Earlier this year, Phoenix Reisen opened the cruise season at the Port of Portland, but the big news was the largest ship ever to dock, the Norwegian Breakaway, which visited the destination in April.

“It’s a record year with 32 calls and around 39,000 passengers,” said Ian McQuade, general manager (commercial).

Traffic is up 23 percent in ships over last year, and the port is expecting even more calls for 2019, with 40 currently booked, according to McQuade.

Also on the books later this year are a pair of calls from the Seabourn Ovation, scheduled for September and October, respectively.

“Having opened a berth extension in April 2017 to allow us to accept ships up to 340 meters, we are now engaged in the process of enabling our main cruise berth to be dredged to 11 meters,” McQuade explained.

“I would like to see the port achieving in excess of 50 calls and 70,000 passengers per annum as the norm,” he continued, outlining his five-year goal. “The infrastructure work will give us the physical facilities to accommodate this.”

Previously a naval dockyard for over 150 years, Portland has transformed itself into a commercial port facility with over 2,000 meters of berth space.