martincath

I'll third the 'just use Credit card' for cab and booze' and onboard definitely use USD (crew can exchange currencies, but it's an extra hassle for them and you really have no need for CAD given just a short overnight precruise). Cab rates might increase before May - right now from YVR to the pier is fixed at CAD$38, metered would depend on which hotel, traffic en route, but it's very unlikely to go higher than $50 if your hotel is in Richmond near YVR... but a few 'airport' hotels can be quite far off, so check Google maps for driving distance to the pier (999 Canada Place) on Taxi Fare Finder - as all aspects of the rate except time are set here by law, the estimates are very accurate.

I'm genuinely shocked to see that flight even listed by EZAir, as the first transfer shuttle from the pier will probably not arrive until takeoff time! In the past, no cruiseline-booked flight before noon, 12:30pm, or even 1pm has been offered by any line I'm aware of - first shuttles run about 9am and on busy cruise days YVR traffic spikes enough that the recommended 3 hours preflight arrival time really is needed. You have almost zero chance of making that flight - some folks will still be walking through the pier at 9:30am! Even if you self-disembark - Princess usually starts folks walking off by 7:30am - and get lucky with no queue for cabs (or prebook a limo or hustle right to SkyTrain) you have a 35min drive (if no traffic), a hard cap of 8:30am for bag drop if you have any checked luggage, Security queue and CBP Preclearance to get through before you can reach your gate. Possible? Yes - if this was a 'rush home for a dying relative' situation I'd go for it, but for leisure travel... frankly it would be an incredibly stupid choice. Even if you're in good shape and can self-disembark with all your bags then walk to SkyTrain with them, and have Global Entry or NEXUS to get into the short queues I would not recommend a flight before 10:30am at the earliest - there are just too many moving parts and things outside your control. Stay overnight - or several days if you have the time - and then book a flight first-thing in the morning would be my advice.

Well that's changed since the last time I rode the rails on the Windsor corridor - there were baggage cars on at least one of the morning trains too; thanks for the update. As to checked vs. carry-on, I've seen a lot of folks who have a matched pair of large and small suitcases plus a daypack or similar - which exceeds the VIA carryon limit. Technically any additional article beyond the 2 or 3 is charged, but purses, small laptop bags/briefcases and the like are ignored by VIA staff in my experience. However one never knows how pedantically rules will be applied - especially when it nets them an extra $40 if enforced - and I've seen people arguing about e.g. a camera bag for a couple of SLR bodies and lenses, despite being easily small enough and obviously valuable enough it's going to stay at the persons feet not take up luggage rack space!

If you're willing to drive but could afford an RM ride, then I'd say you have the very realistic option of doing something involving Denali AND a self-drive - and still saving money! RMs pricing is not remotely cheap - if you have the time to spend, you could easily enjoy two or three times more days of travel by arranging it yourself, assuming you can spare the time for such an extended trip. Andy's suggested routing is a great starting point; for more relevant replies about a road-trip (or indeed coach or rail travel) the suggestion to take this over to TripAdvisor is also sensible. Distances are vast here compared to UK driving - but if you've already driven around Oz, you'll be able to handle the scale, so it's just the whole 'wrong side of the road' thing which really doesn't have that much of an impact since everything on the car is the wrong way round too except the pedals (and manual cars are an endangered species here, so one less pedal and almost no gear changing needed at all except when starting up or parking). Even right up in the mountains the standards for road lane width and maximum grade, frequency of passing lanes, wide curves are sooooo much more generous than in Blighty - if you've driven around the Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, Highlands etc. then driving over here is like playing 10 pin bowls with the inflatable bumpers in place or training wheels on a bike! Just avoid any shortcuts on logging roads, gravel etc. unless you're renting a proper 4x4... You can buy packaged 'car and hotel' trips - but any savings that these companies get from block bookings are rarely passed along, plus they have their own profit margins, and the distances/number of nights in location X rarely match up well unless your tastes run smack dab in the middle of Joe McAverageTourists. We've looked at these ourselves many times and always ended up just booking independently - we wanted more time here, less time there, a hotel in the middle of town instead of out on the highway for places with lots to see.

Yes, very much so - in fact based on the crime stats of your home town, you'll be safer here! All three of these are close to the pier (PP right on top), so you will see beggars (who go where folks with money are - Waterfront Station is the prime commuter station for folks arriving by SkyTrain, local rail, and Seabus and there are plenty of tourist hotels and sites like the pier in the vicinity too) and walking around the prime tourist areas of the city you will definitely see street people all over but the risk of any thing beyond being asked for cash is low. In general the notable criminal activity here is casual property theft, especially vehicular - leave a bag, or even spare change for meters/tolls, visible in a car and you can expect your window to be smashed just about anywhere downtown; organized gangs target cars parked at visitor spots outside town too every now and again. My wife walks around the area of your possible hotels on her lunchtime rambles and has done for over a decade; my elderly mother and her friend came to visit us this summer and I had no fear letting them wander about downtown unaccompanied; technically where we live just outside Chinatown is 'crimier' than the downtown core and that's where I'm puttering around for groceries etc. regularly.

If it's an overnight at the end of a cruise, then any required customs/immigration would have been done on arrival; the main limiting factor is whether there are ship/terminal staff available if you need help with bags - perhaps an issue if you wanted to walk off at 4am, but at 7am no worries. I would err a little on the earlier side if you plan to check bags - VIA have a 45min requirement for bags being checked at the start of the route, and that includes pretty much every train running west from Quebec, so I'd be aiming for a 7am arrival at the station to give you some padding in case roadworks, detours, long queue of other folks checking in etc. delay you.

Bruce already linked you directly to the two most-relevant boards; Alaska board also often ends up with Vancouver postings so it's worth browsing there too. We have very conveniently placed about 90% of our popular tourist attractions and hotels in the downtown core - so where to stay is always easy: downtown. Airport hotels, even ones close to SkyTrain, might save some coin but they cost you time - if you're here for a week, wasting 60-90mins a day getting to and from your hotel might be OK, but for a short Pre- or Post-Cruise stay always, always stay downtown. It's very hard to find a hotel that's actually in Vancouver (as opposed to North Van, Richmond, Burnaby etc.) that isn't close enough to walk to multiple sites - so in terms of the most convenient hotel for you, it's best to figure out which sites you want to visit and then pick the hotel to save walking. We're also one of the safest places to bid blind on a hotel - if you choose 4* in the west end/downtown core it's literally impossible to get anything except a really nice hotel. Cheap we ain't, but since your dollar goes about a third further up here we can still appear a relative steal compared to, say, Seattle. Cab ride is fixed rate, CAD$34 to most of downtown - the swanky hotels right at the pier run $38 - with Uber/Lyft slightly less if not on Surge, so the lack of shuttles to downtown isn't much of a problem. Transit is clean, safe, fast and reliable - worst case about US$7pp inbound, due to an extra fee to leave Sea Island where the airport lives. From hotel to pier some fancy hotels have towncars, the Hampton Inn has a shuttle bus, but frankly 'free' transport is a foolish criteria to base hotel choice on here as the most expensive cab ride from any downtown hotel to the pier is unlikely to go much over $10 on the meter! The best advice I can offer at this stage is to increase your stay here - however much you plan to do in Alaska, remember that Vancouver has more people and places than every single AK cruise port put together... logic dictates that a seven day cruise should therefore have an 8+ day stay here added! Unfortunately vacation days and budgets trump logic - but however you can massage your schedule and finagle a few extra bucks from your weekly budget, any number of days you can add will not be wasted! Even if you have very niche interests, you'll be able to fill a couple of extra days very easily - and if you're looking at a round-trip cruise, do yourself a huge favour and add a night Post-cruise... being able to choose an early flight back east means you can avoid all of those super-annoying 'fly home same day' cruisers who start clogging up the security lines by about 9:30am!!!

Unfortunately I cannot - the only limo company we ever used local, Aerocar, went belly-up during the pandemic (they had the franchise at the airport, and that was probably 95% of their business). The good news is that pricing tends to be near-identical (there are legal minima and maxima per size of vehicle, and everyone works under the same local laws) so I'd suggest Google, Yelp, and maybe Tripadvisor reviews to cut down your options then booking the biggest company you can find a satisfactory rating for (no matter how good Joe* is, if he gets sick and he's the only employee you're hooped - a big firm with multiple cars at least can try to get another driver to cover Joe!) *This generic Joe is not the same as any real Joe; your Joe might be better or worse than a theoretical Average one; past performance is no guide to future Joe-nitude; Joe might be short for Josephine not just Joebert...

Understandable then - there are very narrow sets of circumstances where I do recommend just using a transfer, and this is one of them. Someone else schlepping your bags is built-in, whereas we do have issues with insufficient porters on busy days so finding someone to help you get your bags to cab/uber etc. might be a hassle. Otherwise, for folks on a really busy day with a higher chance of missing their flight, if they also bought the flight via the cruiseline then at least the line is on the hook to get them home if their transfer fails to have them at the airport quickly enough, so that certainty might be worth it - but it's going to mean more time waiting in queues overall than arranging your own transport! Compared to even 2pax at $60, I'd be inclined to book a limo with a Meet'n'Greet - standard fees for that run about the same price (including all taxes and expected tip) for a towncar, you'd be met by a uniformed driver with your name on a sign who can take your bags for you, and you'd be off on your merry way before they even finished loading the bus... since it sounds like taking transit isn't at all feasible for you, the most consistently quick way is out but a limo booked for before 9am would get you to YVR before the buses, even if you can't beat the self-disembarkers. Whether the colon position or an extra 5 was the mis-key, either way you are probably safe with a cruise transfer - flights 12:30pm and later usually work. BUT if it's one of our early-season 3 or 4 ship days, be aware that even cruise transfers are not always able to get you to YVR in time! By rushing, you guarantee sitting around at the airport - but fail to rush and instead you face a much less pleasant standing-around-in-various-queues at the airport, for a total wait time that ends up far greater. You should be at the airport, checking in, 3 hours in advance to be fully-compliant with YVRs standards for US or international departures. Even that is not enough when things go terribly wrong - while this summers multiple-hour Security queues in theory won't happen again now that staffing-up again post-Covid flight shutdowns has happened, things do still get a little worse than in TheBeforeTimes as staff levels topped out slightly lower - fundamentally it's a stressful job with relatively crappy pay, so fewer interested people! A flight that early means zero time to actually go sightseeing - so you may as well be at the airport ASAP. The biggest downside of cruise transfers is that you simply CANNOT arrive early enough to beat the queues - as soon as the first bus rolls in more people are arriving than can be processed efficiently through the queues, so Check-in, Bag Drop, Security, and CBP Preclearance all start to get longer and longer... and none of them start dropping in volume until the buses stop, late morning. Unless you are physically incapable of handling your own bags, the most efficient way to minimise all your queue time is by self-disembarking - this basically guarantees you are off your ship before all of the 'we need help with bags' groups from ALL of the ships in port. If it's a 3 or 4 ship day you still have to fight with the other self-disembarkers of course - but if you can manage to walk ~400 yards with your bags then you can use SkyTrain to avoid a long cab queue and save both time and money. If the cab queue is short, timing is very comparable - driving takes about 5-10 mins longer than the train, but you skip the walk to the station. Waterfront is the start of the line, commuter flow is mostly inbound, so you can find seats easily - and even big suitcases fit under them on the Canada Line trains, which have extra legroom that fits your carryon and yourself too. Plus fully automated trains mean that travel time varies only by seconds - and the cost is dirt-cheap (about US$3.25pp for an adult weekday fare, less on weekends, even less for Seniors/kids). Get to YVR before 9am and you will probably spend a total of 20-30mins in all of the queues - arrive on anything after the very first cruise bus of the day and those times will be two or three times longer! Another big timesaver that might be available to you - gain Trusted Traveler status. Either NEXUS or Global Entry work when departing YVR - only NEXUS helps when arriving. TSA Pre is worthless - no TSA up here! If you do not already have one of these cards, the best time to apply is right now - backlogs from no interviews during the Pandemic are starting to be addressed, but for first-time applicants the delays are many months long. If you can manage to get to the Canadian border conveniently, NEXUS is the best option - it gives you all Global Entry benefits for a lower price, as well as quicker entry to Canada (we even have our very own bridge at Niagara Falls which nobody except NEXUS members can use!) but if you don't come to Canada often GE is less hassle to get and just as good everywhere else. Having NEXUS/GE enables two of the queues to be expedited - Security and Preclearance - and if you ever have issues with e.g. Real ID compliant driving licenses not being available in your state, you gain a wallet-size Gov't issued photo ID that proves both ID and citizenship to a better-than-Real ID standard.

If you literally have OBC going spare, then absolutely the cost factor might drop out of the equation - a two ship day with a taxi queue long enough to become slower than a cruise bus seems unusual, and with Uber/Lyft available to reduce demand on cabs even more unusual... Given Cunard pricepoints, prebooking a limo to meet you might break even compared to two bus seats! But you did absolutely the best thing tactically - heading upstairs to the PP (or across the road to the Waterfront) makes for quicker cab-calling even if the bell staff don't recognise you... as long as you peel off your cruise tags from suitcases, who's to say you were not actually coming down from your PP room rather than up from the terminal level? 😉

Sorry, I can't be of any more help on hotels - there used to be a few cheap ones on or just off Main but they're now low-incoming housing/slated to teardown & condo building/both, so it's pretty much the Holiday Inn or B&Bs. Personally I'd be inclined toward just off Main St (to avoid traffic noise) rather than Cambie, as Mt Pleasant is a far more interesting neighbourhood; despite losing those hotels it's still a relative bastion of independent shops & restos and low-rise, historic-for-a-city-this-young buildings. It's also ground zero for our Mural Fest that's been running several years, so there is a ton of interesting public art all over the buildings on and near Main St, keep your eyes up! In terms of walking, yes it's perfectly safe to pootle around either of these 'hoods. If you come straight down Main Street you will arrive in Chinatown and then the DTES, so if you're not comfortable with less-than-salubrious urban areas just peel off to the left at Science World (big glass golfball, like a mini EPCOT) and follow the Seawall or Pacific Blvd around the curve to the left. If you aim for BC Place (huge stadium with a retractable roof, looks sort of like it has a crown on with lots of spikey-bits that the cables run through) you're heading toward the pier and downtown core; head north up Carrall St instead and you will pass Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden (a fantastic urban oasis - if unsure about the price, the free city park nextdoor shares the same pond and a similar vibe without the authenticity) and then arrive in Gastown (NB: it might be the biggest tourist zone but it's also chock full of beggars, and I've seen more passed-out junkies in the alleys here than anywhere else around downtown...) Coming back it's a bit of an uphill slog - with two people frankly hopping in a cab for a few blocks is cheaper than bus tickets, so unless you plan to get a Day Pass and ride transit a lot I would only strategically make use of transit in either of these locations (e.g. the 19 bus runs down Main, through the core, and right into Stanley Park - that's well worth paying for a ticket in the morning, then returning from the park on foot, maybe via False Creek ferries to Granville Island).

As Bruce says, usually when folks say 'customs' it's actually the immigration side of things that is more relevant... but since things do run rather differently here even though you deal with CBP just like you would if you flew into a US airport from elsewhere in the world, here's a Plain English summary: Check-in with your airline (in advance online if you can, if not using kiosks is usually a lot faster than queuing for the desk staff); Drop checked bags (not part of check-in for US-bound flight! Due to Preclearance screening US bags are dropped at a dedicated spot rather than just handed over to the desk staff); Security (CATSA, not TSA, therefore TSA Precheck is worthless - but Global Entry or NEXUS both get you into the short queue here); US Preclearance deals with Immigration and Customs using kiosks by default - full info about the CBP setup is here - again, Global Entry or NEXUS have access to their own queue with dedicated kiosks. There are agents and paper forms if there's a problem with the kiosks.

Not really - for us locals, Customs can be an issue, but for you visitors leaving straightaway with your stuff, not so much, which means it's only the Immigration aspects (are you deemed fit to be allowed into Canada?) Whether you're on a one-way or a return trip, everyone onboard is assessed for that while still at sea - and usually even Customs is dealt with by handing in forms onboard for remote checking. All the info about you and your fellow pax is sent to CBSA well in advance of your arrival, so it's a really token check. As to the transport - a porter will ensure you get to the right place, but Canada Place isn't really that big and transportation, security etc. is a shared-by-all-berths setup so every ship has their disembarking pax end up in the same place. You didn't ask, but I always suggest it - cancel the cruise transportation. Unless you feel overpaying for a worse-in-almost-every-way service is worth it of course! Airport and pier are not very distant, we have superb public transportation, every sign is in English, and even paying for a cab/Uber etc. usually works out the same or less than a PER PERSON cruiseline transfer price. If you are a solo traveler unable to carry their own bags - even then. although the fixed-cost option of a cruise transfer might be financially a wash for you compared to a cab, you'll still wait longer to get to YVR and then be stuck with a bunch of fellow cruisers in all the queues for bag drop, security, and US Pre-screening... buses only go when full, almost never before 9am, so by the time you get to YVR it will likely be an hour after all the self-disembarking folks.

It's before Security, so you can walk around a fair chunk of the airport and experience a range of overpriced and mediocre dining options (the hotel is the only 'fine dining' establishment), or watch planes take off and land if that's your thing. Personally I'd check out the public art at YVR, each large piece/gallery is listed here - click the names individually and it will confirm where they're located, by level/terminal/pre- or post-security

Sitka is a great port - the only AK cruise port where Sea Otters are spotted commonly enough to run excursions focused on them, less touristy than most others, chock full of Russian history. Book it!

No worries, glad you're organized on the Official Paperwork front so now it's just the fun stuff to plan!

As a Vancouver Buddy, I can assure you that Stroll Buddy is officially No Tips and independent of any local links to Business Associations, Restos or other 'kickbacks for pointing tourists at X' service - the latter is the crux of why they split from the Greeter program (which, to simplify to the max, started trying various methods of monetization). Of course, an individual Buddy might bend the rules and accept cash - personally if someone literally shoves money at me and won't take it back, which has happened, I donate it to a local charity afterward. The 'normal' way to show your appreciation though is asking the Buddy to join you for a coffee or beer after a tour, so if you're worried about being seen as a skinflint budget for $5-10 worth of beverages - if you don't actually 'click' with the Buddy in-person, then hanging out longer is just going to be super awkward for everyone so don't feel about about just making your goodbyes without tipping at all, or slip us a $5 prepaid card for Timmies, Starbucks etc. if you simply feel too guilty to not give something! If you do click, and don't have further commitments, sharing a drink or meal is delightful - if pushed to recommend a spot I pick somewhere that's cheap-but-good just in case folks insist on paying (personally I always assume I'm picking up my own food tab). In terms of Stuff rather than experiences, the most appreciated items are small personal things, e.g. if your home town is famous for a thing, bring a fridge magnet/apron/badge with that famous location, or if it's portable and legal to bring over the border then a niche food item is always nice to receive (one Austrian couple actually mailed me a Linzertorte from home when they returned!) A genuine offer to reciprocate the tour should a Buddy/Greeter end up in your home town is also very much appreciated, especially in places without a formal program yet - I took up an ex-guidee on their offer to show me around Portland as a local on our first trip there, and we loved it so much we bought a condo there... As to the logistics of the tour day - anyone who has used the Greeter network before Covid, Stroll Buddy is going to be the same. Length of tour, distance covered, sights seen vary by Buddy - speaking for myself, I'm pretty generalist so I customise every single tour to the interests and physical abilities of the Strollers. I know other folks who are incredibly niche - one lady I trained with back in Toronto only guides folks around local fire stations, but she knows EVERYTHING!!!! When I contact the potential Stroller, how much input they want to give and any physical or time restrictions are the main considerations: if it's a first-timer who has to be somewhere at X o'clock and doesn't have any very specific interests, I can put together a handful of neighbourhoods convenient for their hotel, or where they need to be after our time together; with some folks who like specific things and are willing to bounce emails back & forth, I'll plan a really detailed route with transit (e.g. one lady was a huge fan of the show Lucifer, wanted to pick up a custom ring she'd ordered from the show's jewellry-maker, so we hit up a bunch of walkable downtown filming locations then rode the bus out to the shop and hit up some more interesting street art in that part of town). The shortest tour I've ever given was maybe 2 hours, the longest actual tour ran rather than hanging out in the pub afterwards was maybe 5 hours, and I'd ballpark the average as 3-4 hours - but I'm a waffler, so we only covered ~3 miles on foot. I know other buddies prefer to stick to a limited number of places they know well, so their walks are more consistently timed and more likely < 3 hours - we're all individuals with no Strollbuddy-required sites, so we vary wildly I'm afraid. Best advice - sign up, see who's available on your dates, and speak to them - the more input you give, the more ideal-to-you the tour will be!

Given the long day, an overnight on the Island is definitely the way to go unless you feel up to a 12-14 hour day with half that time spent sitting on buses and ferries. Flying is a lot pricier but vastly quicker - still a long day, but at least you go downtown to downtown on the floatplanes or choppers and the short check-in and short flight means you only need an hour each way. We did this ourselves on our first visit to the area many moons ago, still a very long day but barely 2 hours of that was 'airport & plane ride' time, all of the rest was touring Victoria or heading to Butchart - which gave us time to do a whalewatch and the Royal BC Museum as well as 3 hours at Butchart. Had we booked a bus/ferry sightseeing coach tour we'd have had a driveby tour of downtown Victoria, an hour of 'free time' and only ~two hours at Butchart - and that's assuming no delay on the ferry, any time lost there further reduces your actual Doing Stuff time as the tour buses are locked into specific ferry trips so cannot stay longer on the Island than planned. Personally I'd consider flying in to YYJ instead of YVR, spending a night of two in Victoria, then taking the BC Ferry Connector coach (the one Andy mentioned above, ballpark $70pp for coach and ferry ticket but this is an awful lot easier with luggage than schlepping big suitcases around on transit buses) to Vancouver for the rest of your pre-cruise stay. While a car rental is by far the best way to see anything outside Victoria other than Butchart, Victoria itself can easily fill a day or two between museums, galleries, Ye Olde Historic Homes, and gardens and Butchart is worthy of at least three hours on-site (so 5 hours total by transit, closer to 4 on CVS shuttle bus) so 1 or even 2 nights is absolutely justifiable even only hanging around Victoria. You may also find hotels more reasonable in Vic than Van - you can certainly blow a wad of cash on the Empress, but there are some mid-range downtown hotels that offer relative bargains.

Fairmont Airport, and also I believe the Waterfront, plus the Hyatt are the only ones that spring to mind - but they are NOT cheap!

I always try and schedule a walking tour or two through SF City Guides - free, very well-trained guides, extremely informative. Tour routes are scattered all over, check the schedule for your date.

If the airport Costco was close enough to your hotel to visit, by far the best option for booze will be the Brighouse BC Liquor Store - while private stores are a thing, even with the Covid-induced loosening of rules and pricing I've yet to find a private store that even matches gov't store prices let alone beats them. BCL is searchable and pretty accurate, so if there's a specific wine you're after you can see whether it's in stock down to how many bottles in which store(s). If it's a wine they don't stock, larger private stores (mostly downtown) import more niche products in small quantities - Legacy in the olympic village is a good one.

Depending how many are included in your 'we' OP, the train might save a few bucks or not since it's priced per person, whereas cabs and Uber are per vehicle. The Wall isn't the most convenient hotel for it - almost a half-mile on foot from the nearest Canada Line stop (City Centre) - but if you travel light or fancy the exercise enough to consider walking to the pier, it's definitely feasible to walk with your bags from SkyTrain... whether you feel it's worthwhile though depends on you. Taxis are fixed rate - so cheaper than Uber if any kind of Surge is in play - of $34 leaving the airport. Metered on the way back, but usually a very similar price. Hotel to pier - metered, ballpark $10, but if it's busy day you could easily add another two or three bucks waiting to get inside as it's single lane, one-out-one-in. Uber on short trips is less of a deal due to surcharges that don't apply to cabs - so I'd assume the same price as a cab on short hops like this of a mile or less.

Hard to say what will be happening - this year the Covid rules had relaxed enough that we might have had normal celebrations restored, including a parade and fireworks, but neither of those actually happened although there was still a whole passel of bands and the like. If next year is back to 'real normal' then you can expect both what the schedule above lists - lots of family-friendly activities - around Canada Place plus a parade about noon and fireworks after sundown which will entice potentially a quarter million or more bodies to downtown (this is a conservative guess - when Disney competed in the Festival of Light the estimates varied from 500-700k attendees!) But whether that kind of stuff is going to make you want to be part of the crowds watching or avoid downtown like the plague really depends on you!!! My Ontarian colleague is absolutely correct that hotel prices will be at a premium - peak cruise season and a big national holiday that some 'local' out of towners come in for means demand is about as high as it gets so book any good, refundable rate you see ASAP - and some ticketed attractions will close for the holiday too. Restos, pharmacies etc. will be open, as will some tourist-oriented shops, but most folks get the day off.

From some of your phrasing, I'm guessing that you might be overnighting in Vancouver rather than heading straight from your ship to the airport - but if you are leaving same day, then most definitely book the 11:30am flight as 10:30am is far too tight for comfort! If you are overnighting, since your first leg is Domestic you don't need as much time at YVR - and two hours should be enough even on a busy day to get through YYZ Preclearance - so I'd still book the 11:30am flight, just to get a bit of extra time for brekky. In theory one hour preflight is sufficient to check your bags, but given this year's staffing issues with security I'd be reluctant to push it that tight. 2 hours early should be plenty even for extremely nervous travelers though. Allow for 45mins travel time from a downtown hotel to YVR - even in rush hour it's against commuter traffic flow so that's plenty of padding - which means leaving hotel at ~8:45am. If you're in an airport hotel, ask what the shuttle schedule is - most are 15-20mins drive but might not run their bus back-to-back, so you may ironically have to leave earlier than from a downtown hotel!

That's a very detailed book! Thanks for the clarifications re: Flixhound operations too.