Vancouver boarding time

[grandmacruise]

My flight from the east coast arrives at 9 o'clock in the morning and my ship leaves Vancouver at 5PM. How soon can I board? I'm hoping I can go direct to Canada Place from the airport.

[aliaschief]

Fleet wide the embarkation process usually begins at 11:00 to 11:30 AM.

[startwin]

My flight from the east coast arrives at 9 o'clock in the morning and my ship leaves Vancouver at 5PM. How soon can I board? I'm hoping I can go direct to Canada Place from the airport.

 

Just take your time. By the time you de-plane, collect your luggage, get through traffic from the airport to Canada place, it'll likely be around 10:30 am and you can start checking in. Boarding starts around 11 am.

[SwissMyst]

My flight from the east coast arrives at 9 o'clock in the morning and my ship leaves Vancouver at 5PM. How soon can I board? I'm hoping I can go direct to Canada Place from the airport.

 

There is a commuter rail line called the Canada Line that goes directly from the airport to near Canada Place, so if you can roll your luggage a few blocks this is a great way to get to the port from the airport. Other ground transportation options make this a fairly easy trip, but the rail line is the best to avoid getting stuck in any rush hour traffic. So your arrival at 9am, pick up your luggage and get to Canada Place by 11 am is very doable.

 

Boarding starts around 11am, we got in line around 10:30 am and were all settled in the ship in less than an hour. Two ships in port that day. This is key to any lines and delay - how many ships in port the day you leave. You can find this info on the Port of Vancouver website.

 

There are a few days at the beginning and ending of the Alaska cruise season that have as many as five ships coming and going and there are nightmare tales about long, long lines and hours of waiting from those days for sure.

 

Think about having to handle several thousand passengers and crews getting off and several thousand passengers getting on and crews returning to the ship and all having to go through port regulations at the same time and then multiply this by five and you can see why occasionally there are some very unfortunate problems with delays boarding.

 

Two ships can be handled fairly easily and often midweek departures/arrivals have only one ship to onload and off load. So size of ships, number of ships will impact the time it takes to get onboard and when you might want to show up.

 

All that being said, hopefully if you are in a normal departure day you will have no problem getting to the ship from the airport and even on board in time to enjoy lunch. However, once on board you will probably find it too time consuming to get off again and look around before the ship leaves.

 

But if you do want to do a bit of sight seeing, you can drop your luggage off at the entrance of Canada Place before you even board and then you are free to wander around this area which is quite lovely or take a city tour or even have a nice meal at the Pan Pacific Hotel wall of glass cafe that will look out directly on the HAL ship across their outdoor patio - quite a stunning view eyeball to eyeball with the ship at that level.

[Nghthawke]

Use the Canada Line:

 

Map & Travel Times

[grandmacruise]

Thanks for the quick response.. I don't a lot of traffic Sunday morning so I'll take my time getting out of the airport and head to the terminal.

 

I was worried that I would get there too early, luggage in hand ... waiting.

I've been to Vancouver before so it will be great to get on the ship, grab some lunch and then have a bit of a rest to I can enjoy the evening.

 

The 3 hour time change and a 5 hour flight will have me a little tired.

[solocanadian]

Use the Canada Line:

 

Map & Travel Times

 

This is very doable if you are fit. The Canada Line Seats are designed to store luggage underneath. Therefore, if you only have one large suitcase and carryon you should not have a problem. Enjoy your cruise and may the sun shine.