A Couple Vancouver Questions

[cantgetaname]

Sailing out of Vancouver on Ovation of the Seas in September.   There's a Pharmasave on Howe Street  near the Holiday Inn & Suites.   I'm wondering if anyone knows if they do rapid antigen tests for cruises?   Also, what can i expect from the Vancouver cruise terminal.  I've heard things in reviews about the signage not being good etc.   My boarding time is 10:30   what is a good time to set off from hotel?

[Milhouse]

1 hour ago, cantgetaname said:

 Also, what can i expect from the Vancouver cruise terminal.  I've heard things in reviews about the signage not being good etc.

 

Just a couple of data points: 

Both a few friends and the missus & the in-laws departed out of Canada Place for Alaskan cruises on Princess and HAL this spring/summer.  Feedback was, as you mentioned, there wasn't a lot of good signage for easy self guidance like:  go here for this, go there for that, have this out & ready for the next station.  There's apparently a lot of staff around but they aren't holding signs either so you're needing to be ready to listen to them calling out instructions or go up & ask them.  

We were also out for a walk around Canada Place last month and what seemed to be a bunch of pax were streaming along the outside of the building to a side door where there were down escalators.  At first, we were curious who all these people were.  Not sure if they were part of a transfer or what but eventually heard they were heading to the ship.  Again, no signage but only staff herding the pax to the door with the down escalators.  

 

 

[martincath]

Sorry OP, travel antigen tests are relatively limited in availability here and correspondingly high in cost. The only place doing them for less than the going rate of $79+tax are a couple of Shoppers Drugmart stores (and even then nit's still $50pp, so if you can do an online proctored test instead you might save a packet). W Pender and Davie St are the two downtown locations that would make sense for you to visit - if you have precruise time, either one might be easily popped into while you are sightseeing but Davie is definitely closer to your hotel (map for comparison of both).

 

I'd suggest ignoring that boarding time entirely - you either want to be at the pier as early as possible, so that you are at the head of the line once they actually begin moving at probably 11ish and get onboard as earlty as possible or else show up as late as you can tolerate for the shortest possible lines and quickest 'curb to cabin' timeframe. 2 hours before planned departure is when you should arrive in that case, or else aim to be at Canada Place by 10am. I'd be checking out ~9:30am and walking - straight shot up Howe to the pier, less than a mile, it's <20mins without a suitcase and rolling bags there's not much of a slope anywhere to worry about.

Edited August 27, 2022 by martincath

[cantgetaname]

Thanks for all the advice.  I have managed to get a spot booked for a test within walking distance at a shoppers.   A bit nervous about the port though.  Both my cruises I was on before left from Florida and seemed quite straight forward.  I have a 10:30 check in time but likely I will be up very early anyway.  If I arrived before 10 I'm guessing I will be standing waiting outside somewhere?  I'll maybe take an uber or taxi from hotel.

[martincath]

1 hour ago, cantgetaname said:

Thanks for all the advice.  I have managed to get a spot booked for a test within walking distance at a shoppers.   A bit nervous about the port though.  Both my cruises I was on before left from Florida and seemed quite straight forward.  I have a 10:30 check in time but likely I will be up very early anyway.  If I arrived before 10 I'm guessing I will be standing waiting outside somewhere?  I'll maybe take an uber or taxi from hotel.

Unless it's an insanely busy day you'll wait inside rather than out - and there's a very good chance that if you're early you will be able to drop your suitcases and get checked-in, then sit down in one of the big convention halls while you wait. The key difference from Florida is that your government preclears all pax entering the US before they board, so cruiselines have very limited influence on operational timing. Until CBP is ready to let folks into their immigration area, nobody gets to leave the check-in waiting area.

 

Even in TheBeforeTimes I was always an advocate of arriving late - now that there's even more delays that's an even better idea IMO. There's nothing to stop you dropping bags early, then going sightseeing unencumbered. As long as you are sensible - leave the stuff  close to the pier for last, if you can walk there's no need to worry about traffic delays that way so you can safely shave the margins very tight. Instead of sitting around, then joining slowly moving queues for each stage if you arrive close to the deadline (2 hours predeparture) you can just keep walking, only stopping when you have to interact with the check-in staff, X-ray, and CBP officer/kiosk - we've been curb to cabin in 20mins in the past, compared to a pretty-much-guaranteed 90min or more in Canada Place if you show up early.

 

But some folks think the holiday only starts when they step onboard - if you're one of those, then 2 hours of sitting around and shuffling through queues might be well worth it if you get to be on the ship as early as possible!!! If so, then at least you won't have to stand outdoors in the hot Florida sun if you're too early 😉

[cantgetaname]

How does it work at Canada Place?  Do I check in for cruise first,  or do I go through customs first?

[martincath]

1 hour ago, cantgetaname said:

How does it work at Canada Place?  Do I check in for cruise first,  or do I go through customs first?

Warning - this will be a bit long, but it should cover everything!

 

Standard procedure is to first drop your bags (same level that taxis etc. drop people off, below ground, so if you do walk look for the car ramp - there's a barrier-separated sidewalk on the left for pedestrians). Personally I prefer to take them direct to the longshoremen working the belts, rather than hand over to one of the porters with luggage cages near the parking, to ensure they go straight onto the correct ship - it's rare but not unheard of for bags to get put on the wrong ship, especially if 2 from the same line are in dock!

 

Then you head upstairs to check-in - each line has their own desks, look for signs, listen to staff announcements for which of the rooms will be for yours. Suites, High Status get priority embark groups, early-comers get lower numbers than late-comers, same as you're used to in Florida on that front - in past years scheduled check-in times have been utterly worthless, but there have been some reports this season of enforcement but they've been inconsistent. Try your arm if you're early, worst case is you'll have to hang around Canada Place until your actual scheduled time.

 

Once you're checked-in, it's sit around waiting time! As soon as the ships are cleared and CBP are ready to start processing, groups will be called to head to Security (one setup here, no matter how many ships are in port, everyone goes through the same security area).

 

After Security, all the pax for ships heading directly in to the US then go see CBP (a small number of ships, usually those doing end of season repo cruises, skip this stage as they hit Victoria after Vancouver so no Preclearance happens as they're staying in Canadian waters). But for all the AK cruises, it's basically the same deal as when you fly home from abroad - desks manned by CBP, and kiosks where you can 'self serve' more quickly. If you have Global Entry there's a priority lane - usually furthest left, often shared with Crew as well as GE pax - which should have signs but they are usually small and just stuck on the poles used for setting up walkways, so barely over waist height. If you see anything saying NEXUS - that's the right lineup, it covers all of the Trusted Traveler options that expedite US immigration like SENTRI and GE (not TSA Precheck - that's strictly domestic US security, no immigration benefit).

 

Once you are done with Immigration (customs happens at the same time, so if you did a lot of shopping here you might have something to declare on that front, but preclearance is far more focused on verifying who people are than what stuff they're bringing, cruisers aren't a big concern for moving drugs or guns to Alaska!) if your ship is ready you walk right on - if not, then if you're lucky there might be some snacks available in a 'lounge' which is really just more of the same folding chairs that you waited on in the check-in hall.

[Cbtours]

On 8/29/2022 at 8:15 AM, martincath said:

Warning - this will be a bit long, but it should cover everything!

 

Standard procedure is to first drop your bags (same level that taxis etc. drop people off, below ground, so if you do walk look for the car ramp - there's a barrier-separated sidewalk on the left for pedestrians). Personally I prefer to take them direct to the longshoremen working the belts, rather than hand over to one of the porters with luggage cages near the parking, to ensure they go straight onto the correct ship - it's rare but not unheard of for bags to get put on the wrong ship, especially if 2 from the same line are in dock!

 

Then you head upstairs to check-in - each line has their own desks, look for signs, listen to staff announcements for which of the rooms will be for yours. Suites, High Status get priority embark groups, early-comers get lower numbers than late-comers, same as you're used to in Florida on that front - in past years scheduled check-in times have been utterly worthless, but there have been some reports this season of enforcement but they've been inconsistent. Try your arm if you're early, worst case is you'll have to hang around Canada Place until your actual scheduled time.

 

Once you're checked-in, it's sit around waiting time! As soon as the ships are cleared and CBP are ready to start processing, groups will be called to head to Security (one setup here, no matter how many ships are in port, everyone goes through the same security area).

 

After Security, all the pax for ships heading directly in to the US then go see CBP (a small number of ships, usually those doing end of season repo cruises, skip this stage as they hit Victoria after Vancouver so no Preclearance happens as they're staying in Canadian waters). But for all the AK cruises, it's basically the same deal as when you fly home from abroad - desks manned by CBP, and kiosks where you can 'self serve' more quickly. If you have Global Entry there's a priority lane - usually furthest left, often shared with Crew as well as GE pax - which should have signs but they are usually small and just stuck on the poles used for setting up walkways, so barely over waist height. If you see anything saying NEXUS - that's the right lineup, it covers all of the Trusted Traveler options that expedite US immigration like SENTRI and GE (not TSA Precheck - that's strictly domestic US security, no immigration benefit).

 

Once you are done with Immigration (customs happens at the same time, so if you did a lot of shopping here you might have something to declare on that front, but preclearance is far more focused on verifying who people are than what stuff they're bringing, cruisers aren't a big concern for moving drugs or guns to Alaska!) if your ship is ready you walk right on - if not, then if you're lucky there might be some snacks available in a 'lounge' which is really just more of the same folding chairs that you waited on in the check-in hall.

Good info as we are travelling Vancouver return in May and have never been to Alaska .