Boarding in Vancouver

[greatnitz]

Hello,

 

Heading our on the Noordam this weekend for a northbound Alaskan cruise.   What is everyone's recommendation on when we should show up at the port in order to board?   Also, about what time does the luggage usually get delivered?

 

Thank you!

 

Darren

[quilty964]

We just returned from our Alaska adventure.  We left our hotel around 11 am and walked to Canada Place.  There were a lot of people already there at the port.  We've never cruised before, so didn't know that to expect...there was "quite the process" to get on board.  I didn't check the times, but all went smoothly.  I don't remember how long it took to get our luggage, not too long.  Sorry I'm not much help, but have a great time!  Our land/sea adventure was great!  We were on the Westerdam! 

[oceanmom]

We found getting on the ship in Vancouver BC was not the easiest embarkation experience (sent hither and yon all over the building) but getting off was so easy. Wish it had been the other way around.

[Crew News]

Just returned from Alaska after departing in Vancouver. 

 

There were already hundreds of passengers in line when I arrived at 10:30.  So, my recommendation is to drop off luggage around 10:00 and join the queue for passenger check-in.  It must be noted that we preocessed through the HAL check-in counters BEFORE we went through the Security checkpoint.

 

Boarding started promptly at 11:30 for those with mobility issues, followed by suite guests, then general boarding at around 11:50 AM.

 

If you arrive a little after 10:00 AM, you will be in the first group of general boarding and have a great table in the Lido Market for lunch before noon.

[sppunk]

In late May we arrived at Canada Place around 10:15 and were onboard by 11:10. It was the easiest embarkation we have ever had. 

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

2 hours ago, sppunk said:

In late May we arrived at Canada Place around 10:15 and were onboard by 11:10. It was the easiest embarkation we have ever had. 

 

Same for me on the 12th June . I think we were both on the Volendam. I arrived at 10:35 and was on the ship at 11am. I was told that the hotel director wanted people off as fast as possible so the embarks could get on early. This was the earliest I had ever embarked HAL ship in 35 cruises on HAL. Disembark started 15 minutes after lines were tied. No fooling around on the Volendam.

[terrydtx]

We will be on the Noordam July 21st thanks for all the information.

[przyk]

We will be embarking on the Westerdam Aug 11th.  My thought is once the boarding starts lines may move quicker.  On the other hand I don't know if more people arrive later and the que continually builds. Any thoughts about arriving around 11:30 ish just as boarding hopefully starts? 

[grest]

A couple of weeks ago we boarded the Westerdam in  Vancouver.  Arrived about 9:45.  Well organized, some waiting.  Luggage arrived around 12:30.

[Cruising-along]

I felt sorry for anyone embarking the Westerdam on June 2.  We were disembarking that day, and it was after 10:00 before they even got everyone off.  Very s l o w.  

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, Cruising-along said:

I felt sorry for anyone embarking the Westerdam on June 2.  We were disembarking that day, and it was after 10:00 before they even got everyone off.  Very s l o w.  

 

It seems that the Westerdam has very good Room Stewards.  I boarded on June 2 at exactly 11:30 and my room was ready.  There was an announcement during boarding that the rooms would not be ready until 11:45 AM but during my stroll to my stateroom, I saw no rooms in the cleaning process or Room Stewards in the hallways.

 

It is the normal process in Vancouver to not open the Security line until all passengers have left the ship.  On June 2, the terminal processed all of the passengers through HAL Check-in BEFORE pushing our carry-on luggage throught the Security scanners.  This was very abnormal in my many cruises through the Vancouver terminal and would be a nice change to get passengers processed and onboard in spite of the "stragglers" not departing the ship before 10:00 AM.

 

Since Security is on the bottom floor of the terminal, I checked-in upstairs with HAL, went downstairs to Security, and then back upstairs to the waiting area with a lot of walking.

 

Arriving at the terminal a bit after 10:00 AM gets you aboard in time for a leisurely lunch before your luggage arrives.

[Cruising-along]

7 minutes ago, Crew News said:

It seems that the Westerdam has very good Room Stewards.

Totally agree.  They were great.  Many of us did get out of our cabins so they could get in there to clean, so that helped.  We could have disembarked much earlier (4-star) but we were traveling with friends on their first cruise so stayed behind with them on the Lido deck.  Their number wasn't called until almost 10:00.  Then there was a 90-minute wait at the border driving home, but that's another story!  😁

[przyk]

23 hours ago, przyk said:

We will be embarking on the Westerdam Aug 11th.  My thought is once the boarding starts lines may move quicker.  On the other hand I don't know if more people arrive later and the que continually builds. Any thoughts about arriving around 11:30 ish just as boarding hopefully starts? 

 

Just bumping my question to see if I can get any input.  I see that most of the people responding here are advocates of early boarding, but I'm considering arriving around 11:30.  We will be staying near the Port the night before, so transportation is not an issue.  And we do want to enjoy lunch and have a look around before embarkation.  I guess I'm really wondering if lines are likely to continue to build throughout the morning or might there be a lull after the early rush?

[DougK]

I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules about timing, but I think you're risking it with an 11:30 arrival. We were on a Princess cruise in May, arrived somewhere around 11:45, and it took us about two hours to embark. The problem wasn't with the check-in, it was with security and customs, where there were huge backups. Maybe it was an unusual day, but I wouldn't count on it. My guess is that customs lines don't evaporate until very late in the process, at least on busy days. I was there on a day with 3 ships in port, with a total of about 5500 passengers. You only have two ships, but still about 4800 passengers, so I'm not sure how much less congestion there will be.

 

FWIW, I'm going again in July, also on a two-ship day--but one of those is a mega ship, so there will be somewhere around 5800 passengers. I'm planning on arriving early this time...

[przyk]

Thanks for the reply Doug.  That gives me a clearer picture.  I think the piece I was missing is from my prior cruise experience, I've taken about 6 cruises all departing out of Florida.  My recollection with Carnival at Miami, Tampa and actually RC at Port Canaveral is we had separate entrances for each ship.  As I recall on my last cruise out of Miami even the Customs check was broken down by ship.  I vaguely remember just walking through a line.  Leaving from a US port maybe it wasn't such a big deal and I didn't even notice. 

 

Also, good catch on the passenger load.  I saw there were only two ships embarking on Aug 11th, but I never thought to check the total number of passengers.  Thanks again.

[bEwAbG]

Consider also that most of the cruise lines are now sending out boarding times to people to try and spread out the flow.  HAL instructs most to start coming after 1pm and many people take that to heart, even though they don't enforce it.  I'd err on going earlier rather than later.

 

The flow of passengers is different than the terminals you're used to in Florida.  This recent thread also explains some of the issues unique to Vancouver.  From recent reports, it sounds like they've moved check-in to before the security/Customs process, so that may have some positive effect.

 

 

[RocketMan275]

Lots of discussion on embarkation/disembarkation times in the West Coast Departures and in the Canada/Pacific Coast Ports sections of this board.  

 

We're staying at the Pan Pacific with a 2PM checkout time.  We plan on hanging in their Pacific Club Lounge until afternoon. 

[canadianbear]

Friends are boarding the NA today for Alaska.  They arrived at the port at 11:30 and on board in just over an hour.