The long delay in the start-up of summer ferry service between Yarmouth and Maine is creating some accidental tourists in New Brunswick.

People who thought they'd get to Nova Scotia on The Cat from Bar Harbour – are driving north to Saint John.

Saint John isn't exactly where Trisha Lyons and Lisa Kimble of Virginia expected to be Tuesday waiting in line for the Fundy Rose to bring them from Saint John to Digby.

"We originally had booked The Cat ferry out of Bar Harbour," Kimble said. "I think mostly for the efficiency, but the fun of it, and then heard it was delayed and might be cancelled."

With the ferry still not in service, their booking did end up being cancelled just a few days ago.

"We had probably like many people, thought about getting to Bar Harbour and then getting to Nova Scotia," said Lyons. "There wasn't a sense of getting into Canada or through Canada it was sort of, let's get to Nova Scotia as soon as possible."

They're not the only ones to find themselves unexpectedly in New Brunswick's port city. A couple New Yorkers headed to Nova Scotia's South Shore and were also originally booked on the cat ferry.

"It makes sense to go through Yarmouth and then just head on up to the South Shore there," said Bob Chase. "This way we have to go up and around and down."

"We stayed last night in Bangor instead of just going to Bar Harbor and staying on a ferry," said Blythe Chase.

A statement from Bay Ferries says that so far about 52 per cent of those who had their reservations cancelled are instead travelling aboard the Fundy Rose -- and that's having an impact on the hotel industry in Saint John.

"We're up actually 8.1 per cent over last year," said Paulette Hicks, the president of the Saint John Hotel Association.

She says this June there was a lot of growth, some of which can be attributed to ferry traffic.

"We are seeing more visitors certainly from the Fundy Rose, but also from major events," Hicks said.

No new reservations are being taken for the cat at this time.

And at this point there still isn't a definitive date for when the ferry between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth will be back up and running, though Bay Ferries says the earliest it could start again is somewhere around the late summer.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Laura Lyall.