martincath

I've also experienced generally that the first self-disembarkation slots are officially ~7:30am, but may actually start a little earlier; if it's for booking the earliest possible flight then the biggest issue is how many other ships are in port... with the maximum of four vessels, even if you are first off your ship you might be behind hundreds of pax from the other three! The advice to book a flight no earlier than noon is sound; if you are mobile, carry bags off, and use SkyTrain it's possible to get to YVR, through security, and CBP preclearance by 9am - but if you need a cab, or even worse want to pay extra then wait even longer on a cruise transfer, you may find yourself missing a noon flight entirely if it's a four ship day (most lines will not even book you a transfer for flights before noon, 12:30, even 1pm depending on their tolerance for risk!)

Mostly I'm going to back up other answers already - the YWCA hotel is the sweetspot for location, quality, safety, convenience at a bargain price (especially if you don't plan to have a car, you have very easy access to several decent bus routes and one SkyTrain line within a couple of blocks, and it's less than half a mile to the nearest station on the other line, water taxis, other main bus routes). There's also a fair whack of reasonably-priced dining options, and full kitchens that mean you can grab nice fresh ingredients and cook yourself a meal (or just a picnic lunch) for even cheaper. Any hotel should hold your bags the day you check-in or -out for a few hours - but you may find that it's more efficient to pay a few bucks to store bags elsewhere depending on your plans, so you don't have to go out of your way to get back to the hotel before heading to the airport. Which location is best - unless you are very picky about your hotel having a view, the best location is the one which allows you to visit your preferred sights as efficiently as possible... so I'd plan where you want to go first, then choose where to stay. Which sights would be best for you though is the real question - two days means still barely scratching the surface, you could not possibly hit up even all the top ten downtown attractions and do them justice. Factor in some more suburban big hits, involving 30+ mins travel each way, and time gets crunched even more! Personally I always suggest that you - and all the folks you will be traveling with - hit up TripAdvisor. When it comes to popular attractions, with 100s or 1000s of reviews, any bias becomes meaningless so you can take as gospel that Joe Q Public's Top Ten list is an extremely accurate, large-sample-size, list of comparative 'quality' of the sights... for Joe Q Public. Hopefully you know your own tastes enough to know that you lean e.g. more arty, less gardeny, love museums, hate science centres etc. etc. compared to Joe Q Public - but those Top lists, and the short articles along the lines of 'a day in' or 'a weekend in' make a great starting point. Pick your personal top five or six things, compare to your travel companions lists - then come back and run those choices past us locals, who have practical 'boots on the ground' knowledge of e.g. the best way to link the sites together, best times of day to hit X or Y or travel between them to avoid traffic, and maybe suggest some smaller, less-well-known things to see and do that would fit well if you're already visiting A, B, or C.

A lot of folks will have - but a caveat that any pre-Covid stays would have included a free hotel shuttle which would drop guests anywhere around the downtown core, including the pier, and was very popular with cruisers. As far as I know that's the only amenity they no longer offer - and personally Hamptons are pretty much our perfect hotel chain, with quality beds, an adequate hot brekkie, but minimal fripperies we do not need although we've never stayed in this specific one. The location is great - on the corner of the same block as the YWCA which I still recommend as the best option for anyone who doesn't need a bunch of fancy stuff - and a cab to the pier should be about $10; it's a smidge under a mile so would be a single digit fare if it weren't for pier traffic (sitting in a stop & go queue of vehicles is the norm unless you're among the first or last folks of the day, limited space means it's one car out, one car in). If you're mobile you can walk to Chinatown, Gastown, or the pier easily (even with suitcases); you're right on the edge of Yaletown, have SkyTrain stations on both lines less than a half-mile away, a bus stop on the next block that can take you up to the West End along Davie St (006) or across Cambie bridge to Broadway (017) for various shopping/dining/sightseeing options, and even a nearby 'port' for the little watertaxis around False Creek (it's out on one of the piers in the Marina at the foot of Davie). If you enjoy walking - or rent a bike - a full circuit of the Seawall round Stanley Park is even on the cards. Multiple decent restos very close by. All in all, I'd have zero hesitation recommending the Hampton to a tourist, whether it's just for the night before or an extended stay.

This is a good point Miss G - while a day trip by bus/ferry isn't possible on a cruise disembark day, even with a flight this late, if you can throw some cash at the logistics the time saved by flying makes it easily possible to see a good chunk of Victoria and surrounds. Especially trips that land right at Butchart's dock, avoiding the 30+min each way bus ride to and from town!

The official pier storage is the worst possible option for someone with a very late flight - you must go collect your bags again by 4:30pm, yet they charge more per bag than any other storage option downtown! I do agree the best option is to stash bags downtown, as that is the most time-efficient option - provided you choose a place that stays open until at least 8pm! Given I live close enough to the pier to have always just walked home with my bags, I cannot speak from personal experience about any specific options - but if you Google 'luggage storage Vancouver BC' you will find several web-based sites that have made deals with local hotels and shops to hold bags for prices between $7 and $10 per bag - some give exact locations in advance, others only approximate until you book (like AirBnB), but all offer hefty guarantees against losses. There's also the hotel right above the pier, the Pan Pacific, whose bell staff have been holding bags ad hoc for non-guests for years if you don't want to commit to a service in advance. Spend the day doing lots of stuff locally, have a great dinner downtown, grab your bags, take SkyTrain out to the airport - flights that late, even if it's via the USA rather than direct to Oz, go from normal International gates rather than Transborder which removes one step from the process, and YVR is simply never as busy at that hour. I would personally be comfortable leaving downtown 2 hours preflight by SkyTrain - you'll have ~90mins to check bags, get through Security, and board which is plenty.

There isn't one - but you can take the Clipper from Seattle to Victoria, and then BC Ferries to the mainland from the Island. There's a coach that usually works out as the best combo of cost/convenience if you just want transpo - picks up and drops off in downtown Vic and Van, synched to the ferry times, approx. US$50ish pp. Honestly though, unless you make the pre-cruise transport part of the vaycay and plan at least a night or three in Seattle and Victoria, the time and cost involved makes this a non-starter for most folks! Even doing the 'fly to Seattle, bus or train to Vancouver' thing only saves big bucks if you place no value on your own time - even if you have a nonstop option from your local airport to SEA but only layovers going to YVR, odds are that you'll find a flight with a <2hr connection far more convenient than a ~4 hours bus or train ride at fixed times, with lots of padding to ensure a flight delay won't make you miss it... it's not just the US$30-80pp cost of transpo, it's the many hours extra time spend you need to factor in. The older I get, the more I value my time over my money!!!

You got it, and anything that still wasn't 100% clear I think @LeeW summarized very well above - if you use Streetview, you'll see that the 'station' where your dashed line changes to solid is actually two very small boxy glass buildings that are basically just the top of the elevator and escalator/staircase down to the station platform below.

Taxis, Uber/Lyft/Kabu (local rideshare), or a 'limo' rental would be your options. Cabs are fixed rate, but none are big enough for you - I've seen all of two cabs ever with 6 pax seats, all the other vancabs are used to comply with local Accessible rules by removing the middle row of seats. So they can still only handle 4 bums on seats, but also enable a scooter or wheelchair person to roll right onboard and get strapped in securely. Unless you NEED that accessibility - e.g. one of your Seniors declines before your cruise and needs a scooter - then any two cabs will work. Split into threes, 1 Senior/1kid/1 adult per cab so there's someone who can wrangle a kid/help a senior in each vehicle as you may not arrive together. The extra cost rideshare vehicles might be able to handle your group in a single car - as would limo companies. Without Surge, 1 Lyftuber will almost certainly cost less than 2 cabs. A big SUV at the old airport-specific rates used to run pretty much exactly three times the cost of the cab - and now that Aerocar ceased to exist and official rates apply everywhere, a minimum booking time of at least a full hour applies - I'd therefore ballpark $200 for a limo transfer incl tax and tip to any downtown hotel. Your specific Qs now: 1) No - you get what you get, but you can 'step aside' and let the folks behind you take 'your' cab to get the next one (and us polite locals look behind us to ensure we don't snag a van we don't need if there's someone in wheelchair who does need one!); but since you'd still need a second vehicle, but even 2 Priuses would fit 6 pax and bags easily it really isn't relevant for you. 2) How long is a piece of string? Personally I've never waited longer than 20mins, but my dataset is small despite being local - unless it's late/we're tired we generally take SkyTrain, and if we fancied a treat we used to grab a limo back when it only cost <$70, so we'd generally only cab from YVR once or twice a year. 3) No - since Aerocar died you're at the mercy of individual pricing, and so many limo companies here are a bunch of guys with a car rather than a true fleet, so even the best review in the world means nothing if you book Honest Bob based on reviews, he gets sick, farms you out to Stinky Pete etc. Anyone who gives a recco is basing it on a single experience most of the time, at best a handful, and limo companies are just as prone as cabs to be randomly crap! 4) Yes - assuming your less mobile people can walk through the airport without a wheelchair pusher or 'golf' buggy, then they can easily walk from SkyTrain to the hotel at the other end! Days Inn is even closer to Waterfront Station than the pier is, well under 300 yards, and odds are extremely high you will walk much further than this from plane to curb at YVR. With young kids who travel free, and 2 seniors who get a discount, the price is by far the lowest cost and frankly it's almost certainly also the fastest way to your hotel if there's even a very modest amount of traffic. Prices usually go up July 1, but right now if you use a ticket machine (to get the Senior discount you have to) you would only pay $9.55/adult, $8.10/Senior (even less if a weekend or after 6:30pm weekdays). The super-convenience of just tapping your card on the fare gates comes at the cost of no consession rates, only Adult fares, but at <$1.50pp if there's a queue for the machines or you simply don't want to figure out how to use them, still a bargain IMO. Another handy hint - don't follow the crowds up into the station following the signs, instead walk toward the back of the train, following signage to Granville Street. There's an elevator which will make life easier with bags & mobility issues - and then you don't need to walk up as much of a hill! To the pier, just walk straight down Hornby Street (Google continues to miss this route, there's one block that's entirely pedestrianized but even when selecting Walking directions it routes you a block west or east for some reason!), approx. a quarter mile, downhill. If your older people cannot walk this far, you really, truly should request a wheelchair transfer for them at both pier and airport as you will definitely be walking further in both ports!!! If they could walk it, just not while also schlepping bags, take 1 cab with the luggage and the oldsters to the pier, walk the kids down yourself, and meet the cab! Even without free calls in Canada, the city provides a free WiFi network that makes messaging and maps dead easy to use... look for #VanWiFi broadcasting all over downtown.

Very few hotels offer it here - we virtually ran at capacity during summer pre-Covid, and while the numbers have not quite recovered yet we also lost several hotels so the % of full rooms is probably still well over 90. Only the Fairmont at the airport has consistently offered day rooms - with tight limits of both duration and start/end times, max 8 hours between 8am and 7pm, so they can resell the same room to folks arriving on an evening flight with time to clean them and end up with effectively >100% room use! Honestly, considering you can buy access to lounges with showers and naprooms, it's a waste of money unless you book it for one person and then sneak a big group in! Less than a handful of other hotels appear on websites that specialize in day room bookings these days, IIRC the Hyatt and Georgian Court, neither of whom are cheap but should be better value than the Fairmont as well as actually downtown if you're looking for bag storage/chill space in between Doing Stuff rather than just somewhere to nap before a redeye.

Definitely the current weather - unlike almost every other cruise ship sent to these parts, the Royal class has no option to sail the protected Inside Passage east of Vancouver Island. It's pilotage-required and the provincial pilots association ban them due to a combo of small rudders and huge 'sail' area sidewinds making them unsafe in narrow waters with either strong currents or high winds, let alone both. They even miss Ketchikan and Victoria sometimes when other classes of ship can safely dock - but hey, operating costs per pax are much lower so Princess keeping sending them despite how badly designed they are for these waters! As well as issues with wind in the unprotected waters Outside the island, there's also the fact that even under normal tidal conditions the Royal class can only pass under Lion's Gate within about a one hour time block each low tide - thanks to storm surge, that margin would have been even tighter so making a run for the harbour before we got hit with the worst of it tonight was a very wise decision!

I'll second Don's suggestion of Weather Spark - if you compare the data for May in your ports, especially Min temps, to your own local climate in Florida you'll probably find that you have an ideal raincoat already (with LOTS of rain but warm temps, I've yet to meet a Floridian without a thin top shell of some kind) so the only real issue will be whether you have the right footwear and enough middle layers already for your planned activities. The latter is easy enough to acquire in ports - a fleece, sweatshirt, or even long-sleeved T make for both souvenirs and an easy way to add some warmth. On the feet front, if you plan to hike than buy boots ASAP and make sure they are well broken-in! If all you're doing is walking around ports or on bus trips, then any comfy footwear with a bit of grip works (lots of gravel trails, the odd woodchip, and slippy decks sometimes aboard). Proper waterproof coats and boots are a necessity if thru-hiking, but with a cabin to return to you should be fine with water resistant top shell and vaguely sensible footwear. You can dry off nightly, unlike someone who is camping and stuck in the rain 24/7! Cheap dollar store gloves, scarf, and toque/beanie should be ample to keep the edge off when it's windy on deck, a glacier day etc., and if it's unusually cold stick a spare pair of socks over your hands as mittens when not actively using a camera etc. Works very well, and just cutting one fingertip off a $1 glove is a lot better value than spending $20 on a fancy pair of 'touch screen capable' gloves that you might never wear again unless you go skiing...

An update - thanks to some necessary-but-loud maintenance to our condo in Portland being delayed, we're cutting short our upcoming trip to just the long weekend. So I'll actually be in town from Oct 10th, before your conference ends. If you haven't already arranged a Stroll with one of my fellow Buddies, or something goes pear-shaped on the luggage storage front etc., just reach out - cruise critic marty (remove all the spaces, just one long name) at gmail dot com

Obviously I hope you're able to get on the tours you wanted to take, but worst case you could at least visit totems in Ketchikan on transit buses - their entire fleet is now similar to Vancouver, kneeling buses, ramps, dedicated wheelchair space near front doors. There's even a loop bus that stops right at the pier if you want to transfer rather than roll to the nearest stop serving the specific line you need for e.g. Saxman. Details of accessible transit here; general transit page with schedule, live maps, search etc. here. Sitka it's been a while, I don't think their fleet is all-accessible but they do have some specific vehicles, you may need to contact them for info - website here. Since you seem quite capable of a lengthy roll based on your Vancouver activities, I think you could get yourself to the Raptor centre and all the other, closer, downtown sites without actually needing a vehicle unless you want to do the out-of-town Fortress of the Bear.

No worries. Personally I'd be bumping this to the parents to arrange and pay for - you're already doing them a favour taking the grandkids on vacation! - but if you're set on covering the costs insist on at least each pair of parents acting grown-up enough to be in the same room at the same time so you only need one visit for each GKs set of docs... unless by any chance anyone involved has sole custody? A copy of the court docs confirming sole custody and all you need is the signature of that one parent to satisfy even the pickiest of border agents!

I think you need a new Notary! While the going rate in Vancouver can easily be $50, even $60 for the first signature, that includes the whole 'setup' - your appointment slot, time to print stuff if it's a soft copy, photocopying things (NB: usually an extra charge per page if they do the printing, so always better to print at home and bring paper to sign!), and (most importantly!) reading the docs carefully, explaining legal terminology etc. to ensure you the client fully understand what's being signed. Since much of that does not need replicated even for multiple different docs - and especially not for identical documents where literally the only difference is name of child and parents - multiple signatures in a session have a significantly reduced cost. Both the notaries near me - David Watts on Hastings St and Dan Park on 2nd Ave - drop their fee to less than half per additional sig, even on totally different documents. As Brits abroad, with UK and US based property and investments, we've had to deal with notarized copies of all sorts of documents over the years both here and Ontario - we have never found ANY notary who charged 'rack rate' for all signatures in a session. Almost every time either of us needs something, we both do - so we've been in a similar position to you with multiple names per doc and multiple docs. Mostly when it's both of us signing the same doc there is zero extra charge as there's still only one notary stamp and literally seconds of extra 'watch a signature be written' time. Whoever your current person is, they are screwing you over unless you intend to book four separate sessions with each parent visiting them individually! Given that you're not just cruising with the kids, but taking them one-way over the border I also feel that even if not required, notarized signatures is going to alleviate much of the concern CBP might have - having a print-out of their return tickets to bring them home from SF will also help! We have divorced and widowed friends, resident both sides of the border, and it's been a crapshoot for them regardless of which direction as to how much hassle they get - both CBP and CBSA almost always ask for the relevant documentation, and in the case of the divorcees even call the ex-spouse to verify permission sometimes... so be sure to include a contact number and remind your kids that if an unknown number calls them the day you're embarking to pick the darn phone up!!! I would also try your bank first in case you can score a freebie though - given that this is a cut & dried situation, standard forms provided, you don't need things explained, copied, etc., you just need the 'rubber stamp' to minimise risk of friction at the border, all the extra stuff that a good full-time notary offers really isn't required.

Viator just resell other people's tours, and usually at a markup - if you were visiting Foreign Lands with language issues, perhaps the comfort of an English language site and a contact number would be a benefit, but all that it does on your 'home turf' is add an extra layer of Things That Can Go Wrong at worst, and Delays Reaching Anyone at best (because you have to call them, not the tour provider, if there's any issue). So if you have found a tour on Viator you like, try to simply Copy and Paste a chunk of the tour description into Google - they're incredibly lazy and generally just copy the actual tour providers spiels word for word, so you should find the folks running the tour very easily, then be able to book directly! Even if it's a tour they are not marking up, all the funds will go direct to the folks running it instead of padding the purse of the middlemen...

While Sydney itself really doesn't have much it's by far the most convenient port to visit two of the best attractions in the province - Louisbourg Fortress and the Cape Breton Miners Museum. A cab would be hella pricey, with distances of 20-30miles per leg, though possibly still better value than a cruise tour bus excursion unless you're a solo(!); a rental car is by far the most efficient way to visit them but you may struggle to find one at a decent price if your trip is this fall...

Just finished renewal and checked this, as I did notice when I was updating new PP that the Vehicle Info was still part of the dashboard (same car for us, so no need to change the info, so I didn't Edit that section) - and it looks like they only care about vehicle info for the Mexican border rather than Canadian these days. So thanks for the tip, one less thing to do in future as we have no plans to do another 'all the way down the left coast' road trip!

We are aware, but thanks anyway - anecdotally a LOT of folks get tripped up the first time they cross the border after getting new PP or buying a new car and forgetting to keep things all matchy-matching!

Very recent update - applied in-person at Vancouver passport office, no appointment, just walked in the door on a Friday 4 weeks ago at almost bang on 3pm... longest wait was the initial 'get a number' queue, approx 20mins standing... then sat for 15min... then as my wife and I both renewed at the same time it took another 15mins to be processed together (during which we saw two singletons be completely processed and another one begin at the window next to us), and we were out and off to Happy Hour before 4pm. Went on vaycay for 2 weeks (NEXUS cards used to drive across the border) and we had the 'please come to Post Office to sign for your package' note waiting in our mail slot when we returned, dated 9 working days after our appointment; very fair considering the current official line is 10 days for in-person at the office. Now we can put in for our NEXUS renewals, with ~8 months before expiry, and we hope it will be similarly smooth! Oh - if it matters to anyone, Vancouver is still printing on old Lizzy stock and they did actually warn us when we went in! For folks who insist on getting a passport with Chuck in it you should apply by mail to the central Ottawa office, as apparently all of the regional ones are still burning through the old stock (a pleasant surprise to see our gov't actually choosing NOT to throw money away by just getting rid of them!!!)

Instead of Harbour Centre, head up to the Signature store at Alberni & Bute - it's not actually very much further, they stock more, and they have product experts on-site to advise. Frankly Canada is even worse than the US for 'every single winery has a string of awards at the My Granny And Her Pals Wine Award Show level', and with a rather small market the available critical base for reviews of only-sold-in-the-country wines is incredibly small it really does mean finding a particular critic whose tastes align with your own - vanishingly difficult for foreigners! I've had far more practical, useful advice ("I like X, Y, Z - what local wineries do you recommend?") from the Signature store staff than any other source on this side of the country - but if you want to do some research in advance, you could do a lot worse than check Anthony Gismondi's site... he's not just Canadian but based over here, which has radically different terroirs than Niagara which is the bread & butter region for the folks based out of Toronto/Montreal, so proportionately his review base skews more relevant to BCL supply lines than many other critics. While mostly BCL staff are pretty good about helping out when they can, the Harbour Centre is also a particularly busy and particularly low-end store - lots of plonk, not much swank, and generally staff are more worried about local street folks trying to shoplift (as this is the closest store to the DTES) than advising folks on the subtleties of what vines do particularly well in our 'desert' clime up in the Okanagan. While Canadian wines are available, many are of the 'put in a bottle here so they can be classified as Canadian' or 'grapes squeezed abroad, sent in a tanker, then made within the country' - nothing wrong with those on the value table wine end whatsoever, we always have some in the house, but if you're looking for some proper grown, picked, and processed here stuff the Bute store will have exponentially more bottles - especially once you go above the $25 mark.

I can only answer from experience the first part of the question, but since you've had no other takers I guess a partial/theoretical answer is better than none, and hopefully not to late for you to do something with the info! exact timing of walk-off with your own bags is still somewhat contingent on Other People, Other Ships - deliberately waiting until near the end rather than at the start pretty much guarantees some slowdown, just based on folks ahead of you also walking the same route (with and without bags) and the only real choice involved until you are at the end leaving the building is whether to take Elevator or Escalator (unless you have a free hand, the latter - and the stairs - you will be stopped from using for Health & Safety reasons... so it's elevator or bust if you need both hands to drag your stuff around). Generally, even if Vancouver is your only Canadian stop so Customs happens here as well as Immigration, the delay to deal with CBSA is almost zero - unless you get some secondary questioning, you will at worst hand your customs card to an officer, maybe answer a token random 'why/how long are you visiting Canada?' type question, then walk on. If your customs cards were collected onboard, you may not even see a CBSA person unless you are called on the tannoy to report for a chat. This time of year, I'd be surprised if it takes more than 15-20 minutes to walk off from cabin to curb - if you do the 'have my bags taken off for me' thing then maybe 5 minutes longer at most because if you wait until the end everyone else will have already collected theirs! Unless someone took your bags by mistake, they should be really easy to spot in the various 'corrals' set up for each time-based batch of bags. So if you've seen Vancouver lots before, I'd let Princess do the bag thing for you just so you have a bit more time for a leisurely brekky onboard and less hassle disembarking unencumbered. Everyone, no matter what method, will, start getting reminders to get the heck off the ship at the time of that last timed batch - until every single passenger is physically off the ship cannot let anyone back on, both CBP and CBSA get really picky about this 'zeroing out' process so even folks on a B2B absolutely MUST disembark. If you haven't seen and done it all though, an alternative - walk off in the earliest slot you can get, pay a few bucks to store the big suitcases (Pan Pacific bell staff, and many local stores have cut deals with online luggage storage companies, and every single one of them is cheaper and faster to use than the official pier storage which runs $12 compared to ~$6-10 per bag), and go see some stuff. While I wouldn't shave the airport time super close unless you have Global Entry/NEXUS, I would be 100% comfortable aiming for 90mins predeparture at this time of year - no kids out of school, shoulder season, and even on a multi-ship day it's the folks hitting YVR direct from the pier, 9:30-11am, that cause the really big queues so show up at Noon and everything should be smooth. Prebook your Security slot if you're at all nervous - I'd go for a 12:45pm slot myself with checked bags as you have to drop those at least an hour before your flight. Working backwards, that gives you a 'leave downtown on SkyTrain' time of just before noon as safe - factor in bag retrieval and walk to station, an available sightseeing timeframe of as-early-as-you-can-get-off until as late as 11:30am if you're finishing up anywhere in the downtown core (where a cab ride more than 10mins is basically impossible except in peak commuter rush hours). With 2-3 hours, any one big attraction is doable, or a couple of small ones...

A little late to the party, but I'll back up everything Dennis said above plus give a second-hand review from a couple of folks I was showing around town literally the day of the US-Canada border closure early in the Pandemic. Belmont just slapped a hipster paint job onto an old Comfort without improving anything important. The elevator was so slow that they just walked up to their 3rd floor rooms every time, and while it's perhaps unfair under the very unusual circumstances when these ladies went to the front desk to ask for help while they figured out alternate travel arrangements (supposed to Amtrak to Seattle then fly home after a few days there, which the border closure put the kibosh on), they were happy to sell them another night - at a much increased 'rack rate' price! - but the sum total of their 'help' was to suggest they use the room phone and WiFi to contact airline etc.! I ended up helping them out with their airline and Amtrak myself Given that all hotels, even the good ones, have been struggling to recruit and train staff after the Covid closures, the Belmont is not likely to have improved in any way with customer service, maintenance etc. and they certainly haven't invested any funds in more soundproofing etc. But if you would like to buy cheap stolen bicycle parts, or visit our most historic strip club, you can do the former on the way to the latter at the unofficial bike chopshop in the alley between the two buildings 😉

That sounds about right Hank - given the zero risk of someone who does sneak through being able to use the NEXUS/GE kiosk if they do not have their eye-scan in the system, the folks who 'guard' the entry very rarely demand to carefully examine the card. I recall only once where the CATSA person actually took my card and looked at it closely, every other time it's much more casual - a passing glance at the card in my hand and not even always that. When the "get your cards ready!" verbal warning happens, folks who have one naturally tend to start opening wallets or purses if they don't already have them in-hand. It would be very easy to pretend you have GE just by going through the motions with some other standard size card like a DL and you'd get into the short queue at least 7 times out of 10 - but then you would have a very unpleasant chat with CBP after you were unable to use the kiosk!!!!

It's an 'ask at the time you get accepted' thing, but without a physical card you will NOT be allowed into the short lines at YVR - the folks 'guarding' the entry do not scan passports, so you need to display the card before they will let you enter. I believe you can ask for the card after the fact, but there might be an extra fee to get it now. When you next renew you should be able to get a card without extra charge. I recall several people saying 'back in the day' there was simply a sticker put on the outside of the passport but the cards have been issued for at least a decade, probably a lot longer. re: @Hlitner Hank's experience, the CBP hours are something I warn people with early flights about constantly! Arriving before 5am is pointless unless you need to check a bag (most airlines demand at least 1 hour preflight to check bags out of YVR); when we fly carry-on out of YVR our ideal day is a 6am flight and arrive on the first SkyTrain (5:11am) as the huge backlog of folks waiting for CBP to open can take a half hour to clear - but then it's super fast. But there's no TSA Precheck at YVR Hank - GE does allow access to CATSAs short line though, IF you have your card to show!