Laminator

4 hours ago, cbr663 said:

 

Recent posts have described a confusing and long embarkation process at Canada Place and I thought I would share our experience.

 

A great starting point is to understand the the process isn’t exactly intuitive.  The signs for cruise ship embarkation are at the far right of the building besides the entrance to the parking garage.  Yes, you have to walk through the parking garage in order to access your cruise ship.  Parking garages are rarely great places to walk around.

 

You will continue walking down and follow the blue signs.  You will walk by orange barriers and you may feel lost.  Just continue.  There are 5 steps that you have to follow:  dropping off your luggage, gong through HAL check in, going through Security, going through US Customs and finally waiting to board.

 

Luggage is dropped off at P2.  When you enter the cruise terminal you are not at P2 and have to go up for P2.  Staff were preventing everyone  with a large suitcase from using the escalators and directing us to one elevator.  So yes, there was a line up for that elevator and luckily it moved quickly.

 

Once off the elevator you followed the arrows on the floor and of you didn’t have a luggage tag on your suitcase you had to visit a desk to obtain one.  Those of us with luggage tags simply dropped off our luggage at the signed location.  Step 1 took us about 10 mins.

 

Step 2 is to follow another line into the HAL check in area.  You are directed to a kiosk with an iPad and an HAL rep scans your Passport and the system verifies your photo.  This was merely a matter of minutes and you are off again.

 

Step 3 security was simply put everything you have in a bin and walk through the typical airport screening tool.  This took us just a couple of minutes.

 

Step 4 US Customs took about  5+ minutes.  There were two lines and the process was using a self service kiosk.   Insert your passport, answer some questions, take a pic, add a family member, insert their passport and take their pic and wait for the receipt.  You then simply carried the printed receipt to a US Border Officer and you were walking again for Step 5.

 

Step 5 was simply join everyone else in a large room to wait for boarding.  Priority Boarding is one side of the room and it isn’t clear.  I informed a rep that we had priority boarding and we were instructed to sit with a large group.  After about 20 minutes sitting I asked another rep if those on the other side were priority boarding and he replied yes so we moved to join the smaller group.

 

The ship was late commencing boarding and didn’t start until about 11:05 am.  We arrived at the port at about 10:00 and the process to wait to board took about 25+ mins.  There were 2 elevator rides but I can’t remember at which point we took the second elevator ride.  It was begin on one floor, up to another, up to another and then down to another.

 

We only needed to show our boarding passes when actually boarding the ship.  No one was paying any attention to assigned embarkation times.  You also need to remember that when first entering the cruise terminal you have an entire ship of passengers trying to disembark so it is a tad busy, to any the least.

It sounds like you may have walked in. Do the taxi's drop you off where you hand your luggage to the porters or did you not notice?

1 minute ago, rodndonna said:

 

I "think" the change gets collected (donated) to maybe a charity or crew fund. I don't recall where, but I seem to recall that is where all the coinage amounts go when cashing in. 

That is what I recall also but I am not 100% sure!

22 hours ago, mermamasailsagain said:

Crazy question… do you think the casino cashier will accept rolls of coins for deposit to add to my playing in the casino? After holidays to the States and catching your currency in our Canadian change, we’ve emptied our pockets into drawers and during a cleanup, I just rolled about $35 dollars in “silver”. My bank where I have my American account won’t take coins! Seems a simple way to return coinage other than the extra weight in carryon!? 

I am struggling to remember as my age has gotten the best of me but I am not sure the casino even deals with coins. I believe if you cash out your winnings and there are cents involved they only give you the dollar amount back. I will know for sure in 8 days as I will be on the KDAM. 

5 minutes ago, xlxo said:

 

HAL check-in priority lane was on the left when you entered the check in hall.  Big 6 foot sign to say where to line up.

 

Customs check-in priority lane was on the right.  Just yell "Nexus/GE" to wake up the people in charge of the lines.  I think the first 3 stalls are reserved for Nexus/GE customs processing.

 

HAL boarding priority seating area was by the lemonade stall.  Where most wheelchairs and mobility aids can be seen parked prior to 12pm ready for the priority boarding call.  Then it was like Nascar as they jockeyed into position for the gangway ramp.  The photo area just provided them a mini obstacle course. There was a fellow at the boarding area directed us where to sit at 11:30am.

Thank You very much. It is greatly appreciated.

1 hour ago, xlxo said:

That appears to be...

• HAL check in on first photo => Club orange, Neptune, and 4 star mariners have express lane

Where is the priority lane located? Right? Left?

• 2nd photo for customs => use Nexus/GE for express lane

Once again where? Right? Left?

• 3rd photo for security pat down?

 

There's a 4th area post-customs for boarding by the lemonade stand.  Again... Club orange, Neptune, and 4 star mariners have priority seating area.

 

One other line that got excluded was the elevator P2 for luggage drop off and the luggage drop line.

 

To clarify.... what time did you arrive at the terminal?  Lines were much shorter for me at 10am.

10 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I sailed on Celebrity Constellation in January. Only line I stood in was embarkation and that line never stopped (took about 20 minutes from drop off to walking onboard). No lines ever for shore excursion or Cruise Service desk. No bar lines. No food lines. Walked right up to book a next cruise too. Ship was at 80% occupancy.

 

It seems to me that HAL might be understaffed when compared to the competition. 

We were on the NS in February out of FLL. On the ship in 20 minutes. 

2 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

How was the Volendam boarding?  Since it departs on a Wednesday I would think that it would be alot easier.

 

It was on a 4 day cruise this past week. It departed on the 6th. My friend, with priority boarding, took nearly 3 hours from arriving to boarding. I, as well as you I am sure, are seeing different experiences posted here. I am trying to figure out if there is something they missed. I haven't cruised out of Vancouver since 2016 so I don't remember.

2 hours ago, Cruising-along said:

There will be a sign indicating the line for 4 & 5 star Mariners, Neptune Suites, Pinnacle Suites, and (I think) Club Orange.  When we boarded last week in Vancouver we had priority boarding and it went very fast (unlike the LONG line for the rest).  We had 3 ships there that day and everyone was thrown together in the long line.  But we were in our cabin by 12:30, it probably took only 15-20 minutes.  (Not sure if they still do it) but Pinnacle Suite guests would be escorted to their cabin first.

 

 

I received my boarding time this past Saturday evening for the May 20th cruise. Seems like 2 weeks out is when they assign boarding times. 

2 hours ago, Cruising-along said:

There will be a sign indicating the line for 4 & 5 star Mariners, Neptune Suites, Pinnacle Suites, and (I think) Club Orange.  When we boarded last week in Vancouver we had priority boarding and it went very fast (unlike the LONG line for the rest).  We had 3 ships there that day and everyone was thrown together in the long line.  But we were in our cabin by 12:30, it probably took only 15-20 minutes.  (Not sure if they still do it) but Pinnacle Suite guests would be escorted to their cabin first.

 

 

We are boarding on the 20th. Can you please explain the process. I have friends on the Volendam and NA now who boarded this past weekend. They had priority boarding also. Both took over 2 hours. Is the priority lane clearly marked? Do you check in first and then go thru customs? They are pretty seasoned cruisers and they had issues. 

I have to add this. This is the conversation I am visualizing. "Honey can you get me a diet coke please." "Sorry Dear I can't because they will charge us 10% sales tax on the $2.50 drink. That is going to cost us an extra .25 cents." And the next thing out of my wife's mouth will be how much do you think a divorce will cost you. Anyone who frets over this should stay home. 

As for the taxes on soft drinks. Who cares about 20 cents or whatever. Let the accounting department handle it. 

53 minutes ago, HAL4NOW said:

We boarded the Koningsdam last Monday, May 1st, at Canada Place. It took us well over three hours of waiting in various lines before being able to board. US Customs was part of the problem, but they cannot take all of the blame for the mess.

We were dropped off at the cruise port by a shuttle from our hotel. Even though we have departed from Canada Place previously, nothing resembled the previous procedures.

We say lines that said "Holland America" and "Princess" and "Norwegian" but there was no differentiation between any of the cruise lines. Everyone was being funneled through the same queue. Since we still had our luggage with us and wanted to drop that off before getting in line, we asked two different port personnel (uniforms and name-tag badges identified them) where we should drop off the luggage and then what the procedure was after that. One of them just said she didn't know and walked away. The other one said we had to go downstairs to drop off our luggage and then go upstairs to check in and then come back down to the level we were on to go through customs. When we asked how we should get downstairs, he pointed us to an elevator that had hundreds of people waiting in line to get a ride up or down.

We found a different way down to drop off our luggage, only to see even more lines of people. We walked past all of them and found a HAL porter that was taking luggage (ours already had tags we printed out at home) and he took our luggage. Then we tried to figure out how to get up to the check-in level. We had to walk outside because the escalator was being monitored for only a couple people to go up at a time and there were hundreds of people in line at the escalator. The elevator lines had lengthened since we had seen them a few minutes earlier. We walked outside and found some stairs that got us up to the next level. At the Convention Center we asked a security guard to point us to the line for check-in and he pointed out a line. When we got to that line, we realized that what we thought was the back of the line was just a corner where the line turned and went a few hundred more people in a different direction. At this point, passengers from all three cruise lines were mixed in the same line. About a hour later, Princess personnel and Norwegian personnel began going up and down the line and pulling their passengers out to go into different lines. 

When we finally got into the first large room for HAL check-in, we saw a sea of people weaving back and forth through the queue. Holland America was not processing people with any level of efficiency. After another hour, we had made it through that mess and then we were sent back to the US Customs downstairs and mixed with all three cruise lines passengers to get through yet another hour plus of back and forth through the queue. 

One lady did a face plant when she fainted from dehydration, others were looking extremely weary. The port can take some responsibility for the length of the process; Holland America did not do much to speed up any portion of the process, and US Customs was a joke. 

The good news is that apparently, earlier in the process it was going much faster and smoother. Our table mates were first time cruisers, and they did not have a problem getting on-board. They were able to enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet on the ship while many of the passengers were walking around the concrete waiting for the next corner to turn to go back to the other end of the room, only to turn and do it again.

Those that want to blame people for not showing up at the correct check-in time or to say that enforcing check-in times would have helped this process are delusional. 

I would be willing to bet that you don't have alot of expertise in crowd control. The best way for me to explain this would be on 294 which runs outside of Chicago. Speed limit is 55. In the morning during rush you better be going 70. The State Police pretty much just hide. If they make a traffic stop it will wind up backing up traffic for miles. Traffic will remain backed up long after the traffic stop is over. Once that initial back up starts you are pretty much screwed. That is exactly what is occurring here. Once the overflow starts things just get worse. Of course there will still be issues but they will not be as bad if pax would abide by their check in times. 

5 minutes ago, HAL4NOW said:

We boarded the Koningsdam last Monday, May 1st, at Canada Place. It took us well over three hours of waiting in various lines before being able to board. US Customs was part of the problem, but they cannot take all of the blame for the mess.

We were dropped off at the cruise port by a shuttle from our hotel. Even though we have departed from Canada Place previously, nothing resembled the previous procedures.

We say lines that said "Holland America" and "Princess" and "Norwegian" but there was no differentiation between any of the cruise lines. Everyone was being funneled through the same queue. Since we still had our luggage with us and wanted to drop that off before getting in line, we asked two different port personnel (uniforms and name-tag badges identified them) where we should drop off the luggage and then what the procedure was after that. One of them just said she didn't know and walked away. The other one said we had to go downstairs to drop off our luggage and then go upstairs to check in and then come back down to the level we were on to go through customs. When we asked how we should get downstairs, he pointed us to an elevator that had hundreds of people waiting in line to get a ride up or down.

We found a different way down to drop off our luggage, only to see even more lines of people. We walked past all of them and found a HAL porter that was taking luggage (ours already had tags we printed out at home) and he took our luggage. Then we tried to figure out how to get up to the check-in level. We had to walk outside because the escalator was being monitored for only a couple people to go up at a time and there were hundreds of people in line at the escalator. The elevator lines had lengthened since we had seen them a few minutes earlier. We walked outside and found some stairs that got us up to the next level. At the Convention Center we asked a security guard to point us to the line for check-in and he pointed out a line. When we got to that line, we realized that what we thought was the back of the line was just a corner where the line turned and went a few hundred more people in a different direction. At this point, passengers from all three cruise lines were mixed in the same line. About a hour later, Princess personnel and Norwegian personnel began going up and down the line and pulling their passengers out to go into different lines. 

When we finally got into the first large room for HAL check-in, we saw a sea of people weaving back and forth through the queue. Holland America was not processing people with any level of efficiency. After another hour, we had made it through that mess and then we were sent back to the US Customs downstairs and mixed with all three cruise lines passengers to get through yet another hour plus of back and forth through the queue. 

One lady did a face plant when she fainted from dehydration, others were looking extremely weary. The port can take some responsibility for the length of the process; Holland America did not do much to speed up any portion of the process, and US Customs was a joke. 

The good news is that apparently, earlier in the process it was going much faster and smoother. Our table mates were first time cruisers, and they did not have a problem getting on-board. They were able to enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet on the ship while many of the passengers were walking around the concrete waiting for the next corner to turn to go back to the other end of the room, only to turn and do it again.

Those that want to blame people for not showing up at the correct check-in time or to say that enforcing check-in times would have helped this process are delusional. 

What time was your boarding time? What time was your table mates boarding time? 

8 minutes ago, Crew News said:

I am Group Delta at 11:00 AM today so sounds like a group every 15 minutes.  Wonder how many groups for the day?

Someone on our upcoming cruise has Group Charlie at 10:40 so every 20 minutes appear to be HAL's strategy. 

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

Vancouver has always been a cluster. Part of the problem is the process of going through US Immigration and Customs before boarding. 

Yes...but alot of the problem is pax showing up before their check-in time. HAL appears to be aware of the issue as they are attempting to spread out the times. I have never seen a 10am check in time before. I am sure it has happened though.

6 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

@Laminator, 10am boarding is too early by HAL procedures. Not sure check in even starts that early. 

I just received my boarding time for my cruise out of Vancouver on the KDAM leaving May 20th. It's 10am!

2 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

FYI just boarded the KO for the 7D Alaska cruise.

 

I had an alloted time of 1100. So, I showed up at 1020. Already a zoo. No signs or directions. Fortunately, I had recce yesterday. 

 

Check-in on the ground floor then proceeded to security on P1 via escalator. Took just 20m at this time of the morning. Lines were long and moved steadily. Check-in  was instant with facial recognition. Security tried to push pax through quickly.

 

The real delay was US Immigration. Took 45m to clear the 300 people in front of me. The automated kiosk was super fast. 

 

Then, there were 500 pax seated in the KO's waiting room. Boarding row by row. Fortunately, I had priority boarding with Club Orange. I just bypassed the 500 seated pax.

 

Finally, there was a slow check at security  onboard. Did they have an IT malfunction? 

 

IMHO, this is not going to work for the majority of pax. My journey took 70m after arriving at 1040, and bypassing the waiting room. And, I was walking quickly with only carry-on luggage. Now, I can understand why many pax are experiencing 2 to 3 hours.

Did they call priority boarding in front of the 500 seated pax? IMO that is one of the problems. PAX showing up well ahead of their boarding times. It's the reason companies in large metropolitan areas have staggered work times. If everyone worked 9 to 5 there would be no way the roads or public transportation would be able to handle everyone.

19 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

@Laminator, 10am boarding is too early by HAL procedures. Not sure check in even starts that early. 

That is what time was on my friends boarding pass out of Vancouver today. I am sure HAL is aware of the issues boarding there and are trying to further spread out the pax.

40 minutes ago, dreamer321 said:

I'm sailing on the Koningsdam on the 20th and I just checked my boarding pass.  Check - In time and boarding group are still TBA. Fortunately, I have priority boarding so we'll see how that goes.

 

Same here. We are on the that sailing also. We are in an NS with no boarding time yet. I am anticipating a 10am boarding time but we will see. My friends boarded out of Vancouver today with a 10am priority boarding time and it took them a little over an hour to get thru customs and security. Alot of the delay was 4 ships in port and many pax showing up an hour or 2 ahead of their boarding time. 

4 minutes ago, Colorado Klutch said:

Got to the Vancouver cruise terminal at around 10 this morning. It took just over an hour to get through all the lines for security and immigration. Inexplicably, my SIL got sidelined at immigration. She had to wait in another line for about 15 minutes. They took her picture again and sent her on her way. (??)

 

After immigration we we were instructed to to take seat with about 400 other Koningsdam passengers. It’s now 1130. Still waiting…

Same thing my friend reported. 1 hour getting thru the security. He said boarding will begin shortly. 

45 minutes ago, Richjoxyz said:

We're boarding the Koningsdam on May 13th.  We have a Neptune Suite Guaranty SC Category.  8 days until sailing and no cabin assignment!  This will be our first Neptune so we'll be happy with any assignment, but hoping for an upgrade to SB or SA.  Logging in every day, no luck so far.  

We had 2 NS SC guaranty's on the May 20th sailing. We got our cabin assignments this past Monday. I think the only reason they came that early is that they wanted to them to be adjoining which we were thrilled with. I am sure you will get your cabin assignment in the next few days. 

1 hour ago, DrKoob said:

It is not that they are taking too many desserts. It's that there are two few crew working the kitchen. They just can't keep up. And many of the people working in the buffet are new. They have no clue what they are doing or what they are serving. It's just sad.

 

Have you tried stopping by the Dutch Cafe for desserts. Much better sweets there than buffet offers. 

If your offer includes the HIA package according to HAL policy it must include both guests in the cabin. They tried that only the invited guest on my last cruise and I called them out on it. Was escalated to the Food and Beverage MGR who agreed. If it includes drinks in the casino only it is for the invited guest only unless it states otherwise.

5 hours ago, DrKoob said:

NO! I would still upload the docs. Those that had not were sent to still another line to wait in.

 

I assume you are recommending to upload your pic on the Verifly app? 

On 4/29/2023 at 6:59 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Seven years might not have taught you the cautionary tale of using absolute language, but it did teach you how to secure exceptional casino rates. I think we would all agree that the later is much more valuable in the real world 😄

 

Did you get the corner suite on your May sailing? 

Adjoining SA's so I am happy. As long as it wasn't those SQ's or whatever they are called on deck 10. I would have canceled.