I went on the Puget Sound Express Puffin Cruise last August (2017). It leaves from Port Townsend (in WA) about a 2 1/2 hour drive to a 3 hour drive depending on where you live in the Lower Mainland. Its about three hours long and takes you out to Protection Island to see puffins and other birds - its not as good as the Smith Island one, where you
should be guranteed to see puffins since it is a larger colony and you may get better views as well, but the one with PSE is shorter and a little less grueling in terms of length etc... Smith Island leaves a little north of Port Townsend I beleive as well, so it is technically closer to where we live. IDK what the schedule is for the Smith Island one is but the Port Townsend one is run in the evening (6-9pm i think), which gives you good looks and is when the Pufffins return back to their burrows (since in the middle of the day they are all far out in the ocean hunting)
What we did was we left in the early morning and got to Port Townsend in the early morning, and birded the whole day around the area - which has some good birding. You could do the puffin cruise the same day but then if you want to not stay a night that would mean driving back in the dark which isn't ideal.
What we did is we birded the first day, went on the puffin cruise, stayed a night, birded till the afternoon, and left by around 3:30. The birding is great in the area and you get birds you normally dont get easily up here - the beaches are full of hundreds upon hundreds of Heermann's Gulls which are extremely approachable, approachable shorebirds (saw a Marbled Godwit right on the beach with people) and one of my favorite parts, Rhinocerous Auklets which come right in the dock.
Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) by
Adam Dhalla, on Flickr
Here is the mediocre photo I got on the trip of a Puffin.
Heermann's Gull (Larus heermanni) by
Adam Dhalla, on Flickr
And these lovely fellows.
Hope that helps!