Vancouver airport-long lines, long waits

[kc7wxy]

1. SEA to Pier 91, Seattle; 15 miles. YVR-Canada Place; 15km (or 10 miles). Plus YVR has the option of a cheap fast subway that goes literally from airport to cruise terminal.
   
2. You're going to have to deal with Customs & Immigration, as all cruises must be international; unless you'd like to take WA state ferries across Puget Sound. And if you think Canada is a hassle for Americans, try it the other way around.
   
3. You need a passport, because the UNITED STATES requires it for re-entry to the USA, not because Canada wanted to change rules
   

I lived for most of my life in Seattle so I'm well aware where pier 91 is and if the cruise ship just stops for fuel in a foreign port you don't have to get off the ship as in Mexico/Victoria and you don't have to deal with customs in that one port. Bottom line I'm never going back to Canada.

[scottbee]

I lived for most of my life in Seattle so I'm well aware where pier 91 is and if the cruise ship just stops for fuel in a foreign port you don't have to get off the ship as in Mexico/Victoria and you don't have to deal with customs in that one port. Bottom line I'm never going back to Canada.

 

From your attitude, sounds like a win for us.

[cruiseryyc]

From your attitude, sounds like a win for us.

 

Oh boy do I agree with you scottbee!!

[jeniferlyn]

We had a great experience at the Vancouver airport a couple of weeks ago. I booked a 11:20 a.m flight. I knew when I booked the flight we were taking a chance if there were long lines. We were the first group off ship, got luggage, and there were cabs waiting when we went outside. The entire process took maybe 45 minutes for the four of us. Personally, I'm not there to make friends with the custom officials. It is their job to keep me safe so I want them to take their time. you can have delays at any airport, not just Vancouver. The biggest delay of the entire trip was at our own airport in Houston. We love Vancouver, spent a few days there pre-cruise last summer, we were sad we didn't have time to stay after our cruise.

[kc7wxy]

A win for both of us can't wait for the snow birds to show up from Canada

[Esha]

We flew out of Vancouver YVR early yesterday (Sat. 13th Aug). It took almost 2 hours to get into the airport gate area. The lines were so long that they were temporarily closing the baggage check area to stop more people from entering. Took us 2 hours to work our way through. It was the pre-clearance immigration into the US that was holding everything up. Most booths were open, but the officers were being very thorough and slow.

 

Many many people missed their flights as the staff refused to move anyone to the front of the line.

 

We gave ourselves 2 1/2 hours to check in and were very relieved that we did. As it was, we just had time to wolf down a quick breakfast and then we boarded our plane.

 

Better to be safe than sorry.

 

Helen

[lotsofkids]

Helen...what time did you first arrive to YVR? my sister has an early flight on Sunday 9/25 and FIVE ships will be in port that morning. We know she needs to get to the airport right away and "before" the cruise rush-hour! Your insight would be helpful..thanks

[Esha]

We got to the airport about 6.45am on Sat. morning....I was amazed how busy it was. Our ship, the Millennium had docked the day previously (and left on it's next voyage) and there were no cruise ships docked at Canada Place as we left our hotel room (we had a direct view of the docks from our room).

 

There really was no way to jump the queue for people who were in danger of missing their flights. The staff were flat out refusing to allow anyone to go to the front of the lines. Staff were mingling in the lines, but just to check that the immigration/customs forms were filled out correctly. The only people to waltz straight through were the ones with "Nexus" pre-screened security clearances, and they had their own line anyway.

 

I wish your sister good luck. It seems that this does not happen to every one, but it is better to be prepared.

 

Helen

[lotsofkids]

Wow! She is going to have a very TIGHT connection! Her plane departs YVR at 11am sunday 9/25! Well, the best thing on her side is we will have priority disembarkation and she can take her bags "in hand" and they start disembarkation from 8am.....guess, she better be walking off at 8:01 !!!! (and that is going to be scary)

 

Thanks for your info! We will take this very seriously!

 

Best regards, Diane

[lotsofkids]

The rest of us are doing an overnight in Vancouver. (she is the only one heading to the airport, because she must be at work Monday)

[PennyAgain]

Is there any way you could manage her luggage for her so she can walk off the ship with only a carry on and her purse?

 

If you could do that, it would save her some time and effort.

[scottbee]

We got to the airport about 6.45am on Sat. morning....I was amazed how busy it was. Our ship, the Millennium had docked the day previously (and left on it's next voyage) and there were no cruise ships docked at Canada Place as we left our hotel room (we had a direct view of the docks from our room).

 

There really was no way to jump the queue for people who were in danger of missing their flights. The staff were flat out refusing to allow anyone to go to the front of the lines. Staff were mingling in the lines, but just to check that the immigration/customs forms were filled out correctly. The only people to waltz straight through were the ones with "Nexus" pre-screened security clearances, and they had their own line anyway.

 

I wish your sister good luck. It seems that this does not happen to every one, but it is better to be prepared.

 

Yes, those of us with NEXUS have pretty much had to get it, because of how slow it has become to enter the USA. It's not 'security clearance', it's a customs/immigration crossing system. These days it's not unusual for a 2hr wait at the southbound [land] border crossings at a weekend, or an hour at the airport.

 

NEXUS requires paying money, full fingerprinting, interviews by both US & Cdn officials etc etc, but so many people are so fed up here, they just pay the money to get NEXUS; anything to avoid USCBP lineups

 

But just to remind everyone -- this is US CBP -- beyond the control of the airport. When you say "THEY" wouldn't let people jump the queue, understand that you mean US CBP officers from the Dept of Homeland [in]Security, not YVR airport staff. If you want to get this fixed, contact your politicians and complain, there's nothing we can do from the Canadian side.

[Mr_Cruise]

At least it's ranked as the best airport in North America... so taking a little longer at the airport there is enjoyable for many.

 

http://www.worldairportawards.com/Awards_2011/bestairport_namerica.htm

[cruiseryyc]

Wow! She is going to have a very TIGHT connection! Her plane departs YVR at 11am sunday 9/25! Well, the best thing on her side is we will have priority disembarkation and she can take her bags "in hand" and they start disembarkation from 8am.....guess, she better be walking off at 8:01 !!!! (and that is going to be scary)

 

Thanks for your info! We will take this very seriously!

 

Best regards, Diane

 

She better plan to take a taxi to the airport and also have a back up plan when she misses that flight. Better yet, change it to a later flight that day. She needs to be at the airport two hours prior flight time and it's a 45 minute drive to the airport (with no traffic delays). I would never have booked a flight that early out of Vancouver after getting off a cruise ship. Hopefully disembarkation won't be delayed - which does happen. Good luck!

[Esha]

Yes, Scottbee I totally agree, this is a US immigration problem, not of Canada's doing.

 

And we thought security at Vancouver was excellent, totally unlike the fiasco we encountered in Chicago for our connecting flight. After boarding the plane in Chicago, just before they closed the door 3 people got up, grabbed their hand luggage and ran off because they were on THE WRONG FLIGHT !! How on earth could they be allowed to board the wrong aircraft (United airlines)?? The plane then immediately taxied (I was very concerned those people had left any items on board the plane and was amazed we were not all deplaned to have the aircraft checked. Security was a joke in the US.

[DizzyDallasDi]

Yes, Scottbee I totally agree, this is a US immigration problem, not of Canada's doing.

 

And we thought security at Vancouver was excellent, totally unlike the fiasco we encountered in Chicago for our connecting flight. After boarding the plane in Chicago, just before they closed the door 3 people got up, grabbed their hand luggage and ran off because they were on THE WRONG FLIGHT !! How on earth could they be allowed to board the wrong aircraft (United airlines)?? The plane then immediately taxied (I was very concerned those people had left any items on board the plane and was amazed we were not all deplaned to have the aircraft checked. Security was a joke in the US.

 

I'm surprised they weren't in someone else's seats!

[MightyQuinn]

....But just to remind everyone -- this is US CBP -- beyond the control of the airport. When you say "THEY" wouldn't let people jump the queue, understand that you mean US CBP officers from the Dept of Homeland [in]Security, not YVR airport staff. If you want to get this fixed, contact your politicians and complain, there's nothing we can do from the Canadian side.

Excellent point scottbee. Always best to identify the source of the problem before pointing fingers. The oft-cited delays and lines may happen at YVR, but it's not of their doing.

[lotsofkids]

Once I was flying Cleveland to Boston and an elderly woman was sitting beside me. We had some small talk and I told her what time we are arriving and she said "what I thought we arrive at "x" time?" turns out she boarded the earlier flight and she AND the one screening tickets never realized it! Funny, my flight had her exact seat empty for the flight. (btw: I always see stewards taking a head count prior to take-off....shouldn't the count have been over by ONE! LOL

 

I will check and see if my sister has a later flight option, but when we were booking (months back) she didn't seem to have many choices.

[lotsofkids]

We just checked and LUCKILY her 11:00am flight as been changed to 11:16am.... Those are sixteen GOLDEN minutes! She didn't want to take the later flight as she would arrive way too late to Boston (3 hrs ahead)

 

Now, I have no experience with cruising, let alone disembarkation in canada...so my question is this...

Will she first have to clear her bags with canadian customs at the port, then clear US customs at YVR? So a double custom whammy! She should be off in the first wave.... but this is getting my anxiety up! Any input would be welcome. Thanks

[scottbee]

We just checked and LUCKILY her 11:00am flight as been changed to 11:16am.... Those are sixteen GOLDEN minutes! She didn't want to take the later flight as she would arrive way too late to Boston (3 hrs ahead)

 

Now, I have no experience with cruising, let alone disembarkation in canada...so my question is this...

Will she first have to clear her bags with canadian customs at the port, then clear US customs at YVR? So a double custom whammy! She should be off in the first wave.... but this is getting my anxiety up! Any input would be welcome. Thanks

 

Yes, you do a immigration & customs double whammy. 11:16am is really pushing it due the potential slowness of the US border crossing at the airport.

[cruiseryyc]

Good luck - she's going to need it to make that flight.

[boulders]

I just returned from a b2b cruise that left and returned from Vancouver. My inbound flight (from yyz) had the smoothest transit I've ever experienced at any airport - and I fly once a month on average. On the outbound flight, to the U.S., the only line I experienced was at checkin - maybe about 5 people. It took me half an hour to checkin, get through customs and security and walk to my gate. Getting off the ship was much slower. We were at the tail end of passengers departing and it took close to an hour.

[gone2sead]

Suggestion

 

Let's say you are booked to arrive in Vancouver on a Saturday. Using today as an example,

go to the Airport website http://www.yvr.ca/en/Default.aspx and just click on the GO button

under Arrivals on the top left of the page. It will show you all of the arriving flights for that

day.

Do this for the day of the week that you are scheduled to arrive.

It should be very similar next summer for that day of the week. Scroll down to the

time your flight is scheduled to arrive and you will see all the other flights arriving around

that time. By looking at the international flights, you can estimate the number of passengers

that will be arriving and the congestion or lack thereof in the Customs Hall.

Peachy. We're flying into Vancouver. Looks like 2 American flights arriving within 15 minutes of us and a flight from Hong Kong is arriving at the exact same time. So not looking good for us. I only gave us about 15 minutes to get to the car rental place. Does anyone know if they'll cancel the reservation if we're very late? Guess I should see if I can change the pickup time just to be sure. Never been through customs at an airport. We usually drive into Canada. Did have our car searched one time. Which was creepy. But I understand the need for security. It's neither Canada's or the US's fault that we have to have super critical security at customs.:( Anyway....Thanks for the link to the flight schedule! That really helped out!

[armidale1]

We just flew into yvr from Auckland and were through customs in about 5 mins, the hold up was waiting the hour for our baggage to come out. Once we had that we were in the taxi in under 10 mins.

[Northender]

Peachy. We're flying into Vancouver. Looks like 2 American flights arriving within 15 minutes of us and a flight from Hong Kong is arriving at the exact same time. So not looking good for us. I only gave us about 15 minutes to get to the car rental place. Does anyone know if they'll cancel the reservation if we're very late? Guess I should see if I can change the pickup time just to be sure. Never been through customs at an airport. We usually drive into Canada. Did have our car searched one time. Which was creepy. But I understand the need for security. It's neither Canada's or the US's fault that we have to have super critical security at customs.:( Anyway....Thanks for the link to the flight schedule! That really helped out!

 

Thanks for writing that. Really, put the blame where it belongs.:mad: