How much time to allow at YVR?

We are Americans. We will be disembarking at Canada Place on Friday 5-11-18. We are planning to stay at a hotel near YVR and depart from YVR the next day, Saturday 5-12 at 9:45 am. How much time should we allow at the airport to check in, etc.?

Also...there will be another ship disembarking with us on 5-11. As we will be in no hurry to disembark, will we have any problem getting a cab if we leave with the last group? Will we be able to pay the flat rate to YVR if we are going to a hotel (Pacific Gateway Hotel) nearby.

Thanks for any advice......

If you are not in a rush you will not have a problem getting a taxi. If you have any problems just walk next door the the Pan Pacific.

I would arrive to the airport 2 and 1/2 hours prior to the flight to be on the safe side. You will check in then drop bags off for check in then go through security and then USA immigration.

Keith

First, there's no fixed rate fare TO the airport or any of the hotels there - those only apply for cab rides starting at YVR itself, not hotels, and coming into town. Meter will likely be around CAD$35, same as fixed fare would have been though.

Secondly - for a flight at 9:45am, even if there are three ships in town the next day you will be able to beat every single one of those cruisers. Since weekends mornings don't have any significant commuter flights, you can strip back the padding more. Even without NEXUS/Global Entry, I'd be very comfortable turning up at YVR 2 hours preflight - even the very first folks off the first ship, if it docks promptly and self disembarkation begins at 7:15am will be physically incapable of getting to YVR by any method much before 8am (walking from the ship to the cabs and drive time to the airport still involves at least 35mins, even with zero wait time at customs/immigration and cab queues). If you do have GE/NEXUS then you could show up even later - but anything after 8am and you will start getting that days cruisers arriving so I would not push it any later.

Thirdly - Pacific Gateway is in a terrible location for tourism. It's on Sea Island with the airport, but there are next to no relevant-to-tourists businesses close by and transit links suck. One community shuttle bus does skirt that side of the island and take you to/from Richmond proper, but even then while you increase your dining options your sightseeing remains far away in downtown Vancouver (if you're a Oncer, I suppose Steveston is closer but still ~an hour away by transit). If you're big walkers you can use the bridges but they're very busy with cars all day long - this a very functional, industrial part of Richmond even though there are a few spots on the waterfront with hotels/restos not too far away.

If all you're doing is sleeping there, great, keep the reso - but do yourself a huge favour and don't go to the hotel until after dinner. For maximum convenience, hand your bags over to CDS at the pier and pay them $40 for their 'ship to YVR today' option - that gets up to 4 suitcases sent ($10ea for extras). Both YVR offices stay open until at least 11:30pm, so even after a very late dinner you can collect them then hop on the hotel shuttle. Stay downtown, see the sights, eat and drink, then if you take SkyTrain out to the airport (less than $3pp) you'll pretty much offset the entire bag shipping fee by saving cab fare!

martincath....thanks for your honest and thorough feedback. Are you saying that it would be better to stay in Vancouver overnight after disembarkation rather than near YVR and take a cab the next morning around 7am? We actually just returned from a cruise that started and ended in Vancouver and stayed at the Panny for an unbelievable rate. We loved that location. It would sure be an easy way to go.

My husband and I live in a small town in Oregon and to be honest, big cities like Vancouver make us nervous. Fortunately you Canadian neighbors are so friendly and helpful.

Absotively, 100%, if it's within your budget downtown is the place to be. Not sure how much time you spent on the last visit, so whether or not you actually wandered around downtown much or just stayed over and headed for the airport early again, but from a convenience perspective 95% of all the popular touristy things are either in downtown or have a shuttle from there. Take a cab at 7am and you'll beat all the cruisers to YVR no problem.

I get the hesitation about being somewhere unfamiliar - I grew up in a village that had ten houses if you included the blacksmith and the nearest farm, so any place with streetlamps was 'big city' to me back in the day! - but this is by far the nicest, most soul-restoring place I've ever lived as it perfectly balances urban conveniences with accessible natural beauty, clean & safe transit & streets, and of course Canadian niceness.

Vancouver is more of a joined-up series of smaller towns than some huge scary metropolis - even in the heart of the downtown core, with skyscrapers all around, you can see the North Shore mountains along virtually every North/South street and little nooks & crannies offer small parks all over the place even if you ignore the obvious biggies like Stanley, Queen Lizzie etc. The Seawall is an absolute delight, and I think we have more miles of bike paths per capita than anywhere else on the continent - go and Google 'Vancouverism' and you'll find out why this whole genre of people-first urban planning is named after us!

The bad stuff is way more relevant to locals than visitors - outrageously expensive housing, homelessness, and the associated drugs & booze & property crime & prostitution is something that impacts us Vancouverites but despite all of that we probably have lower incidence of crime against persons downtown than you do in your teeny-tiny Wild West town;-)

martincath....thank you so much...I trust your opinion completely. We stayed two nights in Vancouver before our last cruise two weeks ago. We stayed two nights because the Panny had a cruise special rate of $139 USD per night and that included the wonderful buffet breakfast! We were upgraded to a harbor view room.

This time we will pay more for the Pan Pacific, our choice, as it is at the start of the Alaska cruises. We will be returning from Hawaii. Fortunately it is within our budget and we will gladly pay for convenience, which to us is an affordable luxury. It will give us an opportunity to think about a return visit to the aquarium, it has been many years since we were there.

I enjoyed reading your story/description of Vancouver.

Again....your feedback has really helped. Thank You.

Glad to help. The PP is ideal for shuttles to the North Shore (Capilano bridge, Grouse mountain) and of course the nice views and unbeatable convenience coming or going to your ship, but there are other more convenient hotels for sightseeing - without the premium that the PPs location usually incurs. For example, Blue Horizon has shuttle stops right outside too, is tall enough that their view rooms offer an even more expansive vista than the PP, is closer to Stanley Park/the aquarium, and has even more resto & shopping options within the immediate area.

If the views aren't a big deal to you, then the newest Hilton family Blu (nextdoor to the Hampton Inn, within a block of from YWCA, Georgian Court, Sandman, Rosedale) seems to be getting great reviews from folks who stay there - the advantage to this part of downtown is the easy walk into Yaletown, Gastown, Chinatown. L'Hermitage - which has been pretty much the best reviewed hotel in the city since it opened - is another definite candidate if your budget is at PP level. It's a few blocks further up Robson from Blu/Hampton, which moves it away from the foot traffic of BC Place stadium (and I believe preferential seating at brekky in Medina downstairs is available - with no resos and a normal weekend wait time of over an hour for even a two-top, that's a very useful perk to access the finest breakfast in the city).

If you can get a steal of a rate like last time, grab the PP again by all means - but with rooms that can break the $500 mark and very rarely seem to drop under $300 in peak cruise season, you could end up saving enough to pay for a VERY nice dinner nightly if you consider other options... but if you're happy to keep your budget at PP level, you might also consider the various Fairmont hotels (the Pacific Rim is far and away the newest and swankiest hotel near the pier, the Waterfront offers much the same conveniences as the PP like bell staff taking luggage to the ship, and the 'original' - actually the third - Hotel Vancouver has many years more history than most, plus is the only Fairmont in Vancouver built in the old Canadian Pacific railway hotel style) or for you perhaps the Westin Bayshore (the closest nice hotel to Stanley Park, and while unfortunately they got rid of their awesomely cheesy tiki hut resto the Howard Hughes connection is still a nice tidbit of Vancouver history).

As a local I haven't actually stayed in any of these (we used the YWCA on our visit years ago before moving - if you want to plough your whole hotel budget into dining and sightseeing instead I heartily recommend the Y!) but my wife's colleagues & clients are always put up in the 4* & better hotels around downtown; almost all of them think l'Hermitage is the bees knees, there are a couple who insist on the historic vibe of the Vancouver, and none of them have ever wanted to go back to the PP (not that it sucks, but their rep is strongly built on their location - their service across the board doesn't seem to quite hit the heights of the comparably-priced Fairmonts, 4 Seasons, Westins etc. so for non-cruisers it seems to lose enough value that it never wins).

Thank you for all of those recommendations. I have copied off your list and will look into some of them.

We don't need nor desire a swanky dinner after being on a 12 day cruise. When we stayed at PP this month we walked over to the Happy Hour at Mahoney & Sons and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Loved the ambience. We don't have anything like that where we live.

I also have to think of our energy level as we are seniors and the day before we arrive in Vancouver we will have a full day in Victoria and want to spend some time downtown. On previous visits we have always ended up at Bushard Gardens as we never get tired of that place. I have told my husband that I want our backyard to look like BG but so far that has not happened.

Any further resto reccos from me might be less than useful as I find Mahoneys to be among the worst of the many Fake Oirish Bars in the city;-) Rather than spending hotel savings on the kind of restos I like to blow my money on, you could use it for taxi fare to QEP (~$20-25 each way) if you don't feel up to navigating our transit system (which is very good, and fully-integrated with Google Maps). A sensible compromise might be using SkyTrain and then calling a cab to/from the nearest station (King Edward on the Canada Line - same one that goes out to the airport) to avoid worrying about bus transfers, walking up a pretty steep hill etc.

While not as extensive as the quarry garden at Butchart, QEP does have two of them (one with a lovely waterfall that's usually queued up with bridal parties for photos, and the other right below Seasons resto - which has the best views in Vancouver as it's on the highest point looking across downtown and over to the mountains) and the big win compared to Butchart is the price - free! There's also a large arboretum, lawns etc., plus the ~$6pp Bloedel Conservatory (a domed tropical garden with loads of interesting birds - discounted tix available for this and the very close by VanDusen Botanical Garden if you are not already 'gardened-out!')

More convenient downtown gardens include Stanley Park's rose garden and rhododendrons (walk from the aquarium - you're almost certainly too early for the park shuttle to be running yet), and the absolutely superb Dr Sun Yat-Sen traditonal Scholar's garden in Chinatown. If you're not sure how much you like this style of garden, the free public park nextdoor shares the same pond (and carp) but is built with less authentic materials. It's still a very nice spot - I like to eat lunch in the gazebo when I'm out & about.

Edit - sounds like you are skipping Butchart this time in order to do more time in Victoria itself? Royal BC Museum is absolutely world-class, if parliament is open the free tours of that are excellent too. Lots of nice parks & gardens in Victoria too - Beacon Hill's a good freebie, Abkhazi has a nice tearoom, and if you're lucky Hatley Castle might be offering tours rather than just wandering-around for your ticket price. Hatley is the one that actually looks castle-y, while the poorly-named Craigdarroch 'castle' is a Scottish Baronial manor (with some great stained glass and period furnishings).

martincath....thank you for the great information, especially on Victoria.

We are planning to go to Stanley Park the day we disembark, so will have plenty of time there. We plan on seeing the aquarium and would love to see the rose garden you mention. We are planning to take a taxi and are willing to pay the price for the convenience. The problem is that my online research seems to indicate that taxis are not readily available for the return trip back to town. I have contacted the aquarium and received an auto reply that they will be back to me within 48 hrs.

Is there a "shuttle" to the park or are you thinking of the HOHO? We have done the HOHO twice and would really like to spend our time at the park.

martincath....thank you for the great information, especially on Victoria.

We are planning to go to Stanley Park the day we disembark, so will have plenty of time there. We plan on seeing the aquarium and would love to see the rose garden you mention. We are planning to take a taxi and are willing to pay the price for the convenience. The problem is that my online research seems to indicate that taxis are not readily available for the return trip back to town. I have contacted the aquarium and received an auto reply that they will be back to me within 48 hrs.

Is there a "shuttle" to the park or are you thinking of the HOHO? We have done the HOHO twice and would really like to spend our time at the park.

The shuttle I mentioned is a 'mini HOHO' that just runs around the park itself (15 different spots, so at least twice as many as the full HOHO routes cover) so it's no use for getting to or from the park. It's run by the same folks as the Trolley HOHO, and while the start date has been very variable it's never been before June that I'm aware of - if it is on, take it because for $10pp it's simply outstanding value for the convenience.

You're right that taxis don't tend to lurk in the park - in peak season maybe a few here and there, but mid-May you would be much better advised to call one (IIRC there are phones at the aquarium if you don't have a cellphone with Canadian coverage). Maps of the park are on the link I posted above, and it also lists the shuttle and carriage rides (another way to see the park without having to walk). Google Maps aren't much use as many of the walking trails are not covered once you get off the Seawall itself, so going old school with a printout of the park map and paying attention to the signposts is still the way to go if you're on foot - or just ask anyone who doesn't look like a tourist!

If you can both ride, bike rentals are by far the best way to see Stanley - you can go anywhere that you can walk but with less energy. Even if you can't ride, there are tandems if one of you can, adult tricycles if balance is an issue, and electric bikes if you want to avoid burning too many calories. It's all separated bike lanes so no cars to worry about - although plenty of pedestrians wander across the bike lanes regardless of how many signs there are about not doing it! Speed limit 15km/h, a touch under 10mph, so it's leisure cycling not racing - and actual enforcement of the limit gets done now & again by the local mounted police, who have their stables inside the park. If you get reeeeaaaaalll lucky you'll be able to see a cop on a horse chasing a guy on a bike which ranks right up there with the best police chases you can see (only the camel cops I saw chasing an scammer at Giza were more entertaining to observe!)

Martincath’s advice is spot on as usual.

I’ll add that I frequently find excellent rates at the Pinnacle Harbourside, a few blocks from the PP and various Fairmont properties, and have been staying there as a satisfied guest for 30 years under at least three banners (Holiday Inn, Renaissance, Pinnacle). It’s a pleasant walk to and from the cruise terminal with rolling luggage.

I would have zero hesitation taking an early cab to YVR from downtown bright and early - so I don’t want to derail that plan. However, I’m also an enthusiastic supporter of dining in the Richmond area near the airport the night before your flight - I love the Chinese food of the area, and have been known to stay at a couple of the hotels out there that offer airport shuttle service. Specifically, though, I would avoid both the Pacific Gateway and the Westin Wall Centre as they are in the comparative middle of nowhere. I usually frequent the Sheraton, Hilton or Marriott for these trips, and they’re all strollable from dining.

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Thirdly - Pacific Gateway is in a terrible location for tourism. It's on Sea Island with the airport, but there are next to no relevant-to-tourists businesses close by and transit links suck. One community shuttle bus does skirt that side of the island and take you to/from Richmond proper, but even then while you increase your dining options your sightseeing remains far away in downtown Vancouver (if you're a Oncer, I suppose Steveston is closer but still ~an hour away by transit). If you're big walkers you can use the bridges but they're very busy with cars all day long - this a very functional, industrial part of Richmond even though there are a few spots on the waterfront with hotels/restos not too far away.

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Pacific Gateway is a reasonable hotel to stay at. There is a hotel shuttle is every 20 minutes that takes you between the main airport terminal (served by skytrain).

That said, downtown is a better location for touring around. If your not looking looking to do the tourist thing and just want a good hotel that is convenient for the next mornning I would do the Gateway.