A busy travel season ahead is expected to bring dozens of cruise ships to the Toronto waterfront in 2026, and officials expect this year’s procession of large passenger ships to approach the record set a few years earlier.

The Toronto Port Authority (formerly Ports Toronto) shared its annual projections for cargo and passenger volumes on Friday, and it’s looking like it will be quite the busy tourist season along the city’s waterfront.

Forty-five cruise ship calls will bring nearly 19,000 passengers to Toronto this year, increasing over the 42 ships and 18,461 passengers logged in 2025. However, the figure still falls short of the record-breaking 54 cruise ships that moored in at the city’s Cruise Ship Terminal in 2023.

Some of the cruise lines that made stops in Toronto last year include Victory, Pearl Seas, Viking, Ponant, and Hapag-Lloyd.

The Toronto Port Authority also expects a significant boost in revenue from the increased cruise ship arrivals, and cites projections from cruise operator Cruise the Great Lakes, which claims that the economic impact of Great Lakes cruises will exceed US$300 million in 2026, a 25 per cent year-over-year leap.

Toronto currently serves as the turnaround point on many major Great Lakes cruise route, a role expected to keep the cruise ship tourism sector strong for years to come.

The first cruise ships typically arrive in Toronto in mid-April and last until late October.

Cruise season in Toronto will officially kick off on April 16 with the arrival of Viking Cruises’ Polaris vessel, which carries 378 passengers. 

Lead photo by

Matthew G Eddy/Shutterstock