Vancouver one way: customs on ship?

[jmpiterniak]

Hi all,

 

We're US citizens flying into Vancouver for a one way cruise into Alaska with land + sea Denali tour. I know we have to go through customs at Vancouver airport. Will we need to go through customs again when we board the ship, get into Alaska waters or at our first port? Just curious, thanks!!

 

JoAnne :cool:

[Kamloops50]

yes , you'll have to pass thru US immigration before boarding the ship.

[GradUT]

And, FWIW, if you can plan to arrive at Canada Place (where the cruise ships dock for boarding) around 2pm, you will likely breeze through the entire check-in and immigration process. That's what we did 10 days ago when we boarded the Noordam. There were 3 ships at Canada Place that day for boarding, but we did not stand in one line during the entire process. All of the employees we encountered told us that we chose the best time of day to board.

[JT1962]

We arrived at 2:15 on May 17 with 3 ships in port and it was a nightmare. Royal Caribbean process took less than 10 minutes, but it took almost 3:00 hours to get through security and customs. Our ship sailed over 2 hours late.

 

 

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[ACA Jester]

We arrived at 1:10 to Canada Place on the 17th also bound for the Radiance of the Seas, and didn't get on board until the lifeboat drills had started at 5:30. It definitely felt that for whatever reason the HAL ship check-in line was less crowded than the others when we arrived. Perhaps it was due out earlier than the other three?

[jmpiterniak]

Thanks for the info! Travel agent told us to board at 11 after we check out of the hotel (and buy wine!). Since we're cruise first timers we will probably do that...

[Kamloops50]

Boarding usually doesn't start until noon.

 

 

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[martincath]

Sounds like May 17th was bad even by 3 ship day standards; but as the season moves on things do steadily improve.

 

GradUTs was actually a '2.5 ship day' as Regatta only unloaded pax then steamed over the dock in North Van for some renos - so no impact at all on the incoming pax, for them it was a 2 ship day.

 

I'm still firmly in the camp of 'arrive as late as possible' - but then I've also learned through bitter experience that a 3 ship day in May is crap no matter what time you show up at since all the new staff are learning the ropes. At least if you arrive late you have the chance to eat a nice lunch ashore before waiting around for 3 hours if things have indeed gone pear-shaped!

[Kamloops50]

Sounds like May 17th was bad even by 3 ship day standards; but as the season moves on things do steadily improve.

 

 

 

GradUTs was actually a '2.5 ship day' as Regatta only unloaded pax then steamed over the dock in North Van for some renos - so no impact at all on the incoming pax, for them it was a 2 ship day.

 

 

 

I'm still firmly in the camp of 'arrive as late as possible' - but then I've also learned through bitter experience that a 3 ship day in May is crap no matter what time you show up at since all the new staff are learning the ropes. At least if you arrive late you have the chance to eat a nice lunch ashore before waiting around for 3 hours if things have indeed gone pear-shaped!

 

 

I agree with you on the comment. If your in hotel ,you have be checked out by noon at most hotels. Not all will hold or can hold your bags for you.

 

 

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[zqvol]

IMO the best thing to do is go to the ship early. You are going to end up waiting somewhere, but I would rather wait after clearing customs than before.

[martincath]

I agree with you on the comment. If your in hotel ,you have be checked out by noon at most hotels. Not all will hold or can hold your bags for you.

True enough, checkout beyond noon or even 11am seems to be harder to get without high status these days. But provided you spend a few hours in downtown sightseeing, it's minimal inconvenience to drop checked bags with longshoremen at the pier then go see the sights, have some lunch, and return to queue up from 3pm for a typical 4:30-5:30pm departure.

 

On another thread about the 17th May debacle someone posted the revised cruise calendar from Port Vancouver which shows Solstice officially docked at 12:51pm, over 5 hours late compared to their scheduled 7:00! Radiance was over an hour late, while Volendam was 26mins delayed in tying up. With longshoremen unable to start disembarkation until after embarkation would normally be underway for one of the bigger ships, I'm not surprised there would have been major delays throughout the afternoon.

 

The good news for OP is, this means that the REALLY bad day this year seems to have a significant contributing factor that was nothing to do with Canada Place inefficiency - so it should hopefully be a much less painful experience for you than some of those described above!

[martincath]

IMO the best thing to do is go to the ship early. You are going to end up waiting somewhere, but I would rather wait after clearing customs than before.

Except that's not the case, especially in Vancouver with the extra US immigration step - if you arrive at the pier early you will always have to wait, but if you arrive late though there are NO queues at all for anything, unless the proverbial brown stuff has hit the fan. Rolling in at 3pm the only time we've stopped walking is while answering the Qs of the CBP officer and while the cruise check-in minion grabs our cards for us.

 

 

Furthermore if you're too early (before processing starts some time 11am-noon) you might have to stand while waiting as there is potentially no seating, no refreshments, no nothing unless they are doing Check-in first. US CBP forbid anyone being allowed into the 'customs' waiting room until they're ready to process. They have total control over how things run in their fief - right down to making Security/Check-in stop processing anyone else when they feel their room is too full and needs to be cleared. So even if you have a seat at Check-in, once you get up to walk to Security you may end up standing in a line that does not move at all until CBP clear X number of people and let the line move forward again.

[Crew News]

I learned that when transiting through Vancouver that embarking passengers may not occupy the same hallway as those disembarking. To ensure this does not happen, processing through Security will not be started until ALL disembarking passengers from ALL docked ships have disembarked their ships.

 

If a ship arrives late, medical emergency disembarkation, security issues, or a few passengers deciding to oversleep past the mandatory 10:00 AM "zeroing out" of all passengers, chaos ensues and there is not a steady flow of arriving passengers, only a huge queue.at Security. With three ships in port on the same day, the odds of chaos increase dramatically.

 

To avoid the queue, arriving around, or after, 1:00 PM might be a good idea. The downside is that you will miss the first meal that is covered by your cruise fare.

 

Holland America is pretty successful in starting boarding at 11:30 AM for those passengers arriving early.

 

I will be embarking June 4th and plan on using my photographers stool while waiting in the queue. Stay tuned on this thread for my evaluation of the process.

[Coral]

Except that's not the case, especially in Vancouver with the extra US immigration step - if you arrive at the pier early you will always have to wait, but if you arrive late though there are NO queues at all for anything, unless the proverbial brown stuff has hit the fan. Rolling in at 3pm the only time we've stopped walking is while answering the Qs of the CBP officer and while the cruise check-in minion grabs our cards for us.

.

 

I disagree. I have checked in early and then went back out to spend time in Vancouver and when I returned, I had a very long wait to get back on the ship. Several busses had come in and there was a long queue to get back on the ship. One can not predict when the backlog happens.

[Kamloops50]

I've had similar issues in both Fort Lauderdale and San Pedro.

 

 

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[martincath]

I disagree. I have checked in early and then went back out to spend time in Vancouver and when I returned, I had a very long wait to get back on the ship. Several busses had come in and there was a long queue to get back on the ship. One can not predict when the backlog happens.

Valid point that since people arrive in clumps rather than as a constant stream there will be peaks & troughs throughout the boarding window - but since all incoming 'on the day' flights, buses, and trains for cruisers are heavily weighted to morning and very early afternoon arrivals statistically there is no doubt that later is quieter on average.

 

 

It's also a simple fact that if you arrive before processing begins, you will ALWAYS have to wait - it's a literal impossibility to avoid queues if you're early, but very viable to entirely avoid queues (or at the very least minimise their length) by arriving late. It may be impossible to predict exactly when people will show up - if Amtrak or even one large plane is 30mins late that bumps hundreds of arriving pax - but it's very possible to say that 'noon until 2pm' is busier than 3pm with a high degree of accuracy.

 

 

NB: I'm not an advocate of arriving late as in 'come to Vancouver on a late flight' - just doing the very last step of getting from the other bits of the city to the pier itself. Get to Vancouver as early as vacation time allows, even drop bags off early on the day, and definitely be sightseeing near enough the pier that you remove the risk of actually missing your cruise!