I was looking for tansportation service from the YVR airport to the cruise ship terminal for my Alaskan cruise. I had a large party and an infant so I wanted to make sure everything was smooth because there was already enough stress traveling with 5 Adults and a baby.
The first red flag was when I called to ask questions about the rates and service (I wanted a van and a carseat for the infant) but was told to email them instead. So I did and from then on, all corespondance was via email. They told me they didn't have a van but will send a limo instead. OK, fine. I asked about the carseat, they said it will be taken cared of. I paid for a meet and greet service at the airport and a pick up at the cruise ship terminal. I gave them our flight info and a credir card. Everything seemed set.
Our flight was secheduled to arrive 11:20 AM, we got out of the gate at 11:45 (after getting our bag and going through customs) and looked around - no sign with our name on it. So we looked aroound for about 10 minutes. I finally turned on my phone and paid the internation rate to call the company to ask where the driver was. They gave me the driver's number so I can call him directly. Turns out the guy was at a gas station getting gas!! What??? Ok, fine. He said he was on his way and to meet him outside, hung up. I dragged everyone outside, and it hit me, where the heck am I supposed to meet him? The curbside pick up at this airport is not clearly marked. So I left the group to wander the streets and out of sheer luck I screamed out to a limo driver if he was our driver and he was. I asked him where does he want to pick us up and he pointed to a curb. So I got everyone to the car he we started loading. All of the bags fit in the trunk so he asked us to shove some into the limo with us. Ok... fine. There was also no car seat. I called the dispatch to asked about the car seat and the refund for the meet and greet since we didn't get a meet and greet. I was told that the meet and greet would not get refunded to me because it's the cost they pay to the airport for the pick up and not just for the driver to hold the sign and the baby did not need a car seat because it's a limo which is considered as a shuttle bus. Since it was a short drive and I didn't want to start off my vacation pissed off, I again rolled with it.
As we were about to pull out the curbside security came and talked to the driver. The driver was told to pull into a stall across the street. We were told to wait in the car. At this point everyone was starving, we left our airport at 6 AM and haven't eaten anything since! 30 minutes later we found out the driver got a ticket for parking illegally! Close to 1 PM we were finally on our way. The rest of the ride was uneventful and the driver was nice so I thought everything was behind us. To avoid another headache, I asked the driver where we will get picked up after out cruise, he said just asked the terminal workers, they will be able to point us to where the limos are parked. Seems simple enough.
Flash forward to our return. We disembarked out ship and headed to the limo pick up. The attendance was nice and explained to us that all the limos are held in a lot and as we come out he will call the lot to let our limo out. He took out names and called the lot. Again our limo was not there! Everyone in the party at this point was so fed up with this limo company and I was the person responsible since I booked it. Again, had to turn on my cell, pay another international call to get the driver's number. Found out that they wanted to pick us up in front of the Pan Pacific Hotel, which was not a far walk but when you have 7 suitcase and a baby, this is a long trek! Especially when you are seeing other limo companies pick up passengers right from the terminal!
All in all, two stars because the people that helped us were all very nice, except our first driver Ron who got the ticket and gave us the wrong pick up info, but the pick up service/logistic is sub-par.
Next time I'm going to use aero car. They have a booth right outside of the door at YVR and we saw them drop off and picked up tons of people on our cruise without any hassle. read more