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We are coming off a Seabourn ship on Saturday Sept. 9th 7am arrival. Our flight leaves YVR at 11am. There will be a Princess ship and a HAL ship disembarking on the same day. I have heard horror stories about bus and taxi wait times. Can anyone recommend a private car service to take us to the airport ?

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We are coming off a Seabourn ship on Saturday Sept. 9th 7am arrival. Our flight leaves YVR at 11am. There will be a Princess ship and a HAL ship disembarking on the same day. I have heard horror stories about bus and taxi wait times. Can anyone recommend a private car service to take us to the airport ?

 

Three ships at Canada Place will make it quite busy IMO. Not sure about a private car service, but a couple of other options for you are 1) take a taxi but go up one level to the Pan Pacific hotel (or across the street to the Fairmont) and have them hail you a taxi. 2) you can walk about 2 blocks to the Skytrain which will take you directly to the airport in about the same amount of time as a taxi (research this on this board). You can take luggage onboard (Skytrain is designed for this).

 

Hopefully you can get off your ship in one of the first groups (using Status or self-disembarkation) as an 11 AM departure is cutting it close IMO. YVR airport can take quite a bit of time to get through, including some long walks (depending of course on which airline you are taking and if you are traveling in Canada or to another country).

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11am is challenging - and while booking a private car would guarantee a pretty speedy 'from CBSA to vehicle' step it will not address length of wait for collecting suitcases, queues for CBSA, travel time to YVR (limo or taxi, if there's an accident on a bridge you're fudged), queues for bag drop/security/US CBP at YVR. SkyTrain is much more consistent - 26mins Waterfront to YVR rarely changes more by more than a minute - while on busy days your car may waste many minutes getting out of Canada Place.

 

You NEED to be among the first groups to disembark, and if it's possible for you to handle your own luggage to self-disembark. Even then - if both bigger ships get in before you and start disembarking, you could end up hosed. YVR recommends being at the airport 3 hours pre-flight - and on a three-ship-day that's actually not ridiculous. Even if you're among the very first folks off the ship, you may not actually be allowed to disembark until closer to 7:30am - so even speeding right through CBSA with nothing to declare, you may not be able to hit the road until 7:45am or later. That puts you inside the 3 hours window already (drive time is ~30mins even with minimal traffic).

 

Unless you have NEXUS/Global Entry - not TSA Pre - which will short-circuit both Security and US immigration time at YVR, I would strongly advise booking a later flight. There are just too many factors outwith your control.

 

If you are still looking at a car service, there's really only one sensible option - Aerocar. They have the sole franchise at YVR and offer cheaper fixed rates to and from the pier than any other company is legally allowed to. With Meet & Greet fee - a necessity in these circumstances - you're looking at ~CAD$137 incl tax and expected 15% tip for a towncar. There's no local limo company I'm aware of with consistently awesome reviews, so you may as well use the cheapest (and I believe they also have the largest fleet).

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We are coming off a Seabourn ship on Saturday Sept. 9th 7am arrival. Our flight leaves YVR at 11am. There will be a Princess ship and a HAL ship disembarking on the same day. I have heard horror stories about bus and taxi wait times. Can anyone recommend a private car service to take us to the airport ?

 

Really can't see how 3 cruise ships can fit in at that terminal. When we disembarked in May the back of your ship extended to the end of the terminal, same with the HAL ship on the other side. Does your information say O Canada Terminal?

 

When we got outside there was a long line of taxis on the street leading up to the terminal, we didn't see anyone waiting for a taxi. A hotel sits above the terminal along with convention hall, it is a very busy place.

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Really can't see how 3 cruise ships can fit in at that terminal. When we disembarked in May the back of your ship extended to the end of the terminal, same with the HAL ship on the other side. Does your information say O Canada Terminal?

It holds 4 at once (although with 4, two of them do have to be small ships) The angled North end is another berth - the smallest, so that's where Seabourn & other smaller vessels are usually place - with Princess/HAL larger ships getting east & west berths. Since Ballantyne closed 2+ years ago, there's no longer any doubt about where you need to go - all cruise ships dock at Canada Place.

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Here's a tentative guideline....

  • 7am dock
  • 7:30am first walk off's, but here's where it gets ugly....
    • how long is customs? Will it be minutes or heavily congested with the two other ship passengers with you.
    • it takes 35 minutes to get from the cruise terminal to airport, but how long is the cab wait? As mentioned.... checking the cab lines at nearby hotels is a good option
    • subway is another option, but it takes about the same 8 minutes luggage drag to the train station for the 25 minute journey.

    [*]8am arrive at YVR for your 3 hours of check-in, US customs, and complimentary searches (will you be lucky for the VIP secondary experience?)

    [*]11am wheels up with dreams on returning to Vancouver as you didn't plan enough time at your bonus port.

I recommend looking at another flight and/or consider an extra day sightseeing at your bonus port. Otherwise.... Vancouver is a great place to be without a boat or plane.

Edited by xlxo
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Here's an image of the cruise terminal with 3 ships docked....

Port_of_Vancouver.jpg

 

When the cruise terminal opened back in the 80's.... cruise ships were half the size of what they look like today. You could park 7 of those smaller cruise ships with today's cruise terminal extension.

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Your are tight and I would recommend walking off early with your luggage...

Canadian Customs is normally a breeze... Just walk thru and hand in your declaration form

 

However once you get to the airport you have the privilege of clearing US immigration and customs NOT a breeze and of course security... allow time for this so you need to be at YVR 2 hours before your flight - 9am for an 11 flight...

 

Walk up to street level for a taxi --- how - follow the signs that say "City Center" until you come to double glass doors that say "Hotel & Convention Center" go thru the doors and take the elevator up 1 level to G (ground) - yes our cruise ship terminal is actually 1 level below street level ... once off the elevator turn to your left and you walk out the front entrance of the Pan Pacific Hotel - doorman will put you in a taxi

 

Your cheaper option is to walk to your left 2.5 blocks to the entrance to the Skytrain (Vancouver's Subway ) and take that to the airport... but with luggage I would recommend the taxi...

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  • 2 weeks later...

We're also disembarking in Vancouver from a Seabourn ship but on Tuesday, August 15th and it looks like we're the only ship in port that day. I'm guessing they'll boot us off the ship by 9:30 latest. We're taking the Express Shuttle across the border to the Bellingham airport to pick up a rental car so I have a different question and that is - are we pushing it to book the 9:00 shuttle or are we better off booking the 10:45, in which case how do we kill time until we can get on the bus?

 

Thanks for any help!

Edited by zelker
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Unless you have NEXUS/Global Entry - not TSA Pre - which will short-circuit both Security and US immigration time at YVR, I would strongly advise booking a later flight. There are just too many factors outwith your control.

 

I've got Global Entry. With it, arriving at the airport 2 hours before your flight is probably enough. I timed it when I was leaving Vancouver last March. From getting on the Sky Train (2 stations closer to the airport than Waterfront Station) to walking onto the concourse was 1 hour but that was for an afternoon flight. The airport may be busier for morning flights.

 

If you have Global Entry, have the Global Entry card with you. The card was required for getting into the Global Entry/Nexus security line. Departing Canada is the only time I've had to use the card at an airport.

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Thanks for the quick reply! Yes, QuickShuttle. So to facilitate making the 9:00 shuttle, what time would you say we need to disembark at the latest then?

With just one ship it shouldn't take long to get through Canadian immigration/customs - especially since your answer to 'why are you entering Canada and how long will you stay?' would be 'just off this cruise and leaving for Bellingham on the 9am QuickShuttle' - but I'd still play it safe and aim for an 8am slot to disembark. You'll probably be 30+mins early - but if for some reason you look suspicious, or all the other rich Seabourners are declaring buttloads of jewelry and art purchases so it's taking a long time to process each person ahead of you, you may need a little padding.

 

And n_c's note about time to get through various airport queues with GE/NEXUS fits my personal experiences too - about 30mins to airport and another 30 to get through the lines on a normal day - which is why I've personally become quite comfortable arriving at YVR only 90mins preflight, so leaving home 2hrs preflight. But I'm familiar with the airport and know exactly where I'm heading, so I wouldn't recommend shaving it that close for a first-timer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

When we came off a ship last Sunday about 8:30 or so there were three ships in port and we sailed right through. Taxi line was very organzied and we were at our Vancouver hotel at 9 am.

 

At the airport we cleared customs and immigration in Dallas, TX as that was our first US stop coming back into the US. Got to the airport the suggested three hours early, but could have done it in two hours with an hour to spare.

 

This was our experience, so do what you feel comfortable with.

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