In battle to attract cruises, it's full steam ahead for Mass.

Daniel Foxcroft and Zenita Myburgh sailed a long way to go shopping in Boston.

The pair, crew members aboard Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas cruise ship, spent $1,600 while the ship was docked here last Wednesday. They said they were more excited about blowing weeks' worth of pay in Boston than being in more exotic ports.

''In the Caribbean, all you do is drink all day and go to the beach. We wanted to see if the shopping was good, and as you can see," Myburgh said, pointing to her bags, ''it was."

Such visitors as Myburgh and Foxcroft are the reason local officials want to bring more cruise ships to the state's ports. Cruise passengers spent $325 million in Massachusetts in 2003, according to the Cruise Lines International Association's most recent report.

With the number of Americans taking cruises every year exploding, port marketers believe they can increase not only Boston's share of the business but also lure smaller vessels to such ports as Gloucester or Salem.

''The concept is that our urban areas have incredible historic resources that are attractive to the cruise industry," said Rick Armstrong, executive secretary of the Massachusetts Seaport Advisory Council, which advises state government on port development.

The seaport council met last week with Terry Dale, president of the cruise lines association, to discuss developing a plan to market cruises that come to all of the state's deep water ports: Boston, Gloucester, Salem, and Fall River.

Armstrong said that plan would probably call for linking the smaller ports by a system of ferries to Boston's Black Falcon Cruise Terminal, where passengers could then board much larger cruise ships bound for Canada, the Caribbean, and elsewhere.

To do so, they'll have to compete with other port cities that are spending millions to upgrade cruise terminals and draw cruise lines.

The number of cruise passengers has grown almost 32 percent since 2000, but the number of cruise ships being built has fallen, putting cities in competition with each other for new business.

''Our success is only limited by the fact that the cruise ship industry doesn't have enough ships worldwide to make sure every city has a ship," said Dennis Castleman, Maryland's assistant secretary for tourism, film and the arts.

Maryland is spending $4 million to move its cruise terminal at the Port of Baltimore from an old cargo facility to a new cruise-only building with 500 new parking spaces.

The upgrade comes even though the number of cruise lines sailing from Baltimore dropped to one this year from five in 2004.

About 150 cruise ships are currently in service in North America, according to the cruise lines association, many of which already have long-term commitments to home ports.

That leaves ports jockeying for seasonal business or ''calls" -- brief stops along a ship's route -- from vessels that are based elsewhere.

Only three new ships are slated to hit the seas this year, opposed to 10 last year and 13 in 2003.

''It's really costly to build these ships because many of them are built in European ports and the exchange is unfavorable," Dale said. ''We don't have massive numbers coming on like we did in the early 2000s."

Still, cities are betting that they can attract more ships.

Norfolk, Va., is planning a $36 million, 80,000 square-foot cruise terminal, and Philadelphia's terminal recently underwent a $5.4 million upgrade.

Jacksonville, Fla., which became the home port of a cruise ship in 2003, now wants to build a new terminal so that the vessel can stop using the converted cargo terminal where it now docks, said Robert Peek, a spokesman for the Port of Jacksonville.

Marcia Duffy, cruise marketing director for the Massachusetts Port Authority, said the agency is discussing a renovation or expansion of its aging Black Falcon terminal in South Boston.

Opened in 1985, the terminal will be called on by about 100 cruises this year, but it was designed to host 1,200-passenger vessels. Most of today's ships are larger and accommodate between 1,500 and 3,500 passengers, Duffy said.

''From the standpoint of processing passengers, that's where size matters," Duffy said. ''When we look at the modern cruise fleet and where it's going, a number of the smaller ships has a lesser place in the North American market, so we have to make sure we know what it takes to accommodate what's out there."

The seaport council's Armstrong said his group is developing plans for a three-story regional cruise and cargo terminal in Fall River, where small cargo items could be unloaded on the ground floor, cruise passengers could board ships on the second level, and offices or eateries could be housed on the third floor.

Still, with all the competition, the cruise association's Dale said Boston and the other Massachusetts ports should be attractive to cruise lines because of their location close to Canada and directly across the Atlantic from Europe.

Also, Black Falcon is easily accessible by car with plenty of nearby parking and by plane with Logan International Airport just across the harbor.

''Boston as a destination is unique, so you've got assets that will keep it at the top of the cruise industry's mind," Dale said.

Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com.