Boarding Times in Vancouver

[DCThunder]

Are the "boarding times" on the boarding pass taken seriously by Cunard at the Port of Vancouver?  Or are they treated as "guidelines" as I've experienced in Port Everglades, Southampton, and Miami, albeit not on Cunard?

[david,Mississauga]

We have boarded the QE in Vancouver in 2019, 2022 and 2023. The arrival times were not strictly adhered to.  Cunard says that priority check-in for The Grills, the Club, Diamond and Platinum members is only in Southampton and New York, but there is a sign for that in Vancouver. Last year there was quite a large number of people that supposedly qualified for this priority, so it was a bit slow.  I'm not aware of passengers who arrive early being made to wait for check-in.  

 

If there is more than one ship boarding - and there are usually two or three - it can be very busy at security and the US border control which comes after check-in.  There is a large waiting area after passengers have been fully processed. People were asked to sit in various rows according to their priority. Boarding was by status (QG, then PG, etc) , but it was quick even when we were in Britannia. 

Edited May 31 by david,Mississauga
clarification

[elmsliebev]

we boarded QE in Vancouver in 2022 and it was by far the longest waiting time we've had.There were 3 ships in but everyone was queueing in the same space. I think it took us about 3 hours. The longest wait was for going through US customs as non-US or Canadian citizens so hopefully it won't be as bad for you. 

Priority groups seemed to get through the initial check in quicker but still had the joy of customs to come! 

We then had 10 day in Alaska and were staying on QE through to Miami. Re-boarding as intransit passengers wasn't much quicker! 

Edited May 31 by elmsliebev

[exlondoner]

21 hours ago, elmsliebev said:

we boarded QE in Vancouver in 2022 and it was by far the longest waiting time we've had.There were 3 ships in but everyone was queueing in the same space. I think it took us about 3 hours. The longest wait was for going through US customs as non-US or Canadian citizens so hopefully it won't be as bad for you. 

Priority groups seemed to get through the initial check in quicker but still had the joy of customs to come! 

We then had 10 day in Alaska and were staying on QE through to Miami. Re-boarding as intransit passengers wasn't much quicker! 

Do you really mean customs, or was it immigration?

[DCThunder]

14 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Do you really mean customs, or was it immigration?

Yes, this confused me too.  I expect to go through Canadian customs and immigration at YVR when I get off the plane from Charlotte.  I'd expect some level of immigration before boarding the ship, but not customs again.

[elmsliebev]

43 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Do you really mean customs, or was it immigration?

sorry, probably immigration. Whichever it was it was the worst experience we've had boarding any ship, or even passing through immigration after flying in. As I said, for US and Canadian cititzens it wasn't as bad as they could use the machine-readable tech, but the rest of us had 3 officials to handle us! 

Edited June 1 by elmsliebev

[jay1283]

There were two to three hour queues to board QE last June on our Alaska trip. Caused entirely by US immigration as there were only a few agents and it took a while to process each person and take their fingerprints. Most of that time seemed to be taken up by the agent waiting for their computer to load things.

Edited June 2 by jay1283

[pratt2]

This information is good to know. We board the QE June 11. Our boarding pass states 2:45pm check in, with an all aboard of 3:30 pm…that makes me a bit nervous. There is one other ship in port.  Will plan on arriving an hour earlier.  

[Pushpit]

47 minutes ago, pratt2 said:

This information is good to know. We board the QE June 11. Our boarding pass states 2:45pm check in, with an all aboard of 3:30 pm…that makes me a bit nervous. There is one other ship in port.  Will plan on arriving an hour earlier.  

Don't worry. If you are at check-in desk at 2:45pm, or even a little later, they will not sail without you. Turning up at 3:20 pm would be a bad idea (but probably you would still make it).  People arriving early is what slows things down, so by 2:45pm I would expect a fairly swift process.

[Jim_Iain]

21 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Do you really mean customs, or was it immigration?

It is immigration.      Since the ship will be stopping in the U.S. they do U.S. immigration at Canadian Sea and Airports prior to departure.

 

Customs  occurs when you exit the terminal with bags in hand.