Grouse Mountain with Lumberjack show Departure Day?

First time cruiser, here. Dh, dd (9yo) myself, My parents (ages 70 &78-Dad has some trouble walking).

We are on Nieuw Amsterdam on Aug 12.

Dh, dd, and I arrive August 10 late at night (10 pm). My parents arrive August 11 at 3:05 pm.

We are staying at the Pan Pacific pre-cruise. We plan to take advantage of the hotel's direct to ship baggage check-in.

I was thinking of the aquarium that Friday morning until my parents get to the hotel. Maybe we can some of see Stanley Park after meeting my parents at the hotel, then get dinner out.

I was thinking of Grouse Mountain the morning of the cruise, and seeing its lumberjack show. Dh does not think that it is worth the money since we are going on the Sea to Sky gondola post cruise. Should we take the shuttle to Grouse Mountain from the Pan Pacific, or rent a car to get back to the cruise ship in time.

We won't have time for Mount Roberts Tramway since are doing the one-way Tracy Arm excursion & evening whale watch with Mendenhall Glacier stop).

Also, any recommendations for seafood restaurants near the Pan Pacific would be greatly appreciated. We are coming from the east coast and are looking forward to fresh crab legs, local salmon & Alaskan oysters.

Also, we are going to be dealing with some major jet lag coming from Eastern time zone.

In Vancouver for 3 nights last summer post cruise. Grouse Mountain is nice for tram and views. Lumberjack show is hokey and Forney not worth the trip. Also consider what time you need to be back shuttles to mountain, ski lift not open early early, and Lumberjac show is later in am. I would carefully chef times including ample time for shuttle or driving w car return. Stanley park has nice views long walk around the perimeter. Stanley park hop on hop off shuttle is useless. If u go try to have lunch at the teahouse. Did visit any restaurants near Canada Place. Blue Water Cafe was excellent

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I'd strongly advise Grouse over Sea to Sky - while there are great views from the latter, unless you're going to hike it's a 'take gondola. cross bridge, go home again' attraction with nothing else to do. Grouse OTOH has the (yes, hokey - but they ALL are!) lumberjack show plus many other entertainment options, dining options (it's easy to kill 4+ hours and need to eat lunch or dinner), and IMO more interesting views as there's a fabulous city down there to look at as well as hills & water.

Morning of departure is less value than an afternoon slot at Grouse, as most of the show times are in the afternoon. I believe you could attend the first lumberjack show of the day at IIRC 11am without any risk, but it will be hard to maximise your value by hitting all the shows for a visit that's mostly in the morning. Another reason to ditch the S2S and do Grouse post-cruise instead! Morning of, Capilano is a safer visit - I simply can't imagine anyone needing more than 2 hours there if they don't want to go hiking so you'll have ample time to get up and back on the free shuttles (and I assume everyone is OK with bouncy bridges since the only attraction other than the view on the S2S is the suspension bridge...). If you're willing to hire a car, then Lynn Canyon becomes extremely viable - unlike Capilano it's free, much quieter with almost nobody except locals visiting, more natural, and the Ranger station has some genuinely interesting ecology/local history info. Downside is no free shuttle and using public transit is lengthy - at least an hour each way.

Fresh crab legs simply cannot be had - only the big King/Snow crabs get 'legged' and their fishing season is long over by summer. You can have fresh whole Dungeness - a meatier and IMO tastier crab anyway - no problem, and if your budget can handle it and your whole group likes Chinese food then a King Crab feast using the whole crab is possible (several large Vancouver restos keep live Kings in tanks, but you have to buy the entire crab). You're looking at probably $400 for a feast with the crab prepped three ways (legs are cracked lengthways and stuffed with garlic before steaming in the standard and DELICIOUS local method) and even the smallest Kings would feed 6+ adults, so unless you're all big eaters try finding some fellow cruisers who want to join you on your cruise Roll Call!

AK oysters aren't really much of a thing - BC, WA and even OR have a vastly larger 'fishery' with many more subregions than AKs very small industry. They're also pricey - and that's nothing to do with quality because every single fishery will lie through their teeth and claim their (shell)fish are the best even if they're exactly the same species and from right nextdoor to one another! It's because they're not native - most all AK waters are too cold for oysters to procreate so they have to buy all the seed stock every season. I believe the small number of farms all grow the same varieties as further south anyway, with Pacific as the main stock in trade. Down here you'll find that Kumamotos are readily available and even a few Olympia, the native oyster to the region, and any oyster bar will also fly in some Atlantics from the east coast. A few WA farms are growing European Flats now too, but they're probably even rarer than Olympias. I'd be looking for AK oysters up in AK - I believe that the majority are consumed locally rather than shipped out.

Five Sails inside your hotel does good seafood, has great views, and a generally solid menu. Blue Water as mentioned above is probably the single best Western seafood kitchen in the city with a huge Raw Bar as well as the regular cooked options - and while not walkable for your dad it should be under $10 in a cab, about a mile from the PP. Good sashimi is easy to find - Miku pretty much nextdoor to the PP is a well-regarded sushi place, though personally I'm not a fan of the Aburi style that they specialise in (if you even partly-cook the fish it ain't sushi IMO!)

If sushi isn't your thing, and cabbing to dinner is on the cards, then Bishop's in Kitsilano would be another easy place to recommend - John B is the granddaddy of the locavore dining scene and it's still one of the best kitchens for cooked-but-minimally seafood dishes that are best when really lightly-handled.

We are really looking forward to riding the Sea to Sky HIghway. The tour also includes a trip to Brittania Mine Museum and a stop at Horseshoe Bay and Shannon Falls. So, Grouse Mountain and Stanley Park would be too much the morning of?

Thoughts...

• another vote to skip Grouse morning of the cruise. You need more time to get best value with all the shows.
  
• I recommend visiting Grouse Friday, especially if you are not meeting your parents at the airport.
  
• you mentioned Stanley Park, the park is big.... what do you want to see there? You can catch Stanley Park after coming back from Grouse late afternoon.
  
• @Izjezted: how many days post cruise do you have in Vancouver? Perhaps there's time for Grouse then too?
  

We are really looking forward to riding the Sea to Sky HIghway. The tour also includes a trip to Brittania Mine Museum and a stop at Horseshoe Bay and Shannon Falls. So, Grouse Mountain and Stanley Park would be too much the morning of?

If you're heading up Squamish way anyway then S2S makes more sense, but it's still poor value cf Grouse in terms of what you get for your money IMO. Your views from road level are pretty awesome already - and if you did this in the morning you could easily hit Grouse on the way back into town (if you're renting a car for the day it'll cost the same to keep it up to 24hrs).

Morning Of the park works before Grouse opens - if you're early risers you can visit super-early since there really aren't many time-restricted park sites (riding the tiny train or visiting the aquarium spring to mind, otherwise there aren't really walls or gates to keep you from seeing the rest). But even if you hit Grouse as early as possible you'd struggle to see everything before you have to head back for boarding - any further time chopped out of that possible ~9am-1pm window just means more things you could do with more time being dropped.

Since you're at the aquarium Friday AM you could take DD to the wee train if that would be something she'd enjoy then, and you'd also have plenty of time to see others parts of the park if your parents don't touch down until 3pm (if they're on time). Even if you're going out to meet them at the airport you could be in the park until 3:30pm - even if your parents flight is on-time and they sail through customs they won't get to the PP until after 4pm. Unless you need to double-up and revisit parts of the park (with your dad's limited mobility a lot of Stanley would be very tricky to get him to, so leave the bits he wants to see and is able to get to for the later part of the day).

I'd also agree with xlxo that - unless Grouse was a thing your parents were keen to see - doing it on Friday makes more sense than Saturday. While it would still be a morning visit, you could stay up there much later than on embarkation day - if you took the 3pm shuttle back you'd have had 6 hours, at least 2 chances at all the shows, and would be at the PP before your parents could possibly arrive. This would then allow the Aquarium on Day Of - a less-walky alternative for your dad, and what walking there is nice & flat and mostly indoors instead of the potentially uneven outdoor trails up on Grouse.

Grouse is great but be sure and allow yourself time to enjoy it. The lumberjack show is fun, and the birds of prey show is good too. Bears up there to see and the view of Vancouver is amazing on a clear day. I think Grouse is much better value than S2S Gondola.

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These vids may give you a better of idea why you want more afternoon time at Grouse for the performances....

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Don't forget a pitstop at Capilano on the return!

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One difference with Sea 2 Sky is the lack of shows for the similar admission cost. There is the SkyPilot bridge. It's amost twice the height of NYC's Freedom tower.

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Just thought I'd throw out another seafood restaurant option: Coast Restaurant. It's about a 15 minute walk from the Pan Pacific. Though not a chain, it's part of a restaurant group so you might get a standardized feel to it. But it has menu items you are generally looking for: crab, BC salmon, and oysters. Would also suggest trying the sablefish, which is a buttery white fish, as another local option to salmon. Coast has a nice happy hour too with a selection buck a shuck oysters and other food and drink specials.