Conn. hopes for benefits of rebounding cruise ship industry

The two ships, part of American Queen Voyages, were on a tour of the East Coast and Canada, and were the first cruise ships to stop in New London in four years. Both are scheduled to stop in New London on the way back south in the fall.

The ships each brought about 90 passengers and 75 crew members and were met with gift bags, discounts in local restaurants and a driving tour of the city.

Connecticut also has deep-water ports in New Haven and Bridgeport that can handle large ships, but the state often isn’t seen as a cruise destination.

“It’s encouraging that with the industry just really trying to make a comeback, they picked New London,” Mayor Michael Passero told the New Haven Register.

New London and other Connecticut ports could benefit from Canada’s reopening its own ports to cruises after two years, and also from industry trends toward more domestic routes and smaller ships that cater to an older clientele, said Chris Gray Faust, managing editor of the consumer review site Cruise Critic.

“There has been a pivot toward more domestic cruises,” Gray Faust told the newspaper. “Some of these ports are ones that you don’t think of as cruise ports, necessarily.”

A spokesperson for the Connecticut Port Authority told the Register that the agency is working with the state to study whether a pier at New London’s Fort Trumbull, which is closer to the mouth of the Thames River and the Long Island Sound, could be refurbished to accommodate cruise ships.