V2V Vacations ferry cancels winter season sailings due to weather concerns
The tourist-oriented, upscale ferry service between downtown Vancouver and downtown Victoria is cutting back its operations, effectively turning its business into a seasonal operation.
V2V Vacations announced on Monday it will be ending its daily cruise service for the year between both cities on October 16. Then in 2019, daily service will restart on March 15 and run until October 31.
The move is an avoidance of the “challenging and inconsistent weather conditions during the winter months” and reflects V2V Vacation’s standard of “safety, reliability and comfort.”
Moreover, there will be some service changes for the remainder of the 2018 service season. Sailings from September 20 to October 15 will depart from Vancouver at 8 am and arrive at Victoria at 11:30 am. For return trips, sailings will leave Victoria at 4 pm and arrive in Vancouver at 7:30 pm.
The ferry launched its new service in spring 2017 using a 254-seat, high-speed passenger jet catamaran ferry, with the dock at the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre used as the business’ home base. Each one-way sailing takes 3.5 hours.
A competing service operated by the Victoria Clipper was cancelled last year, as the company said it had made a decision to focus on its operations to Seattle.
However, there are still plans by Island Ferry Service to launch a new high-speed passenger jet catamaran ferry service between TransLink’s SeaBus terminal in downtown Vancouver and downtown Nanaimo. This commuter-style ferry service will operate two vessels and make multiple sailings daily, with each one-way trip taking about 68 minutes.
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