outoftowner

We had an absolute blast with the Canadian Outback Rafting Company!

They picked us up early from downtown Vancouver and took us up to the beautiful Squamish Valley.

We did The Wet & Wild Elaho Exhilarator rafting trip. We cannot recommend it enough!

while exciting, we never once felt like we were in danger, although I suppose it could always occur.

Great guides, great instructions.

The worst part was the bumpy school bus ride up a dirt road to the point where you get into the raft.

Anything you need to know you can find on the website and they respond quickly to emails.

If you ever wanted to try Class 3 and Class 4 rapids, please do not hesitate!

Do we have to check our bags. Can we just carry them in?

Thank you all, very much

We are wondering if there is someplace on the S class ships (Eclipse), where we can get things printed…

like a photograph printed on regular copy paper? Something like a business center?

Thanks to the information on this chat and others, I called 800-760-0654 option 3 to speak to the rewards desk. The first call I got a guy who did not know what to do. He did tell me he could not find the OBC credit from the Credit card and  told me someone would call me back within 48 hours. No one called. My second phone call and 49 minute wait on hold, I got a lady who did know what to do. She got our credit card OBC credited to our reservation and helped me cancel an excursion and rebook it using the aforementioned OBC.

it might take a few calls and many minutes on hold, but it can be done. I have decided to not use the Celebrity credit card after this next trip. Too much incompetence for a small return.

We booked this thinking we would have more participation in the glass blowing.

Is this glorified front row setup what everyone else remembers?

On 5/16/2022 at 6:52 PM, Mike45LC said:

I didn't have such a late night arrival, so I was able to enjoy the hotel and Canada Place.  One benefit you can still enjoy is porterage -- the bell staff at either the Pan Pacific or the Fairmont Waterfront can deliver your bags from your hotel room direct to the ship.  Just leave them outside your room (or have the bellman come to your room).

 

Two tips:  Get Canadian dollars before your trip.  My cab driver from the airport to the hotel was gracious enough to accept US dollars at a 1:1 rate!  So he ripped me off but good, about 15%.

 

Soar Over Canada, a tourist attraction at Canada Place, which someone above mentioned, is wonderful.  Do it!  Thank me afterwards!

 

Don’t the cabs accept Credit Cards?

I did have this problem. I got Celebrity involved, our internet provider involved. I could access the site on my cell phone with data but not with our internet. No one had an answer or solution. And suddenly, it was fine. 

7 hours ago, Mark_K said:

And if you don’t want to clear your cache, switch to private mode (Safari) or incognito (Chrome) and try it that way.

I tried all of these things. And tried different browsers and different devices.

it is going on two days now.

thank you all for trying to help. I am not sure why this is happening, nor do I know what to do next.

8 hours ago, martincath said:

No US customs - your flight will unfortunately be a 'real international' one when it leaves that late as CBP stop work at 8:30pm... So expect a delay at your first US airport for Immigration & Customs.

 

By all accounts even though there is another wave of red-eyes late in the evening, the flights after about 9pm (i.e those who cannot be Precleared) remain low-volume, so even with minimal Security staff things flow fine. Covid testing locations are the airport will likewise be closed, they keep the same hours as CBP cloising at 8:30pm so you definitely want to test downtown before coming out.

 

Given no Preclearance or testing at YVR, more than 2 hours in advance is definitely overkill so I'd dine well elsewhere at a civilized hour (YVR options have been closing really early, and have always been overpriced even if there was passable quality food available) then head to YVR with a ~9pm cab or SkyTrain, arriving 9:30ish even from right downtown as there won't be any traffic.

Thank you so much for answering my question.

Is anyone else getting this message?

17 hours ago, don't-use-real-name said:

 

Presume it to be only in the morning hours (rush to get to the airport) -

Cruise ships arrive at or before 7 am -

Mass movement of cruise guests to the airport 7-8-9-10 am

The usual normal airport traffic for that day plus cruise guests

Flights affected those leaving from 10 am to noon or little bit later

 

Now then not so much in the afternoon arrivals for those cruise ships departing 7 pm later ?

From noon on till 5 pm (after that guests should be on board)

 

Thus two prime time movements from Vancouver Airport to/from Canada Place.

 

Thank you!

good to know that our evening flight time should not be rush hour(s) at the airport.

17 hours ago, martincath said:

D-U-R-N has it pretty much down - but with tight control at the pier it's rare for anyone to get off close to 7am, 7:30 is a more normal start time with boot-off time tight at 9:30am due to the need to 'zero out' most vessels for their return into US waters. This tightens the cruise peak from 7:30-9:30 at the pier, 9-11am at the airport, and that's on SLOW days when there are enough cabs - cruise shuttle buses don't go before ~9am which shifts the peak volumes to 9:30am and later as a steady trickle of cabs flows OK, but multiple buses rolling in and unloading 50+ each really makes for log jams!

 

Factor in 3 ships or more and the peak just keeps building (three hour delays even in TheBeforeTimes for a cab not unheard of and 1 hour waits absolutely normal). So basically it used to be a real sh*tstorm from maybe 9:30am to noon, even 1pm, purely because of cruiser volumes!

 

But this year, even with not-remotely-full cruiseships, the time to get through Security at YVR has increased so much that every day is like a three ship day in TheBeforeTimes - even folks working YVR and posting on Reddit say their predictive models are utterly out of whack, partly thanks to their own staffing issues and partly thanks to the airlines - so even if they had all staff available the best guess of not just how many are needed but where they are needed (US. Domestic, Int'l) and how many will get sick at short notice is much harder than it used to be... Until all aspects of this settle down, there will be random peaks and troughs that BeforeTimes algorithms just cannot handle well.

 

If you have a choice of flight times right now, choose one as late in the day as possible that is still before CBP precheck closes at 8:30pm (if you get pre-cleared here you land Domestic, and despite all the furore at the moment preclearance is a crapton more efficient than staffing levels at 99% of any US airport's international arrival gates!)

 

Ideally of course you stay post-cruise, do some sightseeing, relax, then take a super-early flight long before any same-day cruise pax can disembark. There's a big tranche of flights that leave in 6am-9am ballpark, and those are the ones you want to be on.

Thanks!

Not so concerned about the pier.

The airport YVR, delays are what is concerning.

We have a very late departure, 11:30 at night… so I am trying to decide at what time we should be at the airport, to clear security, COVID tests, US customs, etc.

Hoping that the Vancouver Airport can ramp up their staff and services by June. Right now it sounds a lot like Istanbul! 3 hours!

Could someone who knows, please mention what are the peak times at YVR?

Thank you

Great review and photos.

Have you, by any chance, noticed if there are any gluten free items available?

Thanks!

Will we be able to read your review as well?

Thanks Daized!

Please keep your experiences coming.

I am happy to see the Gluten Free station.

I will plan to take my enzymes to protect against cross contamination, but I echo the wish that non affected people would stay away!

You might look into Lanzarote Experience Tours

https://www.lanzaroteexperiencetours.com/en/

We are sailing later this month and one of our roll call members kindly organized a wonderful sounding tour. Seems like a good outfit.

We will post a review when we return.

Thanks for a great review!

Really appreciate your DIY experiences.

These are great pictures. Thank you for sharing.

What camera equipment were you using?

Will the gluten free crepes be available on embarkation for lunch?

Thank you all for all of this info.

My original intention was to give others an opportunity to say why they are happy to pay the gratuities.

I was reacting to another old recently resurrected thread that really ticked me off. Rather than respond to that ridiculousness I thought about why I am happy to pay it and thought others might also want to express their reasons to do so.

It was meant to be positive.

Fortunately some have done so and I thank you.

Unfortunately some have taken a less than positive tone.

Kinda sorry I brought it up now.

Hope all those with booked cruises have a lovely time.

I am hoping to take an all inclusive cruise one day. But until then...

We agreed to it. Prepaid or otherwise. We are not ignorant of the arrangement.

We answer to a higher law than poorly understood and wrongly interpreted "case law".

The cruise staff work hard and we are appreciative of good work ethic and kindness.

What about you?

Does anyone know if gluten free crepes are available early on embarkation day?

I ask because a couple of years ago on Mellinium, every place that supposedly had gluten free items kept telling us to come back the next day. I was hoping to go to Bistro for lunch upon arrival.