Boarding time?

If we fly nonstop to Vancouver and land at 11 am does that give us enough time to board the Celebrity cruise that leaves at 4:30pm? Excuse my ignorance, first time cruiser. I have no idea how soon you are supposed to board.

Yes, if flight arrives on time.

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If we fly nonstop to Vancouver and land at 11 am does that give us enough time to board the Celebrity cruise that leaves at 4:30pm? Excuse my ignorance, first time cruiser. I have no idea how soon you are supposed to board.

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

You don't have much time to spare, with waiting for luggage and transportation. If you cannot fly in the day before, I'd try to find an earlier non-stop flight if possible.

You may also want to check on the Celebrity forum (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28) for any info on how late you can board. They may require you to check in an hour before scheduled sailing, which would give you even less time.

Oh no no no.

I would not recommend flying in the day of the cruise.

On our first cruise to Alaska (ironically on Celebrity) we flew to Vancouver two days prior to the cruise. On our flight was some passengers taking a Princess Cruise leaving that day. Guess what? We were delayed a few hours.

What happened. Plane had mechanical issues. Then by the time it was resolved several flight attendents could not work the flight because they would be on duty too long.

There are too many things that can go wrong.

Don't take a chance flying in the day of the cruise.

Keith

If you arrive on time it usually takes about 60 minutes to clear customs and immigration. Take a taxi to the pier which takes about 30 minutes. Taxis are fixed rate from the airport to different parts of Vancouver.

If you land within 30 minutes of scheduled arrival you should not have any issues and should be to the pier between 1:30 and 2:00. If you are more than 90 minutes late you may not make your sailing.

I'd agree with the advice above to move that flight earlier. If you are not at the pier by 3pm, you will not just be denied boarding but also very likely refused permission to board at another port due to PVSA rules. Vancouver's a great place to spend an unexpected week, but you won't see any glaciers!

Don't take the risk - fly the day before.

You have to be on board 90 minutes prior to scheduled departure. So 3 pm. That does not leave much leeway for issues

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Wow - that is cutting it too close for me.......

If we fly nonstop to Vancouver and land at 11 am does that give us enough time to board the Celebrity cruise that leaves at 4:30pm? Excuse my ignorance, first time cruiser. I have no idea how soon you are supposed to board.

Welcome to cruise critic. You have asked what has become as big a "hot button" question as smoking and dress codes.

There will almost definitely be a couple dozen others (or more) on the same flight headed for the cruise terminal. Many of whom were booked on that flight by the cruise line itself. You and they will all get there in plenty of time.

Sometimes I swear all the nervous nellies who want you to believe that your entire vacation is doomed if you don't fly into the embarkation port at least one day early must be plants from the hotel chains. Who want you to believe you and your family's souls will be condemned to hell if you do not heed their horror stories and spend the money for a pre-cruise stay.

Lots of time if there's no delays.

I always go the day before now because I'm a big Nervous Nelly [emoji51]

Arriving a day early is cheap insurance compared to missing departure.

...You and they will all get there in plenty of time.

 

Sometimes I swear all the nervous nellies who want you to believe that your entire vacation is doomed if you don't fly into the embarkation port at least one day early must be plants from the hotel chains.

Intriguing... you're able to predict the future (that this flight WILL arrive in enough time) and yet from your signature have at least passing familiarity with the PVSA, and also contradict your own predictive abilities in that very same sig (unless you believe that airlines CAN actually control weather and all other factors while the poor cruiselines have somehow missed out on that trick?)

If we knew which airline, which route, and which date the flight is on we could make a much more data-driven estimate of the likelihood of that flight being on time - but even if it's one of the rare 95%+ On Time flights during good weather months there are still other factors that could quite possibly add up to enough of a delay for the OP to miss their cruise - and since it's very likely to be a one-way cruise to Alaska or Cali Coastal (Celeb offer very few Vancouver RTs) they would then be unable to legally catch up to the vessel at another port... while some might actually enjoy a week in Vancouver more than a cruise, it would certainly qualify as having 'doomed' their originally-planned vacation.

If OP can change their flights without spending a fortune, they should - it reduces their risk.

Yours,

Rational-risk-taking Nellie

If we fly nonstop to Vancouver and land at 11 am does that give us enough time to board the Celebrity cruise that leaves at 4:30pm? Excuse my ignorance, first time cruiser. I have no idea how soon you are supposed to board.

You will have 4 hours from the time the plane lands until you must be on board assuming that you have no issues anywhere on your trip. I would not want to take that chance. The first thing that I would do would be to check one of the many sites that will tell you the historical on-time records of the flight you are taking.

At least you are flying nonstop which increases your odds of making it a bit.

I would not want to start my cruise under a "will I make it" stress.

DON

When we fly to catch a cruise ship we always fly the day before if at all possible.Planes get delayed or even cancelled.Not to worry you ,we just do not feel comfortable taking the risk.

I used to be more inclined to chance it, but now, the way the airlines are, if your flight is canceled they start talking to you about rescheduling your flight for tomorrow or the next day...

Welcome to cruise critic. You have asked what has become as big a "hot button" question as smoking and dress codes.

 

There will almost definitely be a couple dozen others (or more) on the same flight headed for the cruise terminal. Many of whom were booked on that flight by the cruise line itself. You and they will all get there in plenty of time.

 

Sometimes I swear all the nervous nellies who want you to believe that your entire vacation is doomed if you don't fly into the embarkation port at least one day early must be plants from the hotel chains. Who want you to believe you and your family's souls will be condemned to hell if you do not heed their horror stories and spend the money for a pre-cruise stay.

There is a difference between being a "nervous Nellie" and being prudent.

I'm glad you can see into the future and know that there are a couple of dozen plus other cruise passengers on the flight and to state that they will get there in plenty of time.

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Too many variables

Airline arrival time

Passport control

Traffic (coming from Los Angeles this is always on my mind)

If you cannot get there the day before, at least take a red eye, arriving early morning. Did that the last one to Vancouver, seems to be the only ones in the Passport line.

I'd say fly in the day before too.

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All these scary posts, and nobody asked where OP is flying from.

If from Canada, no problem with customs or immigration.

Maybe the comment about working for hotels has some merit. ;p

All these scary posts, and nobody asked where OP is flying from.

 

If from Canada, no problem with customs or immigration.

 

Maybe the comment about working for hotels has some merit. ;p

If the OP is Canadian, they still face the same risk of bad weather or aircraft serviceability. The hotel comment has to be facetious. I can't believe anyone would seriously believe such nonsense.

If the OP is Canadian, they still face the same risk of bad weather or aircraft serviceability. The hotel comment has to be facetious. I can't believe anyone would seriously believe such nonsense.

We all will have weather and mechanical problems to deal with, but if a person is willing to gamble on,those,things, the odds are in his favor.

I also believe the hotel comment was in jest, but I have seen the same posters use the same cautions in many posts.

If you have ever taken a course on decision analysis you will remember that uncertainties include both high-probability low-impact events and low-probability high-impact events; often the low-probability, high-impact events drive decisions.

Regarding flying in the day before, depending on the departure city, you can often view this as not only prudent but a nice extension of your vacation. Vancouver is a wonderful city to visit. If you can, fly in the day before.

^Well said. Without knowing more from OP, it's impossible to know whether some factors are relevant at all (customs/immigration) or how likely/how large an impact any given issue that's seasonal could be. All we know is it's a Celebrity cruise out of Vancouver leaving at 4:30pm and OP is flying from somewhere. Cruise season locally now runs April to October (actually as late as Dec this year) so there are plenty of poor-weather times of year that could delay or even prevent flights by enough to make them late even if nothing else went wrong.

I'm not going to even consider aircraft mechanical issues/flight crew schedules/drunk pilot type stuff as the odds on all of these are very, very small - except to say that any of them will basically mean this vaycay is toast due to the lack of time padding.

Since cruisers are overwhelmingly American, and flights under 2 hours to YVR are only available to a small fraction of the US population:

• C&I will likely be a factor - and without dates we can't say whether there are e.g. multiple widebody jets all landing in close proximity that drag average C&I time up to over an hour or it's the only int'l arrival scheduled so they only have to fight with their fellow pax from their own plane for a few minutes or somewhere in-between.
  
• Further, if this is their first trip to Canada and they have e.g. a DUI, even if it's a long time ago there's a delay while convincing CBSA they're Deemed Rehabilitated - if recent or unconvincing, they could be refused entry completely.
  
• Flight is much more likely to be longer: more time in the air, more climate zones & weather fronts crossed, more chance of weather delays - and westbound flights are slower than eastbound on the same route due to prevailing winds (it's usually 30mins diff between Vancouver & Toronto for example).
  

Regardless of where they're coming from, they still need to get from YVR to Canada Place:

• Surface transportation to/from YVR is basically forced over one bridge - something goes wrong here and the detour required is extensive. Not common for a crash or other total shutdown, but traffic can be brutal even outside rushhour.
  
• No highways in Vancouver - so the fastest any cab can get you to the pier is at least 30mins even if no issues with traffic.
  
• While cab rank is generally a rapid turnaround, if this is a busy day you may wait 10+mins to get into a cab.
  
• SkyTrain is very reliably 26mins end to end - has it's own bridge/tunnel so no issue with traffic ever - but unfamiliarity with stations, ticket machines, extra walking, and frequency of service means it's 30-35mins end to end much like cabs in light traffic. Problems are very, very rare so the odds of a >35min trip are likewise making it the most consistently-fast method.
  
• Cruise transfers are the slowest - at best you are the only people in a few hour time block and they give you a cab voucher (which adds the time taken to find the cruise rep, show paperwork and get the voucher on to your cab time) and at worst you are the first people on a bus that waits for another flight an hour or two later to get on before departing.
  

Due to PVSA issues, whether it's a series of minor problems or one big one, failure to arrive at the pier by 3pm very likely means no cruise for OP - only exceptions are those rare cruises which hit a second Canadian port after Vancouver or a situation in which CBP agrees to an exception.

Even if the flight is on time, OP will spend at least an hour (only domestic carry-on only travelers can expect to be quicker than this) but could very easily be 2 hours from gate to pier, so they are left with at most 3 hours padding for things to go wrong in the absolute best case scenario, and more realistically just 2 hours padding even only allowing for well-within-the-norm traffic levels and immigration queues at YVR.

Unless this is a domestic Canadian flight, or OP is a criminal-history-free US citizen residing on the West Coast with a NEXUS card (and in both cases flying outside of storm season on a large, reliable airline) it's just not a sensible way to start a pricey vacation IMO. Even if it is a short domestic flight it's still not a risk I personally would choose to take due to the repercussions if things do actually go awry - any single big problem pretty much guarantees your vaycay is now in Vancouver instead of cruising and even a few small issues could quite feasibly add up to the same result.

Oh - and while I did work for a hotel (as a barman) during my long-ago youth, I have not since. And the only hotel I ever 'shill' for locally is the YWCA - pretty much the cheapest hotel in the region. Plus, everyone who is even vaguely considering the more conservative risk takers among us as shilling for local hotels - you're not thinking it through completely. If OP fails to get on their cruise - that means they have to pay walk-up rate in cruise season ($$$!) for a week and will generate much more money for the local economy (restos, sightseeing, hotel) than a single night would, so we'd be encouraging everyone to fly in as late as possible so they do miss their cruise;-)

He said Celebrity in Vancouver. They come in on Wednesday and every second Friday. Even mid week around 10am , the taxi got me to the terminal within 35 minutes.

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