lidodeck03

***UPDATE*** We had an 11:40 AM flight out of Vancouver on Saturday 5/4/2024. We were on the  Discovery Princess and had stopped in Victoria, Canada the day before(Friday) which made the whole process much easier. I will detail the timeline below:

Arrived at Vancouver Terminal at approximately 10:00PM Friday May 4, 2024. Gangway was put in place sometime around midnight. We walked off the ship with our luggage (self assist) at 6:02AM Saturday morning. As we were walking into the parking garage on our way to the Sky Train, a Vancouver Taxi pulled into the garage and offered us a ride. We asked him the fare to the airport and he said $40.00. We loaded our bags into his mini-van and at 6:09AM we were off to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 6:43AM and went to the kiosk to get our luggage tags and boarding passes for our flight. Once we had the bags tagged, we proceeded to the counter for the attendant to verify the bags. She said it was too early to verify and check the bags, so I found a place to get some coffee and some baked goods. As a side note, the place was called Pure Bread and they had really good baked goods! After returning to the kiosk area, the attendant told us that she had checked again and that she could in fact check our bags in whenever we would like to. We finished our coffee and Blueberry Scone and proceeded to the bag verification counter. After weighing our bags, checking our passports and boarding passes we went to the "bag drop" area and sent our bags on their way. It is now 7:18AM and we are headed to security and customs. We only waited about two minutes in security to be processed, however putting on our clothing and rounding up our belongings took much longer! Next we proceeded to Customs (no waiting time at Customs) and the gentleman asked how long we had been in Canada and if we had anything to declare. After that 30 second interview while he verified our passports, we were off to find our gate. We made a few stops along the way to look at the offerings in the Duty Free shops and locating the restrooms or "washrooms" as they are called in Canada, we arrived at our gate at 7:47AM. This gave us almost four hours before our flight would leave. We had a lot of anxiety before and during this cruise do to the fact that so many people on this board (and other Social Media sites) had stated that anything before noon would be a bad idea. Of course anything can happen, but we spotted several other people from our cruise that came in between 9-10 AM, and nobody was running through the airport. I would think that 99% of the time you would be OK taking the 11:40 AM flight. If there is an unfortunate incident on the highway or Sky Train, you may not make a 1:30PM or 2:30PM flight either! The caveat to this scenario is the vessel clearing customs the day before in Victoria, Canada, and the gangway being operational throughout the night and morning once docked in Vancouver. Hypothetically, we could have made a 6:00AM flight if we would have needed to under this scenario. The airport itself is not very busy at all compared to Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Orlando, Atlanta etc. It is almost too quiet in the airport at times! It is a very nice airport, well maintained and very clean! So that is my report and account of what we did...your experience may be different, but hopefully this will allow others to not have undo stress about making a "before noon" flight from Canada back to the USA or wherever your final destination may be because we actually have done it!!

****UPDATE**** We went to The Fish Market as was suggested by several people on this thread! There were four of us total and were able to get a table inside with a view of the water. The food was outstanding and the service was exceptional. I had the Cioppino, and it was one of the best I have ever had, and I have eaten a lot of Cioppino! I have no problem recommending this restaurant to anyone that is a seafood lover!

1 hour ago, martincath said:

You're confusing both the country of the agency concerned and the location! CBSA = Canadian border folks, who screen at the pier because most ships cruising in have arrived from US waters; CBP = US border folks, who prescreen US-bound flights at YVR starting at 4:30am (with a shift briefing, so no actual work for at least 10mins, and a huge queue of folks on those 6am, 7am, even 8am flights who have no idea about CBP hours so showed up to check-in only to find locked doors after they'd gone past Security... it usually takes until 5am to clear that first backlog, which is why I like taking the first SkyTrain - arriving 5:09am - to YVR for a flight before 7am)

Thank you for the clarification! As I said, I have not flown International before. This will be a first for us. I am looking forward to see how YVR compares to Atlanta Hartsfield, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, Orlando International, as we frequent those airports most often. One other question.. If the ship leaves the USA (Astoria, Oregon) and stops in port at Victoria, BC the day before arriving in Vancouver for disembarkation, does it still have to go through the same CBSA process for both locations?

Thank you! 

On 3/17/2024 at 10:22 PM, martincath said:

With several Ifs, it might be fine - but since you have another option just take that! Worst case you are indeed mobile enough to drag all your own bags off, use SkyTrain, are the only ship in port and end up at YVR very early... but if you don't check off all of those boxes, there's definitely a risk of missing it.

 

I really don't understand why Celebrity would even give that option, all the lines generally use 'arrival time plus 5 hours' here in Vancouver and even if it's a theoretical 6am docking, they know that nobody gets cleared before CBSA show up to start work at 7am so the earliest 'safe' flight time is never before noon!

I have never taken an International flight so I have a "crazy" question! I see a lot of early morning flights (6:00AM - 9:00AM) leaving YVR with a destination being in the USA. If CBSA doesn't start the screening process at the airport until 7:00AM, how are all those people getting on the airplanes at 6:00AM - 9:00AM? 

Thank you!

55 minutes ago, disneyochem said:

Our favorite restaurant in Little Italy is Bencotto:  https://www.lovebencotto.com/

 

It's just a 15-20 minute walk from the cruise port.

Thank you! That was one that we had thought about trying!

Looking for recommendations for restaurants near San Diego Cruise Terminal. Seafood, Steakhouse, or Italian is preferred. Price range $$-$$$.

Thank You!

On 2/7/2024 at 10:32 PM, JVes said:

Ah, but dare you eat lutefisk?

(Lutefisk is cod or other suitable fish, fermented in lye. Lye is traditionally made by pouring water through wood ash, and is highly caustic.)

I eat Lutefisk whenever I can find it. Have never seen it on a cruise, maybe they would have it in port at one of the Scandinavian countries. 

I eat Pickled Herring (fish) when available on the buffet. 

We will be taking our third Pacific Coastal Cruise in April. We have family in San Diego so that will be a full day that we will get to spend with them. San Francisco has become one of our favorite cities to visit. So much to do and lots of good restaurants. We always start planning to take the Mexican Riviera Cruise but always end up booking the Pacific Coastal Cruise. Not sure what the ports are on the cruise you are considering, but Santa Barbara and Catalina Island are both very nice ports. Just my two cents worth!

Has anyone purchased and filed a claim with Detour Travel Insurance. Wondering since I am just seeing it advertised for the first time. Rates look very good and Detour is the Primary insurer. Also underwritten by Nationwide Insurance.

Well.. we get to Vancouver at 11:00PM on Friday night and they show “Operational Overnight” and disembarkation at 6:00AM Saturday morning.

I have a 11:40AM flight booked in May from Vancouver. We got a quote on Princess EZ Air and the flight that they had us on was a 10:30AM flight so I felt better about booking the 11:40AM flight.

We are planning on leaving on Princess Discovery leaving LA on May 27, 2024. We leave from Victoria, Ca. at 4:00pm on May 3, 2024 and arrive in Vancouver on May 3, 2024 at 11:15pm. and disembarkation on May 4, 2024 at 6:00am. It also states on the itinerary that between 11:15pm on May 3, and 6:00am on May 4 that it will be “Operational Overnight.” Does this mean we could disembark and carry off our own luggage and catch an early flight?

On 1/10/2024 at 12:33 PM, martincath said:

This is tricky - without more info about your specific date/route I can't say!

 

A theoretical answer though is that unless NCL are paying CBSA to work overnight at Canada Place (short answer - they absolutely won't be!), you might arrive at 11pm but you won't be cleared to leave the ship if this is the first Canadian port... but if you had a prior stop in e.g. Victoria, without any other US ports in-between, then immigration & customs was already taken care of so you can just walk off the ship whenever you like after it's tied up. So if you want to set your alarm for 4am, you might not be able to get your bags taken off for you before official disembark slots begin, but you would absolutely be able to self-disembark if you schlep all your own stuff.

 

A 10am flight is potentially doable even if you need to wait until 'regular hours' disembarkation, but again there are unknowns - the biggest factor is your mobility. If you can handle all your own bags, then even on a busy day with multiple ships SkyTrain to YVR is viable which means you can definitely be at the airport within ~45mins of leaving the pier (~10min walk, trains every 6-7 mins, <30min travel time). Say an hour to get to check-in as there's also a bit of a walk from the station to the check-in desks - which means as long as you leave downtown before 9am, you should meet the minimum 1 hour preflight cut-off to check bags. You'll also beat all the other folks who are waiting for cruise transfers - none of them arrive at YVR before about 9:30am - so all the queues should be pretty light, I'd expect to be at my gate within about 30mins even without NEXUS/Global Entry to get through US Preclearance super-fast.

 

If you need any help whatsoever with baggage though, abandon all plans for a 10am flight - there are just too many moving parts outside your control to make it worth the risk. None of the mainstream cruiselines even accept transfer requests for flights that early (noon, or even 12:30pm, is the usual cutoff as they know how busy it can get at the pier and airport and they don't want to be on the hook for folks missing flights!)

 

Personally though I would always advise staying over in Vancouver - unless you've been here many times and seen everything, we have more stuff to see and do than every AK coastal port put together so it's a real missed opportunity to be here and not take advantage of one of the best cities in the world! Us locals might b*tch about cost of living, but with our weaker CAD$ we're still a relative bargain for folks from the USA, especially if you're from any of the bigger cities in California!

 

Then by all means book a flight at 10am on another day when you can choose exactly when to leave your hotel - heck, you may even find a good 6am flight. The only thing to be aware of on those really early flights is that CBP do not start work until 4:30am, and start-of-shift briefing eats another 10-15mins - so arriving at Preclearance before 5am is basically pointless, even for a 6am flight. So many people obey the rule of thumb to be 3 hours early that there's always a lineup at the closed doors from 3am, which gets longer and longer until CBP actually start working around 4:45am...

2 minutes ago, Chrissy3427 said:

Yes, read above responses, it's all right there. Capt_BJ did a wonderful job explaining it.

Capt BJ states there is parking across from Terminal 10 and that they are building a parking garage. Lots of general information but nothing specific to a passenger parking garage that is now open.

Is there a passenger parking garage (covered parking) across the street Terminal 10?

Is there covered parking (garage) across from terminal 10?

Is bottle water included in the  “Unlimited Open Bar” beverage package?

6 hours ago, scottca075 said:

My two favorite seafood restaurants are Tadich Grill and Sam's Grill. Both have wonderfully prepared dishes, with impeccable service. Tadich is the oldest restaurant in the state of California, having opened during the Gold Rush, in 1849. Sam's is a relative newcomer, having opened in 1867.

 

Other favorites include Swan Oyster Depot, Sotto Mare and Scoma's, but Scoma's is mostly for their cioppino.

 

Waterbar is good, very good actually, I like it, but it lacks the character and charm of the others.

Thank you for your recommendations! We have made reservations at Tadich Grill and Sam’s Grill. Both places look amazing! I was hoping you would have suggestions. I enjoy reading your posts on this site. Thank you for all your informative posts. Some of us may not post a lot, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t learning things from reading other peoples posts and reply’s. Once again.. Thank you very much.

What is the name of your favorite seafood restaurant in San Francisco, and why is it your favorite?
TY

How much time should we allow to get to the Long Beach Airport once the ship has docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro? We arrive at 6:00AM on a Saturday morning. Would a 10:30 AM departure from Long Beach Airport be too risky? Thank You!!

On 4/15/2020 at 8:17 AM, Dadof2kids said:

I don't think people are being impatient. I think we all see what is going on in the cruise industry and are concerned about our cash flow just like the cruise industry is.  I will gladly give it back to them in the future but I would rather hold on to it myself.

When you call in to make a deposit and/or final payment on your cruise, the customer service agent can take your credit card number and process the deposit and/or final payment for your cruise (at least 90 days BEFORE your cruise).....however, when you call to get a refund on your cruise that RCI cancelled, that same customer service agent can tell you everything about the refund, they just can't apply it back to your credit card that was used to make the final payment and/or deposit. Seems like it should be a much easier process than it is. If they are capable of processing the transactions to pay for the cruise, they should be capable of processing the credit as well.

23 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I am on same ship/route, but June 11th.  Nothing yet from RCI for me either.  And Bermuda has closed it's seaport for two weeks that I know of...not sure if they will extend..and for how long.  

 

I wouldn't have a problem going to Bermuda and NE...but if they totally change it to a "Bahamas cruise"..I will cancel.  

 

 

Will I have to wait until they cancel or change the itinerary before I can request a full refund and not a FCC?

On 3/25/2020 at 5:49 PM, eatplayvacay said:

I think they are having some issues at RC about those cruises.  My May 25 Empress Canada/New England is still on cruise planner, still available to book and no email about cancellation, despite the clear notice from RCI that it should be cancelled.  Hopefully in the coming days they will get that all straightened out.

Our May 14 cruise out of Baltimore going to Canada is not showing cancelled either. Some thought is that instead of the two stops in Canada, they may go to Bermuda instead.

18 hours ago, nelblu said:

Continued from above:

 

• This amount will be based on your total cruise fare paid (or Cruisetour, if applicable). And, we’re giving you a little extra, knowing that this is such a unique circumstance.

• We will automatically issue you your Future Cruise Credit (FCC) via email. So, there’s nothing for you to do! You can expect to receive your FCC by:

◦ Monday, April 13^th, 2020, if your sail date was on or before April 10^th, 2020, or on Ovation of the Seas April 11^th, 2020, Radiance March 14^th, 2020, Jewel of the Seas March 19^th – May 5^th, 2020, and all April 2020 Spectrum of the Seas sailings.

◦ Monday, April 30^th, 2020, if your sail date was on or after April 11^th, 2020.

• Please know, taxes & fees and any RoyalUp upgrades will be automatically refunded.

• Please note:

◦ If you opted into the Cruise with Confidence 100% Future Cruise Credit for this sailing, you do not qualify for this offer.

◦ And, if you used a Cruise with Confidence certificate on this sailing, you’ll receive a new Future Cruise Certificate for 125% of your total cruise fare value paid, including the value of your original certificate.

◦ If you were impacted by our first global suspension (sailings through April 10^th, 2020), and paid additional monetary funds on a new booking within this extended suspension period, you’ll receive two 125% Future Cruise Credits: one for the original booking and another equal to 125% of any monies paid towards cruise fare on the new booking. You are able to opt in to refund one or both via the process below.

Or, if you prefer the lower value in a full refund, we’re happy to process this for you. Given how fluid this situation is, and the opportunity to use the extra credit being offered, you have plenty of time to make up your mind. You have until December 31^st, 2021 to request a refund.

• Please contact us to start the refund process, if you’re willing to give up the higher value of your 125% Future Cruise Credit.

• We’ll then deactivate your Future Cruise Credit and process your refund to your original form(s) of payment, which will include any non-refundable deposits.

• To avoid waiting on the phone to cancel, please click here and we will get the process started for you.

• You can expect to receive your refund 30 days after you submit your request.

• Please note: If you used a Cruise with Confidence certificate on this sailing, and you request a refund instead, we’ll refund any NEW funds paid above the certificate amount, and we’ll reinstate your original Cruise with Confidence certificate.

If you purchased Cruise Planner Items:

• You can opt-in to receive an Onboard Credit in the value of 125% of the total Cruise Planner purchases on your reservation.

◦ Click here to request your higher value credit. You can only take advantage of this offer through April 8^th, 2020.

• If we don’t hear from you on or before April 8^th, 2020, your Cruise Planner purchases will be automatically refunded.

And, if you purchased air or hotel:

• Cancellations for sailings on or before April 10^th, 2020:

◦ via Royal Caribbean, these will also be automatically refunded to you.

◦ on your own, please contact the service provider directly for your options with them.

• Cancellations for sailings on or after April 11^th, 2020:

◦ if you purchased refundable air or hotel accommodations through Royal Caribbean, they will be automatically refunded to you.

◦ if you booked non-refundable air through Royal Caribbean or booked on your own, please contact the service provider directly for your options with them.

We know, this too shall pass, and we are optimistic that very soon you’ll be excited about planning your next cruise vacation. As always, the most important thing to us will always be the safety of our guests and crew. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor the global situation. We wish you good health and truly appreciate your continued loyalty.

For the most current U.S. government travel advisories, be sure to visit these sites:

U.S. Centers for Disease Control 

U.S. Department of State

I am booked on a cruise leaving from Baltimore on May 14, 2020 going to two ports in Canada. Will they cancel the cruise or just stop at other ports in the US instead of Canada?

Thanks