Vancouver’s Canada Place marks 40 years as Alaska cruise homeport with record 1.4M passenger visits

Canada Place marked its 40th year as an Alaska cruise homeport with its busiest season yet, recording nearly 1.4 million passenger visits in 2026.

Passenger visits increased 18 per cent from approximately 1.2 million in 2025, while cruise ship calls rose 19 per cent from 300 to 358, according to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.

The port authority estimates cruise operations contributed more than $1 billion to the local economy, with each ship call generating an average of $3 million in economic activity.

“We are thrilled to celebrate another successful cruise season, with more than $1 billion injected into the local economy as cruise lines and passengers increasingly make Vancouver a core part of their Alaska adventure,” said Jeff Scott, the port authority’s vice-president of operations and supply chain, in a release.

Since 1986, Canada Place has supported more than 10,000 Alaska cruise sailings through the Inside Passage. As a homeport, Vancouver is where passengers begin and end their cruises and where ships restock, refuel and undergo maintenance and repairs.

The 2026 season ran from Disney Wonder’s arrival on Feb. 26 to Norwegian Encore’s departure on Oct. 13. It also brought a ship-size milestone: Princess Cruises’ Star Princess became the largest vessel to visit Canada Place on Sept. 27, with a gross tonnage of 177,882, surpassing Norwegian Encore.

Canada Place was also named North America’s Leading Cruise Port by World Travel Awards for the second consecutive year and fifth time overall.

Vancouver becomes part of the vacation

The latest Cruise Passenger Survey, conducted by the Pacific Rim Cruise Association, found that 76 per cent of passengers spent time locally before or after their cruise, up from 70 per cent in 2023.

According to the research, passengers spent an average of $1,144 each on hotels, restaurants, shopping, tours and attractions. They stayed an average of 1.4 nights, rising to 2.6 nights among visitors from outside North America.

“Cruise passengers are making Vancouver part of their journey, not simply the place where it begins or ends,” said Royce Chwin, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver, in the release.

Sara Zelmer, a cruise-specializing travel advisor with Maritime Travel, told PAX that some of her clients extended their trips with visits to Stanley Park or Whistler.

Many specifically chose round-trip Vancouver sailings in 2026. Avoiding additional flights and their associated costs was a major consideration, she said, along with itineraries offering more Alaska port calls rather than a stop in Victoria.

Booking early for Alaska

Some Alaska sailings were oversold in 2026, Zelmer said, with Princess Cruises and Holland America Line among the operators offering passengers incentives to move to alternative departures.

“A lot of people think that they can book last-minute deals, and that does not exist these days when it comes to Alaska, especially people that are traveling with families,” she told PAX.

She recommends booking by the end of November for the following Alaska season, particularly when clients need triple- or quad-occupancy cabins. Travellers who wait may face higher fares and fewer cabin options, she said.

Preparing for 2027

At Canada Place, average embarkation times have fallen below 30 minutes since facial biometric scanning was introduced in 2024, according to the port authority.

Within that process, the port says the technology has reduced the time most embarking passengers take to pass through U.S. border control by up to 94 per cent, to less than 10 seconds. New elevators are also planned at key arrival points to improve passenger movement through the terminal.

Work to expand shore power capacity is scheduled to begin in the coming months, allowing more ships to connect to B.C.’s electrical grid while docked. About 80 per cent of cruise ship calls involve vessels equipped to use the technology.

Supported through Transport Canada’s Green Shipping Corridors Program, the expansion is expected to prevent an additional 3,300 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per season.

Preliminary bookings point to another strong year in 2027, although passenger and ship-call projections have not been released.

Norwegian Cruise Line has confirmed that Norwegian Jade will operate seven-day Alaska voyages round-trip from Vancouver between May and September 2027.

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