More info on US Direct

[Honeygram]

We are flying into Seattle on July 5 and leaving Seattle July 6 on a Your Man Tours tour bus headed for Vancouver to catch the Volendam for a cruise of the inside passage. Does this mean we are destined to wait in line for Customs:confused:

[CruiseIsGood]

Yes, but since so many others will be doing the direct, your line will probably be a lot smaller. So this should work well both for those using it and those not using it.

[cruisenmama]

Just to make this perfectly clear, the US Direct service is a convenience set up by the Canadians, as I'mdeaf said, and it does not cost anything - however, transfers by the cruise line DO - and as US Direct is in conjunction with tranfers by the cruise line by bus from the airport to the pier, those do indeed incur a cost ($20 per person one way with RCCL). So, possibly the $20 talked about was the cost of the transfer, not the US Direct service - hopefully this makes things clear and not more cloudy!! :)

 

We are trying out US Direct in less than two weeks - we'll be sure to let everyone know how it went - the last time we cleared customs in Vancouver it was fairly easy, and quick - however, that was in 2003, and early in the morning - I'm sure, on a sail day, the line lengthens which each passing hour!

 

Happy sailings to all!

[Coral]

I just got back from Alaska and tried to partake in this program after our Princess cruise.

 

Half way through our cruise, we received a letter saying if we pay $15 (plus the cost of the transfer which was $18 which was optional and not tied to the $15 fee), we could get our boarding pass on the ship, we could put out luggage out the night before the cruise ended and not see it until our home airport and then we would go through the Cruise Ship Facility at the Airport (satelite office) which would expediate customs/immigration.

 

I did put my bags out the night before with special tags and they did make it to my home airport.

 

We were instructed to show up at 7 am in the Vista Lounge. This was the first time the Sun Princess did this program and it was a little chaoic. I am sure it will improve. We had to show government ID and received our airline boarding passes on the ship. We also received a pink card which supposedly we need for the cruise ship facility at the airport.

 

This is where things went wrong - our bus dropped us of at the front of the Vancouver airport where everyone is dropped off instead of the Cruise Ship Facility at the airport where they are supposed to expediate customs/immigration. The Vancouver airport person who boarded our bus at the airport wasn't sure why our bus went to the regular terminal instead of the cruise ship facility (she said the cruise ship facility is very quick). I used the Cruise Ship Facility at the airport 2 years ago so I knew there was a difference and I loved it 2 years ago.

 

So, while we bypassed the airline lines in Vancouver airport - we had all the other LONG lines. We had plenty of time, so it wasn't a big deal.

 

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BTW - you could have paid the $15 fee and put your luggage out the night before (and not see it again until you got home) and picked up your boarding pass on the ship but not do the transfers of the cruise line. If you did this - you would go direct to where we ended up (Regular Terminal) verses the cruise ship facility at the airport. Several people did this because they were going to tour in Vancouver that day and did not want to deal with luggage.

 

Most airlines are involved in this program - sorry I don't have the list. And to participate you must be flying to the US the day the ship disembarks and must be US citizen or resident.

[Texasbob]

for the info. You have a positive attitude, I can tell!

 

Hopefully, others (and myself) will continue to report on the program.

[garycarla]

There is lots of confusion and BAD INFORMATION about the US Direct program. Here is a QUOTE from the official page:

"Who's Eligible?

To be eligible for the On Board Check-in Program, you must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent U.S. Resident disembarking the ship in Vancouver and flying on the same day directly to a U.S. destination from Vancouver International Airport. Additionally, you must be sailing with a participating cruiseline and flying on a participating airline to use this program."

 

Read more about it here:

http://www.yvr.ca/guide/around/onboard/index.asp?id=0#eligible

 

VERY IMPORTANT:

This is new. What Aunt Bessie did LAST year does not count.

What an uninformed TA or Cruiseline Agent tells you does not count.

What your neighbor that traveled two years ago tells you, does not count.

[Coral]

for the info. You have a positive attitude, I can tell!

 

I admit - I wasn't thrilled when I realized that they were not taking us where I knew we should have went. I was sort of more curious why we were not going to the cruise ship facility at the airport. My luggage made it home so I am happy.

 

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garycarla - apologizes for leaving the word out "permanent resident" and just saying resident. I posted about my experience with about 3 hours of sleep. The info on the web was not there when I left for my cruise.

 

I do know it is different then 2 years ago but I do know the satelite office at the airport (Cruise Ship facility) is different then the terminal they dropped us off at this weekend. We only partially used the program due to an error of some sort.

 

--------------------

 

Just to clarify my post above. On Princess - if you pay the $15 for this program and the $18 transfer, you put your luggage out the night before, you pick up boarding passes on the ship and you should go through quick US customs at the airport (if you qualify under all conditions.....). If you pay the $15 but do not do the Princess transfers, you can still put your luggage out the night before and pick up your boarding pass in the morning (they distrubted ours in the Vista Lounge), but you do not get the expediated US Customs/Immigration process - this is still a deal since you don't have to lug your luggage around all day.

 

The Princess employees on our sailing were very confused about this since this was the first time our ship had used this years program. Many of us (actually everyone I spoke to) received 2 different colors of luggage tags. The white ones were the correct ones on Princess. Plus, no one told us to keep track of the number on these luggage tags and in the Vista Lounge, they started calling us by numbers. These tags don't have the pull off ends so it was a little chaoic. Acutally, very chaoic. Also, some of the airlines took a long time giving Princess the correct information, so those on Delta received their tags very late in the week verses being on United, my tags arrived a few days earlier.

 

Hopefully this will go smoothly in a few weeks.

[Joy2Day]

Did you fly from OMA or MCI? Which airline? I'll be returning to OMA on Northwest, leaving Vancouver at noon and arriving in Omaha around 7:30 pm. How does this compare to your flights?

 

BTW -- I have great flights both directions through Princess Air. Leave OMA at 7:30 am, arrive Fairbanks at 2:15 (via Minneapolis and Anchorage). My travel partners don't leave St. Louis until 2 pm and arrive in Fairbanks (via Minneapolis) until 8 pm. Better flights and comparable price to booking it myself -- one of those situations where Princess Air works out.

[Coral]

Hi Joy -

 

You did end up with great flights!

 

I did a B2B so I flew into and out of Vancouver with United (FF miles). I went LNK-Denver-Vancouver and then the same in reverse for coming home Vancouver-Denver-LNK

 

My flight leaving Vancouver was at 2 pm and scheduled to get in at 9 but we ran into storms in Denver and didn't make it home until midnight.

 

You ended up doing very well with Princess flights. You should not have a problem at all with the noon flight. Despite the chaos we had with the new system, I would still recommend it.

[nanaknees]

Coral,

Did you pay the $15 fee on the ship or ahead of time? We will be flying NW on a 12:00 noon flight after our Carnival cruise in September, and I would like to use this On-Board Check-in Program. I plan to buy the cruiseline transfers in hopes of this being quicker than taking a taxi because of our noon flight.

 

Cindy

[Alaska05]

We plan to stay in Vancouver for 3 days prior to our cruise northbound to Whittier. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming we would just go to the regular line in Customs & Immigration for arriving U.S. citizens. In other words, the fact we're leaving on a cruise doesn't come into play.

[KFH]

That is correct. US direct is only if you are going from plane to boat.

[FamilyofFourtoAlaska]

Does anything know if this will work for us if we arrive Vancouver at 8:00 and have a flight at 11:40 a.m. to Houston?

[Texasbob]

sounds like you would be the perfect candidate for the program with that early flight.

[baseballmom]

Just to clarify my post above. On Princess - if you pay the $15 for this program and the $18 transfer, you put your luggage out the night before, you pick up boarding passes on the ship and you should go through quick US customs at the airport (if you qualify under all conditions.....). If you pay the $15 but do not do the Princess transfers, you can still put your luggage out the night before and pick up your boarding pass in the morning (they distrubted ours in the Vista Lounge), but you do not get the expediated US Customs/Immigration process - this is still a deal since you don't have to lug your luggage around all day.

 

 

Hi Coral -- That sounds like the program we will use on RCCL. We're flying in one day early, so cannot use US Direct to get to the ship, but I've been told (by my TA and RCCL) to go to RCCL's Guest Relations desk on board and for $15 they'll send our luggage directly to the airport to our flight . At this point I'm not planning on purchasing the RCCL transfers, but you're right -- it sure beats lugging luggage around all day!

 

Laurie

[Coral]

Coral,

Did you pay the $15 fee on the ship or ahead of time? We will be flying NW on a 12:00 noon flight after our Carnival cruise in September, and I would like to use this On-Board Check-in Program. I plan to buy the cruiseline transfers in hopes of this being quicker than taking a taxi because of our noon flight.

 

Cindy

 

We received a letter on the ship explaining the program and a form to fill out if we chose to participate. The $15 was added to our shipboard account.

[Coral]

We plan to stay in Vancouver for 3 days prior to our cruise northbound to Whittier. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming we would just go to the regular line in Customs & Immigration for arriving U.S. citizens. In other words, the fact we're leaving on a cruise doesn't come into play.

 

Yes - you are right. We also stayed in Vancouver for 2 days before our cruise.

[garboo9]

I have searched the boards to learn more about the US Direct program. I think we are eligible based on the information and link to the Vancouver airport website. I noticed several postings about using it at the end of the cruise but has anyone successfully used it from the Vancouver airport to the ship? Do I need to be concerned about my luggage since I do not claim it and it is supposed to be delivered to my cabin.

[akh40]

We used US Direct in early June, I believe one of the first weeks it was available. It was a little difficult to find out exactly where we were supposed to go once we got off the plane, but I'm sure by now they've got things running smoothly(!) Our luggage showed up in our cabin with no problems. We flew into Vancouver via Seattle, and Boise. We did have to have the declaration form filled out. They checked our IDs & birth certificates (none of us have passports). The only glitch was we got to the airport so early (around 10am, I think) that we had to wait for more flights to come in before they started loading the buses to go to the pier.

 

Amanda

[jfs9900]

Hopefully someone can help. We are sailing on RCCL next month on the Serenade. We purchased our airfare separately from the cruise line - on Air Canada. We connect in Toronto and fly back to the US.

 

Are we still eligible for US Direct? Our flight home won't be an international flight until we get into Toronto.... Any help is appreciated!!!

[CruiseIsGood]

You're not going directly to the US, so US Direct doesn't make any sense.

[jfs9900]

You're not going directly to the US, so US Direct doesn't make any sense.

 

 

Well our flight leaves at 11:30 am...... so any time that we can save would be helpful!

[Coral]

Hopefully someone can help. We are sailing on RCCL next month on the Serenade. We purchased our airfare separately from the cruise line - on Air Canada. We connect in Toronto and fly back to the US.

 

Are we still eligible for US Direct? Our flight home won't be an international flight until we get into Toronto.... Any help is appreciated!!!

 

Only flights direct to the US are eligible.

 

If you are going in September, hopefully the large summer cruise crowds will not be as there. I haven't had any problems with crowds on May cruises.