11:30 flight out of Vancouver

Wednesday 7 June. Ship arrives 7:30. Right now we have reserved a flight leaving at 12:30pm with layover arriving Houston 10 pm local.There is a non-stop that leaves at 11:30. Of course we'd love to shave 4 hours off our return.

Cruise line recommends no international flights before noon. Butl I'm thinking the non-stop is only a half hour earlier so...

Easily doable or will require some luck or OMG what are you thinking?

Here's your timeline in reverse...

• 11:30am wheels up
  
• 8:30am arrive at YVR.... you want 3 hours for check-in, US customs and security searches (luggage, carry-on, WMD's, ULU's, liquids, electronics, body, hand, and cavity)
  
• 7:50am get into cab
  
• 7:15am debark ship
  
• 6:45am ship docks
  

I don't recommend it. A 7:30am docking can mean the first walk offs are around 8am. If you do make it... it's going to be tight.

June 7??? This is a three ship day. You have two other mega ships docking 30 minutes before you. Expect the terminal to be heavily congested.

Depends on your risk tolerance. All of xlxos points are valid, BUT if you beat the bulk of your fellow cruisers off the ship you will sail through CBSA at the pier, then security and CBP at the airport - and 2 hours early is plenty of time even for US-bound flights unless the queues have already built to peak levels.

I would say that it's a total necessity to do self-disembarkation, carrying all your own bags. Saves time in the terminal finding them and also guarantees you a slot among the earliest for getting off. Also a very good idea is to know where to go to board SkyTrain - this way if the taxi queue has more than a few dozen people you can save time and remove traffic from the equation (although outbound is against rushhour traffic anyway).

If you have a real Trusted Traveler card (NEXUS or Global Entry, not the worthless-at-YVR TSA Pre) you'll get expedited through security and CBP at the airport, adding even more comfort to that earlier flight. If you don't, an 11:30am flight is still very feasible but more challenging.

lastly, you have to be aware there's a risk of circumstances outwith your control making you miss the flight - not just ridiculously rare ones like a SkyTrain shutdown, car crash on a key bridge, engine failure on your ship, but on a 3 ship day if yours is the last vessel to get clearance and there are already a bunch of self-disembarkers from the other two vessels ahead of you for CBSA, taxi queue, airport queues it could get really, really tight.

Best advice I could give is to stay an extra day in Vancouver (actually, stay until the weekend - even better!) then book a lovely non-stop morning flight on a day when you have total control over your morning.

Thanks for the thoughtful and expert advice both of you. The idea of staying at least another day in Vancouver is rather appealing!

Vancouver is an excellent bonus port with activities for a multi-day cruise stay.

Here's some popular forum hotel options to get you planning... looking at booking.com in USD for double occupancy with June 7 availability...

• $82 YWCA » look closely as some rooms are shared bathrooms
  
• $145 Days Inn » 3 blocks from cruise terminal. Check reviews for potential problems
  
• $206 Holiday Inn
  
• $215 Blue Horizon » popular forum "value" choice. Great location with nearby restaurants and shops
  
• $224 Empire Landmark
  
• $235 Sutton Place
  
• $260 Hampton Inn Downtown
  
• $268 Metropolitan
  
• $317 L'Hermitage
  
• $319 Shangri-La
  
• $379 Westin Grand
  
• $391 Four Seasons
  
• $402 Pinnacle Harbourfront
  
• $417 Fairmont Vancouver
  
• $424 Rosewood
  
• $432 Hyatt
  
• $447 Fairmont Waterfront » you sleep across the street from the cruise terminal
  
• $447 Fairmont Pacific Rim » 3 blocks from cruise terminal
  
• $455 Westin Bayshore
  
• $494 Pan Pacific » sleep above the cruise terminal
  
• $502 Marriott Pinnacle
  

One idea....

• 9am drop luggage at hotel
  
• 10am double back to cruise terminal for shuttles to Grouse Mountain
  
• 4pm shuttle to Capilano for the 5pm discount
  
• 7pm return downtown for Fly Over Canada
  
• 9pm return to your hotel with dreams of returning to Vancouver because you didn't budget enough time.
  

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If you miss that same day flight.... best port to be without a boat or plane.

Ok you've convinced me. We are going to stay!

If you have additional time....

• Day 2 » Hop On w/ Stanley Park, Granville Island and gastown
  
• Day 3 » Whistler?
  
• Day 4 » Victoria and continue your journey to Seattle for additional flight options.
  

we have sailed southbound ending in Vancouver 3 times and from our experience I would not try a 11:30 flight

Not trying to hijack This Thread. I was looking at a 10:30 a.m. flight to Seattle from Vancouver as we are trying to get home the same day. I guess everyone say that is completely undoable right? To me I just don't think about Canada as being international flights with a three hour requirement LOL. It didn't even cross my mind. Glad I read this thread.

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Not trying to hijack This Thread. I was looking at a 10:30 a.m. flight to Seattle from Vancouver as we are trying to get home the same day. I guess everyone say that is completely undoable right? To me I just don't think about Canada as being international flights with a three hour requirement LOL. It didn't even cross my mind. Glad I read this thread.

 

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It's doable - but you really have to be ready to go, with self-disembarkation, as soon as the ship's cleared. My wife always heads to the office - about 10mins walk from Canada Place - and is always at her desk and working by 8am. So add 30mins to that for a cab (with no queue, because you're one of the first folks off the ship!) or SkyTrain and you're at YVR for 8:30am. While officially 3 hours is the recommended time, 2 hours is more than enough in our experience.

Have you looked at flights via a Canadian airport instead of Seattle? By offloading US immigration to the layover, you avoid needing to do it in Vancouver - which is a great comfort if you're trying to make an early flight. There are direct flights from YYZ (Toronto) to MEM and BNA.

It's doable - but you really have to be ready to go, with self-disembarkation, as soon as the ship's cleared. My wife always heads to the office - about 10mins walk from Canada Place - and is always at her desk and working by 8am. So add 30mins to that for a cab (with no queue, because you're one of the first folks off the ship!) or SkyTrain and you're at YVR for 8:30am. While officially 3 hours is the recommended time, 2 hours is more than enough in our experience.

 

Have you looked at flights via a Canadian airport instead of Seattle? By offloading US immigration to the layover, you avoid needing to do it in Vancouver - which is a great comfort if you're trying to make an early flight. There are direct flights from YYZ (Toronto) to MEM and BNA.

I feel like we could definitely be off the ship and at the airport by 8:30. We did one of the first disembark groups the first time we cruised and it was easy peasy. Plus we're Elite so we are in the Platinum lounge and it's a little easier to get off.

That's very great information about The Layover Airport Customs. Unfortunately we adore Seattle and my best friend lives in Olympia and so we are going that route. I did look at one flight that connected through Toronto and also Alberta I think, and it was going to take us 14 hours to get home. So we decided we'd rather spend a lot of those hours in Seattle. We're going to take a red-eye which will be our first one so that will be rough lol

Thank you so much for those good tips and information!

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I feel like we could definitely be off the ship and at the airport by 8:30. We did one of the first disembark groups the first time we cruised and it was easy peasy. Plus we're Elite so we are in the Platinum lounge and it's a little easier to get off.

 

That's very great information about The Layover Airport Customs. Unfortunately we adore Seattle and my best friend lives in Olympia and so we are going that route. I did look at one flight that connected through Toronto and also Alberta I think, and it was going to take us 14 hours to get home. So we decided we'd rather spend a lot of those hours in Seattle. We're going to take a red-eye which will be our first one so that will be rough lol

 

Thank you so much for those good tips and information!

No problem. I bet if you stayed around in Vancouver you'd enjoy it even more than Seattle! As to the bestie - aren't they able to pop over the border and come collect you right off the ship to maximise time together!? If not I'd demote them to just plain 'friend' ;-)

Well she offered actually, but they have 2 kids so it we can't get all of us in there unless she left the kids with someone.

I booked the 1120 flight.

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^Willing to abandon her kids for you? Definitely promoted back to Bestie!!! ;-)

Well I booked the 11:20 flight and now they cancelled it and changed me to the 115 flight. I'm so irritated! But I guess I need to find something to do for a few hours in Vancouver. This does totally ruin our day in Seattle though.

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Your later afternoon flight is a blessing.

• 6:00am sleep in.... and savour your last vacation sleep.
  
• 8:00am enjoy your breakfast and last moments with your crew
  
• 9:10am walk off your ship to US customs and luggage retrieval.
  
• 9:30am casually stroll over to the cab line for the 30 minute ride into the airport.
  
• 10:15am arrive at the airport for your 3 hour check-in, US customs, and security searches (luggage, carry-ons, liquids, WMDs, ULU's, NFL's, hand, body, and random complimentary secondary experience).
  
• 1:15pm wheels up with dreams on returning because you ran out of time in your bonus port.
  

Well I booked the 11:20 flight and now they cancelled it and changed me to the 115 flight. I'm so irritated! But I guess I need to find something to do for a few hours in Vancouver. This does totally ruin our day in Seattle though.

From your sig I'm guessing that your land tour starts Sep 11, and you're arriving in Vancouver Sat 23rd Sep? That's a three-shipper (Coral & HAL Nieuw Am as well as you) so, even at the end of the season with all staff operating efficiently it will be busy. I'd be inclined to stick to an early disembarkation slot rather than have a lie-in and leisurely brekkie, just so you can skip the zoo at the terminal.

In theory you'd have time to do one short attraction - e.g. FlyOverCanada right at the pier which you can get to and through in an hour - and still make it to YVR in plenty of time, but if you're sticking to your SEA flight plan I'd suggest just getting out to YVR early instead. If you leave the pier per xlxo's timing above you'll face firstly a longer wait for CBSA, then a long wait for a cab - these queues build on busy days and will only tail off from peak waits right at the end as there simply is not enough capacity to handle ~5,000 disembarking pax quickly; you could easily have an hour to wait for a cab if you get out of the pier in the 9-10am bracket.

Even if you SkyTrain it instead of waiting for a cab and do arrive c.10:15am you will face very long queues for bag drop, security, and US CBP thanks to everyone else from the three ships who are doing the same. I'd much rather just "git 'er done" and be out there for 9am, through all the queues, and chillaxing with a good book at the airport rather than stressing in the cab queue, bag drop queue, security queue, and CBP queue...

Thanks guys!

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For anyone with time concerns, it is always best to self debark. This means carrying ALL your luggage off the ship and walking off the ship first. You save time waiting for your luggage to be removed from the ship and lined up in the terminal and will be far ahead of any taxi or bus lines. I work at Vancouver's cruise ship terminal and can say the taxi line begins increasing by 8:45 and is at peak between 9:15 to 10:30. On a 3 ship day, this can mean up to 40 minutes waiting for a cab, longer if you require a larger mini van. So, if you walk off first with luggage in tow, you will be in a taxi without any wait.

Enjoy Vancouver!

^Willing to abandon her kids for you? Definitely promoted back to Bestie!!! ;-)

Soooo. An update on my situation! We called and were able to cancel our Delta flight for free because it was changed by more than 90 minutes! It was only 100 minutes so we just squeaked by!

We "one way" rented an SUV right from the pier for $160 USD after taxes and insurance and we are driving! I'm so excited! I think with an early self disembark ( we should only have 1 bag each) i think we will be in Seattle before our flight would have landed. And defenitly before we got out of the airport, went to customs, baggage claim, rental car shuttle, rental desk and back downtown!

I found a scenic route that stays off US I-5 but I'm open for any tips on a scenic drive. I knkw it will add time but it's worth it!!

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