Cruise Ships and National Parks

I think I mentioned the other day that the ratio of T-Shirt and Gift Shops to tourists in Bar Harbor is approaching one to one. And there are thousands of tourists. I vowed not to return to Bar Harbor after an abbreviated trip into the hordes of unwashed tourists. But I had no idea where they were all coming from. Then, on a hike in Acadia the other day we had a nice vista of Bar Harbor and guess what was tied up in the harbor? You got it, two huge cruise ships. Are you kidding? No wonder things are crazy in that little town where a couple of lobster boats normally increase the population by 25%.

After attacking anything resembling a shop selling T-Shirts in town, the tourists all board buses and are dropped off in the National Park. They have been equipped with maps and a destination, so the buses vomit their contents in the parking lots and the contents flow to their destination which is always about 250 yards away. Arriving exhausted, they block all trails and roads, and take ten million pictures of their adventure in a national park.

I am all for “each to their own”, but this really tests my patience. From now on, I make my plans in Acadia with the cruise ship arrivals and departures in mind. They are published in the local paper. I guess this is not as bad as snowmobiles in Yellowstone but this being the first national park that I have visited in reach of the buffet boats, I was taken aback.

I guess the tent campers probably see our 5th Wheel trailer as a land cruise boat. I did bike with a guy from Bar Harbor the other day and he said they are trying to limit the cruise ships to the fall when the other tourists have left. He was saying that the large number of tourists had really lowered the satisfaction meter of visits to Bar Harbor and the community is studying ways to make visits more enjoyable.

Suzy has founds lots of others harbors on Desert Island, like NE Harbor, Bass Harbor, SW harbor, etc that seem much more natural and probably more like Bar Harbor used to be.

Islands galore around here, not sure how many in the archipelago but some great names. Like Sheep Porcupine Island, Bald Porcupine Island, and Big Porcupine Isle. Seems that the sailboats are staying in these offshore islands and smaller harbors rather then in Bar Harbor.