A little snow wasn’t stopping work on the cruise ship dock, as workers install new tie down bollards, rubber dock fenders and security fencing while contracting crews crush the rubble from the former Pool Six. “That really helps set the stage to begin the transformation of that site,” said Paul Pepe, manager of Tourism Thunder Bay.

“We are working on dock improvements towards the first arrival on the 26th of May of Viking Expeditions’ Viking Octantis, which is a huge vessel measuring 665 feet long and will take up most of the dock behind the Alexander Henry.”

Everything is still on schedule for the 2022 cruise ship arrivals this year. The Viking line has seven scheduled turnarounds in Thunder Bay with their first five cruises completely sold out.

“They’re selling very well and the other cruises are selling very strongly as well,” said Pepe.

Later this month, Pepe will take part in Seatrade Cruise Global,a major international cruise shipping conference in Miami Beach to learn more about the industry and promote Thunder Bay as an international port.

“Miami is where a lot of cruise lines either have their head offices or have North American branch offices,” he said.

“There’s cruise lines there, there’s 10,000 delegates, 500 exhibitors, it’s our first time in about five years back at that show.”

Now that Thunder Bay has an elevated presence as a turnaround port, Pepe says “it’s important for us to maintain our presence on the national and international scope to grow that reputation even more.”

“It’s also an opportunity for us to meet with other ports and learn best practices from one another, like how we can keep growing that and how we can meet the needs of the industry,” he said.

“There are opportunities in the Great Lakes and in Thunder Bay as both a day stop and a turnaround port. We’re excited to be able to meet with some of our international counterparts and learn trade best practices, so they’ll keep pitching Thunder Bay as a destination for the expedition cruise ships.”

Pepe says they are continuing to build relationships and “lots of good things are happening” as we get ready for the summer.

Meanwhile, the dock work is in just the beginning of the process as Thunder Bay navigates through port design ideas that will welcome more international travellers.

“There’s a lot of logistics that’ll get figured out throughout the year in terms of what gets parked where and what has to go where alongside the ship when they’re changing luggage or they’re loading up the vessel with hotel and restaurant supplies,” he said. “From there, that’ll kind of help determine a longer term layout of how the property will look.”