Vancouver Cruise Port to Airport Excursion

[DCThunder]

I'll be arriving back in Vancouver on July 1 for a redeye flight back to the US East Coast.  I'd like to see a bit of the Vancouver area rather than sitting at the airport for 12 hours.  Would my best course of action be to store my luggage at Canada Place, book a day tour that would bring me back to Canada Place to get my stuff, and then get to the airport in the early evening?  My flight is 10 pm or so.  

 

Or are there tours that would be able to take me and my stuff along for the day and drop me off at the airport?

[martincath]

1 hour ago, DCThunder said:

...Or are there tours that would be able to take me and my stuff along for the day and drop me off at the airport?

Edit - should have thought to mention that this is Canada Day! There will be Stuff Happening at the pier - family friendly entertainment, bands, performers, and the like which may mean the usual bus stops for HOHO and other tours are shifted a block or two away...

 

Unless something odd happens, there won't be much in the way of road closures, just the block or two immediately next to the pier becomes pedestrianized (so crowds can flow between the pier and the other side of the convention centre, where the olympic flame is). Fireworks may or may not happen - after Covid we expected them to come back, the Port claimed too expensive despite making record profits with all the extra shipping, and the first attempt to use a drone show instead of fireworks failed miserably... but your flight times means even if there is a firework/drone show it'll start too late...

 

Original post below remains as I typed it!

 

There are day tours that will take you and your bags, but for a late flight none of them last long enough except a trip to Victoria, which is TOO long!

 

Unless you've visited before, for first-timers I feel like the ideal choice is stash bags, ride HOHO all day (it might be very busy in the morning, since it stops right outside the pier so a lot of folks without plans may be tempted to jump on - if you hop off at some of the early stops you may not find a seat waiting to hop back on then next bus, but the later it gets the easier it becomes to get back on without delay), eat dinner downtown, retrieve bags, head to YVR for no earlier than 2 hours before your flight.

 

HOHO tix cost less than post-cruise coach tours and go to basically the same places as the city tours do - so even if all you do is ride it around the loop rather than hopping on and off it's still decent value. City coach tours will drop you at YVR around 1:30pm; North Shore tours (Capilano, Grouse) maybe 3pm, and even a Whistler day tour perhaps 5pm - none of these are much use for a late flight as you won't even be allowed to check your bags that early, and while YVR is among the nicest airports on the continent to kill time in more than an hour or two there is really stretching things. Better to keep it simple, do a little research to see which city attractions seem most enticing to you, and then fill your day with the best stuff for you - you could even skip the HOHO and just walk, take transit, or short Cabuber rides from site to site if you don't feel the need for a guided spiel while driving around.

 

Crowds at YVR are way down in the evening, and any flight that does not Preclear avoids one of the steps so takes less time - CBP stop work at 8:30pm, so a 10ish flight will not be Precleared. With a suitcase that needs checked you still must arrive at least an hour early (even without CBP examining bags, airlines at YVR have a 60min deadline preflight to check bags headed to US or Int'l) and given the lighter queues you should waltz through Security even if you don't prebook a timeslot, so depending how nervous a traveler you are leaving downtown 7:30 to 8pm should give you ample padding, especially if you take SkyTrain (very consistent 26min ride time, unlike cabs no traffic issues).

Edited March 28 by martincath

[DCThunder]

@martincathThanks a lot for some great ideas.  I wasn't aware the 1 July was Canada Day, so thanks for that information.  I only knew I'd be home for our Independence Day.  The idea of a HOHO is very intriguing and I will investigate that further.