Koningsdam Vancouver embarkation: progressive cruise check-in schedule

[LeDemonBlond]

19 minutes ago, Crew News said:

With the expanded luggage drop off opportunity, one Vancouver bottleneck has been eliminated. Pausing only momentarly for facial recognition instead of queing to speak to a HAL rep also contibuted to a better process.

 

Sorry, have to ask this. I have checked into my cruise but I didn't see anything where I need to download a picture of myself beforehand so it could be used when confirming my identity.  I thought that facial recognition was only used during covid by holland america?

[Crew News]

16 minutes ago, greensprout said:

With that, what are your recommendations for luggage drop off for the 5 May NS departure?

Skip the luggage drop-off at the underground cruise terminal.  Proceed along the side of the Convention Center and a sign should be visiblel where to enter to drop off luggage and check-in.  When I disembark on Saturday, I will get more details and perhaps a photo of this alternate luggage sign.

[Crew News]

1 minute ago, LeDemonBlond said:

Sorry, have to ask this. I have checked into my cruise but I didn't see anything where I need to download a picture of myself beforehand so it could be used when confirming my identity.  I thought that facial recognition was only used during covid by holland america?

The HAL photos in Navigator are no longer used.  They want a photo at the moment of embarkation to load in their Security Scanning system and to share with US Immigration.  The only humen interaction you will have is to be pointed where to go and what to do in the HAL process.  Of course, you will interact with IS Immigration personnel.

[julia]

1 hour ago, greensprout said:

With that, what are your recommendations for luggage drop off for the 5 May NS departure?

The NS is NOT departing here on 5/5/2024.... hopefully you meant NA?

[greensprout]

Yes of course, my bad.  We are on NA.

[Welshtony]

1. PMFJI We're on the May 11th Koningsdam sailing from Vancouver. We're arriving in Vancouver two days before and will spend 1.5 days exploring Vancouver. It sounds like we'll need to plan to get to the port by about 11 am on Saturday.

Having never been to Vancouver before, can anyone suggest a hotel or area in town that would be good for walking around and also easy to get to the port from?

[oakridger]

39 minutes ago, Welshtony said:

Having never been to Vancouver before, can anyone suggest a hotel or area in town that would be good for walking around and also easy to get to the port from?

 

@Welshtony  Have a look over on the "West Coast Departures" board for tons of information about Vancouver!

 

West Coast Departures - Cruise Critic Community

 

Have a great trip!

 

~Nancy

[Firstladies]

Update on our departure day! We sailed on April 30 from Vancouver, Noordam. Arrived at Canada Place at 1130. My mom is in a walker so we did get through some expedited lines. There was our boat and 2 huge Princess ships 3 leaving that day. Thousands of people in many lines, all marked by cruise ship name, and lots of staff directing people. These lines snake around outside of pier and into a  large conference center. Hall C is the name for cruise departures. This is where you can drop your luggage per boat. After many more lines per boat for check in. Next you go downstairs to proceed to USA customs, which was the shortest line. I believe they are holding people in the upper area. This entire process on a busy boat day will take 2 1/2 hours.  Staff said they were not checking your slotted boarding time, so you could arrive whenever you wanted. Check in staff also told me  at 930 the lines were very small and very quick to get through. Maybe you then sit in a waiting area after check in and customs before boat opens at 11:30? Don’t know what would happen, just letting those interested what I was told. Boat was delayed departure 30 mins guests were still boarding. The lines were long!! But the moment you are on boat all is forgotten. 

[Niagarawine]

What happens if you need a wheelchair assistance?

[SilvertoGold]

There is a big difference between "check-in" and "boarding". This new system seems very much like last year's, except for set times determined by your priority or deck for showing up for "check-in". I hope this works better than it did for the past few years!

[Firstladies]

The process was: luggage drop, check in, customs and then boarding. There were 9000 people in Hall C checking in. 3 ships, 3 lines. The staff at check in said they were not looking at the check in times. Too many people, and no where to send them. The boarding area after all the other lines was empty, you just walk on the boat. Maybe they will make changes as the season comes.

[Music Man290]

On 4/23/2024 at 9:09 PM, iditarodfan said:

I received this email for my cruise:

 

We look forward to welcoming you on board Koningsdam. As there will be multiple ships in Vancouver, all guests will proceed through shared security screening and U.S. Customs and Border Protection clearance. To ease congestion, we have implemented a progressive cruise check-in schedule. Please do not arrive prior to the times advised below or you may be turned away and asked to return later.

 

Our 4 & 5 Star Mariners, Club Orange, and Pinnacle & Neptune Suite guests are invited to arrive anytime. Check-in begins at 10:30 AM.

 

* 10:30 AM - Decks 10 & 11 Panorama & Sun Decks
* 11:30 AM - Decks 7 & 8 - Shubert & Navigation Decks
* 1:00 PM - Decks 5 & 6 - Gershwin & Mozart Decks
* 2:00 PM - Decks 1 & 4 - Main & Beethoven Decks

Boarding will begin at 11:30 AM and those who arrive early may wait in the terminal until boarding begins. All guests must be in the terminal by 2:30 PM.

 

 

How strictly does Holland America enforce the boarding time?

They are not strict about boarding times or check in.  I had a 1:30pm check in time for a April 27 cruise from Vancouver, arrived at 10:30 am and had no issues checking in and the process was fast.  On the ship by about 12 noon luggage arrived within an hour.  Easy process overall.

[Seacruise]

Living here in Vancouver there was an article explaining it this way.

The Port has asked for all cruise lines to stagger arrivals, this to stop congestion at the Entrance to Canada Place. There is only one lane in and one lane out.

The reason is when you go into the terminal and join the US Customs line you are just not with passengers from your ship. You drop your luggage then line up with  passengers from all the ships in that day to clear US Customs. When you exit Customs you follow the signs to your ships waiting area.

Can you imagine if all the ships passengers tried to be there for 11:00 AM when boarding is to start.
I have a cruise on Royal next week and got the same letter. I also have friends on Princess who got the same letter.
So it looks like it is across all cruises departing Canada Place.

[Haljo1935]

I'm glad they're trying something to ease the pain and congestion and hope it works. Embarking in Vancouver was such an incredibly negative ordeal, DH refuses to do it again, which greatly limits AK itineraries for us.

Hopefully we'll be reading of successful outcomes to this new process.🤞

[DSWinBC]

We boarded the Zaandam on Wednesday May 1 (there were 2 other ships in port—Grand Princess and a Regent ship)

We did what Crew News suggested and dropped our luggage off just before check in (vs going downstairs to drop off luggage) My dh had to get a new photo taken but they already had a photo of me from another cruise so they used that one. Very quick and easy process for check in and we were pleasantly surprised with how quickly we got thru US customs 

Once we got to the “holding area”, cruisers sat on chairs in the order of arrival—started letting people on board at 11:30am. 
We found the embarkation process much better this year than the past 2 years 

[badtwin]

We boarded Koningsdam April 27 and it was a cluster. We arrived at Canada Place around 12:30. We had planned 11:30 but not researched time at boarder or Vancouver traffic. Got our car parked and easily found beginning line. Check in was long but at least it kept moving. AND thank goodness we had paper boarding passes with bar code. Then we went to another long line which was apparently the pre immigration line. Then we moved on to a horrendous line for US and Canadian citizens. It got so bad they had to pull the Zaandam people to the international line for their earlier departure.  When we finally got to front of line, we discovered US Customs only had half of 12 stations staffed.  At least 2 and a half hours in line. The worst boarding I ever recall.  So the problem with staggering entrance is tons of panicked passengers worried they will miss the ship and absolutely no announcement assuring us it would be okay. NOT HAL's fault but truly miserable. Luckily we got beer and burgers and could start to enjoy cruise.

[simplyrubies]

We boarded April 27. We arrived at about 12:20pm in anticipation of a 1:00pm boarding but didn't board until about 3:30. We spent at least 2 hours waiting for US Customs, probably closer to 2.5 hours. 

 

I'd recommend anyone who will have trouble standing or walking for that long to bring a mobility aid or arrange for a wheelchair. Port staff were doing the best they could to find foldable chairs for those struggling but they of course, couldn't make the line go any faster. US Customs wasn't expediting anyone in the standing line (except for when port staff pulled the Zaandam folks to the front of the line because they were leaving in 30 mins...) 

 

This was only a two ship day. Even those who arrived before their prescribed time at 10:30 still had to wait, according to other reports I'd seen elsewhere.

 

 

[badtwin]

I also overheard one very frustrated passenger who was in transit.  Didn't hear what happened to her and if she was in wrong line. But given the need to go through immigration to get back on the ship, I would be careful to ask about this in Vancouver.

[Niagarawine]

12 hours ago, simplyrubies said:

We boarded April 27. We arrived at about 12:20pm in anticipation of a 1:00pm boarding but didn't board until about 3:30. We spent at least 2 hours waiting for US Customs, probably closer to 2.5 hours. 

 

I'd recommend anyone who will have trouble standing or walking for that long to bring a mobility aid or arrange for a wheelchair. Port staff were doing the best they could to find foldable chairs for those struggling but they of course, couldn't make the line go any faster. US Customs wasn't expediting anyone in the standing line (except for when port staff pulled the Zaandam folks to the front of the line because they were leaving in 30 mins...) 

 

This was only a two ship day. Even those who arrived before their prescribed time at 10:30 still had to wait, according to other reports I'd seen elsewhere.

 

 

Does not sound good for me

[Firstladies]

I also would highly recommend bringing your own Rollator or wheelchair. Overheard a lady say she waited 2 hours for a wheelchair attendant to help her board. Just got off the boat this morning and was easy and fast. Even with the marathon in Vancouver. Transit, cabs and buses were no problem. 

[Crew News]

Today;s check-in eliminated the US Immigration folks and substituted another facial recognition scan that took mere seconds. When I get more feedback, I will post here. 

 

For the second week in a row, I observed no boarding passes being checked to verify deck numbers..

[DSWinBC]

10 hours ago, Crew News said:

Today;s check-in eliminated the US Immigration folks and substituted another facial recognition scan that took mere seconds. When I get more feedback, I will post here. 

 

For the second week in a row, I observed no boarding passes being checked to verify deck numbers..

This US immigration process was used on the May 1 Zaandam embarkation as well. There was a line for US citizens and another for Canadians. No kiosks being used to answer questions which always slowed the border ‘experience’. Took very little time to get thru!
Seemed like other passport holders had to go thru the ‘normal’ US customs process.

 

[ehogan]

We were on the April 30 sailing on the Noordam.  Lovely cruise, fantastic weather and no complaints whatsoever about the sailing.  However the embarkation was another story.  The new company apparently now dealing with the logistics of embarkation deserves a failing grade, at least on that date.  Shortly after we arrived at 11:30 (no baggage to be checked) we were directed upstairs to check in where there were several different lines for baggage drop, check in for each of the ships sailing.
 

 Assigned times for boarding were not checked.  Waited 30 minutes to check in (make sure you have a printed boarding pass with bar code, some of the readers had difficulty reading the bar codes on cell phones). And then the problems started.  The escalator taking you down to security and US customs stopped working and they directed us to the single elevator now servicing both those coming up to check in baggage and those trying to get to security.  Six people at a time.  No plan B.  Why not let us walk down the escalator and delay repair till the boarding process was finished.  Or direct us to walk to the lower access to security .  Also there was no staff walking along the evergrowing line explaining the problem.  We were early in line so only waited 30 minutes for our elevator trip, others who had a later check in time waited much longer, I hear 2 to three hours.

 

Security and US customs had no lines, probably because everyone was waiting for an elevator.

 

 

 

Edited May 6 by ehogan
Addition

[jeh10641]

On 5/1/2024 at 5:17 PM, Welshtony said:

1. PMFJI We're on the May 11th Koningsdam sailing from Vancouver. We're arriving in Vancouver two days before and will spend 1.5 days exploring Vancouver. It sounds like we'll need to plan to get to the port by about 11 am on Saturday.

Having never been to Vancouver before, can anyone suggest a hotel or area in town that would be good for walking around and also easy to get to the port from?

If money is not a consideration, there is a hotel at the pier. 

Jim

[jeh10641]

When I decided to take a cruise to Hawaii with HAL, I originally thought Vancouver because of its proximity to my home (easy drive and park). After reading about the Port of Vancouver embarkation, I said "forgeddaboutit!" and booked a cruise from San Diego!

Jim