Vancouver Arrival

[Mobi Cruiser]

From a HAL newbie. We are due to arrive in Vancouver on-board Oosterdam at (scheduled) 8:00am on 10 May 2015. The ship is scheduled out at 5:00pm on the same day on a 7 dayer one way to Alaska. There is a 7 day round trip Princess cruise going out from Seattle at 5:00pm on the same day that looks very tempting for us. My questions are:-

1 Does the ship arrive at the Canada Place Pier?

2 When they state an 8:00am arrival do they mean they start letting passengers disembark at that time, as in our experience most ships are well and truly tied up by that time?

3 Quick Shuttle have a bus scheduled out at 9:00am exclusively for cruise ship passengers. Is there enough time to transit Customs and Immigration and collect bags to make that bus?

 

I know it looks a bit tight and any help would be appreciated. We have a hold on the Princess cabin until Monday 6th when I will have to shell out some Bugs Bunny to secure it.

[Bill B]

1 Does the ship arrive at the Canada Place Pier?

Usually... unless it is shifted to Balantine Pier.

 

 

2 When they state an 8:00am arrival do they mean they start letting passengers disembark at that time, as in our experience most ships are well and truly tied up by that time?

Usually they mean 8:00 AM arrival... unless they arrive earlier (or later).

 

 

3 Quick Shuttle have a bus scheduled out at 9:00am exclusively for cruise ship passengers. Is there enough time to transit Customs and Immigration and collect bags to make that bus?

Usually... if the ship is not late arriving; and you arrange to be in the first disembarkation group & take your own luggage.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I would not take the chance that the ship will be cleared by the local authorities right away. 9 AM is a bit risky to catch.

[Roz]

I've been able to use the 9:15 am Quick Shuttle on 3 cruises, and I didn't do self-disembark. If customs and immigration is backed up, Quick Shuttle is aware of it, and will delay leaving if they're missing a bunch of pre-booked passengers. Twice I got off in enough time for them to put me on the 9:00 am shuttle.

 

Roz

[whyyz]

I would not take the chance that the ship will be cleared by the local authorities right away. 9 AM is a bit risky to catch.

 

 

Keep in mind that the ships usually tie up at 7am at Canada Place, and are cleared to start discharging guests at 8am. The Quick shuttle coach is in the bus bays at the terminal, the same ones used for the HAL transfers. The Early Quickshuttle departure is designed specifically for guests coming off the ship, and HAL doesn't let Quick or others use the bus bays until their own transfers have loaded. Quickshuttle maintains a manifest to send ahead to US customs, and will wait for reasonable delays coming off the ship.

[Roz]

That has been my experience, whyyz. I used quick shuttle a few wks. ago, and it was going on 10 am before we left Canada Place. They were somewhat disorganized inside the terminal, and disembarkation was slow.

 

Roz

[Mobi Cruiser]

Keep in mind that the ships usually tie up at 7am at Canada Place, and are cleared to start discharging guests at 8am. The Quick shuttle coach is in the bus bays at the terminal, the same ones used for the HAL transfers. The Early Quickshuttle departure is designed specifically for guests coming off the ship, and HAL doesn't let Quick or others use the bus bays until their own transfers have loaded. Quickshuttle maintains a manifest to send ahead to US customs, and will wait for reasonable delays coming off the ship.

Thank you all for the replies. I'm usually pretty conservative with transfers and connections. A couple of years ago we missed a flight from Seattle to San Fran because of poor weather coming up the west coast and a delayed arrival. Given we have 5 sea days before our Vancouver arrival there should be ample time to alter course/speed etc to compensate. Also if we are delayed there is a reasonable chance the conditions would also affect the arrival of Ruby Princess into Seattle, it's only a left or right turn at Vancouver Island.

I tried getting info about HAL booked transfers but there isn't much detail on their website and I don't want to commit with few details. Obviously 'Quick Shuttle' are a bit flexible with their 9:00am departure time to accommodate glitches that may occur. If we were to miss the 9:00am bus can we use the same tickets on the 9:15am one? I reckon if we make it to the downtown Seattle drop off point around 2:00pm we shouldn't have any worries as it looks pretty close to the Pier 91 and there shouldn't be too much traffic on Sunday arvo.

So today I'll get my travel card and book the Quick Shuttle and on Monday I'll plonk down the deposit for the Princess cruise. We would probably stayed on Oosterdam if it was doing a round trip and avoided the transit packing hassles, but you can't have everything.

[DaveOKC]

From a HAL newbie. We are due to arrive in Vancouver on-board Oosterdam at (scheduled) 8:00am on 10 May 2015. The ship is scheduled out at 5:00pm on the same day on a 7 dayer one way to Alaska. There is a 7 day round trip Princess cruise going out from Seattle at 5:00pm on the same day that looks very tempting for us. My questions are:-

1 Does the ship arrive at the Canada Place Pier?

2 When they state an 8:00am arrival do they mean they start letting passengers disembark at that time, as in our experience most ships are well and truly tied up by that time?

3 Quick Shuttle have a bus scheduled out at 9:00am exclusively for cruise ship passengers. Is there enough time to transit Customs and Immigration and collect bags to make that bus?

 

I know it looks a bit tight and any help would be appreciated. We have a hold on the Princess cabin until Monday 6th when I will have to shell out some Bugs Bunny to secure it.

 

If all goes as planned, you should be able to make this, HOWEVER - I notice that the Oosterdam is coming in directly from Hawaii, so it is possible that it could be late into Vancouver, which could really mess up your plans. Personally, I would not chance it.

 

One more thing - did you check with Quick Shuttle as to when their 2015 Summer schedule starts? For 2014 it started May 9, so you are cutting it close. Better be safe than sorry.

Edited October 2, 2014 by DaveOKC

[Mobi Cruiser]

If all goes as planned, you should be able to make this, HOWEVER - I notice that the Oosterdam is coming in directly from Hawaii, so it is possible that it could be late into Vancouver, which could really mess up your plans. Personally, I would not chance it.

 

One more thing - did you check with Quick Shuttle as to when their 2015 Summer schedule starts? For 2014 it started May 9, so you are cutting it close. Better be safe than sorry.

 

I've looked at the Quick Shuttle website and they don't have the Summer 2015 schedule out yet. Looking at both HAL and Princess sites things heat up for Alaska cruise season at the start of May so they should cover it then. I'm not too worried about the days at sea prior to our arrival as I'm sure the voyage will be adjusted to get around any weather. According to Ports.com the ship will have to average about 21-22 kts to arrive on schedule. We previously got caught by bad weather coming out of San Diego for Seattle on Celebrity Infinity and there is nowhere to go to avoid anything on a coastal run. It slowed our arrival by about 4 hours but made for a great arrival as we went down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I am going to keep looking at all the transfer options.

[Roz]

Just as an FYI, the drop off point in downtown Seattle isn't anywhere near Pier 91. It's the Best Western near the Space Needle. You will need to catch a cab from there.

 

Roz