If a ship has a bad visit, that will get out in days. It is critical for downtown to look as good as it can."
While the trend is clearly for larger boats, Gloucester this year is keeping a steady stream of the smaller ship visits that it has come to rely on.
The American Glory, a 100-passenger boat that has come since 2008, was tied up at Cruiseport Tuesday for its sixth visit here since June.
In addition to Holland America, Gloucester is also seeing the return of the Great Lakes Cruise Company, which is beginning a voyage of the 100-passenger Clelia II here Oct. 14
Last year, however, the only ship other than the American Glory to call on Gloucester was Norwegian Cruise Lines' 318-passenger MS Fram.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3455, or .
