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New cruise terminal opens in Gloucester, Mass.
Johanna Jainchill, Travel Weekly, 5/30/2007
A privately funded 16,000-square-foot, $7 million cruise terminal officially opened over Memorial Day weekend in Gloucester, Mass., the city's first cruise terminal.
The Seabourn Pride was the first cruise ship to call in Gloucester last October, and Peter Van Ness, spokesman for the new cruise terminal, said that Seabourn, American Cruise Line and Cruise Norway are scheduled to call there five times this year.
Holland America Line ships are slated to visit Gloucester in 2008, Van Ness said, and the terminal is negotiating to bring other lines there as well.One cruise ship, no longer than 500 feet, can dock in Gloucester; ships as large as HAL's Amsterdam will have to tender in to shore.
Boston businessman Frank Elliott and a group of investors built Cruiseport Gloucester Marine Terminal, a state of the art terminal with a parking lot, waiting area, restaurants and a second-level function hall overlooking the harbor. For international visitors, the Dept. of Homeland Security operates a customs area.
Located 30 miles north of Boston, Gloucester calls itself the oldest fishing community in the U.S.