we will be sailing soon to Alaska and I was wondering how customs go in Vancouver we are staying at the Pan Pacific the night before so from what Im told from the hotel we can walk to the port-- but my main question is about customs is also were planning on taking a cab from the airport to the hotel--is it necessary to get CAN$ or can we us UA$ or is the best option to use a CC assuming they even take it any other tips or advice is greatly appreciated thanks all
We just made this trip, ourselves, and stayed overnight at the Pan Pacific the night before the cruise. The hotel is atop the cruise port. The hotel lobby is on the 6th or 7th floor, I think. If you go down to ground level, you are in the East lobby of the convention center. In that lobby is another bank of elevators that go down into the cruise port.
However, they typically are setting up check-in, these days, in Hall C of the convention center. So beware of that. We ended up going down into the cruise port, dropped our baggage off with the porters, then were directed back up into the convention center to check-in, then back down to the cruise port to wait for immigration and customs.
I'm not sure how mobile you are, but if you are able you might want to consider the SkyTrain. The Canada line goes directly from YVR-Airport Station to Waterfront Station. It's a one block walk to the Pan Pacific. (There is another part of Waterfront Station, which serves the Expo line, which has an underground walkway directly into the Pan Pacific. I don't think you can get to that walkway from the Canada line Waterfront station, though. However, know that that walkway is there. That's where we had dinner that night. There's access to that walkway from the East lobby of the convention center, at ground level under the hotel. It leads into a shopping mall, with a nice food court with lots of options. Much more budget-friendly than eating at the hotel!)
When you land you'll go through customs etc in the airport. When you board the ship you'll go through a process. When you get back you'll go through it again to enter Canada. And when you get to the airport you'll go through US customs BEFORE getting on the plane, so when you land (assuming you're going to a US destination) you just walk on out. You basically land as a domestic flight. It's one of the fun things about the main Canadian airports (and the main Irish airports as well).
This recently changed. If your flight leaves YVR after 9pm, you no longer clear US customs and immigration in YVR, and instead will be directed to the international terminal when you land in the US and have to go through US customs and immigration when you land.
During our trip we went through passport control six times:
- We passed through Canadian border control landing at the airport.
- We passed through US border control getting on board our ship.
- We passed through Canadian border control on an excursion from Skagway into the Yukon.
- We passed through US border control coming back from that excursion.
- We passed through Canadian border control getting off our ship.
- We passed through US border control when we landed in the US. (Again: If our flight was earlier, we would have gone through US border control at the airport in Vancouver.)
