Vancouver welcomes its biggest cruise ship ever as season winds down | Daily Hive

Star Princess visiting Vancouver's Canada Place cruise ship terminal for the first time on Sept. 27, 2026. (Stephen Daniel M/submitted)

The Canada Place cruise ship terminal in Downtown Vancouver welcomed the largest cruise ship ever to visit the city this past weekend.

Princess Cruises’ Star Princess arrived at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, and departed at 1 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 28. Its arrival and departure were timed to coincide with low tide, allowing the vessel to safely clear the Lions Gate Bridge.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority confirmed the milestone to Daily Hive Urbanized.

With a gross tonnage (GT) of 177,882, Star Princess surpasses Vancouver’s previous record-holders — Norwegian Cruise Line’s 2019-built Norwegian Encore (169,116 GT), and the 2018-built Norwegian Bliss (168,028 GT).

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Norwegian Encore first visited Canada Place in 2023, while Norwegian Bliss made its Vancouver debut in 2018. At the time, as previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, the Norwegian Bliss was the ninth largest cruise ship in the world, but it has since fallen down in the rankings — now the 36th largest ship, following the more recent launch of far larger vessels.

Currently, the Star Princess is the world’s 25th largest cruise ship, while the Norwegian Encore is the 32nd largest. Star Princess also joins a growing number of new large cruise ships that are powered by lower-emission liquid natural gas (LNG).

Norwegian Bliss made one visit to the city this cruise season in April 2026.

All three ships typically homeport in Seattle during the Alaska cruise season, occasionally visiting Vancouver at the beginning and/or end of the season as part of repositioning itineraries, usually to the Caribbean.

star princess vancouver canada place september 2026

Star Princess visiting Vancouver’s Canada Place cruise ship terminal for the first time on Sept. 27, 2026. (Stephen Daniel M/submitted)

After leaving Vancouver, Star Princess stopped in Victoria today before continuing its journey to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and the Panama Canal.

While ship sizes are compared by gross tonnage, Star Princess also measures 1,133 ft. (345 metres) long and 155 ft. (47 metres) wide. It has 20 decks and can accommodate 4,300 passengers and more than 1,500 crew members.

Vancouver’s 2026 cruise season began on Feb. 26 with the early arrival of Disney Wonder. Throughout the season, the port authority has described 2026 as a banner year, projecting the city’s busiest cruise season on record by passenger volume.

More than 1.4 million passengers are expected in 2026, surpassing the previous record of 1.32 million in 2023 and up from 1.2 million in 2025.

Between May and September this year, during the peak season, nearly 40,000 to 50,000 passengers moved through Canada Place each weekend (defined as the four-day period between Monday and Friday), reaching up to 56,000 on the busiest weekends. Over the peak season, multiple ships visited Canada Place almost everyday.

An all-time monthly record of 290,000 passengers was set in July 2026.

The port authority also projected nearly 360 cruise ship visits to Canada Place in 2026 — a notable increase from 290 in 2019, 331 in 2023, 327 in 2024, and 301 in 2025.

After today, five more cruise ship visits are scheduled before Vancouver’s 2026 cruise ship season officially ends on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with the departure of Norwegian Encore. Its slightly smaller sister ship, Norwegian Joy (167,725 GT), will visit Vancouver on Thursday, Oct. 1.

This year also brought several notable firsts for Vancouver. Brilliant Lady and Luminara‘s inaugural visits marked the respective Vancouver debuts of Virgin Voyages and The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, while Disney Magic made its first visit and homeported in Vancouver throughout the season. With Disney Magic joining longtime Vancouver regular Disney Wonder, Disney Cruise Line effectively doubled its long seasonal presence in the city.

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