August disembarking in Vancouver, Airport timing

[mjcatlvr]

Hello all! My Husband, myself and my elderly father will be headed home out of YVR the first week of August. The NCL schedule puts us arriving at the Vancouver cruise terminal at 6am. I read some advice offered on the "Ports" boards but our situation is that the train won't work for my father, we will need to get a cab and I understand that this takes a bit more time. What is a realistic time frame for us to get off of the ship, find a taxi, drive to the airport, go through Canadian customs then I think U.S. customs? Trying to arrange a return flight that we won't be stressed about getting to but also, I don't want to be hanging at the airport for half a day. I see a flight that LEAVES at 12:30, would this be a "nail biter" to get to?

[vacation44]

5 minutes ago, mjcatlvr said:

Hello all! My Husband, myself and my elderly father will be headed home out of YVR the first week of August. The NCL schedule puts us arriving at the Vancouver cruise terminal at 6am. I read some advice offered on the "Ports" boards but our situation is that the train won't work for my father, we will need to get a cab and I understand that this takes a bit more time. What is a realistic time frame for us to get off of the ship, find a taxi, drive to the airport, go through Canadian customs then I think U.S. customs? Trying to arrange a return flight that we won't be stressed about getting to but also, I don't want to be hanging at the airport for half a day. I see a flight that LEAVES at 12:30, would this be a "nail biter" to get to?

Based on our experience last year taking a cab also, you will make it in plenty of time.   We got to the airport so early, we actually had to wait two hours for the Alaska Airlines ticket counter to open.

[ChiefMateJRK]

Good info.  I have one coming up that has a 1:40 PM flight, which I consider darned close to perfect.

[SoloAlaska]

When I travelled to Vancouver for work I swore by hiring a black car service ahead of time. It was only slightly more expensive than the taxi and so worth the reduced stress. Vancouver is pretty early to disembark and pretty quick usually.

 

You won’t have to do Canadian customs at the airport because you’ll do that at the port but you’ll do security and then US customs at the airport.

[bonvoyagie]

Let me add some real world example as to why you should book a PM flight. We were on the Jewel this summer and between Ketchikan and Vancouver we had a medical emergency that required the ship to go back to Prince Rupert to drop the passengers. This put us close to 8 hours behind schedule. We also missed our window through the Seymore Narrows. Even though the captain had the ship running at top speed - 24 to 25 KN we ended up in Vancouver 5hrs late. There are lots of cabs at the port and the airport is about 30 min away. If you are returning to the US you need to allow time for check-in and going through customs. They recommend allowing 3hrs for this process. We stayed a few days extra in Vancouver so we were able to use an early flight - even so the US Customs opens at 5:00AM and the line is usually long. To add insult to injury, I was flagged with the SSSS on my boarding pass so I was subjected to an extra search - a hint here is if you can't log in and get your boarding pass through the web or ap you are probably going to be searched. Lucky for us my wife was not flagged and she had the carry on - all I had was my backpack with just some coats and camera but it still added to our time.

[d9704011]

1 minute ago, bonvoyagie said:

Let me add some real world example as to why you should book a PM flight. We were on the Jewel this summer and between Ketchikan and Vancouver we had a medical emergency that required the ship to go back to Prince Rupert to drop the passengers. This put us close to 8 hours behind schedule. We also missed our window through the Seymore Narrows. Even though the captain had the ship running at top speed - 24 to 25 KN we ended up in Vancouver 5hrs late. There are lots of cabs at the port and the airport is about 30 min away. If you are returning to the US you need to allow time for check-in and going through customs. They recommend allowing 3hrs for this process. We stayed a few days extra in Vancouver so we were able to use an early flight - even so the US Customs opens at 5:00AM and the line is usually long. To add insult to injury, I was flagged with the SSSS on my boarding pass so I was subjected to an extra search - a hint here is if you can't log in and get your boarding pass through the web or ap you are probably going to be searched. Lucky for us my wife was not flagged and she had the carry on - all I had was my backpack with just some coats and camera but it still added to our time.

So, should the 1230 flight be booked or not?  Me, I think it's OK.

[bonvoyagie]

Book it but make sure that you can change it without a fee. The captain on our cruise allowed people to use the ship to shore phones for free to make changes.

[SoloAlaska]

Or have travel insurance just in case you miss the flight. 

[martincath]

18 hours ago, mjcatlvr said:

...I see a flight that LEAVES at 12:30, would this be a "nail biter" to get to?

Even on a 3 or 4 ship day, mainstream lines will book you on flights at 12:30pm with their own transfers - which are the most expensive and slowest option! The advice I always offer is to stay over - we're a heck of a town to visit! - then book an early flight next day so you beat all the disembarking pax to YVR, but if you have burned all your $ budget on the cruise so another hotel night and day of sightseeing just isn't on the cards, a 12:30pm flight is very low risk. If something goes so badly wrong that you miss it, there's frankly a decent chance that a flight later the same afternoon might also have been missed!

 

If you are on a super-busy day (check port schedule - it should update for this season by March), these days at least the cab queue never gets as bad as it did historically thanks to ridesharing - even if you don't use the apps, every person who takes a Lyftuber is one less who needs a cab - but there are a handful of other things you can do to further speed your progress if the queue still looks long:

1. Head upstairs to the Pan Pacific Hotel and get a cab from there - first time cruises here usually have no idea that there's a hotel right above, with cabs able to access the street level front door without getting fully caught up in the horrible bottleneck of pier access, and it's got elevators from cruise level so no worries about mobility issues
2. If the PP already has a bunch of sneaky peeps waiting, the two Fairmonts across the street will be quieter - Waterfront is literally across the street, Pacific Rim is a block down to your right - to try the 'get cab at hotel' trick
3. There's an indy shuttle that costs less than half the price of the cruiseline ones - while you can prebook, they also take walkups! The company running it changes now and again, no guarantees last year's folks will still be doing it when this season starts, but it's actually cheaper than a cab for two people (actual dollar cost $1 extra for Adults, but no % tip expected on top...) Link to the most recent operator, Ace Charters, here.
4. Maybe you do use Rideshares? They pick up outside the pier - so while there is a little more walking to get to them, it's pretty much the same as if you crossed over to get a cab at the Pacific Rim, and now they don't have to come down inside the pier on their own dime more drivers are willing to take fares.
5. If walking a block or two is not feasible with your dad, you have a much bigger problem - the distance from ship to shore can easily be 400+ yards, and even more at YVR to the usual US gates, so anyone who cannot manage at least a quarter mile on foot NEEDS to book wheelchair assistance at both airport and pier... especially if this is an RT cruise, as the boarding process in Vancouver involves an awful lot of walking and standing with no seats available for extended periods due to the extra step of US Preclearance!
6. The airport allows anyone to prebook a slot to pass through Security - while having NEXUS or Global Entry is even better as they get a dedicated Preclearance queue, if you are stuck with waiting for bags to be delivered to the pier then even if you cab it and get one pretty quick the busloads of cruise transfers might already be clogging the queues at YVR when you arrive! Booking a slot in advance - no charge! - for the late end of your timeframe, say 11:30am, means that if you are running late you have it available but if things go smoothly andf you roll in at 9am before the cruise shuttles you can just join the regular lines.

[mjcatlvr]

WOW! Thank you so very much for everyones thoughtful and detailed advice. Amazing