Disembark in Vancouver, same day flight out of SEA?

[columbuscruiser3]

We would be disembarking on a Tuesday morning in Vancouver and are looking to book a same-day return flight out of Seattle. Is it realistic to make a 2pm departure out of Seattle? I won't have any issue with taking cruise line transfer if that is best way, just wondering if this schedule is possible.

 

Cruise Critic is always my "go to" source for info so I know I'll get some helpful replies - thanks in advance!

[Urban trekker]

No I would not recommend that time - you are at least 4.5 hours from Vancouver's Canada Place to Sea-Tac - you never know how long the the border delay can be - traffic through Seattle can be nightmarish at the best of time + the time you are required be be a Sea-Tac pre-flight.

 

ScottBee or a couple of others should be along with some thoughts as they are more on top of the flying scene than I am.

 

Cheers!

 

Dennis

[martincath]

I'll join UT in the strong recommendation to book a later flight...

 

Assuming, since you don't list a location, that you're a US citizen living in the US (Columbus OH possibly?) you will likely get through the border controls with minimal questioning - but if you're on any kind of shared transport, whether it's a cruise transfer, Quickshuttle, etc. all it needs is one person on-board to be delayed for extra questions and you'll all have to sit around for a while.

 

If you rent a car yourself, get off the ship promptly by say 8am, get through Canadian immigration/customs without any hassle and are in your car and leave by 9am, you *might* make it to Seatac by 12:30pm which *should* be in time for a 2pm domestic flight after dropping off your rental car.

 

A Tuesday morning border crossing c.10am shouldn't be too bad, and you'll avoid all the peak Seattle area rush hour traffic, but all it takes is one thing to go wrong and you could miss your flight...

 

Later flights than c.2pm from SEA you're looking at red-eyes to the same part of the world, or a hotel stay and an early next morning flight - compared to the latter the extra $ to fly from YVR may end up being a wash, or even less since you can get to the airport for $4 a person on transit rather than the shuttle price Van to SEA...

 

If your preferred airline codeshares with Air Canada or Westjet, you could even consider an early YVR flight on one of theirs to Toronto connecting to where you're going - that way you skip Immigration/Customs at YVR, so you could book a flight as early as 10am if you self-disembark (though the 11am Air Canada departure is a less-stressful bet).

[columbuscruiser3]

Thanks for the quick responses thus far. Some relevant points that I should have included:

- we are US citizens so flight out of SEA would be domestic

- Columbus, GA is our location (hence the name Columbuscruiser3). We would be flying into Atlanta.

 

We're also looking at flying our of YVR as an alternative. There are some mid-day options out of YVR (in the 12-12:30pm range) but thought a 2pm out of SEA might be possible.

 

Just trying to avoid a red-eye and would prefer to get home same day we disembark as opposed to staying over for another night.

 

Thanks again!

[mapleleaves]

Realtistic? It certainly isn't within my comfort zone! Wait times at the border are too much of an unknown. In the past 10 yrs my shortest wait has been 15 minutes and the longest 2 1/2 hrs.

 

Under perfect circumstances it's a 3 1/2 hr drive from Vancouver to Seatac, PLUS, whatever time you need at the border. You must be at the airport by noon for a 2pm flight. But you have a rental car to return so drop that to 11:30am.

 

Can you guarantee that you'll be off the ship and sitting in your rental car by 7am ??? Is the car rental even open at 7am? What will it cost if you miss the flight?

 

A stressful way to end a vacation! You'd be better off to drive to Seattle, stay at an airport hotel, then take an early flight the next morning.

[martincath]

Thanks for the quick responses thus far. Some relevant points that I should have included:

- we are US citizens so flight out of SEA would be domestic

- Columbus, GA is our location (hence the name Columbuscruiser3). We would be flying into Atlanta.

 

We're also looking at flying our of YVR as an alternative. There are some mid-day options out of YVR (in the 12-12:30pm range) but thought a 2pm out of SEA might be possible.

 

Just trying to avoid a red-eye and would prefer to get home same day we disembark as opposed to staying over for another night.

 

Thanks again!

Ah, so you'd have some non-stop options out of SEA whereas YVR flights all connect somewhere...

 

Still, a quick comparison of pricing YVR & SEA to ATL on July Tuesdays is showing that Delta is actually $10 less per person with one stop from YVR than direct from SEA ($268pp for either 10:55am connecting in SEA or 12:55pm connecting in SLC, both get you home before 11pm).

[columbuscruiser3]

Thanks martincath!

 

You hit on one of the key reasons - the ability to get a nonstop SEA-ATL vs a one-stop YVR-ATL. The pricing piece is a bit more complicated because the cruise actually departs out of Seattle but ends in Vancouver (Celebrity Solstice 11 night itinerary in September). Even with the multi-city itinerary the airline $ difference isn't that great and after figuring in transfers it probably is about the same.

 

Thought I might hear from someone who has taken a cruise line transfer from Canada Place to SEA and see what their experience was.

 

Thanks again for the very detailed and helpful responses!

[cattolica]

It's been a few years, but we have taken Quick Shuttle from Canada Place to SeaTac. I think we got on the shuttle at around 9:30am....there was a disembarkation delay. We had booked an earlier shuttle, but did not make it, the shuttle company brought another bus to handle all the people who were late getting off the ship. We did not arrive at the airport until about 3pm. Luckily we were not trying to catch a flight, just picking up a rental car for an extended visit in Washington.

[em-sk]

Thanks martincath!

 

You hit on one of the key reasons - the ability to get a nonstop SEA-ATL vs a one-stop YVR-ATL. The pricing piece is a bit more complicated because the cruise actually departs out of Seattle but ends in Vancouver (Celebrity Solstice 11 night itinerary in September). Even with the multi-city itinerary the airline $ difference isn't that great and after figuring in transfers it probably is about the same.

 

Thought I might hear from someone who has taken a cruise line transfer from Canada Place to SEA and see what their experience was.

 

Thanks again for the very detailed and helpful responses!

 

You may want to try looking at the price of two one way tickets. If you are willing to fly form Vancouver you should also try a quick search on the Air Canada and on the WestJet websites. It would likely price in Canadian dollars but that may give you a few more options.

[ccmg]

You might want to hold your breath on those non stop flights also. Wgat you book today may not be the same tomorrow. We booked our flights for our July cruise out of Seattle in Feb. Two weeks later Delta changed our itinerary. They are no longer offering a noon non-stop. Have to take a red-eye if we don't want a layer over. And we are staying an extra night after the cruise just so we could take that flight.

[kenish]

Everybody's different, but don't get too obsessed with a nonstop. Total travel time from ship to your front door is probably similar for a connecting flight out of YVR compared to driving to SEA.

 

True, there can be problems and delays with connecting flights. But once you check in at YVR the airline will get you to your destination, though it may be with big delays. Miss your flight out of SEA and you're a no-show. You will have to purchase a very expensive ticket at the "walk-up" fare and it may not be on the next flight out, or even the same day! And there's a lot more things that can cause a missed flight by driving to SEA (border crossing, traffic, car breakdown, etc)

 

Check out "open jaw" fares, which are accessible through the "multi city" option on many airline websites. Other airlines simply price all itineraries as the sum of each one-way trip. Websites like ITA Matrix show all the options.

[Putterdude]

I am going a bit from memory but I don't think that even cruise sip transfers will support a flight from SEA much before 4:30 pm.

[Colo Cruiser]

Princess transfer flights: after 2:30.

I would rent a car and get off asap.

[columbuscruiser3]

Thanks for all the helpful responses! Will likely just do the return flight from Vancouver and avoid the complexity and added stress. More and better flight choices out of Seattle to Atlanta but we'll make it work.

 

Thanks again to all.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for all the helpful responses! Will likely just do the return flight from Vancouver and avoid the complexity and added stress. More and better flight choices out of Seattle to Atlanta but we'll make it work.

 

Thanks again to all.

 

I know its tough, flights from Vancouver for us are ridiculous compared to Seattle. :(

[Putterdude]

Thanks for all the helpful responses! Will likely just do the return flight from Vancouver and avoid the complexity and added stress. More and better flight choices out of Seattle to Atlanta but we'll make it work.

 

Thanks again to all.

It is often as inexpensive to fly from YVR as SEA but you do need to shop a bit. Regardless it does save a lot of brain damage. Incidentally, YVR was just voted the number one airport in North America for the fifth year in a row and is considered the 9th best in the world.

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/rated+airport+North+America+ninth+world/9669635/story.html

[zephyr17]

A 2 pm flight out of SeaTac is not a good idea, as other posters have pointed out. That time of year the border is almost guaranteed to be slow just to get up to the inspection. As others have pointed out it only takes one person to hold up the whole bus, too. And Seattle can have bad traffic.

 

Also, it is usually a good idea to allow a goodly amount of time to clear security at SEA. It can get backed up.

 

You might make it, but there is a pretty fair chance you would not. Fly out of YVR directly to ATL, fly YVR-SEA, or take a later flight. I agree with the folks who say "not before 4".

[scottbee]

I know its tough, flights from Vancouver for us are ridiculous compared to Seattle. :(

 

You're comparing apples (domestic flight) to oranges (international flight)

 

if you really want to blame someone; the biggest chunk of taxes are US taxes on the international flights. Price out SEA-YVR vs YVR-SEA and you'll see how much more expensive (in US taxes mostly) it is to fly into the USA.

[Colo Cruiser]

You're comparing apples (domestic flight) to oranges (international flight)

 

if you really want to blame someone; the biggest chunk of taxes are US taxes on the international flights. Price out SEA-YVR vs YVR-SEA and you'll see how much more expensive (in US taxes mostly) it is to fly into the USA.

 

 

I know right.