The4Woods
Cruiser
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2013
- Messages
- 71
As I mention in the last installment we decided to do express walk off. I was VERY worried about this, but Dan was sure we could do it. Turns out he was TOTALLY RIGHT! This was the best choice EVER! I encourage everyone that reads this to do likewise. But I'm ahead of myself.
I set my alarm for 6am to get every last minute thing packed and then have the kids upstair to Beach Blanket for a quick bite. Our server said it would be open for a very short amount of time for those doing express walk off and would have a limited amount of choices. 6 am rolled around and none of us wanted to budge. I finally crawled out of bed around 6:20. I rushed outside to see if we were there yet and guess what! We were just getting ready to go under the Lions Gate Bridge! I didn't miss it after all. It was so beautiful in the morning sun. We snapped some pictures and sun bathed for a few minutes. Then we decided to wrangle the kids out of bed. We got them up, hair combed, teeth brushed, shoes on, and smiling. Well that's a stretch. I asked the kids if they wanted to eat at Beach Blanket or America. They both said America. Done deal.
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We did a once over and then dragged our bags to the elevator. It was right at 7 am when we did this. Yesterday they told us that there wouldn't be porters to help in Canada Place. And they said express walk off would start around 7:30. So we figured there wasn't ANY point having them take our bags to the holding area. We might as well drag them off the ship on our own. We found some friends in line. No we didn't cut they were in the back and we just fell in behind them. We talked about our vacations and before we knew it they had cleared the ship and were ready for us to go. Here's how easy it was.
1. We had our custom's declaration in our hand, filled out, ready to go.
2. Our KTTW was in our lanyards hanging around our necks.
3. When it opened they scanned our KTTW cards in their pouches. We didn't even have to take them out.
4. We walked off the ship, up the ramp, around the outside of the holding pen for all the other people's luggage (at this point it was empty)
5. There were two custom's guys at the entrance to Canada place. They were just standing there. Not behind a podium or an official looking desk. Just standing there. Dan handed him our custom's form. He looked it over and said looked good.
6. We walked to the elevator for the parking garage. Pushed P2. Got out. Realized we parked on P1. Waited for the next elevator. Pushed P1. Got out loaded our car. Left.
That was it. It was painless and took literally 10 minuets. The longest part of the process was waiting the half hour for them to clear the ship. Which was worth the wait cause we were able to be like 10th in line and get off NO PROBLEM. We had other people that were in the caravan with us and they were WAY back in line from us. And we met them at the elevator when we were going down to the parking garage. So it took everyone about the same amount of time. It was super fast. I highly recommend it.
Someone asked about this process and mentioned that Canada Place can be a zoo. I can COMPLETELY see how that would be the case if someone didn't do express walk off. If we had to sort through the holding pen to find our luggage and then get in the super long line to get through customs after it was all backed up. Yes I could see it being a nightmare.
The other good thing for use was we were following friends that had been here before and knew the way. Dan and I would have been pretty lost in downtown Vancouver if we had to do it ourselves. We didn't have cell coverage. If you are driving and don't have T-mobile or a international data plan, I would suggest getting GOOD directions printed or a map or something you can follow to get back to the boarder. The streets aren't very well marked and we would have been pretty lost.
We drove back home and made it by 4pm. We said hey they are doing their Muster right now!
Thanks for reading. I'm still willing to answer questions. BUT since this is a rolling trip report I suggest people to check back in after you've sailed. Add your own pictures and experiences. Things change from cruise to cruise and I know my information will grow outdated. So lets keep the report rolling. Anyone is welcome to answer questions with their experience from their 2014 cruise! I am excited to hear how other's trips went! Thanks for reading. I feel like a celebrity.
I set my alarm for 6am to get every last minute thing packed and then have the kids upstair to Beach Blanket for a quick bite. Our server said it would be open for a very short amount of time for those doing express walk off and would have a limited amount of choices. 6 am rolled around and none of us wanted to budge. I finally crawled out of bed around 6:20. I rushed outside to see if we were there yet and guess what! We were just getting ready to go under the Lions Gate Bridge! I didn't miss it after all. It was so beautiful in the morning sun. We snapped some pictures and sun bathed for a few minutes. Then we decided to wrangle the kids out of bed. We got them up, hair combed, teeth brushed, shoes on, and smiling. Well that's a stretch. I asked the kids if they wanted to eat at Beach Blanket or America. They both said America. Done deal.
We did a once over and then dragged our bags to the elevator. It was right at 7 am when we did this. Yesterday they told us that there wouldn't be porters to help in Canada Place. And they said express walk off would start around 7:30. So we figured there wasn't ANY point having them take our bags to the holding area. We might as well drag them off the ship on our own. We found some friends in line. No we didn't cut they were in the back and we just fell in behind them. We talked about our vacations and before we knew it they had cleared the ship and were ready for us to go. Here's how easy it was.
1. We had our custom's declaration in our hand, filled out, ready to go.
2. Our KTTW was in our lanyards hanging around our necks.
3. When it opened they scanned our KTTW cards in their pouches. We didn't even have to take them out.
4. We walked off the ship, up the ramp, around the outside of the holding pen for all the other people's luggage (at this point it was empty)
5. There were two custom's guys at the entrance to Canada place. They were just standing there. Not behind a podium or an official looking desk. Just standing there. Dan handed him our custom's form. He looked it over and said looked good.
6. We walked to the elevator for the parking garage. Pushed P2. Got out. Realized we parked on P1. Waited for the next elevator. Pushed P1. Got out loaded our car. Left.
That was it. It was painless and took literally 10 minuets. The longest part of the process was waiting the half hour for them to clear the ship. Which was worth the wait cause we were able to be like 10th in line and get off NO PROBLEM. We had other people that were in the caravan with us and they were WAY back in line from us. And we met them at the elevator when we were going down to the parking garage. So it took everyone about the same amount of time. It was super fast. I highly recommend it.
Someone asked about this process and mentioned that Canada Place can be a zoo. I can COMPLETELY see how that would be the case if someone didn't do express walk off. If we had to sort through the holding pen to find our luggage and then get in the super long line to get through customs after it was all backed up. Yes I could see it being a nightmare.
The other good thing for use was we were following friends that had been here before and knew the way. Dan and I would have been pretty lost in downtown Vancouver if we had to do it ourselves. We didn't have cell coverage. If you are driving and don't have T-mobile or a international data plan, I would suggest getting GOOD directions printed or a map or something you can follow to get back to the boarder. The streets aren't very well marked and we would have been pretty lost.
We drove back home and made it by 4pm. We said hey they are doing their Muster right now!
Thanks for reading. I'm still willing to answer questions. BUT since this is a rolling trip report I suggest people to check back in after you've sailed. Add your own pictures and experiences. Things change from cruise to cruise and I know my information will grow outdated. So lets keep the report rolling. Anyone is welcome to answer questions with their experience from their 2014 cruise! I am excited to hear how other's trips went! Thanks for reading. I feel like a celebrity.
we were disappointed too. It may be a good idea to prep her just in case.
