Canada: Question about Time between landing at airport and arriving at Ferry to Vancouver Island

Are you taking the Tsawwassen ferry to Swartz Bay or the Horseshoe Bay ferry to Nanaimo?

2:00 pm ferry. If leaving from Tsawwasen you have to make it through the traffic bottleneck on f the tunnel under the Fraser River. Lots to keep you occupied near the ferry dock if early. There is a large shopping mall. My favorite bakery , Cobbs Bakery is just a few blocks from the main highway. Worth a stop.

tsawassan ferry. thank you for your quick replies. I will take the 2:00 ferry! We avoid stress as much as we can !!!

ONE MORE THING: I will book the 2:00. IF there is room on the 1:00 and we get there early, will they let me get on the boat?

Check-in times
With a reservation – Arrive at the terminal 30 to 60 minutes prior to the scheduled departure. Your booking will not be honoured and travel will be based on your order of arrival at the terminal if you arrive before booking check-in has opened, or after booking check-in has closed.
Booking check-in opens 60 minutes prior to the scheduled departure for foot passengers and vehicles bound for all destinations.
https://www.bcferries.com/routes-fares/schedules/daily/TSA-SWB

When is this trip. If your arrival is a Friday in July, I suspect traffic to the ferry dock will be moving not fast.

googlemap shows an estimated travel time of 25-40 minutes from airport to ferry dock.

What is your flights history of arrival time?

Are you a BRAC 'Fast break' member?

Wait! Don’t book yet.

Which date is this for?
If it’s summer, a weekend, a long weekend, or a public holiday, it’s the drive and traffic you need to worry about.
There is a tunnel as part of the highway and ongoing big roadworks just before it.

Arrive at airport and get bags and get to car rental: could be up to an hour.
Renting car and finding your way to the highway, possibly up to another hour.
Driving to the ferry terminal depending on traffic: 45-60 minutes…..if no tunnel delay or accidents.
I live on that route and those events are nearly every week, delaying traffic for miles around.

You must be at the ferry terminal drive-up ticket window presenting your reservation no later than 30 minutes prior to sailing or you will be refused boarding.
They recommend 30-60 minutes.

I am bring extra cautious here, but if I were you I would book a 3pm sailing or later, just to be safe.
If you miss your sailing, you may wait past a number of other sailings depending on how busy that day is.
There is no guarantee of being put on the next one.
If you did arrive early, if they have room, you may get on an earlier boat, but no guarantee there either.
Best of luck!
The ferry trips are like mini cruises.

It's mid-week in Sept. My arrival is 11:20am and I booked a 2:00 ferry. The car rental is walking distance from the airport. So, I'm allowing 2hours and 10 minutes to get to the ferry 30 minutes early. I have to think that's enough time! Do you really think I should book a 3:00 ferry? I could cancel and re-book. But, many times the flights going west arrive early.

You should be good with the 2pm booking. Getting out of the airport and getting your car should take about an hour. From the airport it will only take a few minutes to get to the highway to go south to the ferry, and then it shouldn’t take more than half an hour to get to the terminal. At that time of day there will be two lanes going south through the tunnel, it doesn’t change to three lanes until rush hour. There will be a bit of a slow down, but then it should be up to speed on the other side. Traffic incidents are unpredictable, and if something occurs in the tunnel you will be there a while so reserving a 3pm ferry likely wouldn’t help.

Hi…it’s entirely up to you of course, but having lived here for over 30 years, driven that highway hundreds of times, and now avoiding it whenever possible because of the tunnel, the road works and the frequent tunnel accidents causing backups, I would still advocate for the 3pm sailing.
The ferry terminal has plenty of food and coffee kiosks if you do end up being there a bit early.

matureandtravels

Which date in September? And are you going to Duke Point or Swartz Bay? If mid-week and well after Labour Day, the big Spirit ferries to Swartz Bay are unlikely to sell out mid-week and mid-day. Fire up google maps as soon as you land to check travel time. You can always try to change your reservation up to one hour before departure. But if you are unable to change the reservation and just missed it, chances are there will be availability on the next ferry.

Is there at least 2 of you in the car? If so, on Highway 99 southbound before the tunnel, you can use the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane to bypass some of the congestion before the tunnel; it can save you some valuable minutes. The worst case scenario is if there is a complete blockage of the tunnel, in which case, you would need to detour to Highway 91, if it's not already too late to turn off, and take the Alex Fraser Bridge. That will add approximately 30 minutes to your drive. Good luck.