We were lucky today...we were some of the last passengers to leave the ship around 10am, and after claiming our suitcases and officially entering Canada, we took some time to explore Canada Place a bit. Such a beautiful facility, and yet you have to walk though a parking garage to board a cruise ship there! We sat for awhile at the very end of Canada Place, where we had seen the yoga class the day we had sailed, and watched the boat and floatplane traffic.
Eventually, we started walking toward the Canada Line train station to go to the airport. I recommend, upon leaving the ship, that you take an elevator from the parking garage up to G level, at the base of the Pan Pacific Hotel. This saves pushing your luggage up the sidewalk that aligns the ramp down into the parking garage. Once we arrived at the train station (an easy block and a half walk), the elevators made it easy to go to the ticket level and then to the train level. Although we had to load our luggage onto the train, it was level and easy, and $3.75 each and a 30 minute ride delivered us stress-free to the airport. Again, an elevator made our exit from the train station simple, and we were less than a 5-minute walk from the US terminal.
We were a bit surprised that, after we "exited" Canada and cleared security, we went through immigration into the US while still at the Vancouver airport. This saved us having to arrive at the immigration terminal at our home airport. Easy peasy!
We arrived home to record heat, but all was fine and the heat seemed a lot more tolerable after 14 days in Alaska. Just the attitude adjustment we needed after our long, hot summer.
North to Alaska: this was one fantastic trip!
Photo 1: a Canada line ticket from waterfront to YVR
Photo 2: one step closer to home