VAncouver post cruise transport to YVR

[sunsetme]

Are cabs or uber readily available? Not interested in bus transfer from cruise lines.

[martincath]

Yes... ish. Biggest factor is how many other pax disembark, second biggest is whether you can handle your own bags (self-disembarkers come off first) as to how long the queue for cabs will be.

 

Cabs are constantly looping in and out; Uber/Lyft I'm not sure what if any space they are allocated for pickups inside the terminal as they only gained approval 1 season before the Covid closure, and I've never used them... but worst-case you should be able to call for a pickup on the street just by walking a block or two (best to avoid tryin right outside, as the bottleneck of a single entry ramp for cars, taxis, buses etc. makes for godawful traffic on cruise mornings).

 

Check your date on the official cruise timetable (link in middle of page - the PDF gets updated so I have not linked directly to it as it will go out-of-date). If you're on a 3+ ship day, or have one of the megaships with 4000 pax we occasionally get, assume a LONG wait for a car unless you're in the first batch of folks off.

 

Also, if it's to get to a post-cruise hotel rather than the airport, fire up Google maps or similar - the majority of our hotels are downtown and the majority of those less than a mile away on nice, wide, sidewalks without many significant hills. It's likely more often than not quicker to walk to your hotel than wait more than 10 mins to get in a car...

Edited May 16, 2022 by martincath

[Yehootu]

On 5/16/2022 at 3:25 PM, martincath said:

Yes... ish. Biggest factor is how many other pax disembark, second biggest is whether you can handle your own bags (self-disembarkers come off first) as to how long the queue for cabs will be.

 

Cabs are constantly looping in and out; Uber/Lyft I'm not sure what if any space they are allocated for pickups inside the terminal as they only gained approval 1 season before the Covid closure, and I've never used them... but worst-case you should be able to call for a pickup on the street just by walking a block or two (best to avoid tryin right outside, as the bottleneck of a single entry ramp for cars, taxis, buses etc. makes for godawful traffic on cruise mornings).

 

Check your date on the official cruise timetable (link in middle of page - the PDF gets updated so I have not linked directly to it as it will go out-of-date). If you're on a 3+ ship day, or have one of the megaships with 4000 pax we occasionally get, assume a LONG wait for a car unless you're in the first batch of folks off.

 

Also, if it's to get to a post-cruise hotel rather than the airport, fire up Google maps or similar - the majority of our hotels are downtown and the majority of those less than a mile away on nice, wide, sidewalks without many significant hills. It's likely more often than not quicker to walk to your hotel than wait more than 10 mins to get in a car...

We have our ship the Royal and HAL Konnisdam arriving on same date. Our flight back to LA isn't till 5pm. We've decided we'll wait and get off near the end of disembarking. I assume cabs will continue in and out for awhile if for nothing else, the new pax coming onboard. Was going to book private transport, but it's $139 compared to 2 $35-40 cab rides.

[martincath]

1 hour ago, Yehootu said:

We have our ship the Royal and HAL Konnisdam arriving on same date. Our flight back to LA isn't till 5pm. We've decided we'll wait and get off near the end of disembarking. I assume cabs will continue in and out for awhile if for nothing else, the new pax coming onboard. Was going to book private transport, but it's $139 compared to 2 $35-40 cab rides.

Exactly - cabs will keep coming all morning until the Disembarking folks are dealt with, but the Embarking people will overlap with that so you can expect a constant flow, only stopping as it gets closer to sailaway time.

 

Even if you're not interested in doing any touring, I'd recommend getting away from the pier for a while. I don't know how much YVR has been relaxing their normal rules about baggage check-in (for US-bound flights there's usually a cap of no more than 3 hours early, as there is limited space for the special scanning setup they have), but even with concerns about long security queues there's no point getting there much more than 3 hours early.

 

So far, reports generally indicate that flights like yours face much more normal queues, it's the mornings that get ridiculous, so personally even without NEXUS/Global Entry I'd feel confident that a 3 hour pre-flight arrival will see you all killing close to two hours at your gate.

 

These days we have multiple bag storage companies operating in an Uber-esque, 'locals do all the work, we hook you up with them and skim 30% off the top' format - and all of them are dirt-cheap compared to the official pier storage. I can't personally recommend any as I haven't used them - but searching these boards or just Googling will pop 4 or 5 different versions of the same thing. So you can free yourself of your suitcases for between $5 and $8 a bag, and have a pootle along the Seawall, go for Brunch, shop or whatever you like before heading out to the airport no earlier than 1pm, or even 2pm if you were me.

 

Another possible tradeoff is to use PorterGenie - they charge a pickup and drop fee (total $25 for pier and airport) but will take your bags anywhere you want locally. Tot up the fixed fee and the $10 per bag and then compare to the savings by taking SkyTrain to the airport - actually easy enough even with bags, but a doddle without - at $4.35pp ($3 for >65s or <14s) instead of taking 2 cabs...

 

 

[Yehootu]

1 hour ago, martincath said:

Exactly - cabs will keep coming all morning until the Disembarking folks are dealt with, but the Embarking people will overlap with that so you can expect a constant flow, only stopping as it gets closer to sailaway time.

 

Even if you're not interested in doing any touring, I'd recommend getting away from the pier for a while. I don't know how much YVR has been relaxing their normal rules about baggage check-in (for US-bound flights there's usually a cap of no more than 3 hours early, as there is limited space for the special scanning setup they have), but even with concerns about long security queues there's no point getting there much more than 3 hours early.

 

So far, reports generally indicate that flights like yours face much more normal queues, it's the mornings that get ridiculous, so personally even without NEXUS/Global Entry I'd feel confident that a 3 hour pre-flight arrival will see you all killing close to two hours at your gate.

 

These days we have multiple bag storage companies operating in an Uber-esque, 'locals do all the work, we hook you up with them and skim 30% off the top' format - and all of them are dirt-cheap compared to the official pier storage. I can't personally recommend any as I haven't used them - but searching these boards or just Googling will pop 4 or 5 different versions of the same thing. So you can free yourself of your suitcases for between $5 and $8 a bag, and have a pootle along the Seawall, go for Brunch, shop or whatever you like before heading out to the airport no earlier than 1pm, or even 2pm if you were me.

 

Another possible tradeoff is to use PorterGenie - they charge a pickup and drop fee (total $25 for pier and airport) but will take your bags anywhere you want locally. Tot up the fixed fee and the $10 per bag and then compare to the savings by taking SkyTrain to the airport - actually easy enough even with bags, but a doddle without - at $4.35pp ($3 for >65s or <14s) instead of taking 2 cabs...

 

 

Excellent info. T

Mahalo for all you help with. 

[harryfat1]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:51 AM, martincath said:

Exactly - cabs will keep coming all morning until the Disembarking folks are dealt with, but the Embarking people will overlap with that so you can expect a constant flow, only stopping as it gets closer to sailaway time.

 

Even if you're not interested in doing any touring, I'd recommend getting away from the pier for a while. I don't know how much YVR has been relaxing their normal rules about baggage check-in (for US-bound flights there's usually a cap of no more than 3 hours early, as there is limited space for the special scanning setup they have), but even with concerns about long security queues there's no point getting there much more than 3 hours early.

 

So far, reports generally indicate that flights like yours face much more normal queues, it's the mornings that get ridiculous, so personally even without NEXUS/Global Entry I'd feel confident that a 3 hour pre-flight arrival will see you all killing close to two hours at your gate.

 

These days we have multiple bag storage companies operating in an Uber-esque, 'locals do all the work, we hook you up with them and skim 30% off the top' format - and all of them are dirt-cheap compared to the official pier storage. I can't personally recommend any as I haven't used them - but searching these boards or just Googling will pop 4 or 5 different versions of the same thing. So you can free yourself of your suitcases for between $5 and $8 a bag, and have a pootle along the Seawall, go for Brunch, shop or whatever you like before heading out to the airport no earlier than 1pm, or even 2pm if you were me.

 

Another possible tradeoff is to use PorterGenie - they charge a pickup and drop fee (total $25 for pier and airport) but will take your bags anywhere you want locally. Tot up the fixed fee and the $10 per bag and then compare to the savings by taking SkyTrain to the airport - actually easy enough even with bags, but a doddle without - at $4.35pp ($3 for >65s or <14s) instead of taking 2 cabs...

 

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I went to the Porter Genie web site and put in a price quote, they said they are currently closed due to Covid?  Has anyone used Porter Genie this year?

 

Thanks,

 

Harry

[martincath]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Thanks for the info.

 

I went to the Porter Genie web site and put in a price quote, they said they are currently closed due to Covid?  Has anyone used Porter Genie this year?

 

Thanks,

 

Harry

Well, dang - that's the sort of thing that should really go on the front page rather than only appearing when you click to make a reso... apologies for mentioning them!