Vancouver post cruise tour with airport drop-off

[pmjnh]

I am looking for a post cruise tour in Vancouver that includes airport drop off. We do not need to be at the airport until 5 PM.

the ship post cruise excursions drop off at the airport way too early.

 

The other option is a hotel day room and then a cab to the airport. Do many hotels offer day room at a rate lower than a full night? That we have never done before.

 

thanks for any help.

[Cbtours]

2 minutes ago, pmjnh said:

I am looking for a post cruise tour in Vancouver that includes airport drop off. We do not need to be at the airport until 5 PM.

the ship post cruise excursions drop off at the airport way too early.

 

The other option is a hotel day room and then a cab to the airport. Do many hotels offer day room at a rate lower than a full night? That we have never done before.

 

thanks for any help.

The day rates are expensive too! Fairmont at airport was $350 for day I think.

 

we disembarked, left our bags at pan pacific hotel bellboy desk ($5 each case as we’d stayed at the hotel pre cruise). We walked round to waterfront station, bought two day passes ($8.65 each as were pensioners) but only couple $$ dearer fir regular. We took ferry over to north Vancouver, awesome little market, coffees, eats etc.

 

then we caught bus up to the movies (bronson st??) awesome complex. Watched the new movie we’d been wanting to see. By now it was 2.30.

we walked the 15 mins back down to Canada place, picked up our cases and walked back round to waterfront station to catch sky rail to airport. (Still using our day pass). Our flight wasn’t til 10pm and we could use the lounge from 6pm so we got a nice quiet seat and had a coffee and people watched for an hour then made our way to check in.

 

as a side note we had stayed 5 days in Vancouver pre cruise so there wasn’t any places we still wanted to visit so our plan was to relax before 15 hr flight home.

 

Day cost us say $60 total including movie transport coffee & snacks 

 

 

 

[Urban trekker]

Yes that type of tour is available - Vancouver Land and Sea tours used to do it but MartinCath is more likely to be able to give you a more detailed outline of the options available.

[Lance1224]

Our flight to the US from Vancouver Airport does not leave until 10:35 PM. Can we have access to the 

the lounge. We will get the Priority Plus for the lounge in Vancouver airport.

Thank you!

[Milhouse]

IIRC Priority Pass recently restarted their partnership with Plaza Premium lounges and there is a Plaza Premium lounge for Transborder flights to the US.  

However, I'd be cautious about timing. Some lounges only allow access starting two or three hours before your flight.  The Priority Pass site (and AMEX lounge site) indicate that there's a two hour limit which would suggest entry for you at around 8:35pm.  (However, I doubt they would kick you out if there's a delay though.)

You can try to get in early but it's probably going to be hit or miss depending on how busy it is and how early you attempt entry.  I would speculate that it would not be busy that late but my recent experience has been that lounges have generally been very busy/full overall during this summer season.  

[Trueblueky]

Several years ago with HAL, we took one that went north of town to a cable car up a mountain and that stopped at an artist village before getting us to the airport in plenty of time for the redeye.

[martincath]

Totally missed this first time around, sorry!

 

Yes - longer tours like the one just mentioned above still exist, and if you want to be at YVR around 5pm you have a couple of options @pmjnh - LandSea's combo of city, Cap, and the Lookout is pretty much bang on for timing (10am pickup, 4:30pm finish back at the pier, extra ~30mins drive out to YVR = arrival there 5pm or a little after) and probably costs a lot less (NB: it's priced in CAD!) than any equivalent booked through your line, who all tend to gouge heftily on the pricing in Vancouver by at the very least charging the same number but in USD... Their longer tour of the mountains unfortunately starts an hour later - 11am to 6pm, then 30mins more to YVR, so depending on your flight time it might be too close.

 

Westcoast offer more tours, though none are specifically post-cruise the pickup options include literally right outside the pier so they may as well be! If all you want to do is the cable car/suspension bridge mentioned above, there is a dedicated shuttle service to Squamish that will drop you off right at the base of the gondola.

 

Personally though, unless you really want to do Sky Pilot, Grouse, Whistler etc. even with a super late flight like @Lance1224 has I'd still recommend a self-organized day in the city. Store luggage at the Pan Pacific hotel bell desk, or prebook in one of the many shops and restos and hotels who have partnered with the various online storage services like luggagehero, usebounce, bagsort etc. (simply Google "luggage storage Vancouver BC" and you'll find all of these and more - all offer a guarantee, prices vary from about $7-10 per bag, and all have both longer lours and lower prices than the craptastic official pier storage which is $12 and makes you come back by 4:30pm!!!!).

 

Never been to Vancouver before? Best value tour by far is the HOHO - even with being back to a single provider, with fewer stops than in TheBeforeTimes, you still get more stops by far than with any fixed route city tour bus for less money, and being able to get off and do stuff then re-board can be looked at as a bonus. Pootle around, have a nice lunch, do the things that interest YOU most for as long as YOU want rather than what conveniently gets lumped together by tour companies who frankly factor traffic routing more than enjoyment when deciding where to stop, how long, and what just gets a drive-by!

 

Transit is also cheap, safe, and reliable - and for everything except buses also reliably fast! A decent book like the most up-to-date Rough Guide and a Day Pass on transit would be about the best ~$20pp (assuming most are couples or families who would share a single book) money can buy! There are also various online apps and services, even a 'live' guide who will talk you through what you're seeing remotely, for varying costs from about $5 up - and even without free roaming data, the city provides a free WiFi network (#VanWiFi) as do Translink on their vehicles, so it's really easy to both use live maps to find your way around and messaging to split your group and meet up again for lunch, to head out to the airport etc.

 

Been before? Or want to burn some calories after umpteen days of cruise dining? Take a walking tour - there's a perfectly decent free option that covers a fair chunk of downtown through Toonie Tours, various paid tours on foot or bike from them and others, and if you have a decent budget perhaps even a private custom tour by foot/bike/vehicle? Toursbylocals started right here in Vancouver, many guides are signed up. There's even a free custom walking option, Stroll Buddy (full disclosure, I'm a Buddy, though as I don't get paid it doesn't feel like much of a conflict of interest!)

 

NB: folks with a flight after 10pm will not preclear here but instead will be stuck doing it old-school with immigration and customs processing at your first US port of arrival - so hopefully it's a direct flight homeward for you so you can try to catch some shuteye, rather than a rude awakening after a short hop over the border then hours standing around in a typical US understaffed airport hoping not to miss your connection! However bad you feel Vancouver does queues for CBP, it's a dream here compared to even most large US int'l airports in the wee small hours... 😉

 

Folks in this situation are well advised to eat lunch and dinner downtown - firstly it's cheaper out to the airport after 6:30pm on weekdays (weekends and holidays everything is just 1 zone all day) and secondly despite YVR touting fair pricing at their new food outlets, that's a marketing ploy as even restos with downtown and YVR branches don't have to have the same menu so they can add higher markups if they wish... YVR remains pricier to eat and drink than downtown, with far fewer options. Without preclearance, you can roll in barely an hour before your flight (most airlines demand at least 60mins early to check bags) and easily be through Check-in, Security and at the gate in ~30mins - late evenings are SO much quieter than the morning peak hours folks heading straight from the pier face!

[em-sk]

On 7/20/2023 at 12:07 PM, Milhouse said:

IIRC Priority Pass recently restarted their partnership with Plaza Premium lounges and there is a Plaza Premium lounge for Transborder flights to the US.  

However, I'd be cautious about timing. Some lounges only allow access starting two or three hours before your flight.  The Priority Pass site (and AMEX lounge site) indicate that there's a two hour limit which would suggest entry for you at around 8:35pm.  (However, I doubt they would kick you out if there's a delay though.)

You can try to get in early but it's probably going to be hit or miss depending on how busy it is and how early you attempt entry.  I would speculate that it would not be busy that late but my recent experience has been that lounges have generally been very busy/full overall during this summer season.  

 

There is a weird relationship between AMEX and Plaza Premium in Canada.  I usually show my AMEX Canada Platinum card to get into Canadian Plaza Premium lounges.  I have never had an issue with the 3 hour limit.  They don't list an 2-3 hour limit on the AMEX website.

 

If you use the Priority Pass card then there is a 3 hour limit in most lounges.

 

At Vancouver Airport there are Plaza Premium lounges in all three zones.  Two lounges in Domestic, one in US Transborder and 1 in International.  There is also a Skyteam lounge in International that you can usually get into with the Priority Pass card.

 

[kayehall]

What is the Priority Pass Card?  Where does one get it from?  Thanks

[Milhouse]

Priority Pass is one of many airport lounge membership programs that provides access to specific airport lounges/lounge networks they have partnerships with for you and possibly a guest.  However, there are varying membership levels with the lowest requiring an additional fee for each lounge entry to the highest providing unlimited "free" entries.  

 

To get a Priority Pass card, you can apply for one directly with Priority Pass.  Alternatively, some higher tier/travel credit cards provide free membership to Priority Pass such as the AMEX Platinum card (though you still have to go through the process to register with Priority Pass but not pay the fee).

 

Points to note:

There are other airport lounge membership programs eg. Dragon Pass.  

Some higher end/travel cards provide their own lounge memberships programs (eg. Mastercard Lounge Key, Visa Airport Companion, etc) with their own rules (eg. Certain number of free entrances vs having to pay for each entrance and guest) and what airport lounges/lounge networks they provide you access to (ie. Your lounge membership program won't get you into any lounge; only the ones they partner with).

You can also sometimes buy entrance directly with the some lounges (eg. Plaza Premium lounges).

You may have to wait to enter the lounge if it is full.  Priority (for airline specific lounges) typically goes to those having airline status or flying biz class and above.  

 

On 8/20/2023 at 10:00 PM, em-sk said:

There is a weird relationship between AMEX and Plaza Premium in Canada.  I usually show my AMEX Canada Platinum card to get into Canadian Plaza Premium lounges.  I have never had an issue with the 3 hour limit.  They don't list an 2-3 hour limit on the AMEX website.

 

Hmm, IDK then.  During our recent trip in June, when we used our AMEX Platinum at the domestic Plaza Premium lounge in YVR, the person checking us in was verbally going through her checks and confirmed if our flight was leaving within two (or three?) hours.  

Also, IIRC, they also checked our connecting time at the Westjet lounge in YYC and didn't want to let us in if it was longer than two hours.  Maybe I should have challenged that because I thought there was no limit for connections.  But, the Westjet lounge was extremely busy and we had to wait to get in.  They didn't kick us out though when our connection was extremely delayed.

[em-sk]

2 hours ago, Milhouse said:

Priority Pass is one of many airport lounge membership programs that provides access to specific airport lounges/lounge networks they have partnerships with for you and possibly a guest.  However, there are varying membership levels with the lowest requiring an additional fee for each lounge entry to the highest providing unlimited "free" entries.  

 

To get a Priority Pass card, you can apply for one directly with Priority Pass.  Alternatively, some higher tier/travel credit cards provide free membership to Priority Pass such as the AMEX Platinum card (though you still have to go through the process to register with Priority Pass but not pay the fee).

 

Points to note:

There are other airport lounge membership programs eg. Dragon Pass.  

Some higher end/travel cards provide their own lounge memberships programs (eg. Mastercard Lounge Key, Visa Airport Companion, etc) with their own rules (eg. Certain number of free entrances vs having to pay for each entrance and guest) and what airport lounges/lounge networks they provide you access to (ie. Your lounge membership program won't get you into any lounge; only the ones they partner with).

You can also sometimes buy entrance directly with the some lounges (eg. Plaza Premium lounges).

You may have to wait to enter the lounge if it is full.  Priority (for airline specific lounges) typically goes to those having airline status or flying biz class and above.  

 

 

Hmm, IDK then.  During our recent trip in June, when we used our AMEX Platinum at the domestic Plaza Premium lounge in YVR, the person checking us in was verbally going through her checks and confirmed if our flight was leaving within two (or three?) hours.  

Also, IIRC, they also checked our connecting time at the Westjet lounge in YYC and didn't want to let us in if it was longer than two hours.  Maybe I should have challenged that because I thought there was no limit for connections.  But, the Westjet lounge was extremely busy and we had to wait to get in.  They didn't kick us out though when our connection was extremely delayed.

 

AMEX has a deal with Plaza Premium.  You don't use Priority Pass to get into those lounges.  You show your AMEX card.   

 

AMEX also pays for some membership in the Priority Pass program for its members. Most Priority pass lounges have 3 hour limits.

 

WestJet does not have a deal with AMEX for lounge access.  WestJet does have a deal with Priority Pass.

 

It can also be different if your connecting.  The AMEX Centrium lounges in the US allow you to get in from 3 hours if your originating at the airport.  No limit is in place if your making a connection.