Port Saint John Celebrating 30th Cruise Season This Year
SAINT JOHN – Port Saint John is gearing up for its 30th cruise season starting this spring.
This year’s milestone season starts on April 7 and is expected to bring in 200,000 guests, not including crew. That’s up from last year’s number of around 145,000 passengers.
Betty MacMillan, the cruise development manager for Port Saint John, says she’s surprised how fast time has flown but is proud of how much the industry has grown since the first cruise ship anchored at the port in September 1989.
“It’s been a great economic boost for the City of Saint John as well some other communities in Southern New Brunswick, like the Hopewell Rocks, St. Martins and St. Andrews. They have all done very well and they have all stepped up and been able to provide excellent service and the product passengers are really interested in,” says MacMillan. “Thirty years ago, everybody just jumped on a bus and went and saw the city highlights. They looked at churches, cemeteries and old buildings. Today, they really want to get immersed in the community.”
The 2019 season will have 16 different cruise lines calling, with a total of six triple-cruise ship days, three of those being back-to-back (Oct. 1, 2 and 3). The Royal Caribbean cruise line is the port’s largest customer this year, with 28 calls booked – approximately 82,000 passengers. MSC’s Meraviglia will also visit two times this season, carrying 4,500 passengers each trip. MacMillan says more visits and bigger ships contribute to the expected higher number of passengers this year.
“Cruise lines are ordering more ships and as they order more it’s kind of a domino effect. You’ve probably noticed that the ships in Saint John are large. If you took an average of ports in Atlantic Canda and Quebec, you would find our average [size of ship] is much larger than any other port in our region,” she says, “Sometimes the increase is coming from those larger ships, going from a 2,000-passenger ship to a 3,000-passenger ship. That’s 1,000 extra people every time the ship calls.”
If this season is anything like the last, there’s a possibility of an extra ship or two rerouting to Saint John unexpectedly due to bad weather. If this does happen, MacMillan says there’s a chance the port could beat its all-time passenger record, which was 205,883 in 2010.
“There have been years where ships have come in because of hurricane diversions, that type of thing. We’re actually hoping that we will break our record season from 2010,” she says. “If we don’t do it this year, we will definitely do it next year.”
To help local businesses get prepared for the big season, Port Saint John is hosting an information session on March 28 for uptown businesses about what they can expect this cruise season. They will also give tips on how they can attract and welcome tourists to their businesses.
“We often have businesses whether it’s retail shops, boutiques or restaurants contacting us saying ‘how can we get more people through our doors?’ If businesses don’t opt-in to do our in-terminal advertising program, we’re going to be sharing some tips on what cruise passengers are generally looking for and what they might be interested in on the side of the street when they walk by your business,” says Natalie Allaby, venues and cruise development coordinator for Port Saint John.
“We’ll be giving them tips on making sure that they have good signage and maybe a welcome banner or maybe balloons out front, or something that makes the passenger feel that it’s a welcoming business to go into.”
Port Saint John president and CEO Jim Quinn says it’s the local businesses and the community that make Saint John a great place for cruise ships to visit.
“I think because of the numbers of people, they’re going to see a much more busy uptown when the ships are in. The one thing I always emphasize is one of the strengths of our city is we’re known to be a friendly city,” he says.
“That friendliness translates into the passengers and how they evaluate our city. That’s one of our absolute strengths is the citizenry and welcoming atmosphere that they create, whether that’s the business people or the people on the streets.”