2018 cruise season of port Vancouver wraps up on Friday, October 19, when Emerald Princess leaves Canada Place and sails down the Pacific coast to LA, prior to embarking on a 28-day roundtrip voyage to Hawaii.
The season (launched on April 10 with the call by Star Princess) saw Port Vancouver welcome 900,000+ cruisers on 243 ship calls, which is a 7% increase in passenger numbers in comparison to 2017, and the biggest season since 2010.
Peter Xotta, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority vice-president of planning and operations pointed to a number of season highlights.
The largest cruise ship to ever call at Vancouver was 4,000-guest Norwegian Bliss on September 30. The world's largest cruise ships can now carry about 6,000 passengers.
The cruise shipping business of Port Vancouver hit a high-water mark of 1,060,383 cruise passengers in 2002, when the port was dominant for cruise ships in the region. Port Seattle, back then, welcomed a total of 244,905 passengers. Since 2002, however, the size of the cruise sector of Seattle has surpassed Vancouver and cruise liners carried more than 1 million people to Seattle in 2017.
Each cruise ship calling at the city adds an estimated US$3 million to local economy, according to VFPA. Emerald Princess is due to be back to Vancouver March 29 to launch 2019 cruise ship season.