With the option of early embarkation through AMEX Platinum, what is your guess at the earliest time available to board?


Unforeseen, but due to this airport mess, we should have stayed a pre-night at the Pan Pacific. Now we are stuck having to leave the house around 3 am to catch our 7:30am flight. :eek:
We'll be glad to make it to the ship early.

David, I think you could go right to the ship from the airport and you'd get there just before noon. You could leave your luggage if you were too early. When we were on WAVE people were already boarding at before 11 am for BLISS.

We're on the same flight you are on the day beforehand. I will email you my cell phone number if you want to call me for any information about the flight, clearing security at Alaksa Air, etc.

I plan on being on the pier, sitting on my luggage, when the ship pulls into port. Of course, that is my plan for every cruise. :D

Luckily, Arlene always convinces me to wait until 1130 or so; otherwise, my luggage would be bent all out of shape from me sitting on it for hours and hours and....

As for Amex boarding, never found it to be omnipresent or worthwhile even if present.

We plan on boarding around 12:00 noon or so. We are at the Pan Pacific, so it should be a quick walk onboard.

I have understood that the Amex boarding is a thing of the past, now. It's never been available when we asked about it; an agent mentioned it once, but we were the only people in sight so she could happily bestow it upon us.

I think deck 7 will be all boarded before noon...except for those doing the iMax.

Just talked with AMEX, supposedly there is a separate embarkation line just for AMEX Platinum card holders to use - shorter line wait

Yasveil:
Have yet to see such a thing, but it would be welcomed.
However, embarkation has never been an issue with us..it always seems to go smoothly & fast.

Doug

NEVER for us either -

On one of our Diamond cruises, they had an AMEX line and a regular check in line. The regular check in line had no one waiting so we used that instead.

There is a line with a sign usually in the ports that says "Amex" but if there is no one to be checked in, they call over other passengers and sometimes the wait is really shorter in the regular line.

Forget separate embarkation line; like everyone is saying, it is a meaningless benefit. When Regent goes all inclusive next year, I hope the Amex benefit becomes the same as on SilverSea:
A bottle of Dom is definitely better than another cocktail party and (meaningless) embarkation line.

I understand that the AMEX benefit is really provided by the cruiseline. I'd vote for the DOM anyday!

My dos centavos, for what's it worth and having sailed out of Vancouver twice in the last year:

When you arrive at Canada Place, you go through security first. Both times, we were in the same security screening area with Holland America Passengers. Each line had their own queue. On our May 24th trip, there was a sign that said Regent Boarding at 12:00. We tried to see if they would take us earlier because we were travelling with a disabled person in a wheelchair and were told that all passengers boarded at 12:00. At exactly 12:00 we went through secruity.

Once you pass security, you have go to thru U.S. customs (it is U.S. Customs, not Canadian, trust me). At this time, you will "converge" with other cruise passengers, there are no seperate lines for the cruise lines; everyone has to stand in line (and it does get busy). The first time the area was so busy we had to go sit down until called up by border patrol. We waited for about 25 minutes. The second time, because we were travelling with a disabled person, we were given immediate clearance to see the agent.

ONCE you pass these two checkpoints THEN your Regent experience begins...you walk towards the Regent registration area. I never noticed a special "AMEX platinum line" but since we have never waited either time it made no difference...we just walked right up to a cheerful face and within 5 minutes, we were on our way to the Mariner.

Ana Luisa, where is all of the checkpoints in relation to the Pan Pacific?

Ana Luisa, great information!! So this knowledge is not lost, why don't you start a new thread for Vancouver on the Port Information board and post this info there.

Again, thanks!!!

Hi Karen,

Dunno, since both times we arrived in taxi from the Westin Bayshore...my guess is that you will be directed to this area.

I checked the Canada Place website, unfortunately there isn't a lot of further info that could help.

Marc,

Great idea...

Analuisa: Thank you - your info is always sooo good! Joanna

Last year, we must have hit it just right, arriving between 1-1:30. No line for security or customs or Regent !