KSDM embarkation 5/20

[Laminator]

I will make this short and sweet. Arrived 9:50am for a 10am boarding time. Completed the check in process and was seated in a general seating area that included Princess and Viking along with other HAL pax by 10:30am. Moved to the HAL seating area by 10:50am which was divided by priority and general boarding. Priority boarding seating area had approximately 60 pax while general boarding area had 600 to 700 pax. Priority boarding began at 11:15am. 

[CruiserBruce]

Sorry to see the confusion on this. You had a 10am check in time, not boarding. People are starting to think boarding starts at 10am.

 

Amazing they started boarding at 11:15.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

1 hour ago, Laminator said:

I will make this short and sweet. Arrived 9:50am for a 10am boarding time. Completed the check in process and was seated in a general seating area that included Princess and Viking along with other HAL pax by 10:30am. Moved to the HAL seating area by 10:50am which was divided by priority and general boarding. Priority boarding seating area had approximately 60 pax while general boarding area had 600 to 700 pax. Priority boarding began at 11:15am. 

What Port?

[Laminator]

8 minutes ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

What Port?

Vancouver

[Cade387]

Do you go through security and customs after checking in with HAL? Or are you saying it only took 10min to get through all of the customs/security stuff? TIA

[CruiserBruce]

20 minutes ago, Cade387 said:

Do you go through security and customs after checking in with HAL? Or are you saying it only took 10min to get through all of the customs/security stuff? TIA

There is no Immigration or Customs sailing out of Seattle.  Immigration and Customs is handled by the appropriate authorities when its done. Only when you return. 

 

Security is the standard getting on a ship.

[Cade387]

57 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

There is no Immigration or Customs sailing out of Seattle.  Immigration and Customs is handled by the appropriate authorities when its done. Only when you return. 

 

Security is the standard getting on a ship.

This poster is going through Vancouver not Seattle. 

[Laminator]

3 hours ago, Cade387 said:

Do you go through security and customs after checking in with HAL? Or are you saying it only took 10min to get through all of the customs/security stuff? TIA

It took 5 minutes to check in, 10 to 15 thru security and maybe another 10 thru customs.

[Cade387]

1 minute ago, Laminator said:

It took 5 minutes to check in, 10 to 15 thru security and maybe another 10 thru customs.

Thank you! That is great news after all of the other posts I have seen. 

[sunviking90]

Thank you for reporting on this. Nice to know things have settled down for Vancouver embarkations.

[HappyInVan]

16 hours ago, Laminator said:

I will make this short and sweet. Arrived 9:50am for a 10am boarding time. Completed the check in process and was seated in a general seating area that included Princess and Viking along with other HAL pax by 10:30am. Moved to the HAL seating area by 10:50am which was divided by priority and general boarding. Priority boarding seating area had approximately 60 pax while general boarding area had 600 to 700 pax. Priority boarding began at 11:15am. 

 

You took longer than I did. I was there at 10:20 and on board at 11:30. The problem with early embarkation is that the cabins may not be ready, and the fire doors closed.

 

The main problem is that single gangway. When I arrived at the waiting area at 11:15, there were 500 pax still seated. We were clearing US Immigration faster than the pax were trickling down the gangway. Anyway, at least our pax could sit as they waited.

 

In all, it took me 70 minutes to embark, with priority boarding and no luggage drop-off.

[HappyInVan]

1 hour ago, HappyInVan said:

 

You took longer than I did. I was there at 10:20 and on board at 11:30.

 

Oops! Forgot to mention that my sailing was two weeks prior, on May 6th. In the end, its HAL's fault for not enforcing the scheduled check-in time. They could easily post a sign saying that they were only accepting pax scheduled for 11am and earlier etc. 

 

Instead, we've a third of the ship's capacity stacked in the waiting room at 11am!!! I gave HAL a negative rating on the feedback form.

[Native Floridian 26]

22 hours ago, Laminator said:

I will make this short and sweet. Arrived 9:50am for a 10am boarding time. Completed the check in process and was seated in a general seating area that included Princess and Viking along with other HAL pax by 10:30am. Moved to the HAL seating area by 10:50am which was divided by priority and general boarding. Priority boarding seating area had approximately 60 pax while general boarding area had 600 to 700 pax. Priority boarding began at 11:15am. 

What does KSDM mean?

[Florida_gal_50]

4 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

What does KSDM mean?

Koningsdam.

[Mary229]

I don’t know why or how they are giving such early times.   Any HAL ship isn’t ready for actual boarding until shortly after 11.  There is no point getting there early unless you want to drop your luggage with porters.  

[Florida_gal_50]

6 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I don’t know why or how they are giving such early times.   Any HAL ship isn’t ready for actual boarding until shortly after 11.  There is no point getting there early unless you want to drop your luggage with porters.  

Yeah, it's really odd.  I remember they had the same thing last year.

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Yeah, it's really odd.  I remember they had the same thing last year.

They say the same thing at Montreal.   How could they possibly be ready when the previous passengers last departed at 9:15 

[Laminator]

43 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

What does KSDM mean?

Koningsdam

[Laminator]

9 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

 

You took longer than I did. I was there at 10:20 and on board at 11:30. The problem with early embarkation is that the cabins may not be ready, and the fire doors closed.

 

The main problem is that single gangway. When I arrived at the waiting area at 11:15, there were 500 pax still seated. We were clearing US Immigration faster than the pax were trickling down the gangway. Anyway, at least our pax could sit as they waited.

 

In all, it took me 70 minutes to embark, with priority boarding and no luggage drop-off.

We were at the initial waiting area just a little shy of 10:30am. That area was a seating area for pax of all 3 ships in Port. Then we were moved to the HAL specific waiting area at 10:50am. Boarding began at 11:15am.

[Laminator]

3 hours ago, Mary229 said:

I don’t know why or how they are giving such early times.   Any HAL ship isn’t ready for actual boarding until shortly after 11.  There is no point getting there early unless you want to drop your luggage with porters.  

They are trying to spread out the pax arrivals over a longer period of time. It's a shame they have to do so but to many pax ignore their boarding time and come early causing a huge back up. Those with priority boarding wind up seating on their hands for 45 minutes to an area. When we were in the general seating area shared by all 3 ships in Port they moved the Princess pax to their specific seating area first. There may have been a hundred pax or so. Then they called the Viking pax. Maybe 50. When they called HAL pax there had to be a minimum of 600 of which 60 had priority boarding. 

[Mary229]

I will continue to show up after lunch though I do occasionally leave my luggage earlier in the day. 

[HappyInVan]

42 minutes ago, Laminator said:

We were at the initial waiting area just a little shy of 10:30am. That area was a seating area for pax of all 3 ships in Port. Then we were moved to the HAL specific waiting area at 10:50am. Boarding began at 11:15am.

 

I followed the same process as you. Completed check-in and security in 20m. Completed US Immigration in 40m. Walked through the K waiting area and onto the gangway. Onboard the ship at 11:30.

 

33 minutes ago, Laminator said:

When we were in the general seating area shared by all 3 ships in Port they moved the Princess pax to their specific seating area first. There may have been a hundred pax or so. Then they called the Viking pax. Maybe 50. When they called HAL pax there had to be a minimum of 600 of which 60 had priority boarding. 

 

There we are! Grand Princess has the same pax capacity as the K. Yet, K had 6x the pax in that waiting group. Would have taken another hour for those without priority boarding.

[mlgb]

I boarded the Grand Princess in Vancouver on that same date (May 6) (I have priority with them but there didn't seem to be a separate holding area). The holdup was with immigration/customs with all three ships all funneling through the same queue which was Disneylandesque.  I checked in at about the same time (10:30-ish or about as soon as it was allowed) and it also took an hour to make it on board with almost all of the time in the immigration queue. I believe those who waited another hour to check in were not on board for nearly 3 hours.

 

The rooms were also not ready on Princess, but it was possible to drop my bags in the room and go to lunch. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by mlgb

[dreamer321]

I boarded the same day on Koningsdam. I had a 10:40 checking time with priority boarding. Super smooth process. I took a taxi from my hotel at 9:45 am, dropped my suitcase with the porter just past 10:00 am went up to HAL priority check-in line and was called up to agent immediately. All my paperwork was in order and went through security very quickly.  I then went to the Nexus/Global Entry line and only had 4 people ahead of me. I presented my passport and was cleared quickly. I was then directed to the HAL waiting area about 10:40 am. They started boarding the ship about 11:10 am and I dropped off my carry-on luggage in my room and was ordering a cocktail at the Ocean bar by 11:15 am. All in all, a very smooth process. I’m glad they improved the customer experience from a couple weeks earlier.

[decrepit old man]

Does every single person here have priority boarding? Would like to know what the wait times are like for us peasants

Edited May 22, 2023 by decrepit old man