Radiance boarding times

Okay, all you seasoned cruisers, here's a question for you...

Is there anyway to find out what time a ship will actually start boarding the day of sailing?

I know they usually begin boarding before noon. But I've also read where sometimes boarding is delayed for various reasons.

Just want to use my time wisely in Vancouver before boarding the Radiance.

Thanks!
Jen

Most of the time it's dictated by when the ship is cleared by Customs .. if that goes smoothly, and disembarking the old passengers goes quickly, and they can clean & turn around the ship fast, you might board before noon .. any glitch along the way (especially with Customs) and you can run into delays.

Unfortunately there's no way to predict delays with Customs.

The earliest I have been onboard is 1130 am

We were let into the building at before 11 and then had to wait for the security check. We were one of the first 50 to get our sea pass cards but had to wait until like Ivanova said till customs cleared the ship. But we were onboard about a quarter to noon.

And I was the first in the pool. It was not even noon.

Jen, you have 2 options when boarding in YVR:

1-- Get to the port early-- around 1030am

2-- Get to the port late-- around 2pm

My advise would be get there early. After checking in you have to go upstairs to be cleared by US Customs before boarding. Customs doesn't come on duty until 12noon, however the upstairs waiting area is very small and once filled they will keep everyone in the lower level until there's room to move them upstairs. Also, once upstairs you are given a number to be called for US Customs.. there are only about 3 or 4 Customs Officers on duty and it can be a slow process.

Last time we sailed from YVR, we got to the pier at 1030am, checked in, went upstairs got numbers for groups 1 and 2. RCI sets up drinks and cookies in the upper level and once Customs came on duty we were on the ship in minutes.

We observed LONG lines of people trying to get onboard all afternoon and were happy we did what we did...

Thanks Bob,
We probably will just go early and hope everything goes smoothly!

Me to Jen I want to be there early

Wow, I didn't know about checking back thru US Customs! Thanks for the info! Guess we will either try early or late check in, depending on how much of VYR we are able to see the day before. Thanks for asking this Jen