Grand Princess moored in Vancouver for a week in May?

[westcoasttech]

Apologies if this has been previously discussed (I couldn't find anything on a search), I'm not often in this thread, as my future cruises are RCCL and NCL (no comments, please ;-)).

 

According to the port schedule the Grand Princess is going to be moored at Canada Place from May 1 through to May 9. Anyone know anything about this? Is this correct? I would have thought that if they were going to be doing any work on the ship they would take it over to the SeaSpan shipyards on the other side of the harbour? It can't be cheap to keep it moored at Canada Place!

 

I'm not aware of any event in town that would need to use the ship - but maybe I'm just out of the loop on that! Just curious, anyone know any facts? It's always a little weird seeing ships moored there "long term"!

[Mingus]

Apologies if this has been previously discussed (I couldn't find anything on a search), I'm not often in this thread, as my future cruises are RCCL and NCL (no comments, please ;-)).

 

According to the port schedule the Grand Princess is going to be moored at Canada Place from May 1 through to May 9. Anyone know anything about this? Is this correct? I would have thought that if they were going to be doing any work on the ship they would take it over to the SeaSpan shipyards on the other side of the harbour? It can't be cheap to keep it moored at Canada Place!

 

I'm not aware of any event in town that would need to use the ship - but maybe I'm just out of the loop on that! Just curious, anyone know any facts? It's always a little weird seeing ships moored there "long term"!

The Grand is supposed to be at Ballantyne for a wet-dock.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Mingus

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes I believe some maintenance is due. ;)

[westcoasttech]

The Grand is supposed to be at Ballantyne for a wet-dock.

 

Thanks - that makes a bit more sense than tying up a berth at Canada Place. I guess they just no longer have a "Ballantyne" column on the schedule! It does mean that it will be a "3 ship" disembark day on May 1 (1st full day of the cruise season) and then a "3 ship" embark day on May 9!

[runnerodb83]

Thanks - that makes a bit more sense than tying up a berth at Canada Place. I guess they just no longer have a "Ballantyne" column on the schedule! It does mean that it will be a "3 ship" disembark day on May 1 (1st full day of the cruise season) and then a "3 ship" embark day on May 9!

 

which, in turn means, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and dogs and cats living together.

[westcoasttech]

Actually, to those that work down at Canada Place, the difference between a 2-ship day and a 3 ship day is quite huge - when it comes to workload and work stress! Construction work has and is being done on re-arranging Canada Place to assist with embarking the sheer number of passengers involved in a 3-ship day - there's a few of them this year. With 3 ships in and turning around on the same day, that can mean 8,000 to 10,000 people getting off the ship, and the same number getting on!

 

I know the comment is tongue in cheek, but I would point out that everyone involved in working with the passengers tries very hard to attempt a smooth and problem-free passage for disembarking and embarking passengers.

Edited April 20, 2015 by westcoasttech

[kruisey]

Apologies if this has been previously discussed (I couldn't find anything on a search), I'm not often in this thread, as my future cruises are RCCL and NCL (no comments, please ;-)).

 

According to the port schedule the Grand Princess is going to be moored at Canada Place from May 1 through to May 9. Anyone know anything about this? Is this correct? I would have thought that if they were going to be doing any work on the ship they would take it over to the SeaSpan shipyards on the other side of the harbour? It can't be cheap to keep it moored at Canada Place!

 

I'm not aware of any event in town that would need to use the ship - but maybe I'm just out of the loop on that! Just curious, anyone know any facts? It's always a little weird seeing ships moored there "long term"!

Would imagine its advantageous for Princess to get some maintenance done in Vancouver with our dollar being so low against the American green back.That is good for Canada as well because it brings employment.A two way win:D

[Colo Cruiser]

Would imagine its advantageous for Princess to get some maintenance done in Vancouver with our dollar being so low against the American green back.That is good for Canada as well because it brings employment.A two way win:D

 

Its nothing new, they used Victoria quite a bit as well.

[snoodqueen]

The Grand will be docked at Canada Place. Ballantyne is no longer used for cruise ships - has reverted back to cargo ships as of this season.

[Colo Cruiser]

The Grand will be docked at Canada Place. Ballantyne is no longer used for cruise ships - has reverted back to cargo ships as of this season.

 

They don't need a dock that takes cruise ships, she won't have any passengers.

They will be working on the Grand, Canada place is not a good spot to load shipping containers of new material.

Anyone know for sure?

[Mingus]

They don't need a dock that takes cruise ships, she won't have any passengers.

They will be working on the Grand, Canada place is not a good spot to load shipping containers of new material.

Anyone know for sure?

 

We were on the Grand early Apr and the crew said they'll be at Ballantyne.

Warned them it's not a good area, especially at night.

[Colo Cruiser]

We were on the Grand early Apr and the crew said they'll be at Ballantyne.

Warned them it's not a good area, especially at night.

 

 

That's what I thought, thanks.

[snoodqueen]

Guess things have changed a lot since I was at the pier yesterday and told quite clearly that she would be on the East Berth. We'll just have to wait until May 1st and see what happens.

[yyjguy]

At this time of the year there is no demand for berths at Canada Place, whlle many of the cargo berths are occupied on a regular basis. Thus the rates are probably lower at Canada Place than elsewhere in the harbour. Another cost item would be the fees to move the ship from Canada Place to another berth (Pilotage, lines crews, line boats, standby tugs etc), and then back again once the wet dock was completed. Thousands upon thousand of dollars saved by leaving her along side Canada Place East. Containers of supplies can be placed along the outside of the terminal building, and easily placed upon the upper decks in necessary. My bet in the order for Canada Place East will not change, but you can determine that a few days in advance at: http://www.ppa.gc.ca/traffic. Select the the Island option to see where she is ordered to.

[Colo Cruiser]

At this time of the year there is no demand for berths at Canada Place, whlle many of the cargo berths are occupied on a regular basis. Thus the rates are probably lower at Canada Place than elsewhere in the harbour. Another cost item would be the fees to move the ship from Canada Place to another berth (Pilotage, lines crews, line boats, standby tugs etc), and then back again once the wet dock was completed. Thousands upon thousand of dollars saved by leaving her along side Canada Place East. Containers of supplies can be placed along the outside of the terminal building, and easily placed upon the upper decks in necessary. My bet in the order for Canada Place East will not change, but you can determine that a few days in advance at: http://www.ppa.gc.ca/traffic. Select the the Island option to see where she is ordered to.

 

So its going to be at Canada Place?

 

Now that I think about it, the Island finished up a wet dock there quite a few years ago.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Colo Cruiser

[kruisey]

States Grand Princess at Canada place for the seven days.No mention of transfer to Ballantyne.

[runnerodb83]

So 3 ships will now dock at Canada Place? I always thought that was only likely to happen if at least one of the ships was small and one was medium. If there are 2 large ships (Grand class or larger) that's gotta be tough. A HAL S class, Vista Class, and Grand class really put that terminal beyond its breaking point. However, I suppose the alternative is Ballantyne which is a decent enough terminal - personally I found the walk from the train station not bad at all - there are far worse neighborhoods in Seattle and many other US cities. However, the one time I've sailed out of Ballantyne, it was the biggest mess of embarkation I have ever seen - and for no apparent reason! So I suppose this is good news.

[kruisey]

So 3 ships will now dock at Canada Place? I always thought that was only likely to happen if at least one of the ships was small and one was medium. If there are 2 large ships (Grand class or larger) that's gotta be tough. A HAL S class, Vista Class, and Grand class really put that terminal beyond its breaking point. However, I suppose the alternative is Ballantyne which is a decent enough terminal - personally I found the walk from the train station not bad at all - there are far worse neighborhoods in Seattle and many other US cities. However, the one time I've sailed out of Ballantyne, it was the biggest mess of embarkation I have ever seen - and for no apparent reason! So I suppose this is good news.

 

At Canada Place 2 ships that hold up to 3000 passengers on each side and a smaller ship on the far side .

[dmwnc1959]

So 3 ships will now dock at Canada Place? I always thought that was only likely to happen if at least one of the ships was small and one was medium.

 

 

According to the Port Metro Vancouver web site in regards to Canada Place:

 

Berths: 3

Lengths:

- 506 m. (1,660 ft.)

- 329 m. (1,070 ft.)

- 274 m. (900 ft.)

 

http://portmetrovancouver.com/about/cruiseandtourism/terminalinformation.aspx

 

:D

[Urban trekker]

Another reason that was pointed out to me about why it might not go to Ballantyne - at Canada Place it hooks onto a power grid - don't believe that is available at Ballantyne.

 

As for costs - the Port can charge the cruise line next to nothing to berth there if they so feel like it.

 

I board the Grand tomorrow for the 10 day coastal.

 

As for Canada Place - as was mentioned there has been construction work going on over the winter months - they have made changes as follows;

 

Added an new escalator by Convention Hall C - which is used as a holding area for those on the third ship - that leads directly down to the boarding area - hopefully it will be ready for May 1, 2015.

 

In the DHS area there are now about 15 stations that can be manned - whether they are or not only the DHS can answer BUT they have installed the automated passport reading machines which should speed things up immensely.

 

Question for those who are told by their cruise line that embarkation starts at 1PM but arrive at the pier at 11AM and then complain about a 2 hour wait. Is it really a two hour wait if you arrive early.

 

If more people - me included - waited and arrived at the time that the cruise line suggested I think a lot of the complaints about wait times would cease BUT as we all feel we are entitled it likely won't happen. After all we want that favorite seat for the sailaway - we want to get our reservations for dining and excursions taken care before the other person does.

 

Cheers!

 

Dennis

[kovhanperl]

I was at the pier yesterday and told quite clearly that she would be on the East Berth.

[VibeGuy]

The biggest issue at Canada Place is that there is insufficient buffer between the x-ray machines and CBP. This leads to problems when the ratio of US/Canada resident to other countries doesn't match the ratio of officers working the respective queues. If they led more people past the CBP queue and offered them seating in two sets of rows (one set for each queue) and then released a row at a time into the queues, everything would move more efficiently and get people out of the snaking queue going into the X-ray area.

 

It would also be helpful if they'd run all the scanners on three-ship days.

 

Canada Place really has proven their inability handle three 100k-ton ships again and again and again. I'm not optimistic that adding the dwell space before security solves much. I've had a dozen or more embarkations at Vancouver and never once have I stopped moving once I got past CBP. The problem isn't the cruise lines or even the size of the ships. The choke point is obvious.

[Max Circus]

Does anyone know specifics on the things that are being worked on? It is my first Princess cruise and I have read lots of information (good and bad) on the Grand. One common issue was descriptions of mold issues, moisture and leaks. Seems unlikely that those types of things could all be addressed over a week in wet dock - but maybe if they have crews working 24 x 7 anything is possible. ;) Maybe the ship will get a more thorough cleaning?

 

What is very odd if that when you go to look at the deck plans on the Princess website, there is an option to whether you are sailing before or after May. I looked at both and couldn't see anything obvious that is different. Also hard to imagine them making any significant infrastructure changes. Maybe they are changing a venue from one concept to another? Lots of guessing as to what will be different - if anything.

[runnerodb83]

Does anyone know specifics on the things that are being worked on? It is my first Princess cruise and I have read lots of information (good and bad) on the Grand. One common issue was descriptions of mold issues, moisture and leaks. Seems unlikely that those types of things could all be addressed over a week in wet dock - but maybe if they have crews working 24 x 7 anything is possible. ;) Maybe the ship will get a more thorough cleaning?

 

What is very odd if that when you go to look at the deck plans on the Princess website, there is an option to whether you are sailing before or after May. I looked at both and couldn't see anything obvious that is different. Also hard to imagine them making any significant infrastructure changes. Maybe they are changing a venue from one concept to another? Lots of guessing as to what will be different - if anything.

 

 

I was on in October, no problems with any of those things - or i didnt notice them, but i wasn't looking either.

 

As for changing the deck plan, they usually do that to recategorize cabins. But i can't tell a difference.

[Max Circus]

I was on in October, no problems with any of those things - or i didnt notice them, but i wasn't looking either.

 

As for changing the deck plan, they usually do that to recategorize cabins. But i can't tell a difference.

 

Thanks for the fast reply. I know it will be a great cruise so not worried.