Vancouver - Canada Place - Nexus?

[KiwiGal117]

Hello!  

 

I searched the forum, but did not find an answer.  Does Canada Place have Global Entry/NEXUS for clearing US immigration before embarking; and likewise for disembarking and reentering Canada at the end of a cruise?

 

Also, any tips for managing the mayhem at Canada Place?  We are staying at the Fairmont Waterfront the night before, so hope to hand off our luggage to the bellhops there who apparently will deliver it directly to the longshoremen at Canada Place.  

 

TIA...

[martincath]

There has been a GE/NEXUS lane in the past - and there's one thread from May indicating that it came back this year.

 

Head left - and it might be a pretty small sign, with 'Priority', 'Crew' or similar wording as well as GE/NEXUS so hard to spot across a crowded room!

 

In general, be either very early, definitely before 10am (and expect to wait around until everything begins, but then speed through once everything does open) or else be as late as you possibly can (but never less than 90mins pre-departure time). For shortest possible 'street to cabin time' the latter plan wins as there's no wait time - and gives the bonus of extra time in an awesome city. But if you've visited us before and just want to get onboard as early as possible, I'd say roll in about 9:30am with your bags (it's literally across the street and down a ramp, and then you know 100% you have given your bag to the correct longshoremen for your ship with no possiblity of error by the bellhops if e.g. there are 2 ships of the same line in port...)

 

Haven't visited us before? I wouldn't recommend a North Shore tour on the morning of your embarkation, even if the expected tour end time is early enough - the bridges are always a bottleneck, and with Old Growth Logging protests ramping up their traffic blocking and specifically targetting the bridges now there's an elevated risk of delays. 

 

But if you do pretty much whatever else you like around town before noon, come back downtown for lunch somewhere nice, and then leave the last hour or so before emarking for things close enough to the pier to walk there within 10-15mins (e.g. FlyOverCanada which is right on the pier, the Steam Clock in Gastown). This removes all the risk of traffic delays so you can cut your timing very close with virtually no risk.

[Ashland]

The usual 90 min before embarking has been changed to 2 hours...at least it has for RCI. I believe...but we would never cut it that close.

[KiwiGal117]

2 hours ago, martincath said:

There has been a GE/NEXUS lane in the past - and there's one thread from May indicating that it came back this year.

 

Head left - and it might be a pretty small sign, with 'Priority', 'Crew' or similar wording as well as GE/NEXUS so hard to spot across a crowded room!

 

In general, be either very early, definitely before 10am (and expect to wait around until everything begins, but then speed through once everything does open) or else be as late as you possibly can (but never less than 90mins pre-departure time). For shortest possible 'street to cabin time' the latter plan wins as there's no wait time - and gives the bonus of extra time in an awesome city. But if you've visited us before and just want to get onboard as early as possible, I'd say roll in about 9:30am with your bags (it's literally across the street and down a ramp, and then you know 100% you have given your bag to the correct longshoremen for your ship with no possiblity of error by the bellhops if e.g. there are 2 ships of the same line in port...)

 

Excellent, thanks for the advice.  I am actually going to YVR in a couple of weeks just to visit (cruise is September).  I have a good friend who lives there, so spend quite a bit of time there (or at least I did pre-pandemic) so it's not totally necessary for us to maximize our time in the city.  We are going on HAL and the departure time has been moved up to 4pm, so I expect it's going to be a bit of a zoo as it will be compacting the embarkation slightly.  It appears there are two ships embarking that day, and one there on a port stop, so maybe the mayhem will be slightly less.  Fingers crossed.

[martincath]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

The usual 90 min before embarking has been changed to 2 hours...at least it has for RCI. I believe...but we would never cut it that close.

Good point - definitely ensure you are compliant with the MOST restrictive rules on timing, testing, Vaxx status etc. whether that's CBP, Canadian gov't, or cruiseline! So many special cases these days it's nigh impossible to give a single, definitive answer to anything...

25 minutes ago, KiwiGal117 said:

Excellent, thanks for the advice.  I am actually going to YVR in a couple of weeks just to visit (cruise is September).  I have a good friend who lives there, so spend quite a bit of time there (or at least I did pre-pandemic) so it's not totally necessary for us to maximize our time in the city.  We are going on HAL and the departure time has been moved up to 4pm, so I expect it's going to be a bit of a zoo as it will be compacting the embarkation slightly.  It appears there are two ships embarking that day, and one there on a port stop, so maybe the mayhem will be slightly less.  Fingers crossed.

Well in that case, definitely go for ~9:30am and bring a good book. You'll end up waiting around for probably 60-90mins until CBSA and CBP agree the ship is zeroed out, security are ready to start, and all the dominos fall in place but once things do start up you should be strolling through just as fast as we do when we show up late.