HAL Disembarkment in Vancouver

[MickeyP]

This wasn’t the  first rodeo to clear the Noordam in Vancouver yesterday. Groups with colored tags waited to get off the ship . The World stage was packed with everyone wanting to get off the ship at their HAL recommended time slot that they sent to staterooms on Friday. Numerous People throughout the area were coughing and sneezing. Most without masks too. No regard for healthy people around them. We had our masks on as a precaution. Makes me think that HAL although they preach healthy protocols could have recommended masks or had them available if someone was under the weather. After flying home for the last twelve hours my wife seems to have a runny nose and a dry cough. We’re scheduled to depart  the ship at 845am and never got our group called till after 945am and then they treat everyone like school children in line for the bus. I spoke to Representatives from HAL and the port and they blame each other. Just a major disappointment.

Edited May 29, 2023 by MickeyP

[GlennG]

Mickey P:

I'm sorry to hear of your unsatisfactory experience at the Vancouver Cruise Port.  We were recently on the Noordam and debarked in Vancouver on May 14th.  Our experience was very different than yours.  We were able to clear Canadian customs by 9:15 AM and were "on the road" by 9:30 AM.  From past experience, I know that debarkation is really dependent on the number of ships that are in port.  Unlike Port Everglades and other cruise ports, Vancouver is quite small and congested.  Regardless of the challenges in Vancouver, HAL should not have treated you and others like immature school children.

[SilvertoGold]

Possibly new procedure by the port.  May 2 disembarkation:  two days in advance all pax able to choose their time of disembarkation and pick up the appropriate coloured baggage tag near the Front Desk. Expedited people (carry own luggage off) went at 8:00 am, then everyone else by tag colour. Took us 5 minutes.  Excellent set-up!  

[Mary229]

Not everyone with a cough is ill.  You didn’t have to wait in the World Stage 

[cbr663]

Personally, I didn't see much action towards Health Protocols (assuming we are talking about COVID) on our recent Alaskan cruise on the Koningsdam.  I was actually quite disappointed to see that the night prior to disembarkation that the room stewards are once again stocking the cabin for the next occupants.  Bathroom amenities, towels, blankets, and robes were all placed in the cabin the night before for the next passengers.

 

Cruising appears to me to be right back to its before time.  It has even taken a step back as you use to have to complete a health questionnaire for norovirus prevention but you don't have that now.

[Laminator]

5 hours ago, MickeyP said:

This wasn’t the  first rodeo to clear the Noordam in Vancouver yesterday. Groups with colored tags waited to get off the ship . The World stage was packed with everyone wanting to get off the ship at their HAL recommended time slot that they sent to staterooms on Friday. Numerous People throughout the area were coughing and sneezing. Most without masks too. No regard for healthy people around them. We had our masks on as a precaution. Makes me think that HAL although they preach healthy protocols could have recommended masks or had them available if someone was under the weather. After flying home for the last twelve hours my wife seems to have a runny nose and a dry cough. We’re scheduled to depart  the ship at 845am and never got our group called till after 945am and then they treat everyone like school children in line for the bus. I spoke to Representatives from HAL and the port and they blame each other. Just a major disappointment.

We got off the KSDM Saturday. We sat in the Lido drinking coffee until our time to get off. Nice and relaxing. I am sure you could have done the same on the Noordam. Took 15 minutes to get off the ship. What time was your flight? 

[RuthC]

8 hours ago, MickeyP said:

This wasn’t the  first rodeo to clear the Noordam in Vancouver yesterday. Groups with colored tags waited to get off the ship . The World stage was packed with everyone wanting to get off the ship at their HAL recommended time slot that they sent to staterooms on Friday. Numerous People throughout the area were coughing and sneezing. Most without masks too. No regard for healthy people around them. We had our masks on as a precaution. Makes me think that HAL although they preach healthy protocols could have recommended masks or had them available if someone was under the weather.

Why didn't you just wait in your cabin? It is one of the best things about a HAL disembarkation. Or you could have sat out in the open on the Lido Deck. 

[PACD_JG]

8 hours ago, MickeyP said:

 Numerous People throughout the area were coughing and sneezing. Most without masks too. No regard for healthy people around them. We had our masks on as a precaution. Makes me think that HAL although they preach healthy protocols could have recommended masks or had them available if someone was under the weather.

It's 2023, and we're still arguing about masks?  As if we needed any more proof the human race has peaked.

[tooleyweeds]

DW and I participated in the Noordam disembarkation that the OP describes.  (I even coughed once or twice, but more about that in another post.)

 

We thought disembarkation was well-organized, though it did not run on schedule.  I've no idea what held things up onshore, if anything.  Onboard, passengers were failing to check in at the World Stage muster point to which we were assigned (same as OP), causing the HAL agent there to repeatedly call out missing room numbers and to issue general PA announcements.  I expect that was happening at other muster points as well, and contributed to some delay. 

 

Along the route from the World Stage to our particular bus, there were monitors stationed at intervals restating our disembarkation group.  Each was polite and not condescending.

 

We thought HAL organized it well and that some passengers failed to execute for whatever reason.

 

 

[Alberta Quilter]

Why did you need to go to your muster point prior to disembarkation?  It’s been awhile since I’ve cruised but I haven’t heard or read of that before.

[AKJonesy]

I cough every single morning and wheez.  When I've been on ships post covid, people look at me like I'm sick.  I am not sick.  I have a slight case of asthma.  Put a mask on if you feel that helps.  

[tooleyweeds]

39 minutes ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Why did you need to go to your muster point prior to disembarkation?  It’s been awhile since I’ve cruised but I haven’t heard or read of that before.

I don't know.  This was our first cruise, so we had nothing to compare it to.  Seemed like a logical approach to me, given that different gangways were being used to disembark different passenger groups with different next destinations and schedules.  We were in the last group off the ship, likely because our flight home was next day.

 

[Note that I'm using "muster point" here as a term of convenience -- not related to the emergency muster points assigned at the beginning of the cruise.]

 

From what I've read here about embarkation in Vancouver, that process would benefit from enforcement of the same chunk-by-chunk approach that this disembarkation utilized.

 

 

[tooleyweeds]

51 minutes ago, AKJonesy said:

I cough every single morning and wheez.  When I've been on ships post covid, people look at me like I'm sick.  I am not sick.  I have a slight case of asthma.  Put a mask on if you feel that helps.  

The spruce pollen was everywhere.  I think that's what got to me, but it could also have been the woman hunched over in the Explorer Lounge hallway with a racking cough and the look of impending death, or it might have been the chorus of coughers who greeted me in the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center movie theater.  I should have thought twice about staying in that theater for 20 minutes!

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, tooleyweeds said:

I don't know.  This was our first cruise, so we had nothing to compare it to.  Seemed like a logical approach to me, given that different gangways were being used to disembark different passenger groups with different next destinations and schedules.  We were in the last group off the ship, likely because our flight home was next day.

 

[Note that I'm using "muster point" here as a term of convenience -- not related to the emergency muster points assigned at the beginning of the cruise.]

 

From what I've read here about embarkation in Vancouver, that process would benefit from enforcement of the same chunk-by-chunk approach that this disembarkation utilized.

 

 

Thanks for the response.  You wouldn't happen to still have the disembarkation instructions, would you?  That you could post a pic of?  

 

Regardless, I hope you had a great first cruise!  I still remember my first cruise - all wide eyed and in awe of it all!

[tooleyweeds]

5 hours ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Thanks for the response.  You wouldn't happen to still have the disembarkation instructions, would you?  That you could post a pic of?  

 

Regardless, I hope you had a great first cruise!  I still remember my first cruise - all wide eyed and in awe of it all!

No.  Sorry.  The gist was this (I think 🙂 ):

• About 36 hours before disembarkation, HAL issued color-coded and number-coded luggage tags to passengers with HAL transfers.  Luggage had to be in the hallway by midnight the morning of disembarkation.
• I think the first passengers off the ship were those without HAL transfers, who wrangled their own luggage.
• There were multiple (I don't know how many) "muster" points for passengers with HAL transfers.
• Upon arrival at your "muster" point, you were supposed to check in with the HAL officer stationed there.  The officer was responsible for "all present and accounted for".
• At my World Stage "muster" point, passengers were staged to meet there at about 10 different 15 minute intervals.  Mine was the last, scheduled for disembarkation at 9:45, but actually left World Stage at about 10:45(?).
• The passengers in each fifteen-minute group were designated by color and number (Red 1, Red 2, Blue 1, Blue 2, Yellow 1, Yellow 2, etc.), corresponding the the luggage tag colors and numbers we'd been given for our luggage.  I was Yellow 4.

[Mary229]

I looked at the roll call and @Crew Newswas onboard .  Perhaps he could bring some clarity into this discussion.   I have never seen a disembarkation done as described.  
 

But I ran into a shore ex manager who was a control freak about control, not letting passengers meet the bus off ship so anything is possible.  

[Laminator]

51 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I looked at the roll call and @Crew Newswas onboard .  Perhaps he could bring some clarity into this discussion.   I have never seen a disembarkation done as described.  
 

But I ran into a shore ex manager who was a control freak about control, not letting passengers meet the bus off ship so anything is possible.  

I was early for my flight to YVR. While sitting outside drinking coffee I talked to the girl who monitored the ship transfer busses. YVR will only allow 3 busses outside the terminal at one time. The busses have to sit at a holding pen outside the terminal until called to unload. It was a mess. Busses were still showing up when I went in for my flight at noon. I paid the flat rate of $38 CDN for a taxi to the airport. I stood in the taxi line for 10 minutes. I know the poster had a flight the next day but I am 100% sure a taxi would have been more efficient and less expensive. 

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, Laminator said:

I was early for my flight to YVR. While sitting outside drinking coffee I talked to the girl who monitored the ship transfer busses. YVR will only allow 3 busses outside the terminal at one time. The busses have to sit at a holding pen outside the terminal until called to unload. It was a mess. Busses were still showing up when I went in for my flight at noon. I paid the flat rate of $38 CDN for a taxi to the airport. I stood in the taxi line for 10 minutes. I know the poster had a flight the next day but I am 100% sure a taxi would have been more efficient and less expensive. 

I must have missed something, was he using a HAL transfer?  That would explain a lot.  

[Crew News]

5 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I looked at the roll call and @Crew Newswas onboard .  Perhaps he could bring some clarity into this discussion.   I have never seen a disembarkation done as described.  
 

But I ran into a shore ex manager who was a control freak about control, not letting passengers meet the bus off ship so anything is possible.  

Just for clarification, I cancelled my Noordam cruise but was onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam disembarking on May 21 and can provide the Vancouver process that should be identical to the OPs.  Our passengers were allowed to choose their disembarkation times and received their applicable luggage tags the day before disembarkation:

 

Disembarkation Day May 21:

• Self disembarkation passengers who did not have luggage tags were first off the ship around 8:00 AM.
• Passengers who wanted a tour of the city before going to the airport (red tags) were to gather in the theater to board the proper buses for their city tours.  Not sure when red tags were called because there was no rush to get them on their buses.
• Passengers wanting to go straight to the airport (blue tags) gathered wherever they wished and were called to board around 8:30 AM.
• Since I had already left the ship with my blue tags, I cannot comment on what happened afterwards.

 

As posted on my live thread, the HAL bus-passenger loading process required following the terminal signs and HAL guides to the forming bus queues.  As noted in my live thread, I was at the airport terminal at 10:03 AM.  The disembarkation process was flawless and I am now a convert to using the HAL bus to the Vancouver airport.

 

HAL could go a long way to reducing confusion if they went back to the disembarkation briefings they used to conduct on sea days.  It would also be helpful if the disembarkation documents explained that the luggage tags, and their sequence, dictates the sequence of their luggage being moved by terminal employees from the ship to the terminal baggage claim. 

 

FWIW only on one cruise has my tag color been called before the estimated time. 

[Laminator]

4 minutes ago, Laminator said:

I was early for my flight to YVR. While sitting outside drinking coffee I talked to the girl who monitored the ship transfer busses. YVR will only allow 3 busses outside the terminal at one time. The busses have to sit at a holding pen outside the terminal until called to unload. It was a mess. Busses were still showing up when I went in for my flight at noon. I paid the flat rate of $38 CDN for a taxi to the airport. I stood in the taxi line for 10 minutes. I know the poster had a flight the next day but I am 100% sure a taxi would have been more efficient and less expensive. 

I think that is what he is referring to.