martincath

Bummer on not having a closer Biron than the airport! Now, as natives, I do have a few Montreal questions for you: St Viateur or Fairmount? Schwartz' or Main Deli? Fatty or lean? ArriveCAN only accepts Trip entries within 72 hours - you can enter all of the personal info like ID, vaxx status in advance (and it's sensible that you have!) but you'll have to wait until 72hrs before you scheduled flight to be able to add that Trip. If your cruise also needs ArriveCAN (e.g. if it's RT, rather than a one-way that leaves Canada and never comes back) then the rules are slightly different - the countdown clock starts from embarkation day, rather than arrival-in-Canada day - but you likewise have to wait until just before the cruise to be able to enter the Trip. Note also that ArriveCAN only holds a single Trip entry - do not complete your Cruise until after you have been processed at the airport!

Warning - this will be a bit long, but it should cover everything! Standard procedure is to first drop your bags (same level that taxis etc. drop people off, below ground, so if you do walk look for the car ramp - there's a barrier-separated sidewalk on the left for pedestrians). Personally I prefer to take them direct to the longshoremen working the belts, rather than hand over to one of the porters with luggage cages near the parking, to ensure they go straight onto the correct ship - it's rare but not unheard of for bags to get put on the wrong ship, especially if 2 from the same line are in dock! Then you head upstairs to check-in - each line has their own desks, look for signs, listen to staff announcements for which of the rooms will be for yours. Suites, High Status get priority embark groups, early-comers get lower numbers than late-comers, same as you're used to in Florida on that front - in past years scheduled check-in times have been utterly worthless, but there have been some reports this season of enforcement but they've been inconsistent. Try your arm if you're early, worst case is you'll have to hang around Canada Place until your actual scheduled time. Once you're checked-in, it's sit around waiting time! As soon as the ships are cleared and CBP are ready to start processing, groups will be called to head to Security (one setup here, no matter how many ships are in port, everyone goes through the same security area). After Security, all the pax for ships heading directly in to the US then go see CBP (a small number of ships, usually those doing end of season repo cruises, skip this stage as they hit Victoria after Vancouver so no Preclearance happens as they're staying in Canadian waters). But for all the AK cruises, it's basically the same deal as when you fly home from abroad - desks manned by CBP, and kiosks where you can 'self serve' more quickly. If you have Global Entry there's a priority lane - usually furthest left, often shared with Crew as well as GE pax - which should have signs but they are usually small and just stuck on the poles used for setting up walkways, so barely over waist height. If you see anything saying NEXUS - that's the right lineup, it covers all of the Trusted Traveler options that expedite US immigration like SENTRI and GE (not TSA Precheck - that's strictly domestic US security, no immigration benefit). Once you are done with Immigration (customs happens at the same time, so if you did a lot of shopping here you might have something to declare on that front, but preclearance is far more focused on verifying who people are than what stuff they're bringing, cruisers aren't a big concern for moving drugs or guns to Alaska!) if your ship is ready you walk right on - if not, then if you're lucky there might be some snacks available in a 'lounge' which is really just more of the same folding chairs that you waited on in the check-in hall.

You're welcome again! Random tidbits I have a-plenty, but the odds of any given one being useful are slim enough I try to keep the trivial knowledge for pub quizzes and stick to relatively focused material - so more info about you and your traveling companions like what you already saw on prior visit(s) and if any of that was so beloved you'll be doing it again, tolerance for 'urban grit' while sightseeing or dining out, mobility, arty-farty-culture-vulture stuff or outdoorsy stuff or both, a ballpark budget for transport/food/entry tickets, which hotel(s) you're in Pre- and Post-cruise, all helps filter the data toward the potentially-useful-to-you! A few notes I always find applicable: 1) Tripadvisor is very useful to help cut down on the noise, especially if all of your party look at it individually and make their own short list of things. Sounds like you have maybe 3 days for sightseeing, so you can check off several downtownish areas while still having time to relax and eat well rather than constantly rushing from site to site - so if everyone picks a 'top 5 things I would like to do' then compares the lists you should quickly find out which sites are tops for everyone and become Must Dos for you; whether there's a split opinion on Site X & Y (so maybe a couple of folks go to X, a couple to Y, and then meet up for lunch after) 2) If everyone is mobile enough to walk at a leisurely pace for a couple of miles, then especially as repeat visitors the 'meet up with a local and get off the beaten track a bit' sites are fantastic - here in Vancouver that would be Stroll Buddy (full disclosure, I am one of the local Buddies, but given the service is entirely free and exactly who you meet with has a whole mess of random factors involved, I don't think I'm breaking the rules in mentioning!) If you go put in your dates, interests, contact details etc. all the local Buddies will be notified and the ones available on your dates will reach out - end result is a custom walking tour just for you, no payment or tips expected. 3) Free city wifi network (broadcasts as #VanWiFi all over the place) is the ideal way to keep in touch if you don't have free Canadian data/calls. If your party does end up splitting to do different things, you can coordinate meetups with email, messenger apps, VOIP calls etc. and also make use of maps to avoid getting lost.

A good warning for your fellow travelers - the mechanics of the testing is that the email is sent within 15mins of clearing customs, so turning on a device, connecting to free airport WiFi, and ensuring you don't leave for 15mins is the simplest way to comply with the rules with minimal hassle. All random testing was supposed to be moved off-site since it restarted in July - testing everyone inside the airports themselves was causing all sorts of logistical problems - but for some insane reason Calgary and Montreal kept the walk-in lab inside the airport itself. Toronto and Vancouver have their walk-in labs close by but not in the airport - regardless, the idea is that folks who get the email while still at the airport can visit them conveniently before they head elsewhere, but the Feds also have contracts with multiple labs across the country and can even ship a Telehealth remote proctored PCR kit to you (useful for Canucks living in small towns without a contracted lab). If you end up already downtown before you check your email, there's a helpline number on the email and you can also dig around on this webpage to see which labs are contracted in your location (scroll down to Find Your Test Provider heading) then make an appointment at one of their nearby locations to cut down on your hassles - e.g. here in Vancouver you could easily pop in to one of several Shoppers Drugmart stores around the city, so choosing one in-between your hotel and Stanley Park or wherever you are going to be sightseeing minimises your delays. In Montreal other Biron sites can do the mandatory random arrival tests - this doesn't help you after the fact @Gpilon, but you could have avoided the notoriously omnipresent Montreal roadworks!

Unless it's an insanely busy day you'll wait inside rather than out - and there's a very good chance that if you're early you will be able to drop your suitcases and get checked-in, then sit down in one of the big convention halls while you wait. The key difference from Florida is that your government preclears all pax entering the US before they board, so cruiselines have very limited influence on operational timing. Until CBP is ready to let folks into their immigration area, nobody gets to leave the check-in waiting area. Even in TheBeforeTimes I was always an advocate of arriving late - now that there's even more delays that's an even better idea IMO. There's nothing to stop you dropping bags early, then going sightseeing unencumbered. As long as you are sensible - leave the stuff close to the pier for last, if you can walk there's no need to worry about traffic delays that way so you can safely shave the margins very tight. Instead of sitting around, then joining slowly moving queues for each stage if you arrive close to the deadline (2 hours predeparture) you can just keep walking, only stopping when you have to interact with the check-in staff, X-ray, and CBP officer/kiosk - we've been curb to cabin in 20mins in the past, compared to a pretty-much-guaranteed 90min or more in Canada Place if you show up early. But some folks think the holiday only starts when they step onboard - if you're one of those, then 2 hours of sitting around and shuffling through queues might be well worth it if you get to be on the ship as early as possible!!! If so, then at least you won't have to stand outdoors in the hot Florida sun if you're too early 😉

You're welcome - for your outbound flight I'd go three hours early, there's not really much 'win' from an hour spent doing something fun while you're going to be stressing about the airport! Late Sep might actually be back almost to normal, when 2 hours is plenty for US-bound flights, but if you are coming right off the ship and heading to YVR on a day with a couple of big ships/3 or more of any size then instead of three hours early you need to beat the bulk of your fellow pax... you definitely want to be at YVR by 9am if at all possible, even if your flight is more like 1pm than noon, as the busloads of transfer pax start rolling in by 9:30am and it's those 50-at-a-time chunks that really overload the queues. If you're doing a post-cruise stay with a flight early afternoon, you might want to check the cruise timetable just to make sure if there are multiple ships rather than risk showing up at 10 to find yourself at the back of multiple busloads! It's much more comfortable to be hanging around after security, able to at least sit down with a book and a Timmies, than to be standing in the slowly-moving bag drop, security, and immigration queues stressing about whether you'll make it through in time. Unless something unexpected happens, your worst case if you are this early might be that YVR starts enforcing their 'cannot drop bags more than 3 hours early' rule again - if so, that does means operations are back to normal so you're definitely not going to miss your flight.

Hard to say overall, but I'll give it a try (skip the the end if you don't care about Whys & Wheefores!) If you flew in 4 years ago, you should have had access to the Kiosks for immigration - that tech has been by far the biggest improvement in the arrival process, as it enables way more people to get through each minute compared to old-school 'talk to a guy in a fishbowl one family at a time' - which means that compared to your last trip we are still running a bit less efficiently. If me mentioning the kiosks has you scratching your head, and you remember lining up to speak to a CBSA agent maybe your trip was longer ago than you thought in which case 'Yay for kiosks!' and you can assume your delay to do immigration will be cut in half - but luggage etc. will be as bad or worse then before, so it might end up being a wash! Exact time of day does make a difference at YVR - it's all about how many other pax land in the same ballpark time as you and need to get through immigration, so if a few full widebodies land close to your own it will always suck, and late morning has never been great especially on weekends. In fact your prior wait of an hour sounds pretty decent if that was a Saturday morning like your upcoming flight! I'm never more happy to have a NEXUS card than when I land at YVR and find that the general entry queue is 2-3 hours and I can swan past and join the handful of other NEXUS peeps!!! In general everything is still slower now than it was pre-Covid as staffing remains not quite up to snuff in any aspect from security to luggage handling to folks working the cafes & restos, but on the inbound front I believe that the reduced volumes of pax flying has kept the worst delays in check (i.e. you will definitely find hour long waits are common, but the truly awful 3 hour situations don't seem to be happening this year). Security staffing (lack of) was the major flaw earlier in the year - but that only hit outbound flyers. Inbound, you do have the possiblity of 1 or more of your party being asked to do a Covid test on arrival - testing happens off-site now but you should probably factor in an extra 15mins while you wait to see if you have been selected if you want to be able to use the walk-in lab near YVR conveniently... but if you have a downtown hotel for at least a night precruise it's probably easier to just head to your hotel and make an appointment at a downtown lab, as you have until midnight the next day to take the test under the rules. TL;DR - Personally I would assume you'll face at least as much of a delay as you did last time, add an extra 15-30mins to play safe, and be pleased with anything shorter. Late Sep at least means you are avoiding the People with Families Vacationing During Summer Break peaks, so odds are good it won't get much worse than ~90mins.

You can't change a Trip on ArriveCAN, only replace it - after you board, any time before your drive from Haines to the border, make a new Trip. Then when you get back to the ship, if there are other US ports of call after Haines you will need to make another Trip with Vancouver as the port of entry, as you have left Canada and will Arrive again!

You don't need phone coverage - only email access which can be done using WiFi rather than data. The regulations do say that you will be notified on the email address you use for your ArriveCAN account; that the notification will arrive within 15mins; and YVR has free WiFi. So all that needs to be done to be compliant is turn on your cellphone (airplane mode to avoid charges!) or any other device that can receive email as soon as you are through immigration, make sure you don't leave for 15 mins, and check your email... No email? Good to go! Email? Then follow the instructions in that email - either head straight to the walk-in lab near YVR, get tested, then head to hotel/pier or if you have some pre-cruise time you might find it more convenient to instead go straight to your hotel and use a contracted downtown Shoppers Drugmart for the test while you are sightseeing. Bonus - if your results come back before you cruise, they are totally valid to let you board! Think of it like getting a free government issued PCR test for you own piece of mind - how much would most of us have loved to get one of those a year back??? Other countries with similar systems have similar expectations, e.g. New Zealand explicitly states you must travel with a suitable device to run their tracking app.

Sorry OP, travel antigen tests are relatively limited in availability here and correspondingly high in cost. The only place doing them for less than the going rate of $79+tax are a couple of Shoppers Drugmart stores (and even then nit's still $50pp, so if you can do an online proctored test instead you might save a packet). W Pender and Davie St are the two downtown locations that would make sense for you to visit - if you have precruise time, either one might be easily popped into while you are sightseeing but Davie is definitely closer to your hotel (map for comparison of both). I'd suggest ignoring that boarding time entirely - you either want to be at the pier as early as possible, so that you are at the head of the line once they actually begin moving at probably 11ish and get onboard as earlty as possible or else show up as late as you can tolerate for the shortest possible lines and quickest 'curb to cabin' timeframe. 2 hours before planned departure is when you should arrive in that case, or else aim to be at Canada Place by 10am. I'd be checking out ~9:30am and walking - straight shot up Howe to the pier, less than a mile, it's <20mins without a suitcase and rolling bags there's not much of a slope anywhere to worry about.

Not being privy to government decision making, it's all guesswork - but what makes sense to me is a twofold set of reasons: First, cruises have always been treated differently than other travel by Canada during the pandemic (witness the 'no cruising at all' approach for anything but the tiniest of ships until this season). Second, when else would there be a chance to sensibly verify that all pax are compliant except at embarkation? Reminding everyone they need to log on and do ArriveCAN within the 72 hour limit for flights, land crossings is not very practical compared to checking at embarkation, when every single pax is already having IDs, tickets etc. checked. And if you think about it, this is exactly the same as what happens boarding a plane to Canada - they still check you have ArriveCAN rceipts before letting you on, it's just days rather than hours or even minutes before your expected arrival time because cruise travel is slow in comparison!

This is what is meant to happen! Your cruise might start 27/8, but your ARRIVal back to CANada is... Sep 3rd. The clue is in the name;-)

It's on a very busy road for cars but the immediate surroundings are basically dead, no shops/restos/nightlife/reason to walk the intersection so foot traffic is minimal except for your other hotel guests - but head a block or two in any direction and there's a lot more life, with Granville St (official city party zone, lots of late-opening bars & clubs so good that you're not staying there for your tastes!) close by. Dining is mostly mediocre, very few standouts as the typical patrons are party animals lining stomachs pre-boozing or already liquored up and looking for a late-night meal before heading back to the 'burbs. Davie St has restos scattered all along it; head down Helmcken into Yaletown and there's a ton of restos packed onto Mainland and Hamilton, just 500 metres walk (although uphill coming home either full or carrying your takeout). Both of these will give you generally-better dining options than Granville - a couple of the swankiest restos in the city are right next to Helmcken in Yaletown, Elisa (a very modern steakhouse) and Blue Water Cafe (probably the best cooked seafood kitchen in town, and at least top ten for their raw bar too). If memory serves there have been a few reviews, some recent from this season, where folks used the HI for the pre/post and found it perfectly decent - and frankly I'd much rather stay in a fairly bland chain hotel with decent size rooms and reasonably thick walls a block or two away from the nearest bars than a really fancy hotel with a nightclub under it! Just check that traffic noise in your room doesn't annoy you and if it does, ask to change rooms as soon as you check in - the hotel is L shaped, so most of it is stepped back from Howe but one wing extends right to the sidewalk. The back of the main building, facing onto the alley behind, is a trade-off - least traffic noise but you risk an early wakeup from garbage trucks emptying the dumpsters along the alleyway...

Sorry, didn't notice this personal request! If you stick an @ at the front of a Username, just as if using a Twitter handle, it pops a message. If you test positive, then under the prevailing legislation you still have a legal duty to isolate - and failure on that side of things carries potentially severe penalties of both jail time and a fine of up to $750k. How long you need to isolate depends on where you are when you test - onboard a ship, whether outside or inside Canadian waters at the time? Federal rules, 10 days quarantine on arrival to Canada (minus any days already 'served' onboard). On dry land, for a pre-boarding test? That's BC jurisdiction, so only 5 days required, but the important stuff is the same - do everything to minimize your interaction with any other people for the duration, i.e. food should be delivered, masks should be worn any time you have to leave your room, Whether Federal or Provinical rules apply, in neither case is it acceptable to just hop on a plane to anywhere. Rent a car just for yourselves, and sure you can go home to quarantine rather than staying in a hotel here (and crossing the border means that the laws apply of the country/state(s) that you are in then), but you cannot use public transportation with a known covid case. Enforcement - if the ship knows, the Canadian government is informed, and you WILL be checked up on. Take any lab test anywhere local - again, government records will show that you tested positive. Take a home test, nobody else automatically knows - but you do and your legal duty is to isolate yourself. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but if you're not willing to obey the laws of the countries you travel to there's really only one correct option - stay home! Federal rules and guidelines about how to quarantine/isolate (there are differences between the two); Provincial info here - NB: that it specifically flags the case of a traveler returning to Canada, and says that you should actually obey the Federal rules...

I'd say that as you are considering a rental car - and it sounds like even for pootling around the Victoria area you might use it if hubby can't walk far - then why not take two different ferry routes and see more of the area instead of just repeating the same route twice? Airport to Tswassassen on the way over, btu consider driving up to Nanaimo (Departure Bay terminal) to get to Horseshoe Bay by ferry on the way back. If you come back to the mainland in the morning, that puts you on the Sea to Sky Highway with plenty of time to take a relaxing drive up to Squamish and a couple of sights before heading back to Vancouver. While DH might not want to go hiking, there are lots of scenic viewpoints right on the side of the road - and the Sea to Sky gondola ride is enjoyed by many as a 'no calories burned' way to get up into the mountains! There's also a railway museum a little north of Squamish, and the excellent Britannia Beach Mining museum. Personally, with ferries being cancelled recently not just for maintenance or weather but most recently at very short notice due to lack of staff, I would not risk a ferry ride on the day of embarking a cruise or the first day you fly in - I'd be inclined to split your Vancouver time in two, fly here then stay over, head to Victoria and return for at least one other night in Van before the cruise. This also helps insulate you from issues with flights - if you prebook a ferry and car rental but your flight is delayed you're now paying for hours, maybe even a day of not getting to use the car you paid for stuck and then joining everyone else without a booking on the ferry too. Splitting your Vancouver nights both sides also means you can look at renting cars downtown - without mandatory airport extra fees on every rental day! Last I checked those were over 20%, so for a simple 'rent it and return it to the same location, no travel outside BC' you will almost certainly find a cheaper rental rate from an office that isn't at YVR. Of course it's always worth comparing multiple office locations and multiple brands - especially these days with car availability still challenging. Costco is superb if you are a member, if not Kayak has an easy-to-use multiple location comparison feature.

I'm sure everyone can agree that convenience was not on the priority list when the testing policy was being planned!!!!! 😉

No - only the government contracted labs can be used for the random arrival tests. This link should, if it behaves, show you a map of downtown Vancouver with locations flagged for tests - and also give the address of the walk-in Lifelabs FlyClear location on Russ Baker Way near YVR (the shuttle to YVR South and the Floatplane terminal should drive right past it).

Since taxis are always a fixed price (most downtown hotels are in the $34 zone, ones right by the pier $38, a handful near City Hall only $31) it's easy to compare - without any Surge pricing Uber should be cheaper for longer rides like this, but even a modest Surge and you'll find them pricier. If poster above was quoting USD, i.e. ~CAD$32-33, that's about what I'd expect - saving you somewhere between $2 and $5 using Uber with regular rates. From hotel to pier, things get messier - Uber has additional surcharges which taxis do not have, so single-digit fares are often cheaper in a cab even without Surge. Combine that with the fact that cruise days tend to produce Surge conditions - lots of folks want cars whether going to or leaving from the pier - and cabs are probably cheaper most of the time to any downtown hotel on a cruise morning. But since no fixed prices apply, metered fares vary based on traffic conditions too - and actually getting inside the pier building is the slowest piece of tarmac in the region on a cruise day, '1 in, 1 out' applies so you can sometimes walk faster than traffic over the block or two nearest the pier... so if you can get an Uber without Surge pricing, probably will save a couple of bucks at least compared to a cab heading from hotel to pier.

Glad you made it safe and had a nice first evening. I think we laid on a pretty decent sunset for you - hope boarding goes smoothly tomorrow!

If you had scrolled down one more section on the same page you quote, you'd also have seen the specific circumstances which apply to your cruise (leaving Canada and not returning = No ArriveCAN needed). The page is laid out in sequence - obviously folks who fly here to board a cruise do need to know about the flying requirements before the boarding - but it feel it would be more helpful if the 'you must do a second ArriveCAN' was moved into the section below about boarding ships to avoid folks making exactly the same error you did ZB. I'm sure everyone can remember during prep for exams in school being told 'always read the whole paper before starting to answer' but how many of us still abide by that advice??? We see a thing that sounds like it applies to us, then don't read further so we miss the fact that there's an exemption to that requirement further on! It's easily done...

Since the first part of the cruise is in Canadian waters, Van then Vic next day, then leaves Canada without returning, no need for the second ArriveCAN (at least, not under official government rules! There have been enough reports of folks being asked for ArriveCAN entries for northbound AK trips that you might still get asked to show a QR code before boarding by the cruiseline, perhaps as a way fo verifying your Vaxx status, but if so you can try just displaying your flight entry code...)

You could try calling up the helpline about all matters travel testing - info here. Based on past experience my best guess is they will toe the party line, give the official timelines (should be notified with 15mins, must complete test by end of next day), warn you of the potential maximum penalties (I think not testing is a max fine of CAD$5,000 rather than the 6months jail time/CAD$750,000 for failing to Quarantine or forging documentation) but give zero indication about 'what if exemptions' and likelihoods of enforcement - but at least you'll be hearing it from the proverbial horses mouth rather than an internet rando!

Nobody can say how pedantic an individual Italian border control officer might be, so if you have enough room to bring original bottles that's always going to be the lowest risk option but in general it does seem like cruisers with a couple of weeks worth of pills is way down the priority list. The biggest issue that jumps out at me from your post is actually the fact you're considering bringing just enough pills for the cruise - THAT is a bad idea at any time, but especially these days with so many flight cancellations and potential for quarantine time extending your trip. Always take at least an extra weeks worth - these days I'd take 2 weeks extra as a badly-timed Covid case at the end of the cruise might add both a quarantine delay and then an extra few days to get a flight home!

Every terminal at FLL has free WiFi, and the data requirements for ArriveCAN are minimal so even if it's very busy you will easily get enough bandwidth to submit an entry. So if you are traveling with a phone/tablet/whatever, you should easily be able to find the two minutes to submit a Trip - and if you're entirely deviceless, the worst case 'have someone else do it for you' option is still in play.

You've made an incorrect entry on an official government data submission - so yes, get it changed! Maybe enough other folks have made similar errors that they assume you have made an entirely innocent mistake and ignore it (the ship report will contain a raft of Date X Embarkation pax, and possibly just you with Date X-1, so it will stand out like the provertbial sore thumb) - but maybe you get contacted just in case you did somehow join the ship a day early, and then mixed with everyone on the prior cruise as well as the one you are on now which complicates any Covid exposure analysis... if they call or email, that means taking time out of your cruise to respond (quickly - you will get repeated follow-up contacts if you don't respond promptly to the first!) A 'mea culpa' at that point, most likely no big whoop - but since it will take all of two minutes now to fix the problem that's definitely the better choice! How to fix? Easy - ArriveCAN only holds one live trip, as soon as you make a new entry it will replace the current one with the correct date version, so you don't even have to directly delete the erroneous trip.