Jump to content

Transfer to airport after Princess hotel post cruise stay


Recommended Posts

We are thinking of booking a post cruise hotel through Princess in Vancouver. I understand transportation is included from pier to the hotel. The question is does it include transportation from hotel to airport ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Masumigr said:

We are thinking of booking a post cruise hotel through Princess in Vancouver. I understand transportation is included from pier to the hotel. The question is does it include transportation from hotel to airport ?

It might be - but if it is you are almost certainly being overcharged for the package of hotel & transportation, and even if it isn't the 'free' transfer to the hotel is guaranteed to be jacked-up to the point of insanity. The thing most folks don't realize about Vancouver is quite how short distances are from the pier to ANY downtown hotel - compared to US ports where the pier is often far away from the touristy parts of the cities. Instead of giving a fair market rate for each city, they tend to just lump transfers into a standard price which means the value varies a lot depending on cost/availability of cabs, Uber, public transit in each place. Vancouver is possibly the worst value city for transfers due to the fact you can actually walk, even with luggage, to the majority of downtown hotels in less than 20mins.

 

The worst local example - Princess (and other lines too) will happily charge people US$25-29 a head to transfer you to the Pan Pacific hotel... which is literally above the pier in the same building! But even the furthest-away downtown hotel, in the worst traffic, would cost you less than CAD$20 per carload by taxi (most hotels the fare including appropriate tip will be ~$10).

 

Even going to the airport the distance is less than 10 miles, a taxi from any downtown hotel to there runs <$35 in typical morning traffic (commuter flow is the other direction, so barring a bridge accident or roadworks on all 3 main routes from downtown it's common for cabbies to offer a technically-illegal fixed rate fare of $35 - because they know at that time of day the meter will only hit $32-33 tops).

 

Sometimes cruiselines book many rooms at a steal of a price, so even with extra padding for 'free' transfers they can still be cheaper than you can book directly with the hotel - but not often. At the end of the day you'll have to check your paperwork to see whether transfers are included or not, but if they are when you check the price of the hotel independently remember that the actual cost of transfers here will be very unlikely to exceed CAD$50 per carload of pax for pier to hotel and hotel to airport.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
On 7/18/2020 at 6:54 AM, Masumigr said:

We are thinking of booking a post cruise hotel through Princess in Vancouver. I understand transportation is included from pier to the hotel. The question is does it include transportation from hotel to airport ?

 

The problem I have always had with these types of service are the rules associated with the pre-paid service.  IT may be a bus (where your waiting for others who are doing the same service) or some coupon for a taxi or something else.  

 

You may find things are easier just grabbing a taxi or uber.  If the terminal has a long line for either, just go up one floor to the Pan Pacific hotel and grab a taxi or order an uber there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

As a shareholder of CCL (Princess), I would encourage you to take the overpriced transfers from ship/hotel/airport.  As a local, I wouldn't.

 

You can get from downtown (2 blocks from dock) to the airport, directly on the subway (all of our subway system is called  Skytrain - you wantthe Canada Line) for C$4.25 (about US$3.25). with roll on roll off carriages and elevators at the stations.  Not only is it way cheaper than a transfer, it's also faster. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...