Embarkation in Vancouver Sep, 18, 2020

[Prost Seattle]

I asked this question in my roll call for my cruise, but I realize that if I don’t know the answer, maybe my fellow travelers in that cruise don’t either.  Our cruise is Vancouver-Victoria-@ sea-Hawai’i.  I’m a newbie to cruising (only one short repositioning cruise on HAL Vancouver-Los Angeles), and on that cruise we went through immigration proceedings in Vancouver.  On this cruise our first port of call is also in Canada, so I’m wondering if there will be US immigration proceedings in Victoria or if we’ll go through them in Hawai’i?  I tried finding out the information on Celebrity’s website, but well...

[varoo]

Although I have not done this particular itinerary,  I think  they will  do the US immigration processing when you board in Vancouver, just as on your HAL cruise.

 

That is how they do it on the Alaska cruises that embark at Vancouver and disembark at Seward (a US port) and also how they do it for the coastal repositioning cruises that embark in Vancouver and disembark at a US port.

            

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by varoo

[Prost Seattle]

I actually received a response from martincath on the roll call page, and their opinion was:

 

Pre-screening can only legally occur when the vessel leaves Canada for the USA - as the second port is Canadian, you will 100% NOT be prescreened in Vancouver. And since Victoria doesn't have enough CBP working there to prescreen a cruise ship (only enough to handle the Clipper which is tiny in comparison) you won't do it there either - so don't book anything independently in your first Hawaiian port too close to planned arrival time as you'll have to do immigration there.

 

Heading to Victoria the ships usually just sail slowly - or occasionally in circles for a while - as they have more than enough time to cover the distance unless there's a long delay leaving port. Unlike AK cruises, the ship can wait around in Vancouver as there's no need to worry about tides in the Narrows; nor is Solstice one of the megaships that can only get under the bridge at low tide; and with no prescreening there's no issue with CBPs limited hours - so if a lot of pax are on a delayed flight for example, it's possible to wait around for several hours until they arrive and still get to Victoria on time next morning.

 

So that makes sense to me.