The final cruise ship set to sail during the 2019 season will depart from Vancouver on Friday, marking the end of the 33rd cruise season at the Canada Place terminal at the Port of Vancouver.
“2019 was a very successful cruise season in Vancouver, with a record number of cruise passengers, several new and returning cruise lines, and being selected as the port of choice for the inaugural voyage of three cruise ships — the Norwegian Joy, the Queen Elizabeth and the Roald Amundsen,” said Peter Xotta, vice president of planning and operations at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
“Canada Place is Canada’s largest cruise terminal and has been a leading home port for Alaska-bound cruises for more than 30 years. We look forward to welcoming even more passengers through the port in the years to come,” continued Xotta.
In 2019, Vancouver welcomed more than one million cruise passengers on 288 ship visits, reflecting a 22% increase in passenger volume over 2018. Cruise is a key economic driver for the region; each cruise ship that visits Vancouver is said to stimulate about $3 million in direct activity to the local economy. The 2020 cruise ship season will kick off on Thursday, April 2, 2020.
Highlights for 2019 cruise season include the Emerald Princess, which was the first ship to kick off the season, and her sister ship, the Star Princess, will be the last to depart Canada Place this year at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, heading down the Pacific Coast to Los Angeles, before embarking on a 16-day round-trip to Hawaii.
The 2019 season included several new cruise lines coming to Vancouver including Cunard Line with the Queen Elizabeth, Viking Ocean with the Viking Orion, and Azamara with the Azamara Quest.
On Sept. 27, Hurtigruten’s Roald Amundsen launched its North American inaugural voyage from Vancouver.
New ships to Vancouver in 2019 included the Royal Princess, Windstar Legend, Celebrity Eclipse, Norwegian Joy, Ovation of the Seas, Silver Muse, and Compagnie du Ponant’s L’Austral.
The Canada Place Cruise Terminal at the Port of Vancouver also welcomed the return of Celebrity, Crystal, Holland America, Princess, Norwegian, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas, Disney, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Silversea, and Windstar. These cruise lines all have ships that use Vancouver as a homeport to begin and end each cruise.
Since Canada Place became the first port in Canada to offer shore power for cruise ships in 2009, there have been more than 500 successful shore power connections, which, the port stated, equates to a total of 6,574 tons of fuel savings, more than 20,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and 583 tons of air pollutant reductions. In 2019, nearly 50% of all cruise ship visits to Canada Place were shore power-enabled.
