martincath

My experiences concur that Victoria's CBP agents do not do any Preclearance for cruises; we've taken multiple coastal repos with Van-Vic-US Port and it is always the US port where immigration happens. Legally it's impossible to preclear in Vancouver with a Canadian port next - so you will bypass CBP entirely at embarkation, which does make boarding quicker!

I live locally, so my knowledge of bag storage anywhere is from other folks reports and research rather than personal experience! Suffice to say that the PP has been storing non-guests bags for literally decades whatever their official policy is - they also offer a special, much more expensive, cruise room rate with bag transfer yet also offer that transfer on a tips-only basis to folks not on that rate, so they are very consistent in not applying their own policies about bags 😉 But for folks who would rather have an official warranty to cover any potential losses, multiple online storage brokers operate locally too - in various hotels, restos, and stores near the port. Googling "Vancouver luggage storage" will pop services like bounce, luggage hero etc. all of whom require prebooking but are still much cheaper than the pier storage with rates mostly $8-10 per bags and significant $ coverage for losses. Each facility determines their own hours, but you can see what they are before booking - at worst they are similar to the pier, 9-5ish, but mostly it's convenience stores in the 8am-10pm range or hotels offering a full 24hr service. Some of the brokerage services refuse to give exact locations, but others happily provide maps showing exactly where each storage location is - so while I have no recommendation for a specific service, I would personally suggest using one which does show the locations so you can choose one convenient for the pier or one of the downtown SkyTrain stations if you plan to use transit to YVR.

Shop with Kayak - or even better if you are a member, Costco - and compare not just multiple companies but multiple offices at the same time! Not every franchise is happy for one-way cross-border rentals; back in TheBeforeTimes you could reliably find downtown branches that would let you do it, but these days with folks still struggling to replenish car fleets you might have to pay the airport surcharges to find a one-way. Flexible in timing, or have booked a refundable train or bus so you can wait until last minute? Try the sometimes-FREE car repo services! For example Transfer Car hooks up folks who want to go X to Y with companies who need their vehicles repositioned - and close-but-over-a-border pairs like Van-Sea, Toronto-Buffalo, Montreal-Albany might save a fortune compared to the cost to a rental franchise of loading them on trucks so they're happy to give you a steal of a deal...

Google Map - it's very likely less distance than you already walk from your cabin to the curb! NB: do not go down the tempting entrance right on Howe just outside the pier - wrong platform, wrong line, and while you can walk around inside it involves multiple elevation changes (major hassle if you can roll bags, but not humph them upstairs, as very few elevators!) and more walking distance than just sticking to the street route listed!!!) Follow it along in Streetview to see the landmarks, but it's ridiculously easy with just a Plan English summary of: 'turn left outside pier, follow sidewalk around curve and street becomes Howe, turn left on Cordova and walk downhill until you see a huge brick building with many pillars - go inside, head down to Canada Line platform, and tap a credit card on the gates to allow access and egress at the other end' Only remotely tricky part is the Y shaped train line - every second train goes to YVR, the others go to Not Where You Want To Be, but the train itself and all the signs makes it super clear where each is going, and then verbal warnings happen aboard so you can get off at any station up to Bridgeport and simply wait for the next train if you somehow manage to get on the wrong one...

YVR may be the bestest reviewed airport on the continent over the last decade, but more than 2 hours idling time is still a stretch... if money is no object, Tours By Locals started here and we have many local guides. Finding one with a private car or van to trundle you and your stuff around all day just comes down to how much money you want to throw at the situation! If budget is at all a concern, personally I'd keep it simple - unless you've visited us before and are thoroughly familiar with all the popular sights, then storing bags for the day and arranging your own tour(s) is not just the cheapest but probably the best option. Pan Pacific hotel bell staff hold bags for non-residents, and it's literally right above the pier as well as very close to Waterfront Station for heading out to YVR at the end of the day (they'll also call you a cab if you're not able to carry your own bags or dislike transit). The HOHO isn;t as good as it was when there were 2+ companies competing, but once you divest yourself of suitcases it's still much better value than any fixed tour - cheaper, more stops, and of course the ability to get off and back on when you choose instead of being stuck for ages somewhere you don't want to spend time/not enough time somewhere you do want to see. But a Day Pass on transit (well under US$9pp, even less fro kids and seniors) plus a decent guide book probably gives you more accurate info than random tourbus drivers! Free walking tours and cheap bike rentals further expand your 'get some info from a local' options too. Even some out-of-town attractions, like the inexplicably-popular Capilano Bridge, provide free or discounted shuttles (you can go all the way to Whistler, or stop partway in Squamish, to do various 'go up a mountain or down a mine' sites by shuttle bus) but even without leaving Vancouver's local transit system you can visit far more tourist sites than every Alaska port combined, so really unless you plan a week or more here it always comes down to good research - prioritizing the best things for YOU instead of what everyone else says you have to do...

Maybe your taste in music differs from the prior poster, or you'd rather just have a chat in a quiet bar than have any music, but I'm afraid that unless some kind of pub/club/resto experience is up your alley Victoria offers almost nothing on a Sunday evening otherwise! Biggest employers by far are provincial and municipal governments, very much a M-F 9-5 gig (unless you work in the passport office where it's tools down at 4pm even if you're in the middle of processing an application!) and probably the next biggest category of 'workers' are Retirees - it's the retirement capital of Canada, and they roll up the proverbial sidewalks by 6pm for dang near everything! But the local beer scene is top notch, especially if you're a fan of 'real ales' - nowhere outside of the UK has a better selection of cask ales per capita, with two brewpubs - Swans and Spinnakers - that offer a dual cellar experience where the same beer could potentially be sampled 'warm and flat' as God intended, 'cold and fizzy' as the marketing departments of every macro brewery want you to think beer is meant to be served (I believe at last survey, this is 100% of all such on the entire continent of North America!)... and if Fate truly smiles upon you 'virtually room temp straight from a cask with a tap & spile on the bar top' for a vertical tasting par excellence! Of course the danger is that finding out what beer is meant to taste like ruins almost every bar elsewhere in the world for you, so it's a dangerous business! 😉 Not a boozehound? Have a nice walk around (or hire a mindblowingly expensive carriage to be driven around behind a horses arse) to check out the many Ye Olde Buildings which are nicely illuminated in the evenings, maybe have an extremely ill-timed 'Afternoon' Tea at the Fairmont if it's July/Aug (they take resos as late as 9pm in peak cruise season), but otherwise it's shopping or shopping... rather than tourist tat, maybe hit a local supermarket for interesting flavours of candy and chips you can't find in the US (don't buy Kinder Eggs though - it's easier to import firearms legally!)

Regent might offer some sort of 'transfer bags to the airport' as part of a sightseeing excursion - but simplest and cheapest is best IMO, which means heading upstairs to the Pan Pacific hotel lobby and storing your bags with the bell staff. There is an official pier storage - but because it's signposted it has longer queues than any other option, is the most expensive option at $12 a bag, and worst of all makes you return by no later than 4:30pm to collect them again which is worthless for someone with a flight as late as yours... Enjoy a day in Vancouver, have dinner downtown, get bags again at ~8pm, head out to YVR (whether a taxi, uber, limo or SkyTrain it'll all take about 35 minutes end to end that time of day) and check-in, CBP stop work at 8:30pm, so no preclearance for your flight, it will be a 'regular' international one with immigration and customs on your arrival in the US - which does mean that arriving more than a couple of hours early is pointless, it's never busy for these red eyes. Your bag check time cap will be much more of a limiting factor than airport procedures - most airlines it's at least a full hour pre-flight. If you're flying with just carry-on I would honestly not be worried showing up 45mins early for a 10:35pm flight!

@RELS YVR has several Generic Lounges (Plaza Premium) which anyone can buy access for; just make sure that you book the correct one based on your flight destination as you cannot transfer between US E gates and other secure areas without going through immigration & security shenanigans! Also NB: that while the prior clarification that you need the Canada Line is helpful the handiest time-saving info was left out - there is zero need to stop at a ticket kiosk or figure out zones any more for 99.99% of adults as long as you have either a tappable-chip Amex, Mastercard or Visa, or a Google/Apple/Samsung smartphone with a card loaded to the onboard payment system, you can simply tap on the fare gates to open them! Not only does this avoid the delay of figuring out the right ticket on the machine, but it also does the math for you - when you tap back out (NB: use the same card, and hold it in your hand both times rather than tapping your whole wallet as if the sensors pick up 2 different cards they will bill each one a maximum fare!) it knows how many Zones you have used and what day/time it is and corrects the fee accordingly. Super easy - the only folks who need to use the machines are seniors/older kids who want a save a buck with a Concession fare (all taps charge regular Adult fare), or folks whose only cards are Diners Club which are not accepted.

A flight that late has no Pre-clearance, so one less thing to do here, plus fewer pax all around. You will of course be much-delayed at your first US airport as that's where CBP will do your immigration and customs - so hopefully it's a non-stop all the way home for you or you have a nice long connection, because I've yet to find any US airport well-staffed with CBP in the wee small hours! Even without any security-expediting pass (e.g. 1st class, Global Entry) I would be surprised if you cannot get through security in <15 mins (this late, the Express prebooking service does not even operate because queues very rarely get longer than about 10mins); if you check-in using Hotel WiFi or from the ship should mean just a few minutes to figure out where your bag check is (even if you want a paper boarding pass, the kiosks rarely have much of a queue) so unless your airline's policy on bag check cutoff is really long (most seem to be one hour for foreign-bound flights) you should be able to walk out of the Fairmont ~80mins before your flight. However, not only do Fairmont day rooms have a cap of 8 hours - longer than that they want a full 24hr rate paid - their availability is also capped to 7pm at the latest. So even with an 8 hour booking, you cannot go straight to YVR from the pier and check in, nor can you wait in the room until you are ready to head to your flight. In short, you're forking over a pile of cash (many other hotels are cheaper for an entire overnight booking!) but would still need to supplement it with an airport lounge if you don't want to just hang out in the cheap seats with everyone else 😉 Personally, even if I were able to nap, I'd be inclined to spend the day Doing Fun Stuff downtown then just book one of the YVR lounges that has a Nap Room!

How many other ships that day? How big are they? If you can carry all your own bags off and schlep them over to SkyTrain (400 yards), then the other ships don't matter much - even if delayed because all other ships clear before yours so the queues for escalators, CBSA etc. are already long you will be at YVR within an hour of leaving the pier. But if you do need help with bags then that means you need a cab or shuttle or limo, so you may find that flight challenging to make unless it's a quiet day with few people fighting you for transportation! Most cruiselines refuse to book a flight for pax before noon or even 12:30pm - so that's a nice safe target time for the earliest flight if you need any help whatsoever.

@rgh2928 What hotel are you coming in from, and have you booked your shuttle independently or through your line or the hotel itself... and last time, was it the same way? Full size coaches can get under Canada Place just fine, so I'm genuinely bemused about any lack of access regardless of who is organizing the vehicle, but while I am generally ill-disposed to cruise line shuttles that's just because of the obscene cost markups, rather than such a strange failure in quality of service. Personally I'd be using an Accessible taxi - perfect size of vehicle, a big van with middle row of seats removed so even if your parents were bringing their own folding wheelchairs rather than renting at the pier there should be room for lots of bags and 4 pax. Have your hotel call the cab firm and specifically ask for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle - by law, all the cab fleets have to supply them when someone who needs them asks (they make up about 17% of the cab fleets) whereas Uber etc. have no such requirement thanks to their 'honest guv we are not a transportation company just an app that hooks up drivers with passengers' operation, but if they can get in and out of normal cars fine then an UberXL should also work fine. You'll spend a fraction of the cost compared to any Per Person shuttle - even metered from a distance hotel, with traffic, the odds of going much over $40 on the meter are slim (pay with credit - while many cabbies happily take USD they do not give close to the official exchange rate, and some even cheekily ask for an At Par $1USD=$1CAD!!!) and since most cruise shuttles charge USD$29pp that's almost CAD$40 per person... without Surge pricing, generally rideshares cost a bit less than cabs on longer trips, so from an airport area hotel expect to save maybe 10-15% with Uber/Lyft compared to a metered cab. If you can make it from your hotel to the airport itself (e.g. on the hotel shuttle), cabs from there are even fixed price - CAD$38 to the pier this year, all taxes included, and size of cab makes no difference.

I agree there's a certain point where the extra hassle will outweigh the extra benefits - from a southern state and only coming to Canada once in a blue moon, NEXUS is unlikely to be a win for you! But other than the geographic issue of getting to a far more limited set of locations the actual interview process for me and every single person I know of with NEXUS involved literally just a few moments extra as the CBP and CBSA agents are generally in the same building - often in the same office, or in not-just-my-case-but-many-other-acquaintances-too literally behind the same counter right next to each other so only one of them actually bothers asking any questions (well, to be fair, the CBSA guy did ask me one question: "Do you have any questions for us?"!)

I also use Firesmoke - they update their predictions multiple times per day, but at most only run a couple of days into the future because they're very rational about how inaccurate even the best models are. Even more so than regular meteorological predictions, smoke is a nightmare to guesstimate so anyone who claims they have a clue how it will be in a week or two is talking utter b*ll*cks! All you can do as a visitor during fire season is pack adequate breathing protection - N95 masks, commonly available thanks to the pandemic, work for the nasty little smoke particles (PM2.5) that are most health-affecting... so even if you're one of those folks who poo-poo the risk of Covid, pack some masks to avoid tasting the smoke. If any of your stops are actually in danger from fire the tour will be altered, but if there's some smoke in the air from distant fires a mask can make all the difference between being able to wander about comfortably or constantly having an irritated nose and throat unless you stay in your hotel room or coach. There's one very small upside - if the coastal air is smokey the sunsets can be absolutely magnificent!

The only changes have been how CATSA operate security - recently there are new protocols with less faffing around removing items from bags for Trusted Travelers, but the basics (TSA Pre worthless, but Global Entry and NEXUS are equally valid for flights to the USA) still work the same. When your renewal comes up for Pre @obecalp look into acquiring NEXUS (if you can conveniently reach the Canadian border or fly through frequently, so that you can be interviewed by CBSA, this gives you the largest set of benefits for the lowest price) or Global Entry (some credit cards will pay for the application and renewal of GE) instead of Pre.

Since Southbound procedures haven't been talked about in this thread yet, note that you will be Precleared by US CBP on-site at the station, so Amtrak's normal 'come an hour early if you want to check bags' becomes 'be at least an hour early because if you cut it too fine CBP may not let you board!' Seats are also allocated at this time - so if you want to be on the good side (right) you also need to beat at least half the other pax, so I'd be aiming for ~90mins pre-departure (~5am) if you want to be certain of getting on your preferred side. You do still stop at the border - CBP don't even trust their own staff! - and a few agents board and walk the train; most often this is just a 'hold up your passport next to your head and they walk right past' thing for US/Canadian citizens, with a random extra question or two directed to folks from elsewhere, but there might be a dog onboard and I always see dogs walking the outside of the train. Usually it's a 10 mins or less stop.

Yes, a safe part of town! Like basically every part of Vancouver, even the scary-LOOKING parts! This is actually where we stayed as tourists 20 years back, when the blocks immediately around it were a lot skeevier than they are now. It's not just reliably the cheapest good hotel, it's freshly renovated this year with a new tower extension only a couple of years old so it's bigger and shinier than ever. Check reviews on the likes of Expedia, where you can only leave a review after a completed stay, and it tracks just as highly as it does on the likes of TripAdvisor - it's one the best-reviewed hotels in the city at any price-point, and very possibly the safest too (as well as profits primarily funding the local Ys women-aiding programs, the hotel is used as immediate shelter for women and kids fleeing abusive homes - so security, especially overnight, is taken seriously. Thanks for the heads-up G!

Pat's is now owned by the province, having been bought a couple of years ago to ultimately become low-cost (but theoretically clean and safe!) housing - ironically this was probably the least bad of its ilk, as the prior owners had tried to turn it into a 'real' hotel rather than an SRO and the pub on the ground floor was actually pretty popular (in theory Hastings Mill Brewing is even still in existence and looking for new premises!), but there's only so much a surface reno can do to bones that have been abused for decades... I recall it being briefly used for housing some quarantining folks during the Pandemic who were NOT happy with the accommodations!

You're just spoiled down in WA, where every pancake place and it's granny has babies on the menu... what a horrific sentence out of context!!!! 😉 De Dutch claims to be authentic - and Babies are like the Germans of Pennsylvania, a corruption of Deutch rather than actually-Dutch. More scandalous given they're in Canada is no maple syrup - just Stroop, a caramelized sugar syrup (I'm also not a fan of their version, it's too burnt compared to anything I ever had in the Netherlands - they claim it's deliberately dark, but then so do Starbucks to excuse their over-roasting of everything except the Timmies-clone Blonde Roast!) When I have visitors we usually end up in De Dutch at least once, but I always go savoury so the stroop's avoidable!

Totally missed this first time around, sorry! Yes - longer tours like the one just mentioned above still exist, and if you want to be at YVR around 5pm you have a couple of options @pmjnh - LandSea's combo of city, Cap, and the Lookout is pretty much bang on for timing (10am pickup, 4:30pm finish back at the pier, extra ~30mins drive out to YVR = arrival there 5pm or a little after) and probably costs a lot less (NB: it's priced in CAD!) than any equivalent booked through your line, who all tend to gouge heftily on the pricing in Vancouver by at the very least charging the same number but in USD... Their longer tour of the mountains unfortunately starts an hour later - 11am to 6pm, then 30mins more to YVR, so depending on your flight time it might be too close. Westcoast offer more tours, though none are specifically post-cruise the pickup options include literally right outside the pier so they may as well be! If all you want to do is the cable car/suspension bridge mentioned above, there is a dedicated shuttle service to Squamish that will drop you off right at the base of the gondola. Personally though, unless you really want to do Sky Pilot, Grouse, Whistler etc. even with a super late flight like @Lance1224 has I'd still recommend a self-organized day in the city. Store luggage at the Pan Pacific hotel bell desk, or prebook in one of the many shops and restos and hotels who have partnered with the various online storage services like luggagehero, usebounce, bagsort etc. (simply Google "luggage storage Vancouver BC" and you'll find all of these and more - all offer a guarantee, prices vary from about $7-10 per bag, and all have both longer lours and lower prices than the craptastic official pier storage which is $12 and makes you come back by 4:30pm!!!!). Never been to Vancouver before? Best value tour by far is the HOHO - even with being back to a single provider, with fewer stops than in TheBeforeTimes, you still get more stops by far than with any fixed route city tour bus for less money, and being able to get off and do stuff then re-board can be looked at as a bonus. Pootle around, have a nice lunch, do the things that interest YOU most for as long as YOU want rather than what conveniently gets lumped together by tour companies who frankly factor traffic routing more than enjoyment when deciding where to stop, how long, and what just gets a drive-by! Transit is also cheap, safe, and reliable - and for everything except buses also reliably fast! A decent book like the most up-to-date Rough Guide and a Day Pass on transit would be about the best ~$20pp (assuming most are couples or families who would share a single book) money can buy! There are also various online apps and services, even a 'live' guide who will talk you through what you're seeing remotely, for varying costs from about $5 up - and even without free roaming data, the city provides a free WiFi network (#VanWiFi) as do Translink on their vehicles, so it's really easy to both use live maps to find your way around and messaging to split your group and meet up again for lunch, to head out to the airport etc. Been before? Or want to burn some calories after umpteen days of cruise dining? Take a walking tour - there's a perfectly decent free option that covers a fair chunk of downtown through Toonie Tours, various paid tours on foot or bike from them and others, and if you have a decent budget perhaps even a private custom tour by foot/bike/vehicle? Toursbylocals started right here in Vancouver, many guides are signed up. There's even a free custom walking option, Stroll Buddy (full disclosure, I'm a Buddy, though as I don't get paid it doesn't feel like much of a conflict of interest!) NB: folks with a flight after 10pm will not preclear here but instead will be stuck doing it old-school with immigration and customs processing at your first US port of arrival - so hopefully it's a direct flight homeward for you so you can try to catch some shuteye, rather than a rude awakening after a short hop over the border then hours standing around in a typical US understaffed airport hoping not to miss your connection! However bad you feel Vancouver does queues for CBP, it's a dream here compared to even most large US int'l airports in the wee small hours... 😉 Folks in this situation are well advised to eat lunch and dinner downtown - firstly it's cheaper out to the airport after 6:30pm on weekdays (weekends and holidays everything is just 1 zone all day) and secondly despite YVR touting fair pricing at their new food outlets, that's a marketing ploy as even restos with downtown and YVR branches don't have to have the same menu so they can add higher markups if they wish... YVR remains pricier to eat and drink than downtown, with far fewer options. Without preclearance, you can roll in barely an hour before your flight (most airlines demand at least 60mins early to check bags) and easily be through Check-in, Security and at the gate in ~30mins - late evenings are SO much quieter than the morning peak hours folks heading straight from the pier face!

The Maddy! Is it still terrible? Oh lordy, when I first moved to Toronto 20-some years ago a buddy and I regularly went boozing there on Fridays just for the people-watching - short measures, mediocre food, worst waitrons in the city, constantly scamming with extra drinks added to the tab we didn't order but unlike the average drunken student we were experienced boozehounds and able to count how many rounds we'd actually consumed. One particularly memorable evening I had to point out to the manager that a) the fact I was sober enough to argue about it after apparently having drunk 24 pints clearly meant I had not drunk that many; b) this was so far beyond the safe serving threshold that the bar would get its license pulled and the server possibly face charges if I reported it (I was recently qualified under Smart Serve, so the horror stories of personal criminal responsibility were fresh in my mind) - we had our entire bill halved!

Well, for the ultimate savings you could make use of the Ys kitchens and make your own brekkie from grocery store bought stuff? I recall whipping up simple egg dishes at the Y myself on our first visit, a few rounds of toast with an omelette or cheesy scramble and we were set for the days wander! There was a decent selection of pans, plates etc. Both Vegemite and Marmite are stocked by several chains of supermarket & drug store BTW 😉 Dinner-wise, Happy Hour in general is where the bargains are if you can manage to eat on the earlier side (rare to go beyond last orders at 6pm); Chinatown is probably still your best value dining around downtown: Chinatown BBQ deliberately charges low prices to maintain affordability for the local senior population, and with a group you can take advantage of the large platters to share; New Town Bakery isn't just the famous apple and egg tarts, they have a sitdown resto through the back with pretty modest prices (though they close early, 7ish IIRC?); Phnom Penh (no website content - they don't need one! Yelp has up-to-date pics of the menu though...) has generous portions, with 6 people you might get your own table, everything shares well, and at almost fifty years in the biz to still have queues nightly is all you need to know about their quality and value! Not just because you're Aussies who might be missing a parm, but also because the pricing is very decent for downtown - Moose's Down Under is the local Aussie watering hole, and while they do expect tipping the baseline pricing is about as good as it gets for pub grub in the core... with a decent 30% off across the board for appies before 7pm every day also one of the most generous Happy Hour policies. You could also get a couple of big pizzas delivered, or for even cheaper buy premade fresh pizzas at grocery store and cook them in the kichens, then eat them up on the rooftop patio at the Y? For something a bit fancier than Pizza Hut and their ilk, but not as annoyingly hipster as needing certification from Italy, I find Straight Outta Brooklyn a good fit - you can pre-order for a specific time, pick up at the Robson branch and walk them back to the Y in five minutes, and while at ~$20ish for a pie they're not cheap they are much better value than most of the artisanal places with good, robust flavours (my wife looooves their white pie, I prefer the classic pepperoni but find there's actually too much meat!?, so I peel off about a third of the slices, she puts them on hers, we swap a slice, we're both very happy bunnies).

Any chance you mean the Novotel at North York Centre? That's usually where my wife stays when she has to go back to HQ in North York and it's a definite drop in price compared to downtown hotels but has retained a decent standard over 20 years, she's never had any complaints. Although last time we were both back in T.O. for a social event, we stayed in the Interconty Yorkville (I think they renamed it Royal Sonesta recently) which is also very close to the subway but definitely ran pricey and swank - if it's this one then refuse any room overlooking the internal courtyard on a weekend, as it stays loud until late during weddings and other events with bands or DJs and the soundproofing on those internal room windows is not as good as the external ones! The other relative-bargain hotel I'm familiar with from putting up visitors to my own old employer downtown is the HI Express on Jarvis - looks like reviews remain solid, and it's enough east of Yonge Street to be a little off the radar for most tourists while also being pretty convenient for the pier (very close to St Lawrence Market and and easy walk to the Distillery District, both popular spots to visit). Concur that there's a ton to do and see in Toronto - while the densest concentration of sites is in or close to downtown, depending on your tastes you might find other neighbourhoods better if you have time for local sightseeing. Zoo for example is top-notch but way out to the east of the city, Casa Loma a pretty unique 'castle' with a great story behind it lurks in an otherwise residential area well north of the core, but a Bloor West hotel would be ideal for here, the ROM or Gardiner museums. Best advice if you do have some pre-cruise time to sightsee is to use transit to get around, especially subways (no traffic!) Airport hotels are all sub-par if you want to sightsee but would be fine if it's a late arrival, bed, straight to the pier next day situation - even with UP it's still much pricier to get into town and back than on regular transit network, and riding the express bus to connect to the subway is a real time suck though cheap, so overall it's better to pay a bit more for a convenient location IMO even if you're watching your budget pretty closely - you can always earn some more money, but you can never regain lost time!

Is it a Saturday, during firework season? Despite the lights, I feel that without daylight the quality of the experience drops notably (but then I'm a botanist - I want to be able to read labels, not just say "Aww, lookitdaprettyflowahs!") but the firework show is well executed and seriously ramps up the value of an evening visit! Further complication is no fireworks at the moment due to the emergency measures for the many wildfires - good chance that next week, maybe two, will likewise be cancelled... but if you're later in the season we are all hoping for some rain in September!

The train does sometimes vary in length @gregma60, but that's more seasonal than situational - there are limited numbers of the Talgo sets, they can't mix & match with regular Amtrak rolling stock and don't have many if any spare Talgos (when they have their annual service, the train becomes a regular Amtrak setup with the Highliner carriages for a while, IIRC late Fall/early Winter). I will say though that at least a few folks ride it to Bellingham and other stations further south without crossing the border, and I've yet to hear of Amtrak ever over-selling, so there will be seats if you booked. If you are separated, just ask each of the pax already sitting in the other of your pair of seats to swap so you and the missus can ride together - regular economy are 2:2 rather than 1:2 in business, there aren't single seats for us plebs! - and if either is Canadian you're near guaranteed success 😉