11:40 am flight out of Vancouver

[Kevin's girl]

I got an email from Flights by Celebrity today and they are notifying me that my 1:40 pm flight has now been changed to an 11:40 am flight. We have been on many previous cruise and would have never booked a morning flight out of any port city. Wondering if anyone has advise to share on the flight time. There is another flight, same airline, different connection city. The connection place makes no difference and I would call and ask to be changed to that one if this 11:40 flight is the problem I'm afraid it could be.

[CruiserBruce]

11:40 is going to be a hustle. I don't think I would take it.

[martincath]

With several Ifs, it might be fine - but since you have another option just take that! Worst case you are indeed mobile enough to drag all your own bags off, use SkyTrain, are the only ship in port and end up at YVR very early... but if you don't check off all of those boxes, there's definitely a risk of missing it.

 

I really don't understand why Celebrity would even give that option, all the lines generally use 'arrival time plus 5 hours' here in Vancouver and even if it's a theoretical 6am docking, they know that nobody gets cleared before CBSA show up to start work at 7am so the earliest 'safe' flight time is never before noon!

[Kevin's girl]

7 minutes ago, martincath said:

With several Ifs, it might be fine - but since you have another option just take that! Worst case you are indeed mobile enough to drag all your own bags off, use SkyTrain, are the only ship in port and end up at YVR very early... but if you don't check off all of those boxes, there's definitely a risk of missing it.

 

I really don't understand why Celebrity would even give that option, all the lines generally use 'arrival time plus 5 hours' here in Vancouver and even if it's a theoretical 6am docking, they know that nobody gets cleared before CBSA show up to start work at 7am so the earliest 'safe' flight time is never before noon!

You are saying exactly what I was thinking. I would have never booked it myself. Celebrity did not even explain what the change was. They said in the email that there was a change in this Record Locator and they would notify me of the details in 30 days. I had to go to the American Airlines website to see what was happening myself.

[DogLover]

Since you don't mention your date of arrival, I would check to see how many ships are in port for your debarkation date .... that could make a huge difference. We have done several cruises from YVR and wouldn't even consider a flight before noon, especially with multiple ships.

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/VAN-Vancouver-2024.pdf

[martincath]

51 minutes ago, Kevin's girl said:

You are saying exactly what I was thinking. I would have never booked it myself. Celebrity did not even explain what the change was. They said in the email that there was a change in this Record Locator and they would notify me of the details in 30 days. I had to go to the American Airlines website to see what was happening myself.

To be fair, in 29 days there might have been another schedule change or three! But Celebrity not specifying it was a flight that early makes more sense than them knowingly trying to put you on a flight which their own transfers are incapable of getting you to the airport in time for (1st buses for all the lines almost never leave before 9am, and since 3 hours is the preflight arrival recommendation to US/Int'l at YVR and the drive is 30mins...)

 

If this was your only option, I'd keep an 11:40am (anything after 10am is in theory doable provided you self-disembark and take SkyTrain - and if you are phsycially capable of the former, you can always manage the latter) but with another option on the table the sensible choice is to take a later flight. You might even have time to Do A Thing post-cruise then too!

[Kevin's girl]

10 hours ago, DogLover said:

Since you don't mention your date of arrival, I would check to see how many ships are in port for your debarkation date .... that could make a huge difference. We have done several cruises from YVR and wouldn't even consider a flight before noon, especially with multiple ships.

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/VAN-Vancouver-2024.pdf

Thank you for the port schedule. It seems there will be us and two others in port when we arrive on the 22nd of September. It's going to be busy. It seems we have some thinking to do.

[NavyVeteran]

I had the same change on my nonstop flight from 1:42 pm to 11:40 am. Unfortunately, all of the later flights have connections. I can book a flight leaving at 1:30 pm but it has a connection, and we don't arrive at our final airport until about midnight.

We will be flying on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. I checked the list posted earlier, and there4 will be four ships in Vancouver that day, but they are small ships - Grand Princess (my ship) (1,432 passengers), Zaandam (Holland America) (1,432 passengers), Seven Seas Explorer (746 passengers), and Fridtjog Nansen (Hurtigruten) (530 passengers).

My wife has some mobility issues and we will have luggage, so we won't be able to take the train to the airport. For the earlier flight, we would probably need to take a taxi (faster than cruise transfer bus). We could probably not do self disembarkation, but we would be in the earliest assisted disembarkation group.

We won't have as many cruise passengers on Wednesday as on a weekend, but we will have early morning weekday rush hour traffic. I know we will need to get to the airport in time to go through US immigration and customs before boarding the flight.

Should we just take the later flight and not try to make the earlier one? Any advice on how long it should take to get from the cruise terminal to the airport in a taxi on Wednesday morning?

[martincath]

22 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

...Should we just take the later flight and not try to make the earlier one? Any advice on how long it should take to get from the cruise terminal to the airport in a taxi on Wednesday morning?

Honestly, given your mobility issues and a four ship day (if yours is the last ship to begin offloading folks queues get big fast), there's definitely going to be some fairly significant risk involved with that early flight.

 

So let's assume you arrive on time, first folks start getting off by 7:30am, your first Help Needed Independent Flights group is more like 8am, it takes you a full 30mins to get to the cab lineup due to mobility issues/no porter available so you have to drag bags slowly, cab lineup hits an hour, drive time the same because there are roadworks on a key route, a vaguely realistic 'not the worst possible, but a plausibly bad series of delays' has you arriving at YVR with barely 10 minutes to get your bags dropped - there are at least plenty of big wheely trolleys at YVR so getting bags from curb to drop remains just about doable as long as one of you can walk pushing a trolley... but then you still need to get through Security and CBP prescreening and to your gate. Tricky if you can't move fast!

 

If all goes reasonably well (a short wait for a cab, no traffic issues at all so the drive is <45min, finding a porter quickly) you should be at YVR before the 2 hour preflight mark which should still be plenty of time; but you could not possible manage to hit the 3 hours that YVR recommends for your flight, so it really comes down to how comfortable with risk you are...

 

Personally I don't think that you should risk it unless you have Global Entry or NEXUS - which at least guarantees a short queue for both Security and CBP. If you were able to self-disembark this flight is very low risk - but being forced to wait for bags to be taken off, find them, possibly struggle a bit with getting them to the cab, you only need one thing to go badly wrong or a few things to go very slightly wrong and your plane could be taking off without you...

 

Otherwise I'd consider prebooking a limo (ballpark $100+) so that you know when you get off you can get right into a vehicle... or instead look at flights the next day, which might even open up an early morning nonstop to you that's cheaper than a noonish one and use those savings toward a cheap hotel for the night. Extra time in Vancouver is never a bad thing, and a flight next day before 10am avoids all of those pesky cruisers!

[Kevin's girl]

23 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

I had the same change on my nonstop flight from 1:42 pm to 11:40 am. Unfortunately, all of the later flights have connections. I can book a flight leaving at 1:30 pm but it has a connection, and we don't arrive at our final airport until about midnight.

 

If we were to book the 1:30 flight, the connection will be in Chicago and only a 40 minute connection time. O'Hare had been our return airport for over 20 years and I know it is usual to spend 15-45 minutes holding on a taxi way waiting for our gate to open. If that were to happen on this flight we would miss our connection and not be back to the Indianapolis area until the next day.

I think we will do a pre-booked limo and self disembark as soon as we can. We will have our happy little faces in a waiting line for Canada Customs as soon as they come on duty, the hustle to YVR and get through Security and US Customs as quickly as we can. Fingers crossed for success.

[DogLover]

4 hours ago, Kevin&#x27;s girl said:

If we were to book the 1:30 flight, the connection will be in Chicago and only a 40 minute connection time. O'Hare had been our return airport for over 20 years and I know it is usual to spend 15-45 minutes holding on a taxi way waiting for our gate to open. If that were to happen on this flight we would miss our connection and not be back to the Indianapolis area until the next day.

I think we will do a pre-booked limo and self disembark as soon as we can. We will have our happy little faces in a waiting line for Canada Customs as soon as they come on duty, the hustle to YVR and get through Security and US Customs as quickly as we can. Fingers crossed for success.

Fingers, toes and paws crossed you will have no problem with the 11:40 departure!

[NavyVeteran]

I've changed my plans completely. I booked the Princess transfer from the ship to SEA and a flight leaving SEA at 6:07 pm. The information on the Princess Travel Summary on TRANSFER VANCOUVER TO SEATTLE AIRPORT says "Passengers making their own arrangements out of Seattle must depart no earlier than 4:00 P.M." so I should be OK with a 6:07 pm domestic flight. The total cost of the flight and transfer is less than the cost of a flight from Vancouver. We do have a five hour bus ride however.

[Kevin's girl]

3 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

I've changed my plans completely. I booked the Princess transfer from the ship to SEA and a flight leaving SEA at 6:07 pm. The information on the Princess Travel Summary on TRANSFER VANCOUVER TO SEATTLE AIRPORT says "Passengers making their own arrangements out of Seattle must depart no earlier than 4:00 P.M." so I should be OK with a 6:07 pm domestic flight. The total cost of the flight and transfer is less than the cost of a flight from Vancouver. We do have a five hour bus ride however.

That really is a total change of plan. It's also nice that it's going to save you some money too. Enjoy your cruise and safe travel to you both.

[Kevin's girl]

9 hours ago, DogLover said:

Fingers, toes and paws crossed you will have no problem with the 11:40 departure!

Exactly! We will have two dogs and a cat also crossing paws, hoping that we make that flight.

[psuboater]

3 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

I've changed my plans completely. I booked the Princess transfer from the ship to SEA and a flight leaving SEA at 6:07 pm. The information on the Princess Travel Summary on TRANSFER VANCOUVER TO SEATTLE AIRPORT says "Passengers making their own arrangements out of Seattle must depart no earlier than 4:00 P.M." so I should be OK with a 6:07 pm domestic flight. The total cost of the flight and transfer is less than the cost of a flight from Vancouver. We do have a five hour bus ride however.

I haven’t taken the princess transfer but I have taken the Amtrak Bus up to Vancouver. It’s not as scenic as the train, but it’s a very pleasant ride. It took us 5 hours but that’s with a stop in the Vancouver suburbs before downtown and we got into Vancouver during rush hour so the last hour was just Vancouver traffic.  As long as traffic and customs is in your favor, it should be closer to 4. 

[cruiseryyc]

16 hours ago, Kevin&#x27;s girl said:

If we were to book the 1:30 flight, the connection will be in Chicago and only a 40 minute connection time. O'Hare had been our return airport for over 20 years and I know it is usual to spend 15-45 minutes holding on a taxi way waiting for our gate to open. If that were to happen on this flight we would miss our connection and not be back to the Indianapolis area until the next day.

I think we will do a pre-booked limo and self disembark as soon as we can. We will have our happy little faces in a waiting line for Canada Customs as soon as they come on duty, the hustle to YVR and get through Security and US Customs as quickly as we can. Fingers crossed for success.

I would seriously consider staying overnight in Vancouver and taking the early flight the next day.  Take your time getting off the ship, enjoy Vancouver for the day, have a nice dinner and then you have no hassles getting to the airport the next morning.

[martincath]

19 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

I've changed my plans completely. I booked the Princess transfer from the ship to SEA and a flight leaving SEA at 6:07 pm. The information on the Princess Travel Summary on TRANSFER VANCOUVER TO SEATTLE AIRPORT says "Passengers making their own arrangements out of Seattle must depart no earlier than 4:00 P.M." so I should be OK with a 6:07 pm domestic flight. The total cost of the flight and transfer is less than the cost of a flight from Vancouver. We do have a five hour bus ride however.

Your timing should be fine - just be aware that unless you get lucky and they start offering 'sealed bus transfers' again (where you technically never enter Canada, boarding a bus within the pier while still under US jurisdiction, literally having a sticker placed over the closed door, then only the sticker needs checked at the border to ensure it remains intact and nobody needs to get off) expect that you will need to get off at the border, schlep your own bags inside to be scanned then back out to the bus again after you've been processed - with no trolleys or porters available, and if anyone gets secondary questions/owes duty the lot of you wait and wait until CBP make their mind up about letting foreigners in/figure out how much duty is owed for US residents etc.

 

It's not a long distance, usually about a bus length to the door and a similar distance inside to the scanners; and sometimes you get lucky with CBP only wanting to see people not bags, or even having an officer board the bus and walk the aisle having a quick shufty at everyones passports (especially if it's reeeeaaalllly busy the rules get relaxed - but only for Yanks & Canucks; one time we had a South African couple aboard so that meant everyone had to go inside while other buses got to drive past us... man, were those folks unpopular!!!)

 

So I'd say that if you have minimal border wait, you might be at Seatac within 3.5 hours; 4hrs is a realistic estimate for midweek; but if you assume 5hrs and some bag-schlepping you should only be pleasantly surprised!

[psuboater]

8 hours ago, martincath said:

Your timing should be fine - just be aware that unless you get lucky and they start offering 'sealed bus transfers' again (where you technically never enter Canada, boarding a bus within the pier while still under US jurisdiction, literally having a sticker placed over the closed door, then only the sticker needs checked at the border to ensure it remains intact and nobody needs to get off) expect that you will need to get off at the border, schlep your own bags inside to be scanned then back out to the bus again after you've been processed - with no trolleys or porters available, and if anyone gets secondary questions/owes duty the lot of you wait and wait until CBP make their mind up about letting foreigners in/figure out how much duty is owed for US residents etc.

 

It's not a long distance, usually about a bus length to the door and a similar distance inside to the scanners; and sometimes you get lucky with CBP only wanting to see people not bags, or even having an officer board the bus and walk the aisle having a quick shufty at everyones passports (especially if it's reeeeaaalllly busy the rules get relaxed - but only for Yanks & Canucks; one time we had a South African couple aboard so that meant everyone had to go inside while other buses got to drive past us... man, were those folks unpopular!!!)

 

So I'd say that if you have minimal border wait, you might be at Seatac within 3.5 hours; 4hrs is a realistic estimate for midweek; but if you assume 5hrs and some bag-schlepping you should only be pleasantly surprised!

From Seattle to Vancouver last year we had someone with an ankle monitoring bracelet and a non valid passport but was a Canadian citizen so they eventually let her back in. We were shocked she was allowed back on the bus but no one liked her after that 😂

[Kevin's girl]

On 3/20/2024 at 11:54 AM, cruiseryyc said:

I would seriously consider staying overnight in Vancouver and taking the early flight the next day.  Take your time getting off the ship, enjoy Vancouver for the day, have a nice dinner and then you have no hassles getting to the airport the next morning.

Okay, I called Flights by Celebrity and they got our flight changed to the next day. We will be flying out at 07:32 with a 40 minute connection in DFW and home by 5:30 pm. Celebrity "guarantees" me that if our flight is late and we miss the connection they will fix it and get us on another flight without worry. Again, fingers, toes and paws crossed.

It will be nice to have an extra day to explore. I did really want to go to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

[cruiseryyc]

That's good news!  Remember since you'll go through US Border Services in the Vancouver airport, your connection in DFW will be considered "domestic" so no delays that way.

 

But because you'll go through the border in Vancouver, you will need to be at the airport 2.5 to 3 hours ahead of the flight.

 

Enjoy Vancouver; you'll be glad you made this decision.

Edited March 22 by cruiseryyc

[psuboater]

1 hour ago, Kevin&#x27;s girl said:

Okay, I called Flights by Celebrity and they got our flight changed to the next day. We will be flying out at 07:32 with a 40 minute connection in DFW and home by 5:30 pm. Celebrity "guarantees" me that if our flight is late and we miss the connection they will fix it and get us on another flight without worry. Again, fingers, toes and paws crossed.

It will be nice to have an extra day to explore. I did really want to go to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

Fantastic decision. Vancouver is a lovely city with a lot to do, see and eat! It will also take the stress away from your last day. Nothing worse than having a week of fun and relaxation only to white knuckle it the last day trying to make your flight and erasing all of the relaxation you just had.

[martincath]

12 hours ago, Kevin&#x27;s girl said:

Okay, I called Flights by Celebrity and they got our flight changed to the next day.

Yay! A flight that early you'll have much less traffic whether you go by cabuber or SkyTrain, and airport queues are minimal compared to when the cruise buses roll in. Personally I would advise against being the full 3 hours early unless you enjoy pointless queueing - while CBP in theory will have started work (4:30am), their shift briefing adds anywhere up to 15mins before they actually begin processing the several hundred people unware of the Prescreening hours who showed up 3+ hours ahead of 6/7/8am flights only to find the doors locked! Even once they actually open, it can take a good half hour to process the big queue of TooEarlies but after that things go pretty fast until at least 9am, so the sweetspot is hitting CBP no earlier than 5:15am - at 5:30am and you might walk right to a kiosk, bu 5am probably means still waiting 10-15mins in a queue!

 

Since everyone can book fasttrack Security now thanks to YVR Express, 90mins is actually a pretty safe margin to aim for with your flight time even without NEXUS/Global Entry... padding that to 2 hours since you're unfamiliar is more than adequate, so that means leaving downtown around 5am whether you cabuber or SkyTrain. You'll most likely end up with time to eat a sit-down breakfast and a couple of coffees before heading to your gate, which you might feel the need of with a ~4:30 alarmcall... but that's still an hour extra sleep compared to the official advice!

[SbbquilterUT]

We are on an 11:25 and I am fine with that.  We will walk off early, head to the train station and take that to the airport.  

[cruiseryyc]

21 hours ago, SbbquilterUT said:

We are on an 11:25 and I am fine with that.  We will walk off early, head to the train station and take that to the airport.  

Well good luck making that flight!

[SbbquilterUT]

2 hours ago, cruiseryyc said:

Well good luck making that flight!

Thanks!  Actually any later flight will not get us home that evening so we are always in the position of taking an earlier flight than might be ideal.