Vancouver bag drop?

[langleyfld]

How early can you drop your bags at Canada Place/Vancouver, so you can enjoy the city before actually boarding?

[Heidi13]

Varies depending on how many ships are in, but you will normally find the Longshoremen accepting bags by 09:30 to 10:00.

 

Other option is the Pan Pacific Hotel right above the cruise terminal. They will often store bags for about $5.00 each

[Flatbush Flyer]

26 minutes ago, langleyfld said:

How early can you drop your bags at Canada Place/Vancouver, so you can enjoy the city before actually boarding?

Sounds like you're planning to arrive on day of embarkation. 

As with any cosmopolitan destination city, there's a lot to see and do and much of it is often at the other end of a traffic jam.

IMO, "enjoying" Vancouver would require at the very least two full days while also providing that important travel issue buffer for transportation delays/cancellations, luggage loss, etc and getting the most from that airfare.

In any case, you can probably drop your luggage off as soon as the porters are available (remember they're also working the disembarkation process). For a ship that tied up at 6:00 AM, a good bet would be that most passengers would be off by 9::00-9:30 and they'd be ready to accommodate incoming folks by 10:00 AM.

If you're embarkation time is, for example, 1:00 PM, that would give you 3 hrs to "enjoy" Vancouver while still lugging around any handheld bags - you know: the ones with your valuables, electronics, meds, docs, and that emergency change of clothes.

So, if you absolutely can't travel days before embarkation (for reasons other that "I don't want to pay for a hotel"), here's an alternative suggestion:

Find a private tour provider who'll pick you up at the airport, secure your luggage and provide a guided tour before dropping you off at the ship at your embarkation time.

We've often used various other versions of this strategy (though we always fly in at least 3 days prior to a cruise), particularly when the airport city is quite distant from the port (e.g., Santiago-Valparaiso). Often, a single arrangement can be made for airport pickup, city tour, transport to port hotel, next day(s) port city/region tour(s) and transfer to the ship on embarkation day. BTW, do the research and you'll find that it can be quite a value.

 

[martincath]

Here's the thing - even on a single ship day when the longshoremen can start taking bags well before the official start time (which is 'between 10am and 10:30am') you have already missed out on hours of daylight you could have spent in our beautiful parks, the Seawall etc. Even our ticketed sites open before bag drop ever does - most at 9am.

 

So by far the best way to maximize your touring time is to stay in a downtown hotel the night before, instead of an airport one. Then simply leave your bags in the hotel, get going as early as you can, wander the Seawall and parks until the ticketed places open, have lunch downtown, return to your hotel for your bags and finally head to the pier after 2pm.

 

As long as you are sensible and avoid being out of town (e.g. Capilano and other attractions that involve crossing a bridge) as your deadline for boarding approaches there is no risk whatsoever. With a 5pm departure, very common, you can easily slide your boarding time to 3pm - giving ample time for lunch, hotel stop, bag drop, then a wander around Gastown, riding FlyOverCanada, or taking in the views at the Harbour Centre (which all involve just a few minutes on foot to get back to the pier, i.e. the lowest possible risk as zero traffic concerns).

 

[langleyfld]

On 11/1/2019 at 10:55 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Sounds like you're planning to arrive on day of embarkation. 

As with any cosmopolitan destination city, there's a lot to see and do and much of it is often at the other end of a traffic jam.

IMO, "enjoying" Vancouver would require at the very least two full days while also providing that important travel issue buffer for transportation delays/cancellations, luggage loss, etc and getting the most from that airfare.

In any case, you can probably drop your luggage off as soon as the porters are available (remember they're also working the disembarkation process). For a ship that tied up at 6:00 AM, a good bet would be that most passengers would be off by 9::00-9:30 and they'd be ready to accommodate incoming folks by 10:00 AM.

If you're embarkation time is, for example, 1:00 PM, that would give you 3 hrs to "enjoy" Vancouver while still lugging around any handheld bags - you know: the ones with your valuables, electronics, meds, docs, and that emergency change of clothes.

So, if you absolutely can't travel days before embarkation (for reasons other that "I don't want to pay for a hotel"), here's an alternative suggestion:

Find a private tour provider who'll pick you up at the airport, secure your luggage and provide a guided tour before dropping you off at the ship at your embarkation time.

We've often used various other versions of this strategy (though we always fly in at least 3 days prior to a cruise), particularly when the airport city is quite distant from the port (e.g., Santiago-Valparaiso). Often, a single arrangement can be made for airport pickup, city tour, transport to port hotel, next day(s) port city/region tour(s) and transfer to the ship on embarkation day. BTW, do the research and you'll find that it can be quite a value.

 

We are flying in the day before and staying at the Auberge Hotel.  We've stayed in Vancouver a few times, so we know a few places we want to revisit.  We plan to walk from hotel to port, to drop off bags.