martincath

You will hopefully get some replies, naming specific guides used, but as a general note: the company is totally legit, they actually began here in Vancouver but now operate all over the world. Like Uber and similar 'gig economy' setups though, you are not working with employees but independent guides with some degree of scrutiny, at the end of the day every guide is an individual - reviews of the company are nearly worthless (unless it's a compliment or complaint about the website, billing, other centralized matter), it's reviews of the specific guides you want! We've personally found that even with detailed research on specific guides, sometimes you just get a person who comes across differently than you assumed they would 'on paper' - a weird sense of humour, quirky food issues (we have twice ended up with guides who insisted on joining us at the lunch table after we asked them to recommend a good resto - but not eating despite our offer to join us as our treat! They just sat there watching us eat, which was extremely weird - and no, it wasn't during Ramadan or similar, one just said they weren't hungry and the other that they didn't like the resto... which they had of course just recommended to us, so we were very pleased that the food was perfectly decent when it came!) Unfortunately back in the day when we came here as tourists we didn't use TBL - and since we started living here I've given far more tours than I've taken!

Not so much more details Dennis - instead more questions! While you do have at least a full Saturday plus Friday evening/Sunday morning @maggiev that's still nowhere near enough time to see close to everything, so prioritization is a must. Unfortunately one man's Must See is another man's What A Waste of Time That Was... not knowing you or yours Maggie, I'm loathe to suggest anywhere specific. Stanley Park, and the Seawall surrounding it and much of downtown, are probably the most Vancouvery Things - but maybe you don't want to walk or bike for miles to see them, in which case no matter how good they are as parks and seawalls go they're no use to you! I'd suggest hitting up TripAdvisor - separately, have everyone in your group look for themselves. Pick 5 things (start with the Top 10 listings, maybe also check some of the short itineraries posted like '1 weekend in...' or '24/48 hours in...) that sound good to YOU - then compare with your companions. Anything on all the lists = Must See For Your Group! Split opinion? Split the group - just like when cruising, it;s easy to go do your own thing then meet up again for lunch, dinner etc. Transit is clean, safe, cheap and goes lots of places, unbeatable value for solos and even small groups - but distances are so short between many attractions, as downtown core is extremely compact, that walking is often best or a cab is cheaper than transit tickets with 2 or 3 people in the vehicle. Where us locals become really useful is optimising HOW you visit your selected Want To Do Sites - we might know that traffic is always a problem in place X at time Y, so doing certain combos works best in a certain order, or know some great food spots that are a bit off the radar but convenient to visit while you're doing site Z at lunchtime. And if you are happy to share more about your group, your interests, your budget, I'd be happy to make some specific suggestions once I have an idea of how your tastes might overlap or differ from my own.

With several Ifs, it might be fine - but since you have another option just take that! Worst case you are indeed mobile enough to drag all your own bags off, use SkyTrain, are the only ship in port and end up at YVR very early... but if you don't check off all of those boxes, there's definitely a risk of missing it. I really don't understand why Celebrity would even give that option, all the lines generally use 'arrival time plus 5 hours' here in Vancouver and even if it's a theoretical 6am docking, they know that nobody gets cleared before CBSA show up to start work at 7am so the earliest 'safe' flight time is never before noon!

This came up a few years back, and given nobody built any new RV-capable parking downtown since the answer remains that there really aren't any parking lots proper - but if you call one of the local towing companies, they will usually let you store vehicles in their secure impound lots! The closest one to downtown is Busters, behind Pacific Central (Amtrak) station, so approx a $15 cab ride - or if you are traveling light and avoid peak times, you might even risk SkyTrain (technically no big bags allowed on that line, as there is nowhere to put them that doesn't violate transit bylaws by blocking an aisle or wheelchair/bike spot or a seat, but a lot of folks successfully cheat the system due to lack of enforcement on the unmanned trains...)

Agree that Cordova is the easiest - Granville also works, but involves walking uphill while Cordova is down. Howe St is the worst choice but even then, you'll get there eventually! The platform under Howe is for the wrong line - obviously you can change platforms within the station, but given the hassle of making multiple level changes up and down it's much easier to just walk right past the obvious Howe St entrance and take the first left (onto Cordova).

There aren't many train departures - as long as you are both on a train that does enter Canada, it's easy to have some folks return by train while the rest go by bus, just make sure you book the same train timeslot for everyone. I'd suggest Chilkoot - more options, cheaper, smaller buses than cruiseline, and they sell various combos, and every we used 'bus only' some folks got off or on because they were doing a combo with the train. One time we even ended up giving a ride to a whole mess of extra folks who couldn't return by train because an engine burst into flames on the way up!

Hopefully you'll get some more personal feedback OP, but failing that I suggest perusing last years trip reports and roll calls - if you focus on just the ones in April/May you'll get a better idea about early vs. late season issues. Personally I think your plan of let the hotel deliver bags, do lunch, come back later is a good idea - but I would add that you should request a wheelchair for your missus. Organizing one on the day without booking it in advance will be challenging - much better to request it right now. When it comes to ortho issues, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed after a flight is likely to magnify any kind of bone and joint pain/stiffness - better to play it safe!

A couple - plus, if you are recalling the date correctly the Hons you ordered from is still in business (Olympic Village location would be the one closest of the two current restos, they use Uber/Dash etc. rather than their own delivery - the original and Robson branches both closed over4 2 years ago, so odds are near 100% it was Olympic Village who cooked last time). ChongQing downtown and Szechuan Chili both deliver to the core, would be open until at least 9:30/10pm on a Saturday, have their own delivery people, and I'm familiar with them - I've had very consistent food from the latter for several years, whereas CQ went a little up&down during and after the 'vid. If memory serves, last time this came up Milhouse had been using them more than I was so you might get a better answer soon! Use the SkipUberDash type third parties and do you have more options - personally I don't order delivery via any of those any more, so I can't say whether the speed/keeping it hot part of the experience will be good or not, but the food in Chinatown BBQ is excellent and it's close enough that delivery should be quick. Peaceful might also be of interest - Northern cuisine, much harder to find in most places compared to Cantonese & Szechuan, wheatflour and lamb are key ingredients - but I honestly can't say what their delivery is like these days to downtown as both downtown and 3rd Ave branches closed a while back; the latter was just a few minutes from home so when they used in-house delivery staff from there I ordered frequently and everything was great... I'm not sure if they even have any delivery staff now or just use 3rd parties, but if you stuck to softer meaty and noodly dishes the food should survive a longer drive OK (Cumin lamb on noodles is one of their specialties and it even reheats well; the beef rolls and XLB though suffer texturally if not eaten quickly so I'd eat those in the resto...)

Some places absolutely will be more heavily booked at dinner as well - on the swankier end of things though I find it's the joints that have been open for decades, that generations of the family regard as their regular celebration resto, that get hit hardest, with e.g. Grannies taken out as well as Moms by the family (Sand Bar, Teahouse, Seasons in the Park, Blue Water Cafe for example) - but given it's a Sunday, I would say that mostly dinner is more of a 'perhaps as busy as a typical Fri or Sat' situation rather than 'OMG if we did not book 3 months out we are not getting a seat!' like brunch... And even then if you are someone who likes to eat say dinner at 8pm rather than 6pm, you might not notice much trouble finding resos at all, as (stereotyping alert!) in my experience 'Mom Meals' whether for mothers day, birthdays or whatever are far too often daytime meals with the kids/grandkids present, rather than romantic dinners... So book something newer, edgier, romantic, super low brow divey, or just in a dodgier part of town - anything that doesn't have a Mom Vibe basically - and you should have a plethora of options across a variety of pricepoints on the day.

No worries - I have a vague recollection about someone asking if/when the PPs buffet would return a couple of years ago, while Covid rules were still in place... if that was you then at least you know it did come back! I think it might be technically the only actual Buffet-service fancy hotel brunch now, as Arc in the Fairmont Waterfront did indeed ditch self-serve entirely and now operates a 'keep ordering small plates from the menu for 2 hours' table service version - incidentally I checked, and they are also sold out/unavailable for this AYCE brunch on May 12th. The fancy-hotel-buffet prices also climbed heftily, to $65pp from the prior $39 if I'm remembering rightly from just pre-Covid, and frankly the menu looks a rather pale imitation of the glory days of yesteryear despite costing more! For that cash, even if it was available I would instead suggest you should make a reso ($10ea charity donation to avoid the easily-an-hour wait, and that's on a regular weekend morning!) for still the best breakfast in the city at Medina; take a cab both ways (<$10ea); splurge on ordering two breakfasts each (~$40ea), then waste half your food because it's far too much to finish even if you didn't want to add on a waffle (which you do - there's at least one other real Liege waffle place in town now, with the imported pearl sugar to give it the crispy-crunchy caramelized shell, but Medina still has the best sauce to fill the holes with in their lavender chocolate). Total price pretty much bang on the same as the buffet brunch would have been... or just walk over and put the cab fare toward another waffle 😉 But you could also call the hotel directly - maybe they got a bit delayed in opening booking for it (if so, expect an even gougier Mothers Day Special Menu Price when it does open as this is traditionally the biggest brunch day of the year for most of the continent) or if it did sell out there's a good chance at least some seats will have been held back for hotel guests, since after all Mother's Day is an American invention that has yet to spread much beyond Canada - everywhere else in the Commonwealth sticks to the original Mothering Sunday date of 3 weeks before Easter Sunday. Even if the religious side has been overwhelmed by the Female Parent meaning of Mother, fellow guests from basically every Anglican country except the US and Canada will be genuinely surprised there's some special Mom holiday brunch in May instead of March and get annoyed if they can't have their expected eggs & bacon except through room service...

Without knowing your citizenship it's impossible to say whether you need a proper Visa or simply an ETA - but the official Aussie government website for such things has a handy bunch of info, including this page which should walk you through what is needed if you answer the questions. Note that Australia, like NZ, Canada, USA etc. who also use online 'electronic visa free' travel permission tools, only ever charges one fixed price on the government's official site or app. Every single place you found a higher rate listed is a scam - at best they will apply on your behalf so you still get the ETA, but with their commission on top but at worst they steal your very detailed personal info and payment method! Never, ever buy an ETA or Visa from anywhere other than official sources... if you are a US Citizen (or another nationality allowed visa-free entry) then the ETA only costs an AUD$20 admin fee. If you need an actual Visa to be allowed in, the costs are higher and greatly variable depending on type. Hope this info isn't too late for you, or you managed to find the info elsewhere in the meantime - I think most of this years Australia-US repo cruises are leaving in about the next month!

It's Mothers' Day - so it's sold out! All the swanky brunches in town sell out on Mothers' Day.

Also watch out @Kingsmom - especially if using a mobile device - for Amtrak's less-than-clear icon use; there is only one morning train with the rest being buses, but since they opted for showing the 'face' of the vehicle as an image they are both little rounded square shapes! Amtrak buses are not only a worse onboard experience than the train, they usually cost more too as you cannot buy Saver tickets... Hotel-wise, while we mostly blow right through Seattle these days so double-check current reviews, the neighbourhoods we mostly stayed in were around Lower Queen Anne/Seattle Center - we walked to everything around downtown that we visited, only using transit or driving for more distant things like the zoo. Mediterranean Inn and the Pineapple hotels (the Maxwell, Hotel Five) were our most-often-booked hotels, but Hampton/LaQuinta/Homewood all featured at least once on various pre/post-cruise or weekend trips, and we have always loved taking the train. Exactly which hotel will be most convenient of course depends on which attractions you plan to visit in your X days there, but I'd put proximity to the station as your lowest priority by far - you're only going there once after all, and cabuber fare is unlikely to go over $20 unless you're staying well outside downtown. I don't think we ever broke $15 between Amtrak and hotels mentioned.

Self-Disembarking and taking SkyTrain you can safely assume that for a ship arriving at any time after 7am you should be at YVR within an hour to 90mins... depends which slot you are allocated, as these days Self is very popular so on bigger ships there might be several waves. If you hustle and walk right onto a train about to depart, from the sidewalk outside Canada Place to getting off the train at YVR could be as low as 35mins; walk slow, just miss a train, Sunday morning have to wait the maximum possible time for the next one you might be looking at 55mins worst case.

Thanks for the heads up M - yes, weekly rate at the long term 'value' lot was what I was referring to. Never thought about shorter cruises getting hit with a higher daily rate either!

So here's the thing - you're not thru-hiking a multi-day trail, you have a nice warm and dry cabin to return to, so even if your feet get wet you can dry out your boots rather than being forced to wear them again for another day on the trail! In other words, while waterproof footwear, backpack, outer shell is the ideal - it's not required for cruisers! Comfy, broken-in footwear is more important than how proof-resistant it is - boots are better than shoes though, lots of rough trails, even in town gravel/woodchip surfaces, and folks looking at scenery may not pay as much attention to their footing... it's really easy to roll an ankle, hence something with ankle support is never a bad idea. If you're a warm-weather, urban living type who just doesn't have any outdoor gear at all then buy cheap stuff or improvise - a dirt-cheap plastic poncho, or even better a garbage bag you bring from home, can be wrapped around the outside of a pack if the weather is foul; a simple rub of a candle onto a warmed shoe gives a thin layer of wax to help proof it at almost zero cost; a spare pair of socks makes great improvised mittens; and whether you fly in Vancouver, Seattle, or Anchorage you should be able to find a Dollar Store who will sell you cheap fleecy beanies/toques, one-size-fits-none gloves, scarves etc. for much less than touristy shops in ports - or spend a few bucks more on a souvenir hat/fleece etc. Just remember that multiple thin layers are far more useful than a thick sweater or lined coat - the most useful thing about a daypack is somewhere to keep all of the layers you don't need when the weather shifts between wet, cold, sunny, warm, windy and combinations thereof on an hourly basis!!!

Professional drivers - which also includes Uber/Lyft here due to how they are licensed, as well as buses/limos/taxis - are exempt from the kiddie car seat requirements locally. If memory serves though, Alaska has tighter requirements to BC - even in a schoolbus, if it has seatbelts installed, kids need to be secured in appropriate boosters/front/rear-facing seats depending on age, height and weight. So unless you plan to avoid any excursions using a vehicle in your ports of call, you'll need to bring a seat with you... Since airlines have to let you bring such a thing for free anyway, if you have one you're familiar with at home bringing it is probably best.

I think most of your points have already been addressed by the collective wisdom of CC Sharon, but better to doulbe-down than risk having missed anything so: 1) the crux about all the youtube 'experts' is that even if they actually know what the heck they are talking about, to drive hits to their video instead of others (or other sources entirely) the whole 'man Bites Dog' principle applies - there's absolutely zero editorial oversight, so however bad you feel mainstream press might have become as soon as facts enter the equation every single official organization is less bad than Rando McNoOversightWhatsoever. Do things go wrong at piers and on ship? Of course. But you won't find your room given away (whatever idiot stated that in their videos should immediately come off your Subscription list because if they are willing to provide verifiably incorrect info on that, what else of their advice is equally worthless?), and anything that is genuinely problematic will not be fixed until after the crew have finished doing all of the incredibly-labour-intensive parts of the getting old people and bags off/new people, bags, food etc. on process. Since we're back into normal cruising times - odds are that there simply aren't any spare rooms lying around to move you to unless someone else doesn't show up... which they cannot know until it's time to stop letting folks onboard. So even if there's an annoyance that needs dealt with, you'll just hang around onboard fuming about it instead of being entertained or educated at various wodnerful sites around our city! 2. Yes, if your ship actually ends up remaining schedule for 4pm departure, and it's a busy day with 3/4 ships, 2pm could still be fairly busy. But really your worst-case scenario is that you arrive in time to check-in at 2pm and still have slow-moving queues - but at least you will have enjoyed several hours in Vancouver, won't have had to watch hundreds of priority pax jump ahead of you at ~11am when the actual boarding starts, and odds are still very high that even on the worst possible early season 4 ship day when it might stay busy until 3pm your total time from curb to cabin will still be less than if you showed up at 10am! 3. The key thing that slows down the bag drop is unprepared people without their cruise tags - pre-tag your bags and the biggest delay is if you arrive before 10am and they haven't opened the regular P2 bag drop yet, you have to go find wherever the Early Bag Drop cages are (there are signs, the time we did this it added maybe 5 minutes as we had to walk right to the back of a parking level). As mentioned above, once dropped the bags are 'in the system' - and you can leave whatever sizes you like, just do be sure to transfer your Meds, paperwork, and a waterbottle, sunscreen etc. to a smaller daypack for your wandering pre-embarkation! 1. Assuming you walk all the way from GI the long way you can still make to to the pier in an hour - take a short hop across False Creek on Aquabus/FCF and the walk becomes <40mins. Transit buses 4/7/10/14/50 all stop nearby, run every 15mins most days, take 20mins or so drive time. A cab might take a few minutes moving at walking pace to get off GI (one way roads, lots of pedestrians and other vehicles cruising hoping to find parking etc.) but after that it's a 10min drive to the pier. So yes, I would not be concerned being on GI up to an hour beforehand - but personally unless you never plan to visit Gastown at all, I'd leave it until this final block of touring time just to be even safer... 2. You're not supposed to check booze, no! Although if you did put your wine bottles into your suitcases, odds are that you'd be called to 'the Naughty Room' when you embark because they'll be found by security, so you can pay your $x per extra bottle if you go beyond the cruise-line-allowed freebies. If you're bringing fancy wine from home then you'll be packing it securely in a case already, so just leave it that way - if you're buying it locally just buy right before you go to the pier! The closest liquor store is literally on the way back from Gastown to the pier, opposite the main doors of Waterfront Station on Cordova, underneath the Harbour Centre. 3. I'm afraid that when it comes to spas I'm a 'just-a-massage' guy, so I can't comment from experience about how good nail treatments, facials etc. are if you're into more of a full package of pampering - honestly I'd suggest checking up-to-date Yelp, Google etc. for reviews. Both the Pan Pacific and Fairmont have in-house spas - more expensive than non-hotel options, but perhaps still a deal compared to onboard ship - and the locations of those are extremely convenient... My experience of the following spots is from varying numbers of years ago, but I can think of three options conveniently close to the pier that I was happy with the overall surroundings and vibe of that should work for couples rather than just being a single RMT working out of a small space (Caveat, it's been a long time since I used any of them so do check current reviews!): Swan is just the other side of the Fairmont Waterfront, so barely a block away, surprisingly unfancy for this part of town (rates start well under $100 an hour) Yuen (Chinese, listed as Foot place but offers full service including couples massage) would be where I'd suggest if you wanted to try reflexology nearby (<1 mile, on the way to/from Stanley Park) Sabai (Thai, so clothes on in case that makes a difference for you) is close to the Westin Bayshore so a couple of blocks further than Yuen, and a bit more froo-froo than the first two But if all you want is a massage, no frills, to loosen you up after being stuck on a plane the student clinic at the local massage college is an easy walk away - advanced students are in the 2000+hr period of training, so frankly are more experienced than a fully-qualified RMT in almost any other jurisdiction, and the price cannot be beaten! The only real downside is their availability - depending when you cruise, the clinic does shut down for a few weeks at a time for exams, new intake etc.

So unfortunately I have to start with the caveat that not everyone faces the same steps... if your ship already entered Canada at a port earlier in the cruise and you handed in a customs form in e.g. Victoria, then odds are high you won't even see a CBSA officer (we of course reserve the right to interview folks, but cruises generally have Immigration done entirely remotely - anyone whose file 'pings' due to DUIs or whatever generally has an announcement made to come to X room to see CBSA, and their onboard account flagged so they cannot disembark without ship security system giving an alert). This is quite common for start and end of season one-ways, a lot of cruiselines schedule trips that go Van>Vic>Sea or vice versa, but some Vancouver RTs also include local stops in Vic, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo. If Vancouver is your Port of Entry (typical on both one-ways from Seward/Whittier and Vancouver RTs where all other ports are in the US) then you can expect to have to hand a customs form over to CBSA, maybe answer a question or two ("How long are you staying?" most likely), unless your declaration form has something of note or you seem suspicious expect literally seconds per person in the queue to process. So you walk off the ship, grab your bags, hand a form over to CBSA or not, and then walk out - the taxi area you refer to from videos is indeed where you get in one (or rather, where you wait for possibly quite a long time in a slowly-moving queue to get in one if it's a day with several ships!) As to the practicalities of moving your own bags vs. using a porter - there are porters around, but how easy/quick it will be to get one to help you is all about pax volumes... how many other ships, how big are they, on your day? Only ship in port - small queues, easy to find a porter probably! Four ships with 10,000+ pax? Expect to do everything yourself or wait quite a while for any service... although the great thing about Uber and its ilk is that even folks who do not want to use them gain from their existence in these circumstances, as every person who does head outside to call an Uber is one less person flighting for space in the cab line with you! If you normally need a porter at the airport with the number of bags you plan to bring, then I agree SkyTrain becomes infeasible - even Uber etc. would be troublesome as they now pickup outside on the street (they are allowed to enter P2 to drop folks off, but NOT to pick anyone up). There's no real relevance to Cabs vs. Ubers except for this (lack of) pier access - I can't think of any travel lanes on the way to YVR that a taxi could use but an Uber could not, we do have HOV lanes and Bus lanes, but any vehicle with enough people can use the former and neither taxis nor ubers can use the latter. If you cannot handle all your own bags with one hand free, you won't be able to safely Self-Disembark either - shipside staff might not enforce you trundling your bags down the gangplank, but shoreside will, there's someone stationed at the escalator to stop anyone with both hands full from using it (elevator queues get long, as anyone with a scooter, wheelchair etc. needs to use those plus anyone with too many bags!) If you actually could handle schlepping your own bags off the ship, then you can definitely manage to use SkyTrain - the Canada Line uses different vehicles, with loads of legroom and underseat storage. A couple with 2 big suitcases, 2 carryons, and a big purse or camera bag each definitely fit in each pair of seats - that's how the Missus and I travel to YVR and I'm both tall and wide! So assuming you find a porter, or can manage to roll your own bags around, if the cab queue is looking annoyingly long take the elevator upstairs to street level - the Pan Pacific hotel has its own little cab pickup spot, with bell staff to call one for you if there aren't any waiting. Able to cross the street, or walk two blocks? Then the Fairmont Waterfront and Pacific Rim respectively also have their own cab ranks - the latter especially should result in a quicker cab pickup as it has its very own 'through road' between Canada Pl and Cordova St so it's accessible from either road easily. Since it sounds like you haven't got a flight booked yet, I would urge you to stay in town - taking an early flight (anything before 10am) means you basically avoid all the hassles that cruisers cause at YVR, due to the sheer volume of pax all arriving within a short span of time. Avoid those cruisers and as long as you get to YVR in time to check your bags (hard cutoff of at least one hour preflight!) you will definitely have time to get through Security and Preclearance even without Global Entry or NEXUS. Anyone can prebook a timeslot at Security these days too. There's so much to see and do locally - and so many day-trip out of town attractions - that if your dollar and time budgets can handle it you can easily fill a week or more without any downtime, so it's a real shame not to at least add in a little time post-cruise to see some stuff as well as to open more potential flights up! There are hotels an awful lot cheaper than the PP, and even if you end up in an airport hotel or simply taking a redeye home same day, luggage storage downtown is pretty cheap (the Pan Pacific bell staff will hold your bags even if you are not a guest for $10; pier storage is the most expensive at $13; a whole mess of other places can be found close by with a Google search - many stores, hotels etc. have signed up to make a few bucks with luggage hero, bounce and similar services) so you can have a wander around during the day without your big bags slowing you down. As an absolute worst-case, consider a coach tour - you'll pay more through the line than booking independently, and with the possibility of customs issues you may be forced to claim your bags and move them past CBSA yourselves even with a cruiseline tour, but if you are hitting Vic before Van you may get a truly seamless 'bags outside cabin door, onto our bus, emptied out for us at the airport' experience that you might feel is worth the markup... note that you will never be able to do 'bags outside cabin door, collect them at home airport' here as US CBP insist on all pax being precleared dropping their own bags off for inspection! Sorry, rambled on a bit there rather than strictly answering what you asked - but hopefully you got some value from the other hints and suggestions.

Haven't for a few years, but same experience as above - a normal day aboard, entertainment program running, all the meals. I found the bars a bit more packed than normal, folks with only one night seem to like making the most of it, but breakfast in the dining room was quieter than a normal disembarkation day (probably because of all the late night partiers who were feeling a bit queasy in the morning!)

Just struck me now, sorry, could have added to the first reply - but if you're flying directly back to the UK (or via a European layover airport, just not an American one) you'll be able to eat a pre-flight meal at Salmon'n'Bannock. Their airport location is post-security in the International departures area, unavailable to all the domestic and US travelers - and in theory the prices are the same as the regular resto downtown. Given your awkward timing - you need to leave downtown by no later than ~5:15pm to be able to check your bags - unless you sit down to dinner at 4pm it's either terrible plane food or dine at YVR pre-flight or you! The original resto has a wider menu of course, but it's outside the usual touristy areas visited so involves a cab or bus ride or a rather lengthy walk from most hotels - so the airport location may be a lot more convenient and it's not a bad cross-section of the their usual fare, with both Elk and Bison options as well as of course salmon dishes (if you're familiar with Scottish Bannocks, the local versions are lighter and fluffier - similar to scone mix but made with oil instead of butter).

Can't say as I've stayed in either to compare the comfiness of mattresses for napping etc., but if all you plan to do is chill in the room why spend a hundred bucks more? You're literally making the same journey to YVR, as the Fairmont is attached, so whether if you cab it or SkyTrain the cost will be the same regardless of the time of day you travel there at (weekend, so 1 zone for all transit all day). Both hotels cap your room use to 8 hours, and while the Fairmont has slightly more flexibility (until 8pm vs. 6pm) neither is good enough for a flight at 11pm - security is quick, preclearance stops work at 8:30pm, very little is open after security at YVR, so that late you don't need to show up much earlier than an hour preflight. At least downtown you have more options if you're feeling energetic - heck, just go see a movie and pay CAD instead of USD at home! - and you'll have a hundred bucks extra to pay for brekkie with your buddies you're meeting after the cruise, plus maybe lounge access at YVR for the last couple hours of your day? Or check out at 6, put the savings toward a nice resto for dinner (I'd recommend Nightingale, leaving bags at the hotel while you dine, it's just 2 blocks away), head out to YVR for 9pm (even if you are very nervous travelers, 2 hours is more than sufficient padding for evening flights).

Or board later - literally the only thing you miss by boarding late is 'free' food & drink for a few hours, and you can catch up on those calories later easily enough! Luggage drop you can do without continuing to check-in - so drop bags, go explore, then come back later. Boarding late means spending as little time as possible waiting around to get on the ship - arriving at the pier as early as possible means that even if you aee the very first people in line, you will be sitting in the first room waiting to be called for at least an hour, maybe even two. Folks who board in the middle, noonish, are generally the worst off in Vancouver - lots of people arrive by train from Seattle, and on cruise transfer buses from SEA, as well as same-day flights into YVR so the queues get really ridiculous before they start to decline, which does mean showing up early (10:30am at the latest) is less bad than boarding at say 1pm... but you will still wait if you're early because both CBSA and CBP have to agree that the ship has been 'zeroed out' of all incoming pax, including the B2B folks who get first dibs on being processed for re-entry to the US. Since check-in comes before Security and CBP, it also means that folks with priority on each line get allocated the lowest numbers - as a first-timer, unless you've paid for suites or are traveling on one of the lines that literally let you buy an early boarding slot, even if you are the very first people at the pier you won't be the first to leave the convention hall waiting room... every single one of the folks with some kind of enhanced Status who arrive before boarding actually begins (usually ~11am) will be leaving the big waiting room before all you non-Status folks! CBP preclearance is the biggest bottleneck - once their room fills up, everyone further back in the line stops moving. So you will generally find that even after being called to leave the waiting room, you will advance in a rather stop-start fashion. On the other hand, if you shave the margins as tight as possible for last boarding (ensure you are there 2 hours before the ship is supposed to depart - passenger manifests have to be supplied to both Canada and the US, so cut it too close and you may be denied boarding!) you'll have basically zero wait time at any stage of the process. When we roll in at the 2 hour mark we expect to only stop walking when we are speaking to someone behind a desk, scanning IDs at the CBP terminals, or removing belts and whatnot at the security scanners - total time curb to cabin of 20mins or less. I would much rather do that than show up at 9:30am, sit on a plastic chair for ~90mins plus however long it takes for the priority boarding groups to get called before you, then spend another 30+ minutes actually moving through the big lineups! We've done the early thing (or first cruise we didn't know any better; our first 'booze included' fancy cruise we went early too, so we could indulge) and frankly unless you value your own time at virtually zero the math just doesn't work - I'd rather pay for another meal ashore and board at 3pm than get on by 11:30 after wasting almost two extra hours of my life waiting around. There's soooooo much great stuff to do here - and even the stuff you have to pay for is discounted due to CAD vs USD - that even an extra 3 or 4 hours ashore is worthwhile if you haven't visited us before. There's even enough free and cheap stuff within 15mins walk of the pier that you can very safely shave those time margins - no need to worry about traffic, a bridge closure etc. if you leave Gastown or FlyOverCanada or the Harbour Centre until the last hour before you plan to board. And if you aren't fussed about doing touristy stuff and would rather pamper yourself, the cost of spa treatments here is a fraction of the onboard pricing and frankly generally better quality - BCs massage therapy standards for example are the highest in the developed world, every local RMT has racked up a minimum of 3000 hours of education before they can qualify. Being local, it's walk to the pier to drop bags ~10am, go for a couples massage, blow a hundred bucks on an absolutely top-notch lunch (still saving us money compared to onboard massages!), head back to the pier for departure-2 hours, saunter onboard all nice & relaxed with no waiting, bags are already in the cabin so we can unpack right away, grab a cocktail for sailaway... that's how we roll! Edit - oh, and if you really want to you CAN leave the ship after you embark, but it does mean being processed by CBSA (entering Canada again) and then having to re-clear CBP (you might have bought some shiny things that need declared!) to get back on again... unless the rules have changed recently. It's the worst possible use of your time though as even if your second boarding is nice and late and thus quick, you still had to go through the first one on top of it, so I definitely don't recommend it!

If you don't want to book something in advance, the Pan Pacific hotel right above the pier holds bags ($10ea last year, accepts non-guest clients); with your flight time the overpriced official pier storage also works ($13 last year; but reduced price if you book a tour through WestCoast - who run the HOHO as well as various coach tours) as you would need to collect them again by 4pm to get out to YVR (the worst thing about the pier storage is that they shut down at 4:30pm, so it's both the most expensive in the city and craptastic for anyone with a real redeye!) If you are considering a bus tour on your last day though, the price becomes reasonable and the hours work fine for a 7pm flight. Various local establishments have also signed up with online services like Bounce, Luggage Hero etc. - just google "baggage storage in vancouver BC" and a long list will appear - with prices from about $6 up. Some are limited hours, some are 24/7, some give exact locations in advance and others only an approximate location until booked (like AirBnB etc.) Being local, I've never had to use any local storage so I cannot give a qualitative comparison of the options - but personally I'd only book one that I can see exactly where it is, and the hours operated, before payment!

By all means ride the HOHO, but be aware that this is a massively overpriced package which you can buy individual parts of easily and save buckets of cash by doing so... Even without any discounts - which are frequently available online, and worst-case you can literally pick up a flyer with a discount code on at the tourist office just downt the street from the pier - the HOHO 'rack rate' price is CAD$65. Riding SkyTrain to the airport is at most CAD$4.55pp (go after 6:30pm weekdays, or any time on weekends, and that drops to $3.15 - Seniors and kids pay about a buck less per ticket), and you don't even have to use a ticket machine any more... simply tap a Smartphone with wallet enabled or a Visa/MC with the NFC chip to open the gates, do the same when you leave, and the system even does the math for you for the fare price based on day/time traveled! The only component you cannot replicate these days is moving your bag - but if the markup remains the same this season as in the past, with adult rates of approx. US$80pp, that gives you at least CAD$37pp to pay for storing a bag for the day downtown (no more than $10 per bag) and could be $50pp if you buy the HOHO at a discount. If you really cannot manage to roll your suitcase around at all - as in you always get a porter at the airport and pier - then going DIY won't work, but for anyone capable of rolling their own bags around an airport you can absolutely manage the very short distance involved getting to SkyTrain from the pier (about 400 yards). If there's two of you, the savings would buy you a cheap lunch AND cab fare to the airport instead of taking the train (expect to pay under CAD$40 unless you're traveling in rush hour). Plus, you won't have to go anywhere to find your bags in an unfamiliar airport!