Navigating Vancouver Pier - Best Time to Arrive

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

We will board the Konnsingdam in a few weeks (YAHHOOOO!!!) with a scheduled departure time of 4:30.  We will be driving to the pier and already have parking reserved at Canada Place.  We will have a ~3 hour drive from WA state, but can get there as early as 10A or 11A without issue.

 

We are pretty worried about long waits at the pier, and are trying to plan the day to avoid the rush and lines.  We hope to plan the day around getting through parking lines, check-in, security, and customs as quick as we can.  We aren't in a huge rush to get on board, and are open to walking around the city for a few hours, or spending some money to be entertained if you have any suggestions.

 

We have a few general options and welcome your thoughts:

 

Park at 10A and check in ASAP.

Park at noon and check in ASAP.

Park at 2P and check in ASAP (is this cutting it too close?)

Park at 11A, drop off the luggage, and walk around the city for a few hours.  Check in around 3:00P.

Other options.

 

I welcome your thoughts.

[martincath]

1 hour ago, Jeremiah On a Cruise said:

1) Park at 10A and check in ASAP.

2) Park at noon and check in ASAP.

3) Park at 2P and check in ASAP (is this cutting it too close?)

4) Park at 11A, drop off the luggage, and walk around the city for a few hours.  Check in around 3:00P.

Other options.

Unknown issues: your exact sail date will make a difference... K'dam shares port with either Majestic or Grand Princess, and sometimes also Ocean Victory... since the 2 Princess ships have a significantly different pax load, almost every time will differ as to how many other pax you have to deal with!

 

Your driving route can also have an impact - if you're 3 hours away down I5, over-nighting somewhere in the Seattle area then the time you leave there makes a potentially huge difference if you have to drive with or against an commuter traffic! If you're somewhere further east, like Nehalem, that's also a 3 hour drive on paper you don't have those Seattle area volume worries. So - visiting family, i.e. no option where in WA you are overnighting? Or just splitting the trip from PDX to minimize same day drive, with your choice of where to stay? If the latter - be near the border, Ye Olde bits of downtown Bellingham are really nice, and your drive will drop to <2 hours.

 

But in general...

1) You will sit around about an hour before boarding starts; depending which ships are allowed to start their pax first and what if any priority you have with HAL, you could be right at the start of the lines when they do start moving or still have hundreds of pax ahead of you... curb to cabin time, anything from 90-120mins is likely

2) Second-worst option - noon arrivals means Amtrak may see hundreds of extra cruise pax, on top of the constant flow from airport arrivals and hotels. No initial wait but constant slowdowns and stoppages as CBP get overloaded and prevent anyone entering their area which backs up Security and so on

3) Risky from the perspective of your drive - any border issue, a flat tire, another vehicle crashing can easily turn a 3 hours drive from Seattle into a 5 hour...

4) Impossible - you MUST be at the pier for check-in 2 hours beforehand so for a 4:30 planned sailaway, hard cap is 2:30pm or you risk the manifest being finalized and No Cruise For You!

 

Other Option would be my suggestion, sort of a combo of 1) and 4) - get here ASAP, even if that means getting on the road by 6am to minimise commuter impact around Seattle and give plenty of padding for re-routing around incidents or choosing one of the border crossings further east instead of the main I5 corridor. if all goes well and you cross the border early enough to hit Vancouver commuter traffic, optionally pull over somewhere to chill, grab a coffee, triple-check you didn't leave anything back in the hotel like passports in the safe...(!) Local commuter traffic inbound from the border gets much lighter after 9am, the Tunnel returns to 2 lanes each way approx 9:30am - marking 'normal' flow again. Before that you will benefit from 3 lanes inbound if you stick to 99, but it can still be really slow until close to 9am.

 

Once downtown, drop bags at the pier as soon as you can (9:30am is usually safe although officially bag drop begins no earlier than 10am) and go enjoy time in town... but be back by no later than 2:30pm!!!!

Edited June 9, 2023 by martincath

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

1 hour ago, martincath said:

Unknown issues: your exact sail date will make a difference... K'dam shares port with either Majestic or Grand Princess, and sometimes also Ocean Victory... since the 2 Princess ships have a significantly different pax load, almost every time will differ as to how many other pax you have to deal with!

 

Your driving route can also have an impact - if you're 3 hours away down I5, over-nighting somewhere in the Seattle area then the time you leave there makes a potentially huge difference if you have to drive with or against an commuter traffic! If you're somewhere further east, like Nehalem, that's also a 3 hour drive on paper you don't have those Seattle area volume worries. So - visiting family, i.e. no option where in WA you are overnighting? Or just splitting the trip from PDX to minimize same day drive, with your choice of where to stay? If the latter - be near the border, Ye Olde bits of downtown Bellingham are really nice, and your drive will drop to <2 hours.

 

But in general...

1) You will sit around about an hour before boarding starts; depending which ships are allowed to start their pax first and what if any priority you have with HAL, you could be right at the start of the lines when they do start moving or still have hundreds of pax ahead of you... curb to cabin time, anything from 90-120mins is likely

2) Second-worst option - noon arrivals means Amtrak may see hundreds of extra cruise pax, on top of the constant flow from airport arrivals and hotels. No initial wait but constant slowdowns and stoppages as CBP get overloaded and prevent anyone entering their area which backs up Security and so on

3) Risky from the perspective of your drive - any border issue, a flat tire, another vehicle crashing can easily turn a 3 hours drive from Seattle into a 5 hour...

4) Impossible - you MUST be at the pier for check-in 2 hours beforehand so for a 4:30 planned sailaway, hard cap is 2:30pm or you risk the manifest being finalized and No Cruise For You!

 

Other Option would be my suggestion, sort of a combo of 1) and 4) - get here ASAP, even if that means getting on the road by 6am to minimise commuter impact around Seattle and give plenty of padding for re-routing around incidents or choosing one of the border crossings further east instead of the main I5 corridor. if all goes well and you cross the border early enough to hit Vancouver commuter traffic, optionally pull over somewhere to chill, grab a coffee, triple-check you didn't leave anything back in the hotel like passports in the safe...(!) Local commuter traffic inbound from the border gets much lighter after 9am, the Tunnel returns to 2 lanes each way approx 9:30am - marking 'normal' flow again. Before that you will benefit from 3 lanes inbound if you stick to 99, but it can still be really slow until close to 9am.

 

Once downtown, drop bags at the pier as soon as you can (9:30am is usually safe although officially bag drop begins no earlier than 10am) and go enjoy time in town... but be back by no later than 2:30pm!!!!

@martincath  Wow!  First - a huge thank you.  Lots of info here that I didn't know.

 

We are there July 29 - the same day as the Grand.  There are two other ships in port that day, including the Ocean Victory (very small) and the Nature (arriving much later).

 

We will be coming from Everett on the day of the cruise.  It's a Saturday so we don't anticipate much traffic until the boarder.  We plan to pass a Lynden to avoid the crowds, but are open to Sumas if you think that's better.  We avoid crossing on I5 whenever possible.  With that said, props for referencing Nehalem - that's my old stomping grounds and one of my favorite little towns in WA.

 

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know the 2:30 deadline.  We typically board super early, but are traveling with kids, so our priorities are different this go.  Do you think checkin at 1:30 will have a quicker time boarding than a checkin of 10 or 11?  If 2:30 is the hard stop, 1:30 is as late as I would want to plan for.  But, if the wait is 90-120 minutes regardless of when I check in, it may be worth it to board early and have lunch onboard.

 

Again - thanks!

 

 

[martincath]

10 minutes ago, Jeremiah On a Cruise said:

...We will be coming from Everett on the day of the cruise.  It's a Saturday so we don't anticipate much traffic until the boarder.  We plan to pass a Lynden to avoid the crowds, but are open to Sumas if you think that's better.  We avoid crossing on I5 whenever possible. 

 

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know the 2:30 deadline.  We typically board super early, but are traveling with kids, so our priorities are different this go.  Do you think checkin at 1:30 will have a quicker time boarding than a checkin of 10 or 11?  If 2:30 is the hard stop, 1:30 is as late as I would want to plan for. 

 

Glad to help, fellow Portlandians! Everett's not bad - key thing is it's north of Seattle, although until they finally get that road-widening project complete the first northbound I5 stretch to Marysville remains a drag almost any time of day! I'd check Waze or similar to see if taking the 529 up to Marysville is faster as you're setting out.

 

Now I'm embarrassed - even though I looked at the timetable for K'dam days I never bothered to look at which day of the week... Saturdays way less of an issue with commuters inbound, and tunnel often stays 2 in, 2 out unless there's some big event on during the day (there are night-time fireworks that day, but since it's not a long weekend your fellow Americans coming up for vacations should still be much less than normal weekday commuter volume approaching town).

 

Optimal crossing varies - we rarely deviate from I5 proper, but we have NEXUS. We check the signs though, and personally I can only only recall a handful of occasions in over ten years when deviating as far as Lynden, let alone Sumas, are worthwhile if you're headed downtown rather than to the eastern 'burbs. They add more drive time than the time saved crossing even without NEXUS on all but the super-busy times - even Pacific Crossing, where trucks & buses generally go, adds 10+mins drive time to downtown Van and is rarely more than 10mins faster than Peace Arch for cars statistically, while Lynden and Sumas are both on the order of 30mins extra drive time. Since I assume you will have data within WA State, have your partner/one of the kids keep an eye on not-quite-live data updates from CBSA as you get to the places where you have to make a choice, as well as checking the highway overhead info signs - unless Peace Arch/Pacif X-ing delays are closing in on an hour deviating to Lynden is almost certainly both extra mileage and time.

 

With kids to factor in things get trickier - do you think they'd handle an early awakening well? Sitting around on plastic chairs for an hour? Standing in queues that just stop randomly for no reason? You hopefully know your kids a lot better than I do(!) so it's on you to figure out what options would minimize disruption to/from them!!!

 

In general though, Late or Early both have benefits - anywhere in the middle is just varying degrees of Suck. While the total pax load of Grand & Oc Vic is likely way less than just Majestic, having to have three sets of Check-in desks rather than two means another unknown factor in the 'who will embark first?' sweepstakes...

 

I'd say that if your kids are on the younger end, or just 'full of beans' not keen on lots of sitting types, then splitting things up as much as possible with 'fun stuff for them' as the in-between boarding day treat might be the way to go (i.e. drive up earlyish, drop bags on arrival, then go for some of our awesome ice cream, let them run about in a park, that sort of thing - if you don't mind bringing a wet bag onboard, the splash park on Granville Island could be a real Happy Kid Making thing; if weather sucks then the roof level adventure playground inside the Kids Market is another great 'burn some energy so you annoy me less later child!' option; and of course the shops of the kids market provide a lot of fun, and also educational, toys for bribery!); and while The Old Spaghetti Factory may be of Portlandian origins, the Gastown outpost is the oldest remaining resto (I think it opened just one year after the original PDX one, but unlike that has been in the same building ever since), priced in CAD making it even cheaper (for still mediocre, but enormous portions of) food - and I don't think any other OSF can claim to have a haunted streetcar available for sitting in!

 

If it's older kids who can self-regulate, maybe there's something in Hollywood North that could entice - check out filming locations of fave shows? Seems like several of our recent local productions are aimed at teen audiences, like the whole 'Archieverse' batch of shows, and while the Arrowverse may be effectively over now it always entertained me that The Flash used real Portland maps for Central City but filmed here, two real places combined into one fake one! If the TV/movie sites idea has traction, this is where I'd say that crossing at Lynden/Sumas becomes sensible again - loads of filming sites out east of town: Riverview Hospital might be the single most filmed building in the region out in Coquitlam for example, it's been in dang near every tv show filmed here that uses location shoots!

[Northern Aurora]

While late to this discussion we embarked on cruises twice in 2022 in Canada Place.  Both times there were loooonnnggg  lines.  The first time the ship we were boarding was the second embarkation after Canada allowed for the resumption of cruises.  The second time the Canada Place computer system went  belly up and required a significant amount of time to re-boot.  Since you need to board at least 90 minutes before departure, so that the final passenger manifest can be submitted to the proper authorities, I would suggest boarding early.  Just enjoy that lunch onboard.

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

On 6/9/2023 at 5:39 PM, martincath said:

Glad to help, fellow Portlandians! Everett's not bad - key thing is it's north of Seattle, although until they finally get that road-widening project complete the first northbound I5 stretch to Marysville remains a drag almost any time of day! I'd check Waze or similar to see if taking the 529 up to Marysville is faster as you're setting out.

 

Now I'm embarrassed - even though I looked at the timetable for K'dam days I never bothered to look at which day of the week... Saturdays way less of an issue with commuters inbound, and tunnel often stays 2 in, 2 out unless there's some big event on during the day (there are night-time fireworks that day, but since it's not a long weekend your fellow Americans coming up for vacations should still be much less than normal weekday commuter volume approaching town).

 

Optimal crossing varies - we rarely deviate from I5 proper, but we have NEXUS. We check the signs though, and personally I can only only recall a handful of occasions in over ten years when deviating as far as Lynden, let alone Sumas, are worthwhile if you're headed downtown rather than to the eastern 'burbs. They add more drive time than the time saved crossing even without NEXUS on all but the super-busy times - even Pacific Crossing, where trucks & buses generally go, adds 10+mins drive time to downtown Van and is rarely more than 10mins faster than Peace Arch for cars statistically, while Lynden and Sumas are both on the order of 30mins extra drive time. Since I assume you will have data within WA State, have your partner/one of the kids keep an eye on not-quite-live data updates from CBSA as you get to the places where you have to make a choice, as well as checking the highway overhead info signs - unless Peace Arch/Pacif X-ing delays are closing in on an hour deviating to Lynden is almost certainly both extra mileage and time.

 

With kids to factor in things get trickier - do you think they'd handle an early awakening well? Sitting around on plastic chairs for an hour? Standing in queues that just stop randomly for no reason? You hopefully know your kids a lot better than I do(!) so it's on you to figure out what options would minimize disruption to/from them!!!

 

In general though, Late or Early both have benefits - anywhere in the middle is just varying degrees of Suck. While the total pax load of Grand & Oc Vic is likely way less than just Majestic, having to have three sets of Check-in desks rather than two means another unknown factor in the 'who will embark first?' sweepstakes...

 

I'd say that if your kids are on the younger end, or just 'full of beans' not keen on lots of sitting types, then splitting things up as much as possible with 'fun stuff for them' as the in-between boarding day treat might be the way to go (i.e. drive up earlyish, drop bags on arrival, then go for some of our awesome ice cream, let them run about in a park, that sort of thing - if you don't mind bringing a wet bag onboard, the splash park on Granville Island could be a real Happy Kid Making thing; if weather sucks then the roof level adventure playground inside the Kids Market is another great 'burn some energy so you annoy me less later child!' option; and of course the shops of the kids market provide a lot of fun, and also educational, toys for bribery!); and while The Old Spaghetti Factory may be of Portlandian origins, the Gastown outpost is the oldest remaining resto (I think it opened just one year after the original PDX one, but unlike that has been in the same building ever since), priced in CAD making it even cheaper (for still mediocre, but enormous portions of) food - and I don't think any other OSF can claim to have a haunted streetcar available for sitting in!

 

If it's older kids who can self-regulate, maybe there's something in Hollywood North that could entice - check out filming locations of fave shows? Seems like several of our recent local productions are aimed at teen audiences, like the whole 'Archieverse' batch of shows, and while the Arrowverse may be effectively over now it always entertained me that The Flash used real Portland maps for Central City but filmed here, two real places combined into one fake one! If the TV/movie sites idea has traction, this is where I'd say that crossing at Lynden/Sumas becomes sensible again - loads of filming sites out east of town: Riverview Hospital might be the single most filmed building in the region out in Coquitlam for example, it's been in dang near every tv show filmed here that uses location shoots!

@martincath and @Northern Aurora Thanks again for this.

 

I think we have our plans finalized:

 

Will leave Everett around 7A and get across the boarder around 8:30 or 9:00.  We'll cross at Lynden as my boys really really hate the chaos, crowds, and lines of the I5 crossings.  

 

We will get to the pier around 10:00, and park in Canada Place (parking already purchased) and drop off our bags at that time, but will not start checking in just yet.

 

We will then spend the next few hours walking around the waterfront in Vancouver.  We'll hit the Chat Time (bubble tea) first, and then west walk along the Sea Wall Water Walk, grabbing lunch somewhere (Cactus Club Cafe?) and probably spending some time at Spray Park.  But, we'll stay within about a 15 minute walk from the pier.

 

We will target being back to the pier at 1:30.  Our boarding pass says that we must be onboard by 3P, so we'll start fretting if we aren't in line by 2:00.  Hopefully, 1:30 will be early enough to have plenty of wiggle room/not be worried, but late enough to miss most of the rush, and to meet our luggage in our prepared room. 

[martincath]

50 minutes ago, Jeremiah On a Cruise said:

...We'll hit the Chat Time (bubble tea) first, and then west walk along the Sea Wall Water Walk, grabbing lunch somewhere (Cactus Club Cafe?) and probably spending some time at Spray Park.  But, we'll stay within about a 15 minute walk from the pier.

 

We will target being back to the pier at 1:30.  Our boarding pass says that we must be onboard by 3P, so we'll start fretting if we aren't in line by 2:00.  Hopefully, 1:30 will be early enough to have plenty of wiggle room/not be worried, but late enough to miss most of the rush, and to meet our luggage in our prepared room. 

Cha Time & Cactus Club are certainly close and sensible first and last things to visit, but the spray park in Stanley is a significant hike further - a full two miles going the less scenic short route along Cordova and via Malkin Bowl, but if you stick to the Seawall the whole way it's over 60% longer; even cutting through by the Totem Poles pushes the distance to approx. 3 miles...  with what sounds like younger kids, that could easily be over an hour each way if walked!

 

Cabbing from near the pier will work easily to get TO the splash park, and for almost as cheap as transit to get dropped right next to it on the park 'ring road' instead of having an extra ~500 metres to walk from the bus loop - but trying to get a cabuber to come get you afterward may be challenging due to the one-way system so I'd definitely plan to use the bus on the way back (19, runs from the Bus Loop which is a very short walk from the splash park, and even closer to the pretty nice adventure playground!) It's a 10 minute ride - get off at Burrard, the stop is after the junction, so it's actually easiest to walk up Hornby three blocks (despite Google having issues with it, pedestrians can continue all the way down to Canada Place it's just cars that are blocked at Hastings) and even if you just missed a bus they run every 15mins so you'll be at the pier within about 30mins worst case.

 

Since kids under 13 are free, the adult bus fare of CAD$3.15pp is all you'd likely have to pay (if you have a 13+ child, they do qualify for Concession fares BUT that might be problematic with exact change needed; any Tappable credit card or smartphone can be used to board a bus, but those always charge the regular adult ticket price - this is however frankly worth the extra buck compared to finding a ticket vending machine and buying a Concession ticket for later use on the bus).

 

Personally I'd push the arrival time to at least 2pm - 'boarding time' on any document is meaningless at Canada Place as CBP have such tight and total control over the process, but the lines are hardly going to spend the money and effort on IT systems to print different terminology and time-frames just for Vancouver/Montreal departures... if they were actually willing to invest in seasonal IT improvements they'd instead prioritise their booking systems to reject PVSA-incompatible cruise combos!

[quack2]

To kill some time at Canada Place, consider taking the Flyover Canada ride.  Same technology as Soaring California at Disneyland.  I'm guessing the kids would love it too.

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

4 hours ago, quack2 said:

To kill some time at Canada Place, consider taking the Flyover Canada ride.  Same technology as Soaring California at Disneyland.  I'm guessing the kids would love it too.

ooOOOOhh!  My family loves loves loves Soar'n, and I didn't know that there was anything like it outside of Disneyland.  We will definitely try and do this!!!

 

[Jeremiah On a Cruise]

5 hours ago, martincath said:

Cha Time & Cactus Club are certainly close and sensible first and last things to visit, but the spray park in Stanley is a significant hike further - a full two miles going the less scenic short route along Cordova and via Malkin Bowl, but if you stick to the Seawall the whole way it's over 60% longer; even cutting through by the Totem Poles pushes the distance to approx. 3 miles...  with what sounds like younger kids, that could easily be over an hour each way if walked!

 

Cabbing from near the pier will work easily to get TO the splash park, and for almost as cheap as transit to get dropped right next to it on the park 'ring road' instead of having an extra ~500 metres to walk from the bus loop - but trying to get a cabuber to come get you afterward may be challenging due to the one-way system so I'd definitely plan to use the bus on the way back (19, runs from the Bus Loop which is a very short walk from the splash park, and even closer to the pretty nice adventure playground!) It's a 10 minute ride - get off at Burrard, the stop is after the junction, so it's actually easiest to walk up Hornby three blocks (despite Google having issues with it, pedestrians can continue all the way down to Canada Place it's just cars that are blocked at Hastings) and even if you just missed a bus they run every 15mins so you'll be at the pier within about 30mins worst case.

 

Since kids under 13 are free, the adult bus fare of CAD$3.15pp is all you'd likely have to pay (if you have a 13+ child, they do qualify for Concession fares BUT that might be problematic with exact change needed; any Tappable credit card or smartphone can be used to board a bus, but those always charge the regular adult ticket price - this is however frankly worth the extra buck compared to finding a ticket vending machine and buying a Concession ticket for later use on the bus).

 

Personally I'd push the arrival time to at least 2pm - 'boarding time' on any document is meaningless at Canada Place as CBP have such tight and total control over the process, but the lines are hardly going to spend the money and effort on IT systems to print different terminology and time-frames just for Vancouver/Montreal departures... if they were actually willing to invest in seasonal IT improvements they'd instead prioritise their booking systems to reject PVSA-incompatible cruise combos!

Sorry - different splash park.  There looks to be a smaller splash park just about 1500 ft west of Canada Place, near what looks to be a small park.  It's not nearly as nice as the park you mentioned, but we'd feel better staying walking distance from the pier.

[martincath]

35 minutes ago, Jeremiah On a Cruise said:

Sorry - different splash park.  There looks to be a smaller splash park just about 1500 ft west of Canada Place, near what looks to be a small park.  It's not nearly as nice as the park you mentioned, but we'd feel better staying walking distance from the pier.

My bad for assuming - it never even crossed my mind that the teeny wee Harbour Green one might be somewhere to while away an extended period of time! You're definitely staying nice & close then, no worries!

 

FlyOverCanada is definitely best booked in advance (saves a few bucks, more importantly guarantees your entry time with much less flex than joining the 'standby' queue!) I'd schedule it for the last thing you do before heading to check-in (book it for ~45mins before you want to be heading in to the pier, with a reso you should be in and out within that timeframe).

Edited June 12, 2023 by martincath

[Sprocket]

Download the borderlineups.com app and you can check border traffic in real time with video.  We did this trip in reverse last year cruising out of Seattle we live about 5 minutes from the Sumas border crossing and if IIRC we left around 6 AM.

 

We did a RT coastal  last year  out of Vancouver BIL dropped us off about 9:30 AM and only one other Celebrity ship in port that day.  We were lucky only took us about 90 minutes to get through as its all one line until you go through security, others not so fortunate it took 3 hours or more to get through.  I would not make any hard and fast plans until I actually get there and see what its like before heading out.  Booked for Alaska in September fortunately only one ship in port that day