1. Arrive in Vancouver at least one day before your cruise. Of course, I may be slightly biased, but Vancouver will be one of your best ports of call during this cruise. So often I have seen cruisers fly to Vancouver on the day their cruise departs and completely misses this wonderful city. In addition, the added level of stress your ship makes on time is not the way to start your vacation if things don’t go as planned. All that is required is one missing connection, mechanical difficulty, a problem at the border or bad weather, and your protection leave may be destroyed. Believe me, the ship will not be waiting for you in Vancouver if you are late, and you are solely responsible for getting to the ship in a timely manner. Not only that, but the tides and currents coming out of Vancouver make it so that the captain in many cases has to leave on time or risk staying in the port for several hours until he resigns again. There are incredible tours and sightseeing tours in Vancouver, and if you can swing the time, it's definitely worth it. The same goes for your day of departure - why finish a perfectly good cruise vacation, emphasizing whether you can get off the ship in time to make this ridiculous early flight home?
2. How to get to the ship. There are several ways to do this depending on whether you are going to completely ignore tip number one and try to go directly to the ship or wherever you go directly to your hotel. The year 2015 marks the first season in a long time that only Canada Place will be used for cruising and thanks God for that! Those of you who may have traveled from the “other” pier, known as Pierce Ballantyne in the past, will surely agree with me that this was a disappointing start to your cruise, to say the least. Ballantyne Pier is poorly located outside the city center and away from the main hotels in the city. Fortunately for you, Canada Place is the place where your ship will go, almost certainly will be this year. The cruise terminal is located in Canada Place, which is very close to a variety of hotels, taxis and Canada; Vancouver is a fully automated fast transit line. Some cruise lines offer bus transfers to a ship or hotel, although my recommendation is to do the math first. A taxi from Vancouver Airport to Canada Place with a 15% tip will cost you about $ 35 to $ 45 Canada and will take about 30 minutes. Most sent ships of buses will cost you about the same per person, so that they are not the best deal if you are not traveling solo. If you don’t mind dragging all your luggage and walking a few blocks, a trip to Canada costs a little less than $ 10 per person and about a 30 minute trip to the pier is not bad if you have a backpack, but with luggage I & # 39; d recommend against After you leave the train, you need to walk to the ship, which is about ten minutes from the train to the point where the ship’s baggage falls. My first choice was to arrange a meeting with a travel agency or perhaps a private sedan to take you to the hotel. There are many touring and luxury rides available online or at the airport, and you should arrange this before boarding the plane. A private sedan or limo usually drives you around $ 60- $ 80 Canadian plus a tip. If you arrive in advance, remember that most hotels check in time from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, however, any decent hotel will try to accommodate you early or at least offer to store your luggage on arrival until your room is ready.
3. When is the best time to arrive? Well, if you like to sit, stand in a queue or wait in immigration, go first thing in the morning. If you are like me and would rather spend your day enjoying Vancouver or sleeping, you should carefully consider what time you arrive at the Canada Place cruise terminal to board your ship. The time spent on boarding the ship to the pier may vary from 20 minutes to 4 hours depending on when you arrive and how many ships are in the port. Keep in mind that the ship more than likely dumps several thousand guests who have just completed their cruise. It usually takes at least 10 am to clear the ship of the guests of the departure, and another hour before they allow the newly arriving guests to begin the checkout process. If your first port of call is a Canadian port, such as Victoria or Prince Rupert, you will probably be spared by immigration to the United States at a pier in Canada. If your cruise is similar to most Alaskan cruises, and your first port is in Alaska, you will most likely pass the US Immigration Inspectorate just before you check ships in Canada Place, so you need to have a passport convenient. Usually the procedure is performed in this order; check out baggage, security screening, handling immigration to the United States, checking cruise lines, and then, at the moment you waited all this time to board the ship! Even if you are the first person aboard the ship at 11 am, most of the ship, including your cabins, will not be available to you until 1 pm, when the ship’s staff will complete the cleaning and prepare everything for you. This means that the first two or three hours of checking in you will sit or stand on a huge line, and then when you are on board, if it is before 1 o'clock in the afternoon, you will be forced to wait in the public area of the Ship with your luggage until until they announce that your rooms are ready to patrol the ship. My advice is using Vancouver, and I show up a little later at the beginning of the day to check, instead of trying to get to Canada Place at 9 am, so you can stand in line with 2,000 other guests. Having said that it is very confident that you are checking the time of your departure and do not leave it until the last minute. You must be at the pier at least 90 minutes before the time of departure at a very late date, since the inspection process usually closes at least one hour before departure.
So you have this, the first of many tips for this year's Alaskan cruise season. Do not miss the next time I tell you everything about what to expect on the first day on board, how to get an update of the number, what you need to do on the first day of the cruise, and what can wait until the second day. Until then, thanks for reading and Bon Voyage!
