Thread: US Direct transfers at Vancouver Airport

Click the link for more info.

http://www.portvancouver.com/vanAlaC.../usDirect.html

Reggie

Thanks for the info We will be flying into Vancouver on May 6th and we will not be able to use this then because our cruise will not begin till the next day on May 7th but.... our cruise ends on May 14th and we fly out the afternoon of the 14th on Air Canada.

They tried this out in 2005 for most cruiselines, and the reception was a good one. Most people seemed to like the process and thought it worked well for them!

Although if you are planning on spending pre or post cruise time in Vancouver, this would not work. But then again, if you were there pre or post cruise time, you wouldn't have the Customs hassle that people run into going to the airport direct from the pier or going to the pier direct from the airport

So can anyone tell me, what kind of hassle if any will we run into by going a day ahead of time to Vancouver. Do we go thru any type of customs coming into Vancouver? We fly in on Saturday at about 1:30 in the afternoon and have reservations to stay at the Pan Pacific, then the next day board the Ryndam. Then I did allow quite a few hours before our plane leave from getting off the ship. I really wanted to take the Tour of Vancouver but it sayd the flights must be after 3 PM and I believe our flight is like 2:20 now that I have check it.

Lisa...

Since I am assuming that your flight is direct from LAS to YVR, you will have to go through Customs since that is your first point of entry into Canada. Its really not that bad. However, since you are coming in on a Saturday afternoon, and I am presuming that there are some ships embarking on Saturday at 5:00 pm, it might be a little crowded. However, you are going early enough in the season that there won't be that many ships there yet.

On the return trip, a 2:00 pm flight should be no problem. Check in should be a breeze. However, allow about 1 hour to go through US Customs. Basically you enter this part of the YVR Airport designated US land. It says "You are now entering the United States" and they have US Customs officers there. This way you don't have to go through it when you return back to LAS. The lines are rather long sometimes, and they are slow. So I would say 1 hour is a safe amount of time to make sure you get through it all.

Lisa, I was there about 2 months ago. The line was terribly long ... it took us about 1-1/2hrs to get through customs. That didn't include checking in at the counter.
So to be safe, allow a couple hours. That place can be a zoo.

RCCL has a program called Luggage Valet.
You can check your bags from the ship
and get a boarding pass for your airline flight
while on the ship.
The cost for this service is $20 per person.
You are allowed to check 2 bags per person.

Here's the link for on board check in service
showing participating cruise lines and airlines.

http://www.yvr.ca/guide/around/onboard/