Disembarking on last day with evening flight - do Cunard offer tours?

[Ynox]

Ended up booking yet another trip earlier today (off to Alaska on the Queen Elizabeth in August). However it's looking as if the return flight is likely to be around 9pm or so from Vancouver.

Has anyone has experience of disembarking early and then having a late flight? Do Cunard offer tours?

Edited January 2, 2020 by Ynox

[charlesspinney]

Following.  We're on the June 2nd cruise and are talking a red eye out of Vancouver at 10pm. 

[Elephant1151]

We recently disembarked in Melbourne.  Cunard insisted we leave the ship at 8am (they said it was required by Customs) we embarked the coach to the airport at 8.15am and left the port at 8.30pm.  By 9.15am we were at Melbourne airport for a 5.15pm flight.  Yet in Hong Kong earlier this year we did not leave the ship until 2.30pm for an evening flight which was fine.

 

No tours were offered by Cunard - years ago they did a city tour on the way to the airport which was free.  

 

In view of this we either book a  hotel day room for a late evening flight or as we have chosen to do later this year extend our stay and book a taxi to the airport from the hotel at a time of our choosing.

[rakkor]

When we disembarked after our recent Caribbean cruise, there were two different scenarios - Some of our table mates who were on earlier flights, 4-6 pm out of JFK, were taken to ground Zero and left to their own devices before being taken on to JFK later in the afternoon. We were on a later flight and were given a day room in the Crowne Plaza to chill in before being dropped off at the airport later. We wen't given a choice though.

[Bell Boy]

21 hours ago, Ynox said:

Ended up booking yet another trip earlier today (off to Alaska on the Queen Elizabeth in August). However it's looking as if the return flight is likely to be around 9pm or so from Vancouver.

Has anyone has experience of disembarking early and then having a late flight? Do Cunard offer tours?

Yes ! experienced a Cunard 'Vancouver /UK flight'  earlier this year. Personally would never opt to do this again. 

One disembarks the QE at around '8.30am', finally embark the tour bus at 10am ( after collecting luggage and waiting around for transfer bus to arrive ) A three  hour tour of the city , then dropped off at Vancouver airport at 1pm !  to sit around until 7.pm ( BA) check-in . Regardless if you have first or business travel. 

 

I'd opt for an overnight in hotel  on day embarkation and arrange for a late check out the next day .      

[martincath]

There are some less-inefficient independent tours than the debacle referenced above - which will also cost you a fair whack less cash! A flight at 9pm means you want to be at YVR by 7pm (or 6 if you plan to eat dinner there before boarding the plane). Booking a day-trip up to Whistler is viable, they usually run 9am-5pm so with the extra ~45mins drive to YVR in rush hour you'd be arriving at pretty much the ideal time. There are also tours of the 'North Shore' attractions - Capilano or Lynn Canyon bridges, Grouse Mountain, plus usually the dam and salmon hatchery - that run longer than city tours, but these still tend to finish by 3pm so you'd be at the airport before 4pm. Obviously you could just book your own custom private tour - and split with another couple of couples this might be cheaper than the cruise tour & transfer as well as lasting longer.

 

But unless you're familiar with Vancouver already though, frankly you would be much better advised to simply stay in downtown and pootle around independently - we have a metric buttload of stuff to see and do, and most of it is a pretty easy walk from the pier! Stash your bags at the Pan Pacific hotel (right above the pier, $5 each) for the day then walk around or rent bikes. Biking is the most efficient way to see many of our most popular attractions, especially anything inside Stanley Park or on the Seawall - both of these have totally separated bike lanes, no cars to worry about, and you can get anywhere on a bike that you can walk to in the park with less effort and covering the ground faster.

 

If you want to sit on a bus instead of burning calories, take a HOHO tour - that way you get transport between all the major downtown sites and some spiel about what you're seeing while you drive between them, but you only waste time getting on and off when you want to and you can stay as long as you want at each place, unlike the regular coach-based city tours (which usually run 4 hours and then drop you back downtown or at a hotel or the airport, just like the transfer mentioned above, but cost around CD$80pp compared to HOHO at ~$50pp or cruise transfer tour at whatever-jacked-up-amount-they-think-they-can-get-away-with-gouging-you-for-and-also-priced-in-USD-so-even-worse-value...)

 

Personally I'd pootle around until about 5pm then take advantage of some of our excellent value Happy Hour dining for an early dinner; leaving downtown for YVR between 6 and 6:30pm. SkyTrain avoids all traffic, so is always 26mins end to end, and costs a whopping CAD$4.25pp (dropping to $3 if you wait until 6:30...) but in a cab you probably want to leave downtown closer to 6pm as commuters will slow the trip - I'd ballpark the fare at close to CAD$40 on the meter that time of day. Eating before you get on the plane means you can tuck yourselves in right away to try and sleep on the overnight (remember, seatbelt on the outside of the blanket so the FAs don't wake you up) instead of having to wait a couple of hours until the meal is served and cleaned up before you can kip.

 

[WillH]

14 hours ago, Bell Boy said:

Yes ! experienced a Cunard 'Vancouver /UK flight'  earlier this year. Personally would never opt to do this again. 

One disembarks the QE at around '8.30am', finally embark the tour bus at 10am ( after collecting luggage and waiting around for transfer bus to arrive ) A three  hour tour of the city , then dropped off at Vancouver airport at 1pm !  to sit around until 7.pm ( BA) check-in . Regardless if you have first or business travel. 

 

Our experience was exactly the same at Vancouver.  There was utter chaos when we disembarked.  Queues in the teminal waiting for the various coaches were all mixed up.  People jumped queues and on our coach which was supposed to be for late flights, some people with an early flight had got on.  The result was that the sightseeing trip was shortened and we had even longer to wait at the airport. 

 

I do wish that Cunard could get this right as this poor end to a great voyage leaves a bad lasting memory.  I certainly wouldn't repeat this and would stay in a hotel overnight.  Cunard does it much better when disembarking in New York and hopefully arrangements will be better in 2020 at Vancouver.

[Poole Boy]

Had the same experience in Vancouver last June, off the ship by 9AM at the airport by 12.30  for a 9 PM flight, and as it was a group flight could not use on line check in so had to join the massive check in queue.

 

Options we later discovered, there is a left luggage service at the airport, so you can leave you luggage at the Airport and take the sky train back into Vancouver and enjoy the day rather than hang around the airport

[Ynox]

Hmm, group flight kind of fills me with dread. I was hoping to be able to select seats etc in advance and not sure I will be able to now.

 

I think left luggage and then back into Vancouver is a good idea. As a mountain biker a trip to Whistler is tempting though!