Vancouver Airport and Customs/Immigration Questions

[msvca]

Please forgive me if I am not posting my question in the correct area of the forum.  We will be departing from our Alaska Cruisetour in Vancouver.  Our flight home to Maryland will be on Air Canada out of Vancouver International with a change in planes at Toronto Pearson International.  I am trying to  decide between two flights and have some questions regarding the custom and immigration process.

 

Will we need to go through the CBP Preclearance at both Vancouver and Toronto or do we only do it at one airport?  If so, based on information in previous posts I looked at the current hours for CBP in Toronto and they end at 9:00pm.  Our arrival flight would be at either 6:03pm or 7:03pm so if the hours remain the same we should not have any issues going through Preclearance at Toronto.

 

Our departing flight from Vancouver would either be at 10:30am or 11:30am depending on how much time we think we might need in Toronto.  Would arriving at Vancouver 3 hours early be too early?  I prefer to arrive too early rather than too late but if we only need 2 hours then I do not want to have my family complaining that they could have slept another hour.

 

If I should post this query somewhere else please let me know.  Thank you for any assistance.

[d9704011]

If I were you, I'd take the 1130 flight out of Vancouver (arrive a couple of hours before departure) which will provide you with a couple of hours to do the CBP pre-clearance in Toronto.  That's plenty of time.

[martincath]

From some of your phrasing, I'm guessing that you might be overnighting in Vancouver rather than heading straight from your ship to the airport - but if you are leaving same day, then most definitely book the 11:30am flight as 10:30am is far too tight for comfort!

 

If you are overnighting, since your first leg is Domestic you don't need as much time at YVR - and two hours should be enough even on a busy day to get through YYZ Preclearance - so I'd still book the 11:30am flight, just to get a bit of extra time for brekky.

 

In theory one hour preflight is sufficient to check your bags, but given this year's staffing issues with security I'd be reluctant to push it that tight. 2 hours early should be plenty even for extremely nervous travelers though. Allow for 45mins travel time from a downtown hotel to YVR - even in rush hour it's against commuter traffic flow so that's plenty of padding - which means leaving hotel at ~8:45am. If you're in an airport hotel, ask what the shuttle schedule is - most are 15-20mins drive but might not run their bus back-to-back, so you may ironically have to leave earlier than from a downtown hotel!

[msvca]

2 hours ago, d9704011 said:

If I were you, I'd take the 1130 flight out of Vancouver (arrive a couple of hours before departure) which will provide you with a couple of hours to do the CBP pre-clearance in Toronto.  That's plenty of time.

 

1 hour ago, martincath said:

From some of your phrasing, I'm guessing that you might be overnighting in Vancouver rather than heading straight from your ship to the airport - but if you are leaving same day, then most definitely book the 11:30am flight as 10:30am is far too tight for comfort!

 

If you are overnighting, since your first leg is Domestic you don't need as much time at YVR - and two hours should be enough even on a busy day to get through YYZ Preclearance - so I'd still book the 11:30am flight, just to get a bit of extra time for brekky.

 

In theory one hour preflight is sufficient to check your bags, but given this year's staffing issues with security I'd be reluctant to push it that tight. 2 hours early should be plenty even for extremely nervous travelers though. Allow for 45mins travel time from a downtown hotel to YVR - even in rush hour it's against commuter traffic flow so that's plenty of padding - which means leaving hotel at ~8:45am. If you're in an airport hotel, ask what the shuttle schedule is - most are 15-20mins drive but might not run their bus back-to-back, so you may ironically have to leave earlier than from a downtown hotel!

Thank you for your responses.  I realized I should have included we were overnighting after our cruise and would be flying out on a Sunday.  We are not morning people so that is good that arriving 2 hours before the flight is sufficient. 

 

I have been going back and forth trying to determine if we should stay downtown or at an airport hotel.  Each location has its own pros and cons.  I just started looking into things to do in Vancouver so we do not have anything in mind yet.  We disembark on July 1st so I am thinking I need to book something soon.  Are there areas we should stay away from due to large crowds and festivities on the 1st?

[d9704011]

3 minutes ago, msvca said:

 

Thank you for your responses.  I realized I should have included we were overnighting after our cruise and would be flying out on a Sunday.  We are not morning people so that is good that arriving 2 hours before the flight is sufficient. 

 

I have been going back and forth trying to determine if we should stay downtown or at an airport hotel.  Each location has its own pros and cons.  I just started looking into things to do in Vancouver so we do not have anything in mind yet.  We disembark on July 1st so I am thinking I need to book something soon.  Are there areas we should stay away from due to large crowds and festivities on the 1st?

July 1 is Canada Day and it will be busy in the city pretty much all day long.  Downtown hotels are likely to be even more expensive than usual.  Usualy, there are tons of things to do in Vancouver but much will be closed since it's a national holiday and if all you're looking to do is get off the ship and pre-position yourself for a trip home you may want to consider a hotel near the airport.

Edited October 31, 2022 by d9704011

[martincath]

1 hour ago, msvca said:

Are there areas we should stay away from due to large crowds and festivities on the 1st?

Hard to say what will be happening - this year the Covid rules had relaxed enough that we might have had normal celebrations restored, including a parade and fireworks, but neither of those actually happened although there was still a whole passel of bands and the like.

 

If next year is back to 'real normal' then you can expect both what the schedule above lists - lots of family-friendly activities - around Canada Place plus a parade about noon and fireworks after sundown which will entice potentially a quarter million or more bodies to downtown (this is a conservative guess - when Disney competed in the Festival of Light the estimates varied from 500-700k attendees!)

 

But whether that kind of stuff is going to make you want to be part of the crowds watching or avoid downtown like the plague really depends on you!!!

 

My Ontarian colleague is absolutely correct that hotel prices will be at a premium - peak cruise season and a big national holiday that some 'local' out of towners come in for means demand is about as high as it gets so book any good, refundable rate you see ASAP - and some ticketed attractions will close for the holiday too. Restos, pharmacies etc. will be open, as will some tourist-oriented shops, but most folks get the day off.

 

 

[msvca]

@d9704011 and @martincath thank you both for your information.  I booked the Fairmont Airport and will probably book the YWCA Hotel.  That will give us time to decide what we want to do and cancel one.  I do not think we want to be part of the crowds but I do not think we want to be stuck in a hotel room all day.  

[d9704011]

7 hours ago, msvca said:

@d9704011 and @martincath thank you both for your information.  I booked the Fairmont Airport and will probably book the YWCA Hotel.  That will give us time to decide what we want to do and cancel one.  I do not think we want to be part of the crowds but I do not think we want to be stuck in a hotel room all day.  

If you're going to be stuck in a hotel for a day, the Fairmont Vancouver Airport is a good one to serve out your sentence.

[cruiseryyc]

Regarding your flight out of Vancouver on the Sunday, while I agree that two hours prior your flight should be enough, it might be worthwhile to check and see if any other cruise ships are arriving in town that morning. Meaning there could be thousands of cruise passengers trying to get through security too.

 

Fairmont Vancouver Airport is a great place to stay, no need for a morning shuttle then just a walk through the airport.