Vancouver airport departure

[pbenjamin]

Ship arrives 8 am in Vancouver.  We're looking at a 12:20 flight, is that realistic?  We've never done NCL before, how does debarkation work?  Is there a self-debarkation option?  If you do the NCL airport transfer, do we leave our bags outside the door the night before and NCL gets them to the plane or do we have to retrieve them when we get off the ship?

[rhblake]

If you don’t have Global Entry, you might not make it. First you must clear immigration/customs at the port, then clear security at the airport and finally clear US immigration/customs if you are flying back into the US. All that makes for a real tight schedule.

[pete_coach]

12 minutes ago, rhblake said:

If you don’t have Global Entry, you might not make it. First you must clear immigration/customs at the port, then clear security at the airport and finally clear US immigration/customs if you are flying back into the US. All that makes for a real tight schedule.

Plus having to get through the heart of the city to the airport.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Vancouver can have long lines. Princess doesn’t recommend flights before 12:30. I personally wouldn’t want one before 1:00 to be safe. You have the check-in line, security line, and then Passport Control. Check-in doesn’t usually seem to be bad, but the other 2 are usually verrrrrry long unless you have Global Entry.

[YVRBassElectric]

to highlight what rhblake posted If you are flying back to US - you will clear US Customs & immigration at YVR - that can take an hour

 

NCL says 4 hours after arrival time in YVR for flight departures.

YVR recommends 3 hours at the airport for Cruise ship passengers.

 

NO WAY would I expect to get off a cruise ship, through Canada Customs and drive to the airport in 1 hour (the drive alone is about an hour)

 

I am biased as it's my home airport, YVR is beautiful, lots of places to eat & shop, I would rather spend 2 hours waiting than stressing that I might miss my flight

[OrcaGirl]

Agree with what everyone's saying on the time needed to clear customs, but as for driving from the cruise port to the airport, I'd suggest looking into taking the Canada Line public transit -- depending on how much luggage you're travelling with, it might be easier/faster to make the walk (10 minutes) to Waterfront Station, and hop on the Canada to YVR (about 30 minutes to the airport, just make sure to get on a train that says it's going to YVR-Airport and not Richmond-Brighouse).

[PegNRay]

53 minutes ago, YVRBassElectric said:

to highlight what rhblake posted If you are flying back to US - you will clear US Customs & immigration at YVR - that can take an hour

 

NCL says 4 hours after arrival time in YVR for flight departures.

YVR recommends 3 hours at the airport for Cruise ship passengers.

 

NO WAY would I expect to get off a cruise ship, through Canada Customs and drive to the airport in 1 hour (the drive alone is about an hour)

 

I am biased as it's my home airport, YVR is beautiful, lots of places to eat & shop, I would rather spend 2 hours waiting than stressing that I might miss my flight

Our cruise made a stop in Victoria on the way back. We just filled out a form on the ship that covered Canadian customs. I would suggest using a skycap at the airport. They will check you in and walk you through to where your luggage is placed on the conveyor belt. From there you go to where you scan in your passport and then through customs. This process can take some time. There is more information on the ports of call boards.

Edited January 27, 2019 by PegNRay
Correction

[YVRBassElectric]

Sorry, forgot about your NCL disembarkation questions:

 

Yes, you can self disembark, if you can take all your luggage without assistance

Yes you can leave your luggage out the night before and they will get it to the port, you need to take it through Canada Customs & to your transportation.

In Vancouver we do not have ride share services & the waits for cabs will be long, if you are able to take your luggage on to the Skytrain, that will be fastest & least expensive option, if not I would use NCL transfer, if you are trying to make an early departure

You will need to get luggage tags from Guest services, if you don't use NCL transfer, colour coded to the approximate time you want to get off

[martincath]

I'll disagree with some of the above info - a 12:20 flight is trivially easy to make if you are self-disembarking. Most cruiselines agree on 12:30pm as the earliest that THEY will book a flight for you - but this is to factor in the handful of exceptionally busy days at the pier with 3 or 4 ships, with padding for the fact that cruise buses are the slowest way to get there, and even more padding to allow for queues at YVR itself since all the self-disembarkers and the first batches of 'with help' disembarkers who got in taxis have beaten every cruise bus person to YVR and started to clog up the queues.

 

Being 3 hours early for your flight is simply not necessary except on the 'brown stuff hits the fan' busy days. 2 hours early is more than enough 95% of the time, even for folks without NEXUS/Global Entry. The airport is less than 30mins drive from the pier without traffic, usually under 35mins with traffic, and basically never more than 40mins even on a busy day as any inbound commuters are going the opposite way.

 

Further, since they mention it's the Jewel and in May on their sig, that means it has to be May 20th - with just the Disney Wonder in port alongside them. Plus the port schedule has them arriving at 7am, not 8am - first SD group should expect to be getting off by 7:30am. A 2-ship day, self-disembarking? OP, if you were in the first self-disembarkation group you could WALK to the airport from the pier and still make it in time!

 

Don't let anyone worry you that this flight is unrealistic or remotely difficult to make - it's only 10mins under the cruiseline cutoff and they are VERY conservative with that cutoff time as they are on the hook for getting you home if you miss their flight;-)

[jimdee3636]

1 hour ago, martincath said:

I'll disagree with some of the above info - a 12:20 flight is trivially easy to make if you are self-disembarking. Most cruiselines agree on 12:30pm as the earliest that THEY will book a flight for you - but this is to factor in the handful of exceptionally busy days at the pier with 3 or 4 ships, with padding for the fact that cruise buses are the slowest way to get there, and even more padding to allow for queues at YVR itself since all the self-disembarkers and the first batches of 'with help' disembarkers who got in taxis have beaten every cruise bus person to YVR and started to clog up the queues.

 

Being 3 hours early for your flight is simply not necessary except on the 'brown stuff hits the fan' busy days. 2 hours early is more than enough 95% of the time, even for folks without NEXUS/Global Entry. The airport is less than 30mins drive from the pier without traffic, usually under 35mins with traffic, and basically never more than 40mins even on a busy day as any inbound commuters are going the opposite way.

 

Further, since they mention it's the Jewel and in May on their sig, that means it has to be May 20th - with just the Disney Wonder in port alongside them. Plus the port schedule has them arriving at 7am, not 8am - first SD group should expect to be getting off by 7:30am. A 2-ship day, self-disembarking? OP, if you were in the first self-disembarkation group you could WALK to the airport from the pier and still make it in time!

 

Don't let anyone worry you that this flight is unrealistic or remotely difficult to make - it's only 10mins under the cruiseline cutoff and they are VERY conservative with that cutoff time as they are on the hook for getting you home if you miss their flight;-)

Martincath:

 

I hope you're right. I'll be on the Bliss cruise that disembarks in Vancouver on Saturday, May 4, and I have a flight from YVR to SFO at 11:45AM. However, I'll be self-disembarking with no luggage to pick up, AND the ship arrives in Vancouver the previous day, presumably clearing customs at that time, and remains there overnight. My hope is that I can get off the ship really early and get to the airport in time. 

 

If I'm wrong in any of my assumptions please let me know. Thanks.

 

Jim

[don't-use-real-name]

1 hour ago, jimdee3636 said:

Martincath:

 

I hope you're right. I'll be on the Bliss cruise that disembarks in Vancouver on Saturday, May 4, and I have a flight from YVR to SFO at 11:45AM. However, I'll be self-disembarking with no luggage to pick up, AND the ship arrives in Vancouver the previous day, presumably clearing customs at that time, and remains there overnight. My hope is that I can get off the ship really early and get to the airport in time. 

 

If I'm wrong in any of my assumptions please let me know. Thanks.

 

Jim

You should have no problems pulling this one off ---

UNLESS the BLISS has some engagement *** with the Lion's Gate Bridge entering Vancouver harbor.

*** Main Mast clearance with the bridge/roadway deck

 

Your Itinerary schedule:

6-Day Pacific Coastal from Los Angeles

Day            Cruise Ports                      Arrive                Depart
Sun       Los Angeles, California       (EMBARK)          4:00 pm 
Mon           At Sea                                   ---                       --- 
Tue       San Francisco, California      8:00 am              6:00 pm 
Wed           At Sea                                   ---                       --- 
Thu      Victoria, British Columbia      1:00 pm            11:59 pm 
Fri       Vancouver, British Columbia  11:00 am           Overnight 
Sat      Vancouver, British Columbia (DISEMBARK)    7:00 am  

 

A simple walk-off luggage in hand and off you go to the airport by any means - plenty of time !

[martincath]

2 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

If I'm wrong in any of my assumptions please let me know. Thanks.

 

Jim

Since Bliss has already managed to get under the bridge twice - and rejigged their schedule on that first visit several times because somebody at NCL must have fluffed the math first time around(!) - it's now known that Bliss can safely pass under the bridge as long as they wait until the lowest tide (not just low-ish, they are sufficiently close to the absolute air draft limits of the bridge that the ship has to go under through a very, very brief window - and then wait for the next low tide to leave again!) This time around they're playing really safe - sail time from Victoria is about 3 hours, 4 going really slow, so as long as low tide is anywhere between ~4am and 10:30am they can easily make their scheduled 11:00am arrival!!!

 

And I agree with DURN that you should have no problems getting to YVR for 11:45am - you will actually do Customs and immigration clearance at Victoria since that's your Canadian port of arrival and you don't then leave Canadian waters again (usually this means simply handing in your customs declaration card by the day before at the front desk, then only folks with some kind of problem like owing Duty or who have a criminal record or something that impacts immigration will be asked to come speak to CBSA somewhere onboard). Once you reach Vancouver, in theory you'll be able to leave and reenter the ship willy-nilly (regular Security lines of course, but no US Immigration issues) which would include disembarking whenever the heck you want...as long as you settle your account onboard before disembarking;-)

[pbenjamin]

Thanks, all. This was for my son who ended up finding a 2:45 flight which was less stressful (and cheaper). 

 

Our flight is at 5:45. Any ideas on what one might do with one's luggage if they wanted to spend some time looking around?

[hallux]

6 hours ago, pbenjamin said:

Our flight is at 5:45. Any ideas on what one might do with one's luggage if they wanted to spend some time looking around?

 

I understand there may be 2 options.  One would be to arrange EZ Check with NCL but apparently not all airlines participate and you need to arrange early in the cruise (2nd-hand info here), leaving your bag out the night before and paying a fee.  The other is a service at Canada Center (www.cdsbaggage.ca) that will transport your bags to YVR and hold them there for you to pick up then check with your airline.  I think someone mentioned that the fee covers up to 4 bags.  I plan to use that service when I arrive on Bliss on that May 4 arrival - my flight isn't until 11 PM and I'm planning a tour (which will take my bag for me) but the tour will end long before I need to be at the airport and I don't want to be wrangling my bag between the end of the tour and when I need to go to the airport.

 

I also prefer NOT carrying dirty laundry in my carry-on bag so I plan to self-carry my main bag off the ship.

Edited January 28, 2019 by hallux

[pete_coach]

18 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Vancouver can have long lines. Princess doesn’t recommend flights before 12:30. I personally wouldn’t want one before 1:00 to be safe. You have the check-in line, security line, and then Passport Control. Check-in doesn’t usually seem to be bad, but the other 2 are usually verrrrrry long unless you have Global Entry.

I disagree, I have recently had to go through the "passport control" (US Customs) at Vancouver airport several times and it is a mess. Line ups are long, there are 2 lines into just one entry and the people working there are very inefficient, often having to wait for them to bring the trays. In my opinion, a very poor experience.

Edited January 28, 2019 by pete_coach

[don't-use-real-name]

1 hour ago, pete_coach said:

I disagree, I have recently had to go through the "passport control" (US Customs) at Vancouver airport several times and it is a mess. Line ups are long, there are 2 lines into just one entry and the people working there are very inefficient, often having to wait for them to bring the trays. In my opinion, a very poor experience.

 

I don't remember having any problem.

I have Global Entry - go to the line for GE 

Open Passport to the page requested

Scan Passport

Use Fingerprint pad

voila one and done

Move on to the gate area

 

Airline check-in counters can be messy with the influx of hundreds of cruise passengers all at the same time

TSA security is always what it is

Pre-Ck is great if offered and lanes are available

But patience planning with ample time for all things to click into place

Tight planning will almost always leave you breathless harried irritable and a host of other undesirable issues  

[pete_coach]

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

 

I don't remember having any problem.

I have Global Entry - go to the line for GE 

Open Passport to the page requested

Scan Passport

Use Fingerprint pad

voila one and done

Move on to the gate area

 

Airline check-in counters can be messy with the influx of hundreds of cruise passengers all at the same time

TSA security is always what it is

Pre-Ck is great if offered and lanes are available

But patience planning with ample time for all things to click into place

Tight planning will almost always leave you breathless harried irritable and a host of other undesirable issues  

Never had any problems after getting thorough security. I also have Nexus and that was not the hold up....it was the single entry security check.  Long line gets split into 2 for putting all your stuff in the trays for xray and then back to single entry metal detector.

Point is, at any given time, Vancouver airport US customs entry can be very long and very slow. Do not count on just breezing through and get to your gate.