Genuine ? not trying to start controversy

[Rick&Jeannie]

Several people have mentioned about your bags "magically being delivered to the airport".  That is NOT normal.  It is a special service that you pay extra for...if in fact it is even done for Vancouver.  I know they do this for Seattle.  It is called EZCheck...extra charge service.  Personally (and I'm VERY cynical about things like this), I feel like it's just something that "can go wrong".  I try very hard to minimize things that can go wrong!  I'm sure there will be those who will chime in and say I'm being ridiculous and that they have done it many times.  Great (for them).  To each his own...I prefer to be in control of our bags through as much of our trip as possible.

[azbirdmom]

33 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:Someone mentioned that Princess takes your bags the night before as usual but takes them to the airport for you.  This has never been the case for us.  We had to get the bags and Princess loaded then onto the bus.  Honestly, I would prefer my luggage is on the same bus as me.  I don’t want to get to the airport and find one of my bags is missing from the other bus.

Found this in one of my Alaska trip files. We didn’t do it that time but did do it a year before and also in 2019. Only question is if they are doing it post Covid. 

[azbirdmom]

19 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

The OP said in their first post that they were in an inside cabin.... no suite.

No, they said the daughters were in an inside near their suite. 

[azbirdmom]

15 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Several people have mentioned about your bags "magically being delivered to the airport".  That is NOT normal.  It is a special service that you pay extra for...if in fact it is even done for Vancouver.  I know they do this for Seattle.  It is called EZCheck...extra charge service.  Personally (and I'm VERY cynical about things like this), I feel like it's just something that "can go wrong".  I try very hard to minimize things that can go wrong!  I'm sure there will be those who will chime in and say I'm being ridiculous and that they have done it many times.  Great (for them).  To each his own...I prefer to be in control of our bags through as much of our trip as possible.

I didn’t pay extra for it. See post #28. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

2 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

No, they said the daughters were in an inside near their suite. 

Doh!  My bad!

[kamelia]

If you purchase a Princess transfer, you would be expected to put your bags out the night before, other than a bag for overnight/disembarkation day, and those bags would be transferred to the airport as part of what you pay for the transfer.  Some ports will require passengers to collect their bags in the terminal to take with them through customs, but then the bags are re-collected after customs to continue with being transferred to the airport.  Some ports will allow Princess to transport the bags to the airport without have to be claimed by the passenger for customs clearance.  

 

I agree with wanting to be in control of my own bags as much as possible, but purchasing a Princess transfer can be a viable option for someone who's concerned about handling their own luggage throughout the disembarkation process.  😉

 

Edited to add: there are some ports that have arrangements with specific airlines so that when you put the checked bags the night before, the next time you see them is on the luggage carousel in your home airport.  

Edited February 17, 2023 by kamelia
additional information

[azbirdmom]

9 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Doh!  My bad!

 

No worries, I do that often enough to understand!

[beg3yrs]

4 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

....

Someone mentioned that Princess takes your bags the night before as usual but takes them to the airport for you.  This has never been the case for us.  We had to get the bags and Princess loaded then onto the bus.  Honestly, I would prefer my luggage is on the same bus as me.  I don’t want to get to the airport and find one of my bags is missing from the other bus.

Not Vancouver but less than two weeks ago we disembarked in Buenos Aires and had a disembarkation tour. Unlike our previous experiences with such tours, our bags did not accompany us on the bus but went by separate truck to the airport. We did not have to claim our bags in the cruise terminal or clear Argentine customs. Like others, DW was a little nervous about not having bags on the bus but it all worked out. The claim area at the airport was supervised by Princess personnel. We understood that straight Princess transfers from the ship to the airport and Princess hotels worked the same way.

[qip]

On 2/17/2023 at 1:50 PM, NewPosterLongTimeLurker said:

We will be sailing Majestic Princess in July with our adult daughters (20 & 22) in an inside cabin very close to our suite.  When we arrive in Vancouver, we have priority disembark and obviously our kids won't.  Can we have their luggage taken down with ours the evening before and have them self-disembark?   My TA suggested this may work, as they could grab their luggage on their way out and wait for us to meet them on the curb by the airport transfer.  Their luggage will likely be that of 1/2 their body weight, so having them carry it off seems to be an unlikely option. 

 

My biggest concern is their being assigned a later disembarkation time and our flight being at 1pm, that we may miss our flight. I am trying to avoid a mad and frenzied ending.  Somewhat irritated with our TA for booking it so close, ending vacation feeling like my hair is on fire is not a way to end our trip.  Ironically, I haven't ever used a TA to help our travels, but with such an expensive and lengthy trip, I thought logistically it may be better.  Everything else seems to be actually have been beneficial, however I am full of angst with the disembarkment aspect.

 

Other options/suggestions are certainly welcome.  Again, I am only trying to be prepared and not wanting to start an outrage, so please keep that in mind with responses. 

 

Based on our recent experiences (and past experiences), the easist way to resolve this is when you received the luggage tags for both cabins, take all of your luggage tags together and go to the guest services desk.  Depending on which disembarkation schedule you want to use (i.e., which luggage tag color and number), ask them to change all of your luggage tags to the same color and number.  I have never had a problem that the passenger services desk refuse to make the change.

 

On the disembarkation day, since you are staying in a suite, you will have the opportunity to use the Platinum and Suite Disembarkation lounge.  You can go there together with your children, and the agent there will let you enter the lounge together with your children.  Just let them know that four of you are traveling together, and they will let you enter together.

 

I hope your TA booked your air through Princess.  Princess makes sure that the flight time is within the minimum required time for them to disembark and transfer you to the airport, if you also booked the transfer with them.

 

Hope this helps!  Happy Travel!

Edited February 18, 2023 by qip

[martincath]

Skimming the answers so far there's some very solid advice (especially about leveraging your Suite to have your DDs bags taken with yours), but unfortunately also several pieces of misinformation - specific requirements at Vancouver, especially for a flight to the USA, are not the same as most Princess ports elsewhere.

 

Before giving the potentially-scary info, I'll reassure you that a 1pm flight has almost ALWAYS been a perfectly safe timeslot - but there are some specific risk factors that may or may not apply due to your arrival date and itinerary, and unfortunately because you're on Majestic at least one potentially huge issue (tides) as well as the annoyance factor of a possibly-reduced port of call time on your last stop before Vancouver.

 

First the general info to correct some misinformation: no matter the ship, there's no EZCheck here - airport transfers do not deliver bags straight to airlines for US-bound daytime flights as it's not legal; depending on your cruise route you may (or may not) need to deal with Canadian CBSA agents at the pier (in which case collecting bags at the pier also happens before loading onto shuttles); and then you always collect your bags at the airport personally and deliver them to CBP's bag drop for screening (this is a US government requirement - video/photos are taken of you and the bag and linked to your boarding pass - which prevents the 'normal' EZCheck system operating).

 

Even your ship class makes a difference in Vancouver - because whatever arrival time you have on your paperwork could be completely wrong for Majestic, a Royal class ship. The actual time of arrival in port is completely dependent on low tide - your ship can only pass under Lions Gate bridge during two short periods, as little as 30 minutes each(!) depending on the date. That means almost all the theoretical 7am arrival times end up being brought forward or back by up to 6 hours. Right now the official cruise schedule hasn't been altered from the requested slots - every Majestic arrival/departure is 7am/4:30pm - so you can pre-empt Princess' email if you check the schedule regularly... the port usually updates with actual times before the lines tell pax.

 

Your 1pm flight could therefor be trivially easy to make, or literally impossible - even with a Princess flight and transfer, when they revise the schedule based on finally checking local tide timings (sometimes only a month before your cruise, despite these timetables being available literally years in advance!) if the ship is docking later than hoped you'll find that your flight might need changed because there simply isn't time to get you to YVR

 

Without knowing your exact date of disembarkation, I can only say that in general Princess prefer to err on the side of 'arrive ridiculously early' rather than pushing the arrival time beyond 9am, precisely to avoid the issue of changing flights. If the time does slide earlier (e.g. last year Royal and Majestic arrival times were frequently between midnight and 4am) expect them to cut back your time ashore at the last port of call as Majestic has the further issue of not being allowed to use the Inside Passage east of Vancouver Island - it always has to sail the long way around so might need to leave port a few hours early to make it to our harbour in time for the narrow window to pass under Lions Gate.

 

On the good news side, there's always a possibility that the 'Direct to Bus' service mentioned up the thread might return - but it was never offered consistently even pre-Covid as it requires CBP, CBSA, Port management, Airline AND the Cruiseline to work together to arrange so I'd say odds are against it... but if you do get the chance to use it, jump on it as it removes sooooo many steps from the equation! Cruiseline transfers here in Vancouver basically suck - overpriced by an insane amount (you are probably paying enough for an individual taxi each) but in circumstances involving a tight flight deadline they do at least give you the comfort of knowing that it's on the line to arrange a new flight for you at their expense if they screw up and fail to get you there on time.

 

TL;DR version - tell me your exact date and itinerary and I'll have a shufty at the local tide times to see how much Majestic is likely to need to shift their arrival time. If you don't visit any Canadian ports right before Vancouver, no matter how early the ship arrives CBSA won't let you off until they start work (first disembark slot is usually ~7:30am) so your route might impact whether you can just walk off the ship as soon as it docks or need to wait for several hours. But at the end of the day, as long as Majestic's schedule doesn't slip more than ~2hours later you should probably be fine just letting Princess handle the transfers

[NewPosterLongTimeLurker]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:42 PM, martincath said:

Skimming the answers so far there's some very solid advice (especially about leveraging your Suite to have your DDs bags taken with yours), but unfortunately also several pieces of misinformation - specific requirements at Vancouver, especially for a flight to the USA, are not the same as most Princess ports elsewhere.

 

Before giving the potentially-scary info, I'll reassure you that a 1pm flight has almost ALWAYS been a perfectly safe timeslot - but there are some specific risk factors that may or may not apply due to your arrival date and itinerary, and unfortunately because you're on Majestic at least one potentially huge issue (tides) as well as the annoyance factor of a possibly-reduced port of call time on your last stop before Vancouver.

 

First the general info to correct some misinformation: no matter the ship, there's no EZCheck here - airport transfers do not deliver bags straight to airlines for US-bound daytime flights as it's not legal; depending on your cruise route you may (or may not) need to deal with Canadian CBSA agents at the pier (in which case collecting bags at the pier also happens before loading onto shuttles); and then you always collect your bags at the airport personally and deliver them to CBP's bag drop for screening (this is a US government requirement - video/photos are taken of you and the bag and linked to your boarding pass - which prevents the 'normal' EZCheck system operating).

 

Even your ship class makes a difference in Vancouver - because whatever arrival time you have on your paperwork could be completely wrong for Majestic, a Royal class ship. The actual time of arrival in port is completely dependent on low tide - your ship can only pass under Lions Gate bridge during two short periods, as little as 30 minutes each(!) depending on the date. That means almost all the theoretical 7am arrival times end up being brought forward or back by up to 6 hours. Right now the official cruise schedule hasn't been altered from the requested slots - every Majestic arrival/departure is 7am/4:30pm - so you can pre-empt Princess' email if you check the schedule regularly... the port usually updates with actual times before the lines tell pax.

 

Your 1pm flight could therefor be trivially easy to make, or literally impossible - even with a Princess flight and transfer, when they revise the schedule based on finally checking local tide timings (sometimes only a month before your cruise, despite these timetables being available literally years in advance!) if the ship is docking later than hoped you'll find that your flight might need changed because there simply isn't time to get you to YVR

 

Without knowing your exact date of disembarkation, I can only say that in general Princess prefer to err on the side of 'arrive ridiculously early' rather than pushing the arrival time beyond 9am, precisely to avoid the issue of changing flights. If the time does slide earlier (e.g. last year Royal and Majestic arrival times were frequently between midnight and 4am) expect them to cut back your time ashore at the last port of call as Majestic has the further issue of not being allowed to use the Inside Passage east of Vancouver Island - it always has to sail the long way around so might need to leave port a few hours early to make it to our harbour in time for the narrow window to pass under Lions Gate.

 

On the good news side, there's always a possibility that the 'Direct to Bus' service mentioned up the thread might return - but it was never offered consistently even pre-Covid as it requires CBP, CBSA, Port management, Airline AND the Cruiseline to work together to arrange so I'd say odds are against it... but if you do get the chance to use it, jump on it as it removes sooooo many steps from the equation! Cruiseline transfers here in Vancouver basically suck - overpriced by an insane amount (you are probably paying enough for an individual taxi each) but in circumstances involving a tight flight deadline they do at least give you the comfort of knowing that it's on the line to arrange a new flight for you at their expense if they screw up and fail to get you there on time.

 

TL;DR version - tell me your exact date and itinerary and I'll have a shufty at the local tide times to see how much Majestic is likely to need to shift their arrival time. If you don't visit any Canadian ports right before Vancouver, no matter how early the ship arrives CBSA won't let you off until they start work (first disembark slot is usually ~7:30am) so your route might impact whether you can just walk off the ship as soon as it docks or need to wait for several hours. But at the end of the day, as long as Majestic's schedule doesn't slip more than ~2hours later you should probably be fine just letting Princess handle the transfers

We arrive in Vancouver on the 5th of August, this is what the confirmation from Princess shows:
Aug 05 Vancouver 6:30AM
Aug 05 Transfer: Ship To Airport

 

We have a sea day on that Friday, our last stop is timed as  Aug 03 Ketchikan 10:00AM 6:00PM

 

Thank you for your experience and wisdom.  I feel better knowing that I can have our daughters luggage go off with ours the night before that we could have them self disembark, however I may consider asking if they're able to join us in the suite/platinum area.  I do not want to overstep there, and since they're adults they can self disembark and meet us with their luggage.  I am ok with that too.  

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 2/17/2023 at 1:50 PM, NewPosterLongTimeLurker said:

Their luggage will likely be that of 1/2 their body weight, so having them carry it off seems to be an unlikely option. 

are they disabled?

My 100# 11 yo is fully capable of pushing a 29" roller suitcase all the way from the ship through the customs. But your 20 and 21 yo can't? They are not asked to CARRY a 50# suitcase.

 

Everything else has been covered, but this is just so out there.

[martincath]

2 hours ago, NewPosterLongTimeLurker said:

We arrive in Vancouver on the 5th of August, this is what the confirmation from Princess shows:
Aug 05 Vancouver 6:30AM
Aug 05 Transfer: Ship To Airport

 

We have a sea day on that Friday, our last stop is timed as  Aug 03 Ketchikan 10:00AM 6:00PM

 

Thank you for your experience and wisdom.  I feel better knowing that I can have our daughters luggage go off with ours the night before that we could have them self disembark, however I may consider asking if they're able to join us in the suite/platinum area.  I do not want to overstep there, and since they're adults they can self disembark and meet us with their luggage.  I am ok with that too.  

Your arrival time will be earlier than that, but not as bad as it could be - low tide Aug 5th at First Narrows somewhat after 3am, so Majestic will sit in port for a few hours awaiting CBSA before anyone gets off, most likely 7:30am actual 'feet on the gangplank' time for the first pax self-disembarking.

 

Good news - you'll probably be in port a couple of hours before the only other vessel that day, Konigsdam, arrives so odds are very decent Majestic pax will start flowing off before the HAL pax do. If your DDs both self-disembark as soon as they're allowed, they'll get through and may have to kill an hour waiting for you - others will likely have earlier flights than you and be prioritized for disembarkation and shuttle time compared to you with a 1pm flight, so depending how many there are on noonish flights you may be several slots later (since Princess have min 4.5hr after arrival flight schedule, and it's a 2 ship day, flights at noon are within their parameters and also a safe bet that day).

 

Ketchikan is far enough that there's always a full sea day, whether Inside Passage or around the outside of the island, but every year since the Royal class was first sent up here they've tweaked their schedule - not sure what the practical max speed is of those beasts, but a slower cruising speed saves fuel so even if they could just out the proverbial hammer down and get here faster they probably won't... that said, they will want enough time in port to sell all the excursions they can so if it does change it will probably be 'arrive an hour earlier, leave an hour or two earlier, at most one net hour lost' type tweaking (distance into Ketchikan from Juneau/Skagway/ISP is short so they can easily make it there earlier).

 

Bad news for your DDs is that unless they do bring their own suitcases off with them they won't be able to leave the pier - Vancouver being your Port of Arrival into Canada means Customs needs done here. Immigration and most customs issues will be dealt with remotely - all ships transmit their manifest and pax custom declaration form info in advance (you'll be given forms aboard and told to hand them in by a specific day/time).

 

If there's something of concern you'll be flagged for an in-person interview (if this is a one-way cruise, i.e. you didn't already get into Canada beforehand to board a round trip, then any DUIs or other 'minor' issues for where you live might mean problems here as we classify them rather differently), but even if like most pax you pass the immigration checks just fine, if you've bought lots of shiny things CBSA may want to ensure that they are all heading back home with you rather than being given as gifts to local friends, that sort of thing.

 

What it boils down to is your bags must be with you when you pass CBSA for customs! So if DDs want to get off, walk around a bit, maybe grab a really nice coffee somewhere after suffering through the ghastly concentrate-made swill that is handed out onboard-  they'll need to schlep their own bags or CBSA will be very unhappy with them!

 

They could hang around inside the still-secure part of the pier and wait for you, but there's really nowhere to chill and there will be people hustling around falling over them. All-in-all I'd suggest just asking that your DDs be put in the same 'with help' disembark slot you are unless they're capable of pulling all their bags with one hand - if they're stronger than you think then they could easily have a wander over the Olympic Flame, watch the seaplanes, grab a decent coffee etc. without going more than a couple of blocks away.

 

If you do separate, keep in touch with each other - even if you don't all have free data plans there's a city-provided WiFi network (#VanWiFi) that makes keeping in touch with Messenger, VOIP calls etc. free for anyone with a phone or tablet.

 

And next time, schedule a few days post-cruise!!! Being able to pick any flight you like back home alleviates stress, and we're a delightful spot to spend time in!

[WaggesAZ]

11 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

are they disabled?

My 100# 11 yo is fully capable of pushing a 29" roller suitcase all the way from the ship through the customs. But your 20 and 21 yo can't? They are not asked to CARRY a 50# suitcase.

 

Everything else has been covered, but this is just so out there.

Wow, is your snark necessary?  If the poster said yes they are disable how would you feel?  It didn't seem sincere or helpful.  To your point, have you done self disembark?  My understanding is they may need to handle all of their own luggage from stateroom to shuttle, which may include stairs, escalators, etc.  It is not outside waiting for them to pick up.  That is why they wanted to see if they can have their luggage sent down with theirs.  

Edited February 22, 2023 by WaggesAZ
misspelled

[Itchy&Scratchy]

11 minutes ago, WaggesAZ said:

have you done self disembark?

yes.

 

If they were disabled, I'd understand why they couldn't lug/roll their suitcases with them. If they are able bodied, then "the suitcases are half their weight" sounds rather strange, especially if no one is forcing them to actually CARRY their luggage, and they can leave their luggage at their parents' suite.