Anyone Disembarking Vancouver used US Direct?

[SueO]

Hi - We are disembarking in vancouver on 8/19 after an alaska cruisetour with Holland America. Getting specific information on US Direct from Holland America is difficult! So far I get a lot of "US what?"

 

Anyhow - the rep I got today informed me that Holland ONLY uses US Direct for embarkation in Vancouver - not for disembarkation. Different information that what I had before.

 

Anyone had personal experience?

Thanks, sue

[bruceh4]

Hi - We are disembarking in vancouver on 8/19 after an alaska cruisetour with Holland America. Getting specific information on US Direct from Holland America is difficult! So far I get a lot of "US what?"

 

Anyhow - the rep I got today informed me that Holland ONLY uses US Direct for embarkation in Vancouver - not for disembarkation. Different information that what I had before.

 

Anyone had personal experience?

Thanks, sue

I am not sure what you mean by US Direct. If you mean that when you leave the ship you are going directly to Seattle, then yes they do it. On my Alaska cruise which ended in Vancouver I purchased transportation from HAL to take me to the Seattle airport. At disembarkation we went directly to the bus and did not go throught the terminal. Our next stop was at the border when we went thru customs. Then back on the bus and went directly to the Seattle airport. The reason for going that way was it was much cheaper to fly out of Seattle than Vancouver do to a Canadian sure charge on plane tickets and also better connections.

[jmelnick]

It seems to depend on what Airline you're leaving Vancouver on. We were on Air Canada and it wasn't available to us. It was only available for United, Delta and a couple other US based airlines.

We couldn't even use it on embarkation day, as there weren't enough people for them to have it running.

[Hoyaheel]

I am not sure what you mean by US Direct..

US Direct is the specific name of a program offered at the Vancouver airport for certain cruise passengers and certain airlines.

 

http://www.yvr.ca/guide/around/onboard/index.asp

 

I've been trying to get info as well (though this time we'll be disembarking from a Princess cruise in Vancouver) I assume I'll be able to find out more info when I'm on the ship and I'm not going to worry about it until then:rolleyes:

[Sundagger]

Hi - We are disembarking in vancouver on 8/19 after an alaska cruisetour with Holland America. Getting specific information on US Direct from Holland America is difficult! So far I get a lot of "US what?"

 

Anyhow - the rep I got today informed me that Holland ONLY uses US Direct for embarkation in Vancouver - not for disembarkation. Different information that what I had before.

 

Anyone had personal experience?

Thanks, sue

 

US Direct is the On-board Check-in. If you are looking for the baggage service from the ship to your destination airport, here is a link: http://www.hollandamerica.com/guests/category.do?category=arrival&topic=signatureExpress

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We used this last year when disembarking in Vancouver on the Ryndam. We did fly home on United/Ted. Although I have to admit if we ever fly back to Vancouver we will fly Air Canada with direct Non-Stop from Las Vegas so I guess we will not be able to use this servce:( It really worked great and I highly recommend if your airline is one of the ones that offer this.

[Hoyaheel]

if we ever fly back to Vancouver we will fly Air Canada with direct Non-Stop from Las Vegas.

 

Air Canada is listed on the website I posted as a participating airline.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

It seems to depend on what Airline you're leaving Vancouver on. We were on Air Canada and it wasn't available to us. It was only available for United, Delta and a couple other US based airlines.

We couldn't even use it on embarkation day, as there weren't enough people for them to have it running.

 

Air Canada is listed on the website I posted as a participating airline.

Good to know, I was only going by the post above:)

[Hoyaheel]

Good to know, I was only going by the post above:)

And I don't know the specifics--I only know what is posted on the Vancouver airport website who host the program. Maybe Air Canada is a new addition to the program. Maybe there was another reason jmelnick was unable to use the service--I don't know. It never hurts to check it out:p

[dfish]

Lisa,

 

How did you make your arrangements for US Direct? I answered all the questions in the on line check in, but did not see anything that mentioned US Direct. We are flying United and we did purchase transfers from HAL to the airport.

 

Debbie

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Lisa,

 

How did you make your arrangements for US Direct? I answered all the questions in the on line check in, but did not see anything that mentioned US Direct. We are flying United and we did purchase transfers from HAL to the airport.

 

Debbie

 

Debbie, about the 1st day of the cruise we were sent a flyer telling us this was available and we had about 1 or 2 days to decided if we wanted to do this. If I remember correctly we had to pay for it with a credit card and the cost cound not be placed on your ship board account. I know we gave them all our flight info and that morning we disembarked everyone enrolled met in the showroom. There they gave us our actual boarding passes and had us all checked in. The night before we were given special luggage tags so when they picked up our luggage it went right to this group. We never saw our luggage till we we picked them up from baggage claim in Las Vegas.

How they did this was quite interesting. Once we went to the showromm we could not leave, then when everyone was accounted for they led us off the ship from a seperate gangway. We were led to a bus, the area we walked we could not have gone any where. Once on the bus they came down the isle and checked everyone's passport and plance tickets/boarding pass. Then they got off the bus and put a big taped seal accross the down. No One could get on or off the bus. Once we got to the airport we were taken practically to the runway in Vancouver. At the gate a person came on the bus and rechecked all our passports. They then drove us to a back door to the actual gates to the planes. This was all very different but extremely easy and hassle free. Definitely well worthe the extra money.

[dfish]

Thanks, Lisa, that is a great help in knowing how it works. It sounds a lot easier than standing in lines and lugging baggage all over. Since we have Mom and Dad with us, it will be worth every penny to make that part of the trip as easy on them as possible. Dad says he's too old to travel, but he's coming since Mom is. He'll be fine - always is.

 

Debbie

[SueO]

I guess I'll just have to wait til I'm on board as the reps obviously don't really have a clue. And maybe they keep changing it. We are flying United and have transfers but our flight out is at 11:50 a.m. Don't know if that will matter.

 

If for some reason I can't use US Direct - can we request early off the ship? And will we be wise to still use the ship to air transfer we have or do the taxi thing?

 

Thanks again, sue

[boydmom]

It is not US Direct, but some other program. The flights are different from those offered for US Direct because Delta is not one of the airlines listed. My daughter did this and it went just las described by the person who posted earlier. We had purchased transfers before we left on the cruise, but we could have waited until we were on the ship. We had a very early flight 11:30 and we made it fine by using the transfer, but it was a nail-biter until we were actually at the airport and then it turned out we had plenty of time. Holland America would allow you to purchase a transfer if your flight was after 11:15. By the way, our original flight was leaving at 12:05 and was moved up. That is not what is advised as a flight time by folks on this website. Good luck.:)