Embarkation of Alaska cruise - will be tendering in!

[marylovestotravel]

Hi,

 

I've just heard that in Vancouver we will be tendering onto the Orion for the beginning of our Alaska cruise. 

 

Has anyone had any experience of this? What about our luggage??

 

Thanks,

 

Mia

[Jim Avery]

Not in Vancouver but it is the usual in  Greenwich.  There it is very organized and works smoothly.  I am sure Heidi 13 (Andy) will weigh in on Vancouver.  Vancouver was an overcrowded nightmare in May when we boarded a different line.

[ropomo]

Not Vancouver, but in Duluth, MN on Polaris we disembarked via tender and the next cruise embarked via tender. The luggage was loaded on rolling carts on the ship and then transferred to a waiting barge by way of a ramp. The carts were covered to protect against weather or spray and securely lashed down. We were able to watch from our cabin. I would assume that Vancouver would employ the same strategy.

Edited September 3, 2023 by ropomo
spelling

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, marylovestotravel said:

Hi,

 

I've just heard that in Vancouver we will be tendering onto the Orion for the beginning of our Alaska cruise. 

 

Has anyone had any experience of this? What about our luggage??

 

Thanks,

 

Mia

 

Vancouver has limited berth space, especially with the ever growing mega ships.

 

When more than 3 ships are in port, unless at least 1 of them is small, a ship has to anchor. From memory, this happened on Viking's first Alaska cruise and has happened once this year.

 

Previous times, the ship tried to arrive early, go alongside to discharge baggage, then went out to anchor. Pax were disembarked via tender to the Harbourmaster's dock, which is adjacent to Canada Place at the heliport. Pax were taken by bus to a local hotel to collect the luggage.

 

For embarkation, the Harbourmaster had offered the same service, but Customs & Immigration vetoed that plan. In Vancouver, you clear US Immigration then must go directly to the ship, so unable to take the short trip to an adjacent berth. After the other ships sailed, the Orion went alongside to embark pax, sailing about 22:00 to 23:00.

 

I'll suggest each situation is different depending on the number of ships and the tides, so best waiting until you receive notification from the cruise line as to how the day will proceed.

[cmmaxwell03]

3 hours ago, marylovestotravel said:

Hi,

 

I've just heard that in Vancouver we will be tendering onto the Orion for the beginning of our Alaska cruise. 

 

Has anyone had any experience of this? What about our luggage??

 

Thanks,

 

Mia

Hi Mia, 

 

When do you cruise to Alaska?  We board the Orion in Seward on 9/7 and when we get to Vancouver on 9/17 we are disembarking by tender.  Viking told us about it a week ago via email.  They outlined that we will have to leave our luggage out the night before and then we will pick it up at a hotel that we will be shuttled to once leaving the Orion.

Edited September 3, 2023 by cmmaxwell03
more info

[beach bunnie]

11 minutes ago, cmmaxwell03 said:

Hi Mia, 

 

When do you cruise to Alaska?  We board the Orion in Seward on 9/7 and when we get to Vancouver on 9/17 we are disembarking by tender.  Viking told us about it a week ago via email.  They outlined that we will have to leave our luggage out the night before and then we will pick it up at a hotel that we will be shuttled to once leaving the Orion.

The Orion is leaving (after your cruise) on 9/17 and heading to Asia and Australia/New Zealand.  So it's the last embarkation of the 2023 Alaska season. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by beach bunnie

[marylovestotravel]

2 hours ago, cmmaxwell03 said:

Hi Mia, 

 

When do you cruise to Alaska?  We board the Orion in Seward on 9/7 and when we get to Vancouver on 9/17 we are disembarking by tender.  Viking told us about it a week ago via email.  They outlined that we will have to leave our luggage out the night before and then we will pick it up at a hotel that we will be shuttled to once leaving the Orion.

 

We embark on Sept17th - your turn around cruise and as beach bunnie says, continuing on to Tokyo.

 

Mia

[Pushka]

This happened with us. The ship arrived very early in the morning and passengers disembarked. The ship then went out to the harbour. It stayed there until around 5.30pm until a berth at port became clear once all the ther ships had departed. We then boarded. Not a great start to our first Viking journey as we were stuck in the no man's land of the embarkations hall for a few hours. Watching others leave. 

[marylovestotravel]

Thank you for your post. They have helped me understand what is going to be happening for our embarkation. Too bad we will probably depart Vancouver in the dark and miss the scenic departure.

 

Mia

[Murt22]

I feel fortunate to have been able to disembark in Vancouver with our bags in hand, down the gangway and on to customs then to taxi - took about 5 minutes. We got to the airport very early, but we didn't have to deal with all the people in the terminal or at the airport.