martincath

No, you're good. Since my wife has a smartphone and I don't, we've been using her App for both of us whenever we can't print my ArriveCAN receipt. Up to 8 traveling together can use a single App - and since you're spouses, you can even use a single Customs declaration (unless you have different home addresses)

Hopefully the opening hours of Ezeeriders will improve as tourism ramps up - their Seawall location is the most convenient for cruisers, and at least back in the day were also significantly cheaper than the likes of Spokes right outside the park. Walk a mile less and pay less = win-win! Edit - I thought they'd closed, but apparently Trevor Linden Fitness do still rent bikes within the convention centre west building, and prices look pretty good there too. Tandems might not be a bad idea, so that your older members can have a pair of younger legs provide the power ;-) If you are in a hotel, do check if they have free bikes - as mentioned above it's become a fairly popular perk for hotels to offer. And stick to the Seawall and pathways, rather than riding on the roads within the park or streets without separated bike lanes unless you're all comfy with urban cycling. The hill up to Prospect Point is also pretty durn steep! You may also find this map of local bike path network useful; they even have a few hints like how to use 'bike boxes' in case you haven't come across them before.

For bellhops, yes - for tour guides maybe also (although even the free walking tours, with 'tip what you feel it is worth' at the end, guides have adopted Square or similar Smartphone card tap or swipe). If you're handing over cash, the only polite option in any country with a reasonably functional currency is to go with local. That said, while fewer of us are popping over the border as frequently, there are plenty of places to swap USD - so for small numbers, tipping at par more than offsets the inconvenience. For any tip on a service like a meal, as said above it'll be an option on the terminal (and despite having a rather high suggested minimum amount, 18% mostly and 21% in more and more places, don't be fooled, there is always an 'other %' or 'cash amount' option on there too). @Jeaannie55Good idea to acquire a No Forex Fee card. Things have probably changed in the 20+ years we've been out of the UK, but Virgin Money still seem to be pretty good according to family who use their cards for travel - but regardless of whose brand you use, make sure to get a MasterCard or Visa, not Diners or Amex as there is significantly lower acceptance of those over here. You'll also find that many terminal will automatically offer you the 'convenience' of paying in Sterling as the card will read as British - never accept these offers! The average markup runs over 4% - significantly worse than the typical 2.5% Forex fee, and infinitely worse than the 0% you'll have on your new travel card!!!

My wife loves that wine and it is tremendous quality for the price - unfortunately no Kirkland booze sales allowed up here, so even though we have possibly the word's most convenient Costco slap bang downtown we can only stock up on that (and their fake Bailey's, which is frankly better than the real thing!) for our Portland pad. If something goes horribly wrong and you can't bring it, hit up BCLiquor for the Bourbon Barrel Aged Bodacious (ridiculous name, but a great quaffer for $11 regular price and often $10 on sale). We do have quite a lot of cheap Argy Malbecs, but I've found that you need to get well into $15+ ballpark to get as tasty as the Kirkland, but there's usually at least one or two $15-18 Reserves that are on sale with $3 or more off. NB: prices do not include bottle deposit or 15% tax.

You'll have Chip cards @Jeaannie55so tapping for your purchase is frankly quicker than paying with cash, especially in bars & restos where you have to wait for your server to go to the till and bring back change unless you have the right amount to cover bill + tip in your purse and can just leave it on the table. Even in TheBeforeTimes, Vancouver was moving toward having more No Cash than Cash Only places - with the Covid-induced 'touch nothing ever!!!!!' frenzy almost nowhere was taking cash for some time, and some places realized during that no cash means no bank runs, no risk of employees skimming, and generally less hassle so they've kept the policies in place. Most shops and restos will happily take cash money again but between the hassle of acquiring small bills, the annoyance of $1 & $2 being large coins (fun coins, nice keepsake, but really you just need one of each!), and the convenience of 'tap and go' terminal almost everywhere I literally could not tell you the last time I opened my wallet for cash. Even some of our homeless folks have card-readers for their phones, as nobody carries much spare change around these days...

You can declare in advance - a pilot program that YVR is part of - if you use the Website version of ArriveCAN rather than the App. If all goes well with the pilot, that feature should roll out to the app and to all airports (maybe all land borders and all marine entries too) at some point. Having said that, with the kiosks that do facial recog/ePassport scanning now smoothly operating for several years the process is already pretty slick so it's not a big time saving, but every chunk of time you can preload to at home instead of in the airport is a win if you ask me... Depending where you're coming from @Mike07and how pricey the wine is you would bring, the savings compared to buying bottles here in the liquor stores could be significant - we are a very high 'Sin Tax' location, even compared to other parts of Canada. Check BCLiquor pricing on their website - and also which stores have your preferred brands in stock.

@drk Fouremco is correct (or we're both wrong!), that's how I interpret it too as the cruise never arrives in Canada... but there do seem to be a few folks posting from their northbounds about having it at check-in, though so far I think they've all been B2B people so this might be a case of '2 separate cruises are one cruise if booked that way, so even though many people board this and never come back some do and we will treat them accordingly.' Not enough posts for me to have a firm opinion if this is a case of deliberate training (K.I.S.S. principles mean always asking every passenger for ArriveCAN is less likely to result in a failure which costs the line money, as Canada has already issued fines in respect of folks allowed to board without having completed ArriveCAN), failure of training consistency (only some staff ask for it when not needed), failure to flag a given vessel's route to check-in staff (if they think it's RT then they're going to ask), or a legit breakdown of requirements to the individual passenger level, with staff asking for folks who are boarding a Northbound and also returning South immediately - frankly if it is this last case, I'm impressed at the quality of shore-side training and the risk tolerance for SNAFUs!!! Given the time hassle of fighting your way up the management chain to complain about being asked for something not legally required, compared to the less-than-two-minutes of making another entry on the app, if you get asked for it I'd be tempted to just comply and then go fight for some sort of freebie on-board later, as it will save you a lot of time...

If you mean what to enter in the fields on the app - this would be a Land entry, at the Blaine (Surrey) border crossing, for any of the Seattle-Vancouver I5 corridor buses. The app also asks for a time - if it's QuickShuttle, their schedule gives a time they stop at BLI airport - add 30mins to that time as your ETA at the border. If it's a cruise shuttle, then I would add 2.5 hours from the time of your scheduled departure from SEATAC or 2 hours from downtown Seattle (but don't worry, traffic is notoriously variable so if you are late or - much more unusually - early, they'll still let you in!) Since the most recent app update you also get asked a Destination Address - if you have a Precruise hotel, enter that. If you are risking same-day travel, Canada Place Cruise Terminal (at 999 Canada Place) would be the right address to add. Note also that you will likely need to make a second entry for your cruise - important, do NOT add your cruise info until after you have crossed the border! Whether flying in or driving, you need to use the planned border-crossing method, date, and time to actually be allowed into the country. The app only holds one live trip, so you MUST wait until after you actually arrive before adding your next trip, for the cruise itself... You likely won't have to actually show the receipt to anyone at the border, generally only the cruise check-in minions are asking for it to be displayed - CBSA staff can see all the details onscreen because it's linked to your travel documents, so whether they swipe your passport, scan your NEXUS card or whatever, your ArriveCAN trip data pops up along with everything else. You should make sure you have a printout, or battery life on your phone, in case they ask - but if the receipt comes up with the expected 'good' letter codes indicating you are vaxxed you probably won't be asked for it.

My fellow Canadian may be answering from the perspective of us local residents and thus answering correctly for themselves, but inadvertently misleading the tourists! Us Canadians do still need to complete ArriveCAN but of course we are already inside the country! For you tourists flying or driving in before cruising, the FIRST ArriveCAN entry needs your hotel entered, not the ship, and your mode of entry at that first border crossing on the date and time you expect to get here. ArriveCAN is not smart enough or invasive enough to know where you are when you enter the data - so you absolutely can enter your cruise info, pier location etc. now - but that's wrong as you first have to get across the border... If you complete it for your cruise before you get on the plane/drive across, you will be refused entry! At best, they'll make you fill it out again with the correct details so you better have the App and phone data rather than a paper printout from your desktop at home... at worst, no entry to Canada for you are you are not compliant with current regulations. Every time you 'Arrive in CANada' you make a separate trip entry - the app only holds one live trip, so you must get over the border first before you make the second entry for cruising. Otherwise the app simply overwrites any future trip whenever you make a new entry. Both of the above visitors should choose an Air entry (or land if driving), on the date and time they expect to enter Canada, with the pre-cruise hotel as the requested destination address. Then after you get to the hotel, use their WiFi to add your next trip - a Marine Cruise, entering Canada on (date and location of your first Canadian port, expected time of arrival). It's super-quick on the second and subsequent trips, because all the travelers you entered the first time are stored - ID and Vaxx status doesn't change, so literally all you have to do is input the new trip date, destination, and then add people from your list.

Actually, if you test positive (rather than choosing to travel across the land border without doing a test) you are legally obliged to obey Canadian Federal (if on the cruise when +ve test) or Provincial (if on land in Vancouver) rules about self-isolating (10 days and 5 days minimum respectively) immediately, so the US 'test for flights but not for land' policy is utterly irrelevant. While there's no longer an official system of verifying you are obeying by randomly calling you at your place of isolation, so anyone willing to break these laws can get away with the initial offence very easily at the time, the US and Canada do share all mutual-border-crossing info - so there will be a record of you having left the country with a time/date stamp... All the tests which meet US standards for flying have detailed records of time/date and ID of person tested, whether it's an online Proctored or in-lab test, so there are records to prove you tested +ve and then left the country - once all the bureaucracy works through, expect to be banned from entering Canada ever again. Possibly fined too, just to add icing to the cake. You're also banned from using public transit when confirmed +ve, so only a rental car is legal for 'heading home to isolate' - folks within practical driving distance with a positive test result can therefore return home, but they most definitely should not look at hopping on a bus and exposing fellow travelers as a viable option!

They do - M/C & Visa anyway. Some folks just like cash of course, or maybe the cabbie tried the old 'my machine is broken do you have cash?' line like often happens to tourists - I get it all the time despite living here, as I still have my Scots accent! If you planned to tip generously, then a 1:1 USD for CAD isn't too horrible - the cabbie does deserve a small kicker for the inconvenience of having to go exchange the funds, so assuming you're happy to pad his rate say 10%, and tip 15-20%, it's not far off the actual exchange rate these days. Just don't hand over the $34-38 fixed fare PLUS a tip!

Separate! The app only holds ONE trip at a time 'live' - enter a second before you actually cross the border and the previous trip is deleted, so then you'd get the boot on arrival at YVR!!! Wait until after you have left the airport - seems like you'd be within the 72 hr limit as soon as you do arrive, so you can complete Cruise trip at your leisure.

Most likely zero line for customs - you'll fill out Canadian cards onboard, and as (I assume) a US citizen given your profile location you'll almost certainly be taking any Stuff you acquire back home with you! Likewise, immigration info is processed 'behind the scenes' as Canada & US share all such data, so unless there's a problem you may not even see a CBSA uniform anywhere as you disembark. It's when you hit the US border that you'll get grilled about all purchases for Customs! Oh, and if you have an earlier Canada stop, e.g. Victoria, than that's where any Customs/Immigration chats would happen so definitely no extra delay in Vancouver When you can get off? Depends - Princess do enforce time-slots, we've even been forced into waiting for a second 'self disembarkation' group in the past, as so many people sign up to do that on short coastal cruises that they need to regulate pax flow. Safe to assume you can start walking off around 7:30am in normal circumstances - if you need to get your bags taken off for you, then the assigned slots will depend on your flight schedule, status with Princess, and how much groveling/bribery you can deploy to convince them to let you in the earliest rather than latest slots. Worst case is still before 9:30am - as ships all need Zeroed out, all pax off, so that CBP and CBSA can tidy up paperwork for pax about to do B2Bs. All-in-all, if the rules remain the same and you have to take a test pre-flight, the cheapest and best option is to try and get a remote observed test done while onboard, if you have reliable internet, or while on land at a port stop if it's within the '1 day before flying' - proctored tests bought in the US seem to run about $30 or less, compared to CAD$80ish here in Vancouver. Plus, if you actually do test positive onboard, Princess are on the hook for ALL your required expenses during quarantine... but test yourself after disembarking, even minutes later, and you're on your own to find and pay for 10 nights hotel and food!

Even those of us who LIVE here have to complete ArriveCAN to board a cruise @3rdGenCunarder! If your cruise is a Northbound, i.e leaving Canada completely, you might be OK not completing ArriveCAN in Vancouver as that sailing doesn't go anywhere Canadian - in which case you'd instead complete it at turnaround, before embarking for the southbound leg which does. If it's a Round Trip, then you do need to complete it here before boarding, using your Victoria date and time - no ArriveCAN, no boarding any ship that will visit Canada for even a technical stop is the rule. I'm just waiting to see trip reports from folks who booked B2Bs 'as one cruise' to see if Canadian authorities deem that to mean 'ArriveCAN before boarding leg 1' or 'ArriveCAN before boarding leg 2'... but given the very brief time it takes to add a trip once you have set up the account and the people, until and unless we get a very definitive 'no need for it in circumstance X which equates exactly to yours' why the heck not take the 2 minutes to enter it again and play safe is my attitude!

And further expanding on the reply above - the wait time to get IN a cab/uber is a bigger problem on a busy day than traffic. SkyTrain time is almost 100% reliable - the only variable is in service frequency, which is about 7mins in the morning... so if you just miss a train you are delayed by at most 7mins extra. Cabs though... In TheBeforeTimes, self-disembarkation and SkyTrain meant that getting to YVR well before 9am was feasible, and that meant that a US bound flight as early as 10:30am was not-particularly-difficult to catch. Now, with the security issues on top of Covid testing I'd want at least an extra hour of padding - and I'm familiar with transit, airport layout, and have NEXUS to get into short security lines and be expedited though CBP as well. If you have Global Entry @NavyCruiser and can hustle with bags, I'd say your 12:30pm flight is still quite plausible - but it might be stressful!

Cab for four means waiting for a Minivan, unless you all travel very light (~80% of our local fleets are Prius, 4 seats, but luggage room restricted) - price same though! SkyTrain on the Canada Line suitcases work fine - it was built to handle them, every seat you can slide a case under and the extra legroom means carry-ons can sit in front of you too. Don't block the aisles or use the designated wheelchair spots! As airport is one terminus, there's nobody else onboard so getting seat is easy, and Waterfront is the other terminus so everyone is getting off, i.e. you don't need to fight your way through crowds with bags! Auberge is an easy walk to the pier, and from SkyTrain, especially if you pay attention and get out of the station at Granville & Hastings - here's a map with all three locations noted for you in order. Worst-case, if you wander the wrong way on the platform you'll pop up inside the station building proper on Cordova - clearly flagged on Google - and have to walk a little more and a bit uphill

Buster's run the downtown city impound lot, and also offer 'car storage' (specifically they use the example of someone taking an Amtrak vacation, as the station is very convenient for their lot) but no idea of pricing - definitely secure, and walkable at 3 klicks (street address 425 Industrial). Here's their Contact Info.

Apologies - Uber, if you can find an XL, might do the job although I have no idea if we have 6 pax and decent luggage storage volume vehicles being operated locally... A limo rather than cab would certainly fit all of you, but when it comes to those the only one I've used locally is Aerocar, the folks with the YVR franchise - unfortunately they are listed as temporarily not running on the YVR site, and their own website seems to have not had the bills paid... they might be kaput, so I'm therefore in a quandary as I have no specific limo to recommend you! The real downside of limos is the legal minimum pricing - other than Aerocar, who got an exemption on their fixed rates to/from YVR, all private car companies must comply with the rates agreed by the Passenger Transportation board. That includes a minimum hire period of a full hour as well as minimum hourly rate, so any limo not breaking the law will be billing you at least $90 but not more than $160 (1 hour should be ample to get out to YVR. GST of 5% goes on top, many local companies also seem to set a minimum tip of 20% of base fare, and Meet & Greet fees are not set in the bylaws so they could be potentially hefty - or dirt cheap! - but back in the day Aerocar charged $50 so that's probably not far off what others will. So all-in-all I think you're looking at not an awful lot less than CAD$200 as a ballpark - compared to 2 cabs on meters at around $40-45 each incl reasonable tip. Ubers seem to run a little less than cabs locally when not on Surge, but I would expect on a busy cruise morning that surge is very likely to apply! Hopefully someone else will come along with specific limo companies they have used and vouch for... Yes, QS will stop at the border (as well as a few other spots both sides, as noted on the schedule) for you to all get off and be processed. if it's a busy day you're more likely to be allowed to skip the luggage drag, but as US folks returning home they're also likely to be pickier about your customs declaration... so I would assume bag drag, then be pleasantly surprised if you get to leave them onboard. It's much more than an hour to Seattle, though I have no idea what 'revised' might have been changed from by autocorrect? It's an hour or so to the border, then 30 mins assumed processing time, BLI airport at 11am, Tulalip outlet mall noon, the Convention Centre downtown 1pm and SEATAC 1:30pm ETA.

None closer than the Rexall that Dennis confirmed - if they don't have whatever you need in stock there are some others that are still a short walk away, especially if you leave your suitcases with other party members... another Rexall on Pender and a very large London Drugs @ Georgia & Granville fit neatly on this walking map...

Too late to edit - I found one of the threads that touched on this topic @Willwils but skimming through it again it's not exactly the same as yours, as it was an RT cruise (but therefore did need a Preboarding ArriveCAN). They did also confirm a separate ArriveCAN for Skagway land border, then did not mention needing to do another Marine entry to return to Canada - so I would suggest reaching out directly to her unless she replies based on me name-dropping her right now: @karatemom2 Here's her main thread; and a second one where she (I think) Cut & pasted the port of call info - she seems to be quite active at the moment so hopefully will confirm about any additional Marine ArriveCAN entry being needed after the Skagway trip or not.

The first part then confirms my suspicions - that the optional land border crossing does indeed need ArriveCAN completed. The second part seems to conflict with the trip report I read, but the filks you phoned should be more in the know than I am and better safe than sorry! At the end of the day you are literally talking about re-entering the same people, from a list of saved travelers, on the same App that you've just used twice in a few days so it should take you at most a couple of minutes to do... while on land, in the US, able to use domestic phone data/free internet somewhere in town before you board right after you cross back over the border in Skagway from your bus ride. If it were me, I'd go with what you've been told by the government phone minion - if it turns out you did not need to do it you have only wasted 2 minutes, whereas if you do not do it and you should have you could be facing fines or enforced quarantine for failing to provide ArriveCAN info. I'll try to find that trip report and link to the relevant 'what we did where' about ArriveCAN, editing this comment if it turns up quickly or adding another if too late to edit...

I'd be inclined to post this on Ask a Cruise Question - it's completely generic, and the only way to get a remotely useful answer rather than speculation is if someone else with an even-earlier-expiring test kit has managed to do a telehealth consult and been allowed to. That means you want as many eyes on the question as possible, and this forum is one of the quieter ones... Actually, since this is also not even cruise-specific but about flying into the US, I'd head over to Tripadvisor, Flyertalk and other general/flight-specific travel sites to maximize the chance of someone who has faced the scenario answering, and personally I'd contact the company you plan to get proctoring service from and ask them directly - by email rather than phone so you have a 'paper' trail... FWIW, given there are official statements about validity being pushed well beyond the printed-on-the-box date I would guess that any proctoring service should be aware, but this is definitely not the sort of thing to trust the guesses of Rando McInternet about! Even I don't trust my own opinion on this ;-)

Scootaround are the providers at Canada Place, and their cruise-specific page is here - that plus other potentially useful info is on the port website here. You can absolutely use the scooters off the ship as well as on - I can't imagine anyone who needs one onboard being able to magically do without after getting off!!! Their FAQs indirectly address this - they confirm you are allowed to use the scooters in foreign countries, so using American products in Alaska is just fine & dandy (though I assume the small print does cover some sort of 'you break it you pay to repair it' clause like with rental cars!) AK ports do have a bit less in the way of sidewalks than many - you'll definitely be fine getting on and off the ship (although if tendering, be prepared for long delays as crew move your dad and his scooter separately) and through most of the port towns proper, but do check into any excursions you plan to book to see what sort of terrain is encountered and if there's a wheelchair/scooter-friendly ramp or alternate path etc. Boarding small whalewatching boats for example might mean leaving scooter at dock and crew helping dad aboard, then him staying seated... I've seen folks on scooters in some truly unexpected places (I think that trundling about the desert in Jordan was the most double-take worthy!), so unless dad wants to try strapping his on a kayak to paddle out to a glacier, he shouldn't really have much hassle in Alaska ;-)

No need to apologise @topsailgirl- there are so many possible sources of info, even official sites change so what you read on Day X might be different on Day Y, all you can do is try to check direct with the official sites of government, cruiseline etc. to plan and then double-check again when you get to the ~3 day mark just to make sure no changes! At least ArriveCAN gives notice of changes, so you can check that maybe the week before you cruise to see if there's a planned upgrade close to your date, that might mean better to wait until the app updates than have to do everything twice!

Skagway - probably. All the wording of cruise exemptions does not seem to include an optional land border crossing ArriveCAN exemption, though it does mean you will definitely not be randomly Covid tested. Tour guides/bus drivers will know whether it's needed and be shouting about it if it is! Hopefully we'll also see some reports from CC members who have done bus tours over the border soon so it's definitive, but better safe than sorry if in doubt!!! Vancouver - nope, the ArriveCAN before boarding is specifically to cover your disembark in Vancouver. That's the Port of Entry you'll have to use when you're filling out the fields (unless you have a Victoria stop before of course, but those 7 day N/S cruises rarely do any Canadian ports except Vancouver).