Vancouver Airport Question

[laginog]

We are considering another Alaska cruise for next Summer. We have not yet decided on which cruiseline, but it will probably be either Princess or Royal Caribbean, since we are past passengers on both. Either way, if we do the Northbound or Southbound route, we will have to contend with the Vancouver airport customs "delays" at some point. The last time, we did the Southbound route with our ending point in Vancouver....and it took hours to go through customs, maybe due to the cruise ship arrivals. Would "navigating" the airport be easier to do on a Northbound route? It would probably be a later Vancouver arrival (day before cruise) and we wouldn't have to fight the cruise ship crowds disembarking for the same day flights. Any ideas?? Also, any suggestions for which cruiseline would be better would also be appreciated.

[MichTraveler]

I've done both. I much prefer Vancouver at the beginning to get it out of the way. Leaving from Vancouver is much harder IMHO. Since you are arriving day before, any problems will be resolved and this reduces the stress. I love the Northbound as the beauty increases mile after mile. The down side is flights from Anchorage are usually red-eyes. The last two times we flew out of Anchorage, our flights were at 11:00 PM or after. If you are not doing extra land tour this time, that is a long day to leave the ship at 8:00 AM and wait until midnight for a flight. In May/2002 we did a land tour from Anchorage. But in May/2003 we took the Seward to Anchorage transfer with Princess and stayed downtown at their hospitality center. Hospitality is a stretch -- I was a convention center room with metal folding chairs and jugs of water. You can do a little sight-seeing in the downtown area, but it does make for a long day. In May/2005 we are booked again doing the Vancouver part first and going Northbound. This time I booked at room at a hotel near the Anchorage airport for the day. This will let us relax a little longer before heading home and back to work. As for cruise line, we have only done Alaska with Princess so I cannot compare. Good luck on your decision.

[Coral]

I have not encountered any lines or problems flying into Vancouver airport. At the most, I had to wait 10 minutes for customs/immigration when leaving the airport.

 

The last 2 years - the Vancouver airport has been working extensively with the cruise lines and has created "creative check-in" altervatives for many cruise ship passengers. Those who have particpated in this have raved about it. I participated in this 2 years ago and found it fantastic. Last year, I didn't do it because they were not doing this on ships that docked on Monday (actually - we were the only ship that docked that Monday).

 

Some of the creative check-in options include getting your boarding pass on the ship or bus, not seeing your luggage after you leave the ship (it is automatically transferred to airport and given to airlines), etc. . They changed how they did things 2 years ago from last year and there will probably be improvements again this year.

 

I wouldn't avoid the Vancouver airport becaue of this - I would just schedule your flight after noon or 1 pm.

[Happy ks]

We avoided the airport delays by staying over another night. Our flight left Vancouver around 10 am Monday morning, check in, through customs, at our gate in about 20 minutes. I will, however, say we flew a smaller, regional airline, Alaska, rather than one of the larger airlines. Some of our relatives flew Air Canada and it took them 1 and 1/2 hours to do the same thing we did.

 

You might also consider what day you will be disembarking. If it is on a day when there are not 4 ships in Vancouver, you may not have any problem at all.

[Jet Set Judy]

We flew in and out of Vancouver last August. Very little waiting and no problems. Went on RCI and got boarding pass on the ship. That was worth the extra 15.00 bucks.

[taxatty]

We flew back from Vancouver last July--customs went very fast. No problems at all, at least at 6:00 AM!

 

Les

[cruising forever]

Laginog:

 

We've just booked the Serenade of the Seas for the August 28th sailing......we are also past cruisers of both RCCL and Princess and we picked RCCL for our Alaska sailing.

 

We're doing a round trip cruise from Vancouver, but are coming in 3 days earlier and staying over one night after the cruise in hopes of avoiding the long lines. We got airfare already at less than $300 from Atlanta and are still working on completing the last leg of our hotel piece of the trip (Priceline for Vancouver).

 

Good luck with making your choices ~ I'm a tropical cruise kinda gal, but this was on DH's wish list.....and now I'm getting really excited, too! LOL

[42trvl]

We prefer the southbound cruise, and the red-eye flight home alone is enough to dissuade me from ending the trip and flying home from Anchorage. Of course, that's our own personal preference. That being said, it's not like the Vancouver airport was horrible. You just need to allow a little extra time, and with today's time requirements for checking-in it really wasn't any earlier than we would have gotten to the airport anyway. We just spent more time in line waiting to go through customs than we did sitting at the gate waiting to board. Also, as mentioned before, if your cruise line offers the option of checking in on board the ship, all who traveled that way were very pleased. We had stayed a couple of days in Vancouver, so that was not an option for us. If you do choose to stay over in Vancouver after your cruise and take an early flight out, then you would avoid much of the cruise ship crowds at the airport.

[wcal]

42trvl, we will be staying over two extra days in Vancouver and fly out at 830 on a Sunday morning. What time do you suggest we arrive at the airport? We will be flying NW to Minneapolis. I know we should not have cruise passengers to contend with at that time of morning.

[42trvl]

We got to the airport a little after 12 noon for a 2pm flight. Check-in was fairly quick, then we waited slightly over an hour (with two kids, it seemed longer...)in the Customs line before handing off our luggage, then still had about 15-20 minutes at the gate before boarding started. There were many people that had just gotten off cruises that morning, thus the longer line. I doubt that for an 8:30 flight that will be an issue for you, so depending on your level of comfort I would think that if you're at the airport by 7 that leaves you plenty of time. We tend to be on the "cutting it close" side of things, so you could even get there a little later, but...:o . On the plus side, there should be very little traffic getting to the aiport that early on a Sunday morning. It took us about a half hour from a downtown hotel on a Monday mid-day. Have fun - we really enjoyed our trip and were glad that we spent a couple of days in Vancouver!

 

By the way, we were also on the Summit southbound this past August - great ship...

[redhead621]

We flew in and out of Vancouver last August. Very little waiting and no problems. Went on RCI and got boarding pass on the ship. That was worth the extra 15.00 bucks.

 

 

What is this, $15.00 coupon to get through customs quicker? Please tell me more.

[42trvl]

It's not a coupon necessarily, but some of the cruise lines offer a "valet" service for a small fee, which basically covers the airline check-in and transfer procedure from the ship to the airport. The service may vary slightly from line to line, but basically, you check-in for your flight aboard the ship, they then transfer you and your luggage to the airport, handling the luggage for you so that you don't see it again until you arrive at your home.

[Budget Queen]

As mentioned- allow the time in Vancouver- I would NOT base my cruise choice based on the airport. :) A 2 hour window is still recommended for international flights and taking a cab can be less wait.

[mandrews2u]

Budgetqueen,

 

We are on a southbound cruise, and we will have a couple days in vancouver, our flight leaves at 6:16am, on a friday, how early do you think we would need to arrive at the airport as we will be taking a taxi from downtown?

Thanks, Marey-Ellen

[Budget Queen]

International flights still recommend a 2 hour window.

[Happy ks]

The drive to the airport is usually around 30 minutes, allow that time plus the 2 hour airport time. Your best bet would be to leave your hotel no later than 4am. You could get a room closer to the airport, but I think I'd rather spend more time in downtown Vancouver.