When can you get off a Princess ship in Vancouver

[stromer]

I need to schedule my departing covid test when I get off my Princess cruise in Vancouver and need to know when is the latest I can get off and how long is the line for customs and immigration?  Anyone who has recently done this I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

 

 

[martincath]

Most likely zero line for customs - you'll fill out Canadian cards onboard, and as (I assume) a US citizen given your profile location you'll almost certainly be taking any Stuff you acquire back home with you! Likewise, immigration info is processed 'behind the scenes' as Canada & US share all such data, so unless there's a problem you may not even see a CBSA uniform anywhere as you disembark.

 

It's when you hit the US border that you'll get grilled about all purchases for Customs!

 

Oh, and if you have an earlier Canada stop, e.g. Victoria, than that's where any Customs/Immigration chats would happen so definitely no extra delay in Vancouver

 

When you can get off? Depends - Princess do enforce time-slots, we've even been forced into waiting for a second 'self disembarkation' group in the past, as so many people sign up to do that on short coastal cruises that they need to regulate pax flow.

 

Safe to assume you can start walking off around 7:30am in normal circumstances - if you need to get your bags taken off for you, then the assigned slots will depend on your flight schedule, status with Princess, and how much groveling/bribery you can deploy to convince them to let you in the earliest rather than latest slots. Worst case is still before 9:30am - as ships all need Zeroed out, all pax off, so that CBP and CBSA can tidy up paperwork for pax about to do B2Bs.

 

All-in-all, if the rules remain the same and you have to take a test pre-flight, the cheapest and best option is to try and get a remote observed test done while onboard, if you have reliable internet, or while on land at a port stop if it's within the '1 day before flying' - proctored tests bought in the US seem to run about $30 or less, compared to CAD$80ish here in Vancouver. Plus, if you actually do test positive onboard, Princess are on the hook for ALL your required expenses during quarantine... but test yourself after disembarking, even minutes later, and you're on your own to find and pay for 10 nights hotel and food!