martincath

First, kudos on bothering to check the rules in your multiple-jurisdiction trip; secondly, I'm attempting extremely careful wording here, to avoid any 'bad parent!' inference (for context, my own parents must have been pure evil by modern standards because not only did I never have any kind of kid seat at any age, I often didn't even have a seat at all - rode in the trunk of a station-wagon regularly aged ~6-10!) so please read with that in mind! While I think it's unlikely you will have any legal issues with the booster, if you still have the prior seat type you used for DD and she doesn't exceed the weight limit of that (and it hasn't expired etc.) it would be less likely to cause problems here as well as being safer for DD. Unfortunately there is no practical way to be totally in compliance with the law when driving yourself out of Skagway, or any other cross-border drive - if you install a Canadian-spec seat you're breaking AK rules even though our testing is more stringent, and a US seat that doesn't also have the Canadian National Safety Mark proving it was tested and approved for use here (plus labels in both English and French) becomes a problem when you hit the border. Short of pulling over between the 'Welcome To <Insert Here>' signs and swapping a US seat for a Canadian one you're always technically in breach! I've actually spoken to both local, WA and Oregon cops about this exact topic - my sister brought her infant son to visit us, he turned one while here, and she initially wanted to spend some time in Portland as well as Vancouver so I did all sorts of research into what the heck I needed to do to keep tiny nephew safe and legally drive him around - so anecdotally as long as a cop doesn't look at your car and immediately think 'That kid does not appear safe!' it's very unlikely they will ask to check the safety markings on the seat for compliance with local jurisdictions, or the exact height or weight your child. But a rear vs. a front facing seat, or a booster vs. either, are very obvious at a glance - so if you bring a seat that looks like the right kind of seat Canadian LEOs expect to see a kid of DDs size in, whatever your small risk of hassle is with the Booster will drop even lower. On the other hand, we also have the (isane IMO) fact that you can just stick the kid in the back of a Cabuber here in BC using the adult belt perfectly legally (we have a 'professional driver' exemption to car seat rules; Uberlyft drivers need the same 'pro' driving license as cabbies), but if you installed your US booster seat it would not be legal despite obviously improving safety compared to no kid seat at all... so sometimes the law is indeed an ass, and you just have to do the best you can! TL;DR: bring the right kind of seat if you can rather than a booster, even if it's still not a Canadian-tested one, because a 'real' seat is less likely to cause any problems... but even your booster will probably go entirely unremarked upon by authorities in BC or Yukon.

There's one immediate mistake that can be easily made - entering at the super obvious street level escalator/stairs on Howe, just outside the pier. While this does get you into the correct station, it puts you on the wrong platform - and making your way to the correct one inside involves multiple changes of level which, even if you spot all the signage and don't go astray in this rabbit warren of an old building with a staggered floor levels, a commuter railway, two light rail lines, the Seabus and even a sneaky backdoor way to the Helijet landing pad, will take you quite a bit longer than just sticking to the sidewalk, hanging a left on Cordova and then entering the front doors (very obvious, big pillars and multiple doors, and the correct platform access is immediately below you with the bonus of an elevator to the platform if you have too many bags to use an escalator). At less than 400yards (even downhill a bit!), you will walk further in YVR on arrival than you do to get to Waterfront from the pier, so unless you need porters to handle bags for you every time you use an airport it's definitely feasible with luggage (just do try to put your bags under your seat - if the train's half empty it doesn't really matter, but blocking aisles or seats with luggage is a no-no from a common-sense perspective as well as against transit bylaws). If you're over 65, or have kids in the group, take a couple of minutes to use a ticket vending machine - this lets you access Concession tickets for 13-18, 65+ (kids 12 and under are free) and save about a buck a person. If it's a weekday, you'll need a 2 zone ticket - weekends, 1 zone across the whole system. If you're all adults, then don't even bother getting tickets - everyone pull any tappable smartphone out, or a tappable Visa/MC card, and just tap the fare gate. As long as you use the same card/device to tap back out, all the math gets done for you to calculate Zones. Foreign cards work fine, even without a PIN, as long as the chip has the wee WiFi logo next to it. If you get actual tickets, same deal - tap them on the gates and don't throw them away as you have to tap back out again!

Thanks for clarifying that you actually saw it signed that way - that's great news for all the TSA Pre folks! I haven't flown through YVR since the expanded CBP hours started this year, so maybe this addition happened at the same time - there's also been some CATSA piloted 'make life easier for everyone' changes spreading across the country, so maybe TSA Pre getting added to the list came from our side... Hmm - now I think about it, whyever it happened this is actually a terrible change because now I'll have more people also entitled to 'my' short queue!!!! 😉

And that's great for an earlier flight, although they are priced far higher than any other local bag storage place, and have the shortest hours, so they're worthless for folks with a redeye despite being right there as oyou disembark - the PP will hold any size of bag a full day for $10 vs. limited hours for $13+... They do cut the cost if you book one of their own tours, so someone who can conveniently collect bags before 5pm and plans to take HOHO or a Grayline coach tour pays a perfectly reasonable price, but their pricing relies on the ignorance of the average cruiser (the prior franchisees charged $8 for a big bag, WestCoast jacked it up to $12 as soon as they took over, and that was pre-Covid) - only folks who query CC, Tripadvisor and similar fora will discover the PP which is in the same building, so you may carry bags a little further getting off the ship but that's more than canceled out by picking them up right at street level again instead of having to return inside the pier building for collection and walk the same distance an extra time.

Considering that there is no TSA in Canada, only CBP, either you had 'short queue' privilege for other reasons (e.g. First Class, YVR Express booking) or got very lucky with the CATSA agent manning the short queue failing to spot your card was TSA Pre rather than GE! I've had a similar lucky happenstance at Heathrow, asking whether my NEXUS card (which includes both GE and TSA Pre privileges) was any use yet (I had heard from a family member who headed up security at Manchester that the UK was in negotiations to add Preclearance to several airports - ended up being offered the chance to join the UKs equivalent of Global entry a while later via NEXUS membership but as a separately paid for thing) and both times was waved through even though I technically shouldn't have been!

Missed this first time around - I think you've had almost all the bases covered by other posters, except to store bags downtown rather than at the airport. Cancel the transfers, unless you take them right after disembarking you can't use them at all, and use that money to pay for at least some of your activities. Heading to YVR twice wastes over an hour of your valuable time AND extra money though (unless you do buy a Day Pass, you'll at least have to pay for SkyTrain out & back, which is somewhere in the US$2ishto3ish ballpark pp, and more expensive than the price savings of storing a bag at YVR [CAD$8 last time I looked] instead of at the pier [the Pan Pacific hotel will hold nonguests bags for CAD$10ea]). If you can self-disembark, and don't hire porters at airports, then you can easily use SkyTrain - it's less than 400 yards from pier to Waterfront Station (and even a little downhill!) on Cordova St, and the traisn themselves have loads of space for bags under every seat and can be rolled onto even with the wee suitcase wheels easily. Do note that CBP Preclearance hours were extended this year - so your flight is almost certainly going to be precleared as they now work until 11:30pm! This does save you time overall, but means that you do need a bit of extra time at YVR for the extra step. Arriving 2 hours early for a redeye should still be plenty though, even if you are nervous travelers - you can prebook a timeslot at Security for free on the day (or up to 72hrs in advance if you have internet aboard ship or in a previous port within the timeframe), and if you have Global Entry or NEXUS (not TSA Pre!) you can also show those cards to get into the short queue and dedicated kiosk line for Preclearance, as well as the short queue for Security with no need to prebook. So personally, if you've never been before, I'd stash your bags and start queuing for the first HOHO bus (starts at 9am, you want to be among at least the first 50 people though so be 15mins early!), pootle around town with some informative commentary getting off and on as you like, then when the HOHO stops running (never late than 6pm) that's perfect for grabbing dinner, then collecting bags and heading out to YVR. If you can't schlep your bags around by yourselves, you can access fixed-price cabs from the pier to the airport as well as the other direction these days, so as long as you so stash bags at the PP you can reliably pay CAD$41 for a taxi - but by ~8pm you could honestly just let the meter run and pay more like $35, or take a rideshare for probably closer to $30 as long as no Surge applies... Either way, it's a massive discount compared to the Princess-and-others packaging of bag storage, a HOHO ticket, and a SkyTrain ticket for what folks are saying is US$160 this season - depending how many big bags you stash, you could be paying significantly less than half that much per person by SkyTrain, or still well under $100pp if you chose to go by cab at the end of the day (4 of you? Splitting the cab part drops this down to within about $5 of SkyTrain pricing!)

Ouch! Airports Manager Australia and New Zeland? In what's probably the standard template this guy has on all his outgoing letters since whenever? That's gotta sting for any Kiwis getting similar notification!!! Glad you had an easy trip otherwise, and made use of your time here for more than just the cruise - look forward to seeing what else you got up to!

Honestly, when it comes to waterproofing a pair of pants either buy them made that way or else buy a dirt-cheap pair of plasticky over-pants - the bits which move the most are the bits which are hardest to keep sufficient coating on, and while I don't want to fall foul of CCs naughty language no-no list I'm sure you get the idea that having dry calves really doesn't matter if your underoos are damp from rain sneaking in around a seam, shall we say - further up? But if you've got a good waterproof jacket that hangs low enough to mean you're really only worried about say mid-thigh or lower - and note that you should check coverage when sitting, as in my experience it's things like being on a small boat taking pics of whales during liquid sunshine when you're unable to hold a brolly or reposition a coat because your hands are on a camera or binocs that are when your legs get the most rained on! - then I've had good luck over decades with Nikwax products.

You should be able to check your bags on arrival no problem since you're leaving same day; the big issue on checked bags is being too late to check them (I've watched multiple people be turned away who did not meet the cap of at least 45mins before departure). On the dining front, I'm not a great source of recommendations for you between not having dined in Seattle since Covid and not paying attention to kid-friendliness of menus in general, but if you check the recently-updated Eater article on kid-friendly Seattle dining it should be a solid start! On top of that, the staple of tourist dining Ivar's is definitely kid friendly, convenient for some popular waterfront attractions, and for a chain does a very solid clam chowder - which you can get onboard Amtrak if you like it enough to want some for dinner too! Being raised on British Rail 70s food my standards for train-based dining are probably lower than Princetons, but I've genuinely enjoyed both breakfasts and dinners on the Cascades: their brekkie sammiches and oatmeal are better than on any mainstream cruiseline, and for dinner I keep it simple with a bowl of chowder, a grilled cheese (very hard to screw up!) and a decent local beer at what feels like a pretty fair price. If you have a little Canadian cash left afterward, and are returning the same way, you can also spend CAD onboard Cascades at a fair exchange rate. Edit - since you're flying same day, even with several hours of padding it would be a good idea to have a Plan B in place. Nine times out of ten if there's an issue with the evening train it's late - potentially already by three hours at Seattle and often at least an hour - which makes things easier for you, but if your flight gets canceled/connection missed etc. you might still not have time to make it. Making a second, refundable booking for the next mornings Amtrak - which should get you here in time barring disaster, as it has no dependencies on any other service, all staff and engines and rolling stock 'live' in Seattle overnight so it's basically always on time leaving - could be a very cheap bit of insurance... but if you've got a nonrefundable hotel booked in Vancouver, checking whether you can book a refundable car rental for the evening might be the most effective action...

Thanks! I like to think I'm a fairly interesting person 😉 In case you're actually interested rather than being snarky, I've often found that reading between the lines (specifically in this case, deploying the old staple of The Unreliable Narrator) enables answering what the poster actually needs much better than blindly answering exactly what was asked, especially for low-post-count folks who are often unaware of many things so they don't know how best to ask for help. You yourself didn't answer what OP actually asked - nobody could without more info - but you did offer some 'in the ballpark' suggestions of alternate actions. Referring to a PCC as a TA is far from unusual in my experience - after all in a very literal sense they are TAs in that they act on behalf of the customer and only in matter related to travel! - and the follow-up posts stating that they wanted to do everything though HAL and hoped HAL could find them a room were what suggested to me this was more likely than not one of those 'Cruiseline PCC, not an indy TA' situations. But I knew I was making an assumption and it could be wrong - hence my actual advice being entirely irrelevant to what the job title of the incompetent causer-of-the-problems was. Now that we definitively know it's an actual TA, I join at least one other poster above in saying to OP that this is not someone you should continue a professional relationship with!

I'd agree that Waterfront is much closer than City Centre - and am genuinely bemused at the google map link above, because every time I enter those same points on Google myself it suggests to get off the train at Waterfront! Something weird with the mobile version!? Anyhoo - for some more moderately priced dining options, there's nice Vancouver pub grub (i.e. all the typical fare plus at least a few Asian dishes like sushi & noodles; also salmon and halibut is typical as well as the classic cod for fish & chips) I'd hit up Tap & Barrel (sit outside if nice weather) or Rogue (inside Waterfront station, more US beers than T&B); for something a little bit swankier try Cactus Club which has huge windows so you get a nice view even if its chilly. All of these have multiple branches around town, as well as the super-convenient ones within 5 mins walk of the PP - so if you want to stretch your legs before dinner, you could try other locations e.g. English Bay CC if its close to sunset gets some fine views.

It sounds like it's a HAL PCC rather than an independent agent to me; but regardless, HAL like other lines prebook blocks of rooms and once those are gone their special rates are gone - the fact that you can book the hotels yourself proves we've talking about one of those deals rather than literally no rooms available. If you are not traveling solo though OP @maggiev you might find that independent booking of the same hotel (at a per room, not per person rate) is actually cheaper; and unless you're familiar with Vancouver cruises already you probably don't realise quite how obscenely overpadded the cruiseline shuttles are here! I've seen folks charged ~$30pp for both an Airport to Hotel, and again Hotel to Pier, when you could travel in your own cab for ~$30 total even if there's 4 people in it on the first leg and the second leg is literally 'walk downstairs or across the road' from the Pan Pacific or Fairmont Waterfront so zero spending required at all independently... The distances involved here are minuscule compared to most US ports - most downtown hotels are less than a mile from the pier and actually quite walkable even with luggage and a <$10 ride by cabuberlyft if you don't think you can move your own bags on foot; there are multiple lovely hotels at virtually all pricepoints (except really cheap, in cruise season anyway!) that will save you buckets compared to HAL 'hotel and transport for $Xpp' packages.

Alrighty - first, absolutely do not waste your time going to YVR twice!!! You have limited hours, efficiency is key, and thanks to US preclearance it is illegal to check bags early! Until very recently, your flight would not have been precleared - but CBP expanded their hours to 11:30pm, which means virtually every US-bound flight will now see them here before boarding, and all US layovers become Domestic. Store bags with the Pan Pacific ($10) right above the pier, which is also right next to HOHO main stop, is the only sensible 'no advance booking' option. If you're willing to reserve things in advance you might save a buck or two a bag. Google 'luggage storage vancouver BC' and you'll get a bunch of hits for various Uberesque companies who provide the online tools and partner with local businesses for actual storage. Pick one that confirms the locations before booking, so you can choose one that is as close as possible to Canada Place. Under no circumstances use the official pier storage - it's not just the most expensive, their hours are far too limited for you (you must have your bags collected before 5pm). I can't recommend any of these storage options from personal experience, as I live close enough to walk home with my bags after disembarking, but you can find various reviews online about Bounce, Luggage Hero, and similar. Assuming you get anything but the last few disembark slots, you can easily be queueing for the HOHO well before 9am - you need to be in the first 50 people if you want to be on the first bus! Unless you want to go places other than the HOHO route, you won't need to Cabuberlyft anywhere as pier, hotel, and HOHO stop are contiguous - and your transport to YVR that Princess include in their insanely overpriced package is literally a SkyTrain ticket, which is all of 400 yards away on foot... Can't be bothered schlepping bags even that far? Get a cab at the pier and it's a fixed price even TO the airport these days - CAD$41 per vehicle. In the evening, metered cab fare is probably less than this and the various rideshares, assuming no Surge, likely even less than that but expect at least US$25 per vehicle even without traffic. Even if you had three bags each to store, and loaded every person in your family into their own taxi, you would still spend only ~US$100pp; and if you take SkyTrain like you would with Princess, you'd save another ~$US28pp off that!

It really doesn't get much better than that - the Fairmont at the airport has more flexible hours in blocks of 4/6/8hrs, but they cap it early as well (7pm). If you want to sit around rather than Do Stuff, I'd look at purchasing Lounge access at YVR to kill time comfortably for the last block of time before boarding (you will definitely be able to drop bags ang go through security 3 hours preflight, even if your flight is now being Prescreened with CBPs extended hours). In-between hotel and lounge you have much better dining options downtown that at YVR; so have a leisurely meal at 6 after checking out, then head to YVR 8ish. The hotel should be OK with holding your bags for an extra couple of hours after you threw them a bunch of cash for just a few hours!

Sorry for the delay, haven't been on the site for a few days. If you Quote a post, or ping a user directly by typing @ then their handle, it sends me an email - I can usually find a couple of minutes to answer a specific question! These unfortunately I'm not going to be a great deal of help with - I know the bell staff take cash, either USD or CAD but $10 bill of either gets no change (i.e. if you have Canadian money, use it, it'll save you about 25% of the cost). On the second part, since I always self-disembark I've never collected bags offloaded for me and living local I've never had to store a bag! PP always has at least one member of bell staff on the ground floor right by the door out onto Canada Place so for me the easiest is simply to walk out to the street - but with your sis maybe needing some extra help with bags/preferring an elevator to change levels, hopefully someone else who has used the PPs bag storage can chip in...

I'd disembark earlier myself, just in case. Much better to be off the ship at 8ish, bags dropped by 8:30, find a cab and get to GI an hour early - where you can easily pootle around a bit and check out various stores, grab some snacks etc. if you need to kill time - than worry about not getting there in time to check-in for the required safety briefing pre-whalewatch. If you haven't booked yet, you are asked to be 30mins early - while you won't have to get fitted for a survival suit like on the Zodiac rides, there is a waiver form to complete that has a fair bit of small print if you're the kind of person who actually reads things before signing, and with your sis having limited mobility you'll want a bit of extra time to actually board (the boats are docked at the end of the street the office is on, another hundred yards or so to walk). YVR from the PP should not take much more than 35mins driving in the evening - even if you're trying to get there for 8pm, rush hour will have tamped down, but if you want to pad that to 45mins assumed travel time that's sensible enough to cover unexpected traffic issues. I thought I'd already linked the free security 'express pass' booking page further up the page, but in case I didn't it's right here. You will have to wait until no more than 72hrs in advance to be able to book.

Bring your ID card - there are actually a handful of member discounts! The local chapter got special dispensation from CAMRA to allow pushing 'unreal' ales as there were literally none outside homebrewing when it began. Even when I first moved here in 2011, you could only drink cask ale two or three days a week (several local brewpubs did a cask one night a week, but with some overlap) and it took a couple of years for cask to be available somewhere in the city on a daily basis. Yaletown Brewing was our regular when we first moved - we'd call ahead every Thursday ro preorder our first round then show up 30 mins later to start drinking because nowhere outside Victoria offers proper temperature beer cellars! They're definitely kid-friendly in the Resto side - that's where we drank because it doesn't get as many sloppy drunk fratboys and sportsball fans as in the bar proper. But if you want to sample as many different good beers as possible in one place, The Alibi Room remains the spiritual home of beer lovers in Vancouver - I'm not sure what their deal is with kids, and you might want to cab it rather than walk with the kiddo as several blocks on the walk are a bit sketchy. Tap & Barrel do have a pretty wide selection, several covenient downtown locations and almost all have a big patio; Craft in theory have even more beers on tap but unless you are a huge fan of lagers forget them - when they first opened with 150 beers over 120 of them were lagers and of the rest not a single one was deemed hoppy enough to please my missus!!! If you have any really specific beer styles that you like, I can try to point you to a local brewery that does them well.

Ding! It's always been the best card (all benefits of TSA Pre and Global Entry, plus Canadian airport quick Security even on domestic flights on top of Canada-bound expedited air entry; but the land borders are where the time savings rack up for most of us...) If you apply within the next few months it's also the cheapest TT card... but even when pricing goes up to match GE cost in October, it's still the winner unless you never cross the Canadian border. Even folks who live far from the border and only think they'll visit Canada a single time during their 5 year card life should consider it instead of GE - interviews can be done during a layover at the many Prescreening airports, so it's literally just a few minutes extra compared to your CBP only chat for GE and I have lost count of how many times I have saved more than 30mins at a border or airport by having it; on several occasions it's been in excess of two hours!

Canada Day in recent years hasn't made a massive impact - and even if we get a firework show, in the morning it will have virtually no impact at all (as the afternoon goes on, it's common to see folks start staking out good viewing spots along the Seawall for fireworks many hours in advance of the ~10pm show). So basically Canada Place itself will be hoaching all day (entertainment schedule should appear here once firmed up, check the 2023 one currently still there to give you an idea of the sort of stuff that happens) and traffic annoyances from street closure basically just between the pier and Olympic cauldron. Since it's a Monday this year, transit schedules will drop to Weekend levels which might add a few minutes if you try and go places, but generally all the touristy things are exempt from closures on public holidays, so as long as you don't want to spend a day shopping it should pretty much feel like a regular Saturday anywhere that isn't very close next to the pier, except that there will probably be a lot more flags displayed around town. Back to the core of your question - you seem to have already noticed we are not a town of early opening attractions! Assuming you dined onboard well enough to last you for a few hours at least, I'd suggest hitting parks - very few are gated, so if the suns up you can enjoy them. Especially if you wanted to go for a lengthy loop around Stanley on the Seawall, right after dropping your bags at your hotel is ideal - it's at least 5 miles plus getting to the entrance from your hotel, so doing that before the day warms up too much is a good idea. Your hotel might have free bikes - quite a few do, and not just the superfancy ones - and as checked-in guests you should be able to borrow them even if your room isn't ready yet. If not, consider renting a bike - they're especially handy for the Seawall, basically tripling your travel speed for less calories expended! Other than 'do parks first' it really comes down to your taste in what to do - you know you and those you're travelling with a lot better than I ever could! We've got so many options - and like I said, virtually nothing touristy will be closed for the holiday - that it's all about prioritising the things which are most likely to be popular for you. TripAdvisor is a great starting point to see what Joe Q Public mostly thinks are the best things to do overall.

Some cabbies will even happily take USD cash as payment (at a not-even-close-to-Interbank rate!), but since you will literally be prompted to tip on the handheld unit the driver gives you to pay by credit card simply add on your preferred amount when prompted instead of also pfaffing around with notes as well as your card.

I think the issue is because this year a couple of tweaks are being trialled - asking cruiselines to stagger boarding times more, and ADDING an extra opportunity to hand luggage over as you enter the convention hall! So folks who get dropped off by cab etc. downstairs don't need to schlep bags up any levels, nor do folks who walk in from street level have to schlep bags down any levels... everybody wins! NB: can't guarantee the convention centre level bag drop is every day; all season; only busy days; or gets stopped because it's not working as well as hoped! But for OP @dces1 to ensure you get wheelchair assistance in the right place you are supposed to do that via your cruise line - in case you get the runaround from CSRs going by scripts with no local knowledge of the Vancouver terminal, you could try contacting their shoreside agency (last year Princess used Destination North America who you can contact by phone: +1 (604) 641 1221) or reach out to the port directly about accessibility services by email: cruiseservices@portvancouver.com Hope that helps!

@gottagoacruzn I'll remind you again that, like most of your prior questions about Vancouver so far, you could have found this yourself via Google in about thirty seconds instead of having to wait a day for a reply... but here's a link to a walking route with all three points on it. Fire up Streetview at each end of the route and pics will appear too - if you check multiple pics around the cauldron, I believe there are even some of it lit up that have been posted by folks (they'll be among the wee circles that indicate a private pic taken at that spot, rather than from the solid lines where Google camerapacks have moved through).

I think that you might want to rethink the entire setup to be honest - even if there's a Disabled spot available in Long Term YVR parking, which are nearest the station, there's a bunch of bus loops and restricted roads (no stopping) around there. Uberlyfts are not going to enter the car park to pick you up - so you might have to schlep your bags quite a distance to find somewhere that is a legal pickup spot... The basic concept of this longterm lot is that everyone uses SkyTrain - it's optimised for folks leaving their cars before a flight and not designed with pickups by vehicle in mind. Also, depending what DHs mobility issues are, if he needs an Accessible vehicle be aware that there are zero accessible Uberlyfts locally, they pay a fee rather than becoming compliant with the legal requirement of minimum % of accessible vehicles in the fleet (all taxi firms maintain ~17% of their fleet as Accessible vans which scooters or wheelchairs can be secured safely inside). Considering you can afford the Pan Pacific, I would look at instead finding a cheaper hotel! All-in-all a night at the Accent Inn near YVR, plus parking at $40 a week on top of room rate, plus potentially $40 each way in a cab from the hotel to pier and the reverse post-cruise, will undoubtedly cost less than a night in the PP and long-term parking - heck, it might be cheaper than just the hotel given some of the horror stories about pricing this year! Whether cab or rideshare, everyone drops at the same spot under the pier - which is where luggage drop is unless you arrive too early for it to have started. There are elevators, stairs, escalators for you to get up to Check-in level - and there should be porters around too, able to take bags right from the car, but worst-case you can shuttle your bags over to the drop point, it's not far at all. Leaving again, rideshares do have to pick up down the street, maybe a couple of hundred yards extra walking compared to the cab pickup under the pier, so cabbing is definitely easier with even 'walking stick' level mobility issues that don't need a modified van.

Indeed there will - nightshift cabbies with an airport medallion make bank from late night trips, as the fixed rate fare zone prices are set to several dollars higher than what the meter would have been when there's no traffic to worry about. If you have Uber/Lyft apps, then as long as there's no Surge in effect you should save a fair bit on a latenight ride. Glad you enjoyed BH last time; those nice corner view rooms might be a bit wasted on you rolling in c.1am, but if you can get a good price at least you know the 'hood!

Honestly, unless you've got the budget for the Fairmont every other airport hotel could take you as long or longer to get to than heading downtown - no traffic at night whereas no hotel has more than a single shuttle vehicle and none I'm aware of have a shuttle driver with no other jobs. So when you call your hotel from the courtesy phones, the delay is at best "Good news, someone called before you, the bus should be outside in a couple of minutes!" plus drive time to the hotel of anywhere from 7 to 30+ minutes (some Surrey hotels cheekily call themselves 'airport' even though they're further away than downtown is!) and at worst is "I just need to go find the driver, he should be on his way in a few minutes" with 20mins+ wait time until you get to the hotel. Whereas if the cab queue is minimal, you could be checking in at a downtown hotel in 30mins... and then when you wake up next morning you could be within walking distance of the pier and multiple things to do instead of facing commuter traffic inbound etc. Oh, and if budget is tight then the YWCA Hotel downtown is usually cheaper than airport hotels anyway, despite being one of the best-reviewed hotels at any price in the region.