Port of Vancouver: Last cruise ship of the 2019 season departs Canada Place tomorrow

The final cruise ship set to sail during the 2019 season will depart from Vancouver tomorrow, marking the end of the 33^rd cruise season at Canada Place terminal at the Port of Vancouver.

“2019 was a very exciting and 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—Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Joy, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen,” said Peter Xotta, vice president of planning and operations at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. “Cruise passengers from across the globe continue to be attracted to the award-winning cruise facilities at Canada Place and the experiences Vancouver has to offer.”

For the second year in a row, Vancouver has been recognized by cruisers as one of the top-rated cruise destinations in the U.S. and Canada in the 2019 Cruise Critic’s Cruisers’ Choice Destination Awards. The winners are chosen based on consumer ratings and reviews posted by cruise passengers to the Cruise Critic website.

“Canada Place at the Port of Vancouver is Canada’s largest cruise terminal and has been a leading home port for Alaska-bound cruises for more than 30 years. We are thrilled that cruisers have once again this year named Vancouver as a top cruise destination, and we look forward to welcoming even more passengers through the Port of Vancouver 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 volumes over 2018. Cruise is a key economic driver for the region; each cruise ship that visits Vancouver stimulates 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:

• The Emerald Princess was the first ship to kick off the 2019 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
• More than one million passengers on 288 cruise ships visited Vancouver in 2019. This represents a 22% per cent increase in passengers compared to the 2018 season and an overall record number of cruise passengers to the Canada Place cruise terminal at the Port of Vancouver.
• The 2019 season included several new cruise lines coming to Vancouver including Cunard Cruise Line with the Queen Elizabeth, Viking Ocean Cruises with the Viking Orion, and Azamara Cruises with the Azamara Quest
• On September 27, the Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen, which is one of two hybrid ships in the world using electrical propulsion, launched its North American inaugural voyage from Vancouver
• Each cruise ship that docks at the Port of Vancouver contributes, on average, nearly $3 million in direct activity to the local economy
• New ships to Vancouver in 2019 included the Royal Princess, Windstar Legend, Eclipse (sister ship to the Solstice), Norwegian Joy (sister ship to the Norwegian Bliss), Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas, Silversea’s Silver Muse, which will replace the Silver Shadow, and Compagnie du Ponant’s L’Austral
• Canada Place cruise terminal at the Port of Vancouver welcomed the return of Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Seabourn, Silversea Cruises, and Windstar. These cruise lines all have ships that use the Port of Vancouver as a home port to begin and end each cruise.
• Since Canada Place cruise ship terminal became the first in Canada to offer shore power for cruise ships in 2009, there have been more than 500 successful shore power connections, which 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 cruise ship visits to Canada Place were shore power-enabled.

About the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and the Port of Vancouver

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is the federal agency responsible for the stewardship of the Port of Vancouver. Like all Canada Port Authorities, we are accountable to the federal minister of transport, and operate pursuant to the Canada Marine Act with a mandate to enable Canada’s trade through the Port of Vancouver, while protecting the environment and considering local communities. The port authority is structured as a non-share corporation, is financially self-sufficient and does not rely on tax dollars for operations. Our revenues come from port terminals and tenants who lease port lands, and from port users who pay various fees such as harbour dues. Profits are reinvested in port infrastructure. The port authority has control over the use of port land and water, which includes more than 16,000 hectares of water, over 1,000 hectares of land, and approximately 350 kilometres of shoreline. Located on the southwest coast of British Columbia in Canada, the Port of Vancouver extends from Roberts Bank and the Fraser River up to and including Burrard Inlet, bordering 16 municipalities and intersecting the traditional territories and treaty lands of several Coast Salish First Nations. The Port of Vancouver is Canada’s largest port, and the third largest in North America by tonnes of cargo. Enabling the trade of approximately $240 billion in goods with more than 170 world economies, port activities sustain 115,300 jobs, $7 billion in wages, and $11.9 billion in GDP across Canada.

Media contact:
Danielle Jang
Media Relations Advisor
604.340.8617
danielle.jang@portvancouver.com

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