Early Princess transfer from Vancouver airport

[davids33]

We have a 7:40 arrival at YVR. Allowing an hour or so for passport control and baggage claim, that puts us into the international arrivals area as soon as 8:30AM. We have a 10:30 arrival group time for embarkation. How early or often does Princess run busses from the airport? Their port information talks about showing up at the airport starting at 10:00AM. Would I be better skipping the princess transportation and getting to Canada place using the skytrain or taxi to make that 10:30 time? Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

Transport schedules are based on demand. So if there are passengers arriving at, say, 8am, they will start having buses available. However, it may take awhile to fill a bus and send you off.

 

If you aren't there at 10:30,nothing is going to happen, except the crowd will build rapidly, which may be incentive enough to take the Skytrain.

[martincath]

Honestly, even if you are a solo so the pricing of the Princess transfer is actually comparable to a cab (US$29pp vs. CAD$38+tip per vehicle) you'd be quicker cabbing it; if you don't object to using SkyTrain (which does involve another ~500yards total walking distance with suitcases between the stations being the other side of the road at YVR and then a couple of blocks away from the pier) you'll save a ton of cash (CAD$9.45pp on weekdays, even cheaper weekends) and avoid all traffic so probably get there even quicker.

 

If you can cancel them preemptively and get your money back, literally every other way of getting to the pier will be both cheaper AND faster so it really is a total no-brainer... even if they won't refund you blowing an extra ~US$7 or less on SkyTrain seems very small potatoes!