Canada Place disembark

[DesertHavenCruiser]

Hi. I know many will not understand this but I have a lot of anxiety about going through buildings I haven't been before. I will be disembarking Princess in Vancouver. Could you let me know what to expect in terms of getting to customs and out of the terminal? For example: "When you get off the gangway, you go down a long hallway to the elevator. . .etc."

I will be doing self-disembarking with my luggage so I won't need to stop for that. I have disembarked in Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco and San Pedro, Ca. So any comparisons to those would be helpful. 

[Heidi13]

On disembarking the ship, you will walk through the terminal on a single level. On clearing customs you exit into the bus/taxi area, which is 1 level below the street. If walking to the street they have a pedestrian ramp or you can use the lift to the hotel level.

[DesertHavenCruiser]

Thanks! That helps.

[martincath]

Hopefully this will be helpful too: Google has Streetview photowalks of a huge amount of the interior space at Canada Place! You can wander around the (empty) convention halls, as well as the outside walkways. While this won't show you the actual layout disembarking on a cruise day - Google obviously don't have imagery of the secure area - you should be able to become extremely familiar with the 'look' of the building interior. 'Walking' along the Canada Trail outside the pier will also clearly show you what you'll see as you step off the ship and come down the gangway before getting inside the building.

 

It may not be at all feasible for you to get to Vancouver in advance, but you could also reach out to the port to see if they operate any programs similar to the ones at airports (primarily aimed at autistic kids, which is why I'm familiar with them) to allow people escorted access in advance to so they can be familiarized with the building before they have to do it on a day with the added stress of actually traveling... and even if that's not possible for you, the port website does have a lot of info, FAQs, and images (including examples of the signage, so you can see what colour/font is used and know what to look for on the day for guidance).

 

There are also staff working who are supposed to add another layer of guidance, pointing folks the right way for what they need to do (e.g. pedestrian walkway up to street level, elevators to hotel, where to start queuing for cabs, where private car pickups are, etc. etc. etc.) - the actual knowledge and competence of these folks unfortunately does vary wildly as even folks with multiple years of work under their belts have to deal with relearning at the start of each season due to changes in policies & procedures. If the first person you speak to can't help, just keep asking until someone can.

 

Lastly, reach out to Princess' Special Needs department. You may not need a physical accommodation made for you, but it certainly sounds like you have a valid need for a little extra help - something as simple as being allowed to follow one of the ship's wheelchair pushers down into the terminal while they are already going there with a physically-impaired passenger would cost them no extra time or money but could make all the difference in the world to you...

[DesertHavenCruiser]

Thanks for all of the useful info especially reaching out to the special needs department. You're correct I don't need physical accommodations but on my last cruise the person I was with needed a wheelchair and it helped me to be with someone who knew the layout and where to go.

Edited November 18, 2019 by DesertHavenCruiser