KiwiGal117

It does! We are in 5186 on the 21 September sailing. Thanks for replying.

Were you in a balcony cabin? If so, did you have electric sockets on both sides of the bed? Hubby and I both have CPAP machines. I've ordered an extension cord through HAL, but they say it is first come first served, so we might want to bring our own.

💯😍 Delicious! Amazing sandwich. At least it was pre-pandemic. Not sure if they have lowered the quality lately.

This is just a guess, but perhaps Door Dash doesn't deliver to hotels? Or, at least that hotel? We have had that issue before, but have worked our way around it by meeting the delivery person in the lobby. The hotel might be able to enlighten you as perhaps it is due to their policy, rather than Door Dash.

Excellent, thanks for the advice. I am actually going to YVR in a couple of weeks just to visit (cruise is September). I have a good friend who lives there, so spend quite a bit of time there (or at least I did pre-pandemic) so it's not totally necessary for us to maximize our time in the city. We are going on HAL and the departure time has been moved up to 4pm, so I expect it's going to be a bit of a zoo as it will be compacting the embarkation slightly. It appears there are two ships embarking that day, and one there on a port stop, so maybe the mayhem will be slightly less. Fingers crossed.

Hello! I searched the forum, but did not find an answer. Does Canada Place have Global Entry/NEXUS for clearing US immigration before embarking; and likewise for disembarking and reentering Canada at the end of a cruise? Also, any tips for managing the mayhem at Canada Place? We are staying at the Fairmont Waterfront the night before, so hope to hand off our luggage to the bellhops there who apparently will deliver it directly to the longshoremen at Canada Place. TIA...

Doh! Thanks for providing correct information!!

I nominate this for the Best Tip of the Week Award! Thank you!

All of the drug store chains in Canada offer tests for travel purposes. You need to book an appointment though. So if these other places don't pan out, try Shoppers Drug Mart, Rexall, or possibly London Drugs (this latter one is a local BC chain, so I'm not sure if they offer testing). You can choose a location close to your hotel and book a time. These aren't that scary in that they only offer testing for travel purposes, so not hordes of infected people hanging around. It's C$40 last time I checked.

Traffic can be brutal in Vancouver - no highways into the City - it's all surface roads. Honestly the train is more consistent, depending on traffic and time of day.

I can't answer all of your questions, but: You'll need to show your US passport to get into Canada, and have completed the ArriveCan info which will be attached to your reservation. Unless you carry a different passport you don't need a visa. From my experience, and what has been reported here, you don't actually have to show it, as it will be in their computers as you fill in your passport information on the ArriveCan app. Once through, you can take the train from the airport to Canada Place (last stop so you can't miss it). It does take about 36 minutes, and you may need to wait a bit for a train - not long - maybe 5 to 10 minutes. One more thing- there is a pause on random covid testing at the airports now. Hopefully that will still the case when you travel. That should help the flow of travellers through Immigration. Sorry I haven't yet checked in for an Alaska cruise at Canada Place, so I don't know what the passport line is like. It may depend on how many ships are sailing that day. What time is your all aboard time?

What time is your flight out of Toronto? It has been my recent experience, and those of friends, that the early morning is a big problem, but later in the day - no worries. You sail right through... I'd still arrive early and be happy to belly up to a bar or have some lunch if you have time to kill.

Yes, I think you would either have to take the train to Montreal, then connect through Vancouver. Or, fly Quebec City to Toronto and then a direct flight to Seattle. While Toronto Pearson is a nightmare at times, the upside is you will clear US customs in Toronto through a dedicated in-transit passenger line, and remain "airside" at all times. Your luggage will be checked all the way through to Seattle. Now - Porter (mentioned above) does fly to Midway in Chicago, so that could be an option if you can get flights from Midway to Seattle (I assume so, but never tried, so I'm not sure). But you would have to connect at the Toronto Island airport - so two connections - and would clear US customs in Chicago. I haven't done that post-Covid, but it is a fairly straightforward process as there are few international flights into Midway.

I too am new to HAL. We recently booked an Alaskan cruise and chose the "Have it all" package which includes the signature drinks package, Wifi, a $100 shorex credit, a dinner at a specialty dining restaurant. We also got a $50 OBC as that was an incentive at the time of booking. It ended up being about $1200 extra for the two of us (so $600 pp) over the cost of the basic cruise. I always prefer not having to fuss with signing receipts and seeing surprises on the onboard account at the end. Not sure if this is useful for you, but thought I'd mention it!

I was just over on the RCI boards, and they don't seem to be having the same issues. Or at least there doesn't seem to be reports of issues in the first few pages of the boards.

Hi everyone: I'm new to HAL - having only cruised on Royal before (a number of times, so not new to cruising, just to HAL). I have some questions I am hoping can be answered (I have done a ton of research on here, and YouTube, but not finding the answers I am looking for): 1) how many electrical outlets are there in a VB cabin? 2) are there USB ports, if so where? 3) how is the WIFI - I will need to work a bit each day, is it better to go to the business centre? We have booked 5186 aft cabin. 4) for the day that the ship is at Tracey Arm/Juneau - has anyone successfully done the Tracey Arm excursion, then made it back to Juneau to do a whale watching excursion? Is that too much in one day? 5) Does HAL assign boarding times or is it a matter of showing up when you want? 6) any other tips or observations that you feel would be helpful to a first timer?? Thanks in advance.