SEA disembarkation delay for Royal Princess and Travel Insurance

[Buckeye10640]

I am reading about the several hour disembarkation and embarkation delays yesterday for Royal Princess in Seattle. Hoping this does not occur for me in a few weeks, but wondering if anyone has ever missed a flight (not EZAir, and booked for 5 hours after scheduled arrival) due to disembarkation delays and filed for travel delay reimbursement successfully from your travel insurance provider. I have done this for  flight cancellation,  but have never experienced a lengthy disembarkation delay.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Buckeye10640

[outtoseacruise]

I did walk off yesterday on Royal Princess and had no issues. With a cab ride I was at SEA around 8:45 AM. 

It did appear they had some sort of customs issue that was resolved by I think around 7:45 to 7:50. I saw one of the officers going off the ship with what appeared to be 4 or 5 passports in Ziplock bags. About 15 minutes later the ship was cleared.

FWIW I also found the taxi was running cheaper to SEA from the port which was only $63. When I was looking at Lyft while waiting to disembark it was $70+.  

[Buckeye10640]

3 hours ago, outtoseacruise said:

I did walk off yesterday on Royal Princess and had no issues. With a cab ride I was at SEA around 8:45 AM. 

It did appear they had some sort of customs issue that was resolved by I think around 7:45 to 7:50. I saw one of the officers going off the ship with what appeared to be 4 or 5 passports in Ziplock bags. About 15 minutes later the ship was cleared.

FWIW I also found the taxi was running cheaper to SEA from the port which was only $63. When I was looking at Lyft while waiting to disembark it was $70+.  

Thanks so much  for that info. I read a couple of horror stories of hours long delays, maybe those were passengers who had to collect bags. We plan to walk-off asap and grab a cab, and we are TSA precheck so that should help at the airport. Flight is 11:45am so its not crazy early.  Hope you had a great cruise!

[ronandannette]

5 hours ago, outtoseacruise said:

I did walk off yesterday on Royal Princess and had no issues. With a cab ride I was at SEA around 8:45 AM. 

It did appear they had some sort of customs issue that was resolved by I think around 7:45 to 7:50. I saw one of the officers going off the ship with what appeared to be 4 or 5 passports in Ziplock bags. About 15 minutes later the ship was cleared.

FWIW I also found the taxi was running cheaper to SEA from the port which was only $63. When I was looking at Lyft while waiting to disembark it was $70+.  

Don't dismiss the "horror stories" you weren't a part of. You were one of the very few lucky ones. By 8:00 am they had closed the gangway and were announcing a delay of at least 2 hours. Not much for an explanation other than a shortage of Customs staff and the terminal being over-crowded due to the coincident disembarkation of the Eurodam. We waited as instructed; they allowed people back into the staterooms and the lines (unbelievably long) didn't start moving until after 10:00 am. We made a plea to an officer who directed us out a side way and still missed the cut-off for our international flight back to Calgary, which took off at 12:35 pm. Very upsetting. 

 

We were booked on Alaska Air and the next available flight they could offer was 6 days hence. We ended up stranded overnight in Seattle and having to pay over $1,000 Canadian for two next-day fares home Air Canada which we caught this morning at 6:00 am. Because Alaska offered to re-book us, my flight insurance (which I booked through them with the purchase) will not reimburse the new tickets or refund the unused ones. All in all, this little snag quadrupled the price of what we happily booked as a quick, cheap getaway and sapped the joy from it. 

[SCX22]

With insurance, there is a burden of proof that has to be established.  It would be really hard to establish a disembarkation delay with the insurance company because of the lack of record keeping.  There would be nothing that you could show to the insurance, unless some one from Princess would vouch for you, about the delay.   Not sure that taking pictures of the chaos at the port would suffice for the insurance company.  With flights, there are resources that keep records of actual flight departure and arrival times that the claims adjustor would have access to and could base your flight delay off claim off of.  

[Buckeye10640]

1 hour ago, SCX22 said:

With insurance, there is a burden of proof that has to be established.  It would be really hard to establish a disembarkation delay with the insurance company because of the lack of record keeping.  There would be nothing that you could show to the insurance, unless some one from Princess would vouch for you, about the delay.   Not sure that taking pictures of the chaos at the port would suffice for the insurance company.  With flights, there are resources that keep records of actual flight departure and arrival times that the claims adjustor would have access to and could base your flight delay off claim off of.  

Yeah, that was my thought. How would one 'prove' the delay? So wondered if anyone had ever been successful with that. 

[cruisingrob21]

This has happened before, and will happen again (3rd time for me).  Any coastal cruise that ends in SF (not at the new terminal) or Seattle and can't go through US CBP clearance in Vancouver has the risk this will happen.  I have now learned to avoid voyages leaving Vancouver and ending in a US port on the west coast where pre-clearing US customs can't occur due to a Canadian port of call.  I suppose this could happen in LA or San Diego but I haven't experienced it - it seems to be better operations in those locations.  There were also a large number of non US citizens onboard and no lanes to separate US vs other passengers.  The processing speed of US vs non-US passengers was about twice as slow for non US passengers.

[Buckeye10640]

1 hour ago, ronandannette said:

Don't dismiss the "horror stories" you weren't a part of. You were one of the very few lucky ones. By 8:00 am they had closed the gangway and were announcing a delay of at least 2 hours. Not much for an explanation other than a shortage of Customs staff and the terminal being over-crowded due to the coincident disembarkation of the Eurodam. We waited as instructed; they allowed people back into the staterooms and the lines (unbelievably long) didn't start moving until after 10:00 am. We made a plea to an officer who directed us out a side way and still missed the cut-off for our international flight back to Calgary, which took off at 12:35 pm. Very upsetting. 

 

We were booked on Alaska Air and the next available flight they could offer was 6 days hence. We ended up stranded overnight in Seattle and having to pay over $1,000 Canadian for two next-day fares home Air Canada which we caught this morning at 6:00 am. Because Alaska offered to re-book us, my flight insurance (which I booked through them with the purchase) will not reimburse the new tickets or refund the unused ones. All in all, this little snag quadrupled the price of what we happily booked as a quick, cheap getaway and sapped the joy from it. 

Wow,  that is something....they could not get you on another flight for 6 days! Not a good ending. I hope you enjoyed your cruise, prior to disembarkation. Really hoping that was a one-off situation. 

[cruisingrob21]

4 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Yeah, that was my thought. How would one 'prove' the delay? So wondered if anyone had ever been successful with that. 

Perhaps smartphone text messages or location data?  If your phone is set up for tracking your location you may be able to use that.  My daughter and I were in the walkoff group and were queued up at 7:40 to disembark - we didn't leave the port until 8:55.

 

[ronandannette]

3 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Wow,  that is something....they could not get you on another flight for 6 days! Not a good ending. I hope you enjoyed your cruise, prior to disembarkation. Really hoping that was a one-off situation. 

Alaska only flies the Calgary route a few times a week and because they're an economical option, seats are scarce now that the cruise season out of Seattle has started. We asked about a few more creative routing options but nothing came together. 😕

 

3 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

This has happened before, and will happen again (3rd time for me).  Any coastal cruise that ends in SF (not at the new terminal) or Seattle and can't go through US CBP clearance in Vancouver has the risk this will happen.  I have now learned to avoid voyages leaving Vancouver and ending in a US port on the west coast where pre-clearing US customs can't occur due to a Canadian port of call.  I suppose this could happen in LA or San Diego but I haven't experienced it - it seems to be better operations in those locations.  There were also a large number of non US citizens onboard and no lanes to separate US vs other passengers.  The processing speed of US vs non-US passengers was about twice as slow for non US passengers.

I wish I'd had this advice before - we would have passed on this short cruise. We only booked it at all to use up the very last of our Covid-credits, which resulted from canceled Princess bookings in 2020/21 and were set to expire at the end of the month. 

 

As for Border Security, when we finally got off the ship it was bizarre - they barely glanced at our Passports and just waived us through. Not even any customs declaration. I really don't know what to make of it. 

[caribill]

5 hours ago, SCX22 said:

With insurance, there is a burden of proof that has to be established.  It would be really hard to establish a disembarkation delay with the insurance company because of the lack of record keeping.  There would be nothing that you could show to the insurance, unless some one from Princess would vouch for you, about the delay. 

 

Maybe a printout of the thread about the Royal Princess delays could be used as proof.

[capriccio]

5 hours ago, ronandannette said:

As for Border Security, when we finally got off the ship it was bizarre - they barely glanced at our Passports and just waived us through. Not even any customs declaration. I really don't know what to make of it. 

That was the same process when we disembarked in Seattle in the summer of 2018.

[Buckeye10640]

11 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

This has happened before, and will happen again (3rd time for me).  Any coastal cruise that ends in SF (not at the new terminal) or Seattle and can't go through US CBP clearance in Vancouver has the risk this will happen.  I have now learned to avoid voyages leaving Vancouver and ending in a US port on the west coast where pre-clearing US customs can't occur due to a Canadian port of call.  I suppose this could happen in LA or San Diego but I haven't experienced it - it seems to be better operations in those locations.  There were also a large number of non US citizens onboard and no lanes to separate US vs other passengers.  The processing speed of US vs non-US passengers was about twice as slow for non US passengers.

Not entirely sure I understand. Do you mean this is a risk for every Alaska or Pacific coastal cruise round-trip from Seattle as they would all have a Victoria and/or Vancouver port stop?  I have sailed that Pacific Northwest route RT from Seattle with no delays. 

[RedIguana]

24 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Not entirely sure I understand. Do you mean this is a risk for every Alaska or Pacific coastal cruise round-trip from Seattle as they would all have a Victoria and/or Vancouver port stop?  I have sailed that Pacific Northwest route RT from Seattle with no delays. 

He is referring to cruise departing Vancouver, not Seattle, and ending up in a west coast US port. And specifically those with another Canadian port after departure (Victoria, Prince Rupert etc). Apparently cruises out of Vancouver clears US border control requirements when boarding, which does not need to be repeated if their are only US ports on the Itinerary. I'm sure I have some of the technical details wrong, but this is the gist of it.

[beg3yrs]

9 hours ago, ronandannette said:

Alaska only flies the Calgary route a few times a week and because they're an economical option, seats are scarce now that the cruise season out of Seattle has started. We asked about a few more creative routing options but nothing came together. 😕

It's less than eleven hours by car ...

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Not entirely sure I understand. Do you mean this is a risk for every Alaska or Pacific coastal cruise round-trip from Seattle as they would all have a Victoria and/or Vancouver port stop?  I have sailed that Pacific Northwest route RT from Seattle with no delays. 

This is a potential issue on 1 way cruises that start in a non US country, that end in the US. Such cruises clear customs upon arrival and the ship has more things to clear. Including crew  documentation and the passenger manifest.

 

I suspect the problem here was more related to clearance at the ship and crew level than anything to do with immigration staffing.  

[ronandannette]

1 hour ago, beg3yrs said:

It's less than eleven hours by car ...

Not viable in any way. Drive 9 hours to Vancouver to board, disembark in Seattle, find ground transport back to Vancouver to pick the car up to drive 9 hour home again? For a 3 day cruise? Would you? And the idea of renting a car in Seattle for drop-off back in Calgary was a complete non-starter. 

[beg3yrs]

6 hours ago, ronandannette said:

Not viable in any way. Drive 9 hours to Vancouver to board, disembark in Seattle, find ground transport back to Vancouver to pick the car up to drive 9 hour home again? For a 3 day cruise? Would you? And the idea of renting a car in Seattle for drop-off back in Calgary was a complete non-starter. 

The idea was that given six days to the next available flight home or spend over $1,000 (don't know if that was apiece) more to get to Calgary earlier versus renting a car in Seattle one way and driving back to Calgary for a drop off. Don't know if the costs of the rental would be feasible but it certainly could have been looked at. BTW, I erred in the drive time. From Seattle add another two hours so less than thirteen hours, definitely a long drive and might require an overnight (for us older folks anyway).

[Ombud]

On 5/7/2023 at 5:24 PM, cruisingrob21 said:

This has happened before, and will happen again (3rd time for me).  Any coastal cruise that ends in SF (not at the new terminal) or Seattle and can't go through US CBP clearance in Vancouver has the risk this will happen.  I have now learned to avoid voyages leaving Vancouver and ending in a US port on the west coast where pre-clearing US customs can't occur due to a Canadian port of call.  I suppose this could happen in LA or San Diego but I haven't experienced it - it seems to be better operations in those locations.  There were also a large number of non US citizens onboard and no lanes to separate US vs other passengers.  The processing speed of US vs non-US passengers was about twice as slow for non US passengers.

The walk off in SF was extremely fast 4/23/23. CBP used new facial recognition software for screening and I paused, didn't even stop. Hope San Pedro (LA) is just as fast next month 

[Dunk]

5 hours ago, Ombud said:

The walk off in SF was extremely fast 4/23/23. CBP used new facial recognition software for screening and I paused, didn't even stop. Hope San Pedro (LA) is just as fast next month 

The Port of Los Angeles also uses facial recognition. Easy and fast. 

[jlmklm]

Our disembarkation was very much delayed.  We met in the theater with our group as instructed at 8:00 AM.  We were supposed to disembark, pick up our luggage and get on the shuttle bus to the airport.  Princess was blaming CBP.    By 11:00 AM it was a madhouse.  After initially telling passengers to please not line up, to wait in lounges or go back to your stateroom they stopped all announcements and  we were told by a staff member to just get in the long line and see what happens.  Finally they said Americans and Canadians could get off.  We found our transfer bus but still arrived at the airport after our plane left.  I booked us another flight that day departing in a few hours but it was quite expensive.  I have sent a couple emails to Princess but have not received a response.  This may very well have been my last Princess cruise.

[lx200gps]

On 5/7/2023 at 12:14 PM, Buckeye10640 said:

I am reading about the several hour disembarkation and embarkation delays yesterday for Royal Princess in Seattle. Hoping this does not occur for me in a few weeks, but wondering if anyone has ever missed a flight (not EZAir, and booked for 5 hours after scheduled arrival) due to disembarkation delays and filed for travel delay reimbursement successfully from your travel insurance provider. I have done this for  flight cancellation,  but have never experienced a lengthy disembarkation delay.

FWIW, we had this happen on a trip out of Galveston on the CB some years ago. On disembarkation day, we woke up to the ship anchored off shore enveloped in VERY heavy fog, unable to return to port. We did not end up disembarking until 2PM, well past our 1PM flight home. I got on the phone with Air Canada, changed our flight to the next day, there being no further flights out of IAH that we could make by that time. We RON'd at an airport hotel and flew home the next day. Our insurance company (Blue Cross) easily and painlessly covered the airline flight change charges, the hotel, the rental car and a meal PD. I vaguely remember that the ONLY thing they cover (hey, I had to try ;o) was the extra day parking charge for our car at our home airport.

[SSAtlantic]

1 hour ago, jlmklm said:

Our disembarkation was very much delayed.  We met in the theater with our group as instructed at 8:00 AM.  We were supposed to disembark, pick up our luggage and get on the shuttle bus to the airport.  Princess was blaming CBP.    

Which Saturday did you get off, 5/6 or 5/13?  Hope this  issue is resolved soon. We have an 11:30am flight in August that is refundable and are considering switching to the red eye that night. I am going to continue to check for a few weeks. 

[jlmklm]

3 hours ago, SSAtlantic said:

Which Saturday did you get off, 5/6 or 5/13?  Hope this  issue is resolved soon. We have an 11:30am flight in August that is refundable and are considering switching to the red eye that night. I am going to continue to check for a few weeks. 

We got off on 5/6.  

[CruisinChris]

Tip - for a better outcome, don't wait until after you've actually missed your flight to talk to the airline.  Try to be proactive, when it looks evident you're not going to make it, call the airline, explain, and get yourself on the standby list for the next flight.  If needed, you might ask them to carry you over to another airline.  At any rate, you're always better off doing this before you miss your flight and are recorded as a no-show, which cancels out your booking.  Depending on the airline, you might need to pay to standby or change your flight, but better to do that than have to book a last minute one-way fare.  Also, budget airlines aren't as easy to work with or have as many options as legacy carriers.