Vancouver Cruise Port distances

[jlawrence01]

We are doing three back to back cruises out of Vancouver.  I thought that this information would be on the Vancouver Cruise Port website but it is not.

 

Our first cruise will be on Celebrity; our second on Holland America.  When we get off of the Celebrity ship to board on the Holland American ship, roughly, how far is the walk?  Is it a mile requiring a cab or is it a couple hundred yards which would be a relatively easy walk.

 

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Northern Aurora]

I assume that both cruises use Canada Place.  At best you would walk the width of a large building.

[martincath]

100% they will be in the same building - the only other pier closed several years ago and is now part of a secure cargo terminal - but your walk won't just be across the pier since check-in, security, and CBP preclearance are all centralized so when you swap ships you must reenter Canada legally and go through the entire embarkation process just like folks who showed up in a cab from the airport!.

 

Your actual B2B on same vessel, whichever pair of the three cruises those are, you will need to get off to be cleared by both Canadian CBSA and American CBP but unless you choose to leave the pier you and the other B2B pax will do that as a group and are then able to walk right back onboard again; but when you switch ship you will have to walk back out and re-enter (well, technically you won't have to go outside-outside, you can just wander through the non-secure internal space to bag drop for the second ship, but you will do a lot of back & forth plus up and down several levels.

 

Worst case if it's a 3+ ship day and you start in the furthest berth you might rack up close to half a mile in total, but in various smaller chunks with the possibility of sitting down at some points; including at least 200 yards where you'll have to schlep your checked bags again or else find a porter. If you can handle major airports without wheelchair assistance, you'll be fine.

 

When you say 'out of Vancouver' if your very first cruise starts here then all the things you do when you first arrive are the exact same things you'll repeat when you swap ships - neither you nor your bags can skip any of those steps legally. The only complication would be if this is start/end of season and one of the cruises is a Repo coastal - some of those visit a Canadian port after Vancouver, so US Preclearance doesn't happen... if your combo includes one like this you may not do exactly the same steps both times!

[jlawrence01]

46 minutes ago, martincath said:

100% they will be in the same building - the only other pier closed several years ago and is now part of a secure cargo terminal - but your walk won't just be across the pier since check-in, security, and CBP preclearance are all centralized so when you swap ships you must reenter Canada legally and go through the entire embarkation process just like folks who showed up in a cab from the airport!.

 

Your actual B2B on same vessel, whichever pair of the three cruises those are, you will need to get off to be cleared by both Canadian CBSA and American CBP but unless you choose to leave the pier you and the other B2B pax will do that as a group and are then able to walk right back onboard again; but when you switch ship you will have to walk back out and re-enter (well, technically you won't have to go outside-outside, you can just wander through the non-secure internal space to bag drop for the second ship, but you will do a lot of back & forth plus up and down several levels.

 

Worst case if it's a 3+ ship day and you start in the furthest berth you might rack up close to half a mile in total, but in various smaller chunks with the possibility of sitting down at some points; including at least 200 yards where you'll have to schlep your checked bags again or else find a porter. If you can handle major airports without wheelchair assistance, you'll be fine.

 

When you say 'out of Vancouver' if your very first cruise starts here then all the things you do when you first arrive are the exact same things you'll repeat when you swap ships - neither you nor your bags can skip any of those steps legally. The only complication would be if this is start/end of season and one of the cruises is a Repo coastal - some of those visit a Canadian port after Vancouver, so US Preclearance doesn't happen... if your combo includes one like this you may not do exactly the same steps both times!

 

We are on three straight cruises. The first is a seven day inside passage cruise on the Celebrity Solstice.  The second is a a 14 day RT cruise on HAL Niuew Amsterdam to Seward.  The third is a nine day cruise to Honolulu again on the Solstice.  What started as a one week cruise to Alaska for our 40th Anniversary has morphed into a month long trip.

 

Thanks for your response.  That means that we should have no problems walking between ships.  I was just thinking that ports like Fort Lauderdale have piers that are quite a distance apart from each other which would require a cab ride.

[martincath]

19 minutes ago, jlawrence01 said:

We are on three straight cruises. The first is a seven day inside passage cruise on the Celebrity Solstice.  The second is a a 14 day RT cruise on HAL Niuew Amsterdam to Seward.  The third is a nine day cruise to Honolulu again on the Solstice.  ...

If it's this year, then that last Solstice one-way will go through Preclearance - it's straight to Hawaii with no other Canadian stops - so it should be an exact repeat of the first Solstice embarkation. The HAL one in-between likewise, except of course you'll have different check-in desks and bag drop - but Security and CBP you should become very familiar with after running through the same rooms three times in a month!

 

Personally, even if you have a bunch of pre-cruise-one time here, I'd suggest only doing bag drop when you disembark then getting out of the pier to do some stuff for the day. It's more efficient to board late - that whole 'two different countries have to agree the vessel is clear from a customs and immigration perspective' always causes a big delay, so unless you enjoy sitting on plastic chairs in a huge room for 2 hours it's much better to get out and about then come back as close to the 2 hours pre-departure limit as you feel comfortable with. If it was 2 Solstice then a Nieuw Amst or vice versa so you could get the quicky B2B pax clearance, heading right back onboard would be efficient - but since you're changing ships both times even if you wait until they kick you off at about 9am, you'll likely sit and wait until almost 11am before you're even allowed to leave the big holding room to go to Security...

 

Be strategic with your pre-cruise time and do the furthest away stuff you are interested in, leaving downtown core attractions for the embarkation mornings and the really-close-to-the-pier attractions for your three embarkation afternoons - Harbour Centre, Fly Over Canada, wandering Gastown, that sort of thing - so you're walking distance to the pier during the last couple of hours before you plan to embark and your risk of any problems making you late is removed; this way you can both maximise and optimise your time in town as efficiently as possible!

[jlawrence01]

3 hours ago, martincath said:

If it's this year, then that last Solstice one-way will go through Preclearance - it's straight to Hawaii with no other Canadian stops - so it should be an exact repeat of the first Solstice embarkation. The HAL one in-between likewise, except of course you'll have different check-in desks and bag drop - but Security and CBP you should become very familiar with after running through the same rooms three times in a month!

 

Personally, even if you have a bunch of pre-cruise-one time here, I'd suggest only doing bag drop when you disembark then getting out of the pier to do some stuff for the day. It's more efficient to board late - that whole 'two different countries have to agree the vessel is clear from a customs and immigration perspective' always causes a big delay, so unless you enjoy sitting on plastic chairs in a huge room for 2 hours it's much better to get out and about then come back as close to the 2 hours pre-departure limit as you feel comfortable with. If it was 2 Solstice then a Nieuw Amst or vice versa so you could get the quicky B2B pax clearance, heading right back onboard would be efficient - but since you're changing ships both times even if you wait until they kick you off at about 9am, you'll likely sit and wait until almost 11am before you're even allowed to leave the big holding room to go to Security...

 

Be strategic with your pre-cruise time and do the furthest away stuff you are interested in, leaving downtown core attractions for the embarkation mornings and the really-close-to-the-pier attractions for your three embarkation afternoons - Harbour Centre, Fly Over Canada, wandering Gastown, that sort of thing - so you're walking distance to the pier during the last couple of hours before you plan to embark and your risk of any problems making you late is removed; this way you can both maximise and optimise your time in town as efficiently as possible!

 

Thank you for your replies.  What we would like to do is to walk over to Chinatown and stop at T&T Supermarket which is one of our favorites.  We really love different supermarkets and that one is one of the best.  They are now in the US but nowhere close to us at this point

 

 

[martincath]

12 minutes ago, jlawrence01 said:

Thank you for your replies.  What we would like to do is to walk over to Chinatown and stop at T&T Supermarket which is one of our favorites.  We really love different supermarkets and that one is one of the best.  They are now in the US but nowhere close to us at this point

T&T is a great spot for a cheap hot lunch (takeout) as well as whatever interesting Canadian/Chinese candies and other dry goods you might want to stock up on - walking there though might be a bit of a gritty, urban experience if you follow Googles suggested routing!

 

The simplest (and only an extra couple of hundred yards, just over instead of just under a mile) route to avoid the most unpleasant views is to follow Howe St from the pier, hang a left on Dunsmuir for several blocks, and then take the stairs down to T&Ts front door behind Chinatown-Stadium SkyTrain station. Or just SkyTrain it - without your luggage the older Expo line works just fine, and the platform access right outside the the pier on Howe takes you to that line. You can even ride it there and back without paying twice - fares are good for another boarding within 90mins of your first, any direction, and if you have a Visa or MC credit card with a tappable chip you don't even have to waste time figuring out the machines, just tap on the fare gates when you enter and leave and all the math gets done for you...

 

Even if you visited multiple branches, you'd be hard-pressed to fill one of your days at T&T let alone three different embarkation days! It would be a safe 'last place before embarking' spot to visit, given the choice of SkyTrain (<10mins) or walking (depends how fast you can walk a mile) which are both independent of any traffic jams.