martincath

Going TO the USA, absolutely - all the airports with preclearance have dedicated queues for both Security and CBP processing you can use with GE. If it's an RT cruise, you just won't be able to use the short queue on the way into Canada, only NEXUS works both ways among the 'regular Joe' TT programs.

Bucketloads! Living close enought to walk means I've never used any personally, but if you want to arrange it in advance you can book through several 'gig economy' agencies that hook you up with a local store or hotel to hold bags, with hefty insurance policies, for ballpark $7-10 per bag (just google 'Vancouver Luggage Storage' and choose one which will confirm actual locations in advance, so you can ensure they are actually convenient to walk to from the pier). Or if you're a 'play it by ear' type the Pan Pacific hotel directly above the pier has a bell desk at street level who will hold bags even for non-guests, for what was widely reported last season as $10ea (NB: no change given if you pay in USD!) Just don't waste your time at the official pier storage - it's not just the highest priced ($12 last year) but is also hands-down the least convenient for you, as you must return to collect the bags by 4:30pm! Anywhere else you can leave them until after you have dinner downtown and want to head straight to the airport (and any evening, given the single zone pricing, it's really hard to beat SkyTrain then for less than US$3pp and <30mins)

Yes, specific time slot needed. Anecdotally if you book a time, but show up not too much earlier or later, they'll still let you into the express line. How quickly you are likely to be able to get off the ship and to the airport depends on how many other ships are in port that day, how big they are, whether you need help to disembark, and how you choose to travel, but since you will hit the hard cap for checking bags no later than 1 hour preflight the latest Security timeslot to consider would be ~11:45am. Another thing you might consider is applying for Global Entry - I see that processing time for new applicants is running 4-6 months, so with a little luck it might come through in time, and that would let you walk into both the short queue for Security and also the dedicated lane for Trusted Travelers at CBP, but if you are able-bodied enough to carry your own bags off then self-disembarking ASAP and riding SkyTrain if you can't hop right in a cab/get an uber within 5 minutes will be the biggest time saving option. All-in-all though, unless this is a seriously busy day (3 big or any 4 ships) a 12:40pm flight isn't really much concern - most cruiselines would even let you book a transfer, as the risk of missing the flight is very low.

If you plan to stay over in Montreal (it's quite a lot bigger than Quebec City, plenty of attractions, and IMO also a bit easier in general for wheelchair pushing on streets - fewer steep slopes & cobbles in the touristy parts) then sure - VIA, and taxis in both cities, have legally mandated accessibility standards that are as good or better than ADA rules in the US. Quebec City will be your most troublesome place as Ye Olde Buildings are often very hard to retrofit for modern wheelchair ramps, lifts etc. Some upper/lower floors may be simply inaccessible at times, although mostly it's an inconvenience (e.g. have to go around the back to find the ramp). If this is just about saving money by doing flight/train on the same day - no way I'd recommend it! Unless your time has no value at all, figure out how many hours you are spending to do this, factor in that while there will generally be English speakers around in Montreal there is zero legal requirement for any cabbie to speak English and if anything goes wrong and you need help, unless you speak good French you might need to get someone to fetch someone else or risk misunderstandings... Back in the day I travelled around Ontario & Quebec pushing my granny, and she only really needed a travel chair for longer distances she was OK with short walks, steps etc., just slow. I struggled at times as a relative youngster, and one time my mum took her shopping alone in downtown Toronto she ended up being carried chair and all by a workie and a cop across an intersection - without their help they'd have had to backtrack several blocks. Montreal is notorious for roadworks - "We have two seasons, Winter and Construction" was coined there I think! - and while mostly on the actual travel surface this does sometimes impact sidewalks too. So all in all, I'd advise against any additional steps and time spent just to save cash - more moving parts makes for more risk, and the potential language as well as wheelchair barriers just maginify those risks of missing a connecting piece - but if you are planning a few precruise nights then hitting MTL first is very common, it's a busier airport with more flight options than YQB, a superb food scene, and plenty of things to see and do even if it lacks the romance of QC's incomparably gorgeous setting with the city walls. As to the train ride itself - mostly a bit Meh IMO, sometimes you get a nice view of the river, but we used to drive to Montreal and Quebec City from Toronto most often; fly if time was tight; and only took the train in winter when time wasn't an issue, it's not pretty enough to be worth doing as a train ride for its own sake.

We really enjoyed our NCL cruise to AK - I do agree that Princess has a higher 'baseline' onboard experience with the puppies, naturalists, Iditarod folks on (I think anyway!) all of their cruises, but you have to ask how much that sort of stuff is worth to your peeps... If you're going to seek out the naturalist, grill them with questions, then knowing there will be an experienced one onboard is great, but like any other feature if you don't use them is it worth the extra cost? If you go to Glacier Bay then every ship gets a local Ranger who gives a spiel, so any line with GB visits has basically the same experience there for example. Personally I'd be looking at which ports you want to visit first, then looking at which ships go there - with priority given to GB visits for a first cruise, as that is by far the best 'as close to guaranteed as is possible to see glaciers' option. Secondly, unless you do a Seattle RT everyone will need passports or at least passport cards - while you can cross the Canadian border by sea or land without a full passport, all flights need one even for US citizens. Victoria port stops don't - the 'driving licence and birth cert' exemption for closed loop cruises covers you there, but only there, so e.g. no Yukon visits from Skagway without a passport or equivalent WHTI-compliant documentation. North or Southbound one-way and Vancouver RTs you will all need to ensure you have passports if you plan to fly - even flying via Seattle and taking bus or train across the border means pp cards or enhanced DLs at a minimum. So if you have a group, and for reasons of criminality, finance, or whatever reason anyone refuses to get a passport... you can abandon all plans for anything other than RT Seattle, which at least cuts down on choices!!! In terms of which ship to choose, once you have a list of possible cruises that fit your ports & dates maybe consider the smallest ships which offer enough onboard stuff to satisfy your peeps - Alaska really is about the ports not the vessel, but if Grampa 'Gambling Joe' McPokerpants is going to make everyone miserable bitching about no casino then book a ship with a casino! Not knowing which ships you have already cruised and enjoyed, I can't say how low on the bells & whistles scale is acceptable to you and yours, but hopefully you know them all well enough to have an idea! Personally I always recommend folks plan some Pre or Post time in Vancouver, especially if you're from far away, because we've got more stuff to see and do than all the AK cruise ports put together - so unless glaciers are your only reason to cruise it's a real shame to come all the way here without seeing some of BC... and while hotels in downtown do get real pricey, a big family group can find a lot of efficiency with e.g. car rental, apartment rental, or even just the YWCAs family rooms (5 beds) split among a lot of people.

Juneau or ISP are hands-down your best options - pick whichever of the two you don't have other plans for in port - as both of these will have guaranteed sightings. If you book a big cruiseline excursion, they'll hand you a crisp $100 bill after the trip if there are no whales sighted - smaller companies might give you free rides instead. But it really doesn't matter as nobody has claimed a guarantee offer since whalewatching trips began!!! Since you're northbound, you also have Vancouver trips available precruise - while not quite 100% (most companies claim 95%+, and all offer free trips for life until you do see some), we are by far the most likely port to see Orca from on a whalewatch in September. These days the local companies don't specifically target the local Orca pods, to avoid disturbing them constantly, but you still have a good chance of seeing them as well as the visiting Grays & Humpbacks as September sees our local Coho & Chum salmon runs begin (if you're planning next year rather than this, also Pinks which return in odd-numbered years here) as those are the main food source for our Southern Resident pods.

^What Bruce said. There's a massive length of 'inside passage', from well south of Seattle, but the crux for 95%+ of cruisers is whether or not your ship sails east of Vancouver Island. Depending on the time of sunset you may not see the most spectacular parts in daylight, especially northbound, but virtually all cruises out of Seattle except the teeny-tiny US flagged ships (and any Royal class Princess ship even out of Vancouver, as BC Pilots refuse point-blank to take them Inside as their manoeuverability sucks) go outside with zero views and somewhat higher chance of rough water. Visiting any of the southern Alaskan ports though you cannot avoid sailing parts of the Inside Passage - but out of Seattle on a mainstream or even luxury ship with more than a couple of hundred pax you are going to have at least one sea day with nothing to see whatsoever. Of course, if your party are the kind of folks who will be in the bars, casino etc. rather than looking out at the scenery it won't matter!

As Dennis says, you won't have a problem unless something freakish happens - that bus slot is literally designed for cruisers to get to Seattle, it would be later if there was any trouble making it for folks who don't run into problems with inadmissibility at immigration or customs declarations. You should be fine as long as you don't try smuggling goods and have no criminal record (NB: by Canadian legal standards - DUIs are a serious crime up here, not just a misdemeanour), both of which could easily mean no matter what time you book a bus at you won't make it!

Even on a 3 or 4 ship day, mainstream lines will book you on flights at 12:30pm with their own transfers - which are the most expensive and slowest option! The advice I always offer is to stay over - we're a heck of a town to visit! - then book an early flight next day so you beat all the disembarking pax to YVR, but if you have burned all your $ budget on the cruise so another hotel night and day of sightseeing just isn't on the cards, a 12:30pm flight is very low risk. If something goes so badly wrong that you miss it, there's frankly a decent chance that a flight later the same afternoon might also have been missed! If you are on a super-busy day (check port schedule - it should update for this season by March), these days at least the cab queue never gets as bad as it did historically thanks to ridesharing - even if you don't use the apps, every person who takes a Lyftuber is one less who needs a cab - but there are a handful of other things you can do to further speed your progress if the queue still looks long: Head upstairs to the Pan Pacific Hotel and get a cab from there - first time cruises here usually have no idea that there's a hotel right above, with cabs able to access the street level front door without getting fully caught up in the horrible bottleneck of pier access, and it's got elevators from cruise level so no worries about mobility issues If the PP already has a bunch of sneaky peeps waiting, the two Fairmonts across the street will be quieter - Waterfront is literally across the street, Pacific Rim is a block down to your right - to try the 'get cab at hotel' trick There's an indy shuttle that costs less than half the price of the cruiseline ones - while you can prebook, they also take walkups! The company running it changes now and again, no guarantees last year's folks will still be doing it when this season starts, but it's actually cheaper than a cab for two people (actual dollar cost $1 extra for Adults, but no % tip expected on top...) Link to the most recent operator, Ace Charters, here. Maybe you do use Rideshares? They pick up outside the pier - so while there is a little more walking to get to them, it's pretty much the same as if you crossed over to get a cab at the Pacific Rim, and now they don't have to come down inside the pier on their own dime more drivers are willing to take fares. If walking a block or two is not feasible with your dad, you have a much bigger problem - the distance from ship to shore can easily be 400+ yards, and even more at YVR to the usual US gates, so anyone who cannot manage at least a quarter mile on foot NEEDS to book wheelchair assistance at both airport and pier... especially if this is an RT cruise, as the boarding process in Vancouver involves an awful lot of walking and standing with no seats available for extended periods due to the extra step of US Preclearance! The airport allows anyone to prebook a slot to pass through Security - while having NEXUS or Global Entry is even better as they get a dedicated Preclearance queue, if you are stuck with waiting for bags to be delivered to the pier then even if you cab it and get one pretty quick the busloads of cruise transfers might already be clogging the queues at YVR when you arrive! Booking a slot in advance - no charge! - for the late end of your timeframe, say 11:30am, means that if you are running late you have it available but if things go smoothly andf you roll in at 9am before the cruise shuttles you can just join the regular lines.

Further to Princetons mention - the aquarium makes use of Boston Harbour Cruises Whalewatching vessels, so compare pricing direct (but if you already plan to visit the aquarium, a combo ticket through the aquarium might be cheaper). Stellwagen Bank feeding grounds are reliable enough that you are guaranteed to see whales June through September (I believe that all the local companies are 'free trip' format rather than 'cashback' in the event you get unlucky). Big catamarans, even bigger than the ones Allen run in Alaska with IIRC up to 400pax, so rail space on deck can get tight up top - check the lower decks to see how busy they are too. Humpies are the bread & butter species but potentially several others - onboard naturalists should explain how to tell what's what from just 'backs & blows' and that's where to set your expectations If this is one of the longer RT cruises up to Nova Scotia, PEI, and Quebec then Boston is almost certainly your best bet for an actual whalewatch trip: Halifax and Sydney are the wrong side of NS for good whalewatching and getting over to Cheticamp or the Bay of Fundy would be very challenging on a port stop; Charlottetown and Quebec don't really have such tours at all; although you might get lucky with Minkes and Pilots seen from the ship, which are around in large numbers compared to most bigger whales, and even the rather rare Belugas anywhere around the Saint Lawrence river and gulf.

Probably... but even if plans are in place to have port security and longshoremen working to support folks entering and leaving the ship overnight, if you miss Victoria (high winds from the wrong direction do cause this a few times every season, and Bliss being a very tall vessel gives it slightly higher risk) then immigration checks involve CBSA staff rescheduling at short notice which could be problematic. Especially given this is a Friday, so for most visitors getting home for work the next is not a factor, I'd be inclined to stick to my normal recommendation of at least one overnight then as early a flight as you want on another day. I certainly would not risk booking a flight at 7am because someone on the internet said it would probably be OK - I'd want the cruiseline to confirm in writing that I could disembark overnight! Back to OP @Victorious8 who seems to have followed this advice to stay over - as a solo, you'll get even more 'win' than most from the YWCA hotel! They actually have single rooms, although I think all of those use hallway bathrooms rather than having your own en suite like the standard double/queen rooms do. It's 0.8miles away from the pier on foot, decent WiFi and lobby with free coffee to hang in if your room isn't available - I met folks there last summer to take on a walking tour who confirmed it's still a great option despite the low price. If you want to spend all day in Stanley Park something nearer the West End would be even more convenient, but if Gastown/Chinatown/Yaletown/False Creek are on the cards it's one of the best-located hotels too (although given how compact our core is, and that 90% of the hotels are there, we really don't have any poorly-located hotels downtown!) Unfortunately this cruise is too early for you to triple-down on celebrating Victoria Day in Victoria, Victoria! But you could have a Victoria Gin while in Victoria 😉

The smaller the better to an extent OP - if your budget can handle it (lacking casinos and the like to subsidise costs, more staff to passenger ratios etc.) and you don't need the sheer variety of amenities on a Monstrosity of the Seas type beast - and a longer duration cruise with more ports means at the very least more time close to shore entering and leaving those ports. Likely the most 'close to shore' time would be on the US-flagged cruises of Uncruise or American Cruise Lines - or maybe Lindblad/NatGeo 'exploration' trips? There are indeed layers of 'even more inside' up the coast, which other than deliveries and ferries only the teeniest and longest cruises visit - just fire up Google maps and zoom in and you'll see the AK and BC ferries routes which hit up a lot of places never seen on cruises... although actually using ferries, even with cabins, might be a step too far!

Happy New Year Dennis! That makes sense - I do recall in several prior years that Bliss has had rather unusual timings due to the bridge. I think one of our other locals, @ceilidh1, has done some of these Bliss repos and might be able to speak from experience how the ship/shore acess works off-hours?

Let us know which port(s) @michaelbr and there's a much better chance of getting the right info quickly - there are sometimes oddities around port access for which local knowledge might be better than Googling!

Depends on your citizenship what you actually need @michaelbr - but all cruises headed straight to Alaska from Vancouver see US CBP at the port for immigration purposes, so if you need a Visa and don't have it you will 100% not be allowed to board. As noted above already, if you're Spanish it's not actually a Visa you need, and the cost is minimal - but if you're a citizen of a country that does need a Visa to enter the USA just residing in Spain, you need to comply with the appropriate rules for your country of citizenship. Even in the much rarer circumstances of a cruise which visits a second Canadian port after Vancouver, when prescreening would not happen, all pax details are sent to CBP by the ship before arriving at the first US port - if you're not allowed entry then the best case is your cruise card is flagged so security will not let you off the ship, but the worst case (assuming there's no issue of criminality that the US would want to actually arrest you!) is that you are forced to disembark and escorted to the nearest airport/border and made to leave the US right away at your own expense... In short - you are 100% going to be processed by CBP for immigration purposes on any cruise to Alaska, regardless of where it begins, so get your paperwork in order!

Railroad is also bookable through various indies, e.g. Chilkoot, who are also cheaper than cruiseline-booked in my experience - see if you can get an earlier slot that way maybe? Also, if this is just the 'summit' ride, up and back without getting off, unless something goes wrong with the train or the tracks it will be very much on time as there are no stations, no issues with freight trains etc. like Amtrak/VIA suffer from - so a 3 hour trip will either have a very small chance of a disaster you can't possibly make a sensible plan around, or be basically on-time which means walking back to the ship by recommended 30mins before departure should be fine... Also, have you checked whether you could book the 1pm train via the cruiseline? If so, whether you book independently or not there will be cruise pax on the 1pm train, so if there is a delay the ship might wait for those folks anyway...

This is tricky - without more info about your specific date/route I can't say! A theoretical answer though is that unless NCL are paying CBSA to work overnight at Canada Place (short answer - they absolutely won't be!), you might arrive at 11pm but you won't be cleared to leave the ship if this is the first Canadian port... but if you had a prior stop in e.g. Victoria, without any other US ports in-between, then immigration & customs was already taken care of so you can just walk off the ship whenever you like after it's tied up. So if you want to set your alarm for 4am, you might not be able to get your bags taken off for you before official disembark slots begin, but you would absolutely be able to self-disembark if you schlep all your own stuff. A 10am flight is potentially doable even if you need to wait until 'regular hours' disembarkation, but again there are unknowns - the biggest factor is your mobility. If you can handle all your own bags, then even on a busy day with multiple ships SkyTrain to YVR is viable which means you can definitely be at the airport within ~45mins of leaving the pier (~10min walk, trains every 6-7 mins, <30min travel time). Say an hour to get to check-in as there's also a bit of a walk from the station to the check-in desks - which means as long as you leave downtown before 9am, you should meet the minimum 1 hour preflight cut-off to check bags. You'll also beat all the other folks who are waiting for cruise transfers - none of them arrive at YVR before about 9:30am - so all the queues should be pretty light, I'd expect to be at my gate within about 30mins even without NEXUS/Global Entry to get through US Preclearance super-fast. If you need any help whatsoever with baggage though, abandon all plans for a 10am flight - there are just too many moving parts outside your control to make it worth the risk. None of the mainstream cruiselines even accept transfer requests for flights that early (noon, or even 12:30pm, is the usual cutoff as they know how busy it can get at the pier and airport and they don't want to be on the hook for folks missing flights!) Personally though I would always advise staying over in Vancouver - unless you've been here many times and seen everything, we have more stuff to see and do than every AK coastal port put together so it's a real missed opportunity to be here and not take advantage of one of the best cities in the world! Us locals might b*tch about cost of living, but with our weaker CAD$ we're still a relative bargain for folks from the USA, especially if you're from any of the bigger cities in California! Then by all means book a flight at 10am on another day when you can choose exactly when to leave your hotel - heck, you may even find a good 6am flight. The only thing to be aware of on those really early flights is that CBP do not start work until 4:30am, and start-of-shift briefing eats another 10-15mins - so arriving at Preclearance before 5am is basically pointless, even for a 6am flight. So many people obey the rule of thumb to be 3 hours early that there's always a lineup at the closed doors from 3am, which gets longer and longer until CBP actually start working around 4:45am...

Taxi firms locally must have a % (~17%) of their fleets Accessible - while there is zero requirement for Uber, Lyft etc. due to them 'sub-contracting' to individual drivers. So an accessible van taxi is on paper much more likely to roll in at Canada Place than an accessible Uber etc. to find at all... but there's no legal requirement for other passengers to pass up the chance of a van - and with cruisers very often being luggage-heavy, the average family of four may seriously struggle to get their bags in a Prius so they'll take a van rather than sit with suitcases on their laps all the way to YVR. Unless you book one specifically, it's a crapshoot in the 'first-come, first-served' queue... but if you contact any cab firm directly, by phone or their Apps, the local bylaws mean they MUST despatch an accessible vehicle on demand. There's no specific timeframe unfortunately, so a rando calling from a US cellphone isn't likely to get any particularly special treatment... but that's where the following workaround comes in! Who DOES get reliably good treatment from cab companies? Hotel concierges and bell captains - because unlike you, a one-off foreign visitor, those people call bucketloads of cabs every day and they can choose which cab company to call... so no cab firm with any sense will risk jeopardising their relationship by blowing off a hotel! Canada Place just so happens to have one of our fancier hotels literally on top of the pier - the Pan Pacific. There's also the just-as-fancy Fairmont Waterfront literally across the street - which will probably have a quieter lobby to sit and wait in - and the even-fancier Fairmont Pacific Rim a block down, which is not only one of just two five-star hotels in the city but is easier to get to for cabs when the pier is busy as it's both a little further away from the pier but also has street-level 'drive-through' access from Cordova so the cabs can completely avoid the bottleneck right outside the pier. I'd try the PP first - but if there's already people waiting for their cabs, cross to the Waterfront and if it's also busy walk the extra block down to the Pac Rim. Between these three swanky hotels, even on a busy day you should have a van cab arriving quickly... Start with an apology (the Canadian way!) e.g. 'sorry for bothering you, but <point at person in party who needs the vehicle> we are having great difficulty getting an accessible cab at the pier, even though we are not currently guests could you possibly call one for us?' would need a very hard-hearted hotelier to refuse!

Things have changed a little with Quick Shuttle (their website remains branded as QuickCoach though, linked by someone else above already) - the most significant change is to their itinerary in that they cut their Tue/Wed services, with some service times now even more limited in which days they run, and of course they've jacked their prices up as have most transportation companies. Separate charge for luggage these days too, instead of including 2 big bags free like back in the day, makes them even more expensive than the alternatives - while they are convenient in terms of being the only indy service that will do a Pier to Airport only a solo traveler actually saves money compared to using other buses or the train and simply taking a cab at the start and end of your trip from pier to station, station to airport. Since OP already indicated they planned to fly a day ahead of the cruise then either overnighting in Seattle and the first train of the day to embark, or if an early morning flight from Chicago is reasonable flying into Seattle early then taking the evening train would be my pick - depends on hotel pricing. The train is actually significantly cheaper than QS as Amtrak did not jack up their ticket prices post-pandemic, it's only $33pp if booked far enough ahead to access Saver tickets, with hefty kids discounts too! The train is by far the most comfortable (even coach seats are more spacious than any bus or plane on the route) and the least annoying way to cross the border as northbound you don't even stop, all processing by CBSA happens at the station in Vancouver on arrival. Unlike at YVR, your train is the only thing being cleared - the longest wait I've ever had, even when in the last carriage to be released, is less than 30mins. Landing at YVR at the busier times of day it's often over an hour delay for customs & immigration due to sheer volume, sometimes even 2+ unless you have NEXUS to bypass the enormous queues.

Depending on your luggage situation the simplest way to go might work - join the queue for cabs. Fixed price to the pier is CAD$41 per vehicle - but ~5 in 6 are Priuses, so while there are seats for 4 passengers the trunks may not handle all your bags if you each bring a big suitcase and a carry-on! The other 1 in 6 vehicle is a disabled accessible minivan, with middle seats removed (i.e still 4 pax seats) so if you are not traveling with someone in a wheelchair or scooter there is a ton of space for suitcases between the trunk and open floor space... but it's a bit random whether you will find a minivan rolling in when you are at the front of the queue! If there's nobody in a chair/scooter behind you that actually NEEDS the accessible van, regular folks sometimes get allocated accessible rooms aboard ship, there's no reason not to take one... But if you want to be completely sure your vehicle will fit your people and luggage, you could use Lyft or Uber and request an XL vehicle - while pricier than a cab, unless here's a big surge adjustment it should cost less than 2 cabs! There's also the local app, Kabu, but odds are you already have at least one of Lyftuber installed so you may as well use what you're familiar with... Limo services will be pricier again - since Aerocar died in the pandemic, there's no longer a specific franchise at YVR with fixed rate fares. We haven't used another limo service since, so can't recommend any specific ones I'm afraid, but the minimum hourly fee is CAD$75 for any limo operating legally in the region - and things like a 'meet & greet' fee to stand with a sign and takes your bags inside the airport is entirely up to each company, the lowest I've seen is an extra $50 (with max 30mins wait time - so if your flight is delayed you're on the hook for extra!). Given flight delays, customs/immigration processing etc. there's just so much randomness that I can't recommend prebooking a limo!

You're really going to have to go custom to fill the whole day with a tour - the longest day tours jump straight from Too Short (multiple North Shore sites or a quickie Whistler visit with an airport drop ~3-5pm) to Too Long (Victoria, get back to the city around 10pm which is too tight to risk for a flight at 11 even though you could be dropped at YVR a half hour earlier). But with 7+ people, the pp cost to rent a guide with a Sprinter van or similar might be affordable - check out ToursByLocals for an idea of how many local guides are around and the vehicles they have (sorry, can't recommend a specific one personally). Due to how busy YVR gets, time limits to check bags are enforced quite often (max 3-4 hours preflight depending on airline) - although on those late red eyes with no Preclearance to worry about, you are more likely to be able to check your bags earlier if you do end up out at YVR with a lot of time to kill. Still, while it's arguably the least bad airport to kill time in on the continent, it's definitely better to fill your day with more fun stuff. Firstly I'd check with your people - even if you are a very tight family or friends group odds are slim that you all share exactly the same tastes, so why not do a bit of homework in advance and figure out what sights everyone favours visiting and any places that one or more of you have zero desire to see? If there's a strong overlap, then a single custom tour by vehicle could make a lot of sense - but if your big group breaks down into smaller groups based on what they want to see, it's really easy (and free!) to keep in touch locally if you split up... the city runs a free WiFi network (look for #VanWiFi broadcasting), Transit vehicles have their own WiFi too now (even in the SkyTrain tunnels), so any device can be used to message each other without having to pay roaming fees/data costs if your phone companies don't include Canada. So everyone can maximise their enjoyment of local sights, do their own thing during the day, meet up again at dinner just like many groups do on port days while cruising! Given we share the same native language, credit cards are taken almost everywhere, and even USD cash here and there, touring independently as solos, couples etc. then meeting back up for dinner before heading out to YVR is safe and simple. I'd aim for arriving no earlier than 9pm, even if you have some pretty nervous travelers 2 hours is plenty for a late flight. With only check-in and security to worry about (no Canadian Preclearance operates 24/7, they only run 2 shifts from ~4:30am to 8:30pm) you will see CBP when you land in the US instead of here before boarding, hence less time needed at YVR. Personally I'd stash bags downtown, split up, go do stuff that seems best for each sub-group, and book a dinner downtown for 6-7pm to meet back up again. Retrieve bags and head to YVR at ~8:30pm - SkyTrain is both fastest and cheapest, less than US$3pp on any evening, so as long as you have enough able-bodied people to roll bags around it's usually the best option. Cabs now do officially charge fixed rates to the airport from the pier, but not from anywhere else around town - but if you budget for the fixed fare (CAD$41/~USD$31 per vehicle, plus your choice of tip) you will likely save about $5 per car from most of downtown on the meter at that time in the evening.

Best hotel for the money is actually fairly straightforward - the YWCA Hotel! While there are better hotels, with more fancy stuff, they cost SHEDLOADS more - nothing remotely comparable in price comes close to the quality, location etc. of the Y. Don't accidentally book a YMCA hostel though - I think we still have one of those too - the hotel is purpose-built as such, and while there are some big family rooms with 5 beds there are no dorms. Book soon though - it sells out long in advance, especially the 'normal hotel room' format with 2 doubles/a queen and an en suite bathroom. Transport - if mobile, can handle own bags, SkyTrain is usually both cheapest and fastest, although with cabs being fixed price into town sometimes a small group can find that cab fare is almost as cheap (each ticket leaving YVR gets an extra $5 fee added, to pay for building that line back in the day, so in USD it's ballpark $6-8pp depending on time and day of travel, while the per-cab price to most downtown hotels is ~$29 plus tip) Only hotels with shuttles are out near the airport, and they will only shuttle you back & forth not to downtown (although since there's a SkyTrain station pretty much en route from all of them, asking the hotel shuttle to drop you at SkyTrain should work - waving a few bucks as a 'preemptive tip' should ensure it does!) Do some pricing, then check what Holland are selling pre-cruise hotels for - if you're a solo then their per-person pricing might make for a big win, but sometimes they get some really good rates booking blocks of rooms too, so if you did insist on a swanky hotel like Pan Pacific, Fairmont, etc. you might get a better rate through the line. Given the distances involved, weak CAD, English spoken everywhere though it's almost always cheaper to book hotel and transpo yourself here in Vancouver and frankly often faster too, no waiting for a bus to fill with other folks!

Not sure how helpful a small sample of opinions will be OP, especially since I'd flip the order of the three to basically the opposite of the first reply! Astoria hands-down the best for me: good architecture, tiny but fun city museum, superb maritime museum with one of the best fish & chip spots in the region parked outside (it's in a boat to keep the vibe!), a twee little ye Olde Historic Railway that runs rather randomly, the whole historic Lewis & Clark story with a great rebuild of Fort Clatsop to visit (outside town), multiple great breweries, a resto you can dine in while looking down through the glass floor to watch sea lions below, fling a paper airplane off the Column while enjoying expansive views. Just don't be one of those people and annoy the new owners of the Goonies house by hanging out on their lawn... stick to checking out the film exhibit in the museum! Santa Barbara I plunk in the middle again, nice enough to be worth visiting again but not somewhere I would ever choose a cruise based on its inclusion or lack thereof; while it's a bit far to walk to e.g. the Mission there was a touristy trolley bus shuttling folks around when I visited which I think did come back post-Covid. Catalina however I have no desire to ever go back - the museum was decent, but the overall vibe I was left with is Generic Caribbean Island Meets Faded British Beach Resort, both of which I've done far too many visits to!

Whether it's a Seattle RT, or a Vancouver one-way/RT, there are some good walking tours in both that may help either burn off or justify excess cruise calories, on top of options in the port stops. Free (tip what you like) versions I've enjoyed in Sea and Van; completely free (no tips expected, and just your group not randos) in Sea and Van (full disclosure, I am a Vancouver Buddy, but since we make zero money I feel it's not much of a conflict of interest to recommend the organization!); Tripadvisor lists all the paid tours available - I've personally very much enjoyed the Architectural Institute of BCs tours here in Van, which should be firing up again in 2024 and were in the past by far the best value paid tours at ~$10pp (it's basically to cover admin costs, not for-profit). Something a lot of folks miss out on in Skagway are the Ranger walks - the Klondike Goldrush National Historical Park is split between here and Seattle, so you can see both ends of the trips that the wannabe prospectors took.

Even with 4 ships in port, SkyTrain can handle the traffic levels just fine - while there's no such thing as a 100% guarantee (ship might have a propulsion failure and arrive very late, SkyTrain does have very occasional failures, YVR had a massive power cut once in the last decade, another occasion the computer systems all went down causing multiple-hour delays) this is as close to a sure thing as you can plan for! Even if you had a flight at 1pm, any really disastrous thing going wrong could also mean you miss that. The only time you ever really need more than two hours at YVR, even for US preclearance flights, would be on multiship days after the busloads of cruise transfer pax start rolling in which isn't until ~9:30am. If you do much international travel - even literally one foreign trip a year - then NEXUS or Global Entry are money well spent, and both would expedite you through CBP and Security when heading south. If you don't already have an application under way it's probably too late for the 2024 cruise season - but there's also YVRs 'prebook your security slot' Express service which anyone can use, and just on the offchance that Something Unexpected Crops Up you can at least hedge your bets for the Security queue. Of course, the best advice I can offer is always the same - stay overnight for as many days as your time and $ budgets can handle, as Vancouver is an outstanding place to visit, then book a flight in the first tranche of day before 9am. You'll likely be in the air then before the first same-day-disembarkers even arrive at YVR, fly home in daylight, and more often that not pay less for the flight too as everyone and their granny wants the 'no need to get up early, can get to it after a cruise' noonish to mid-afternoon flights so they usually carry a premium cost...