Vancouver Embarkation May 13, 2023

[cbr663]

 

Recent posts have described a confusing and long embarkation process at Canada Place and I thought I would share our experience.

 

A great starting point is to understand the the process isn’t exactly intuitive.  The signs for cruise ship embarkation are at the far right of the building besides the entrance to the parking garage.  Yes, you have to walk through the parking garage in order to access your cruise ship.  Parking garages are rarely great places to walk around.

 

You will continue walking down and follow the blue signs.  You will walk by orange barriers and you may feel lost.  Just continue.  There are 5 steps that you have to follow:  dropping off your luggage, gong through HAL check in, going through Security, going through US Customs and finally waiting to board.

 

Luggage is dropped off at P2.  When you enter the cruise terminal you are not at P2 and have to go up for P2.  Staff were preventing everyone  with a large suitcase from using the escalators and directing us to one elevator.  So yes, there was a line up for that elevator and luckily it moved quickly.

 

Once off the elevator you followed the arrows on the floor and of you didn’t have a luggage tag on your suitcase you had to visit a desk to obtain one.  Those of us with luggage tags simply dropped off our luggage at the signed location.  Step 1 took us about 10 mins.

 

Step 2 is to follow another line into the HAL check in area.  You are directed to a kiosk with an iPad and an HAL rep scans your Passport and the system verifies your photo.  This was merely a matter of minutes and you are off again.

 

Step 3 security was simply put everything you have in a bin and walk through the typical airport screening tool.  This took us just a couple of minutes.

 

Step 4 US Customs took about  5+ minutes.  There were two lines and the process was using a self service kiosk.   Insert your passport, answer some questions, take a pic, add a family member, insert their passport and take their pic and wait for the receipt.  You then simply carried the printed receipt to a US Border Officer and you were walking again for Step 5.

 

Step 5 was simply join everyone else in a large room to wait for boarding.  Priority Boarding is one side of the room and it isn’t clear.  I informed a rep that we had priority boarding and we were instructed to sit with a large group.  After about 20 minutes sitting I asked another rep if those on the other side were priority boarding and he replied yes so we moved to join the smaller group.

 

The ship was late commencing boarding and didn’t start until about 11:05 am.  We arrived at the port at about 10:00 and the process to wait to board took about 25+ mins.  There were 2 elevator rides but I can’t remember at which point we took the second elevator ride.  It was begin on one floor, up to another, up to another and then down to another.

 

We only needed to show our boarding passes when actually boarding the ship.  No one was paying any attention to assigned embarkation times.  You also need to remember that when first entering the cruise terminal you have an entire ship of passengers trying to disembark so it is a tad busy, to any the least.

[Florida_gal_50]

Thanks for the detailed information.  It’s been a while since I’ve caught a ship in Vancouver but your information brought it back.  This is likely to be a big help to many.

[oakridger]

@cbr663  Thanks for the review.  Can you please use a larger font for posting.  Your post has very tiny print and must be enlarged to read it.  

 

Thanks again,

~Nancy

[RuthC]

56 minutes ago, oakridger said:

@cbr663  Thanks for the review.  Can you please use a larger font for posting.  Your post has very tiny print and must be enlarged to read it.  

 

Thanks again,

~Nancy

Thank you for asking that. I, too, had a very hard time reading the post. It is so much smaller than even the default font size.

[cbr663]

1 hour ago, oakridger said:

@cbr663  Thanks for the review.  Can you please use a larger font for posting.  Your post has very tiny print and must be enlarged to read it.  

 

Thanks again,

~Nancy

Will do.  Sorry about that.  I was having trouble connecting to the internet onboard so I wrote it in Pages so as to not lose my thoughts.  I’ve tried to see if if I could edit it but it won’t allow me.

[Laminator]

4 hours ago, cbr663 said:

 

Recent posts have described a confusing and long embarkation process at Canada Place and I thought I would share our experience.

 

A great starting point is to understand the the process isn’t exactly intuitive.  The signs for cruise ship embarkation are at the far right of the building besides the entrance to the parking garage.  Yes, you have to walk through the parking garage in order to access your cruise ship.  Parking garages are rarely great places to walk around.

 

You will continue walking down and follow the blue signs.  You will walk by orange barriers and you may feel lost.  Just continue.  There are 5 steps that you have to follow:  dropping off your luggage, gong through HAL check in, going through Security, going through US Customs and finally waiting to board.

 

Luggage is dropped off at P2.  When you enter the cruise terminal you are not at P2 and have to go up for P2.  Staff were preventing everyone  with a large suitcase from using the escalators and directing us to one elevator.  So yes, there was a line up for that elevator and luckily it moved quickly.

 

Once off the elevator you followed the arrows on the floor and of you didn’t have a luggage tag on your suitcase you had to visit a desk to obtain one.  Those of us with luggage tags simply dropped off our luggage at the signed location.  Step 1 took us about 10 mins.

 

Step 2 is to follow another line into the HAL check in area.  You are directed to a kiosk with an iPad and an HAL rep scans your Passport and the system verifies your photo.  This was merely a matter of minutes and you are off again.

 

Step 3 security was simply put everything you have in a bin and walk through the typical airport screening tool.  This took us just a couple of minutes.

 

Step 4 US Customs took about  5+ minutes.  There were two lines and the process was using a self service kiosk.   Insert your passport, answer some questions, take a pic, add a family member, insert their passport and take their pic and wait for the receipt.  You then simply carried the printed receipt to a US Border Officer and you were walking again for Step 5.

 

Step 5 was simply join everyone else in a large room to wait for boarding.  Priority Boarding is one side of the room and it isn’t clear.  I informed a rep that we had priority boarding and we were instructed to sit with a large group.  After about 20 minutes sitting I asked another rep if those on the other side were priority boarding and he replied yes so we moved to join the smaller group.

 

The ship was late commencing boarding and didn’t start until about 11:05 am.  We arrived at the port at about 10:00 and the process to wait to board took about 25+ mins.  There were 2 elevator rides but I can’t remember at which point we took the second elevator ride.  It was begin on one floor, up to another, up to another and then down to another.

 

We only needed to show our boarding passes when actually boarding the ship.  No one was paying any attention to assigned embarkation times.  You also need to remember that when first entering the cruise terminal you have an entire ship of passengers trying to disembark so it is a tad busy, to any the least.

It sounds like you may have walked in. Do the taxi's drop you off where you hand your luggage to the porters or did you not notice?

[oakridger]

Cars did drive into the garage and let you and your luggage out right by the porters.  That was last in 2018 though.  The last time I was there was September 2022 but stayed across the street and walked over along the water side, street level, to check in.  Has it changed since then?

 

~Nancy

[secondtime]

7 hours ago, RuthC said:

Thank you for asking that. I, too, had a very hard time reading the post. It is so much smaller than even the default font size.

Ruth, FYI I find your green ink hard to read.  If you change it to black, you should decrease the font size a little.

[jabcruiser]

5 hours ago, Laminator said:

It sounds like you may have walked in. Do the taxi's drop you off where you hand your luggage to the porters or did you not notice?

Wondering this also.  We will arrive by taxi May 28 departure on Noordam.

Thanks,

Jane

[DrKoob]

I would love to know what time HAL gave you to board and the amount of time it took for others with later boarding times to get on. Two weeks ago, we did the same exact routine you did at 12:15 (HAL assigned boarding time for us was 12:40) and we were in line for almost 80 minutes for your step 2, Your Step 3 was more than an hour for us and, your step 4 was also an hour. Total time from getting in the line until getting on the ship was 3 hours and 30 minutes. Can you ask others on board who boarded later how long it took them?

[jabcruiser]

2 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

I would love to know what time HAL gave you to board and the amount of time it took for others with later boarding times to get on. Two weeks ago, we did the same exact routine you did at 12:15 (HAL assigned boarding time for us was 12:40) and we were in line for almost 80 minutes for your step 2, Your Step 3 was more than an hour for us and, your step 4 was also an hour. Total time from getting in the line until getting on the ship was 3 hours and 30 minutes. Can you ask others on board who boarded later how long it took them?

Well, that won't work for us based on sail away at 4:00.  Believe all aboard is 3:30 and sounds like you got aboard about 3:45.  We don't have a check in time yet for our May 28 cruise on Noordam -Vancouver to Whittier.  But current plan (certainly subject to change) is to get taxi about 10 am to cruise port.  Our hotel is little over mile away so not really walkable with luggage for us anyway.  Planned to check luggage, check out situation and probably just wander around port area, find restaurant to hang out for awhile and wait for crowd to thin which thought would be 1:30 or so.  But based on your experience maybe should just get in line at 10 -10:30 and hope for best.  

Vancouver sounds like a mess to me.  And we thought San Diego was bad last year.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

Jane

[cbr663]

7 hours ago, Laminator said:

It sounds like you may have walked in. Do the taxi's drop you off where you hand your luggage to the porters or did you not notice?

Yes taxis drop you off right beside where you drop off your luggage.  You can save yourself a step of lining up to take the elevator up by taking a taxi.

[cbr663]

52 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

I would love to know what time HAL gave you to board and the amount of time it took for others with later boarding times to get on. Two weeks ago, we did the same exact routine you did at 12:15 (HAL assigned boarding time for us was 12:40) and we were in line for almost 80 minutes for your step 2, Your Step 3 was more than an hour for us and, your step 4 was also an hour. Total time from getting in the line until getting on the ship was 3 hours and 30 minutes. Can you ask others on board who boarded later how long it took them?

We had an 11 am boarding time and arrived at 10.  No one was checking boarding times.  The ship was late leaving though at around 4:50 instead of 4:00.

[RuthC]

4 hours ago, secondtime said:

Ruth, FYI I find your green ink hard to read.  If you change it to black, you should decrease the font size a little.

Thank you for letting me know. Would a dark brown work better? (I left the font size the same, for now. let me know how this is, please.) 

[secondtime]

1 minute ago, RuthC said:

Thank you for letting me know. Would a dark brown work better? (I left the font size the same, for now. let me know how this is, please.) 

That is better much for me.  Thank you.  You provide us with lots of helpful information so I try to read all your posts but I did have trouble with the green.

[WinterWonderlandXYZ]

Did you by chance notice the area in which you can obtain wheelchairs?  I am travelling with my mom and aunt that are 85 and 83 (I will check my sanity at a later point…).  They will not be able to stand in those long lines.  I cannot seem to find where the chairs are located. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by WinterWonderlandXYZ

[Laminator]

1 hour ago, cbr663 said:

We had an 11 am boarding time and arrived at 10.  No one was checking boarding times.  The ship was late leaving though at around 4:50 instead of 4:00.

You stated you had an 11am boarding time and were in a Neptune Suite. Do you remember what Group you were in? We have an NS for the KSDM cruise on the 20th and we are in Group A with an assigned boarding time of 10am. For our cruise the 11am boarding time is Group D which is not a priority boarding time. I am wondering if HAL is attempting to ease the congestion by spreading out boarding times over a longer time period. Of course this only works if pax attempt to stay close to their assigned boarding time.

[OlsSalt]

Excellent tips.  Thank you so much. Love you critical detail.

[jabcruiser]

Received check-in time this morning for our May 28 Noordam cruise.  10:40 in group C so assume will begin about 10 for group A.  Just hope lines not as bad as everyone talks about.  At least on HAL can go straight to cabin and avoid Lido craziness.  Our first aft veranda so really looking forward to that.

Jane

[cbr663]

On 5/14/2023 at 8:30 AM, Laminator said:

You stated you had an 11am boarding time and were in a Neptune Suite. Do you remember what Group you were in? We have an NS for the KSDM cruise on the 20th and we are in Group A with an assigned boarding time of 10am. For our cruise the 11am boarding time is Group D which is not a priority boarding time. I am wondering if HAL is attempting to ease the congestion by spreading out boarding times over a longer time period. Of course this only works if pax attempt to stay close to their assigned boarding time.

Yes, we are sailing in a NS and we had an assigned time of 11 Group D which I also thought was not a priority boarding time so we choose to simply ignore it.  No one was checking assigned times at the port and the ship wasn’t cleared for boarding until a little after 11.  It was also the first time I have ever boarded a HAL ship and our cabins were not ready.  

[cbr663]

On 5/14/2023 at 8:05 AM, WinterWonderlandXYZ said:

Did you by chance notice the area in which you can obtain wheelchairs?  I am travelling with my mom and aunt that are 85 and 83 (I will check my sanity at a later point…).  They will not be able to stand in those long lines.  I cannot seem to find where the chairs are located. 

I’m sorry but I didn’t notice where to get them.  They did have an elevator blocked off for those requiring special assistance to bypass some of the lines.  That elevator was for those needing to drop off luggage.
 

I wonder though if you arrive by taxi you are dropped off right by the luggage drop off and there is a HAL desk there helping people with luggage tags.  I would think that a wheelchair should be available there but I am not sure.  Hopefully someone else will chime in who has more verifiable information.

Edited May 15, 2023 by cbr663

[robotpony]

On 5/14/2023 at 4:32 AM, jabcruiser said:

On 5/13/2023 at 11:03 PM, Laminator said:

It sounds like you may have walked in. Do the taxi's drop you off where you hand your luggage to the porters or did you not notice?

Wondering this also.  We will arrive by taxi May 28 departure on Noordam.

 

Yes, Ubers, Taxis, and car services drop off in P1 by the porters. From there you follow the signs behind the porters.

[Laminator]

52 minutes ago, robotpony said:

 

Yes, Ubers, Taxis, and car services drop off in P1 by the porters. From there you follow the signs behind the porters.

Thank You!