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
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Trump's lawyers try to discredit testimony of prosecution's first witness in hush money trial
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Air traveller complaints to Canadian Transportation Agency hit new high
The Canadian Transportation Agency has hit a record high of more than 71,000 complaints in a backlog. The quasi-judicial regulator and tribunal tasked with settling disputes between customers and the airlines says the backlog is growing because the number of incoming complaints keeps increasing.
U.S. flight attendant indicted in attempt to record teen girl in airplane bathroom
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.