Saint John is coming off of yet another successful cruise ship season in 2024, according to Port Saint John.

A total of 74 cruise ships brought more than 163,000 passengers to the city between May and November.

Natalie Allaby, director of cruise excellence, said there were also more than 68,000 crew members who visited.

“We were really pleased to have a combined passenger and crew total of over 232,000 people sailing into our harbour this year and enjoying the Bay of Fundy region,” Allaby told our newsroom.

Before the season even began, the port had been projecting more than 169,000 cruise ship passengers to visit Saint John this year.

Allaby said a couple of the early ships were less full than anticipated and a Royal Caribbean ship with 2,000 passengers had to be diverted due to bad weather.

“But overall, especially this fall, these ships were all coming in right on target, right on projection, either at capacity or even in some cases over 100 per cent capacity,” she said.

“Our summer calls that we had, actually, when there’s children on board, that even increases the double occupancy rate that we base the schedule on.”

Allaby said this season saw a number of overnight calls to the city and 10 inaugural calls, which is much higher than usual. There were also 15 days with two cruise ships in port and six days with three ships.

While this season has just wrapped up, planning for the 2025 season has already been underway for some time.

The official schedule will not be released for a few more weeks, but Allaby said next season will be similar in size and scope to this year.

“The season actually is starting a little bit earlier next year,” she said. “We’ve got a ship from Viking Cruise Line coming in in late April and the season will go right through until November 6th.”

Saint John will also see a new cruise line visiting the city. Virgin Voyages, which is owned by business magnate Richard Branson, will make three calls in late summer and early fall.

“It’s a really unique brand. And we were really, really thrilled that they chose our region to send up a couple of calls,” said Allaby.

September and October continue to be the peak, she said, but Saint John is expected to see continued growth throughout the summer months.