Well, I am pleased that not only was today in Victoria , Canada on beautiful Vancouver Island a wonderful sunny day,  though at 16C but our first cruise ship ‘Grand Princess’ will be docking at Ogden Point this Wednesday April 22nd 2015 at  07:00 pst from Vancouver and to San Francisco at 14:00 pst.  It will then begin its regular Alaska cruises back to Vancouver.

This year 230 cruise ship port visits will be made to Ogden Point , majority are on route back to Seattle or San Francisco with some being repositioning cruises and some parts of World Cruise segments. This year we expect a large number of ships to dock in morning or afternoon giving passengers a longer time to enjoy Victoria instead of the standard for some of 18:00 to 23:50 pst stops. Mind you our daylight hours are longer into the late summer.

The last scheduled cruise ship will be the ‘Star Princess’ on November 9th 2015 , making its way to Los Angeles

Here is the link to our schedule  http://victoriacruise.ca/page/cruise-schedule   and a PDF can be downloaded from this site.

The  Times Colonist has written a great article on the pending season ,  quote : ” Cruise-ship daytime visits are scheduled to rise by about 17 per cent this year compared with last, bringing good news to local businesses keen to sell services and goods to tourists. – See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/more-cruise-ships-coming-earlier-in-day-to-victoria-staying-longer-1.1820867#sthash.SA62Wkkn.dpuflink is here

Sadly we have been advised by the Times Colonist that   ” Harry, Happy and Henrietta, the Hippo buses that have been carrying tourists on land and on water in Greater Victoria, are leaving for warmer weather in the Caribbean. – See more at:  http://www.timescolonist.com/business/victoria-s-hippo-tourism-buses-head-to-warmer-climate-1.1822578     So, will it be Barbados or St Maarten or what Island in the Caribbean to host these three land/sea buses 🙂

Of special note and thank you to a Facebook friend in the UK , I was advised that the Crown Princess will be in dry dock at Victoria Sea Span Yards from approximate May 1 – 15 2015 , undergoing tune-ups and maintenance.

http://www.seaspan.com/seaspan-shipyards-cruiseship-repairs

These yards have worked on many cruise ships and have a reputation of quality work and to ensure the job is completed on schedule allowing it to begin its scheduled Alaska runs out of Seattle.

Welcome to all the crew and contractors , course we enjoy the revenue and work in our city .