US immigration at Vancouver

[martincath]

You're welcome, and I'm happy to have opened your eyes to the alternatives.

We aren't spending a lot for it, looks a little over 100.00 for both of us, to and from the ship.

The total amount may be negligible to you, but to put it in different but still cruise-related terms... if you went to dinner in Crown Grill and were billed $49pp for a nice table, decent service, and a well-cooked meal - but the folks next to you paid $29pp, got a window table, bigger steaks, and were served faster than you by the waitrons - would you still be happy with the value you received?

 

I'm sure there are other ports where cruiseline transfers offer better value - but with the short distance, multiple options, lack of a language barrier, and cabbies even taking USD cash as well as credit cards, Vancouver is the ideal opportunity to save money without extra risks by going independent. You can put the savings toward an extra Crown Grill dinner each - or having lunch in town while you wait for the queues at the pier to die down;-)

[jonyboy]

Well in that case the next best advice is to cancel your transfers with HAL. They are overpriced to the point of criminality (seriously - if their degree of overpricing was instead on interest rates rather than a service, they'd be guilty of Usury and facing charges!) and offer neither time savings (in fact, quite the opposite) nor quality enhancements. You have to do more luggage schlepping with a transfer than by paying a porter yourself, you have to wait for buses to fill, and even if you get super-lucky and nobody else is booked around the time you are so they give you a cab voucher, you have to speak to their desk monkeys to get that voucher instead of just walking right out into the cab queue!

 

On arrival, grab your bags and head straight for ground transportation. If it's getting close to boarding time, pay extra for limos if that queue is shorter. There are fixed walk-up rates for regular cabs ($35) and limos (start at ~$70 incl tax & tip for a towncar, goes up to about double that for a Stretch that seats 8+). Even just two of you can pay for a cab EACH and spend the same as the HAL transfer costs (which are in USD...) Hire a skycap right at the luggage claim if you need help with bags and they'll take you right to the trunk of the vehicle and load it for you - then repeat on the other end, where it's actually free to have your bags handled (signs are up that even tipping is not necessary).

 

The ship will NOT wait for you, regardless if you have HAL transfers or not. Vancouver departure times are dictated by the tides - there are extremely treacherous waters that cannot be safely traveled except at slack tide (in-between high and low) on the Inside Passage, so while there is some padding on exact departure times (they can sail a bit faster on the more open parts and catch up to schedule) there are absolute zero guarantees that the ship will be able to wait for anyone (and check your fine print - despite the common misconception, booking through the line means nothing - they don't guarantee you being able to board, only best efforts to get you to the next port...) If enough pax are late that their profits will be impacted (no onboard spending if you aren't onboard!) they'll certainly hold it as long as they can, but there are limits...

 

If you've checked other info already given, then you know all there is to know I'm afraid. There is no way to avoid the queues except to get there before they build or after they drop - and a same-day flight makes the former an unlikely option unless you are scheduled for a 9am arrival or earlier. I'm in the 'be as late as possible' camp myself - just be sure you do turn up to check in at least 90mins before the ship is supposed to leave, and if your flight is late do not assume they know! Travel with the contact info, and CALL them as soon as you are allowed to turn your phones on - if many people are in the same boat (pardon the pun) then they'll already be pushing back departure as long as they can (in which case, taking your own cab and beating the HAL bus makes it MORE likely you will actually get onboard...)

 

We are doing the land/sea with HAL. We fly to ANC, go to Denali then cruise. The transfer package with HAL was $44 per person. It includes transportation from airport to hotel, hotel to train, train station to hotel in Denali, bus to Seward and from ship to airport in Vancouver. I don't think $44 each is at all out of line

[wolfie11]

Pettyfan, arriving at 10am is a good cushion of time. I wouldn’t worry about it and just proceed with your present plans. Saving $20 on your transfer at this stage of the game is not worth the hassle of trying to change everything. Personally, it’s worth it to me when I fly into a strange airport in a foreign country to see the cruise line agents with their signs and know everything will be taken care of from then on....

 

Martincath - Waitrons? Really? Is that how you think about the men and women who work long hours every day to serve you, often going out of their way to accommodate special needs or diets?

[roothy123]

We just got to Vancouver airport an hour ago saturday am on a 3 ship day. Ship stopped in prince Rupert Canada so no Canadian immigration on ship or n airport today. Easy no wait visits to airline AK Airlines, bag drop, 15 minutes at security, then 5 for u.s. Got off ship 7:40 got to gate 9.15. But I hear times can vary.

[martincath]

We are doing the land/sea with HAL. We fly to ANC, go to Denali then cruise. The transfer package with HAL was $44 per person. It includes transportation from airport to hotel, hotel to train, train station to hotel in Denali, bus to Seward and from ship to airport in Vancouver. I don't think $44 each is at all out of line

If you got all of that for $44pp, that sounds like great value. Especially considering that the normal HAL price is $29 for each leg here in Vancouver (yes, they do bill people $29 for a transfer from hotel to pier, even when the hotel IS DIRECTLY ABOVE THE PIER!!!)

[martincath]

Martincath - Waitrons? Really? Is that how you think about the men and women who work long hours every day to serve you, often going out of their way to accommodate special needs or diets?

You're obviously unfamiliar with the terminology - it's a term used within the restaurant/bar industry that is both entirely gender-neutral and without the lower-class-person-doing-stuff-for-their-betters connotation that 'server' has to many. Still not hugely wide-spread, but it is growing. I first heard it years ago from a self-described waitron, loved it, and have tried to use it ever since.

 

Despite your assumption, which I can understand as it does have the ring of a robotic/machine type word to it so could be construed as seeing the service staff as just tools for delivering food, it is actually a deliberately-chosen word for reasons of respect rather than a demeaning term. I have yet to hear anyone doing the job respond to being referred to as a waitron with anything other than amusement or a 'light-bulb' realization that this is the word that was missing from their lives, usually both if they've never heard it before.

 

We're extremely popular clients in all of our regular joints, to the point of being hugged by staff who literally only know us from our dining experiences rather than being friends outside work - and it's not because we are lavish with tips, but simply because we treat them consistently, fairly, and as fellow human beings. We tip as is socially-appropriate for our location, but first and foremost treat our waitrons as people - if they give their name or wear a badge, I use their name and try to remember it for future visits. If they screw up, I explain why rather than just cutting the tip. If they perform better than expected, I thank them specifically for the over & above service and bump the tip up some.

 

I also like to pop my head into the kitchen and thank the crew there for any particularly interesting dishes (after checking they're not too busy first) and I also ensure that a problem with the food is addressed to the kitchen staff and/or management, not the waitrons who just bring it, not cook it. Since all the other roles in bars & restos - Cook, Chef, Sommelier, Runner, Busser, Bar-back, Bartender, Manager, Supervisor, Dishwasher and even Host - are safely gender-neutral and without class-centric words involved in their titles, it's always been odd to me that Server came in to replace Waiter/Waitress in the popular vernacular when the trend of de-gendering work roles began as it seemed a step backwards in reinforcing class division.

 

Sorry to wax philosophical, just went through some trans-gender awareness training on names & terminology so it's been front & centre in the old gray matter for the last few days I guess!

[Alaska0799]

It's been many years since we cruised out of Vancouver and I'm assuming procedures may have changed since then. If we opt for independent transfer from hotel to ship terminal the day of departure, will Princess relieve us of our checked luggage upon arrival at the terminal? Or does it have to accompany us through immigration process? We're hoping to arrive before 11am.

 

We'll appreciate any input that is offered!

[martincath]

It's been many years since we cruised out of Vancouver and I'm assuming procedures may have changed since then. If we opt for independent transfer from hotel to ship terminal the day of departure, will Princess relieve us of our checked luggage upon arrival at the terminal? Or does it have to accompany us through immigration process? We're hoping to arrive before 11am.

 

We'll appreciate any input that is offered!

You can schlep it through with you if you like, but what 99.9% of people do is to drop it with the longshoremen yourself - you'll see signs indicating which side of the pier your ship is on (assuming there's more than one), and you can actually walk up to the guy who loads the conveyor belt that takes the luggage down to that berth. Leave it with him and you have zero chance of it getting put on the wrong ship!

[jonyboy]

Curious now. We end our cruise at Vancouver and have a flight out of YYR. I assume we go through US customs somewhere in Vancouver. Is that at the pier or in the airport? Is it also a lengthy unorganized process?

[new_cruiser]

You'll have to do Canadian immigration & customs first at the pier (usually forms are completed onboard and handed in at the front desk, so the actual interaction with CBSA is very minimal for non-Canadian residents, especially if you are just 'passing through' to the airport). Exact time depends on how quickly you get off the ship though... first folks, mere seconds, but if you're fighting with thousands of fellow pax from 4 ships all docking about the same time queues obviously build!

 

At airport, you will do US immigration & customs - since the kiosks went in a few years back it's the Security queue that is the longest one usually, not CBP (unlike at the pier, there is a ton of space, lots of kiosks, and plenty of staff). Again - if you beat your fellow cruisers there, queues will be short (maybe even less than 10mins) but if you arrive after the hordes, you could find that you actually do need the recommended-by-YVR 3 hours pre-flight...

 

In short, without knowing your exact date, how many other ships are in port, which disembarkation group you get, whether you are mobile enough to take SkyTrain (which has a consistent 26min travel time, whereas cab drive time is 30mins+ and the cab queues vary from zero to over an hour wait time on busy days), it's impossible to give you an accurate idea of your delays. If all goes well you could be off your ship at 7:30am and at your gate within an hour - or it could be a 4+ hour timeframe from deck to gate if you get stuck among the biggest queues on a 3+ ship day.

If you have Global Entry or Nexus and show your card at the entry to Security ay YVR, you can use the Nexus line (similar to TSA Pre check).

 

Last Friday, I left my hotel room at 6 AM, checked out, caught a cab & was through to the YVR concourse at 7 AM.

 

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[bUU]

Curious now. We end our cruise at Vancouver and have a flight out of YYR. I assume we go through US customs somewhere in Vancouver. Is that at the pier or in the airport?

As you depart the ship you are entering Canada so you will go through Canadian customs. As you board your flight to the United States you are entering the United States and so as you enter the departures concourse you will go through United States customs.

 

 

This message may have been drafted using voice recognition. Please forgive any typos.

[Alaska0799]

You can schlep it through with you if you like, but what 99.9% of people do is to drop it with the longshoremen yourself - you'll see signs indicating which side of the pier your ship is on (assuming there's more than one), and you can actually walk up to the guy who loads the conveyor belt that takes the luggage down to that berth. Leave it with him and you have zero chance of it getting put on the wrong ship!

 

Such helpful information! Will inquire about the berth and head to the conveyor belt :D

[jonyboy]

As you depart the ship you are entering Canada so you will go through Canadian customs. As you board your flight to the United States you are entering the United States and so as you enter the departures concourse you will go through United States customs.

 

 

This message may have been drafted using voice recognition. Please forgive any typos.

 

Makes sense, thank you

[new_cruiser]

It is much less common, but for Windstar Star Legend, we just walked off the ship - there was no customs or immigration in Vancouver.

 

Our cruise had a port stop in Prince Rupert. We were given a customs for to fill out & return to reception ahead of time. Reception was also holding our passports. The paperwork was checked when we docked in Prince Rupert. Then we were cleared to visit the port.

 

 

 

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[roothy123]

It is much less common, but for Windstar Star Legend, we just walked off the ship - there was no customs or immigration in Vancouver.

 

Our cruise had a port stop in Prince Rupert. We were given a customs for to fill out & return to reception ahead of time. Reception was also holding our passports. The paperwork was checked when we docked in Prince Rupert. Then we were cleared to visit the port.

 

 

 

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That was our experience as well, on Oceania Regatta (smallish ship), after doing the Canadian customs form prior to our stop in Prince Rupert. There were no formalities in the Port of Vancouver - just get your bags and walk off. I have no idea if that's what other cruisers experience, but I assume it depends upon whether you have visited a Canadian port before arriving in Vancouver. At Vancouver airport, we simply showed our passports to Alaska Airlines and went through the other things - dropped our checked bags off at a place nearby, then security, then U.S. immigration/customs check in lieu of doing it in Seattle. Everything was SO easy. Of course, we got to the airport sometime between 8:30 and 9 on a Saturday, which might have been a good time to go; not sure.