Ferry_Watcher

Great advice re checking wait times at the various border crossings. Remember to have your passports ready, you also might consider having a printed copy of your ship boarding passes at-the-ready (just to show the Canadian Border Officers), and if you use your car for any hunting activities, make sure it is clear of any hunting equipment.

Equipment Pick-up outside terminal - In Seattle, the Scootaround rep will actually come into the terminal and ask a counter agent if a particular guest that has rented a Scootaround piece of equipment (and hasn't picked it up yet) has checked-in. If the passenger forgot, or accidently bypassed the scooter pick-up area, the Scootaround rep will get the scooter to the passenger on-board. Stateroom Delivery - The Scootarounds are usually delivered to the guest's stateroom mid morning. If you have reserved equipment, and you don't see it when you arrive at your stateroom, you should check with your stateroom attendant, then call the local Scootaround contact number.

Different ports have different methods. It could be the cruise line's decision, or the company that has the contract that manages the facility for the various cruise lines, or it could be the way the Customs and Border Protection folks want it. In Seattle, everyone gets into one of the 3-4 lines that leads to the CBP Officers, who look at whatever citizenship document that you used to get onto the ship. A vast majority of passengers use passports (and most of those are US passports, which makes it even easier), so the process is fairly quick.

I appreciate that, and I know that you have an understanding of what is needed to travel. It's all the other people that will give this a quick read and might assume Global Entry is enough documentation to get on a cruise ship. I work seasonally at a cruise port, and have dealt with passengers who will just show up with their Global Entry card, which would be a boarding denial (no passport or US birth certificate). So, probably 1/3 of my posts are to educate folks on what documents are needed for a closed loop cruise to Alaska, or the difference between an Enhanced DL and a Real ID driver's license. It's a never ending battle, but if I (and others) can prevent one person from being denied due to a simple document issue, then it is all worth it.

Please refrain for the Global Entry usage re cruise documents, as we don't want to confuse people about what traveling documents are required. For anyone wondering - a Global Entry card does not take the place of a passport, or if you are a US born citizen, your US gov't issued birth certificate.

Hopefully the hard working crew were rewarded with some well deserved time off. Thanks for letting us know!

Please be prepared for crazy I-5 traffic, especially if you are driving up on a Friday or Saturday (not sure if you have a Wed or a weekend departure). If you want to spend the night near Seattle, then Cedarbrook Lodge might be a good choice for you. https://www.cedarbrooklodge.com/ If you want to get a bit closer to Vancouver, then your idea of staying in Bellingham could be a good choice. If you want a fancier hotel closer to the border, then check out Semiahmoo: https://www.semiahmoo.com/ Just be prepared for the traffic on I-5, and at the border. Have your passports ready. Have a great cruise.

Less than 12 hours later, the Bliss sets off on time, on it's first sailing of the 2024 season to Alaska.

Here is the story - https://www.adn.com/opinions/2023/08/18/opinion-i-decided-to-give-an-alaska-cruise-a-try-then-i-got-fined/

You would think that, but for whatever reason, they don't. FYI, Royal and Celebrity use the same check-in system and basically the same equipment. And there are virtually no system wide problems during embarkation. And if something does happen, their IT people are right there working on it.

Carnival markets itself to more of the mass market, and needs to keep it's prices down. Unfortunately, budgets need to get cut somewhere to make this happen. (This is my own opinion).

I subscribe to the Atlantic, so I was able to read the entire article. The author spoke very highly of the crew and how hard they worked at their jobs. He enjoyed meeting and interacting with a number of older cruisers (mostly couples), who gave him the 'lowdown', and middle aged ladies (the pool ladies), who shared their thoughts on life, cruising, love, marriage, divorce, death, etc. His most unsettling interactions seem to include some adult males (30's - 40's), who could be both friendly or aggressive depending on how much alcohol they had, or if and when they viewed him as different (socially, politically, philosophically). At the same time, the author could be invisible to these males as they passed in the corridors, or he could be sneered at, depending on their whim. The WAGs with these guys demonstrated similar traits, but much more subtle. The author even reported a random guy in the elevator (kiddingly?) talking about getting rid of (by beating) the 'Washy-Washy' guy (crew member) - what normal adult would even say that aloud, or even think it? One interesting line was when the author was walking in Charlotte Amelia. He passed a Rastafarian who hissed "Redneck" at him. The author was silently taken aback, as he sees himself very differently. The Rastafarian made a judgment call about him - just on the basis of his perception of him. It made me realize that the author did go into the writing assignment with an open mind, especially when it came to his fellow travelers. Everyone is different, everyone has their own story. It would be nice to maybe listen a bit more than talking - and maybe we could find some common ground. The author began his article speaking about his 'booked at the last minute' $19K suite that the windows and balcony apparently looked out over the mall. He was really disheartened by this so he avoided going out on to his balcony. But, then, nearly at the end of his cruise: "A day or two before I got off the ship, I decided to make use of my balcony, which I had avoided because I thought the view would only depress me further. What I found shocked me. My suite did not look out on Central Park after all. This entire time, I had been living in the ship’s Disneyland, Surfside, the neighborhood full of screaming toddlers consuming milkshakes and candy. And as I leaned out over my balcony, I beheld a slight vista of the sea and surf that I thought I had been missing. It had been there all along. The sea was frothy and infinite and blue-green beneath the span of a seagull’s wing. And though it had been trod hard by the world’s largest cruise ship, it remained."

I work at Pier 91 in Seattle. A few years back (pre-pandemic) there was a 5/6 day end of the season coastal cruise from Vancouver to Los Angeles. The day before the Vancouver sailing, there was a 1 night Seattle to Vancouver on the very same ship. Even though it was "2" different sailings, I could not board the ship in Seattle to sail to Vancouver. I actually had to take Amtrak up to Vancouver to board the ship the next day.

Of course pier side staff would keep you altogether. And if you personally didn't have priority, staff would have directed your traveling party of 3 to the ADA line due to the (your word) handicapped individual that you were traveling with.

Hi @CruiserBruce, It's a 7 day Alaska round trip. It was on a coastal cruise this past week ending in Vancouver yesterday. I am not sure if they had offered a 1 night cruise Vancouver - Seattle last night (April 5th), or whether it sailed to Seattle empty. Arriving in Seattle after 7 AM is late for any ship, so maybe the crew had a one day break before the start of the Alaska season.

This would make sense - that your particular cruise (first of the season) usage of Port Valet was cancelled. With just one ship in port and so early in the season, SeaTac is still at it's typical passenger levels. Later in the season (end of April early May) we will see the number of passengers increasing at SeaTac, and I am guessing that Port Valet will be in full swing. The reverse will be true for those late Sept and all October sailings - we will see Port Valet not being offered.

This is my personal opinion: Carnival, in order to keep their cruise fares low, has not in invested in the infrastructure needed. Their equipment tends to be heavy and clunky. Compared to other cruise lines, their internet connection from ship to shore equipment is more likely to break down. They are less likely to have on-site support staff inside the terminal to assist immediately when the ship to shore WiFi goes down, which IMO, causes unnecessary delays, (and this is when the long lines begin to form). We almost never have problems with equipment breakdowns with the other cruise lines. (Note - Each ship has it's own check-in equipment. Every morning the ship's IT personnel unloads and sets up their equipment for the terminal staff to use. Each afternoon, the equipment is packed up and returned to the ship. To their credit, Carnival was one of the first cruise lines to introduce the hand-held check-i devices, that really changed the speed of the check-in process. But, if there are ship to shore equipment communication problems, then everything comes to a standstill. There are other ways that Carnival has cut costs. For example, passengers arriving after 2 PM will need to carry their own luggage on board, because Carnival sends the Longshore porters home exactly at 2 PM. The terminal doors stay open until 3:20 PM, but starting at 2 PM there are no porters.

Welcome to NCL Bliss. This morning, just before 7 AM, my spouse asks, 'why is there a cruise ship sailing by?' I quickly looked at the Port of Seattle Cruise Schedule (which is sitting next to my desk), and I realized it was the Bliss. I grabbed my phone and took this photo from my deck. Looking forward to the Cruise Season (and getting back to work at Pier 91).

You should be able to make your flight. The RCI Quantum (4,900+ passengers) will be disembarking at Pier 91 on Mondays as well. It would be best if you did carry off your own luggage and get yourself to SeaTac. The taxi and Uber/Lyft car are just outside the terminal doors. Summer airline travel at SeaTac is quite high, and Mondays are also a busy day for business travelers.

I work at the pier in Seattle. Usually when there are reports of really long lines it is due to two different situations. Either the ship isn't ready to start boarding passengers (and the waiting area inside the terminal is past capacity). Or, that the non-updated equipment that Carnival uses, has broken down and the check-in tablets/computers are not linking to the ship. Sometimes when there are very long lines, passengers that are "priority", i.e. it is printed on their boarding pass, those folks may be pulled out of line and there will be an effort to check them in asap. But, if the WiFi between the ship and the check-in equipment is down, then it is still 'hurry up and wait" for everyone.

I believe what happened is that the passenger who was removed from the ship was a Chinese national, but was also a US Permanent Resident (Green Card holder). I am guessing that she was traveling with her US citizen husband. When the couple looked into the visa requirements for Argentina, they saw that US citizens just need an electronic visa, and they may have assumed (or were told by a TA) that the same applied for a US Permanent Resident (Green Card holder). However, despite being a US Permanent Resident, Argentina required Chinese passport holders to have an actual visitor visa in their passport (the type that you need to apply for and send in your passport to have the full page visa affixed to a your passport). So sadly for that passenger, there was no easy fix for this document snafu.

Any idea what the cost benefit is to do a GTY Interior stateroom over choosing your own? Flying in the day of the cruise does save on spending the night in a hotel, plus meals. Are you saving a vacation day as well (assuming that you are still working)? Have you figured out your overall savings? Wishing you a wonderful cruise. Hopping that the ship isn't full, and you are upgraded to an OV or better. Keep us updated.

Yes, but if we allowed expired passports to be used as proof of citizenship, why would anyone renew their passport? You could be using a 40 yr old passport with a photo of your 18 yr old self. Or, maybe a super old passport that doesn't have the embedded chip that the machines can read. Interestingly, we use to see more folks challenging documents (like trying to use expired passports) pre-pandemic, than we see today. Not sure if those folks are just not traveling, or got put off traveling because some of the 'health' documents needed to board (2021-22), or whatever reason. At the pier, we also don't take the time to engage with the debate, as there are about 75 people behind you wanting to get on the cruise ship. Rather than have a typical pier-side agent engage, the challenging passenger is walked over to the documentation area, away from the general embarking area. Those folks have the time and resources to engage - and have the final word.

Honestly, unless something seemed 'off', I don't know how I would recognize a fake visa, especially a well crafted one. One time I was looking at a Canadian Visa, and something made me pause, and I brought to to my supervisor who said it was fine. I think what is was that I was so use to seeing the typical 'visitor' visa, that when I saw a different type (immigrant or employment visa), it just struck me a different, or for me, 'off'. Anyway, the supervisor said it was fine and I embarked the passenger. It's always good to check. On a slightly different note, one day I was checking documents at the terminal entrance, and a older solo man handed me his US passport. As soon as he put it in my hand, I knew that something was off. Turns out it was an older (expired) passport and it had fewer pagers than current passports, so when I had my 'something is off' reaction, it was because the passport felt lighter. He had never renewed his passport, but he was challenging me that even though it was expired, it still proved that he was a citizen. He got walked over to the document area. Later, I followed up with the document supervisor about the man, and she said that he had his US birth certificate all along, and he was just being obstinate. He sailed using his US birth certificate.

Assuming that your cruise isn't the very first visit of the season, 7:30 AM if you are carrying off your own bags should be fine.