Embarkation in Vancouver

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

This is the first post I have seen about arrival times actually  being enforced at any Princess port of embarkation.

 

6 hours ago, dog said:

Before I checked out of my hotel at 12, on the May 4th Discovery cruise, there were roll call members posting their dirty banana drinks from the ship. They boarded first within 1/2 hour.

If boarding times were adhered to it might help.

The staff working in the Vancouver terminal were friendly, polite & doing their best on the day I was there.

Times for some have been tough & people should pack their patience.

 

 

I hope the folks checking Arrival Groups realize that Suites, Elites, Club Class and Platinum may arrive at time of their choosing and, if early, wait in the priority "lounge" area for boarding (@ceilidh1 mentioned this as well).

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, Potstech said:

Hopefully you will have no traffic or other problems in getting back to the ship. Would be very bad to miss the ship departure.  We would never do something like this on Embarkation day. Can it be done? Yes it can. Things do happen though. 

With a smartphone and GPS, you can keep track of how long the trip is from wherever you are back to Canada Place.

[Steelers36]

10 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

I didn’t mean any disrespect to you at all!  So sorry if I sounded snarky, Dog.  My comment was a general disappointment with Vancouver embarkation.  Thanks for sharing your experience, as your comments are always spot on!

That was my interpretation and @Thrak was sharing his experience of a much busier crowd and slower process.  Experiences can be different, depending on time of arrival, number of ships, staffing level, etc.  Seems like Canada Place bottleneck is whatever security and CBP can process.  Thank heavens for NEXUS/GE - only better investments would have been buying MSFT, GOOGL, APPL all on Day 1.  LOL.

 

 

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, dog said:

If boarding times were adhered to it might help.

Perhaps.  But if other ship(s) there, well hundreds of passengers for the other ships won't necessarily be following any set arrival times and everyone is mixed together for security and CBP - not like Port Everglades, for example.  Anyway, it is good to know the situation and seems like either show up quite early or late unless you don't mind lines.  Or, maybe get lucky and have a single-ship day.

[scooter6139]

18 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

 

 

I hope the folks checking Arrival Groups realize that Suites, Elites, Club Class and Platinum may arrive at time of their choosing and, if early, wait in the priority "lounge" area for boarding (@ceilidh1 mentioned this as well).

 

Did not happen.  That first line didn't care what your status was, just what arrival group you were.  The only place your "status" helped was the next line for check in.  The only "lounge" area they had was in the last stop area, right before the boarding ramp.  I think they had some water available, but they opened the ship right when we arrived in this section. 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Potstech said:

Hopefully you will have no traffic or other problems in getting back to the ship. Would be very bad to miss the ship departure.  We would never do something like this on Embarkation day. Can it be done? Yes it can. Things do happen though. 

 

Although check-in might be quick at 3 PM, will the security and immigration lines also be sure to be short at that time?

[martincath]

5 hours ago, Crystabel said:

Great explanation. Thank you. 
I have another question. We would like to take a tour of Vancouver the day we board. The tour begins at 10:00AM and ends at 3:00PM. Ship leaves port at 4:30PM. How easy would it be to drop off our luggage at the port at 10:00AM and have our tour guide pick us up there? 

That depends entirely on where the tour goes - if it's on the wrong side of a bridge near the end, then you could quite easily get screwed... so I would strenuously avoid any 'North Shore Tours'! But if it's all inside Vancouver, you would never likely be more than a handful of miles from the pier and have multiple road options to get back to the pier on time. With these, you do still add SOME extra risk, but it's minor - bus breaks down far enough away that you cannot get back to the pier in time, that sort of things. But given how close to the pier most of these tour routes are, the number of cabs/public bus stops/skytrain stations, I'd say that the risk is very much minimal. Dropping luggage can usually be done before 9:30am even if officially it starts later (some time between 10 and 10:30am is the timeslot listed on the pier's info.

 

As mentioned earlier, the later you push your arrival the less faffing around waiting in lines so frankly the later the better - but do make sure you arrive an hour before your sailway, as CBP restrictions are firm given the preclearance issues and even if the line and CBP would happily wait for you, the tide times are crucial - your sailaway may have to be on time or else cause a huge delay in hitting the first port, so one couple late returning from an indy tour is NOT going to have the ship wait for them long in Vancouver!

[Steelers36]

11 minutes ago, scooter6139 said:

 

Did not happen.  That first line didn't care what your status was, just what arrival group you were.  The only place your "status" helped was the next line for check in.  The only "lounge" area they had was in the last stop area, right before the boarding ramp.  I think they had some water available, but they opened the ship right when we arrived in this section. 

That is just wrong.  Of course, I will be doing everything I can to get into first A group, but we are allowed to show up anytime as Elites.  This was confirmed by no less than Jan Swartz herself at the initial sailings as there were many questions and concerns around this.

 

Now, if someone from PCL told the "gatekeepers" to be checking arrival groups, and didn't give complete story, well who knows where the slip up is?

 

@ceilidh1, can you shed any further light on the specifics of an Elite guest, for example, showing up prior to 10:00am for the opening, but has a noon arrival group, for example?  That guest should be allowed to proceed to check-in.

[dog]

Scooter, I saw your posting of the line you were in while I was still at the hotel. What time did you arrive at Canada Place?

I got there at 12:20 & in my cabin by 1:10.

as soon as I got to the check in room I told an employee I was elite in a suite & asked him where should I go. He moved me up to check in, over to the right.

There were chairs to sit down if you needed to.

 

No one was checking arrival groups when I was in line.

[scooter6139]

3 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

That is just wrong.  Of course, I will be doing everything I can to get into first A group, but we are allowed to show up anytime as Elites.  This was confirmed by no less than Jan Swartz herself at the initial sailings as there were many questions and concerns around this.

 

Now, if someone from PCL told the "gatekeepers" to be checking arrival groups, and didn't give complete story, well who knows where the slip up is?

 

 

Agreed, but we were first section of first group anyway, and were Platinum and Suites, so I was pretty sure were were covered.  My guess would be this is just the waiting area before the "real" check in area, so Princess's perks don't apply until you get into the hall itself.  

 

But then again, the Pier folks don't always have the info or authority to answer basic questions.  Same thing happened on an NCL cruise in LA, the Priority line was way inside the tent/hall but no one could help us figure out 1. where is was or 2.  can we just go to it.  Once we got into the tent I spotted it and made a beeline for it.

[dog]

6 hours ago, Crystabel said:

Great explanation. Thank you. 
I have another question. We would like to take a tour of Vancouver the day we board. The tour begins at 10:00AM and ends at 3:00PM. Ship leaves port at 4:30PM. How easy would it be to drop off our luggage at the port at 10:00AM and have our tour guide pick us up there? 

are you familiar with Vancouver?

I did a tour a few years ago & we got into a lot of traffic after the lunch hour.

 

I would move the tour to post cruise or the day prior. 

[scooter6139]

1 minute ago, dog said:

Scooter, I saw your posting of the line you were in while I was still at the hotel. What time did you arrive at Canada Place?

I got there at 12:20 & in my cabin by 1:10.

as soon as I got to the check in room I told an employee I was elite in a suite & asked him where should I go. He moved me up to check in, over to the right.

There were chairs to sit down if you needed to.

 

No one was checking arrival groups when I was in line.

 

We left our rooms in the Pan Pacific by 9:45am if I remember correctly, as we were Arrival Group A.  There was already a HUGE line when we got there outside the hall.  They had "folks" walking up and down the line shouting "This line is ONLY for the 10:30 Group.  Any other later group should go sit somewhere else or perhaps find a coffee and relax somewhere else."  They then had folks checking outside the door and then again immediately inside the door before they would let you proceed to the check in lines.  The Suite/Elite/Platinum line went pretty fast, as we were the first folks with their medallions already so our check in lady got to test that process with us.  We were on ship within 20 minutes I think.

[dog]

7 minutes ago, scooter6139 said:

 

Agreed, but we were first section of first group anyway, and were Platinum and Suites, so I was pretty sure were were covered.  My guess would be this is just the waiting area before the "real" check in area, so Princess's perks don't apply until you get into the hall itself.  

 

But then again, the Pier folks don't always have the info or authority to answer basic questions.  Same thing happened on an NCL cruise in LA, the Priority line was way inside the tent/hall but no one could help us figure out 1. where is was or 2.  can we just go to it.  Once we got into the tent I spotted it and made a beeline for it.

Agree, this terminal had a lot more space inside for lining up, a lot of walking.

it was quite different from other terminals I have been to.

So by my choosing Group B arrival  time I avoided the crowd. I know as elite I could go anytime, but expected a line up.

thanks for reply 

[ceilidh1]

46 minutes ago, scooter6139 said:

 

Did not happen.  That first line didn't care what your status was, just what arrival group you were.  The only place your "status" helped was the next line for check in.  The only "lounge" area they had was in the last stop area, right before the boarding ramp.  I think they had some water available, but they opened the ship right when we arrived in this section. 

 

31 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

That is just wrong.  Of course, I will be doing everything I can to get into first A group, but we are allowed to show up anytime as Elites.  This was confirmed by no less than Jan Swartz herself at the initial sailings as there were many questions and concerns around this.

 

Now, if someone from PCL told the "gatekeepers" to be checking arrival groups, and didn't give complete story, well who knows where the slip up is?

 

@ceilidh1, can you shed any further light on the specifics of an Elite guest, for example, showing up prior to 10:00am for the opening, but has a noon arrival group, for example?  That guest should be allowed to proceed to check-in.

I'm confused...was this embarking at Canada Place? What "first line"? Check in is the first place you go in Vancouver? Or was this a start of season anomaly where they needed to have folks wait before check in opened? I can't say that we have been using arrival times in Vancouver, because we haven't needed to  - it's not the Princess side (ie check in/boarding) that gets backed up. Even if we turned away people that arrived at the wrong time, the other ships in port would still be continuing with their process so when you arrived back there would STILL be a line....

[dog]

7 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

 

I'm confused...was this embarking at Canada Place? What "first line"? Check in is the first place you go in Vancouver? Or was this a start of season anomaly where they needed to have folks wait before check in opened? I can't say that we have been using arrival times in Vancouver, because we haven't needed to  - it's not the Princess side (ie check in/boarding) that gets backed up. Even if we turned away people that arrived at the wrong time, the other ships in port would still be continuing with their process so when you arrived back there would STILL be a line....

We were lined up in the hallway before getting into the room where we checked in.

[ceilidh1]

23 minutes ago, dog said:

We were lined up in the hallway before getting into the room where we checked in.

Ahhhh, sounds like a start of season anomaly. It does happen. It sucks.

[cruisingberger]

We will be sailing into Vancouver on Cunard and out of Vancouver on Princess on same day. I contacted the port, and they said that it should be  walk-able distance. Has anyone done that before? Any advice?

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, scooter6139 said:

 

Thanks very much for all your detailed posts on the Vancouver check-in experience.

[dog]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

 

I hope the folks checking Arrival Groups realize that Suites, Elites, Club Class and Platinum may arrive at time of their choosing and, if early, wait in the priority "lounge" area for boarding (@ceilidh1 mentioned this as well).

This could be causing the long lines & crowding as some on here have described. There are so many elite & platinum that show up along with those who have been assigned arrival group A. 

I prefer everyone show up at an assigned arrival time.

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, cruisingberger said:

We will be sailing into Vancouver on Cunard and out of Vancouver on Princess on same day. I contacted the port, and they said that it should be  walk-able distance. Has anyone done that before? Any advice?

What are you asking? Cunard and Princess all dock at the same place. What do you need to walk to?

[Steelers36]

34 minutes ago, dog said:

This could be causing the long lines & crowding as some on here have described. There are so many elite & platinum that show up along with those who have been assigned arrival group A. 

I prefer everyone show up at an assigned arrival time.

I really doubt that many Captain's Circle Elites and those who book Suites or Club Class are going to agree with you - especially when there have been other benefits taken away last year.  Just because you don't mind showing up after lunch doesn't mean the rest of us do.  I note you also used the word "assigned". 

 

Assigned by the cruise line is arbitrary and wouldn't consider guest preferences in terms of arrival time.  The new "system" of Arrival Groups was specifically designed during the height of Covid in an attempt to manage people flow.  At least people have an opportunity to choose with this scheme.

 

As/when Covid goes away (by that I mean no longer a pandemic), the fundamental reason for the groups goes away and perhaps they will get rid of it.  Of course, what preceded it was arbitrary recommended times by deck.  So, if a guest happened to select a cabin on the wrong deck, they could be boarding mid-afternoon. 

 

This is not really any different than airlines that allow their Frequent Flyers to board first - providing they are at the gate when boarding commences.

[ceilidh1]

5 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I really doubt that many Captain's Circle Elites and those who book Suites or Club Class are going to agree with you - especially when there have been other benefits taken away last year.  Just because you don't mind showing up after lunch doesn't mean the rest of us do.  I note you also used the word "assigned". 

 

Assigned by the cruise line is arbitrary and wouldn't consider guest preferences in terms of arrival time.  The new "system" of Arrival Groups was specifically designed during the height of Covid in an attempt to manage people flow.  At least people have an opportunity to choose with this scheme.

 

As/when Covid goes away (by that I mean no longer a pandemic), the fundamental reason for the groups goes away and perhaps they will get rid of it.  Of course, what preceded it was arbitrary recommended times by deck.  So, if a guest happened to select a cabin on the wrong deck, they could be boarding mid-afternoon. 

 

This is not really any different than airlines that allow their Frequent Flyers to board first - providing they are at the gate when boarding commences.

Also, when I just cruised in April, I was never able to even choose an arrival time. The app just never let me do it. So I guess I either show up whenever or never...lol

[Steelers36]

Just now, ceilidh1 said:

Also, when I just cruised in April, I was never able to even choose an arrival time. The app just never let me do it. So I guess I either show up whenever or never...lol

You are so right.  There are many guests who have no idea what their Arrival Group *might* be.

[dog]

6 hours ago, dog said:

This could be causing the long lines & crowding as some on here have described. There are so many elite & platinum that show up along with those who have chosen Group A as an arrival time.

We had very few problems with the app for our May 4 th cruise , sorry to those who are still finding it frustrating.

Edited May 24, 2022 by dog

[scooter6139]

10 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Also, when I just cruised in April, I was never able to even choose an arrival time. The app just never let me do it. So I guess I either show up whenever or never...lol

 

This also happened to my folks who were cruising with us, but were CC at the time.  Their Medallion app would not let them choose a time either, so I had to help them get that figured out (I work in IT so apps that don't work correctly are just another challenge to overcome).  Got them signed up for arrival group A too, so we could get on the ship and do some exploring.  Also guess since this cruise only had 1800+ folks on it reduced the lines and groups a bit.  

Edited May 24, 2022 by scooter6139