BC Ferries: Multiple sailing waits for trips from Vancouver to Victoria, Nanaimo ahead of long weekend
After sailings filled for stand-by travellers hoping to head from the mainland to Vancouver Island Thursday, sailing waits began piling up early Friday.
According to BC Ferries' current conditions page, as of noon Friday, all sailings from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay until 6 p.m. were already full.
From Tsawwassen to Duke Point in Nanaimo, travellers without reservations will need to wait until Saturday. On that route, all Friday sailings were full.
Only passengers with reservations on full sailings are being given boarding passes.
Making matters worse, a staffing issue led to a significant delay on one sailing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. The Queen of New Westminster, which was scheduled to leave the Vancouver side at 6 a.m., has resumed service but is now operating 95 minutes behind schedule.
The company suggested island-bound travellers who don't have a booking head to Horseshoe Bay and try to board a ferry to Departure Bay. That route, however, is also full until the 6:15 p.m. sailing.
“We've told people in advance this is the busiest long weekend of the year, we would ask people to pack your patience,” spokesperson Deborah Marshall told CTV News, adding they have increased reservation capacities for the long weekend.
“We generally reserved between 45 and 75 per cent of the deck space for reservations,” she said. “For peak weekends, there's a lot of demand for reservations, customers want those reservations. So we would be around the 75 per cent allocation this weekend.”
When asked is BC Ferries would consider an "all reservation" model for busy weekends, Marshall responded: “Not at this time. Some customers tell us they prefer to drive up.”
Marshall also noted that BC Ferries had been warning travellers for days that they should consider travelling outside of peak periods this long weekend.
The company said Thursday afternoon, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning are generally the busiest travel times of the B.C. Day weekend.
The rush of visitors to Vancouver Island is a sharp injection to the tourism industry. Bill Lewis is chair of the Greater Victoria Hotel Association and says hotels in the city are either “fully booked, or extremely close to” for the long weekend.
“There really has been a strong, strong upswing (in bookings) in Victoria and Vancouver Island as a whole in the last ten days,” Lewis said. “Unfortunately we assume that is because of the challenges the Okanagan is facing with wildfires, not as much people specifically changing their plans but we see it in the numbers.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.