Three hour checkin Canada Placd

[hawkeyetlse]

Airports in Canada (for direct flights to the States) do too. I've experienced it at Vancouver and Calgary airports.

If they served free food in the departures lounge at Vancouver airport, people would show up at 10am for a 10pm flight to the US.

[Potstech]

Actually Princess has started to advise their customers to arrive at certain times (i.e. staggered boarding) but most people insist on just showing up whenever they feel like it, hence long line ups.

 

Have o dis agree again. Long line ups are a result of bad planning and procedures at the terminal. Arrival time of passengers depends on flights, drive times and shuttles to names a few. not being able to handle them is a problem of those running the terminal. Even the cruise line provides flights to the city well before so called requested boarding times AND provides transportation from the airport to the ship contrary to those requested boarding times. Blaming passengers is a cop out.

[Vexorg]

Every time I've been in Canada Place (even when the lines aren't all that long) I've never seen any significant line at the Princess check-in desks. They seem to be able to process the passengers much faster than security can.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Vexorg

[SkystheLimit]

What other ports have you go through US immigration before boarding. Vancouver is very unique in this situation

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

At one time you did in Dublin and Shannon. Don't know it that is the case today.

[Putterdude]

At one time you did in Dublin and Shannon. Don't know it that is the case today.

 

I think you are referring to airports not seaports if so here is lank to airports around the world the have CBP preclearece. This actually saves the U.S. government a lot of money as it saves them having to have a lot of CBP agents in each airport in the U.S.

 

http://www.cbp.gov/contact/ports/preclearance/preclear-locations

Edited September 25, 2014 by Putterdude

[Putterdude]

Yes, this was the Golden....and yes, it was security, Canadian customs, the US. In LA we will just need to turn in our a Declarations form as we walk out.

 

By the way, they are not speeding up to jake up the time. Our expected docking is 8:30 am rather than 7 PM. Weather was the usual coastal bumps and clouds out of VAN but it has been smooth and sunny the latter part of today.

 

Only thing we can figure is it was Sunday and Canada chose only to operate 3 out of 5 luggage scanners. There were only about four Canadian customs booths open and maybe ten out of twelve US statins, we've been here when we had to be bussed to Ballentyne, and even that wasn't this bad. We will check the port schedule next time or avoid VAN if possible.

 

I am curious as to why you would need to clear Canadian customs when boarding the Golden at Canada Place....normally it would only be US customs. Even if the ship was making a stop in Victoria you would have cleared CBSA at YVR or at one of the land crossings when you entered Canada.

[HelenSteady]

My cruise on RC out of Sydney last winter, they sent out stagered times to board - I got to the dock at 1 due to the hotel transfer time - my email had said 2 - I was denied boarding until 2. I could drop my luggage, and I went for a walk and came back. At that time there was no lineups at all, and boarding was very quick. Think more cruise lines should look at that.

 

I know, I hear the roar of the ones that insist they paid for "a free lunch" on boarding day and are going to get it no matter what!

But, I would rather board at 2 and walk on than board line up at 12 and wait in that line until 2 and board - not good at standing around in lineups

We were on the Crown Princess out of Vancouver in June and three other ships were also boarding. Luckily, we have preferred boarding being Platinum plus I use a walking stick and we were plucked from the line and sailed (unintended pun) through. Ship was late departing as it took 5 hours for all passengers to board. From what we could see the issue was with USBP as there were just not enough people to deal with the hoards waiting to board one of the four ships. Had the same problem 4 years ago out of Canada Place when I needed assistance to board and we waited for an extremely long time.

[VibeGuy]

After roughly a dozen departures from Canada Place since 2009, I'm convinced the problem is port security as well. My longest dwell time from post-X-ray to onboard is 45 minutes; my longest from entering the lineups to hitting the X-ray is just under four hours.

 

San Juan is a master of efficiency relative to Vancouver in this regard and it stops me from recommending cruises sailing from Vancouver to friends and family who haven't cruised before because the process can seriously ruin the start of their vacations.

[cvpends]

Agreed. Embarkation is the worst in Vancouver. Seattle and Los Angeles are so efficient by comparison.

[Urban trekker]

"We were on the Crown Princess out of Vancouver in June and three other ships were also boarding."

 

Really - here's a link to Canada Place's June ship schedule - as best I can see on any day that the Crown Princess was in port there was only one other ship in port at Canada Place

 

http://www.portmetrovancouver.com/about/cruiseandtourism/cruiselineschedules.aspx

 

You probably will have to go back to June as the link only let you link to the current month.

 

Cheers!

 

Dennis

Edited September 25, 2014 by Urban trekker

[TrnrMom]

Hi Judy !

What a pleasant surprise to see your posts! Sorry about the tough beginning to your cruise. Hope the rest of your cruise will be fun and smooth sailing.

I finally got my air booked. The airfare has been unreal to Fort Lauderdale. I finally caught a better ( not great ) deal sending us through Atlanta. Would you believe on 43 days to go to the Regal b2b. We are hearing some interesting rumors. I only hope they are true. On Nov.5th they are christening the ship with the original Loveboat crew being the godparents. The ceremony is invitation only. There is talk that they will be on the first of our cruises. I am not holding my breath but it would be fun. I will be anxious to hear about your travels.

Regards to Len also !

Sali

Hi, Sally. Look for PM later today...good to hear from you!

[TrnrMom]

After roughly a dozen departures from Canada Place since 2009, I'm convinced the problem is port security as well. My longest dwell time from post-X-ray to onboard is 45 minutes; my longest from entering the lineups to hitting the X-ray is just under four hours.

 

San Juan is a master of efficiency relative to Vancouver in this regard and it stops me from recommending cruises sailing from Vancouver to friends and family who haven't cruised before because the process can seriously ruin the start of their vacations.

 

Not to start a border incident here but - Who runs the security screening? All I know is that we were sitting 2 hours before our group number was called to go down those three narrow lfights of stairs. Only three of the five scanners were working. Then it was 30-40 minutes for Canadian customs who just scanned our passports - four stations open, as I recall. Then 30-40 minutes for US Customs even with 10-12 stations open. This seemed to be divided into three sections. Two for paying customers with a third section with two booths for non revenue passengers in the middle. The section on the right moved twice as fast as the one on the left t (we had been chatting with people who were directed to the left,; we were on the right. They told us later they watched us progress much more quickly). The middle section had only a couple of people in it.

[Putterdude]

Not to start a border incident here but - Who runs the security screening? All I know is that we were sitting 2 hours before our group number was called to go down those three narrow lfights of stairs. Only three of the five scanners were working. Then it was 30-40 minutes for Canadian customs who just scanned our passports - four stations open, as I recall. Then 30-40 minutes for US Customs even with 10-12 stations open. This seemed to be divided into three sections. Two for paying customers with a third section with two booths for non revenue passengers in the middle. The section on the right moved twice as fast as the one on the left t (we had been chatting with people who were directed to the left,; we were on the right. They told us later they watched us progress much more quickly). The middle section had only a couple of people in it.

 

There is no question, the security scanners are operated by seasonal employees or contractors of Canada Place.

 

However, allow me to restate the question I posted above. I remain curious as to why you would need to clear Canadian customs when boarding the Golden at Canada Place....normally it would only be US customs. Even if the ship was making a stop in Victoria you would have cleared CBSA at YVR or at one of the land crossings when you entered Canada.

[kruisey]

I live in Vancouver .Security is Canadian.DEPARTING Vancouver Immigration and Customs are USA officers.

RETURNING to Vancouver one always goes through Canadian Immigration and Customs officers :)