We disembarked the Crown Princess June 23 and had a 11:30 am domestic flight back home to Edmonton, Alberta. There was one other ship disembarking that morning. I'll admit I was nervous if this was doable to catch this flight but my optimistic husband said we would be fine😀 . I'm pleased to confirm everything went smoothly! Here's what we did:
We chose the walk-off option. We were given "Group C" which meant meet at the Explorer's Lounge at 8:05. There were two groups ahead of us with meeting times of 7:45 and 7:55. However when we arrived at 7:50, there was just one general line and no one was asking which group you were in, so we just joined the line. Line started moving just before 8 am.
Canadian Customs was quick - line kept moving and we handed in our declaration card and by 8:09 we were outside, street level in from on Canada Place Terminal.
Walked to Waterfront Station, bought our tickets (note: tickets were noticeable cheaper on the return leg since the Vancouver airport adds a tax on the tickets when travelling from YVR to Waterfront (so we were told by a staff member in the station helping out). Skytrain is the way to go in terms of ease of use and cheaper than a taxi if you are ok with managing your own luggage (we had one suitcase and one carryon).
We were at the airport, checked in, luggage dropped off and in the departure lounge by 9:10 am. Our flight didn't board until 10:50 am. I had even pre-booked our security spot for 9:45 am which we didn't need to use as we got there much earlier than I expected. Security line took about 10-15 minutes.
Just wanted to share as I know this topic comes up now and again. I can't speak for how smoothly this would go if you were returning to the US or flying international.