Cruise Season Off To A Bumpy Start For BC

British Columbia’s cruise season is getting off to a bumpy start, with the cancellation of the first vessel scheduled to dock in B.C. since the beginning of the pandemic.

British Columbia’s cruise season is getting off to a bumpy start, with the cancellation of the first vessel scheduled to dock in B.C. since the beginning of the pandemic.

 Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess was scheduled to dock in Victoria on April 6 and Vancouver on April 7.

 The company says the cancellation is due to work it wants to do on the vessel, however U.S. officials have confirmed they are also investigating cases of COVID-19 on board.

 The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Infection has listed the vessel with an “orange” status, meaning the number of reported cases on board (0.3 per cent or more of passengers and crew) meets its threshold for investigation.

 Despite the setback, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority remains bullish about the coming season, which it estimates will see 350 cruise ships dock in the city.

 Officials were expecting about 780,000 cruise passengers to come through the port this year, up slightly from the 709,000 it saw in 2019.

 Under the new cruise rules, all passengers must be fully vaccinated in order to enter Canada as well as take a molecular test within 72 hours before boarding and an antigen test within one day of boarding.