martincath

Yup, you got it, and thanks for reporting back on your experience - may I ask what time you traveled at? That rate seems remarkably low with yesterday being our local Marathon! Street access to the pier was more limited than usual so us locals had been warning folks to expect higher fares (well, not for the fixed rate cabs from YVR obviously, but for all other car based travel yesterday morning at least!)

Concur, this really comes down to 'which boat do you want to be on?' rather than 'is any company better than another at finding whales?' As to Orcas, unlike the visiting baleen whales our Resident pods are struggling to maintain population - so between that and more humpies and grays deciding to hang out locally all summer, our local operators now also primarily visit the latter groups and leave the Orcas alone unless they just happen to be passing (there's also a legal issue of giving Orcas significantly more space than other species - folks onboard have anecdotally been complaining that at 400metres they can 'hardly see' the Orcas... while they can still approach to within 100m of other species - 200m if they have calves, or for Sustainable whalewatch certified companies once they confirm Orcas are Biggs' or Northern Residents rather than the Southern pods. Happy pax tip more, so the closer the experience the more cash the folks aboard make...)

We run booze rules provincially rather than country-wide here, and compared to most of the rest of Canada and the US BC is frankly insane when it comes to booze laws. Even when I moved here from Ontario I was floored by how ludicrous the rules were - and while a few of them have been relaxed since (enabling you to actually drink beer in a brewery for example, which wasn't legal until less than a decade ago!!!) licensing remains absolutely brutal. Speaking as an expat who was a CAMRA member at 18, tended bar for years, has various qualifications that require at least a basic understanding of the booze laws of multiple jurisdictions, I can say hands-down that even the most ridiculous rules of Scots law as applied to Public Houses are trivial compared to how BC operates all of its 'Sindustries'! The good news on the kids angle is that there are very few bars in Vancouver, legally-speaking. The overwhelming majority operate under a Restaurant license, which means that management can choose to allow kids (during limited hours and only in certain seats) - so the short answer is that if you want to bring your kids anywhere for lunch or dinner, there's a very good chance it will be allowed... but you literally have to check with every establishment, since just because they can allow kids doesn't mean they have to or will. Folks with a resto license must make a certain % of their income from food/soft drinks or else they are heavily penalized right up to potentially losing their license - so it's actually a good thing for them when kids come in because they only consume stuff that counts toward the minimum % to retain their license! But some management feel like if they let kids in it puts off the boozehounds who want to get sloppy drunk and swear at sportsball on TV - so they may be happy to see kids for lunch, but set an early cutoff for when families have to mosey on home... Basically, if you're out and about rather than booking in advance the most efficient tool at your disposal is the good old Mark I Eyeball - see another family already seated, enjoying a meal? Kids are probably OK at that time (unless that fam just squeezed in under the 'last orders for kids' line). If you're booking in advance, email or call to verify what the deal is with kids. If you want a patio, then you will never be able to actually book a table on one of those (they are always 'first come, first served' to maximise utilisation) but still, check in advance on the kids policy. I'm fairly certain that all T&B locations use a Restaurant-primary license, allow kids to come in with adults for lunch or dinner (IIRC 9pm is the latest legal cutoff time for Minors), and only ban them from sitting at the bar (which usually includes high-top tables near the bar - if there's a room divider separating high and low seat areas that is almost always a good indicator of the 'no kids' zone) but I don't have kids so it's honestly not a thing I pay much attention to.

FROM the airport, fixed rates zones to literally everywhere in Vancouver - if your hotel is one of the ones right next to the pier, same price; virtually all other downtown hotels, including all on Robson, are in the $37 zone. Every cab has to have a copy available, but you can peruse in advance on YVRs website (rates should remain in place this summer, as they last went up Oct '23). The fixed rate to go from the pier TO the airport is a relatively recent change, and only applies from the pier itself. Taxifarefinder is generally pretty accurate in Vancouver outside rush hour - but note that a) it does not factor in fixed fare zones here, and b) the 'sticker price' also includes a 15% assumed tip.

You can get Ubers at the airport - there's a designated rideshare pickup, just like there's one for cabs and for limos - but as noted already pricing is often significantly worse than a cab due to Surge. The route from airport to pier is fixed rate in cabs both ways these days - CAD$41. Even with a generous 20% tip, nobody should be handing over more than US$37ish - and the only legal additional fee is for stops en route, nothing extra allowed for bags, number of people etc. In theory a non-surge Uber will run a bit less than this - but they have fees which do not apply to cabs (because they break the law which requires Accessible vehicles, every ride effectively pays a small fine) so even though the per-mile rates are lower short rides around town are usually more expensive by rideshare - it takes over a mile of driving to hit break even, and about 80% of our downtown hotels are within a mile of the pier!

For maximum simplicity and convenience, I'd store the bags with the bell staff of the Pan Pacific right above the pier. That way you have a 'one-stop shop' - somewhere that will call you a cab if there isn't one already waiting, that's at street level so you can call and Uber/Lyft if you wish (they're not allowed to pick up inside the terminal), and that you can repeat the above again when you want to go to YVR. From the PP to Prince of Whales may run close to $20 on the meter, because you might hit a bit of commuter traffic and road access is very indirect (despite the name, it's not actually an island but only has access from the south side of False Creek so you either overshoot on Granville bridge or go a roundabout way via the other bridges, and driving on GI is always painfully slow - lots of pedestrians! On the way back, maybe a bit less depending on time of day/traffic. Uber will likely be about the same if not Surge - it actually costs more to get in a rideshare than a cab, they have extra fees that cabs are not subject to, so even though the 'per mile' rate usually runs less it takes a couple of miles to actually see any savings so the differences would be marginal on a ride within downtown like this. I'd check Uber if you're used to using it - see how long the app says the nearest car is, and if there isn't a cab visible then weight up the wait time! The bus isn't just cheap, but also pretty convenient - as long as your sis can walk/roll along flat sidewalks it might be quite doable evewn if she's slow (disembark even as late as 9am, whalewatch 10am, bus would be ~30mins total incl walk time at regular 3mph walking speed). The 50 runs from <400yds away from the pier, to as close as possible to GI without actually getting on it (map from the stop to PoW office on Duranleau - slightly further than pier to bus stop) GI is also a good spot to do a bit of souvenir shopping before or after your whalewatch, and has a plethora of dining options - from sweet treats, sammiches and deli food to take aboard for lunch, to a sitdown steak dinner afterward, it covers the bases well. Depending what time you book the boat at, you might even have time to do a little minicruise - a cab to e.g. Davie Marina is a much shorter ride than going over the bridges, and you can hop on a water taxi. Price would likely be in the same ballpark as cabbing all the way, maybe $8 for the cab but then 2 tix on Aquabus or False Creek Ferries probably $3-6 each (various ticket prices based on distance, but decent Senior discounts).

During cruise season hours are extended in many shops in downtown Victoria, to squeeze as many pennies as possible from all you wealthy visitors! Even now, with retail staff harder than ever to recruit and hours correspondingly reduced, the stalls in The Bay Centre - which include Purdy's, a very Canadian chocolatier - stay open until 7pm at least a couple of nights a week. Not sure of your exact date in Vic, but they do give a detail list of hours on this page - you can click through fortnightly right through the season to see exactly what the hours will be on your date. Worst case, hit up a supermarket to buy a bunch of treats that are tricky to find in the USA but normal up here - Coffee Crisps, Kinder Eggs, weird flavours of chips. Just eat the Kinder Eggs before re-entering the states - big fines get issued every year to folks unaware of the FDAs 'no inedible items inside food' rules!

Welcome to posting! Note that if you want to 'ping' someone, you need to type the @ symbol - once you do that, a little popup should appear with a list of names that gets smaller as you type each letter of their handle - and when you see the name you want, click it and you should see their name formatted in a blue bubble (example - I have addressed this post directly to you @1nolaguy so your name appears in a blue bubble, confirming I selected it correctly) If you are comfortable moving yourselves and all your bags at least 400 yards without using a porter or an airport trolley, SkyTrain should work for you. If not, take a cab - they're much pricer for two people but are at least fixed rate and significantly cheaper than cruise transfers! $41 is the current rate to the pier from YVR, or vice versa (in CAD, so tip as you would at home for a cab but expect total cost to be about 75% of equivalent USD). SkyTrain does have multiple exit points - coming in from YVR it's best to board the back of the train, which means when you walk off you should see signs pointing you up to Granville Street conveniently close. There's an elevator right up to street level - and from here, it's DOWNhill to the pier! Not steep, but every little helps! Map from that specific entrance to the pier here. Check out Google's Streetview too, it makes it easier to follow a route if you have already virtually 'walked' it! If you're heading downhill, and can see mountains and water ahead of you, you're almost certainly going the right way! If you're feeling good about roling those bags along, you can even walk down a ramp (same one the cars use, very obvious, but with a proper separated sidewalk) directly to the parking level. While it appears this year there's a new system enabling you to drop bags at street level just inside the convention hall, if you arrive early (<10am) you will almost certainly still have to go down to P2 to drop bags so the ramp is a handy shortcut.

Frankly I recommend against this tour even for able-bodied folks due to insufficient time at the sites; while Capilano can be just about squeezed into the time available if you hustle, Grouse is massive with various timed events like a Raptor show, so unless you have 4-6 hours free you simply cannot see everything and this tour will give you at most 3 hours on-site. Someone who needs a walking aid will have many issues getting around (Grouse is not level, paths are uneven, gravel, woodchip) making the value for them significantly worse, and it's already weak. The hatchery itself should be easily navigated, but the trails around here are even less developed than Grouse or Cap, so pootling about to view the dam isn't on the cards - and I always feel including this free government run place is a bit cheeky instead of simply spending the same length of tour but giving people an extra hour+ at Grouse! Whalewatching can be done easily though - either by bus from downtown to Steveston or else from Granville Island. The latter gives you more time on the water (tours run 3-5hrs, if you spot whales early they'll return at about the 3 hour mark but if the whales are further out you'll get the full 5), and effectively a free 'city tour' as generally the boats from GI still head out into the same waters that the Steveston boats visit. All the local companies offer the same guarantee (whale sighting or free tours for life until you do see one) - Prince of Whales run some bigger cats, seating up to 95, while Wild Whales operate 12 seater Zodiacs (not a good idea if your sister has any kind of back issue, very bouncy ride!) and smaller 30ish pax cats, pricing is also a little less with WW. Steveston trips are a bit cheaper - but if you add on the per person extra charge for a bus ride, it's pretty much a wash. So assuming you're comfortable on a boat for most of the day, storing bags downtown, taking a whalewatch from Granville Island, dinner downtown, then retrieve bags and head to YVR would be a nice way to fill a day IMO. Also note that CBP have extended their operating hours at YVR, now listing a finish time of 11:30pm daily instead of 8:30pm! That means even the later of your two redeyes should now benefit from prescreening, so you'll get your customs & immigration done here instead of having to wait forever at understaffed US airports in the wee small hours at your first stop south of the border. Note that if you had planned to be three hours early for flight 1 you probably will not be allowed to drop bags for flight 2 (there's limited space for prescreening luggage, so while evenings are less busy I would still not be at all surprised if they enforce the 'no bag drop more than 3 hours in advance' policy) so if you want to go through Security together and hang out until flight 1, any earlier than 8:45pm risks one of you being forced to wait outside Security... I would recommend prebooking your Security slots, so you can definitely both get into the short queue if you do need to wait until 8:45pm (it's free, do it any time up to 72hrs in advance), and then get there a little earlier - if they let you drop both bags at say 8pm, great, but if not you can risk both waiting outside Security until you can drop the second bag without worrying about a long wait for the Security check. Personally I would also request assistance for your Sis at the airport - a wheelchair and pusher might seem overkill if she can move around with a rollator, but there's often a long walk to the gate so take advantage of the offered services!

All of the above sites are usually correct, but involve manual retrieval of info from the definitive guides to what's in port, and that's the official timetable that each port produces. Just like Wikipedia they're absolutely worth checking, often add some more info about things to do, but if you want to be certain of accuracy - original sources are the only way to avoid errors creeping in. When it comes to Vancouver, CruiseTT in particular has been wrong more times than I can count, and at best runs days behind updates to the official info - which are issued several times during the season as e.g. Princess remember that they can't still fit Royal class ships under the bridge except at low tide, finally check the tide schedules (which are available over a year in advance from the Canadian government so there's absolutely no need for such deliberate incompetence), and request revised port times as little as a month ahead of each departure... So rather than just attaching a copy of the most recent timetable, I'll point you to the page where you can always find the most up-to-date version. Bookmark that second page and you'll always be able to find the most up-to-date info (well, until the port revamps their website again in a few years - there's always a Cruise-related page though, with the timetable somewhere on it, but the last change was quite recent and moved the link right up near the top to make it easier to find).

Poutine is one of those things that one mans 'Best Ever' is another mans 'Meh' - even if you keep it to relatively old school fries/curds/gravy bitter arguments ensue about which gravy and how thick the fries should be (although when it comes to cheese curds, fresh and squeaky has no argument as the only authentic option)! If you don't already have a stance on what's best, then honestly Costco is as good as anywhere for a straightforward, no-frills poutine to introduce you to the concept; you don't even have to be a member to order it (food court in Vancouver is outside the store) and one $6 portion easily feeds 2+ people, even if you don't bother with the Polish Dog (which you should!) - two people, plenty full, for <$10? Best food deal in the city... If you've already had regular poutine and want to try some weirder combos, then I think La Belle Patate has the widest menu of options (as well as flying in fresh curds from Quebec, so as authentic as it gets here too for the basics, so if you're looking for one place to try different things this would be it).

Unless you've booked a private guide who insists on cash, a few bucks for cash tips to hotel bellstaff and the like is the only thing most tourists need physical money for. We may actually have more 'no cash' than 'cash only' restos downtown these days! I can think of a few spots that are Interac (Canadian Debit) and Cash only - so for tourists from outside Canada de facto cash places - but they're cheap so $200 is already ample!!!

Sorry, as a diabetic I rarely buy baked treats so I'm a poor resource to compare and contrast bakeries, except the odd niche item (for example if I'm here on my birthday rather than in Portland, my annual donut cheat is a Swiss Bakery Frissant - basically the same concept as Dominique Ansel's Cronuts that were all the rage back in the day, croissant dough fried up with rotating fillings & glazes). I've tried a few of the downtown & GI bakeries now and again, but not often or widely enough to give a fair comparative critique that X or Y is best. A few other tidbits for you though: if you're a traditional jelly donut person, Lee's in the Public Market on GI are genuinely great... but not so great as to be worth queuing more than a few minutes for, they've been overhyped for several years now ever since Seth Rogen name-dropped them. If you're going to be on GI anyway you may as well see what the queue looks like (they have their own 'holding pen' outside the market on Johnston St where folks are asked to wait until waved in through the window, as the queues were wreaking havoc with the interior flow!) Another local fave on the baked goods front, which may be of interest because it's different from the typical Western fare, is New Town Bakery (in Chinatown) - their apple tarts are the 'world famous' thing that most tourists who hear about the place go for, and they are very nice (not a tart in the traditional sense at all, more of a bun shape with fully enclosed filling in the middle - sort of what a McDonalds apple pie wishes it could be!) but everyone I know who is from, or lived in, China feels they do savoury better - the filled steamed buns and the pineapple buns are the best things they make (don't go for lunch - the dim sum is meh and some baked goods have already sold out by then, and it's a cash only joint). Lastly, when it comes to Canada's contribution to baked goods, Butter Tarts should not be missed. They're more of an Ontario thing, but they're a bit like pizza in that even a bad one is still pretty good, and a six-pack from a supermarket bakery is plenty good enough to let you see if the concept works for your palate - if they're not your thing, no need to spend the big bucks hunting down artisanal versions all over town! Nanaimo bars aren't baked (a classic refrigerator 'bake'), but they're probably BCs most famous contribution to the world of sweet treats - again, try a supermarket bakery for a basic version but GI has a wacky artisanal shop these days (Northern Bar) that sells teeny squares for triple the price with some fancy flavours added. If you're Costco members you can often find giant packages of both of these in the bakery oif the downtown Expo Blvd branch!

On GI, seafoody but a little swankier, I'd go to the Vancouver Fish Company; while the menu tightened up during Covid, it's still fairly broad. If you'd be fine with casual but want a wider menu than GoFish and indoor seating, Tony's might deliver - most stuff still comes out of the fryer, but a way bigger menu with much more shellfish. In Yaletown you have a plethora of options including the best seafood resto in the city in Blue Water Cafe (if you want to have a splurge seafood dinner, but not everyone would be happy with a sushi/sashimi menu, BWC is the place to go); if everyone would be on board with an all-Japanese, no menu, definitely some raw fish, Omakase experience you can visit one of our Michelin starred joints, Okeya; Rodneys Oyster House sells a fair whack of not-oyster dishes too; and while it's not a seafood joint as such, I have a soft spot for the Flying Pig which offers several shellfish and fish dishes at a good value pricepoint especially during 'Appy Hours' daily.

Seems like I'm even more out of the loop than I thought on WJ, thanks for further correction!