Yellow Cabs Vancouver

[snplw]

Looking for advice.  I have reservations at Coast Vancouver Airport Hotel.  I need to get to the Amtrak station for the morning train to Seattle.  I found the Yellow cabs web site that shows I can pre-book a ride.  Is this my best option?  Am I looking at roughly a 4AM pickup?  Any advice would be helpful as this will be on our last leg of our trip.  The hotel has already told me their shuttle will not go to the train station.  Also is it wise to pre-book the Amtrak tickets as well?  It will be 2 adults and I am hoping 2 carry ons and 2 smaller bags. 

[martincath]

Yes, absolutely 100% get your Amtrak tickets booked! I honestly don't know if they even ALLOW walkup tickets (Amtrak take passport info during the booking and pass along, just like airlines do) - though since you preclear US immigration before boarding I suspect you could turn up and be allowed on if there are seats available... but in cruise season trains do sell out.

 

Prebooking a cab does make sense - in our experience it's slightly less likely that the cab will be late if you book online than if you call them but there's also a better-than-average chance the cab will show up a fair bit too early rather than on-time. With Uber now operating, you could try using them if you do decide to wait until on-the-day to book (i.e. see how long Uber app says the nearest car will take to arrive vs. calling a cab) - turns out that they actually are being allowed to charge less than cabs, though not much cheaper. Given the very small Uber fleet right now, there are way more cabs - so your best bet for 'on the day' fast arrival would be the local Vancouver Taxi app, which dispatches the nearest cab from all four of the main fleets to you.

 

Regardless of prebooking or calling, I'd suggest that your ETA at the station depends mostly on the date you're traveling. You MUST arrive 45mins beforehand to check a bag, but with small bags you can lift yourself it's possible to show up much closer to departure. CBP recommend arriving an hour before for immigration so most folks aim for that - which means if you are picky about trying to get seats on the water side (right on the way south), you have to beat at least half the other passengers to the station as seats are allocated first-come, first-served. So if it's peak summer, I'd say that 90mins before departure is what you need to do if you REALLY want a waterside seat - but if it's early/late in cruise season you should be fine just 75mins beforehand.

 

Drive time from Coast Airport is about 25mins without traffic, which would be about $30 on the meter of any local cab. Uber would charge a higher base fare but lower travel time/distance cost, so somewhere in the low $20 range I'd guess.

 

Lastly, the question you didn't ask but I'll answer anyway - yes, you should change hotels! Coast Airport is in a uniquely poor location, in that it is actually in Vancouver but right on the bottom edge in a light-industrial area with very little in the way of restaurants in an easy walk, inconvenient for transit (SkyTrain station is a little under a mile walking), and the cab fare is basically the same to downtown as from the airport thanks to the fixed rate zones from YVR - in fact if you hit any traffic coming down to sightsee you could easily spend $40 in a metered cab! Almost any of the Richmond hotels near YVR would be superior in both what is near you to eat and also access to SkyTrain for getting downtown, and given you are heading to Amtrak frankly a downtown hotel would be way less hassle (and if there are rooms available in the YWCA Hotel, almost certainly cheaper too).

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by martincath
added link to taxi app

[snplw]

1 hour ago, martincath said:

Yes, absolutely 100% get your Amtrak tickets booked! I honestly don't know if they even ALLOW walkup tickets (Amtrak take passport info during the booking and pass along, just like airlines do) - though since you preclear US immigration before boarding I suspect you could turn up and be allowed on if there are seats available... but in cruise season trains do sell out.

 

Prebooking a cab does make sense - in our experience it's slightly less likely that the cab will be late if you book online than if you call them but there's also a better-than-average chance the cab will show up a fair bit too early rather than on-time. With Uber now operating, you could try using them if you do decide to wait until on-the-day to book (i.e. see how long Uber app says the nearest car will take to arrive vs. calling a cab) - turns out that they actually are being allowed to charge less than cabs, though not much cheaper. Given the very small Uber fleet right now, there are way more cabs - so your best bet for 'on the day' fast arrival would be the local Vancouver Taxi app, which dispatches the nearest cab from all four of the main fleets to you.

 

Regardless of prebooking or calling, I'd suggest that your ETA at the station depends mostly on the date you're traveling. You MUST arrive 45mins beforehand to check a bag, but with small bags you can lift yourself it's possible to show up much closer to departure. CBP recommend arriving an hour before for immigration so most folks aim for that - which means if you are picky about trying to get seats on the water side (right on the way south), you have to beat at least half the other passengers to the station as seats are allocated first-come, first-served. So if it's peak summer, I'd say that 90mins before departure is what you need to do if you REALLY want a waterside seat - but if it's early/late in cruise season you should be fine just 75mins beforehand.

 

Drive time from Coast Airport is about 25mins without traffic, which would be about $30 on the meter of any local cab. Uber would charge a higher base fare but lower travel time/distance cost, so somewhere in the low $20 range I'd guess.

 

Lastly, the question you didn't ask but I'll answer anyway - yes, you should change hotels! Coast Airport is in a uniquely poor location, in that it is actually in Vancouver but right on the bottom edge in a light-industrial area with very little in the way of restaurants in an easy walk, inconvenient for transit (SkyTrain station is a little under a mile walking), and the cab fare is basically the same to downtown as from the airport thanks to the fixed rate zones from YVR - in fact if you hit any traffic coming down to sightsee you could easily spend $40 in a metered cab! Almost any of the Richmond hotels near YVR would be superior in both what is near you to eat and also access to SkyTrain for getting downtown, and given you are heading to Amtrak frankly a downtown hotel would be way less hassle (and if there are rooms available in the YWCA Hotel, almost certainly cheaper too).

 

Thank you.  We have a post cruise tour to the Capilano Bridge, and downtown.  The hotel is just for somewhere to sleep and stretch out.  We are not the YWCA type.  The date is mid Sept. on a Monday.  I appreciate your input.  Does any of this info change anything? 

[martincath]

1 hour ago, snplw said:

Thank you.  We have a post cruise tour to the Capilano Bridge, and downtown.  The hotel is just for somewhere to sleep and stretch out.  We are not the YWCA type.  The date is mid Sept. on a Monday.  I appreciate your input.  Does any of this info change anything? 

After labor day, on a weekday, you can shave the train station arrival time closer to 1 hour pre-departure than 90mins. I'd still recommend a downtown hotel though, as you have an awful lot of downtime from leaving the ship that a 'Cap & city tour' will not fill.

 

BTW, the Y is considerably better-reviewed than Coast airport... it's a real hotel, not a hostel, and they will have just opened their new tower so it'll be all shiny and fresh as well as in a really good location for casual, on-foot exploration and a vast array of dining options.

[scottbee]

3 hours ago, snplw said:

Thank you.  We have a post cruise tour to the Capilano Bridge, and downtown.  The hotel is just for somewhere to sleep and stretch out.  We are not the YWCA type.  The date is mid Sept. on a Monday.  I appreciate your input.  Does any of this info change anything? 

 

I would recommend you go online and look at the comparisons between the YWCA Hotel and the Coast Vancouver Airport.  The Y is a real hotel, with a great location, It just happens to be run by the Y