Celebrity Eclipse Vancouver Boarding Process

[Plato123]

The last time we cruised from Vancouver to Hawaii on the Eclipse, the check in and boarding process was chaos even though we had "priority" having booked a Royal Suite.  Can anyone comment and /or describe the current process in Vancouver?  We will be on the Eclipse again later this year for an Alaska cruise. 

[bebe08]

We were on the Eclipse June 5th sailing and embarked/disembarked from Vancouver.

 

We did not have priority for boarding.  We showed up at the terminal around 11:05 (or scheduled boarding time was 11 - 11:30).  The lines were long but moved continuously.  The process was very smooth, with good signage, and lots of staff to steer you in the right direction.  We were on the ship around 11:30.

 

To disembark we had booked an X excursion that takes you to the airport.  We met in Celebrity Central at 8:15 as instructed for a 9am tour.  We were escorted to the gangway and were on our own from there until we met up with the tour bus outside the terminal.  I found signage not as good and a bit more confusing not knowing what line we should be in for our tour.  Even so we were on the bus by 8:50.

 

Happy to help if you have any other questions. 

[floralscent]

We were on the April 23 sailing- Vancouver to Hawaii. This was the first Eclipse sailing in 2 years and we had the 11:00 time slot. We cruised right through and were probably one of the first 10 people to board the ship. It really was smooth sailing, pun intended, to move right through. Just have everything needed in order and plan ahead...you will be fine. Happy sailing!

[travlr21]

We were on the June 5 sailing of the Eclipse. Our boarding time was 11:30 and we got to the port at about that time. We were in a Celebrity Suite. There was virtually no priority anywhere in the boarding process for Retreat guests.

 

The first line we joined was to drop off our luggage. It moved quickly, there was no indication of a priority line for that. Then we went through the security line followed by the US Customs line. Again, no indication of priority lines for either. Then we lined up for check in. There was one person at the front of the line directing each party to a check in agent, sort of down an aisle with a slew of agents with tablets lined up off to each side. That is the first time we saw a sign for a Retreat/Zenith check in agent. But the person directing us sent us to a different agent who was available.

 

The whole process took maybe 30 minutes? No one checked our assigned boarding time and no one asked if we were in the Retreat, or Concierge or Aqua, or Elite+ .... during the entire boarding process.

 

There were 2 other ships boarding the same day. 

[debkaysmith]

We were on the May 15th sailing and it was pretty awful. Our boarding time was delayed by 1.5 hours originally, then we proceeded to wait almost three hours to board once inside the terminal. It was only their second sailing out of Vancouver aboard the Eclipse. Could have been the newness of the operation, but we also heard that many passengers remaining onboard had tested positive for Covid, so there may have been a deep-clean before boarding. All in all - there was absolutely no communication from Celebrity and it left us with a less than positive experience. 

[Veinless]

We were also on the Eclipse June 5th sailing and embarked/disembarked from Vancouver. Things were disorganized. As suite guests, one person would direct us to a specific line, then once we got there they didn’t know why we were there and told us to go back to the end of the line. They seemed very confused. 
 

So much for “priority boarding” as touted by Celebrity. Really a poor start to a vacation. 

[Northern Aurora]

We also boarded the Eclipse in Vancouver on April 23rd.  We are both Zenith and were in a suite.  Were quickly directed to the Zenith/Suite line.  While the process wasn’t overly delayed our boarding agent didn’t seem to be well trained.  She became flustered and had to ask for assistance from her supervisor and other boarding agents.  The supervisor became irked which didn’t help the situation.