martincath

In case it doesn't work out finding an alternate OP @dmacleod, we've stayed at that LaQ a couple of times and found that it was actually a great hotel for us - the lack of pubs/clubs/restos very close by meant it was the quietest Seattle hotel we ever stayed in!!! Yeah, you might need to do a bit of walking or cabubering around - but a $10 ride gets you to a shedload of nice places in the 'hoods already mentioned above and it sounds like you'd have to spend a lot more than the price of some cabs to swap hotels!

If you haven't already checked (it sells out regularly) the YWCA Hotel is usually the cheapest downtown option, as well as one of the best-reviewed at any price... it's also one of the closest to the train station (although given how small the downtown core is, staying in the furthest hotels would barely be an extra 10mins cab ride...) Otherwise, if you can handle schlepping bags up stairs there are a couple of older properties with decent reviews just lacking in froo-froo stuff like elevators 😉 The Buchan remains 'cheap & cheerful' across the board, but The Victorian seems to be positioning itself as Ye Olde Authentice Heritagee Hotele these days with fancy mattresses and linens and trying to call shared bathrooms 'a European Experience' - their rates aren't as good a deal as it used to be, but the lack of en suites and elevators puts enough people off that they are still often much cheaper than others.

+1 to what Andy said - there's parking right at the pier for ~$25/day, you won't save much at all anywhere else downtown (indeed, some other lots are even pricier!) Longterm airport works out around $13 a day, with a SkyTrain station literally in the longterm lot which you can take downtown for ~$9pp... depending on group size though, cab fare might be very reasonable (fixed rate per vehicle of $37 to most of downtown, $41 to pier) so with 4 bums on seats only a couple of bucks pp more than SkyTrain... You could try for suburban hotels with longterm parking rates though - e.g. the local chain Accent Inns has a Burnaby and Airport location. I don't think they offer 'park & cruise' deals anymore, but that's not a problem for groups (it added a shuttle ride into town on the already-running local 'milk run to the pier' service that booked separately is poor value for anyone except a solo at about $20pp - i.e. 2 people cost as much as a cab which you can fit potentially four in!) YWCA Hotel also offers unique 5-bed rooms as well as regular hotel type 1 & 2 bed rooms - if you plan to stay for a while and do some touristy stuff, a downtown hotel location is more convenient and the Y is usually less than airport hotels anyway!

If you're boarding at Richmond-Brighouse it should be just as easy as at YVR (another terminus station, so almost nobody stays onboard, and a longer delay from train arriving to when it departs again which gives you ample time to slide your big cases under the seats) If it's one of the other stations on the Brighouse fork, e.g. Aberdeen which has the Radisson just across the way, then every additional station will add some bodies but Sunday morning shouldn't be too bad in terms of commuter numbers; I'd say that finding a seat is still likely but you'll only have about 30 seconds to stash your cases underneath (there are no luggage racks, but every seat has significant legroom and space underneath as well - if you're short then a big case may even fit between your knees and the back of the seat ahead so you can get away without slipping it underneath). Bridgeport station is the only one in Richmond I'd be at all worried about - because you'll have all the YVR folks aboard every second train, so lots of fellow suitcase folks plus perhaps a few early shoppers at the big airport mall also taking up space with their purchases. If it's the River Rock casino hotel you're staying in and the first train is packed, wait for the next one - they alternate as to which fork they're from so it should be mostly regular Richmond commuters on the next train, far fewer suitcases. Worst case, you can always ride it backwards to either terminus standing up then when everyone else piles off you can claim a seat, stash your bag, and ride it to Waterfront. The actual ride time is only 25mins on the Brighouse fork, 26mins from YVR, all the way to the Waterfront end so if you were expecting to take 35 you've got a bit of padding to skip a train or take a cheeky backwards trip!

Sure, if the weather's nice enough to dine outside the timing would be great to do that while crusing the IP; or perhaps a 'pay extra' resto which would likely be a smaller room, proportionately more window tables? But unless you're really late eaters, sunset in June is probably more 'take a cocktail to somewhere with a nice view' and with just a drink in hand you can wander the decks to find the best viewing spot ("Oh no, woe is me, the sun is setting over on the portside but the scenery off starboard is even prettier!" means being somewhere up top where you can see both sides is better than almost any balcony, even a corner... And if some a**hole dolphins decide to start playing in the bow wave at sunset you really need as close to a 360 view as possible to see it all!!!! 😉)

If the sun's up and the temperature is tolerable, you should be outside - if the temp isn't tolerable, you should have brought more layers of clothes 😉 Some of the narrowest, most spectacular land-on-both-sides views of your entire cruise are on that first day (and in June, especially around the solstice, you'll have until ~9:30pm for sunset and then a good chunk of viable twilight scenery-watching even after that!)

Love me a nice clam dish! Fried, strips, bellies, baked, chowder (well, not that heathen Manhattan nonsense with tomato, blech!), spaghetti (oddly enough no problem with tomato based sauces and pasta, just not soup!) - though given my druthers, I'd eat razor clams every time in preference to regular manillas (fortunately I can usually find them pretty easily along the Oregon coast in Mom & Pops, even some chains). Unfortunately all open-at-lunch clam places I would have personally recommended near the pier closed during or not long after the 'vid. I can still give you one reliable downtown location, Rodney's Oyster House in Yaletown - they offer both the good and bad kind of chowder, plus two pounds(!) of steamed manilla clams, on their lunch menu. I've got plenty of friends who love Rodneys, never had a food issue, I just find the resto a bit loud so only go if I've been invited by one of the folks who love it. You can also get Ivar's chowder onboard the Amtrak, I think $5 a bowl in the bistro car these days - a couple of bowls would make a passable dinner onboard if you really want to slam as many clams as possible in a day 😉

While I'm sure you'd have gotten a useful reply from F_W, we've literally done exactly what you want to - stayed at the Med while coming in from Seatac on the light rail! There are transit options to get you closer, but we weighed the additional hassle of schlepping bags on buses or using the monorail and walking the ~half-mile across Seattle Center's greenspace, and in the end we decided to keep it simple, disembarked the train at Westlake then took a cab (~1.5 miles, ~$10 on the meter without traffic). A little under $20 for both of us, compared to over double that plus tip for the fixed rate cars from Seatac - though if we'd been traveling heavily laden with more than 1 modest suitcase case each we'd have taken a car all the way (and if there's 3 or 4 of you rather than a couple, I would just say take a car even if you are counting pennies carefully...)

There are certainly train stations around the world with more and swankier on-site food options than Pac Central, which only has three which are all pretty casual (A&W, a sushi joint, and a coffee shop) - but that's still three more than Seattle's King St! As to 'middle of nowhere' - Thornton Park with its many trees does a great job at making the station feel a bit isolated, and obviously the corridor eastward for the railway lines stays mostly light industrial for a mile or two, but Main Street is literally the other side of Thornton Park. It has several indy restos just in the 1 block immediately north of the park, with at least a dozen more if you head another couple of blocks north or south; Chinatown and the Athlete's Village are both less than 800 yards which adds dozens more dining options; for drink, two pubs and several coffee shops within less than 400 yards (personally I'd walk further to Johnny Fox's - much better food than the Ivanhoe, worth the extra 150yds!); I'm not even counting purely fastfood in those resto counts - two different Tim Hortons, a McDs, Subway, and another A&W are all within two blocks, as well as the White Spot at Science World which sells via a window to folks who haven't bought a ticket. Even with in the very industrial Flats area around the tracks there's a bunch of art galleries and breweries these days, and some food carts always appear around the station at lunchtime. Baggage storage on site open at 6am allowing a leisurely wander without bags - and you can usually check bags well over an hour before the evening train departs if some sort of takeout food on the train for dinner appeals more than the bistro car (which I've always found decent and not too overpriced). Next time you're in town, reach out - unless I'm out of town myself I'd be happy to let you stash your bags at my condo and show you around the 'hood a little, including the best value foodie sit-down lunch spot in the city (I don't like to spread the world online, it's already busy enough, but I always take visitors - CAD cash or Interac only, but I'll swap you for greenbacks at current FX rate since we can use 'em in Portland!) Same goes for OP @JLMcruise - we'll almost certainly be home the first couple of weeks in May, even if DH can only handle short walks with places to sit-down between legs there's a ton of quirky stuff most visitors never see close to the station (first nations longhouse, hundreds of murals, some of our best local coffee and beer, all sorts of stuff) I'd be happy to show you. Unless you got well off the beaten track on those prior visits, likely a whole different side of city for you!

I wouldn't be worried about arriving at King St station - cabs pull up right outside, so whatever hotel you book you won't need to worry about wandering the streets downtown! There is also a morning train (even though your ship in theory docks at 5am the hours that CBSA work mean you probably won't be able to actually disembark until ~7am at the earliest so it only works after at least one night in Vancouver) and a few bus-based options including one that leaves right from the pier at 9am (QuickShuttle) which cruisers find convenient (NB: pricing does tend to be higher than the buses which run from the regular station plus cab fare to that station from the pier as soon as more than 1 person is being priced up, but if you are dealing with mobility problems the extra bucks might feel well-spent). But since you're here already, with time and money to spare originally allocated to the second leg of the cruise, maybe consider spending a little time here after the now-only-leg? Chances are that local hotels, food etc. for the full 6 nights of the original second cruise would work out a lot pricier, but you might be able to find a cheaper day to swap your flight home to if you went midweek, so a night or two or three here in Vancouver before Amtraking to Seattle might make a decent consolation for losing out on your expected B2B?

They're both going to give you a guarantee of whale sightings, but Juneau has a lot more alternatives available - so unless you are mad keen to do either the huge zipline or a bear tour in ISP, there's pretty much nothing else except a whalewatch in ISP that would eat more than an hour (wandering into Hoonah proper is quick and easy, there's a cultural dance performance at the pier several times a day IIRC, and the cannery that the cruise tender dock was built from has a 'museum' which is basically like a Disney ride queue zone, various little exhibits to look at as you shuffled slowly along waiting to board your tender - now that there's a proper pier so you won't have that experience unless you're unlucky enough to be on a multi-ship-day it would take maybe 15minutes to read all the signs in the building)

Firstly, being a Torontonian you'll likely be awake at oh-dark-hundred thanks to your body clock so you should take advantage of that extra local-time hour or two! And unlike others, you don't even have to check your own bags so no need to wait for the drop to open, early or regular... hand over your bags in your room to one of the bell staff, it's one of the perks of being in the PP. Others have posted pics in prior seasons of the little reminder card you may find in your room, which helpfully gives the suggested tip per bag for this service - you do need to ask for the service the night before, so I'd just do that as soon as you have your room number at check-in. Secondly, Granville 'Island' despite the name isn't one - it's firmly attached to shore, just on the wrong side of False Creek. You can ride the 50 bus back to the core for dirt-cheap in <30mins, or take one of the wee water taxis for about $4 across to the right side of the creek and walk <3klicks total, or walk about half again as far if you walk over a bridge (you have to backtrack a lot up a hill to reach deck level). Long story short, it's WAY less risky than being at e.g. Capilano, over Lions Gate with its notorious traffic disasters on a regular basis. I would have zero worries about getting from GI to the pier with 2 hours in hand - but I would not be taking a small boat trip right before that deadline! Anything at all goes awry on that boat ride and who knows how long you bob around awaiting a tow or transfer, or how much extra time limping back to port takes... unless it's a tour around the city's waterfront, rather than say up Howe Sound, in which case you'd never be far from somewhere to land and call a cab or even hop on a bus back to downtown and there would be loads of other boats around to lend a hand. If it is an out-of-town tour, and the same tour goes in the morning, take THAT one - you could easily walk from the PP to GI to board it before 9am. Every time we fly back here from TeeDot we're up at 6am next day whether we want to be or not, so if you make use of the PPs bag delivery you could be out hunting down a decent brekkie by 7am easily, and have plenty time to either walk the long way or have a nice wander around GIs industrial achitecture while you wait until boat-boarding time... To illustrate, here's a Google map with the default 'walking' route from PP to GI (not sure which pier your boat would leave from, but most of the tours tend to be on the side of the island I ended the map at, and while you do need to use a water taxi it's almost a straight line!) - flip it to Transit to see the bus route, choose Option: Avoid Ferries to see the longer routes all-on-foot. In T.O. terms, it's pretty much like visiting Centreville from somewhere near Union Station in terms of distance/difficulty to get back to the core (i.e. about 4Klicks, could use transit or just walk it, best to spend a few bucks for a boat unless you're a great swimmer!)

You will probably walk further from your plane to the train, and again 'curb to cabin' at the pier, than the distance from SkyTrain platform to pier! Google Map for the best route with bags is here - this assumes you pay a little attention on the platform and take the exit to Granville Street (if you board the rear of the train, it's that end of the station, but there are signs). Worst case and you follow the crowds to pop out into the main Waterfront station lobby, it's actually an even simpler route just a little uphill instead of a little downhill! Walk out the doors onto Cordova Street, walk to your right/uphill until you reach Howe St, turn right again, follow the sidewalk, arrive at pier. Train itself ~26mins end to end, you are boarding at one terminus and exiting at the other so the train stops and waits - let any crowds clear before pulling your bags out from under the seats rather than fighting your way through to near the doors while the train is moving!

It depends how early you arrive! Anyone cruising that day can drop bags, but since the official start time is listed as 'between 10 and 10:30am' any time before that for early bag drop is a bonus, there is no official policy about when it starts but logic dictates it can't possibly be earlier than the longshoremen show up for work (unlike the industrial docks, the cruise pier is not a 24/7 operation). I've personally used it ~9:30am and have seen others report using it around 9am several times, so if your flight is say 8am or even a little earlier you should give it a go, it'll probably take at least an hour from touchdown to get through immigration, baggage pickup, customs, then SkyTrain downtown even if the queues are very light (~26min ride). Look for signs at the pier telling you which level to head to on the elevators, and there should be big metal wheely cages and some longshoremen supervising them, with (quite small!) signs indicating which cage goes to which vessel - they'll also have luggage tags. Personally I would use the tags the line sends you by email, print them at home and bring them along already written out - you'll have ample time to pull off the plane tags and replace with the cruise tags while riding the train in, one more little bit of efficiency improvement! If you have a flight at say 6am though, then I'd consider spending a few bucks and using a nearby luggage storage option - the Pan Pacific hotel bell staff are on the ground floor, right above the pier, so it doesn't get more convenient than that... reported rates last season were $10 (CAD if you have it, no change given for USD) per bag, and the hotel does run 24/7! Note also that Vancouver is not a city of early-risers! Anything involving tickets almost never opens before 9am even in peak summer season, but fortunately our parks are not locked up after hours so even if you arrive pre-Dawn (officially parks are open 'dawn to dusk') you could wander the seawalll to catch the sunrise (head for Brockton Point Lighthouse, but anywhere along that sweep of land from the yacht club past HMCS Discovery and Hallelujah Point looks back toward the city and should give a nice view when the sun pops up) You can also use that map link to check bus schedules - quicker than walking! If you wanted to wander Stanley Park, then as early as possible is the time to do it. Avoid Seawall crowds, and have plenty of time to get back to the pier - I would save the closest things which entice you to the period right before you plan to board, especially if you're trying to push it as late as possible... with US CBP to deal with on top of regular cruise check-in/security, 2 hours before your ship is supposed to leave is as late as you should attempt, but in general the later the better for lighter queues. FlyOver Canada is right at the pier, takes about 45mins for the whole program; Gastown is only ~10mins walk away and is very popular for cruisers to wander Pre and Post; maybe the Harbour Centre lookout, also <10mins walk? These are the places you want to be visiting as your boarding time approaches to avoid risk of traffic delays - never a good idea to be on the other side of a bridge from the pier with less than an hour to go!!!

Hmmm - even a full week of extra time you could entertain yourselves in Vancouver without going anywhere else! But without knowing you, your other party members, the things you all enjoy most it's really hard to say what would be best for your group - there's no such thing as a Must See anywhere IMO, and while a week would give you enough time to probably do everything you might like in Vancouver, as soon as you start considering road trips then a week becomes incredibly short and it's absolutely necessary to focus on your priorities. Given that you indicate it's split into pre- and post-cruise though OP, so you need to be in Vancouver at least twice right before and after, I'd be inclined to consider open jaw flights for efficiency if it's not too late to (re)book those... you may actually save both money and time by not flying across the border and opening up more non-stop flight options, even in summer there are not many nonstops YVR-MCO. If you flew in and out of different airports, you could easily avoid retracing your route within a fortnight. If you're stuck with expensive-to-change flights both in and out of Vancouver, then consider spending some days either Pre or Post on Vancouver Island, with the other time sticking local to Van proper - if there's even just two of you, taking a rental car over on the ferry gives flexibility of timing and routes; head from Vancouver to Tsawwassen, RORO to Swartz Bay for a night in Victoria, then head further north to see Cathedral Grove, maybe even across to Tofino on the outside (great surfing and storm-watching) or Campbell River on the inside (excellent Orca watching, with trips into spectacularly narrow waters of the Inside Passage in daylight unlike most cruises) for a second night. Return on the Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay ferry, and head up to Squamish, maybe Whistler before coming back to Vancouver and you'll add a lot of mountain viewing, which tends to be popular with Floridians in my experience given you guys live in the flattest state!

If it just was a choice between fancy hotels @KY_Tom, I'd do the Fairmont YVR rather than the PP in your situation - even if the flight lands on time, that's a 2am arrival by body clock and while immigration shouldn't take too long it could be another hour from touchdown to leaving YVR... picking the hotel right at the airport instead of right at the pier makes more sense to me. But if you're looking for a more budget-friendly option, the time you'll wait for a shuttle to cheap airport area hotels could easily exceed the drive time for a cab downtown in the wee small hours - that time of night you'll have to call, the driver will have to be found and stopped doing whatever else their other hotel duties are, fire up the bus, and drive to YVR (most 'airport' hotels are across a bridge, with a traffic-free drive time anywhere from ~10 to 20+ minutes) then drive you back again to check-in. Whereas cabs are lined up waiting and can get downtown in <30mins at that time of night - so if the YWCA Hotel still has a room available to book, that's your win for a good-but-cheap hotel hands-down!

The Clipper operates a whalewatch in tourist season from downtown - all the above arguments about distance apply, and it's absolutely not designed for whale-watching, but it does go from right downtown! Depending how many other pax are onboard you might find railspace easily or have to go claim a space while it's still moving (fast, windy!) to ensure you can see the water well without glass in the way. Personally I'd rather rent a car for the day and drive up nearer the San Juans; if you can spare a day there's lots of pretty places around to visit as well as getting out on a smaller boat that's actually designed for the purpose...

Sorry, bad grammar and wrong street, I should have said Pender rather than Cordova - and I thought I'd managed to link a map last time around - doesn't look like that worked, so here's a second try with both walking routes listed, from pier to park and back by Seawall or most direct route. You can just flip the mode of transport to Transit to explore which bus stops are convenient, and it will also provide an accurate schedule as Google has all of Translinks route data. Renting a bike is also an excellent choice, as while that will be pricier than a bus it means your travel around the park is significantly speeded up without losing access to anywhere (all of the trails and paths are bike accessible, although interior ones can be steep so if you want to see Prospect Point either an eBike or strong legs are a good idea!), and if you stick to Seawall and park trails you won't have to ride in traffic.

Princess would not accept that time if your flights are through them - the earliest flight slots in Vancouver tend to be 12:30pm, and on a busy day you can need that long if you wait for those slow-as-molasses cruise transfers! If you are independent travelers though, and as Bruce says are mobile (at least enough to carry your own bags off with one hand free to hold escalator rail) I would not worry about a flight at 11:45am in the slightest. Personally I'd always recommend a flight next day, avoid all the hassle, hang out in one of the best cities on the planet - but if you must get home same day, that flight is low risk unless you need help with bags... Princess will prioritise pax booked on their own flights for all those slots, then high status folks, but given it seems like 75% of Princess AK cruisers are Platinum or Elite I would hesitate to assume any chance of leveraging Status alone to get an early slot if you cannot walk off...

Yes - in fact I'd strongly advise pushing your arrival even later, aiming for 2pm (the later the better for lack of crowds, but you do not want to risk missing the boat - with both CBP preclearance and Canadian authorities also needing pax manifests you really want to be there by the 2hr predeparture mark) so while the park is fine to visit, I'd advise planning lunch or something very close to the pier (Gastown, maybe ride FlyOverCanada right on the pier) as your thing to do in the 1pm-2pm slot! Earliest I know I've been able to drop a bag is ~9:30am; officially it doesn't start until some time between 10 and 10:30am but that's the normal location, there is always an Early Drop down in the bowels of the parking levels, literally some longshoremen with luggage cages, probably one for each vessel in port that day. Make sure you hand your bags to the right guy! Walking along the Seawall (scenic) is ~45mins, a straight shot back along Georgia and Cordova saves at least 10mins, so allow 60-90mins walk time there and back - personally I'd hop on a bus to save time! The 19 has a stop right inside the park, near the Rose garden and pavilion, but several others also stop at Denman & Georgia just outside the entrance. You might also consider a bike rental - you'll move much faster but still be able to get anywhere in the park you can walk to. It's been a while, but the gym at Canada Place west (Club16) used to rent bikes, it doesn't get much more convenient from the pier than that, but if they don't there's a Spokes rental on Cordova just the far side of the Fairmont Waterfront hotel, so only a block away.

You'll have to ask the mods to kill your other one @kayehall - 'report' the post! As to an informal brekkie, when in Rome (or rather, Canada)... eat at Timmies! - there's one in the mall across the street, you can even use tunnels under the road to avoid crossing Canada Place. I'd suggest dropping bags, then going for brekky given the minimal distances. Personally I think the best super-casual brekkie these days is at A&W - we have a different menu in Canada, which includes almost a real UK Fry Up (if they had black pudding, I'd never eat anywhere else...) if somebody wants a more substantial affair, plus the usual biscuity brekkie sammich type options that MickieDs, Timmies etc. offer. The nearest A&W is inside Waterfront Station, so if any of you are coming downtown by SkyTrain it's a super-convenient meetup location.

Shortest walk to the garden and clock, back to hotel, is ~1.5miles - various other sites could be included on this day's wander easily enough. Walking to the park isn't really a problem if you can handle the above; a little under 2 miles to the Rose garden, even less to the park entrance... it's the walking around the park itself that really adds up! Just the Seawall loop is an extra 8km, depending which interior sites you want to visit you could spend hours and walk miles! Personally I'd take the bus - you can walk to a 19 stop easily (just change the google map to Transit mode) and get dropped off inside the park, and several other buses also stop just outside the entrance on Georgia. Then at the end of the day, if you aren't totally puggled and want to rack up more miles, walk back along the Seawall - e.g. directions from Second Beach There's so much that you COULD do, I'm loathe to make any specific suggestions - two days isn't much time so you really need to consider the kind of things YOU enjoy most and target them. Other visitors on here may reply, and you can Search for 'Vancouver' to get some ideas from past trip reports, questions etc., but honestly so few people use this board on CC compared to broader sites that you will get a much wider opinion from Tripadvisor ratings, which for anything remotely touristy here you can assume are rock solid as any fake reviews disappear to irrelevance among the thousands of ratings for big hits. Resto wise, if budget isn't an issue and you eat anything, I'd suggest that Blue Water Cafe is probably the best overall seafood place, for both raw and cooked dishes, in the city and that's a sensible genre to aim at in this neck of the woods. Top-notch service too, a lot of seriously long-term waitrons. But if you want something more unique, Salmon & Bannock would be a cab ride away but significantly less spendy - so overall you'd probably end up still spending less even with 2 cab fares. Indigenous restaurants are incredibly rare, there aren't any other sit-down ones in Vancouver, and while the service is a bit more casual it's very genuine - while still owned by the original lady and several friends/family work there, there's now a maitre d' and the dishes run a little swankier than back in the day. If there's a few of you to enable consuming an entire King Crab, a very special evening could be had here feasting on your very own, live from the tank, AKC - but unless at least 6 of you are dining, it's going to be frighteningly pricey as crabs can easily run 10+lbs and the meal is priced per pound plus a modest extra pp cost for the veggies, rice, dessert etc., so you could easily be looking at a grand total for a big crab feast and a bit of booze! If none of those jump out at you, I'd really need more details of what you love/hate to eat and what sort of budget you are willing to allocate to your nice dinner!

That was the bridge toll, not a fee to enter Canada 😉 If you cross the Rainbow Bridge on foot, you pay leaving Canada; if you drive across you pay leaving the US; it's really common here for bridges and small, local ferry routes to only take fees in one direction as it cuts back on admin and infrastructure costs... these days the cost is different, CAD$6.50 but still US$5. For our Kiwi OP, as long as your US ESTA has not expired you won't need to pay at any of the Vancouver-relevant land border crossings in either direction - unless you are over DutyFree allowances of course! Personally I would fly into Vancouver - we have nonstops daily AKL-YVR, whereas SEA will need at least one layover for any flight from NZ - if you plan to visit before boarding a cruise in Seattle, so you would need to get a Canadian eTA for that, but just CAD$7 so not remotely significant compared to flight or cruise costs!

You're welcome, and I'm happy to help with further info - but the more specific the request, the more likely I can be accurate with a response. In general, a short stay like this I always offer the same advice - get each of the party members to have a look at Tripadvisor and make their own shortlist of things they want to see, compare lists, decide if you're willing to split up the group, and then us local types can be of most help with things like how to combine X, Y, Z sites most efficiently. All the big hit attractions have hundreds or even thousands of reviews, so their relative enjoyment levels for Joe Q Public is a pretty fair comparison - simply reading the Top 10 sites and tours may be all that you need to do to fill your entire time with stuff you have the best possible chance of enjoying. Even without dataplans we have a free city-provided WiFi network that covers a lot of Vancouver (broadcasts as #VanWiFi), Translink manage to get passable signals even on trains in tunnels and moving buses, so it's pretty easy to use maps on phones or tablets and use messenger apps to stay in touch for free - so if one of you really wants to do a thing the others don't, you can easily coordinate meeting afterward without always having to go back to the hotel to meet up! Another local logistical tidbit is that if everyone can ride a bike, even if you're not used to riding in traffic and want to avoid that, things like the Seawall are made vastly more efficient - depending on hotel choice, it might be ten miles to do the full loop and back and you can see exactly the same stuff at least three times faster on wheels. Adult tricycle rentals remove balance issues, and a tandem could let Granny do less pedaling with younger legs providing most of the power, but these days eBikes are easy to find too - spending a few bucks to save a few hours is generally wise when your time is short! The other suggestion I'll make now is that for next time, have a look at flying Open Jaw into YYJ and out of YVR or even SEA - or the reverse depending on schedules. Not many nonstop flights from Atlanta area, but a ton of connections in Seattle, mean that you may be pleasantly surprised how little extra it costs to get onto the Island at the start or end of your cruise... and many folks enjoy the Clipper, which conveniently goes from downtown Vic to downtown Seattle on a 'Fast Cat' with border clearance done at the pier in Vic! For this trip though, you're here for the final night of the Celebration of Light which is hugely popular - one of the biggest & best fireworks shows in the world - so I would strongly advise getting your hotel booked yesterday as the already-busy summer weekend nights will be compounded by not-actually-local 'locals' who don't want to commute home late at night after the show with hundreds of thousands of other people and thus book a hotel in the city that Saturday!

First bit's easy - absolutely not. Even if you have money to throw at the logistics and fly both ways it's an awfully long day, and basically you'd need to be on your feet almost all the time. I speak from experience on this - our first visit as tourists we were here for a full week, spent a day apiece in Vic and Whistler, and in hindsight regretted both despite enjoying all the stuff we did in Victoria (Butchart, whalewatching, Royal BC Museum all took about 3 hours each and we also squeezed in quicker visits to Craigdarroch, Miniature World, and an art gallery whose name escapes me at the moment for approx. 12 hours plus the short but very scenic flights). Next day we needed a lie-in and abandoned our original plans of hitting UBC campus so we could actually relax! If you were thinking of one of the cheaper, but still pricey, coach-and-ferry trips to the Island (same total time as we spent, but an extra 3 hours traveling to and from so much less time actually Doing Things) then you will find that even if their schedule works perfectly you probably won't have enough time at Butchart to really enjoy it, and if there's traffic or a ferry delay it will be further compromised... I always recommend spending at least one night on the Island if you visit at all. On the hotel front, there's no badly-located downtown hotel for restos, shopping, or sightseeing in Vancouver - and you'll probably be out and about the whole time, so paying for a view or fancy facilities doesn't seem like great value. We stayed at the YWCA Hotel ourselves as tourists, it was excellent then, it's had a reno and a whole new tower wing added since and continues to be among the best-reviewed hotels at any price despite being almost always cheaper than any suburban option. Granville Island hotel, or across the water in North Van the Lonsdale Quay Hotel, are both located basically right next to the public markets - but personally I'd look at a proper downtown core location for minimal time wasted traveling on a short visit! The Y also has the most flexible room options - if none of you want to share a bed, they are unique in offering 'Jack & Jill' paired rooms sharing one bathroom (with a Queen or 2-beds on each side) for even less spend than 2 regular en suites, plus Family Rooms with 5 single beds which sometimes cost less than a pair of rooms. There are even single rooms - which ordinarily all use a shared hallway bathroom, but if you also have a twin room the solo could use that bathroom! No dorms - the 5pax family rooms are as big as it gets - but there are proper laundry and kitchen facilities to save a few more bucks making brekkies, packed lunches, even dinners if you want. What to do? Unless you're from an even younger city, 'old' doesn't describe much of our architecture fairly in Van or Vic! We do have quite a bit of nice early interwar and some quirky more modern stuff around, and Gastown while might have had a lot of modern retro-twee-additions with the cobbles, lamps, and steam clock all being 70s installed just styled like Ye Olde Districte but it does have our highest concentration of Victorian/Edwardian buildings... your first contact on architecture should be with AIBC, who I just heard back from myself this week about their walking tours restarting this summer (unfortunately no specifics yet, but if you reach out they will also add you to list of folks who will be first to know when routes and dates are announced!). But even the free* ('tip what you want') walking tour from Toonie Tours covers the basics of our most iconic downtown core buildings, and while exactly what info you get depends on the guide they always follow basically the same route including Gastown and visit the Marine Building (one of our most interesting interiors and exteriors). There's also some useful info on the local Heritage Foundation website, like a map overlay app that flags where many and varied sites are - the actual tours these folks arrange tend to be more of a 'visit bunch of peoples houses so they can show off how nicely they have renovated the place' but they've also done some involving larger residential buildings and even some commercial sites, you might get lucky and find something that works for your dates. There's also the free private custom tour option with Stroll Buddy (full disclosure: I am a local Buddy, but since it's a completely free, No Tip service, I don't feel any conflict of interest mentioning them!) which, if you're not familiar with the 'Greeter' concept can be summarized as 'imagine you have a friend who lives in City X, who connects you to a friend of theirs you don't already know to show you around town Like A Local' - who is available on your exact dates is a random factor, but if it's one of us who also likes architecture and gardens, like me, you may end up having a near-perfect-for-you tour without spending a dime on the guide! Vancouver-proper gardens I'd advise Queen Elizabeth Park and Van Dusen (easy to walk between these) for a lovely mix of Old School Botanic (VD even has a hedge maze!) and a Butchart-Lite taster (QEP has 2 Quarry Gardens and the bigger one captures some of the same vibe, plus a waterfall if they ever fix the water recycling issues) with the bonus of an indoor Tropical garden under a glass dome. Less than US$30pp to visit both of these, including cost of a transit daypass! The other site you absolutely cannot miss given your preferred things to do is the Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden in Chinatown - unless you visit Suzhou in China you will never see a better example of an authentic Scholar's Garden anywhere in the world, and this is the single finest garden style around when it comes to harmoniously melding architecture and 'managed nature' as every building, every plant, every rock, even the pond and the surfaces you walk on are specifically chosen. Free docent-led guided tours run pretty much hourly in summer. UBC Campus - technically not part of the city - also offers a bunch of interesting architecture (movie and TV location shoots love the local campuses due to how wildly different some of the buildings are) even if none of it is old, the world-class MOA (reopens in June) as well as several other museums, a small but beautifully located Rose Garden, and a better-than-Butchart Japanese Garden as part of their extensive Botanic garden, which even has proper tea ceremonies if your timing works out. There's even an elevated treewalk out at UBC and a working farm - and in summer the buses and campus sidewalks are a lot less busy due to far fewer students. The only other thing I'll add right now is a potential caveat - it sounds like this is likely a 'girls trip' for 3 generations of the ladies in the family, and your profile doesn't indicate your normal home or gender, so if you yourself @Debate are a big, burly streetwise guy or the whole family lives somewhere urban and gritty feel free to ignore the rest of this paragraph! But just in case you are indeed a trio of females, perhaps from a nice suburb or small town, be aware that many of the most interesting and historic parts of Vancouver are in or adjacent to the poorest urban area in North America and there's a lot of potentially-uncomfortable, even scary, things to be seen... we are however an extremely safe city with crime stats against people lower than most 'nice' US college towns! If you had a car or rented an apartment anywhere near Gastown I'd be warning you about our pretty high property theft rates, but going car free and staying in any real hotel those won't be relevant - just apply normal, sensible behaviours like you should in any urban area on the planet and keep bags, phones etc. secure and you should be fine. Thanks for tagging me in Andy @Heidi13 - I'm trying to check CC at least every few days now that we're getting closer to cruise season, but something that pops up in my inbox guarantees a prompter response!