martincath

Agree with bxc - unless a few minutes/few blocks walk seems like just too much after a day of travel, don't lock yourself in to the RR/Holiday Inn. The RR is effectively an airport hotel so you're then stuck still needing to schlep bags downtown - a downtown hotel means if you wake up early you can go wandering without needing to wait until bag drop at the pier opens. You could be circling Stanley Park on the Seawall at 6am if you're early birds, grab a nice brekky on your travels, do some ticketed attractions when they open (very few earlier than 9am even in summer), have a nice lunch too then head for the pier when it rolls around to boarding time mid-afternoon if it's a typical ~5pm departure slot. YWCA remains the bargain hotel to beat downtown - and since their brand new tower got completed when Covid was kicking in, half the rooms in the hotel have barely even been slept in, they should have the least beat-up mattresses of any hotel in the city even ones costing five times the price...

Basically what Kellie already said above in terms of the mechanics - proctored tests need observed not just by anyone, but by someone who is officially designated as a 'trusted observer' and able to issue a confirmation that is acceptable to Canadian gov't standards. Any official proctoring service based in the country you're boarding in should work - and based on reports already seen here, it seems that US services are perfectly acceptable for boarding here in Canada too. There are some (more expensive) 'sell you the kits and include the observation' services, but there are also folks who literally just observe you take your own test that seem to be cheaper, especially if you have free test kits available to you. But if you are coming up for only a day or two pre-cruise, you should be able to do what you're already familiar with - just ensure that the test you book at CVS, Walgreens etc. is timed so that it's valid at embarkation (2 days before for Antigen, 72hrs before for Molecular e.g. PCR tests).

Yes - test required for ALL inbound US flights. Go fight about that with US gov't!!! Land crossing - no test, hence Amtrak not mentioning. As well as Amtrak bus, and hopefully train (May 23 is right before the unofficial start of Canadian Summer - the 'May Two Four Holiday' - so this date does make sense...) check the QuickShuttle schedule. It's more convenient as it picks up at the pier and there's a departure that ties in nicely with cruise arrivals (9am) - pricing model has been totally overhauled with way more options now, so it might even no longer be significantly pricier for that convenience. But if the train has started - take the train! Hands-down it's the least hassle at the border of any possible way to cross, it's cheaper than Amtrak buses too for a better service across the board. The only downside, apart from not running right now, is that there are only two per day and the early train is way too early for cruisers - but if getting to Seattle by ~10pm is OK, the train is the winner in every category IMO.

Given your update @LorabelleI would strongly advise against traveling up from BLI on the day - but if you can arrive early enough the day before to get across the border it makes a lot of sense to use BLI, especially if the lengthy delays at YVR security remain in place when you're traveling. QS have a pretty big fleet of buses and Bellingham is not far at all from Vancouver, so worst-case of a breakdown you won't wait forever to get sent on - but you would definitely end up hosed for boarding same day with any mechanical issue or even a significant border delay. Check Amtrak schedule as well as QS - even if it's only buses running they have later night options than QS, and a cab to Bellingham train station is not very expensive from the airport. Speaking of the border - yes, DO expect to have to schlep your bags in. Despite some utter nonsense that occasionally gets mentioned on here, QS are not magic - they get the exact same treatment as all other buses, no head of the line privilege and no difference in whether or not you need to carry bags inside. Right now with Bolt and Greyhound both dead, the odds are better of only brief delays - but until Amtrak start running trains there will be quite lot more Amtrak buses than usual so the total numbers of coaches being processed might be pretty similar... Whether you need to bring bags in or not is up to CBSA on the day northbound, CBP southbound, and I've only ever seen this skipped when the border is busy. But the biggest issue with buses is that if a single passenger gets a border agent in a bad mood, has a flag on their file, or anything else that means extra questions ALL of you hang around waiting until a decision is made. Check the small print - if you are actually refused entry the bus company can leave you at the border then and there, but until the decision is made the whole busload is held. We've personally experienced delays in TheBeforeTimes of over two hours on buses due to heavy traffic - northbound if the general traffic queue gets much beyond 30mins, that means the buses cannot reach the turnoff to their crossing point as cars are in the way! We've also experienced delays waiting for one person or one couple to get cleared that ran 15mins, on one occasion 45mins. You cannot afford to take the risk of a delay with only a couple of hours of padding on a privately-arranged transfer!

Not the ports themselves (coast = breezes and mosquitos struggle to fly well in wind) but if you plan any excursions inland that's where the wee bar-stewards might start nibbling. We got a bit blase after a cruise or three and stopped carrying bug spray in our pockets - then went for a walk in the woods near Sitka to see some totem poles (ironically enough including this one!) and there were more than a few bitey beasties out and about... All the more galling as we had hi-strength DEET with us on the trip, just back onboard in the bathroom instead of where it would have been useful!!! Considering how easy it is to acquire and carry a small bottle of spray, it's a good habit to take it whenever you leave the ship just in case - but I doubt you could go anywhere in those ports where you'd need a full mesh head cover etc. like you would if you were far inland in mozzie season.

While it doesn't help OP given their 3 day pre-cruise stay, for folks coming in just a day or two beforehand remember that you can use a test taken at home within the last 2 days/72 hours depending on type... so if there's still a free clinic near you with PCR testing you have a full 72 hr validity before boarding a ship up here, and since we no longer need tests to fly into Canada you don't even have to struggle to find a Rapid PCR test rather than the day or two 'send samples off to a lab' versions. All-in-all though, bringing some cheap tests from home and bookmarking at least a couple of online proctoring services is going to be your cheapest and most convenient way if your timing requires a test here in Vancouver.

Questions like this can only have one good answer - pack layers! The amount of variability in temp, rainfall etc. in coastal ports in Spring (plus on the ship itself, when e.g. sailing into a 20kt wind at 20kt makes for some serious windchill...) means even studying the weather trends carefully you can't possibly choose just the right set of 'monotasking' clothes. But if you want to frame ballpark temps, rainfall etc. I find Weatherspark useful - here's a link to their Halifax summary page, you can change the location to your actual ports plus the nearest city to your home to get a comparative idea of what you'll encounter statistically-speaking... but again, one decently-waterproof top shell without a lot of padding and a couple of options for wearing underneath that you can combine if needed covers everything.

Going there, dead easy - all the cabs in Victoria know it's a cruise day and there's a line of them waiting to take your pennies! Coming back - take some numbers with you and call one if you don't see a cab cruising past and need one in a hurry, as it's a pretty residential area so there probably won't be many cabs trolling for business. But if you're reasonably mobile and not under time pressure it's a pleasant walk walk - here's a map from the pier - though not a short one at a little over 3 miles. Beacon Hill park is en route and also worth stopping at for some nice blooms, huge totem pole, longhouse etc.

Depending how many are included in 'we' you might find that a rental car is better value than buses - I'm guessing that's how you'll be seeing the area mentioned as public transit is far from great in those places. Changing a lengthy rental to one-way instead of returning to same spot might produce a radically different price than making a second separate booking - prices have been all over the place this year as rental franchises try to figure out demand for cross-border trips - but it's probably worth a few minutes of your time plugging in both scenarios to Kayak or especially Costco travel if you're members (the free second driver is often useful and pricing is usually better than elsewhere). You might even get lucky if you check out Transfer Cars - Vancouver/Seattle vehicle relocations came up fairly often in TheBeforeTimes.

It's the exact same principle as boarding a plane to (insert almost any foreign country) - while you might formally go through immigration on arrival, folks on the ground at the departure airport usually check you have your passport before you board to make sure you can gain entry at the other end... even doing 'paperwork' online has been normalized for years with US ESTA, Canadian eTA, New Zealand, UK, Australia etc.

Have a shufty at the official list of testing locations - but don't book anything expensive yet, as rules have been changing a lot recently! Since cruising has restarted locally, confirmation from experience is out there that using an online proctoring service and your own test brought from home is acceptable - as long as your hotel has internet you can spend a few minutes in the comfort of your room doing the test while observed rather than going to queue up somewhere in-person with who knows how many other randos... Going rate for Canada-based proctoring services seems to be about $20, which is a massive discount over even the cheapest physical test location given you can buy antigen tests in Costco before you come! Given that you can also test 24/7, I've yet to hear of anyone having trouble finding a proctored slot at short notice - whereas appointment at physical clinics do fill up, they mostly seem to be operating a single shift of 9-5ish (even clinics have staffing issues these days!)

Amtrak buses are sold directly on the Amtrak website - there might be legit tickets available elsewhere, though personally this is the first I've heard of 'wanderu' - but why take the risk? But if you don't have a specific reason to be spending time in Seattle, booking tickets straight through to YVR will avoid the kind of problems some other posters have been reporting - with travel still heavily impacted by lack of replacement staff, covid outbreaks etc. the odds of a flight remaining on the same timing/connections/airframe that you book it on are lower than ever, and the airlines are only responsible to get you where your ticket is booked for... even if you're saving buckets of cash flying to SEA instead of YVR, I'd plan for an awful lot of padding time, like an extra night in a hotel which would eat significantly into potential savings.

As has been broadly reported, including from folks working the piers, so you can assume it's as close to gospel as any piece of info gets - you need to show the receipt from your completed ArriveCAN at boarding. This is because ArriveCAN is the tool chosen by our gov't to track vaxx status of all pax onboard ships - it doesn't matter when during the journey the ship enters our waters, even just for a token technical stop to meet PVSA requirements with nobody permanently disembarking, the data is transferred to ensure that the ship meets our rules of all pax 12years+ being double-vaxxed. No ArriveCAN, no boarding! When you fill it out correctly, you get a very obvious confirmation receipt that includes a QR code (one of those weird black & white patterned squares that Smartphones can read) and a letter code - that's the thing you need to display to pier staff. A printed result is also allowed, but since you'll be on your land portion first it might be a hassle getting access to a computer and printer - I'm sure at least some of the included hotels/lodges will have a business centre, but if you have your own smartphone/tablet that can run the app that's one less thing to worry about. The 72 hour limit has also been unofficially relaxed just for marine entries - again, multiple reports confirm that successful completion which produces the expected receipt with QR code 4 days in advance rather than 3 if you have chosen arrival by water (land and air remain with a firm 72 hour cap in advance). Since you will still need to do the final part while on vacation, I suggest downloading the app and getting stuck into all the unchanging data ASAP so you can familiarise yourself with the app! As soon as you hit 96 hours pre-ship-departing-from-Sitka-time, log back in and complete the time-specific info.