50,000 cruise ship passengers expected at Canada Place this weekend

Disney Wonder at the Canada Place cruise ship terminal in downtown Vancouver. (Macklin Holloway/Shutterstock)

This BC Day long weekend will be one of the busiest weekends yet for the Canada Place cruise ship terminal since the pandemic.

Vancouver Fraser Port Authority states approximately 50,000 passengers are expected to pass through the cruise ship terminal in downtown Vancouver over a four-day period between Friday, August 4 (today) and Monday, August 6.

It is anticipated that Sunday and Monday will be the busiest days, with an estimated 15,000 and 13,000 passengers, respectively.

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The Celebrity Eclipse, Brilliance of the Seas, and Noordam ships will be disembarking and embarking passengers on Sunday while the Disney Wonder, Norwegian Jewel, and Queen Elizabeth ships will do the same on Monday.

The ships scheduled for Canada Place on Friday are the Celebrity Millennium and Crown Princess, while the ships on Saturday are the Majestic Princess and Koningsdam.

Vancouver’s 2023 cruise ship season officially began on April 12 with the arrival of the Sapphire Princess, but as usual, it did not truly kick off until May, at which point at least one cruise ship is scheduled daily through early October. In fact, multiple ships per day are scheduled on most days.

This operating season will officially end on October 24 with the arrival and departure of the Koningsdam.

Vancouver’s cruise ship business is on pace to reach an all-time annual record for total number of passengers, with the port authority previously forecasting up to 1.3 million passengers on 331 ship visits.

Halfway into the season, over the first four months, according to the port authority, over 740,000 passengers have already passed through Canada Place. This exceeds the first four months of the 2022 season between April and July by 70% or over 300,000 when about 438,000 were recorded over the same period.

Furthermore, halfway into the season, Canada Place is already near reaching the total number of cruise ship passengers in 2022, when 815,000 passengers were recorded for the first cruise ship season since the pandemic.

The heightened volumes of tourists are providing much-needed support for struggling businesses and services in and around the downtown area.

“All indications are that we are on track for a banner year for cruise in 2023, as tourists and cruise passengers return to the region and the award-winning Canada Place cruise terminal at the Port of Vancouver,” said Mandy Chan, the port authority’s cruise services manager, in a statement.

“Seeing as the great weather is bringing all of us out and about, we want to ensure that tourists and locals planning to visit Canada Place and nearby areas over the next few weeks be informed so they can plan ahead and prepare for crowds and increased traffic.”

Cruise ship operations at Canada Place are not impacted by the ongoing port labour dispute affecting cargo and goods.

It will also be a busy long weekend for Vancouver International Airport (YVR), with the airport authority indicating yesterday it is anticipating about 320,000 air passengers over the four-day period between Friday and Monday. This includes the expectation of over 80,000 air passengers on Friday and Sunday, returning to the pre-pandemic peak summer daily highs.

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