» Cruise Ships & Boat Charters

Boat Charters

Enjoy panoramic views of the city skyline as you cruise the inner harbour. Watch the evening sunset over the Coastal Mountain range on a popular dinner cruise. Private charters, sailing charters, dinner cruises, wedding cruises or a company boat cruise, there are a variety of options available to you.

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Cruises

Select one of the following to find out more about cruises from Vancouver:

• Cruise Ship Facilities
• Embarkation & Disembarkation
• US Direct Program
• Parking
• Transportation Services
• Cruise Lines that Home Port in Vancouver or Port of Call
• Cruise Ship Schedule

Cruise Ship Facilities
Canada Place and Ballantyne Pier are located close to hotels and the city's many attractions, galleries and designer retail outlets. From May to October vessels arrive and depart Vancouver's harbour as part of the Vancouver-Alaska route, the third most popular cruise in the world. Visit the Vancouver Port website for a complete schedule of sailings.

The 7-14 day Alaska cruises offer some of the world's most spectacular scenery - and a variety of travel packages with wide market appeal. Classic seven day cruises travel through the inside Passage when en route to or returning from Southeast Alaska's most popular ports: Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and, of course, Glacier Bay. Each cruise line's itinerary varies slightly, offering passengers the opportunity to experience other sights and destinations such as College Fjord, the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Yakutat Bay, Seward, Sitka or Valdez. See Cruise Lines for more information on tours.

Embarkation & Disembarkation
When embarking in Vancouver, allow approximately one hour for examination of travel documents. Most ship embarkations begin at approximately 1pm. Baggage handling is worry-free. After check-in at the cruise terminal, the next time you see your baggage will be in your cabin! When disembarking in Vancouver, you will be able to claim your baggage in the Customs area in the terminal. Individual baggage carts are readily available.

US Direct Program - Smooth Sailing for Americans cruising to Alaska
The Vancouver-Alaska Cruise Experience is a breeze for US passengers since Vancouver's International Airport and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority launched a "US Direct" strategic initiative. Designed exclusively for US citizens and permanent residents, the program pre-identifies arriving cruise ship passengers, whisks them through immigration and onto a bus, direct to their same-day departing Alaska cruise ship. Their luggage is delivered automatically from airplane to stateroom.

US Direct allows passengers arriving at YVR to transfer directly to a same-day-departing cruise ship by participating in expedited immigration and customs clearance process. US Direct also works in reverse. Passengers arriving on a cruise and flying out of YVR on the same day disembark the ship and are transferred directly to YVR by participating in expedited immigration and customs clearance process. Upon arrival at YVR, these passengers enter the airport through a designated cruise passenger facility.

US Direct is designed to maintain the sterility of domestic movements between US arriving cruise ship passengers and departing US pre-cleared flights and vice-versa. The program does not apply to passengers who are planning a pre or post stay in Vancouver. The program is targeted to passengers who have already planned to be transferred directly to their same-day-departing cruise ship upon arriving in Vancouver or the reverse to their same-day-departing flight at YVR.

Features and Benefits

• Sterile and secure passenger and baggage transfer between the Port and Airport
• Significantly reduced wait times and congestion for departing and arriving passengers
• Works in conjunction with a cruise line bus transfer
• 100% screening for all passengers and baggage

Cruise Lines

• Carnival Cruise Lines
• Celebrity Cruises
• Holland America Line
• Norwegian Cruise Line
• Princess Cruises
• Royal Caribbean

• Air Canada/Jazz
• Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
• America West
• American Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• Northwest Airlines
• United Airlines

Passengers are eligible to participate in the US Direct program if they meet the following criteria:

Port to Airport

1. US Citizen or US Permanent Resident (Green Card Holders).
2. Arriving on a cruise ship that either originated in or was pre-cleared into the US.
3. Returning to the US on a pre-cleared flight on a participating carrier.
4. With a flight on the same day as the ships arrival in Port and completed onboard air check-in.
5. In possession of cruise line bus transfer to Vancouver International Airport.

1. US Citizen or US Permanent Resident (Green Card Holders).
2. Arriving into YVR on the same day as sailing.
3. Arriving directly from the US.
4. In possession of a cruise line bus transfer direct to the ship.
5. With bags that have been pre-tagged for ramp transfer direct to the ship.

Travel agents or passengers who want to take advantage of the US Direct program can elect to participate at the time of the cruise purchase or at a later date by contacting the participating cruise lines directly.

Parking
Need to park your car while on your cruise vacation?

Short-Term Parking Facilities
Both Canada Place and Ballantyne have plenty of short-term parking available for picking up and dropping off cruise passengers.

Long-term Parking Facilities
Citipark operates the two-level parkade at Canada Place and offers long-term parking. Citipark does not provide shuttle service to Ballantyne.

CruisePark offers off-site long term parking for passengers sailing out of both Canada Place and Ballantyne. This service provides shuttle service to both Canada Place and Ballantyne.

Citipark (Canada Place)
Tel: 604.684.2251
Fax: 604.684.2254
Toll free: 1.866.856.8080 (8:00am - 1:00pm)

CruisePark (Canada Place & Ballantyne)
Toll free: 1.800.665.0050

Transportation Services
Vancouver's International Airport, YVR, is about 35 minutes from the city centre and the Cruise Ship Terminals. Taxis, car rentals, limousines and scheduled coach are readily available at or near the cruise terminals. Regular bus service between Vancouver's city centre to Seattle's SeaTac airport is also available.

It takes 3 hours to drive from Seattle to Vancouver and both cities offer a wide variety of car rental companies. Air shuttle service is also available between Seattle and Vancouver. For more information on Vancouver International Airport, visit www.yvr.ca.

For more information visit our Touristinfo centres located minutes from the Canada Place Cruise Terminal. These staff at these centres can arrange all your transportation, accommodation and activity needs.