Victoria’s cruise ship season — the first in three years — is off to a rough start.
The Caribbean Princess, which was scheduled to dock at Ogden Point this Wednesday and officially kick off the long-awaited season, has been abruptly sidelined after the cruise company said it was putting the ship into drydock for repairs.
The Princess Cruises vessel was scheduled to take on passengers in San Francisco before heading to Victoria on Wednesday and Vancouver on Thursday.
The company said the planned cruise was cancelled due to repairs on the vessel, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said it was investigating the vessel for COVID-19 cases.
The U.S. agency listed the ship as having an “orange status,” meaning reported cases of COVID-19 met a threshold for a CDC investigation. In this ship’s case, orange status means 0.3 per cent or more of passengers and one per cent of crew have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The CDC said when a cruise ship notifies the agency of suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 on board, it determines whether an investigation is needed based on that predetermined investigation threshold. “Cruising will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission,” the agency said.
The colour status ranges from green, which is zero cases, to red, which is sustained transmission.
Princess Cruises is refunding all 1,600 passengers on board. The ship originated in Florida and had planned to return after stops in Victoria and Vancouver.
The changes means Holland America Line’s Koningsdam, set to arrive at 2 p.m. Saturday, will be the first ship to arrive at Ogden Point in 905 days. The last cruise ship call in Victoria was Oct. 18, 2019, as the cruise industry was sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
It will be the first cruise ship to arrive in Canada since the pandemic began.
“These scheduling changes are quite common as the season starts,” Brian Cant, spokesman for the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, said on Saturday.
The harbour authority learned about the change on Friday.
“Ships can get shuffled around quite a bit. We’ve probably had about 30 changes to the schedule,” said Cant, noting most of those happen at the beginning and end of the season.
The harbour authority had a major media and VIP event planned for Wednesday, including tours of the ship, with provincial transportation Minister Rob Fleming and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps out to welcome the Caribbean Princess. Those plans are now being shifted to Saturday’s arrival of the Koningsdam, Cant said.
“We’ve been waiting for cruise ships for two years and will have to pause just a few more days,” he said.
The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority is estimating 350 ship calls bringing 759,000 passengers from April to October.
The federal government lifted a ban on cruise ships in Canadian waters on Nov. 1.
All passengers must be fully vaccinated to enter Canada and take a molecular test within 72 hours before boarding and an antigen test within one day of boarding.
Protest group Extinction Rebellion had planned to protest the first ship’s arrival on Wednesday.
On a Facebook event page, the group said its goal was to set up “an information picket, using banners to momentarily stop vehicles leaving the parking area at the Ogden Point facility so we can distribute flyers summarizing the climate and environmental damage caused by cruise ships.”
