Boarding time?

[ChrisToni]

I am 14 days out from my Alaska cruise and my boarding pass still says boarding time to be assigned. Any one know when HAL assigns boarding times? I thought it was 14 days out?

[Crew News]

45 minutes ago, ChrisToni said:

I am 14 days out from my Alaska cruise and my boarding pass still says boarding time to be assigned. Any one know when HAL assigns boarding times? I thought it was 14 days out?

I got mine 2 days out last week.

[ChrisToni]

Yeah, I have cruised many times (31) on other cruise lines. I will say this much, I am very much least Impressed with HAL's customer service in several aspects.

Not sure how they expect you to make plans to get to port, when they take until the last minute to assign boarding times!

Edited May 6, 2023 by ChrisToni

[CruiserBruce]

As frequently discussed here, you can arrive at the pier at any time within the boarding window...as early as 11am. The boarding time assignment is just a suggestion.

[weedhopper]

I also leave in 14 days, so I finally booked my shuttle to the pier. When I finally receive my boarding time, and it doesn't agree with the time the shuttle drops is off.............oh well!!

[rodndonna]

If you arrive early, can you drop your bags off and leave and come back later?

[dreamer321]

I'm sailing on the Koningsdam on the 20th and I just checked my boarding pass.  Check - In time and boarding group are still TBA. Fortunately, I have priority boarding so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Laminator]

40 minutes ago, dreamer321 said:

I'm sailing on the Koningsdam on the 20th and I just checked my boarding pass.  Check - In time and boarding group are still TBA. Fortunately, I have priority boarding so we'll see how that goes.

 

Same here. We are on the that sailing also. We are in an NS with no boarding time yet. I am anticipating a 10am boarding time but we will see. My friends boarded out of Vancouver today with a 10am priority boarding time and it took them a little over an hour to get thru customs and security. Alot of the delay was 4 ships in port and many pax showing up an hour or 2 ahead of their boarding time. 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Laminator

[CruiserBruce]

@Laminator, 10am boarding is too early by HAL procedures. Not sure check in even starts that early. 

[Laminator]

19 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

@Laminator, 10am boarding is too early by HAL procedures. Not sure check in even starts that early. 

That is what time was on my friends boarding pass out of Vancouver today. I am sure HAL is aware of the issues boarding there and are trying to further spread out the pax.

[Crew News]

A careful look at the wording before the time listed on the boarding pass you will show, "Embark Date/Your Assigned Check-in  Time/Group "  It does NOT give a boarding time as in the past years.

Edited May 6, 2023 by Crew News

[bluesplayer]

Just got on the Koningsdam today.  May 6.  4 star Mariner in a Neptune Suite.  No priority boarding whatsoever.  Took close to 2 hours to board all standing in lines.  4 ships in the harbor.  We arrived at the port about 11am (our scheduled time).  Total chaos!!  VeriFLY meant nothing.   Late departure.  Long day!!

[Crew News]

44 minutes ago, bluesplayer said:

Just got on the Koningsdam today.  May 6.  4 star Mariner in a Neptune Suite.  No priority boarding whatsoever.  Took close to 2 hours to board all standing in lines.  4 ships in the harbor.  We arrived at the port about 11am (our scheduled time).  Total chaos!!  VeriFLY meant nothing.   Late departure.  Long day!!

What part of the terminal process was the hold up?

[bluesplayer]

Immigration,  they probably had 30 or 40 booths to scan your passport.  I know all of Princess and Konigsdam passengers were in that queue to use the same scanners.  Once you passed through Princess went right.  Konigsdam went left.  Never have stood in line like that even in non priority.  Hope this can be streamlined.

[Laminator]

6 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

@Laminator, 10am boarding is too early by HAL procedures. Not sure check in even starts that early. 

I just received my boarding time for my cruise out of Vancouver on the KDAM leaving May 20th. It's 10am!

Edited May 7, 2023 by Laminator

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, bluesplayer said:

Immigration,  they probably had 30 or 40 booths to scan your passport.  I know all of Princess and Konigsdam passengers were in that queue to use the same scanners.  Once you passed through Princess went right.  Konigsdam went left.  Never have stood in line like that even in non priority.  Hope this can be streamlined.

Thanks fr the update.

[CruiserBruce]

6 hours ago, Laminator said:

I just received my boarding time for my cruise out of Vancouver on the KDAM leaving May 20th. It's 10am!

OK, check in time (not boarding). Doubt you will be able to board before 11:30. They are racing to get the cabins ready for 11:30 boarding. 

 

Hopefully this part of a return to clear "Priority " boarding for Suites, 4 and 5 star Mariners,  like previous to Covid. They have been putting  "Priority " on boarding passes for those groups, but not consistently. 

[bluesplayer]

Check in time was not enforced.  Hence the long queues.  We had an 1100 check in time and arrived about 10 minutes early.  The lines were already massive.  Perhaps if they made folks wait until their actual boarding time hundreds of people would not stand in line for 2 hours.  

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, bluesplayer said:

Check in time was not enforced.  Hence the long queues.  We had an 1100 check in time and arrived about 10 minutes early.  The lines were already massive.  Perhaps if they made folks wait until their actual boarding time hundreds of people would not stand in line for 2 hours.  

Vancouver has always been a cluster. Part of the problem is the process of going through US Immigration and Customs before boarding. 

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

Vancouver has always been a cluster. Part of the problem is the process of going through US Immigration and Customs before boarding. 

Yes...but alot of the problem is pax showing up before their check-in time. HAL appears to be aware of the issue as they are attempting to spread out the times. I have never seen a 10am check in time before. I am sure it has happened though.

[Crew News]

22 minutes ago, Laminator said:

Yes...but alot of the problem is pax showing up before their check-in time. HAL appears to be aware of the issue as they are attempting to spread out the times. I have never seen a 10am check in time before. I am sure it has happened though.

I am Group Delta at 11:00 AM today so sounds like a group every 15 minutes.  Wonder how many groups for the day?

[Laminator]

8 minutes ago, Crew News said:

I am Group Delta at 11:00 AM today so sounds like a group every 15 minutes.  Wonder how many groups for the day?

Someone on our upcoming cruise has Group Charlie at 10:40 so every 20 minutes appear to be HAL's strategy. 

[HAL4NOW]

We boarded the Koningsdam last Monday, May 1st, at Canada Place. It took us well over three hours of waiting in various lines before being able to board. US Customs was part of the problem, but they cannot take all of the blame for the mess.

We were dropped off at the cruise port by a shuttle from our hotel. Even though we have departed from Canada Place previously, nothing resembled the previous procedures.

We say lines that said "Holland America" and "Princess" and "Norwegian" but there was no differentiation between any of the cruise lines. Everyone was being funneled through the same queue. Since we still had our luggage with us and wanted to drop that off before getting in line, we asked two different port personnel (uniforms and name-tag badges identified them) where we should drop off the luggage and then what the procedure was after that. One of them just said she didn't know and walked away. The other one said we had to go downstairs to drop off our luggage and then go upstairs to check in and then come back down to the level we were on to go through customs. When we asked how we should get downstairs, he pointed us to an elevator that had hundreds of people waiting in line to get a ride up or down.

We found a different way down to drop off our luggage, only to see even more lines of people. We walked past all of them and found a HAL porter that was taking luggage (ours already had tags we printed out at home) and he took our luggage. Then we tried to figure out how to get up to the check-in level. We had to walk outside because the escalator was being monitored for only a couple people to go up at a time and there were hundreds of people in line at the escalator. The elevator lines had lengthened since we had seen them a few minutes earlier. We walked outside and found some stairs that got us up to the next level. At the Convention Center we asked a security guard to point us to the line for check-in and he pointed out a line. When we got to that line, we realized that what we thought was the back of the line was just a corner where the line turned and went a few hundred more people in a different direction. At this point, passengers from all three cruise lines were mixed in the same line. About a hour later, Princess personnel and Norwegian personnel began going up and down the line and pulling their passengers out to go into different lines. 

When we finally got into the first large room for HAL check-in, we saw a sea of people weaving back and forth through the queue. Holland America was not processing people with any level of efficiency. After another hour, we had made it through that mess and then we were sent back to the US Customs downstairs and mixed with all three cruise lines passengers to get through yet another hour plus of back and forth through the queue. 

One lady did a face plant when she fainted from dehydration, others were looking extremely weary. The port can take some responsibility for the length of the process; Holland America did not do much to speed up any portion of the process, and US Customs was a joke. 

The good news is that apparently, earlier in the process it was going much faster and smoother. Our table mates were first time cruisers, and they did not have a problem getting on-board. They were able to enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet on the ship while many of the passengers were walking around the concrete waiting for the next corner to turn to go back to the other end of the room, only to turn and do it again.

Those that want to blame people for not showing up at the correct check-in time or to say that enforcing check-in times would have helped this process are delusional. 

[Laminator]

5 minutes ago, HAL4NOW said:

We boarded the Koningsdam last Monday, May 1st, at Canada Place. It took us well over three hours of waiting in various lines before being able to board. US Customs was part of the problem, but they cannot take all of the blame for the mess.

We were dropped off at the cruise port by a shuttle from our hotel. Even though we have departed from Canada Place previously, nothing resembled the previous procedures.

We say lines that said "Holland America" and "Princess" and "Norwegian" but there was no differentiation between any of the cruise lines. Everyone was being funneled through the same queue. Since we still had our luggage with us and wanted to drop that off before getting in line, we asked two different port personnel (uniforms and name-tag badges identified them) where we should drop off the luggage and then what the procedure was after that. One of them just said she didn't know and walked away. The other one said we had to go downstairs to drop off our luggage and then go upstairs to check in and then come back down to the level we were on to go through customs. When we asked how we should get downstairs, he pointed us to an elevator that had hundreds of people waiting in line to get a ride up or down.

We found a different way down to drop off our luggage, only to see even more lines of people. We walked past all of them and found a HAL porter that was taking luggage (ours already had tags we printed out at home) and he took our luggage. Then we tried to figure out how to get up to the check-in level. We had to walk outside because the escalator was being monitored for only a couple people to go up at a time and there were hundreds of people in line at the escalator. The elevator lines had lengthened since we had seen them a few minutes earlier. We walked outside and found some stairs that got us up to the next level. At the Convention Center we asked a security guard to point us to the line for check-in and he pointed out a line. When we got to that line, we realized that what we thought was the back of the line was just a corner where the line turned and went a few hundred more people in a different direction. At this point, passengers from all three cruise lines were mixed in the same line. About a hour later, Princess personnel and Norwegian personnel began going up and down the line and pulling their passengers out to go into different lines. 

When we finally got into the first large room for HAL check-in, we saw a sea of people weaving back and forth through the queue. Holland America was not processing people with any level of efficiency. After another hour, we had made it through that mess and then we were sent back to the US Customs downstairs and mixed with all three cruise lines passengers to get through yet another hour plus of back and forth through the queue. 

One lady did a face plant when she fainted from dehydration, others were looking extremely weary. The port can take some responsibility for the length of the process; Holland America did not do much to speed up any portion of the process, and US Customs was a joke. 

The good news is that apparently, earlier in the process it was going much faster and smoother. Our table mates were first time cruisers, and they did not have a problem getting on-board. They were able to enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet on the ship while many of the passengers were walking around the concrete waiting for the next corner to turn to go back to the other end of the room, only to turn and do it again.

Those that want to blame people for not showing up at the correct check-in time or to say that enforcing check-in times would have helped this process are delusional. 

What time was your boarding time? What time was your table mates boarding time? 

[HAL4NOW]

5 minutes ago, Laminator said:

What time was your boarding time? What time was your table mates boarding time? 

Our Check-in time was 1:00 PM, their check-in time was 11:00 AM. They were able to board a little before noon, we didn't get onboard until about 4:00.