martincath

Taxi price is now set at $41, and explicitly works in both directions - it used to be sometimes honoured unofficially by cabbies, but now they have to let you! In theory if the pier is not active, a cab from the PP (even thouigh literally same address) does NOT qualify for fixed fare... and a metered run that avoids rush hour should actually be less than $40 anyway, so it's no loss really.

I believe that we do have an independent shuttle again this year - but I would contact them to confirm what payment methods they take, and also to confirm that their website pricing is not a mistake! Last year, like each year before since Ace started operating, prices nudged up a buck or so - IIRC it was $23pp, small discount for seniors/kids. This year apparently it's doubled to $46!!! Considering a cab is less, that makes them almost as overpriced as a cruiseline shuttle with zero luggage schlepping included, so unless it's a misprint I simply can't recommend them even for a solo traveler - absolute madness!

As ever, if you can disembark with your own bags then you're strong enough to also use SkyTrain - it's a shorter walk than it was from your cabin to the curb, dirt-cheap even on a weekday, reliably the fastest (~26mins end to end, with service frequency as short as every 6 mins). If you need a vehicle, cabs still come under the pier but Uberlyft now have to wait on the street, about a hundred yards west on Canada Place, but unless Surge pricing applis should be a fair whack less than a cab (I'm mostly seeing numbers in the high 20s, low 30s of CAD).

If you've got a late domestic flight back east and want to store bags, PP is still the most practical and convenient (there are some other places that cost a little less, but need prebooking and might mean walking a few blocks with bags).

7 hours ago, doghog said:

Returning from an Alaskan cruise on 20 September 2024 on the Celebrity Edge. Are there porters as you disembark to schlep your luggage thru customs? Are there taxis waiting to take you to the Vancouver airport? 

 

Our Passports expire 25 Jan 2025. Will our Passports still be valid for our 13 thru 20 September Alaskan cruise? The cruise leaves from Seattle and returns to Vancouver? 

Yes, there are porters... but depending how many other ships are in port, and how quickly you get off your ship compared to other pax same day, having a porter available right away isn't guaranteed! Ditto on Taxis - they'll be there to get there very fair $41 fixed rate fare to the airport, but unless you are aming the first folks off the queue for cabs can get pretty long... fortunately, even if you are not an Uber/Lyft user, more and more other folks are - every one of them reduces demand for the cabs, so I'd be shocked if you had to wait an hour even on a 3 or 4 ship day.

Heading straight to the airport is never recommended of course - a same day flight is always a little bit risky even if it's mid-afternoon (big storms, busted azipod, medical emergency that forces a detour etc. etc. etc.) and there's so much to see and do around Vancouver that if you can afford the time, at least one night and then an early flight back home that you don't have to fight cruise pax traffic at YVR to get on is a far more pleasant way to end a vaycay!

Speaking of Immigration & Customs - Canada is among the more techy-savvy and just plain convenient nations to enter, especially when cruising... your ID will be run remotely before you even reach port, and if there's any reason to give you some extra questioning you can expect your name to be called out to report somewhere aboard once you reach the first Canadian port so CBSA can decide whether to even let you off the ship! No criminal record, no unlucky 'same name as someone else who did something bad' or the like, and like most folks you just walk off the ship once it's cleared.

Customs is likewise done remotely - cards filled in aboard and dropped off at reception, usually the night before your arrival in Canada as a deadline. Assuming you are a foreigner, not Canadian, we really don't care much about Customs so you may literally not even see anyone from CBSA for either element of your entry! Us locals are liable for Duty, so if we declare over duty free limits a chat, and a payment, awaits us ashore! Unless foreigners declare something illegal, in need of specific import paperwork, or just get really unlucky with a random extra search it's usually much faster.

And as mentioned above, if it's a US (or Canadian!) Passport then our government doesn't care about a future expiration date at all - not sure about Celebrity's rules, as I have never cruised with them, but if they're good to let you aboard with only ~4months left you won't have issues from Canada.

Maybe you'll get lucky here with a personal report or two, but Tripadvisor will be a better bet (more users as more general); and Expedia reviews can only be done after a confirmed stay so they're about as trustworthy a baseline as it gets.

As a local I can say that I'd have zero hesitation recommending the location for a short stay - one of the quietest parts of downtown, very convenient for the park and English Bay, a short and cheap cab ride to the pier with bags although about as far as it gets for foot travel at over 1.5miles. Plenty restos on Denman St within a few minutes walk.

Honestly the only real inconvenience has more impact on residents, very little on tourists - have to drive through some of the worst traffic downtown to get anywhere else, no SkyTrain station, so if your job is not within walking distance it's a less convenient neighbourhood than the other end of the core!

For you though, if you had no interest in wandering Stanley Park and the Seawall but would want to visit say Chinatown, Mount Pleasant, anywhere outside the core then book a different hotel further east - but if you want to do a mixed bag of things, every hotel in the core ends up fairly comparable as you can't be right next to all of the popular spots (Granville Island, Gastown, Chinatown, Stanley Park tend to be the places most folks think are the 'Must Sees').

But given the tiny distances involved, and how we have conveniently placed the pier and most hotels within the same part of town as most of the big tourist attractions - even walking all the way from your hotel to Chinatown would be quicker than coming in on SkyTrain from any airport hotel!

2 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

How far from airport is the cruise terminal? TIA

A little under 10 miles by road - Google usually maps all your transportation options pretty accurately here, whether you drive or transit.

15 minutes ago, Kalynan said:

... Don't see why the Whitecaps need to give them free tickets though, 'cos they aren't able to guarantee that the opposing team will play him in the match, even presuming he is uninjured & fit to play in the game.

 

Would easily bring a pair of Smokies but not so sure the other passengers on the plane would appreciate the aroma and wouldn't want to infringe any Canadian customs & border regulations🐟

Exactly - if you watch a team sport, you are paying for the team not any given player... but the 'Caps did shoot themselves in the foot by advertising using the phrase 'Whitecaps vs. Messi' and chose to put their prices up hugely compared to other home games.

If they'd kept the prices the same as all the other matches, nobody could rationally complain - and with the extra demand they'd still have made buckets opening up the upper levels to more than triple their regular season attendance (a full stadium at ~60,000 seats compared to the lower bowl max ~22,000 which rarely sells more than ~17,000 anyway), but jacking up all the prices and linking it directly to Messi (and Suarez and Busquets, none of whom showed despite being confirmed fit) in advertising was a very poor choice - the first stage of the apology once Inter Miami announced the lack of stars was free kids meals for <18s and half price food & drink for adults on the day, which backfired like everyone who's ever been to BC Place for a sellout gig could have told them it would... simply not enough outlets to possibly supply all the victuals, even if they'd given the vendors more than 2 days notice to staff up and stock more food, just all-around idiocy.

They're at least doing it fairly in July when Wrexham visit - that's a friendly not an MLS game, entirely driven by the popularity of the TV show, and advertised as Team v. Team, so whatever the market will bear is fine by me (although I'll definitely think less of Ryan unless he distributes a bunch of free tickets to local kiddies charities!) Still ridiculously pricey though, so we're going to watch the better Wrexham team - their women! - play in Portland, for about twelve quid each for good seats in the much-better-than-BC Place atmosphere of the iconic Providence Park stadium (the oldest dedicated MLS facility, with a lovely 1926 curved main stand which has had several very sympathetic renovations - the 'new' roof is all local timbers and blends in beautifully). Frankly womens football is the superior game here anyway, there's a greater depth of talent as 'soccer' was written off as 'a girls game' in North America for decades!

Maybe if you bring enough Smokies that everyone on the plane can have a pair...? 😉

2 hours ago, Kalynan said:

... Our local team (the world-record-holders Red Lichties) got relegated this year, so they'll be up against QoS next season, so understand what type of quality football (ahem, 'soccer') to expect.  We're really just going to see Ryan Gauld (if he's playing) who did a lot of his youth development with Dundee Utd and also to have the bragging rights of having been in the stadium when it is utilised during the 2026 World Cup (maybe even see Scotland playing there on TV if they qualify).

Tix for the caps will be a fraction of the cost of the Cup, good call! I hope you get to see your guy, but that you're not disappointed if you don't - just last week so many Not Real Caps Fans were paying about 5 times the regular price in hopes of seeing Messi when Miami came to town, and the resale market was running easily 10x normal - now there's complaints and threats of lawsuits because not a single famous 'Galactico' was on the travel team, and the 'caps have given free tickets to a future match to everyone in hopes of shutting them up!

Hopefully there'll be no 36-0 spankings of Queens next season, and the only sporting team mentioned in the Bible (Matthew 12:42) will rise to the occasion and defeat you😉

Are your guys still part-timers? If memory serves there was some sort of 'highest ranked part-time team' status you held recently as well (footie has never really been my thing, but in recent years I've been tracking news more because we have a cousin playing for Scotland, although now he's in the English leagues at QPR - but I check the Queens scores now and again, so I'll probably see more Arbroath news when you're in the same league, and hopefully the trend of Scotland qualifying for international competitions will continue now we've made two consecutive Euros, even if just to save the whining and swearing on family facebook pages... my Dad takes the game seriously enough to have named my sister after Ally McLeod in '78!!!!)

Don't suppose you're bringing any Smokies over with you? I'd be happy to give you a private tour in exchange for being able to make a really good kedgeree again 😉 

10 hours ago, Brandis said:

Thanks. It's not so much the cheesecakes that we go to the CCF though, I love their avocado eggrolls with tamarind sauce.

 

I don't think I'll be tempted to eat Swiss food abroad, we don't even eat it much here either.

 

I have fond memories of Old Spaghetti Factory in Whistler, probably will give it a try again in Whistler.

 

There used to be a fun monastry-themed place on Water Street in Gastown, I believe near where The Old Spaghetti Factory is as well. I think it was called Brothers or something like that.

 

Any recommendations for good breakfast places around Chinatown? I heard Jam Cafe is good.

While it closed before I moved here, I've eaten in two of the restos that took over the space (1 Water St) that used to be Brothers (originally Brother Jons) - so you can look in the windows to see how it's changed over several resto lifetimes since, nothing remotely monastic about the theme now! The access doors changed years ago to be round the corner on Carrall, not Water, and right now it's Monarca, a Mexican resto run by the same chef who runs Ophelia in the village - given our 'meh' experiences in the latter, we haven't tried dining in Monarca.

OSF I'm not a fan of personally - quantity over quality, too many kids running about - but if I get outvoted, I do like the 'Greek spaghetti' with myzithra & brown butter. I believe Gastown is actually the oldest resto in their chain, as the original Portland spot changed location years ago.

Jam Cafe is decent, but far too popular for how good it is - worth eating in, yes, but not worth queuing for! Their dishes are more Instagrammable than delicious. If it's the weekend, on the same block you can get IMO a better breakfast in Chambar with no queue - they do basically the same waffles as Medina, which are the best in town and one of the few real Liege style with imported high-voltage equipment to caramelize the exterior correctly.

Back to brekkie around Chinatown - aside from hitting up New Town Bakery, which is best done early as they run out of stuff by lunch (NB: cash only, unless you have a Canadian debit card), the only brekkie we go for regularly in Chinatown is served weekends-only in the Irish Heather (pretty much a Full Irish, both Black and White pudding, although they abandoned Soda farls in favour of regular bread and they don't fry it in the bacon grease so it's a wee bit too healthy to be a proper fry up!) but if you're thinking Dim Sum, you can get 'brunch' from 9am daily in Jade Dynasty - which had a fairly recent reno, so it's a nice, open, clean tourist-friendly place to dine, no expectation of sharing big tables with randos if your group is not huge.

There are also a couple of much-less-touristy-than-Jam diner options not far away: both are in a bit of a sketchy area, the Downtown EastSide, but since you seem to have visited Vancouver many years ago I'm going to assume you might be OK with less-than-salubrious surroundings and mention them! Ovaltine Cafe on Hastings is cheap as chips, and good, a real old school diner - beloved enough that not only did folks raise $20k to get them back after a fire last year, but also donated time and labour to help with the rebuild. Deacon's Corner is right at the top of Main St, convenient if you're going to wander Water St before or after (go along Alexander and it's on the corner with Main), and is more of a 'spinny stools along the bar' style diner than 'boxy wooden booths' like Ovaltine, but both plate up big meals at value prices.

Honestly though, the tastiest brekkie in the city remains Medina - which you'd walk within a block of on the way from O Canada to Chinatown. This is one of the very few places actually worth queuing for - and still reliably fills the sidewalk outside with folks waiting for brunch service - but is quieter if you come on a weekday for breakfast, even though the menu is the same as weekend brunch, and even takes resos if you make a charitable donation of $10pp... depending how much you value time vs. money, might be a very efficient spend.

Normally I'd put weblinks and maps in, but I'm killing time on my tablet rather than my desktop so you'll have to Google - watch out for Ovaltine's website as IIRC it's never been updated since the current owner took over ~10 years ago, so any prices etc. might be totally out of whack!

5 hours ago, lx200gps said:

Interesting that you say you were notified. SWMBO submitted her renewal application in early April, and we only found out she had been approved when we checked the status on the website and saw the approval letter dated 21 May. No formal approval notification had been sent. Thanks for the heads up on the 10 days, looks like we should be receiving it on the next few days.

First time I've actually been notified about being Approved by email - initial application and first renewal I heard nothing, my card just appeared in the mail - but my wife has always had emails at every stage of all her interactions with the program. Hers was also about ten days - but maybe yours will take longer if they have to find someone to retype the cover letter in French first 😉 

33 minutes ago, Brandis said:

@martincath Thanks for the detailed explanations!

No problem! Other answers embedded here in 'strong cyan' apparently - looks more green on my screen!

 I wonder how they do it on NB cruises from Vancouver to Alaska, I imagine those small Alaskan ports are not equipped to handle that many passengers for border procedures.

That's exactly why we have Preclearance on embarkation - CBP clear everyone heading to the US here far more efficiently, even on the busiest day, than they could possibly do without basically quintupling their staffing budget and adding many agents in every AK port! Same deal as how most US-bound flights from big Canadian airports have CBP onsite - cheaper for the US gov't than staffing every possible port of entry well!

Not all in our group have Global Entry though, so I assume we won‘t be able to use the Nexus lane.

Correct - unless everyone in the vehicle, even kids, has GE/NEXUS you have to use the regular lanes.

 

We plan on going to WA on a Monday, would that help with wait times?

Holiday Mondays are the worst possible days to return to Canada - and the occasional shared long weekend, like Labour Day or when Memorial overlaps Victoria, are bad both directions as many US folks head back south at the same time many Canadians come back north! Other Mondays? Better than weekends, but Fri/Mon are still a bit worse than Tue/Wed/Thu as lots of people can sneak one extra day vaycay! If you have total freedom, personally I'd pick Wednesday for your daytrip, minimal overlap with other leisure travelers then.

 

Also, what about the Abbotsford / Sumas crossing, better or worse than Bellingham.

Usually quicker, but coming from downtown Vancouver or Richmond, White Rock or even parts of Surrey, almost never enough quicker to offset the longer drive times - compare Google map travel times for the routes, or even better something realtime like Waze if a passenger has data, but even before we had NEXUS we only used the Pacific 'truck crossing' (10mins extra drive time compared to Peace Arch on I5/99) a handful of times and never used either of the further east options (which add up to an hour extra driving to downtown).

 

I was hoping on doing Cheesecake Factory in Bellingham though, as I like it and it‘s something I can‘t get in Switzerland (don‘t judge me) 🫣

No judgment here - we love everything about Cheesecake Factory... except the cheesecake! Their savoury menu is massive, and one visit back in the day to Chicago we ate two dinners in their 'test kitchen' because it was such an interesting menu - and if you know how good Chicago is to eat in, eating in the same place twice is about the highest praise I can give!

If you really enjoy cheesecake, you could do a lot worse than sampling Trees here in Vancouver (although their 'voted best cheesecake in Van' signs are from over a decade ago and other places are now better there are several convenient locations, and several flavours are very local); downtown on Robson very close to each other you could also compare and contrast a Basque style in Castella with Uncle Tetsu's Japanese.

Fortunately for you guys, our only local 'Swiss' resto closed (it was terrible - we actually used to eat pretty good Swiss food [i.e. not just Fondue and Rosti, which is what the crappy local place basically sold] a lot back in Edinburgh, even had our wedding breakfast in Denzlers) so you won't be tempted by homesickness to waste a dinner 😉

On 5/27/2024 at 9:21 AM, surgie said:

...is there anywhere convenient to Pan Pacific Hotel to purchase wine (convenient without a car but willing to walk a mile or so). 

Two spring the mind - the very close but mostly low-rent one at the Harbour Centre (<10mins walk, opposite Waterfront Station), which if you planned to visit the harbour centre for their viewing level or walk to Gastown, about as convenient as it gets!; but if you want as many options for fancy plonk as possible and better-trained staff to advise you, the Signature store on Bute is a much better bet: well under a mile, and if you e.g. walk along to Stanley Park or English Bay at any point, can be easily walked past on the way back to your hotel. Both are government stores, so prices are cheapest in town - map to both from the PP here.

Finally got my card in the mail last week, about 10 days after being notified I had been Approved; approx. eight and a half months from application to new card being put in wallet. Hopefully I'm the last of the folks who got caught up in whatever the heck big delay happened last Fall!

I'd also do Bridgeport - because the trains double up, if the first one is already too full to conveniently board with lots of bags you will wait as little as 2mins for the next train, and all the trains on the 'regular commuter' Richmond branch rather than YVR have far fewer people with luggage.

+1 to what Dennis said - we've been a few times, never paid, always had a good view! Especially if you're worried about staying awake for it, buying tix could be a total waste if you're too wiped to enjoy the show. Burrard Bridge is a pretty good vantage point that, while still popular, doesn't get the crowd density of along the beaches - and it's MUCH quicker to walk back from as unlike the beaches the only places to stand are on the bridge so everyone can start moving, while all the folks from the various paid seats, the grass, the sand etc. totally overwhelm the sidewalks and even closed roadways of the west end...

We made the mistake of going to English Bay our first visit, then all the way over the Vanier park the next show (longer walk, so even though less busy still took ages to get home) and third time was the charm - we've done the bridge every time since. The only time it was seriously packed was 8(?) years back when the Disney Imagineers were representing USA - I believe that was the single biggest event in Vancouvers history, with even conservative estimates running around 3/4 of a million folks, and the police had to shut down English Bay beach access entirely as the crowds became insanely huge there.

Another +1 for Andy's suggestions - I don't think the Bug Zoo ever extends their hours enough to get to even if you dock on time, the Royal BC Museum is only open late on Fri/Sat summer nights, and the rest of Victoria's attractions definitely skew more Retiree- than Child-oriented!

Well, the good news is if by GE above you mean that you have a Global Entry card (which I think was extended to Swiss citizens a number of years ago) you can use the NEXUS lane when driving south into the US - but you'll have to join one of the Regular Joe lanes returning into Canada as only actual NEXUS cards work northbound. So you don't have to worry much about what time of day you start your drive, but returning it might be a good idea to plan for dinner in Bellingham if it's a busy day (most summer weekends) and it's approaching ~5pm as you get near the border again. Check the highway signs, or if you have Data have a passenger check live for current border crossing delays - or if you like Mexican food have dinner even the border's quiet, because frankly random side-of-the-highway joints in WA are better than pretty much any Mexican food in Vancouver!

As to disembarking the ship, regardless of nationality your Immigration happens remotely before you even arrive, so unless you get called to report to somewhere aboard on the morning you sail into port you may not have to answer any questions from CBSA; and anecdotally (but very logically so) foreigners are much less likely then Canadians to be randomly tapped for an extra Customs inspection too (since whatever you bought in the US is very likely going home with you to wherever you live, rather than staying in Canada) so unless you declare something illegal or requiring a special import license or form there's a good chance that handing in a declaration card aboard the ship the day before you reach Vancouver (or your first Canadian Port of Entry if there are multiple Canadian stops) will be the only thing you need do...

17 hours ago, Milhouse said:

Ouch, that sucks.  Similar thing happened to my aunt and uncle many years back.  Their neighbour was cooking something up and basically blew up their corner of the building.  They were out of their unit for over a year.  

Yeesh - we've been about as lucky as we can be, with only a bit of the floor and adjoining wall to our master impacted, so we still have a clean bed and bathroom to use and provided nothing else unexpected happens we won't need to move ourselves and our stuff out (been there, done that, do not want to do it again!) But of course this is when my parents are coming to visit, so unless repairs get done ridiculously efficiently we'll be four people sharing a single bathroom - I grew up with even more people sharing one like many UK families, but Canadian housing standards of 'at least as many loos as bedrooms' have made me soft!!!

23 hours ago, Kalynan said:

We thought 4 hours at Grouse Mountain would allow for decent-ish value for money...  our accommodation at O Canada House B&B ... If we walk to the match on Saturday evening, is there somewhere you might recommend for an evening meal & perhaps a beer on the way there?

Thanks for tagging me in @Milhouse; have a few mins, and a change of mental pace from dealing with incorrect reports from our incompetent building management about fire damage might be just the thing!!!

I'd agree that 4 hours is a food timeframe to feel your Grouse pennies were well-spent, fellow Scot - sometimes you have to lean into that stereotype about getting value for money! On the 'soccer' front, while I'm not a big footie fan either I've attended a handful of 'Caps games - my folks enjoy them when they visit, and as long as your expectations are reasonable about the quality of play to expect, fun will be had (for perspective, my Dad is a lifelong QoS supporter like many Doonhamers, and we all agree that MLS tends to be more like Division 1/Championship level play than premier league despite the occasional 'sliding into retirement' star player who signs up).

There's a very long-term, very active local supporters club who have managed to wangle some food and drink deals at a handful of official 'supporter pubs' - current list here - so if you want to get into the pregame vibe with the Southsiders, these would be likely spots to find them. Given the general standards of Canadian politeness, you can safely visit these places - it's not like wearing the wrong scarf to the Sarrie Heid and getting your teeth knocked oot! - but there are loads of other bars and restos you could visit taking a fairly direct route to the stadium.

Personally I've always enjoyed Yaletown Brewing on a match day - they're more of a Canucks fans hockey bar, offering matchday shuttles to maximize your predrinking time(!), so on a footie night not so hoaching that you will struggle to get your food and bill promptly. They do Happy Hour daily too, even on match days. Big place, usually not too hard to get seated on a non-Hockey night, and a quite different vibe between the Resto and Bar sides of the establishment so you can pick which one fits your groups mood on the night - patio both sides and big open windows, so it's also easy to see from the street whether there are seats free! Good beers, a decent range brewed on-site, and generally decent pubgrub with the pizzas probably overall the things we enjoy eating most - the only thing we'd advise against is the Sticky Toffee Pudding, which I always warn Brits not to order anywhere in Canada if you're used to the real thing (it's invariably a sponge covered in sauce, perfectly decent if that was how it was described, but never even close to enough Dates to make the actual cake part sticky!)

If you fancy something a bit more Vancouvery than pub grub, several options even just on Robson within a few blocks of the stadium: Jinya Ramen make IMO the best broth on our local huge ramen scene (their premium pork version, Tonkatsu); Japadog have their sitdown resto on Robson with the full menu (most of their outlets are vans or hotdog carts with only a restricted menu); and on the same block is Viet Sub if you're running short on time and want a quick, very tasty sammich rather than the sitdown meal. There's also an A&W for IMO the least-bad fastfood burger in town if you really need to hustle to make the game - even if youre running late, better to eat a meh burger while walking there than wait until you get inside: prices inside the stadium are terrible, staffing levels suck even more than they did pre-Covid so everything takes forever, and even if you can stomach the beer prices they're super pedantic about drinking age so you can't just send one person to buy beers for all... definitely best to get your beer and food on Pre and Post game!

Logistical tip - don't rely on a GPS or Google map for getting to the stadium, they'll all default to the official address on the far side and make you walk loads extra! You can walk straight off the end of Robson St onto the 'plaza' that surrounds the stadium - the multiple Terry Fox statues artwork is nice and shows you're in the right place - but assuming you bought tickets in advance on phone, rather than needing to visit Will Call, you don't have to just join the big crowds. Any door gets you inside, and then you can move around to the right section - between tourists and even plenty of not-very-local-locals who slavishly follow signs to the door number on their ticket, all of our stadiums have a door or two which are massively overused compared to less obvious ones around the side. Since the Caps only sell the bottom bowl for most games, it's never as bad as a big concert or Lions game - but if you walk up from Robson and see big queues at A & H, try walking to your right towards G (quieter than B/C/D, as folks walking from a lot of parking lots and lower level of Stadium skytrain tend to use the stairs on that end)

^+1: you wanna walk around, you wanna stay downtown! I assume this is May 2025 @larry_s_taco so you might have AIBCs architectural walks running again (supposed to restart this summer, just Jul/Aug in '24, but depending how popular an expanded timeline perhaps by next year), Toonie Tours 'free' tip-what-you-like walks seem even more popular than they were pre-Covid as they're now the only folks running freebies daily, and Stroll Buddy is always worth trying (actually free with no tips expected, entirely volunteer-driven so a crapshoot who's available on your dates but just your group on a customized tour is a hard to beat proposition) plus loads of Pay A Bunch small group walking and biking tours that are easily found on e.g. Tripadvisor.

Thanks for the ping @Milhouse, I won't be around much for a while (idiot neighbour set fire to her unit, we're partly washed out thanks to the fire brigade - better than being burninated on a personal level but just as much hassle in terms of insurance claims, repairs, temporary apartment etc. etc.!) but those pop right up in my inbox so I'll answer such when I have a few minutes...

15 hours ago, Generator515 said:

Wondering if anyone has any insight to Canadian car seats laws?

First, kudos on bothering to check the rules in your multiple-jurisdiction trip; secondly, I'm attempting extremely careful wording here, to avoid any 'bad parent!' inference (for context, my own parents must have been pure evil by modern standards because not only did I never have any kind of kid seat at any age, I often didn't even have a seat at all - rode in the trunk of a station-wagon regularly aged ~6-10!) so please read with that in mind!

While I think it's unlikely you will have any legal issues with the booster, if you still have the prior seat type you used for DD and she doesn't exceed the weight limit of that (and it hasn't expired etc.) it would be less likely to cause problems here as well as being safer for DD.

Unfortunately there is no practical way to be totally in compliance with the law when driving yourself out of Skagway, or any other cross-border drive - if you install a Canadian-spec seat you're breaking AK rules even though our testing is more stringent, and a US seat that doesn't also have the Canadian National Safety Mark proving it was tested and approved for use here (plus labels in both English and French) becomes a problem when you hit the border. Short of pulling over between the 'Welcome To <Insert Here>' signs and swapping a US seat for a Canadian one you're always technically in breach!

I've actually spoken to both local, WA and Oregon cops about this exact topic - my sister brought her infant son to visit us, he turned one while here, and she initially wanted to spend some time in Portland as well as Vancouver so I did all sorts of research into what the heck I needed to do to keep tiny nephew safe and legally drive him around - so anecdotally as long as a cop doesn't look at your car and immediately think 'That kid does not appear safe!' it's very unlikely they will ask to check the safety markings on the seat for compliance with local jurisdictions, or the exact height or weight your child.

But a rear vs. a front facing seat, or a booster vs. either, are very obvious at a glance - so if you bring a seat that looks like the right kind of seat Canadian LEOs expect to see a kid of DDs size in, whatever your small risk of hassle is with the Booster will drop even lower.

On the other hand, we also have the (isane IMO) fact that you can just stick the kid in the back of a Cabuber here in BC using the adult belt perfectly legally (we have a 'professional driver' exemption to car seat rules; Uberlyft drivers need the same 'pro' driving license as cabbies), but if you installed your US booster seat it would not be legal despite obviously improving safety compared to no kid seat at all... so sometimes the law is indeed an ass, and you just have to do the best you can!

TL;DR: bring the right kind of seat if you can rather than a booster, even if it's still not a Canadian-tested one, because a 'real' seat is less likely to cause any problems... but even your booster will probably go entirely unremarked upon by authorities in BC or Yukon.

16 hours ago, Klbellboy said:

Arriving at Canada Place via Radiance of the Seas and are interested in taking the Canada Line to the airport with our luggage. Anyone ever do this, how hard is it to get to the station, any pointers?

 

25dbb

There's one immediate mistake that can be easily made - entering at the super obvious street level escalator/stairs on Howe, just outside the pier.

While this does get you into the correct station, it puts you on the wrong platform - and making your way to the correct one inside involves multiple changes of level which, even if you spot all the signage and don't go astray in this rabbit warren of an old building with a staggered floor levels, a commuter railway, two light rail lines, the Seabus and even a sneaky backdoor way to the Helijet landing pad, will take you quite a bit longer than just sticking to the sidewalk, hanging a left on Cordova and then entering the front doors (very obvious, big pillars and multiple doors, and the correct platform access is immediately below you with the bonus of an elevator to the platform if you have too many bags to use an escalator).

At less than 400yards (even downhill a bit!), you will walk further in YVR on arrival than you do to get to Waterfront from the pier, so unless you need porters to handle bags for you every time you use an airport it's definitely feasible with luggage (just do try to put your bags under your seat - if the train's half empty it doesn't really matter, but blocking aisles or seats with luggage is a no-no from a common-sense perspective as well as against transit bylaws).

If you're over 65, or have kids in the group, take a couple of minutes to use a ticket vending machine - this lets you access Concession tickets for 13-18, 65+ (kids 12 and under are free) and save about a buck a person. If it's a weekday, you'll need a 2 zone ticket - weekends, 1 zone across the whole system. If you're all adults, then don't even bother getting tickets - everyone pull any tappable smartphone out, or a tappable Visa/MC card, and just tap the fare gate. As long as you use the same card/device to tap back out, all the math gets done for you to calculate Zones. Foreign cards work fine, even without a PIN, as long as the chip has the wee WiFi logo next to it.

If you get actual tickets, same deal - tap them on the gates and don't throw them away as you have to tap back out again!

2 minutes ago, EDDY0827 said:

I had none of those. There was a sign that said TSAPre along with GE and Nexus. I questioned the agent checking boarding passes about TSAPre, she checked my boarding pass, saw the PreCheck emblem and waved me through. Maybe this is a trial for a limited time? I'm not Canadian so I don't know. All I know is that I passed through this que with no international program certification, just TSAPre.

Thanks for clarifying that you actually saw it signed that way - that's great news for all the TSA Pre folks! I haven't flown through YVR since the expanded CBP hours started this year, so maybe this addition happened at the same time - there's also been some CATSA piloted 'make life easier for everyone' changes spreading across the country, so maybe TSA Pre getting added to the list came from our side...

Hmm - now I think about it, whyever it happened this is actually a terrible change because now I'll have more people also entitled to 'my' short queue!!!! 😉

5 minutes ago, robins11 said:

...So we simply left our luggage at Gray Line West Coast Sightseeing which is located inside the cruise terminal as you exit from the ship. We deposited our two suitcases there around 9am and picked them up again at 4.30pm. You have until 5pm latest to collect them....

And that's great for an earlier flight, although they are priced far higher than any other local bag storage place, and have the shortest hours, so they're worthless for folks with a redeye despite being right there as oyou disembark - the PP will hold any size of bag a full day for $10 vs. limited hours for $13+...

They do cut the cost if you book one of their own tours, so someone who can conveniently collect bags before 5pm and plans to take HOHO or a Grayline coach tour pays a perfectly reasonable price, but their pricing relies on the ignorance of the average cruiser (the prior franchisees charged $8 for a big bag, WestCoast jacked it up to $12 as soon as they took over, and that was pre-Covid) - only folks who query CC, Tripadvisor and similar fora will discover the PP which is in the same building, so you may carry bags a little further getting off the ship but that's more than canceled out by picking them up right at street level again instead of having to return inside the pier building for collection and walk the same distance an extra time.

6 minutes ago, EDDY0827 said:

I used TSA PreCheck at YVR 3 weeks ago. Don't recall being able to use it on previous trips. I don't have Nexus or Global Entry.

Considering that there is no TSA in Canada, only CBP, either you had 'short queue' privilege for other reasons (e.g. First Class, YVR Express booking) or got very lucky with the CATSA agent manning the short queue failing to spot your card was TSA Pre rather than GE!

I've had a similar lucky happenstance at Heathrow, asking whether my NEXUS card (which includes both GE and TSA Pre privileges) was any use yet (I had heard from a family member who headed up security at Manchester that the UK was in negotiations to add Preclearance to several airports - ended up being offered the chance to join the UKs equivalent of Global entry a while later via NEXUS membership but as a separately paid for thing) and both times was waved through even though I technically shouldn't have been!

On 5/7/2024 at 4:23 PM, Furudanuki said:

...The package we booked includes transfers to the airport, but our plane does not leave until 11:00pm that evening. We'd like to see some of Vancouver since there is so much time available, but I don't want to book a tour without knowing how the transfer process works. ...

Missed this first time around - I think you've had almost all the bases covered by other posters, except to store bags downtown rather than at the airport. Cancel the transfers, unless you take them right after disembarking you can't use them at all, and use that money to pay for at least some of your activities.

Heading to YVR twice wastes over an hour of your valuable time AND extra money though (unless you do buy a Day Pass, you'll at least have to pay for SkyTrain out & back, which is somewhere in the US$2ishto3ish ballpark pp, and more expensive than the price savings of storing a bag at YVR [CAD$8 last time I looked] instead of at the pier [the Pan Pacific hotel will hold nonguests bags for CAD$10ea]).

If you can self-disembark, and don't hire porters at airports, then you can easily use SkyTrain - it's less than 400 yards from pier to Waterfront Station (and even a little downhill!) on Cordova St, and the traisn themselves have loads of space for bags under every seat and can be rolled onto even with the wee suitcase wheels easily.

Do note that CBP Preclearance hours were extended this year - so your flight is almost certainly going to be precleared as they now work until 11:30pm! This does save you time overall, but means that you do need a bit of extra time at YVR for the extra step. Arriving 2 hours early for a redeye should still be plenty though, even if you are nervous travelers - you can prebook a timeslot at Security for free on the day (or up to 72hrs in advance if you have internet aboard ship or in a previous port within the timeframe), and if you have Global Entry or NEXUS (not TSA Pre!) you can also show those cards to get into the short queue and dedicated kiosk line for Preclearance, as well as the short queue for Security with no need to prebook.

So personally, if you've never been before, I'd stash your bags and start queuing for the first HOHO bus (starts at 9am, you want to be among at least the first 50 people though so be 15mins early!), pootle around town with some informative commentary getting off and on as you like, then when the HOHO stops running (never late than 6pm) that's perfect for grabbing dinner, then collecting bags and heading out to YVR. If you can't schlep your bags around by yourselves, you can access fixed-price cabs from the pier to the airport as well as the other direction these days, so as long as you so stash bags at the PP you can reliably pay CAD$41 for a taxi - but by ~8pm you could honestly just let the meter run and pay more like $35, or take a rideshare for probably closer to $30 as long as no Surge applies...

Either way, it's a massive discount compared to the Princess-and-others packaging of bag storage, a HOHO ticket, and a SkyTrain ticket for what folks are saying is US$160 this season - depending how many big bags you stash, you could be paying significantly less than half that much per person by SkyTrain, or still well under $100pp if you chose to go by cab at the end of the day (4 of you? Splitting the cab part drops this down to within about $5 of SkyTrain pricing!)

6 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

...Luckily, I was still up late the night before the flight because I received a text at 10.30pm advising that my flight was delayed and would not be departing until 10.00pm the next evening 😳

 

Ouch! Airports Manager Australia and New Zeland? In what's probably the standard template this guy has on all his outgoing letters since whenever? That's gotta sting for any Kiwis getting similar notification!!!

Glad you had an easy trip otherwise, and made use of your time here for more than just the cruise - look forward to seeing what else you got up to!