Waterfront Station - Vancouver

[regan3]

Is the location for the Canada Line Waterfront station on Granville Street, Howe Street or W. Cordova Street?

 

Looking to take the Skytrain to the airport. 

 

Thank you. 

[Kimba16]

The entrance that you want to take is on w cordova street. 

[martincath]

Agree that Cordova is the easiest - Granville also works, but involves walking uphill while Cordova is down. Howe St is the worst choice but even then, you'll get there eventually! The platform under Howe is for the wrong line - obviously you can change platforms within the station, but given the hassle of making multiple level changes up and down it's much easier to just walk right past the obvious Howe St entrance and take the first left (onto Cordova).

Edited March 18 by martincath

[regan3]

Thank you.

 

What is a realistic time to arrive at your gate at the airport on a Sunday morning in July?

Three ships total in port that day, would self disembark, take SkyTrain, ship is scheduled into Vancouver at 7 AM. 

[regan3]

Would be flying to the U.S. 

[Jnsplace1]

From Vancouver airport FAQ:

I think might be reasonable if the day in question has a lot of tourist going home from weekend visits or a cruise ship or two.  Depends on how many are at port that day?

[regan3]

Thank you. 

 

Approx. how long would it take to get from Canada Place to the airport?

Sunday in July, three ships in port, would self disembark, take SkyTrain and flying to U.S.?

Realize there aren't any guarantees and everybody's experience is different just curious on an approx. amount of time..

[julia]

54 minutes ago, regan3 said:

Thank you. 

 

Approx. how long would it take to get from Canada Place to the airport?

Sunday in July, three ships in port, would self disembark, take SkyTrain and flying to U.S.?

Realize there aren't any guarantees and everybody's experience is different just curious on an approx. amount of time..

The SkyTrain is very efficient and it's 26 minutes to the airport.  Allow time for boarding, unboarding, security, and walking to gate.

[cruiseryyc]

Best advice - do not book a flight before noon.

[martincath]

16 hours ago, regan3 said:

Thank you. 

 

Approx. how long would it take to get from Canada Place to the airport?

Sunday in July, three ships in port, would self disembark, take SkyTrain and flying to U.S.?

 

First folks off ship probably around 7:30am; unless you have been naughty or get very unlucky, CBSA aren't really interested in Customs duty for folks heading straight to the US, and all Immigration happens 'offscreen' before the ship even arrives in port - so if you don't hear your name announced to report to room X for a chat with CBSA, you will probably find that customs form handover takes seconds with perhaps a brief "How long are you staying in Canada?" type question. In fact, depending what the cruise route was, you might not even see CBSA at all (e.g. if you stopped in Victoria the day before, customs forms are usually handed it to reception aboard and ship staff given them all to CBSA).

 

From front door of pier to SkyTrain entrance is maybe 7 minutes on foot; worst case on Sunday you just miss an airport train you might have to wait another 20 mins; travel time as mentioned above is 26mins and almost never varies as trains are 100% automated; the other variable is distance from ship to curb, as depending which berth you are in you might have to walk almost a quarter mile with some zigzagging, so lets say worst case an hour from ship to airport unless CBSA want to chat with you.

 

Noon is certainly a safe timeframe for a same-day flight, but for self-disembarkers regardless of other ship volumes you can usually reach YVR within 90mins of docking time if you take SkyTrain, and by doing so you immediately avoid the worst queues (which happens when all those cruise transfer buses start disgorging hordes en masse around 9:30am, building for the next hour or so as YVR cannot process that number of people mostly all hammering a selection of noon to 2pm US-bound flights so all using the same bag drop, security, and of course CBP prescreening).

 

If you have Global Entry, I'd have no concerns about you making a 10am flight - even without it, thanks to YVR Express you can at least guarantee a quicker Security experience so a 10:30am flight remains very low risk for self-disembarking SkyTrainers.

 

But my recommendation is always to spend as many post-cruise nights as your time and money budgets allow! We've got more stuff here that you can do on foot or by dirt-cheap public transit than every port in Alaska put together even if you include their lengthy bus and train rides, and every thing here is discounted about a third for folks used to greenbacks!

 

Plus, you can book a ludicrously early flight if you stay overnight, which IMO are always the best flights - rested crews who overnighted here, usually cheaper fares than the noonish flights, and as long as you remember that CBP don't start work until 4:30am (and the start-of-shift briefing means they don't actually do any processing for another 10-15mins) and avoid turning up much before 5am because '3 hours before my flight is 3/4am!' you won't even have to wait in line much for anything - as long as you meet the bag check threshold (minimum 1 hour preflight for any checked bags), you WILL get through security and Prescreening in time to make your flight unless you've been naughty by US standards and CBP want to give you the rubber glove treatment!

[regan3]

Thank you.

 

What is the process at the airport?

How far is the airport SkyTrain station to the airline check in counters?

When do you drop off your bags, at airline counter, or at U.S. customs (before or after)?

I'm assuming you check in at airline, go through airport security then U.S. customs?

[martincath]

5 minutes ago, regan3 said:

Thank you.

 

What is the process at the airport?

How far is the airport SkyTrain station to the airline check in counters?

When do you drop off your bags, at airline counter, or at U.S. customs (before or after)?

I'm assuming you check in at airline, go through airport security then U.S. customs?

That's the right order - but if time is in any way pressing, you should check-in online (literally on the way to the airport if you can't manage to to it aboard, there's WiFi on SkyTrain now!) so you can avoid the sometimes-long lineup for the desks to check-in the old way.

 

Pretty much everything you want to know is available on the YVR website - right down to which steps you do, in which order, literally for your exact flight(!), via the Departing Flights page... just find your flight and click 'My Journey' at the far right of the row. You can even see it in advance just by selecting your same flight but today/tomorrow, e.g. this link will probably stop working tomorrow once the Seattle-bound flight disappears off the screens but if you click it right now you'll be walked through an example of everything from how to get to YVR, to which check-in desks are for your flight, bag drop, security, Preclearance, all with reminders about Express and MPC and checking in online first, plus some Food options that you'll pass both Pre- and Post-Security! There are even links throughout to give you more details on what to expect from CATSA, CBP etc.

 

Just in case, since everyone and their granny seems to have TSA Precheck, you won't find it any use here (no TSA!) - only Global Entry and NEXUS programs will count you as a Trusted Traveler here for the shorter lines (although as I mentioned before, YVR Express does let you choose a timeslot in advance for Security - and you don't need anything special to use that, with zero downside if you make a reservation and fail to get there within the +/-15mins (if you're too early, worst case is join the regular long queue; too late and they might let you through anyway if you're close to missing your flight... nobody wants people to miss a flight!)

[martincath]

3 hours ago, regan3 said:

... How far is the airport SkyTrain station to the airline check in counters?

Dagnabbit - I had to run out to the dentist, remembered I didn't actually answer this part, too late to Edit my first note now...

 

Definitely much shorter than the walk you made earlier from cabin to SkyTrain - exact distance will depend which desks your airline is allocated, plus an extra walk to bag drop that again varies depending on desk location, but worst case is still ~a quarter mile. If your ship is in the furthest berth and airline the furthest desk and plane the furthest gate you might rack up not far off a mile in total, but more like half a mile max while encumbered by big suitcases.

[regan3]

Thank you, the links are very helpful.

 

I've been to Vancouver several times it is a beautiful city and if time and money allowed I would spend more time.