Entering Canada from Alaska cruise (Non-US / Non-Canadian)

[Brandis]

Are there any special requirements / pre-registrations to disembark a cruise from Alaska in Vancouver as a traveller from Europe?

 

I believe the eTA (Canadian version of the ESTA) is not required when arriving by cruise ship. 

 

Anything to consider when doing a day trip from Vancouver to the US (and back to Canada the same day)? Since we fly into Anchorage we do US immigration with ESTA (and our case, GE) already, so I don't think there is much else when entering the US by car a couple of days later.

 

I find it pretty hard to find much useful information regarding crossing the border by car, most information is about airports.

[cruiseryyc]

You will still need to go through US Border Services when driving across the border even for a day trip.  Really I don't know why you'd bother spending a day going into the US when there are so many wonderful sites to see in Vancouver.

[Brandis]

I‘m aware of that, just wondering if there any specific procedures. 
 

We‘re doing plenty of stuff around Vancouver and Whistler and one of them is driving down to Everett to tour Boeing.

[martincath]

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...

[Brandis]

@martincath Thanks for the detailed explanations!

I somehow remembered we just could walk off the ship when disembarking in Vancouver. We’ve done the formalities onboard before on other cruises, very convenient, I wish CBP would do the same on cruises into FL. 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.

Yes, we finally can apply for Global Entry, which is great!

 

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

 

We plan on going to WA on a Monday, would that help with wait times? Also, what about the Abbotsford / Sumas crossing, better or worse than Bellingham.

 

Speaking about food, this just reminded me of the most amazing Italian restaurant in Glacier, WA. We had excellent homemade pasta there many years ago. Ironically (based on your comment about Mexican food) it is a Mexican restaurant now 😂 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) 🫣

[martincath]

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 😉

Edited May 30 by martincath

[Brandis]

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.

[martincath]

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!