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Shuttle / Transporation - Vancouver Cruise Terminal to SEA-TAC


Von & John
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Hi -- this is being posted on Celebrity, Ports of Call & Homeports pages

 

We are reviewing options of flying out of Vancouver or Seattle. Does anyone have a shuttle/transportation option they recommend for Vancouver Cruise Terminal to SEA-TAC?

 

Thanks!

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Door to door let-someone-else-drive options would be QuickShuttle or a cruiseline transfer. BoltBus or Amtrak depart from the train station in Vancouver (a short light rail or cab ride away) and drop you near light rail in Seattle which will get you to the airport in about 40 minutes. I'm slightly more partial to the cruiseline transfer over QuickShuttle as it can receive beneficial treatment at the border.

 

My personal preference is always to rent a car, preferably from National, Alamo or Enterprise right at the pier. This lets you pick the quickest of three border crossings depending on conditions, lets you take a scenic route such as the Chuckanut Drive if time permits, and gives you more freedom than being stuck on a bus with 50-70 other people.

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Since there are a couple more replies on this version, I'll add mine here too.

 

All of the above looks accurate, and (if offered by Celebrity) I'd also recommend cruiseline transfer for the least-possible-hassle version. Someone else drives, no stops except as legally required at border, and straight to airport. QuickShuttle is the only other 'one stop shop' to be driven from pier to SEA - but even the 'express' has a few stops. Bolt offer better buses: WiFi on all, fewer people per bus (not many, but a wee bit extra legroom for all) and if there's two of you even a cab from pier to bus station and bus station to airport still saves cash in total over QS pricing.

 

Rental car - pricing varies wildly, but if you are willing to drive yourselves I also agree it's the most flexible option.

 

Train is generally delightful and by far the least hassle at the border (pre-clear US immigration in Vancouver just like flying), but on same day you arrive at the pier means only one option, late afternoon arriving Seattle about 10pm so unlikely to work for any flight except a very late Red-eye.

 

Best option IMO - stay an extra day or twelve in Vancouver and open up all possible travel options without worrying about time of day! ;-)

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As much as I like Vancouver, it's gotten prohibitively expensive to fly out of when I get to Nashville via Southwest from Seattle. Not to mention the whole security, customs, and immigration process in Vancouver.

 

Roz

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  • 5 months later...

We're trying to figure out this transportation mess too. Our ship will arrive in Vancouver and we'll need to fly to the midwest USA. Even with "express" trains or buses, it looks like the option of flying out of Seattle means an overnight at a hotel. Costs will then include ground transportation Vancouver-Seattle, hotel and flight home from Seattle on Southwest.

 

We priced this against just flying home from Vancouver and think this is the cheaper and least hassle way. Cost of a one way ticket home is as low as $300 on Air Canada. The length of the flights are about the same as if we would fly out of Seattle on Southwest.

 

Any thoughts from those who have done this?

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We're trying to figure out this transportation mess too. Our ship will arrive in Vancouver and we'll need to fly to the midwest USA. Even with "express" trains or buses, it looks like the option of flying out of Seattle means an overnight at a hotel. Costs will then include ground transportation Vancouver-Seattle, hotel and flight home from Seattle on Southwest.

 

We priced this against just flying home from Vancouver and think this is the cheaper and least hassle way. Cost of a one way ticket home is as low as $300 on Air Canada. The length of the flights are about the same as if we would fly out of Seattle on Southwest.

 

Any thoughts from those who have done this?

Every time we fly to the US or internationally we compare SEA, PDX and YVR options. While occasionally there are huge savings, it's been at least 5 years since we've seen anything that would have resulted in more than ~$100pp 'discount' of SEA vs YVR to get somewhere in the US.

 

 

There are some qualitative factors though - Seattle has tons more non-stop US flights than YVR for example, as well as adding extra airline options, so e.g. if you're someone who refuses to take a red-eye a next-day early morning eastbound flight can be enough of a saving that it more than pays for a night in a Seatac hotel. If you don't have another vacation day spare for traveling though, they just don't work.

 

 

Basically there is no standard amount of $ savings or time costs, you need to look at your specific date and traveling party size and see how the numbers break down. You're the only one who knows your own value for subjective 'time & hassle' factors. From what you say above, it sounds like you've already run the numbers and they are pointing you to a YVR flight - we've more often then not decided the same when comparing against SEA flights with bus or train involved.

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We're trying to figure out this transportation mess too. Our ship will arrive in Vancouver and we'll need to fly to the midwest USA. Even with "express" trains or buses, it looks like the option of flying out of Seattle means an overnight at a hotel. Costs will then include ground transportation Vancouver-Seattle, hotel and flight home from Seattle on Southwest.

 

 

 

We priced this against just flying home from Vancouver and think this is the cheaper and least hassle way. Cost of a one way ticket home is as low as $300 on Air Canada. The length of the flights are about the same as if we would fly out of Seattle on Southwest.

 

 

 

Any thoughts from those who have done this?

 

 

 

We did this several years ago. We had the same issue with flight times etc as others have said. Decided it was easier, and a little cheaper with no overnight hotel, to fly out of Vancouver. We saved a few pennies by taking the AirTrain to the airport.

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Okay I see the agenda for making a choice for flying out of Seattle or Vancouver.

 

My question is when do you actually book the flight west. We live in Florida looking at cruises Sept/Oct 2018. Most hotels and airlines (Southwest) have not yet posted rates for Oct. . 6 months for air and hotel or 3 months? Anyone familiar with Westjet? real cheap to Vancouver or pay more for comfort. We are 2- 75 year old ladies. Thanks for any info

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Okay I see the agenda for making a choice for flying out of Seattle or Vancouver.

 

My question is when do you actually book the flight west. We live in Florida looking at cruises Sept/Oct 2018. Most hotels and airlines (Southwest) have not yet posted rates for Oct. . 6 months for air and hotel or 3 months? Anyone familiar with Westjet? real cheap to Vancouver or pay more for comfort. We are 2- 75 year old ladies. Thanks for any info

 

WestJet is the second largest airline in Canada. Solid reputation for customer service etc. Regular seats are not much different that what you would get elsewhere.

 

Not certain what "Comfort" is. The regular seats are not bad. The Plus seats have blocked middle and include food and alcohol.

 

I know they are starting to do the same thing as the other airlines of creating an area between regular economy and plus with a bit extra leg room.

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My question is when do you actually book the flight west. We live in Florida looking at cruises Sept/Oct 2018. Most hotels and airlines (Southwest) have not yet posted rates for Oct. . 6 months for air and hotel or 3 months?

 

As soon as you find a price that YOU are happy with, book airfare. All hotels, even those who use their own booking engines, can usually be booked 11 months in advance which you should now be hitting.

 

 

Anyone familiar with Westjet?

WestJet we took on our last two Florida jaunts IIRC - they are vastly superior to Delta, who they codeshare with, in terms of service quality & staff friendliness (they're generally one of the friendliest crews around as every staff member is a shareholder and encouraged to 'take ownership' of decisions) but they do have a mostly older fleet.

 

 

As mentioned, seats aren't really much different than others in Economy - while some of their planes are being upgraded to actually have better seating for fancier classes, right now I would never recommend paying for any upgraded class as odds are you'll be in exactly the same seats just with the middle left empty, no extra leg room, so it's a very expensive way to get some extra luggage. Just pay for another suitcase instead if WJ flights work for you.

 

The biggest downside is the relative inefficiency of flying via Toronto rather than in a straighter line - your total time in the air is about an hour longer than if you can fly via Denver, Houston, or Seattle on US airlines with a one-stop. If you can get a good price on the YVR-MCO non-stop flights though, jump on them - although IIRC these may only run in winter for us to get to Disneyworld...

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Thanks for the info on West Jet. Fares havent been posted for October 2018. We can get great rates to Seattle on Southwest but the hassle and added expense factors in. Thinking about flight to Victoria for 3 days and ferry over to spend 2 days Vancouver.

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Thanks for the info on West Jet. Fares havent been posted for October 2018. We can get great rates to Seattle on Southwest but the hassle and added expense factors in. Thinking about flight to Victoria for 3 days and ferry over to spend 2 days Vancouver.

Victoria has only a fraction of the stuff to see, and as a base to visit the rest of the island it's also a poor choice being right at one end. Three days on the Island, road-tripping around and overnighting in e.g. Tofino, Campbell River or Port Hardy makes way more sense than three days in Victoria...

 

Edit - I forgot you already mentioned you're a pair of 75 year old ladies. So if you can put on a convincing English accent, preferably Home Counties/RP, own a set of pearls and many hats, you could seamlessly merge into the Victoria social scene and live there for the rest of your days!!! ;-)

Edited by martincath
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Looking at Flying into SEA-TAC from Chicago Sept 2018 on a Sunday. We are exploring renting a car and driveing to Vancover that same day and returning the rental car in Vancouver that same day. Our ship does not leave till Wednesday but I don't think we need the rental car and can get around Vancourver by other means.

Thoughts?

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^Sensible plan, but look out for wild rate swings on rentals. September is late in the season so depending how many others are also wanting to do what you are, and in which direction, you might end up with an absolute steal of a rate ("dagnabbit, we have six cars that need to be returned to Vancouver! Mark 'em down!!!") - but if you have a specific car need e.g. Minivan or large SUV, there might be high rates or a drop fee involved especially as the season winds down. In general, if it's for a couple so any size of car works, you should be able to find an all-fees-included rate of $100 or less just by continuing to check - right now many franchises will add hefty drop fees to bookings as they have very little idea of demand each way so play it safe.

 

Book a refundable rate you can live with, but keep checking - as you get inside a month, a week, even a day from your flight date the rates can fluctuate a lot as the rental companies have a more solid idea how many cars are moving between Seattle & Vancouver. Also check all locations for pickup and dropoff - downtown doesn't have the big extra fees that airport rentals do, but airport to airport one-way rentals are sometimes the cheapest. Remember you have to budget for getting downtown though (~$35 cab ride) if you return the car at YVR, so unless it's at least that much cheaper than a downtown location just return downtown (or you can deal with the hassle of driving to hotel, dumping bags and passengers, then back to airport to drop car and a nice cheap SkyTrain solo ride back downtown).

 

You're right that Vancouver is more hassle with a car than without in general (it's only if visiting sights in the burbs or out of town with free or cheap parking that the convenience tips in favour of a car), but even with possible parking costs check for a return a full 24hrs later not just a same-day. Car rental pricing seems even less transparent than air-fare at times - someone last summer saved money by keeping the car 2 days instead of just one, even after paying for hotel parking.

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