Vancouver Terminal (Oosterdam)

[Cindykw]

We took the Amtrak train to Vancouver from Seattle for the 1 night cruise.

The Vancouver cruise terminal is a horrible mess of confusion. My son did the same cruise last May and had to wait 4 hours to board.

This year we waited 2 1/2 hours in line in the lower garage. It was so cold.

There were many elderly people in line. On a concrete floor with the door open.

By the time we got to the body scanner there was 1 scanner. 1 !!!! What the heck? They proceeded to scan my backpack and then they put you in an elevator 4 people at a time and sent us upstairs to customs. This was a horrible experience. Totally unacceptable.

The Oosterdam was a disappointment. The lunch buffet was very disorganized. The food was good. Princess has the same thing but you serve yourself and everything flows smoothly. On the Osterdam there was a minimum of 20 people in line at any one time.They serve you and it was so slow. I gave up and ate just salad.

The superior Verandah Suite was dated and dark. There was 2 bottles of shampoo and shower jel, no lotion or conditioner.The bed was comfortable.

 

I would not recommend this cruise line or Vancouver cruise terminal.

If you want to go to Alaska go to Seattle. They treat you like a real person and sail with Princess Cruise line. You won't be sorry.

 

 

2001 Royal Carribbean :D #1

2005 Royal Carribbean

2007 Princess:)#2

2006 Princess

2008 Princess

2007 NCL :mad:

2009 Princess

2010 Holland American Oosterdam:mad:

[Copper10-8]

We took the Amtrak train to Vancouver from Seattle for the 1 night cruise.

The Vancouver cruise terminal is a horrible mess of confusion. My son did the same cruise last May and had to wait 4 hours to board.

This year we waited 2 1/2 hours in line in the lower garage. It was so cold.

There were many elderly people in line. On a concrete floor with the door open.

By the time we got to the body scanner there was 1 scanner. 1 !!!! What the heck? They proceeded to scan my backpack and then they put you in an elevator 4 people at a time and sent us upstairs to customs. This was a horrible experience. Totally unacceptable.

The Oosterdam was a disappointment. The lunch buffet was very disorganized. The food was good. Princess has the same thing but you serve yourself and everything flows smoothly. On the Osterdam there was a minimum of 20 people in line at any one time.They serve you and it was so slow. I gave up and ate just salad.

The superior Verandah Suite was dated and dark. There was 2 bottles of shampoo and shower jel, no lotion or conditioner.The bed was comfortable.

 

I would not recommend this cruise line or Vancouver cruise terminal.

If you want to go to Alaska go to Seattle. They treat you like a real person and sail with Princess Cruise line. You won't be sorry.

 

 

 

Re; the slow service in the Lido, HAL has recently instituted a "semi-Code Red" (some posters call it a "Code Yellow") on all their ships, fleetwide. Those meassures - basically, no self service of food AND drinks in the Lido for the first 48 hours of any cruise - are an attempt to prevent outbreaks of Noro. We were on Oosterdam last month and you're right, they do tend to slow things down a bit more in the Lido. We figured it's easier to put up with that than to involuntarily present offerings from two separate body cavities to the porcelain & plastic throne in your bathroom for the next 48 hrs:eek:.

Sorry to hear that Oosterdam was a disappointment for ya. Haven't embarked/departed from Vancouver for a while but those procedures you refer to are put in place by, and the responsibility of, the local authorities but...............you probably already knew that:)

[InTheWASide]

We took the Amtrak train to Vancouver from Seattle for the 1 night cruise.

The Vancouver cruise terminal is a horrible mess of confusion. My son did the same cruise last May and had to wait 4 hours to board.

This year we waited 2 1/2 hours in line in the lower garage. It was so cold.

There were many elderly people in line. On a concrete floor with the door open.

By the time we got to the body scanner there was 1 scanner. 1 !!!! What the heck? They proceeded to scan my backpack and then they put you in an elevator 4 people at a time and sent us upstairs to customs. This was a horrible experience. Totally unacceptable.

The Oosterdam was a disappointment. The lunch buffet was very disorganized. The food was good. Princess has the same thing but you serve yourself and everything flows smoothly. On the Osterdam there was a minimum of 20 people in line at any one time.They serve you and it was so slow. I gave up and ate just salad.

The superior Verandah Suite was dated and dark. There was 2 bottles of shampoo and shower jel, no lotion or conditioner.The bed was comfortable.

 

I would not recommend this cruise line or Vancouver cruise terminal.

If you want to go to Alaska go to Seattle. They treat you like a real person and sail with Princess Cruise line. You won't be sorry.

 

I took this one day cruise also and like you, took the train into Vancouver. Customs procedures at the train station seem to have improved quite a bit. Also, we always take the skytrain in and it was just as smooth as ever.

 

With regard to the Canada Place terminal, you're right. It was a bit of a mess (as it always is when there are 3 ships in port). We also heard there was a malfunction of the pier's crane that led to a delayed disembarkation of the Oosterdam since without that crane there was no way to offload people's luggage so the only people that could disembark were those carrying their own bags off. When we got to the terminal at noon we had to go in through "Door H" which is the furthest alphabetically labeled door before you hit the street.

 

I have no clue what you're referring to when you say there was one scanner. When we got through the main line-up area where they also sell the binoculars and have the snacks/gifts there were 4 metal detectors/xray machines in use and then there was the line-up for customs which was long but went rather quickly. There were also no elevators involved in getting to the ship, so I'm going to guess there was maybe some sort of mobility impairment that necessitated this for your group? Keep in mind also that no part of that embarkation process is wrong-doing by HAL. This is cruise terminal infrastructure and shortcomings of the pier when 3 ships that can hold a total of 6000-7000 are all in at once. (Oosterdam, Zuiderdam and Norwegian Star)

 

As for the Lido, I only grabbed an iced tea since we were having a gathering at sail away in our room with friends and food and drink were present there. To me in my quick passthrough from the midship elevators out to the aft pool the lines didn't seem any longer or slower than on a typical embark day for a Vista class ship (look at my previous cruises, I've been on a few with this ship or its sisters :))

 

Part of the stateroom amenities (and what we received in our room) are the shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, lotion, 2 kinds of bar soap and the shower cap. It's all part of that blue plastic holder in the room and everything has a place in it. Did you get extras of the other kinds? That definitely isn't correct and not a change HAL has made. (The below picture shows the holder I'm referring to)

 

 

You say the superior suite decor seemed dated and you sing the praises of Princess...

 

yet Princess' closest room to a Superior Suite (their mini-suites) looks like this:

http://members.fortunecity.com/parnami/StarPrincess/163bc2a0.jpg (image won't link... this leads to the image I tried to display in the post)

 

so clearly we just have different taste in that regard.

 

Seattle, now that they';ve had a year to develop a better game plan, really has their act together this year at Smith Cove (Pier 91) and I will of course always support my hometown.

 

Princess on the other hand... well, I tried them to Alaska this week last May and was completely underwhelmed in most aspects... but that's another thread ;)

[catl331]

Did ya do a one nighter on Princess also? I have never had a dark room on the HAL ships. Actually I seem to need to shut off a few lights!:o

[G&G]

Sorry for your disappointment. We have sailed HAL & Princess and like both cruise lines.

 

I believe the crowded Lido Restaurant was due to code Red (per Copper 10-8) and the fact this was a one day cruise. It is my experience that the Lido is crowded on disembarkation day and runs smoothly after that. A one day cruise means one lunch on Day 1 !

 

I have sailed on the Coral, Ruby, Regal, Emerald and Sea Princess ships and the Lido Restaurants were all the same; crowded and not well organized. The food was good but the serving areas are to confined.

 

We are taking the train in September from Seattle to Vancouver. How was the ride ?

[sapper1]

We just disembarked from the Oosterdam two days ago in Vancouver. A small number of passengers in the first group (Brown 1) were allowed off the ship before it was discovered that the crane wasn't working and the disembarkation process was halted. When the people onshore discovered that there was a group of about 20 people waiting for luggage they roped off an area for us to wait in and brought chairs. This area was right next to a washroom which we could use. The problem was explained to us.

Our luggage was in the first batch that was brought out and as soon as the heavy equipment left the area we were allowed in to get our luggage. In spite of there being three ships in the terminal, we managed to find a porter to help and there seemed to be "traffic directors" every few feet to make sure we got into the right line and out to our shuttle to the airport.

We had booked a 12:30 flight and were at the airport between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. Check in and security went very quickly and efficiently.

 

The people held up in the terminal who were doing the most vocal complaining had booked very early flights. There were even two women who had booked a 9AM bus to Seattle. May be it was their first cruise because they seemed shocked that there would be the slightest delay. (Of course it was HAL's fault:rolleyes:)

 

The Oosterdam itself was in great shape-----very clean and the staff were very helpful and accommodating. Service at our early fixed dining was very slow every night. The servers were very good at their job---the food was just slow in coming. We realized on the last night what the reason was when we were told that there was no need to hurry over our dessert as our table was not used during late seating. That explained a lot.

 

The ports in Mexico were very unimpressive but since for me, the cruise itself is at least 80% of the fun, that did not bother me or take away from the enjoyment of the cruise.

 

I would not hesitate to sail on the Oosterdam again. The code yellow did slow things down in the Lido for the first two days but on the other hand we didn't hear any reports of illness other than some mal de mer on the leg from San Diego up to Vancouver. I was down for most of one day myself.

 

The disembarkation in San Diego on this cruise turned into a real problem for those with flights to catch. US Customs would not clear the ship and disembarkation didn't start until around 11AM. The announcements made it clear that the problem wasn't passengers who didn't report for clearance but they didn't say what the problem was.

[trophy_23]

Curious, what was the delay leaving Canada Place in the evening? I noticed all 3 ships left atleast 30min late?

[CtheW0rld]

We took the Amtrak train to Vancouver from Seattle for the 1 night cruise.

The Vancouver cruise terminal is a horrible mess of confusion. My son did the same cruise last May and had to wait 4 hours to board.

This year we waited 2 1/2 hours in line in the lower garage. It was so cold.

There were many elderly people in line. On a concrete floor with the door open.

By the time we got to the body scanner there was 1 scanner. 1 !!!! What the heck? They proceeded to scan my backpack and then they put you in an elevator 4 people at a time and sent us upstairs to customs. This was a horrible experience. Totally unacceptable.

The Oosterdam was a disappointment. The lunch buffet was very disorganized. The food was good. Princess has the same thing but you serve yourself and everything flows smoothly. On the Osterdam there was a minimum of 20 people in line at any one time.They serve you and it was so slow. I gave up and ate just salad.

The superior Verandah Suite was dated and dark. There was 2 bottles of shampoo and shower jel, no lotion or conditioner.The bed was comfortable.

 

I would not recommend this cruise line or Vancouver cruise terminal.

If you want to go to Alaska go to Seattle. They treat you like a real person and sail with Princess Cruise line. You won't be sorry.

 

 

2001 Royal Carribbean :D #1

2005 Royal Carribbean

2007 Princess:)#2

2006 Princess

2008 Princess

2007 NCL :mad:

2009 Princess

2010 Holland American Oosterdam:mad:

 

thanks for your review. Please don't worry if some people don't like it.

[PennyAgain]

I always take a severely negative review (and a severely positive review) with a big grain of salt.

[serendipity1499]

I'm sorry that you were so unhappy on your cruise...Your last three posts indicate that you were also unhappy on Princess, NCL & finally on HAL...Blaming HAL for the problems in the Vancouver cruise terminal is ludicrous..:confused:

Also don't understand complaining about the small things such as not having lotion or gel..:rolleyes: Why not ask your Steward to replace those things for you? Obviously you are not able to cope with such small things & the larger problems become monumental to you..

Unfortunately when one travels, be it by bus, train, air, ship, auto etc. there will be problems & things which might displease you...

Having retired from an International Airline, I've traveled extensively throughout the world by Air, Bus, Train, several Cruise Lines & our own sailboat...

On many of our trips we've encountered problems that have became quite a challenge to correct or over-come...However, we have learned to accept those problems & unhappy moments, roll with the punches & finally laugh about them.. We try to focus on the good times & the good things...

As DH said this morning when we were discussing a friend who needs a kidney transplant, we are truly blessed to be able to do the things we are doing..:)

Perhaps travel by cruise ship is just not for you..;)

Betty

[Atomica]

Canada Place has problems every year. Huge lines, no taxis, and a small terminal entryway that crams 6,000 people on a busy day through a handful of security chekpoints. And, every year they seem to learn very little about how to improve the process. I live here - I love taking cruises out of Vancouver, but the disorganization has made it in the past easily the worst terminal experience out of any I've been to either in North America or Europe.

 

Don't blame HAL for Port Metro Vancouver's shortcomings.

[avalon1025]

The terminal was a joke, and if i heard one more time it was due to three ships being in port....there are many weekends with 3 ships, that is what the pier is designed for. Very disorganized, no communication. If this had been my first cruise, i would have turned around and left. I feel sorry for those that had to wait in the parking area. We at least waited our 2 hours to board standing in a line waiting for security, customs and HAL check in. Awful!

[Jemima]

We disembarked the Zaandam in Vancouver on Apr. 27 and were the only ship in port. I think we were the first HAL ship of the season. It was a normal disembarkation except that Luggage Direct was not available for this cruise. Disembarkation was called, not silent, and was running about a half hour behind. Neither of those is unusual. Once our group was called, we quickly exited the terminal and boarded our transfer bus. Our luggage was already on the bus. It was picked up outside our cabins the previous evening and we next saw it at the Vancouver airport. The Vancouver airport has greatly improved their procedures from when we were last there in late spring '08. We only had to take our luggage on cart down a short hall and checked luggage was taken from us. No luggage to tote through the security and US customs checks.

[cruz chic]

I got off the ship on Saturday after a 14 day cruise. Yes it was crowded in the pier but I have experienced much worse then that on several other cruises that ended in the US. I think they did very well considering there was 3 ships. I guess most folks must have had great disembarkations in the past. You couldn't pay me enough to take a one day cruise. It's way too much hassle.

[CtheW0rld]

The terminal was a joke, and if i heard one more time it was due to three ships being in port....there are many weekends with 3 ships, that is what the pier is designed for. Very disorganized, no communication. If this had been my first cruise, i would have turned around and left. I feel sorry for those that had to wait in the parking area. We at least waited our 2 hours to board standing in a line waiting for security, customs and HAL check in. Awful!

 

here's a news article about declining cruise ship visits in vancouver. maybe the port facilities/management have something to do with that.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/vancouvers-cruise-ship-industry-hits-rough-seas/article1561268/

[fridayeyes]

I did expedited disembarkation in Vancouver yesterday and it was walk-straight-through all the way. The biggest hassle had nothing to do with disembarkation, but instead with a half-marathon that had large sections of downtown blocked off, thus delaying our airport shuttle by about half an hour as the driver tried to find alternate routes through the closed off sections.

[porsena]

Curious, what was the delay leaving Canada Place in the evening? I noticed all 3 ships left atleast 30min late?

Likely the problem had to do with the time it took arriving passengers to get through the terminal. I could see lots of people coming on during the 4:15 PM safety drill. During the safety drill, the Captain announced a departure at 5:01 but it was easily 5:15 before we left. On board, I spoke with someone who'd got on a motor coach in Seattle at 10 AM who barely made it on board by five. He did say they'd spent quite a while waiting at the border crossing, but Seattle-Vancouver is about a three-hour drive.

 

The problems DW and I experienced getting on board weren't HAL's fault. Timing seems to have been everything. Like the OP's, the line we were in, which had passengers for both the Oosterdam and the Star, had to go through just one security scanner and it was excruciatingly slow. I'm still annoyed by that experience and I've posted more detailed comments in another thread.

[Working 2 Cruise]

This would be considered very flashy and vulgar decor in many parts of the world! Be it as it may, not everyone has the same tastes. Live and let live! I love Princess' mini-suites...

 

 

 

 

You say the superior suite decor seemed dated and you sing the praises of Princess...

 

yet Princess' closest room to a Superior Suite (their mini-suites) looks like this:

http://members.fortunecity.com/parnami/StarPrincess/163bc2a0.jpg (image won't link... this leads to the image I tried to display in the post)

 

so clearly we just have different taste in that regard.

 

Seattle, now that they';ve had a year to develop a better game plan, really has their act together this year at Smith Cove (Pier 91) and I will of course always support my hometown.

 

Princess on the other hand... well, I tried them to Alaska this week last May and was completely underwhelmed in most aspects... but that's another thread ;)

[Fit S600]

Someone above posted a comment that they did not go through the parking garage to check in. I suspect that route was a spur of the moment arrangement because of the traffic jam of departing and arriving passengers. Maybe once everything cleared out the later departings were directed to the proper departure area and missed out on the joyful :(time down in P2. Most definitely, Saturday was a disgraceful time for Canada Place.

[fcorey]

We were there a couple of weeks ago. Got off NCL Pearl at Canada Place, stayed over night at the Coast Coal Harbour (awesome hotel) and got on HAL Amsterdam the next day. Getting of Pearl was fine, since we were so close to the hotel we walked. I didnt notice if there were taxi issues, there didnt seem to be. There was only one ship in port each time, but i can imagine when htere are two or more it would be a zoo

[janmcn]

I love the Vancouver terminal...have been on and off there several times and have found it organized and efficient.

Sorry about the Lido on the O, but I agree...the "Code Red" for the first few days is better to help eliminate a more widespread Code Red later on. Mariners get to eat in the MDR for lunch on boarding day...preferable.

We like Princess, too...but usually HAL's itineraries are better for us.

[jmps]

Has anyone tried the new train to the airport to avoid the taxi lines?

[ceilidh1]

Canada Place has problems every year. Huge lines, no taxis, and a small terminal entryway that crams 6,000 people on a busy day through a handful of security chekpoints. And, every year they seem to learn very little about how to improve the process. I live here - I love taking cruises out of Vancouver, but the disorganization has made it in the past easily the worst terminal experience out of any I've been to either in North America or Europe.

 

Don't blame HAL for Port Metro Vancouver's shortcomings.

 

You also have to lay some blame on the heads of the good old US Government that requires all passengers sailing from a Canadian port to a US port pre-clear US immigration and customs prior to boarding. This is where 90% of the hold ups occur, since there are often nowhere enough officers to deal with the number of passengers - the port has no control over this! What the cruise lines and port have done is work with the authorities to get the US Direct program in place (begins June 5th this season I believe) where people flying directly from the US can do all the pre-clearance at the airport and avoid all the line ups. Remember that you really can't compare Vancouver to a US or European port, since disembarking from either of these continents rarely requires entry to another country at your first port, as is the case when you take a trip from Vancouver to Alaska, for example.

[yvrdave]

Has anyone tried the new train to the airport to avoid the taxi lines?

 

Yes, it's great! It's a couple of blocks walk though from Canada Place. See map: www.translink.ca/~/media/documents/schedules%20and%20route%20maps/stn_exch/canadalinewaterfront.ashx You want the Canada Line (light blue line) to YVR.

[GeriatricNurse]

Has anyone tried the new train to the airport to avoid the taxi lines?

 

 

www.TransLink.ca