Will We Have Enough Time?

[CamaroSS]

Taking our first cruise in August 2016. (Princess) Ship docks in Vancouver at 7:30 am. Our flight out of Vancouver is 11:30 am. Will we be cutting it close to get through customs, security?

[spookwife]

the cruise line has a suggested earliest time to book flights. usually this is after noon.

 

if you do self disembark and the airport is within half an hour of the port you may be okay

[notentirelynormal]

The bigger question is are you flying through Canada rather than directly to the US. If directly, you go through US Customs and Immigration at YVR and should allow 3 hours for this process. It will take you a minimum of 30 minutes to get to the airport. Docking does not mean getting off. You still have to go through Canadian Immigration and Customs at the ship. Even if you did the walk off......just saying.

 

So, the answer is: do you feel lucky punk? Well do you. :D

[Keith1010]

To me it's tight as I don't like to worry and stress about this.

 

For Vancouver we fly at 1:00 PM or later.

 

Keith

[Host Walt]

To me it's tight as I don't like to worry and stress about this.

 

For Vancouver we fly at 1:00 PM or later.

 

Keith

Agree.

 

4 hours is too little time to do everything you'll need to do, especially if you are traveling to the USA from Vancouver. If you can do it I strongly suggest booking a later flight.

 

When we go through Vancouver we usually stay a day or two post cruise just because the city is so beautiful and we avoid all stress just because we're going from the ship to a hotel.

[CamaroSS]

Thanks for the advice. Would probably be a good idea to stay in Vancouver extra night.

[duck addict]

On my recent Star Princess cruise a special departure arrangement was available...

Requirements:

Apply in advance (I believe it was 3 days before end of cruise)

Had to be US passport holder

Flight must be departing Vancouver by 4:00 pm.

Flight must be directly from Vancouver to US (No transit flights via another Canadian airport.)

 

Using a Princess transfer we were bussed directly from Ship to Airport, skipping Canadian customs (though we did fill out a Canadian customs form in advance-form was included with package delivered to room).

 

We were one of the groups off.... Meeting times were 7:45-8:15 for groups in the Direct to USA program. We left within 15 minutes of the meeting time. Drive to airport was about 1/2 hour. We had a minor delay awaiting US customs (which you do at Vancouver airport) due to a fire alarm that went off,. After about a 1/2 hour delay we cleared customs/immigration within 15 minutes and went to our boarding area.