British Columbia’s first scheduled cruise ship call since the COVID crisis began has been canceled due to a last-minute maintenance change.
According to Brian Cant (Greater Victoria Port Authority's spokesperson), the liner Caribbean Princess, which was due to arrive in Victoria BC (Vancouver Island, BC Canada) on Wednesday, March 30, would no longer be arriving as scheduled.
Cant said Caribbean Princess had been scheduled for a 4-day relocation voyage from San Francisco CA USA to Vancouver BC before going into drydock for refit.
“With the ship’s repositioning from the east coast to the west coast (Princess Cruises) have decided to scrap that four-day cruise and they are going to put the ship into dry dock early. We were informed of that late (Friday) night.”
The operated by Princess Cruises ship Caribbean Princess is also currently being investigated and monitored by the USA's CDC agency. Under the organization’s COVID Program for Cruise Ships, the liner is currently listed as having “orange status.”
The status means there are enough reported COVID cases on the ship for the Centers to launch an investigation, and is the 2nd-highest level of COVID concern under the program.
The schedule change means that the scheduled (arrival on April 9th) HAL-Holland America’s ship ms Koningsdam will become the first cruiser to visit Victoria BC.
For more Caribbean Princess incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.