What's the Issue with Embarking in Vancouver?

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

There were two ships in port on our embarkation day a couple weeks ago and we waited about 10 minutes. I think your experience was probably an aberration.

 

It may have been an aberration, but it's not something I care to take a chance on experiencing again. Vancouver is a lovely city, but I'm not sailing out of there ever again.

[Orator]

There were two ships in port on our embarkation day a couple weeks ago and we waited about 10 minutes. I think your experience was probably an aberration.

 

 

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Be careful when there are two ships in Port and their collecting baggage in the same area. My last cruise out of Vancouver was a TransPacific. At least 5 passengers did not get their luggage until Sitka the since it was delivered to the wrong ship.

[cruising cockroach]

Be careful when there are two ships in Port and their collecting baggage in the same area. My last cruise out of Vancouver was a TransPacific. At least 5 passengers did not get their luggage until Sitka the since it was delivered to the wrong ship.

 

Was that on the Millennium last year?

[cruising cockroach]

 

It should be noted that United States Customs preclearance isn't all that unusual. They are at many major airports in the Carribean' date=' Ireland, and UAE[/url'], plus the Victoria port for the car ferry.

 

FWIW, the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles only offers immigration pre-clearance before boarding. Customs clearance is on arrival in Port Angeles (just n case you buy more than your duty-free allowance on board).

[cruising cockroach]

From the comments, sounds like maybe there have been some improvements made. We purposely avoid embarkation in Vancouver as the last two times we did so, there were horrendous lines and nobody seemed to know what they were doing. On top of it all, the last time out, there were three ships in port and there were only two US immigration officers.

.

 

There was some ruckus in the U.S. government a few years ago. Budget or union or something. Not enough CBP/ICE/INS/Customs agents available as you experienced.

[Z'Loth]

FWIW, the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles only offers immigration pre-clearance before boarding. Customs clearance is on arrival in Port Angeles (just n case you buy more than your duty-free allowance on board).

 

Oh, yeah, forgot about that. I guess I was in too much of a hurry to start driving south to Westport, WA to the Westport Inn on my US-101 trip home.

[phoenix_dream]

I've sailed out of Vancouver a number of times and never had a big issue. We did have some wait time - I would say a total of 30 minutes at most. The Alaska itineraries from Vancouver are just so, so much better than those out of Seattle that I always pick that port instead. We have also sailed a coastal cruise from Vancouver - again no big issues. Several of these cruises were in the past few years.

 

I can't even imagine 4 hour wait times - ugh! I wonder what time of year that was? Perhaps June, July, or August? Our sailings were early in May or end of season in September. I would imagine that helps.

[Orator]

Was that on the Millennium last year?

Yes.

[vulcan1971]

We sailed Millennium in June. We had two nights in Vancouver prior to boarding. We had such fun in Vancouver...our vacation truly started well before our cruise officially began. We weren't in a hurry to get on the ship.

 

Millennium was the only ship in port. As others have said...there's the back and forth for check in. Upstairs for checking into the cruise...back downstairs to go through US immigration...then finally you can board. Canada Place was the easiest boarding experience we've ever had...probably because we waited until closer to 2 PM to board. Had a great morning in Vancouver and then breezed through all the lines and boarded with cabins ready and available.

 

The Sailaway from Vancouver was lovely!

 

Anita Latte - thanks for providing some details around when you started the boarding process; this was helpful.

[vulcan1971]

The same happens when flying out of Dublin. It’s actually quite useful as it saves time at the other end.

 

I fly between the US (either BOS or JFK) and Shannon, Ireland for work. Whenever I return home, I clear US Customs in the Shannon airport, which is quite easy.

 

I have a second home in Toronto and when I fly back to the US leaving through Lester B. Pearson International Airport (YYZ), I clear US customs in Toronto. Therefore, very easy to return to the US or make a connecting flight.

[clskinsfan]

I am glad my Eclipse cruise is a 10 nighter leaving on a Thursday after reading this thread! Yes. I did check the cruise calendar and we are the only ship in Vancouver that day.

[Travelcat2]

From the comments, sounds like maybe there have been some improvements made. We purposely avoid embarkation in Vancouver as the last two times we did so, there were horrendous lines and nobody seemed to know what they were doing. On top of it all, the last time out, there were three ships in port and there were only two US immigration officers. Whew ... we got through relatively quick compared to others. Our time waiting in lines was about 4 hours, some people waited well over 6 hours. There was an angry mob onboard by the time we set sail. Me? I grabbed that glass of champagne and put it all behind me but with lessons learned. Sail out of Seattle! That's just what I do now based on my past experiences ... but as mentioned, others make it seem as though it has improved. That gives me some hope.

 

Our experiences have been the same as yours. If we didn't live 50 miles from the Vancouver cruise port, we would never - ever depart from that port again! It was total madness.

 

Having said that, we are doing a "fun" cruise on Celebrity (definitely not our normal cruise line) next month - thankfully not to Alaska as we have done that too many times. Vancouver is a lovely city for those of you that have not been there before. While we dread embarking in Vancouver, it will be worth it to do a non-Alaska west coast cruise!

 

P.S. BarbarianPaul - Hi -- guess that you now know what "unnamed" cruise line that we're trying next month. Will be posting on the luxury board (our second try to see if we could have a luxury experience in a suite on a non-luxury cruise line). We did NCL in April which, so far, sounds better than Celebrity due to the private area that the Haven is in. Time will tell which is actually better.

[Cruise Raider]

There was some ruckus in the U.S. government a few years ago. Budget or union or something. Not enough CBP/ICE/INS/Customs agents available as you experienced.

 

This sounds like what we experienced, however, our most recent experience wasn't a few years ago ... it was last year. It was the first sailing up to Alaska out of Vancouver for the season. Aside from only having 2 US CBP / Immigration officers, nobody working at the port was aware of what they needed to do. No direction or control ... for disembarking passengers or embarking passengers. What a fiasco!! The ship's officers apologized to everyone onboard several times. Some people were still complaining about towards the end of the cruise. We certainly didn't let it negatively affect our cruise once onboard.

[Kartgv]

As a few others have mentioned, the problems seem to be when there are 3 ships in port. On our Sept.23, 2017 cruise from Vancouver >Hawaii>Vancouver was one of those days - it took us 2 hours to board, from the time that we entered the terminal until we were in our room. Our experience was much better than most that we talked to - there were many unhappy people onboard and there were some ugly temper flare-ups at the muster drill.

 

Our best move was booking the cruise package at the Pan Pacific Hotel the night before. We had a nice relaxed breakfast, called the bell desk when we were ready to head to the ship; it was an easy stroll to the boarding area, avoiding the outside traffic and luggage drop-off hassles.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Kartgv

[cruising cockroach]

I'm not sure who organises the gong show. Cruise lines or port authorities. 4 years ago HAL and Princess each had their own staff for helping with disembarkation and embarkation. A year later, the staff were combined/reduced into a Carnival corp contractor crew. The 2 INS inspectors was obviously a U.S. government issue (seems to be a shortage of employees according to the NYT). That, and as observed, seasonal staff and managers who didn't know what to do didn't help. Not sure if early season cruises are like that every year.

 

A 2-ship day late last season wasn't too bad except marching all around the terminal to check in (yes, walked from the land end quite a walk down, and then back a bit to check in, and then back to land side before heading towards the sea side to the security entrance near where we started the first place. With GE/Nexus, managed to skip the security line which was quite long, and then to a priority line for CBP so after checkin, the boarding process took less than 15 minutes for me.

 

A single-ship sailing 3 years before that was quite smooth. No pre-clearance for that one.

[SoCalTraveler]

We have embarked out of Vancouver (see Alaska cruise, in my list) as well as arrived at Canada Place with 4 ships in port. Embarking was the first time we used Global Entry for a cruise. Both embarkation and arrival were smooth. Our experience arriving in Vancouver with 4 ships in port could have been the fastest we have ever left a ship.

 

Flying home from Calgary was a breeze with Global Entry.

[sailingsusie]

I live in Vancouver and in the summer months it does get crazy down at Canada Place cruise port. I have sailed out of Vancouver twice, once the ship was late coming into port so the whole turn around thing was delayed. a little bit of a long wait but so worth it, you can not beat our views as you sail under the lions gate bridge. The second time we were sailing to Hawaii, we didn't wait any longer than any other cruise sailing from Miami, Long Beach, Galveston, etc The longest we have waited to board is in San Juan, we lined up for hours no chairs in exteme heat and humidity...but believe it or not we are giving them a second chance and we sail in October from there. I hope it is ok :)

[SoCalTraveler]

If you are delayed at Canada Place, give your luggage to the porters and wander to the end of the pier to experuence "Fly Over Canada." This is a great 4 or 5 dimensional ride (yes, your feet do not tough the ground) that is well worth doing.

[ccotting]

Staffing for US customs is the responsibility of the US Government. While the Canadian authorities and the cruise lines can provide feedback, it’s up to the US to determine it’s border management. As a native Vancouverite, I feel so sad when I read comments such as Linda’s about the wait to board the ship. It is a sign of a good relationship between countries to have this sort of arrangement and we can be grateful in general but it is trying to have long waits.

 

I have a feedback as a Canadian.... write your Congressman, not Cruise Critic. They have the influence.

[sailingsusie]

If you are delayed at Canada Place, give your luggage to the porters and wander to the end of the pier to experuence "Fly Over Canada." This is a great 4 or 5 dimensional ride (yes, your feet do not tough the ground) that is well worth doing.

 

 

Yes..Fly over Canada is fantastic!

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Staffing for US customs is the responsibility of the US Government. While the Canadian authorities and the cruise lines can provide feedback, it’s up to the US to determine it’s border management. As a native Vancouverite, I feel so sad when I read comments such as Linda’s about the wait to board the ship. It is a sign of a good relationship between countries to have this sort of arrangement and we can be grateful in general but it is trying to have long waits.

 

I have a feedback as a Canadian.... write your Congressman, not Cruise Critic. They have the influence.

 

Unfortunately our congress persons do not give a rip, which is why we have this mess in the first place. Three ships in port and two agents was absolute insanity! I still love coming to Canada and am thinking of another trip next fall. Was just there last fall. Just will not sail out of Canada Place again.

[ukestrummer]

Or is there one? I've read some random comments on CC regarding the hassle of going through customs prior to boarding when embarking in Vancouver. What are the specific hassles? Approximately how long does it take to get from curbside to ship? We're planning an Alaska cruise for next summer and I'm trying to determine which ship based on port of embarkation.

Thank you in advance.

Went through it this year, goes pretty fast, smooth, they are watching who goes into USA just like land crossings

[Z'Loth]

Unfortunately our congress persons do not give a rip, which is why we have this mess in the first place. Three ships in port and two agents was absolute insanity!

 

Yeah, and I'm the cynical one who says that as a government agency, they tend to cut out the most public facing and public visible personnel to emphasize the points. Those folks feel like pawns because Joe and Jane Traveler gets to feel the brunt of the outrage even though they are following the policies, procedures, and latest updates handed to them.

[BarbarianPaul]

Unfortunately our congress persons do not give a rip, which is why we have this mess in the first place. Three ships in port and two agents was absolute insanity! I still love coming to Canada and am thinking of another trip next fall. Was just there last fall. Just will not sail out of Canada Place again.

 

 

 

When we were there...two ships were in port in Canada Place...and I’d say there were about 8 agents. Who knows what happened the day you were there, but I sincerely doubt it’s the norm.

 

Cruise lines are very sensitive about the embarkation experience, I don’t think they would let a situation like that continue.

 

 

 

 

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[Banjo]

The same happens when flying out of Dublin. It’s actually quite useful as it saves time at the other end.

 

 

Same with Aruba and Bermuda airports.