Following a 2-year pause, Port Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island, Canada) will see a return to cruise this current year.
The new cruise season will start on April 22 with an inaugural call from Viking Octantis, an expedition cruise ship from Viking Expeditions.
Charlottetown expects to receive a total of 72 calls during the 2022 season, with most ships scheduled to arrive in September-October. In addition, the Port will welcome calls from familiar cruise lines including HAL-Holland America, RCI-Royal Caribbean, and NCL-Norwegian Cruise Line.
According to Mike Cochrane, CEO of Port Charlottetown, that was the restart of an industry that had been on pause for 2 years and their priority was "how to resume cruise in the safest manner possible.”
“We have been working closely with Transport Canada and the Government of Prince Edward Island to ensure the safe resumption of cruise. In doing so, we are seeing both cruise lines and the community excited for the return of cruise.”
The cruise season will kick off in late April and will welcome vessels through to early November 2022. In 2019, the industry had an economic impact of $42.2M and 290+ jobs.
The cruise season will also see the first chance for Port Charlottetown to use its 2nd cruise berth, a result of the $12M berth expansion project, which was completed back in 2020. The project will enable two 300+ metre vessels to dock simultaneously and will allow guests to get to shore more safely.
Port Charlottetown is a not-for-profit corporation and the marine gateway to Prince Edward Island. The port welcomes the bulk of the cruise shipping business to the Island as the busiest common-user marine terminal facility in Prince Edward.