Walk off with luggage options?

We are on Westerdam Alaska cruise arriving back in Vancouver on Sunday 6 May. Flight back to UK leaves at 8.55 pm so thinking of using PorterGenie to collect luggage, store it and then deliver to the airport.

Would like to have a leisurely start to the day, have breakfast and then walk off with our bags. Time for luggage pickup around 9.30. Is this possible?

Easily. You will be amongst the last off at 9:30. Don't know the luggage company, tho.

Yes -- you can do that.

But remember that on disembarkation morning, breakfast is earlier than usual.

They close the dining room down by 8 so that it gives them plenty of time to clean up everything and get ready for the next passengers.

You COULD do that - but personally I find PorterGenie and the other couple of similar 'come get it, store it, deliver it' services are overpriced here unless you are a solo traveler. Why not instead take your bags to CDS in the terminal - as well as local storage, they offer a 'send to airport' service that's only CAD$40 for up to 4 bags. No need to risk your luggage vehicle being late or failing to find you either - the bags are dropped at a desk which doesn't move and collected from an office at YVR, so there's no risk of a confused driver, a late driver, extra charges or no service if you are late, or indeed any firm timeframe requirements at all (except that your flight out of YVR must be after 6pm - which yours is).

Personally I'd also suggest being ready to walk off first thing rather than last - yes, you miss a leisurely brekkie onboard (unless you get up before 6am!) but you gain a couple of hours of productive touring time in one of the best tourist cities on the planet. First walkoff groups are usually just after 7am in our experience, and if you're first off the queue time for customs, taxis, bag storage etc. is zero. Since many of our biggest attractions are outdoors and free, you don't need to wait for ticket offices etc. to open - you could be walking the Seawall down to Stanley Park by 7:30am...

Thanks to all for the advice:)

Martin - we are in Vancouver for 3 days before we sail, hence the leisurely start to the day. What would you recommend we leave to visit on our final day?

Thanks to all for the advice:)

Martin - we are in Vancouver for 3 days before we sail, hence the leisurely start to the day. What would you recommend we leave to visit on our final day?

Wise choice to come in plenty early, as lots to see! I personally wouldn't offload any particular sites until the last day - if you send your bags to YVR you'll be touring around just as unencumbered as your precruise days with a hotel, so there's no logistical reason to separate what you see when based on pre- or post-cruise. The only definite thing to do is make sure if you have a tour arranged - private, bus, HOHO or whatever - you do that first to maximise the value you get from becoming familiar with landmarks, history etc.

The day you embark can be a useful time to do the sites close to the pier - even if you are folks who must be on board first thing it's easy to visit FlyOverCanada which is right at the pier and will store luggage while you ride, so you can go there first thing then head straight for bag drop afterwards and still be with the first batch of super-early folks. If you're late-boarders, which is generally most efficient in Vancouver, you can actual keep sightseeing until 2pm before heading to the pier - normally this makes for the smallest possible queues when embarking.

However, since you must be on the Westerdam or Noordam I'd consider coming to the pier early as this is the first 3 ship day of 2018, and those get very, very messy with new staff who need training slowing things down. Assuming the schedule remains accurate there's an oddity this year, with the Zaandam leaving late for Seattle (7pm) so perhaps with extended embarkation hours. If so, that should spread the crowds out better than normal - but since Z is on a 1-night booze cruise I'd actually plan for the folks getting on that to come as early as they can to maximise their time onboard and plan for a typical, horrible 3-shipper.

Otherwise I'd use weather as my main criteria - if it's nice & dry pre-cruise get the outdoor things done with early, as May can be quite changeable in Vancouver and any weather reports about your post-cruise day you read before starting to cruise will be correct only through random chance. If it's rainy all 3 days pre-cruise then you could bump your most outdoorsy activities to the post-cruise day and hope for the best. If that includes more than one of the large outdoor sites (e.g. Stanley Park & Grouse Mountain) and early disembarkation from the ship would still be a good idea...

Hi Martin,

Correct, we are on the Westerdam 29 April sailing. Our TA has arranged a 12.00 transfer from our hotel to the cruise terminal so that should fit your time frame if it is a busy day with 3 ships in port.

Like your advice on keeping our last day a normal one, will research and keep weather in mind!

Hi Martin,

Correct, we are on the Westerdam 29 April sailing. Our TA has arranged a 12.00 transfer from our hotel to the cruise terminal so that should fit your time frame if it is a busy day with 3 ships in port.

Like your advice on keeping our last day a normal one, will research and keep weather in mind!

Noon is absolutely, 100%, no question about it the worst possible time to start driving to the pier. Noon to 1pm, regardless of how many ships, is peak time at the terminal. Plus, a prearranged transfer means your TA has just failed you twice - you're not just arriving at the worst time, you're also going to be charged a relative fortune for being moved from your hotel (assuming you're a couple, ~double the price of a cab if it's an airport hotel and 5-10x the price if it's a downtown hotel).

Frankly if this was my TA they would not remain so. The most rudimentary search on Google maps will show you how close downtown hotels are to the pier - no more than a $15 fare, total, in a cab with most $10 or less. Airport has fixed rate cab fares of $35 - from hotels they're metered and can go more like $40-45 depending which airport area hotel.

Vancouver has two good boarding times - early and late. Early means at least before 11am. Late means 2pm or later, with the more ships the later before the sweet spot begins. Noon is to be blunt idiotic - you're into the busiest time slot, when folks start arriving from the daily Amtrak train from Seattle (if on time, the first folks to the pier will hit just after noon and the last folks off the train will still be there before 1pm). Hundreds of cruisers come in each day on this train - and that's over and above all the flights, which for same-day cruisers are always scheduled to arrive by early afternoon or earlier.

The good news is that since you are boarding on 29th April it's actually only you guys on the Westerdam so your embarkation should be relatively smooth regardless of timing (I'd still avoid 12-1pm though, as this is still very early in the season with new staff etc). It's your disembarkation day that's the first 3-shipper, so fortunately my warning from prior post was in error (you did say arriving BACK in Vancouver 6 May on your first post, not departing, my mistake).

Martin,

I will check with my TA about the transfer but wondered if, as we are in a Neptune suite, whether boarding might be a bit quicker?

Our practice has been to enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the MDR before disembarkation, and there has been no reason to get up be fore 6am! The MDR seats until 8am and thus we get up as late as 7:30 and head over for a nice final breakfast. Then we return to our stateroom and take our time getting ready to leave the ship as we don't have to leave until after 9am.

We also now walk off with our luggage so we don't have to pack the night before. I find the early departure experience to be an unpleasant way to end a cruise as half the passengers are all trying to get off at the same time.

igraf

....Personally I'd also suggest being ready to walk off first thing rather than last - yes, you miss a leisurely brekkie onboard (unless you get up before 6am!) but you gain a couple of hours of productive touring time in one of the best tourist cities on the planet. First walkoff groups are usually just after 7am in our experience, and if you're first off the queue time for customs, taxis, bag storage etc. is zero. Since many of our biggest attractions are outdoors and free, you don't need to wait for ticket offices etc. to open - you could be walking the Seawall down to Stanley Park by 7:30am...

Martin,

I will check with my TA about the transfer but wondered if, as we are in a Neptune suite, whether boarding might be a bit quicker?

Unfortunately your cruise status, and the room you're traveling in, have no relevance to Security or most importantly CBP. They treat everyone equally (well/badly)*, whether you're Scrooge McDuck rich or have spent years scraping together just enough for the GTY inside cabin;-)

You will have your own queue for cruise check-in - but given how many HAL/Princess people have high status these days, it's not at all impossible to find the 'priority' queue actually has more people in it than the 'n00b' queue at times!

If you have one of the 'free hotel the night before because you're in a suite' deals with HAL, the transfer and one night of your 3 precruise might be paid for already - but even then check your hotel location, as a transfer from the Pan Pacific would involve walking outside to get on a bus, waiting for it to fill with fellow pax also on transfers or even driving to other hotels, then driving back inside the same building the hotel is on top of! Versus just getting in the hotel elevator and heading down to the pier level... That's the most extreme example, but there are several other hotels it would also be quicker to just walk from than waiting for a transfer even if it doesn't cost you anything extra.

*delete as applicable based on personal obervations

Hi Martin,

We are staying in the Georgian Court Hotel for three nights prior to the cruise. Would it be worth rescheduling the transfer earlier than 12?

Hi Martin,

We are staying in the Georgian Court Hotel for three nights prior to the cruise. Would it be worth rescheduling the transfer earlier than 12?

Personally I'd reschedule it for later (2pm+) or earlier (11am) if it's an uncancellable part of a package - but if there's any way to unpack the transfer you'll find it significantly cheaper and more flexible to just take a cab.

The Georgian is pretty much exactly a mile away on foot, with a wee hill to go up & back down (maybe a hundred feet of elevation gain, just walking you'll hardly notice but dragging heavy bags could be more hassle than it's worth).