THUNDER BAY – The city’s cruise industry is seeing sure growth as the city had two cruise ships dock at the same time in the city for the first time.
Paul Pepe, manager of Tourism Thunder Bay, said that it was an exciting day for the city’s tourism industry and cruise industry in particular as both the Viking Octantis and the Ocean Navigator made port in the city this weekend.
“In 2022 we had two vessels in on the same day but one left at 5:00 a.m. and the other one, the Ocean Navigator, arrived at 11:00 a.m. that day, so we were able to fit it at Pool 6 but today, this year we have two vessels alongside at the docks at the same time and that's exciting and that's great,” he said.
“It's a nice problem to have as you're building the cruising industry and we're very fortunate to have a great port partner in the Thunder Bay Port Authority that can accept the Ocean Navigator today at Keefer Terminal so that we can make sure all of our crews and guests are happy and their needs are met.”
Pepe said that the city coordinates with the various cruise lines that tour the great lakes to try to make sure that one ship docks at a time, but with five different cruise lines planning to make stops in Thunder Bay this year, this is a scenario that certainly will present itself again.
“We do work with all the cruise lines to try to minimize that, of course, it does happen,” he said.
“And we're very fortunate here in Thunder Bay where we do have a second dock here at Keefer that can take them if needed if there's no cargo vessels alongside and unlike other ports a second or third vessel at the same time could go to anchor and use their tenders to go ashore, which is doable but this is certainly the preferred option for all the cruise lines is to be able to pull up alongside the dock.”
With two ships full of tourists making port, the city’s tourism logistics personnel had a very busy day according to Pepe, especially those coordinating the city’s motor coaches which were stretched to the limit of their capacity.
“But the thing that Thunder Bay is known for with the cruise industry right now is that no is not in the vocabulary of our cruise and tourism partners,” he said.
“And everybody makes it happen, everybody just steps up here and just gets it done and makes it happen and that helps us build capacity and helps us improve our processes as an industry locally. We're very fortunate to have great port partners and great shoreside logistics partners like embark, everybody just steps in and gets it done.”
With the Ocean Navigator making port at Keefer terminal, a secure marine cargo facility, the public wasn’t able to get a great view of the vessel, but it will return few more times along with the Viking Octantis and Marina Park is a great place to be able to observe the ships in the port.
