Help with Departure Time from Seattle

[dtagirl]

We are booked on a 15 night cruise tour on the Coral Princess in August that includes hotel in Seattle pre-cruise and flight to Fairbanks. At the end of the cruise it includes the transfer from Vancouver to Seattle. It states to leave Seattle after 4p. All was good to go and my flights left Seattle at 4:20 or so. Now the airline has done a schedule change that leaves Seattle at 3:06p and changed the routing also! I know I can get a refund on the tickets (unacceptable schedule change), but there is not a flight that meets the 4p rule. Could we make the 3p flight? I don't know how the border crossing is any more. Or am I going to have to book a hotel and stay overnight?

Thanks for any info!

[highheel girl]

We are booked on a 15 night cruise tour on the Coral Princess in August that includes hotel in Seattle pre-cruise and flight to Fairbanks. At the end of the cruise it includes the transfer from Vancouver to Seattle. It states to leave Seattle after 4p. All was good to go and my flights left Seattle at 4:20 or so. Now the airline has done a schedule change that leaves Seattle at 3:06p and changed the routing also! I know I can get a refund on the tickets (unacceptable schedule change), but there is not a flight that meets the 4p rule. Could we make the 3p flight? I don't know how the border crossing is any more. Or am I going to have to book a hotel and stay overnight?

Thanks for any info!

 

When you book the Princess transfer (coach) it leaves Vancouver around 9:00. It has priority at the border over cars etc, but still could be subject to search as someone on a recent review indicated when they and their luggage were all pulled off the bus and searched.

We made our 2:20 flight with no problem. We arrived at SeaTac around 12:45.

I don't think you will have an issue.

[Pythian]

I agree with Ms. Highheel;

 

A 3:06 pm flight out of SeaTac on a Princess transfer from Vancouver to Seattle should be no problem. They are hedging their bet that maybe the ship is late and the bus runs out of fuel. Bet you make it by 12:00. The Airport is friendly and so are the Princess transfers. Sounds like a GREAT cruise and trip… have maximum fun!

 

Dan

[Putterdude]

Buses do not have priority over cars but use a dedicated lane at the Pacific Hwy border crossing or what we call the "truck" crossing. The drive time from Vancouver to Seattle is about 3 hrs and an hour to clear a bus would be a long time...so you should be at SEA by 1:30 latest baring anything unusual happening.:)

[West Coast]

The drive time from Vancouver to Seattle is about 3 hrs and an hour to clear a bus would be a long time...so you should be at SEA by 1:30 latest baring anything unusual happening.

 

Yeah, like someone with explosives in their backpack at another crossing which puts all busses on high alert and a 3 hour wait as each bus is pulled over and searched one by one.

[dtagirl]

Thank you for all your help. We've decided to take the 3p flight and go with the flow. If we miss it then there always the dreaded red-eye! That is the only other option and I would rather try for the 3p than have to sit around the airport!

Thanks again!

Pat

[Lindypc]

We are booked on a 15 night cruise tour on the Coral Princess in August that includes hotel in Seattle pre-cruise and flight to Fairbanks. At the end of the cruise it includes the transfer from Vancouver to Seattle. It states to leave Seattle after 4p. All was good to go and my flights left Seattle at 4:20 or so. Now the airline has done a schedule change that leaves Seattle at 3:06p and changed the routing also! I know I can get a refund on the tickets (unacceptable schedule change), but there is not a flight that meets the 4p rule. Could we make the 3p flight? I don't know how the border crossing is any more. Or am I going to have to book a hotel and stay overnight?

Thanks for any info!

I don't like living dangerously but I booked a 2:45 flight to Atlanta leaving from Seattle and Delta changed the flight months later to 2:05:eek:. We were also on the Coral Princess but our tour included transfers so we made CERTAIN we were on the FIRST bus to SEA-TAC.

Attendants at the port literally SEALED the bus doors with tape to assure port authorities that no one had touched Canadian soil (except from the ship to bus).Thank Heavens that our bus by-passed the very long lines of cars, got in the short bus line and, because we were SEALED, we sailed right on through. Our bus was not even boarded by immigration. Whew! The other buses like grey line had to have all passengers disembark. For a change I was glad I took a cruise 'excursion'!

We made it to the airport in plenty of time even though the bus driver got lost and we circled the place twice. The lines in the airport were long but if you are cutting it close, just tell someone (check in the night before on the ship). We use the Delta Skymiles AmEx to get in the priority line. We cut it close but were able to buy lunch to bring onto the plane.

I know we were lucky but it was either leaving at 2:05 or 10:30 PM so we chanced it. Good Luck!!