Chaos at Vancouver!!

[jmps]

Bummer, I had decided that US Direct was the way to go from pier to airport to avoid all this mess. Without US Direct the cost of cruise line transport is MUCH MUCH less appealing. I guess we will be fighting the cab and customs lines.

[yogagal47]

I thought this was the "Chaos in Vancouver thread, not the "US Direct" thread. I am confused?????

[nothriver]

We arrived (Ballantyne) on the 16th. The cruise line was a bit confused as it was the 1st arrival of the season. We did the self walk off and were off the ship at 7:45....in the van at 7:50 and on the way to the airport by 8:20. Checked in, cleared customs, and were in the boarding area at 9:00. It was super fast and easy.

 

There were plenty of cabs waiting if that was the route you chose.

 

And, since the question of US Direct has come up many times - some people on our cruise selected the US Direct service and were informed 2 days prior to arriving in Vancouver that it was canceled and they would need to make other arrangements.

 

This is exactly what I want to hear! I've never cruised and I'm so worried about disembarkation. We also plan to self disembark. can you tell me if you hired the van ahead of time or if there were vans waiting? We are a group of 3 adults and a preschooler in a car seat, with quite a bit of luggage. I'd like to hire a van or limo, but I don't know how to go about it since I have no idea how long it will take us to get off the ship and through customs.

 

ETA: is there customs getting OFF the ship and customs at the airport as well? Or just at the airport?

 

Thanks in advance for any info.

[inar]

You will be clearing through Canadian customs after disembarking the ship. US customs at the airport. Self disembarking guest are the first passengers called off the ship. You should be off by 8-8:15. Best bet would be to book a limo.

[Cosmic Rays]

I thought this was the "Chaos in Vancouver thread, not the "US Direct" thread. I am confused?????

 

CORRECT!!! That is what I originally posted. Who on earth are US Direct anyway???

[nonrev1]

To answer an earlier question - We made arrangements for transportation in advance. The company we used is also waiting at the pier....but, since we had an early flight, I felt more comfortable knowing that we had reservations for a specific van/time vs. possibly waiting. There were vans available, but limited. It was super easy to walk off and it really did seem very organized pier-side.

 

I added the part about US Direct in my original response because the question was about chaos at the pier. Yes, on our arrival, it did cause chaos because many people chose that as an option and suddenly it was not available and they had no other arrangements made prior to the ship arriving in Vancouver. Just trying to let people know that it could be offered on their cruise (as it was on ours) and not actually be available.

[jmps]

CORRECT!!! That is what I originally posted. Who on earth are US Direct anyway???

 

US Direct is a way for passengers going directly to the US to avoid the chaos by bypassing customs lines since you are taken from the US (coming from a US port) to the US (US gates at the airport). That is why it was brought up in this thread.

[knorrisb07]

my past experience was that it was busy, but orderly