Vancouver Sail-Away Times on Royal Class ships

[cruisingrob21]

Looking at a voyage on Majestic next year, the ship is slated to leave at 4:30 which is coinciding with a high tide.  I'm guessing Princess will push back the departure time closer to sailing since there are some clearance limitations under the Lions Gate that make Royal Class ships have late departure times, or very early arrival times.  Has anyone had their departure times changed from Vancouver?  How much in advance did you receive notice?

[blizzard44ca]

Princess may or may not officially change the departure time. Last summer the cruise I was on did not change the official departure time, however we left after midnight.

The port schedule will have the correct time though, so I would refer to that:

https://www.portvancouver.com/cruise/cruise-schedule/

[cr8tiv1]

When I was in Vancouver in late September. both the Royal and the Discovery left closer to Midnight.  The previous week, the Grand was suppose to leave at 4.  Then rescheduled to leave at 3.  But do to software issues, was delayed until around 9 PM.

 

If you are in Oregon, then you are pretty safe flying/driving in the same day.  I know a couple of people who were biting nails on a morning flight out of LAX.  Got in, 90 minutes through immigration, 30 minutes to the pier....and were a little stressed by the time they got on the ship.  

 

I flew in a few days before to enjoy Vancouver.  

 

Tidal charts are fairly accurate.  But final times are usually posted maybe a week ahead.  Too many variables for me.

Edited December 18, 2022 by cr8tiv1

[cruisingrob21]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

When I was in Vancouver in late September. both the Royal and the Discovery left closer to Midnight.  The previous week, the Grand was suppose to leave at 4.  Then rescheduled to leave at 3.  But do to software issues, was delayed until around 9 PM.

 

If you are in Oregon, then you are pretty safe flying/driving in the same day.  I know a couple of people who were biting nails on a morning flight out of LAX.  Got in, 90 minutes through immigration, 30 minutes to the pier....and were a little stressed by the time they got on the ship.  

 

I flew in a few days before to enjoy Vancouver.  

 

Tidal charts are fairly accurate.  But final times are usually posted maybe a week ahead.  Too many variables for me.

Thanks all.

 

Yes flying from OR.  Originally was on an 8am flight, then Air Canada nixxed that one and our choices were 6:25am (done it before, needlessly early) and the other one is at 10:30.  Fortunately its a short flight (45 mins or so) so we'll get there before noon which should be plenty of time to get downtown and check in.  Given that the next port is Victoria, I can't imagine they would be hard pressed to get out to sea, but then again - gotta open that casino up.  The 8am flight I've taken in the past was nice as its one of the first intl arrivals into YVR, so immigration is a breeze.  The one we are on now is right in the thick of the intl arrivals, so I'm not expecting a fast experience.

 

Thought about just flying in the night before and may still do that.  Have done that before a few times, but we really hit a nice balance of that 8am flight and having the better part of a day to wander around.

[cr8tiv1]

@cruisingrob21 The casino will not be open until you leave Victoria.  The 8am would have been perfect.  Someone else was complaining about Air Canada dropping flights.  Good luck.  
 

Taxi from airport to cruise terminal is set fare (around 40 CD).  Unfortunately, you will have to do immigration twice….coming in/leaving at the port.  Hope there is only one ship (Royal) in port. It will be a nightmare if there are three.  
 

I love Vancouver and enjoyed a couple of days at the Pan Pacific. 

[cruisingrob21]

18 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

@cruisingrob21 The casino will not be open until you leave Victoria.  The 8am would have been perfect.  Someone else was complaining about Air Canada dropping flights.  Good luck.  
 

Taxi from airport to cruise terminal is set fare (around 40 CD).  Unfortunately, you will have to do immigration twice….coming in/leaving at the port.  Hope there is only one ship (Royal) in port. It will be a nightmare if there are three.  
 

I love Vancouver and enjoyed a couple of days at the Pan Pacific. 

Air Canada was running 4 flights per day - I took the 8am flight for an alaskan sampler last year and it was "full".  As opposed to "totally full" or "completely full" - the varying grey areas of "fullness" by flight attendants always makes me crack up.  So there were a few empty seats on an 80 seat dash8 prop plane.  We used to have Air Canada and Alaska Airlines providing service, but Alaska has chosen to funnel much of its traffic from Portland and Boise via Seattle - which is honestly the wrong direction for many flights from Boise or Portland.  It's unfortunate too since Seatac is agonizingly crowded (much moreso than when I lived there pre 2014).  But the flip side is PDX is remarkably uncrowded and lines are always short.

 

We've usually taken sky train in vancouver - the one time we took a taxi it took almost as long as skytrain.  Granted, this is a short cruise with just my daughter, so we will both have carry ons.  I always enjoy a side trip to North Van on the SeaBus to get some nice photos of the city.

 

Yes, its a bummer about the double immigration, and we'll have to do some form of it the third time when the ship docks in Seattle at the end of the voyage.

[cr8tiv1]

You might be okay in Seattle with American customs at embarkation.  Not sure since you are stopping in Victoria on the way south.