Princess Shuttle to Seattle

[VJV2024]

We will be taking the princess shuttle from Vancouver to Seattle in July.  if you have done this in 2023 please share your experience and any suggestions I should keep in mind.  I will be traveling with kids.

[capriccio]

Welcome to cruise critic!  There is so much information available here that it takes a little time to research the various forums.

 

For all things Princess check out their board (all cruise lines have their own board for cruise line specific questions and discussions):  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/

 

If you have general questions about cruising with kids, the Family Cruises board is useful:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/28-family-cruises/

 

I presume you are on an Alaska cruise.  Our first Princess cruise was Alaska 2007 and since then we've gone back two more times and have sailed on Princess over 30 times.  I hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we do.

[Greg4502]

The bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle is 3 hours long. 

[VJV2024]

7 minutes ago, Greg4502 said:

The bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle is 3 hours long. 

Greg, have you taken the shuttle?

[martincath]

If it's Vancouver to Seattle, am I correct in assuming that this is a post-cruise shuttle to get you to a flight out of Seatac? If not, please clarify!

 

Unfortunately even if you get accurate feedback, there's no guarantee your experience will be the same as folks last year had, or even folks the day before you - Princess (and the other lines too) do not have a singular process, or a singular local charter bus line they always use, or even a constant legal framework to operate the service within, so at times the experience literally varies day to day not just season to season. Given I live in Vancouver, I've never taken a cruiseline transfer to Seatac - but I've crossed the border in every remotely sensible way you can and seen enough reports from folks who complained when something went screwy with their transfers to be aware of how the local logistics work.

 

I can therefore talk you through the theoretical options - from the simplest (and least likely, as it requires buy-in from port authority and both Canadian and US border control agencies) to the most-annoying (where the line, despite taking your money, has no bus booked at all and just buys you a seat on the 9:10am scheduled QuickCoach that leaves from the pier at least 5 days a week in summer). Which you will get you likely until the day before when your Disembarkation docs appear under the cabin door; you may even find out at the pier who's going on which bus!

 

Best case is a Sealed Bus Transfer - legally you never leave US territory, boarding inside the pier without going through Canadian customs, the bus door literally sealed with a sticker, drive to the border where CBP just check that the seal remains intact and if it is wave you through. This is the fastest possible drive, as literally no stops in Canada (illegal to do so!) and probably not even a toilet stop between US border and SEA, and 3 hours end to end is possible if there's not much traffic in Seattle. These trips however need so many people to agree that they're happening it's best to assume you will NOT get this treatment - even pre-Covid the shorter rides just to YVR's US controlled wing failed to happen more seasons than they managed to get all their ducks in a row and make happen, so the odds are against you. If this is an option, it should be advertised as such - names like a 'US Direct Transfer' have been used in the past.

 

Next-easiest, and the most likely if you are cruising in Summer rather than close to the beginning or end of the season, is a direct transfer by charter coach - you'll have to disembark, go through Canadian customs (this may happen onboard depending on cruise route - if you are asked to hand in a customs form aboard you probably will not see CNSA at all in the pier), then walk over to the bus (inside the pier, many buses, be sure to get the correct one!) and leave your bags next to the trunk hatch. Get driven to the border, park, get off and retrieve your bags from next to the bus, head inside to drop them on the x-ray scanner belt (no trolleys, no porters!), be processed by CBP for entry to the US, collect your bags and take them back outside next to the bus again, reboard. With processing time at the border, expect at least a 4hr trip - they might also add a toilet break stop.

 

NB: the bag schlepping thing is the default - but CBP can choose not to ask for it, leaving bags onboard the bus instead, or even go so far as to let you all stay aboard the bus holding up your passports and have an agent walk the aisle, comparing faces to IDs. As a charterbus full of cruisers, in US waters until yesterday, with basically no time to have gone shopping in Canada before boarding the bus, and probably almost all US citizens and greencard holders, there is no official statistic but common sense indicates your coachload is more likely to benefit from a 'light' inspection due to being low-risk compared to a random bus-ticket buying person... but always assume you will go through the whole rigamarole!

 

Least-easy is when instead of a charter, you are added to an existing QuickCoach departure - basically it's the same process as a charter in terms of border crossing, but because your fellow pax could be literally anyone the odds of nicer-than-they-need-to-be CBP treatment diminish! QuickCoach express service does also stop a few times, so their official timing is ~4h50m to SEA from downtown Vancouver.

 

Why won't you know in advance what will happen? Because until the last night of the cruise anyone aboard can buy a seat on a transfer... so Princess literally don't know how many seats are needed. If it's less than a coachload, but they had enough advance sales to have already chartered a bus, great - it's when the number of seats sold exceeds the capacity of the booked vehicles that things get messy, with perhaps a minibus hired at short notice or seats booked on QuickCoach depending how many extra bums need seats to sit on.

 

Honestly, short of finding an advertised sealed-bus transfer in advance you should at least consider booking your own transport independently - renting a car for the day will very likely be both cheaper and much more flexible in timing and routing, since you mentioned kids that means at least three or more of you and those per-person tickets really add up. If you don't have a flight to catch same day, the evening train is both much more pleasant and significantly cheaper than any bus (adults $34, kids even less, some ages even free with Amtrak Saver tix). Even booking QuickCoach direct you can probably spend less to get basically the same experience - direct from pier to airport - and at least know you have a seat reserved on a QC coach rather than a random factor to worry about.

 

Only if you have Princess flights booked would letting them do it for you be worth giving up control of timing and pricing of your transpo IMO - since if they fail to get you to the flight in time they'll be on the hook for all the rebooking costs.

[Mary229]

I agree with checking the Princess board.  Princess operates its own shuttle and if it is like HAL’s you gather your luggage and step onto the bus right at the terminal.  If you call Princess they will tell you how early your flight can be to play it safe. 

Edited April 4 by Mary229

[VJV2024]

23 hours ago, martincath said:

If it's Vancouver to Seattle, am I correct in assuming that this is a post-cruise shuttle to get you to a flight out of Seatac? If not, please clarify!

 

Unfortunately even if you get accurate feedback, there's no guarantee your experience will be the same as folks last year had, or even folks the day before you - Princess (and the other lines too) do not have a singular process, or a singular local charter bus line they always use, or even a constant legal framework to operate the service within, so at times the experience literally varies day to day not just season to season. Given I live in Vancouver, I've never taken a cruiseline transfer to Seatac - but I've crossed the border in every remotely sensible way you can and seen enough reports from folks who complained when something went screwy with their transfers to be aware of how the local logistics work.

 

I can therefore talk you through the theoretical options - from the simplest (and least likely, as it requires buy-in from port authority and both Canadian and US border control agencies) to the most-annoying (where the line, despite taking your money, has no bus booked at all and just buys you a seat on the 9:10am scheduled QuickCoach that leaves from the pier at least 5 days a week in summer). Which you will get you likely until the day before when your Disembarkation docs appear under the cabin door; you may even find out at the pier who's going on which bus!

 

Best case is a Sealed Bus Transfer - legally you never leave US territory, boarding inside the pier without going through Canadian customs, the bus door literally sealed with a sticker, drive to the border where CBP just check that the seal remains intact and if it is wave you through. This is the fastest possible drive, as literally no stops in Canada (illegal to do so!) and probably not even a toilet stop between US border and SEA, and 3 hours end to end is possible if there's not much traffic in Seattle. These trips however need so many people to agree that they're happening it's best to assume you will NOT get this treatment - even pre-Covid the shorter rides just to YVR's US controlled wing failed to happen more seasons than they managed to get all their ducks in a row and make happen, so the odds are against you. If this is an option, it should be advertised as such - names like a 'US Direct Transfer' have been used in the past.

 

Next-easiest, and the most likely if you are cruising in Summer rather than close to the beginning or end of the season, is a direct transfer by charter coach - you'll have to disembark, go through Canadian customs (this may happen onboard depending on cruise route - if you are asked to hand in a customs form aboard you probably will not see CNSA at all in the pier), then walk over to the bus (inside the pier, many buses, be sure to get the correct one!) and leave your bags next to the trunk hatch. Get driven to the border, park, get off and retrieve your bags from next to the bus, head inside to drop them on the x-ray scanner belt (no trolleys, no porters!), be processed by CBP for entry to the US, collect your bags and take them back outside next to the bus again, reboard. With processing time at the border, expect at least a 4hr trip - they might also add a toilet break stop.

 

NB: the bag schlepping thing is the default - but CBP can choose not to ask for it, leaving bags onboard the bus instead, or even go so far as to let you all stay aboard the bus holding up your passports and have an agent walk the aisle, comparing faces to IDs. As a charterbus full of cruisers, in US waters until yesterday, with basically no time to have gone shopping in Canada before boarding the bus, and probably almost all US citizens and greencard holders, there is no official statistic but common sense indicates your coachload is more likely to benefit from a 'light' inspection due to being low-risk compared to a random bus-ticket buying person... but always assume you will go through the whole rigamarole!

 

Least-easy is when instead of a charter, you are added to an existing QuickCoach departure - basically it's the same process as a charter in terms of border crossing, but because your fellow pax could be literally anyone the odds of nicer-than-they-need-to-be CBP treatment diminish! QuickCoach express service does also stop a few times, so their official timing is ~4h50m to SEA from downtown Vancouver.

 

Why won't you know in advance what will happen? Because until the last night of the cruise anyone aboard can buy a seat on a transfer... so Princess literally don't know how many seats are needed. If it's less than a coachload, but they had enough advance sales to have already chartered a bus, great - it's when the number of seats sold exceeds the capacity of the booked vehicles that things get messy, with perhaps a minibus hired at short notice or seats booked on QuickCoach depending how many extra bums need seats to sit on.

 

Honestly, short of finding an advertised sealed-bus transfer in advance you should at least consider booking your own transport independently - renting a car for the day will very likely be both cheaper and much more flexible in timing and routing, since you mentioned kids that means at least three or more of you and those per-person tickets really add up. If you don't have a flight to catch same day, the evening train is both much more pleasant and significantly cheaper than any bus (adults $34, kids even less, some ages even free with Amtrak Saver tix). Even booking QuickCoach direct you can probably spend less to get basically the same experience - direct from pier to airport - and at least know you have a seat reserved on a QC coach rather than a random factor to worry about.

 

Only if you have Princess flights booked would letting them do it for you be worth giving up control of timing and pricing of your transpo IMO - since if they fail to get you to the flight in time they'll be on the hook for all the rebooking costs.

Martin, thank you for taking the time to explain all the possibilities we may encounter.  I am a person that wants to hear the worst-case scenario and hope for the best. I am the one that thinks about how we are getting from point A to point B. Do we have all the required documents, etc.  We did pay for the Princess transfer with our cruise.  Again, thank you!!!

[VJV2024]

20 hours ago, Mary229 said:

I agree with checking the Princess board.  Princess operates its own shuttle and if it is like HAL’s you gather your luggage and step onto the bus right at the terminal.  If you call Princess they will tell you how early your flight can be to play it safe. 

Mary, thank you.  I will follow up.