What is the latest we must be off the ship?

[*Miss G*]

If you are being picky I would heed Seasick Sailor’s advice.  Try and avoid Toronto Pearson.  The US CBP process and officers aren’t particularly well known for their friendliness.  They don’t want to be there and they’re gonna make darn sure you don’t want to be there either.

[Seasick Sailor]

Miss G, you took the words right out of my mouth! What is it with Pearson? One of Canada's most busiest airports. You'd think they would be a bit more welcoming, but jeez... I had warmer receptions in communist countries.. 

[kazu]

28 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

If you are being picky I would heed Seasick Sailor’s advice.  Try and avoid Toronto Pearson.  The US CBP process and officers aren’t particularly well known for their friendliness.  They don’t want to be there and they’re gonna make darn sure you don’t want to be there either.

 

Completely agree with this.

 

If I am flying to the States to cruise, I try to connect in Montreal (YUL).  Immigration is never fun but they are much more efficient IMO.

[I like vacation]

1 hour ago, Kfrech said:

Can you book with Flight Ease if you’ve transferred your cruise to a TA?

Yes you can.

[*Miss G*]

25 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Miss G, you took the words right out of my mouth! What is it with Pearson? One of Canada's most busiest airports. You'd think they would be a bit more welcoming, but jeez... I had warmer receptions in communist countries.. 

 

I think it’s because the officers are Americans who don’t want to be in Canada.  😂

[martincath]

A next-day nonstop on Alaskan makes sense if you don't want to do any post-cruise Vancouver time in Seattle - consider renting a car one-way and make a day of it en route with stops wherever you feel like (there's a lot of pretty countryside between us and Seattle), or if you're up for a late night the evening Amtrak train gives you most of the day in Vancouver and then the least-painful border crossing to anyone without NEXUS (preclear at the station before boarding the train, but unlike YVR the worst queues never get really bad as you only ever have to worry about the other pax on your specific train).

 

17 hours ago, Kfrech said:

I am really leaning towards a day room at the Fairmont. I looked into a few other hotels and although they are cheaper, they only allow you to stay until 5 p.m.; the Fairmont allows you to stay until 8 p.m.

 

We are from Pittsburgh and only Alaska Airlines flies non-stop (only 2 flights per day) to Pittsburgh. If anything, we'd consider going down to Seattle after the cruise, staying overnight in an airport hotel, and flying out the next morning. That would get us home around 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Since I'm a teacher, I don't have to worry about going to work on Monday; it's my husband who I'm considering (he says one day without much sleep won't kill us).

 

I have looked into tours, but many of them are just not long enough. I might have to revisit that idea again.

The problem is that the Fairmont limits you to a maximum of 8 hours in the room at day rates. So if you want to stay until 8pm, that means checking in no earlier than noon... which means you are still stuck with your bags from when you get off the ship until you can check in. If you wanted to drop your bags then sightsee, you're still stuck on a ~9-5 day like other hotels - plus you waste a full hour round-trip on SkyTrain to downtown and back compared to just heading out to YVR once.

 

So if you're planning to do any local sightseeing before a red-eye, I'll reiterate that a more sensible plan would be storing bags at the pier as soon as your disembark, and paying for a downtown hotel overnight and leaving it early (or just paying for lounge access at YVR) if you want to grab a shower or nap before your flight. Compared to 8 hours in the Fairmont you can probably book an overnight rate in many downtown hotels, not just the YWCA (which is a 'real' hotel, not a hostel, and a very popular and well-reviewed one). Of course if you feel that the Fairmont's pricing is worth it for a private bed & shower on-site at YVR, booking their 4 hour package would save you cash and still let you check out at 8pm - and checking in at 4pm gives you enough time to take in a few sights downtown before heading out there.

 

On the tour front, the only realistic way you'd get a tour that completely filled all your time before a red-eye would be booking a private custom tour as even the longest 'standard package' local day trips still have you back in town too early (technically day trips to Victoria, which run 12-14 hours depending whether you fly or take the ferry, could fill your whole day and evening but of course then you have the risk of being a flight or ferry ride away at the end of the day - and they also pick up around 8am so you'd need to be hustling off the ship too).

 

Even with a late flight though you can easily kill time with a regular day tour, the HOHO, or just walking around downtown between sites - most longer day tours get you back to town about the same time HOHOs stop running (between 5 and 6pm) so by the time you go for a nice dinner, get your bags back from the Pan Pacific, and hop in a cab/SkyTrain to YVR you can easily find it's going on 9pm. If you were on the 10:30pm flight you mentioned above you'd be checking in with ample time (domestic first leg means as long as you meet the checked-bag cutoff of 45mins before you shouldn't have any issues, so 90mins early is double what you require).

[*Miss G*]

3 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Completely agree with this.

 

If I am flying to the States to cruise, I try to connect in Montreal (YUL).  Immigration is never fun but they are much more efficient IMO.

 

They are so nice in Montreal!

[Serious Cruisers]

if your like us, the last thing I want to do is spend the day getting on and off buses/trains etc. possibly in the rain.

If you join Fairmonts loyalty club before you book you will be able to check in early. They will have your room key and everything all set up at the loyalty desk.  Pick up your key and then back to bed lol.

 

 

[martincath]

12 minutes ago, Serious Cruisers said:

if your like us, the last thing I want to do is spend the day getting on and off buses/trains etc. possibly in the rain.

If you join Fairmonts loyalty club before you book you will be able to check in early. They will have your room key and everything all set up at the loyalty desk.  Pick up your key and then back to bed lol.

On a day room, where they specifically charge for a number of hours? I'm dubious - we've been members for almost 20 years and they certainly haven't always let us check in early even on regular stays. Even when we've booked the Gold floor we have not always been able to get into our room early!

[Serious Cruisers]

Oh thats not good.  We have always had them work with us for check in/out as well as room locations especially YVR airport, thats the reason we luv the fairmont.

[RocketMan275]

6 hours ago, Kfrech said:

Can you book with Flight Ease if you’ve transferred your cruise to a TA?

I booked with a TA and then booked flight ease.  Simply not a problem.  Your TA is notified of your flights but really has nothing to do with them.

[Kfrech]

 

DAY USE ROOMS

For guests looking to relax in tranquility, while waiting for a connecting flight, The Fairmont Vancouver Airport offers Day Use rooms for up to 8 hours between the time period 8am to 8pm PST. Use the health club or pool or get some peaceful rest in our soundproofed rooms. 
* These rates are not available for overnight use and only from 8am – 8pm PST.

Reserve a Day Use Room for 8 Hours

Reserve a Day Use Room for 6 Hours

Reserve a Day Use Room for 4 Hours

 

The above is directly from Fairmont YVR’s website. 

[RocketMan275]

21 minutes ago, Kfrech said:

 

DAY USE ROOMS

For guests looking to relax in tranquility, while waiting for a connecting flight, The Fairmont Vancouver Airport offers Day Use rooms for up to 8 hours between the time period 8am to 8pm PST. Use the health club or pool or get some peaceful rest in our soundproofed rooms. 
* These rates are not available for overnight use and only from 8am – 8pm PST.

Reserve a Day Use Room for 8 Hours

Reserve a Day Use Room for 6 Hours

Reserve a Day Use Room for 4 Hours

 

The above is directly from Fairmont YVR’s website. 

We booked a room for eight hours.  Very good decision.

[martincath]

1 hour ago, Serious Cruisers said:

Oh thats not good.  We have always had them work with us for check in/out as well as room locations especially YVR airport, thats the reason we luv the fairmont.

As a fellow Vancouverite I'm assuming you book a regular overnight room before you fly out early - a different beast from a 'day room' rate.

 

If you could just show up two hours early or check out late with no extra charge by signing up for a free membership, it would make mock of the whole concept of charging different rates for 8 vs. 6 vs. 4 hours - and also make the limited hours of 8am-8pm problematic to administer.

 

The website is very clear - as quoted above by OP - about time limits and there's nothing in the loyalty program verbiage that suggests any guarantee of early access even to regular overnight rooms until you reach Gold status with the new Accor program, and even then they don't say how early. The old Fairmont President's Club, before the Accor rebranding, didn't guarantee early check-in until Platinum status either.

 

Even the fanciest of hotels is limited in what they can do when they're running close to capacity 😉

 

[Serious Cruisers]

Plz don't assume, you don't know me.  I luv the yvr location, I have used day rooms in San Diego, San Fran and LA when getting off a cruise ship early and my flight is not till later (not sure why I need to explain this to you).

[martincath]

20 hours ago, Serious Cruisers said:

Plz don't assume, you don't know me.  I luv the yvr location, I have used day rooms in San Diego, San Fran and LA when getting off a cruise ship early and my flight is not till later (not sure why I need to explain this to you).

No need to explain it to me - but to enable OP to assess whether your opinion that the Fairmont YVR doesn't enforce their own policies is based on experience or guesswork.

 

So, since your lack of denial implies my first assumption about your stay at YVR was correct (overnight, not day room) - were any of those other day rooms in a Fairmont? It does seem very unlikely given there isn't a Fairmont at all in LA until next April, both SF locations are downtown so have dreadful traffic between them and both SFO or OAK, and the 'San Diego' Fairmont is actually 20 miles north in Del Mar so hardly convenient for either pier or airport - but I don't want to assume that your lack of mention of Fairmonts is merely an attempt to make your experience of totally-different hotels somehow relevant...

 

 

[Serious Cruisers]

lol FYI having brunch at the Fairmont right now