Airport Transfer Help - YVR

[LegallyBlonde264]

We will be arriving in Vancouver on the Jewel in a couple of weeks. We booked air through NCL and (in their infinite wisdom) they saw fit to book us on an 11:00 AM flight. We currently have a transfer booked with the cruise line to get to the airport but I am so scared that we won’t get there in time. 
 

We are a very active family of 4 (parents and tweens) but we will have heavy checked bags with us. We are flying to Toronto to catch a second flight to the East Coast of the US. We are in the Haven so we will have priority disembarkation and are fine to take our own bags off the ship.

 

Given these circumstances, do we have any chance of making this flight? If so, should we take the transfer or make our own way to the airport? 

[casofilia]

I don't know what you know about Vancouver but the Canada Line at Waterfront Station is only a few minutes from Canada Place and the journey is 26 minutes to the airport with trains about every 10 minutes.

 

Look at https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Canada+Place,+999+Canada+Pl,+Vancouver,+BC+V6C+3T4,+Canada/Waterfront+Canada+Line+Station,+Granville+Street,+Vancouver,+BC,+Canada/@49.2868371,-123.1139893,17.52z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x5486719d24e2e021:0xb7057fe085c86109!2m2!1d-123.1111209!2d49.2888248!1m5!1m1!1s0x548671788198c931:0x4e5a07a039b1f40d!2m2!1d-123.1143046!2d49.2851193!3e2

[2bthere]

Maybe enlighten us as when you dock and what time is your transfer booked?

 

[LegallyBlonde264]

I don’t know the transfer time - our eDocs just show that there is a transfer and gives the name of the transport company. It says we will be provided vouchers prior to disembarkation. The ship is scheduled to arrive in port at 7:00 AM. 

[ekallina]

We disembarked in Vancouver from the Jewel earlier this month. Customs took longer to clear our ship since there were three ships coming in that morning. This caused delays in getting off the ship. We took the transfer through NCL and we made it through the airport security and customs right around noon. Since you are flying within Canada you wouldn't have to go through the airport customs at YVR so that might help but it will be close

[martincath]

Since you say that you're able to self-disembark, that means you can also walk to SkyTrain (you will probably walk further from cabin to curb than from curb to platform!)

 

Casofilia's map is correct, but for first-timers going Ship to Train I'd suggest the easier-to-spot main station entrance of Waterfront, which also gives you a downhill rather than uphill walk (not a big hill either way, but with big bags down is always better!) Follow Howe, ignore the SkyTrain entrance on it (wrong platform, many level changes and generally more hassle to get to the right platform inside than just walking the streets...), hang a left on Cordova and walk along to the very obvious large brick old school station with pillars outside - ticket vending machines are right inside the doors at street level, elevators and escalators and stairs down to Canada Line platform all easily visible from the main lobby you are in.

 

11am, in TheBeforeTimes, Self-Disembarking, was a definitely doable thing even on a three-ship day - especially for a Domestic flight. With Covid tests not needed, the only real difference is staffling levels have not quite caught back up to passenger volumes, so Check-in and Security are both slower than they used to be.

 

You will have a 2 ship day (Disney Wonder seems to be on the same schedule as Jewel), or a 2-and-a-bit if it's e.g. Aug 8th when Roald Amundsen is also in port (very small...) so pressure of many pax fighting for limited cabs will be way less. The real downside of a cab is that only about 1 in 6 cabs are minivans - almost all the rest are Prius, so while they have 4 seats the trunk will not hold four big bags and 4 carryons, realistically if you are all typical cruisers 2 cabs or a van are needed.... but the vans are set up for wheelchair users, with the extra bench removed, so while it is not illegal to use them it's against Wheaton's Law to snag a minivan if there's someone else waiting who actually NEEDS that format of vehicle! Get off early, carry own bags, beat most everyone else to the cab line means a minimal queue, so as long as you don't see anyone else who really needs a van, nobody's going to tut at you if you take one;-)

 

So that's the practical logistics in Vancouver - but frankly with such a tight flight time, AND going via YYZ? I'd do anything I could to change that flight! YYZ right now is literally the single worst airport on the continent for delays and lost luggage! You will fly Domestic from here, but have to go through US Preclearance there instead - even in TheBeforeTimes anyone familiar with YYZ would say never schedule less than 2 hours connection time, these days it's basically an utter sh*tshow. Plus, depending which airline you fly on both legs, you may or may not have to collect your bags and recheck them for flight 2, rather than having them transferred behind the scenes. Go plug in your specific flight info on the airport website, here on the Connections page - it should generate a detailed list of expectations for your circumstances, rather than getting correct-for-person-X-but-not-for-you-because-they-used-different-airlines etc. tales from others!

 

If you have 4+ hours to kill at YYZ, you should be OK - both you and your bags should get to your second flight regardless of which airlines, but anything less and who the heck knows. Last week, over half of all flights were delayed! At least it's going home, so should your bags not make the transfer you're not missing all your stuff on your vacation, like various folks have reported to the press recently...

 

If NCL will let you change flights, I'd say ideally take a later flight that goes to a US airport first - so all your Customs/Immigration stuff gets done at the start, making connections much smoother. If you can't change, don't pack anything important in your checked bags, hustle off ASAP, if the cab queue looks very short and a van is waiting jump in (driving door to door is a little quicker than walk + SkyTrain, it's the wait time in a long cab queue that makes SkyTrain faster) but if the queue looks 10+mins then SkyTrain becomes quicker so know where to go and keep walking.

 

Or - if you'd rather risk being stuck in Vancouver but on NCLs dime, use the transfers, just expect to miss your flights but NCL to have to arrange everything for you;-)