martincath

21 minutes ago, Milhouse said:

Is that the long term value lot? If so, heads up that it has gone up a bit.  

I just got back from Vegas and my buddy ended up paying $110 for 4 days ($27.50/day) in the long term value lot.  It made me cross-check the YVR parking website and while it appears one can save a chunk by booking online and booking for a week, the best rate (weekly & prebooking online) seems to be over $17. Still cheaper than the $25/day rates downtown but getting closer to it when factoring transport to/from YVR and convenience.

Thanks for the heads up M - yes, weekly rate at the long term 'value' lot was what I was referring to. Never thought about shorter cruises getting hit with a higher daily rate either!

So here's the thing - you're not thru-hiking a multi-day trail, you have a nice warm and dry cabin to return to, so even if your feet get wet you can dry out your boots rather than being forced to wear them again for another day on the trail!

In other words, while waterproof footwear, backpack, outer shell is the ideal - it's not required for cruisers! Comfy, broken-in footwear is more important than how proof-resistant it is - boots are better than shoes though, lots of rough trails, even in town gravel/woodchip surfaces, and folks looking at scenery may not pay as much attention to their footing... it's really easy to roll an ankle, hence something with ankle support is never a bad idea.

If you're a warm-weather, urban living type who just doesn't have any outdoor gear at all then buy cheap stuff or improvise - a dirt-cheap plastic poncho, or even better a garbage bag you bring from home, can be wrapped around the outside of a pack if the weather is foul; a simple rub of a candle onto a warmed shoe gives a thin layer of wax to help proof it at almost zero cost; a spare pair of socks makes great improvised mittens; and whether you fly in Vancouver, Seattle, or Anchorage you should be able to find a Dollar Store who will sell you cheap fleecy beanies/toques, one-size-fits-none gloves, scarves etc. for much less than touristy shops in ports - or spend a few bucks more on a souvenir hat/fleece etc.

Just remember that multiple thin layers are far more useful than a thick sweater or lined coat - the most useful thing about a daypack is somewhere to keep all of the layers you don't need when the weather shifts between wet, cold, sunny, warm, windy and combinations thereof on an hourly basis!!!

Professional drivers - which also includes Uber/Lyft here due to how they are licensed, as well as buses/limos/taxis - are exempt from the kiddie car seat requirements locally.

If memory serves though, Alaska has tighter requirements to BC - even in a schoolbus, if it has seatbelts installed, kids need to be secured in appropriate boosters/front/rear-facing seats depending on age, height and weight. So unless you plan to avoid any excursions using a vehicle in your ports of call, you'll need to bring a seat with you...

Since airlines have to let you bring such a thing for free anyway, if you have one you're familiar with at home bringing it is probably best.

On 3/10/2024 at 12:08 AM, sharon_pei said:

1. ...1. Many YouTube videos I've watched suggest early embarkation, not just for a 'free' lunch on embarkation day, but also to allow buffer time in case of various scenarios: ... Are these concerns unnecessary?

2. 2. The departure time of our ship is 4pm. Heading back to the pier at least 2 hours before that means arriving around 2pm. That's not much later than lunch hour. Will the crowd have dissipated by then?

3. 3. How much time is needed to drop off bags in the morning? ...

 

I think most of your points have already been addressed by the collective wisdom of CC Sharon, but better to doulbe-down than risk having missed anything so:

1) the crux about all the youtube 'experts' is that even if they actually know what the heck they are talking about, to drive hits to their video instead of others (or other sources entirely) the whole 'man Bites Dog' principle applies - there's absolutely zero editorial oversight, so however bad you feel mainstream press might have become as soon as facts enter the equation every single official organization is less bad than Rando McNoOversightWhatsoever. Do things go wrong at piers and on ship? Of course.

But you won't find your room given away (whatever idiot stated that in their videos should immediately come off your Subscription list because if they are willing to provide verifiably incorrect info on that, what else of their advice is equally worthless?), and anything that is genuinely problematic will not be fixed until after the crew have finished doing all of the incredibly-labour-intensive parts of the getting old people and bags off/new people, bags, food etc. on process. Since we're back into normal cruising times - odds are that there simply aren't any spare rooms lying around to move you to unless someone else doesn't show up... which they cannot know until it's time to stop letting folks onboard. So even if there's an annoyance that needs dealt with, you'll just hang around onboard fuming about it instead of being entertained or educated at various wodnerful sites around our city!

2. Yes, if your ship actually ends up remaining schedule for 4pm departure, and it's a busy day with 3/4 ships, 2pm could still be fairly busy. But really your worst-case scenario is that you arrive in time to check-in at 2pm and still have slow-moving queues - but at least you will have enjoyed several hours in Vancouver, won't have had to watch hundreds of priority pax jump ahead of you at ~11am when the actual boarding starts, and odds are still very high that even on the worst possible early season 4 ship day when it might stay busy until 3pm your total time from curb to cabin will still be less than if you showed up at 10am!

3. The key thing that slows down the bag drop is unprepared people without their cruise tags - pre-tag your bags and the biggest delay is if you arrive before 10am and they haven't opened the regular P2 bag drop yet, you have to go find wherever the Early Bag Drop cages are (there are signs, the time we did this it added maybe 5 minutes as we had to walk right to the back of a parking level). As mentioned above, once dropped the bags are 'in the system' - and you can leave whatever sizes you like, just do be sure to transfer your Meds, paperwork, and a waterbottle, sunscreen etc. to a smaller daypack for your wandering pre-embarkation!

On 3/10/2024 at 5:46 AM, mncbabu_yahoo said:

...Few more questions..

1. If we start Granville island by 1 pm, will it be risky to reach by 2 pm?

2. If we drop the baggage early, I assume we have to carry the wine bottles in the hand. We don't buy the drink package. I assume we just need the passport and cruise app handy during embarkation. 

3. Any recommendations on spa centers close to cruise port 

Thanks

1. Assuming you walk all the way from GI the long way you can still make to to the pier in an hour - take a short hop across False Creek on Aquabus/FCF and the walk becomes <40mins. Transit buses 4/7/10/14/50 all stop nearby, run every 15mins most days, take 20mins or so drive time. A cab might take a few minutes moving at walking pace to get off GI (one way roads, lots of pedestrians and other vehicles cruising hoping to find parking etc.) but after that it's a 10min drive to the pier. So yes, I would not be concerned being on GI up to an hour beforehand - but personally unless you never plan to visit Gastown at all, I'd leave it until this final block of touring time just to be even safer...

2. You're not supposed to check booze, no! Although if you did put your wine bottles into your suitcases, odds are that you'd be called to 'the Naughty Room' when you embark because they'll be found by security, so you can pay your $x per extra bottle if you go beyond the cruise-line-allowed freebies. If you're bringing fancy wine from home then you'll be packing it securely in a case already, so just leave it that way - if you're buying it locally just buy right before you go to the pier! The closest liquor store is literally on the way back from Gastown to the pier, opposite the main doors of Waterfront Station on Cordova, underneath the Harbour Centre.

3. I'm afraid that when it comes to spas I'm a 'just-a-massage' guy, so I can't comment from experience about how good nail treatments, facials etc. are if you're into more of a full package of pampering - honestly I'd suggest checking up-to-date Yelp, Google etc. for reviews. Both the Pan Pacific and Fairmont have in-house spas - more expensive than non-hotel options, but perhaps still a deal compared to onboard ship - and the locations of those are extremely convenient...

My experience of the following spots is from varying numbers of years ago, but I can think of three options conveniently close to the pier that I was happy with the overall surroundings and vibe of that should work for couples rather than just being a single RMT working out of a small space (Caveat, it's been a long time since I used any of them so do check current reviews!):

• Swan is just the other side of the Fairmont Waterfront, so barely a block away, surprisingly unfancy for this part of town (rates start well under $100 an hour)
• Yuen (Chinese, listed as Foot place but offers full service including couples massage) would be where I'd suggest if you wanted to try reflexology nearby (<1 mile, on the way to/from Stanley Park)
• Sabai (Thai, so clothes on in case that makes a difference for you) is close to the Westin Bayshore so a couple of blocks further than Yuen, and a bit more froo-froo than the first two

But if all you want is a massage, no frills, to loosen you up after being stuck on a plane the student clinic at the local massage college is an easy walk away - advanced students are in the 2000+hr period of training, so frankly are more experienced than a fully-qualified RMT in almost any other jurisdiction, and the price cannot be beaten! The only real downside is their availability - depending when you cruise, the clinic does shut down for a few weeks at a time for exams, new intake etc.

5 hours ago, dna1990 said:

Getting off the ship in Vancouver, what are the steps and pathways between when you claim your luggage - and you can get a taxi? 

So unfortunately I have to start with the caveat that not everyone faces the same steps... if your ship already entered Canada at a port earlier in the cruise and you handed in a customs form in e.g. Victoria, then odds are high you won't even see a CBSA officer (we of course reserve the right to interview folks, but cruises generally have Immigration done entirely remotely - anyone whose file 'pings' due to DUIs or whatever generally has an announcement made to come to X room to see CBSA, and their onboard account flagged so they cannot disembark without ship security system giving an alert). This is quite common for start and end of season one-ways, a lot of cruiselines schedule trips that go Van>Vic>Sea or vice versa, but some Vancouver RTs also include local stops in Vic, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo.

If Vancouver is your Port of Entry (typical on both one-ways from Seward/Whittier and Vancouver RTs where all other ports are in the US) then you can expect to have to hand a customs form over to CBSA, maybe answer a question or two ("How long are you staying?" most likely), unless your declaration form has something of note or you seem suspicious expect literally seconds per person in the queue to process.

So you walk off the ship, grab your bags, hand a form over to CBSA or not, and then walk out - the taxi area you refer to from videos is indeed where you get in one (or rather, where you wait for possibly quite a long time in a slowly-moving queue to get in one if it's a day with several ships!)

As to the practicalities of moving your own bags vs. using a porter - there are porters around, but how easy/quick it will be to get one to help you is all about pax volumes... how many other ships, how big are they, on your day? Only ship in port - small queues, easy to find a porter probably! Four ships with 10,000+ pax? Expect to do everything yourself or wait quite a while for any service... although the great thing about Uber and its ilk is that even folks who do not want to use them gain from their existence in these circumstances, as every person who does head outside to call an Uber is one less person flighting for space in the cab line with you!

If you normally need a porter at the airport with the number of bags you plan to bring, then I agree SkyTrain becomes infeasible - even Uber etc. would be troublesome as they now pickup outside on the street (they are allowed to enter P2 to drop folks off, but NOT to pick anyone up). There's no real relevance to Cabs vs. Ubers except for this (lack of) pier access - I can't think of any travel lanes on the way to YVR that a taxi could use but an Uber could not, we do have HOV lanes and Bus lanes, but any vehicle with enough people can use the former and neither taxis nor ubers can use the latter.

If you cannot handle all your own bags with one hand free, you won't be able to safely Self-Disembark either - shipside staff might not enforce you trundling your bags down the gangplank, but shoreside will, there's someone stationed at the escalator to stop anyone with both hands full from using it (elevator queues get long, as anyone with a scooter, wheelchair etc. needs to use those plus anyone with too many bags!) If you actually could handle schlepping your own bags off the ship, then you can definitely manage to use SkyTrain - the Canada Line uses different vehicles, with loads of legroom and underseat storage. A couple with 2 big suitcases, 2 carryons, and a big purse or camera bag each definitely fit in each pair of seats - that's how the Missus and I travel to YVR and I'm both tall and wide!

So assuming you find a porter, or can manage to roll your own bags around, if the cab queue is  looking annoyingly long take the elevator upstairs to street level - the Pan Pacific hotel has its own little cab pickup spot, with bell staff to call one for you if there aren't any waiting. Able to cross the street, or walk two blocks? Then the Fairmont Waterfront and Pacific Rim respectively also have their own cab ranks - the latter especially should result in a quicker cab pickup as it has its very own 'through road' between Canada Pl and Cordova St so it's accessible from either road easily.

Since it sounds like you haven't got a flight booked yet, I would urge you to stay in town - taking an early flight (anything before 10am) means you basically avoid all the hassles that cruisers cause at YVR, due to the sheer volume of pax all arriving within a short span of time. Avoid those cruisers and as long as you get to YVR in time to check your bags (hard cutoff of at least one hour preflight!) you will definitely have time to get through Security and Preclearance even without Global Entry or NEXUS. Anyone can prebook a timeslot at Security these days too.

There's so much to see and do locally - and so many day-trip out of town attractions - that if your dollar and time budgets can handle it you can easily fill a week or more without any downtime, so it's a real shame not to at least add in a little time post-cruise to see some stuff as well as to open more potential flights up!

There are hotels an awful lot cheaper than the PP, and even if you end up in an airport hotel or simply taking a redeye home same day, luggage storage downtown is pretty cheap (the Pan Pacific bell staff will hold your bags even if you are not a guest for $10; pier storage is the most expensive at $13; a whole mess of other places can be found close by with a Google search - many stores, hotels etc. have signed up to make a few bucks with luggage hero, bounce and similar services) so you can have a wander around during the day without your big bags slowing you down.

As an absolute worst-case, consider a coach tour - you'll pay more through the line than booking independently, and with the possibility of customs issues you may be forced to claim your bags and move them past CBSA yourselves even with a cruiseline tour, but if you are hitting Vic before Van you may get a truly seamless 'bags outside cabin door, onto our bus, emptied out for us at the airport' experience that you might feel is worth the markup... note that you will never be able to do 'bags outside cabin door, collect them at home airport' here as US CBP insist on all pax being precleared dropping their own bags off for inspection!

Sorry, rambled on a bit there rather than strictly answering what you asked - but hopefully you got some value from the other hints and suggestions.

Haven't for a few years, but same experience as above - a normal day aboard, entertainment program running, all the meals. I found the bars a bit more packed than normal, folks with only one night seem to like making the most of it, but breakfast in the dining room was quieter than a normal disembarkation day (probably because of all the late night partiers who were feeling a bit queasy in the morning!)

8 hours ago, Dwaff85 said:

...don’t fly home until 7pm,...

Just struck me now, sorry, could have added to the first reply - but if you're flying directly back to the UK (or via a European layover airport, just not an American one) you'll be able to eat a pre-flight meal at Salmon'n'Bannock. Their airport location is post-security in the International departures area, unavailable to all the domestic and US travelers - and in theory the prices are the same as the regular resto downtown. Given your awkward timing - you need to leave downtown by no later than ~5:15pm to be able to check your bags - unless you sit down to dinner at 4pm it's either terrible plane food or dine at YVR pre-flight or you!

The original resto has a wider menu of course, but it's outside the usual touristy areas visited so involves a cab or bus ride or a rather lengthy walk from most hotels - so the airport location may be a lot more convenient and it's not a bad cross-section of the their usual fare, with both Elk and Bison options as well as of course salmon dishes (if you're familiar with Scottish Bannocks, the local versions are lighter and fluffier - similar to scone mix but made with oil instead of butter).

Can't say as I've stayed in either to compare the comfiness of mattresses for napping etc., but if all you plan to do is chill in the room why spend a hundred bucks more? You're literally making the same journey to YVR, as the Fairmont is attached, so whether if you cab it or SkyTrain the cost will be the same regardless of the time of day you travel there at (weekend, so 1 zone for all transit all day).

Both hotels cap your room use to 8 hours, and while the Fairmont has slightly more flexibility (until 8pm vs. 6pm) neither is good enough for a flight at 11pm - security is quick, preclearance stops work at 8:30pm, very little is open after security at YVR, so that late you don't need to show up much earlier than an hour preflight.

At least downtown you have more options if you're feeling energetic - heck, just go see a movie and pay CAD instead of USD at home! - and you'll have a hundred bucks extra to pay for brekkie with your buddies you're meeting after the cruise, plus maybe lounge access at YVR for the last couple hours of your day? Or check out at 6, put the savings toward a nice resto for dinner (I'd recommend Nightingale, leaving bags at the hotel while you dine, it's just 2 blocks away), head out to YVR for 9pm (even if you are very nervous travelers, 2 hours is more than sufficient padding for evening flights).

On 3/7/2024 at 2:05 PM, sharon_pei said:

Thank you both! looks like we will have to save Vancouver to next time. 

Or board later - literally the only thing you miss by boarding late is 'free' food & drink for a few hours, and you can catch up on those calories later easily enough! Luggage drop you can do without continuing to check-in - so drop bags, go explore, then come back later.

Boarding late means spending as little time as possible waiting around to get on the ship - arriving at the pier as early as possible means that even if you aee the very first people in line, you will be sitting in the first room waiting to be called for at least an hour, maybe even two. Folks who board in the middle, noonish, are generally the worst off in Vancouver - lots of people arrive by train from Seattle, and on cruise transfer buses from SEA, as well as same-day flights into YVR so the queues get really ridiculous before they start to decline, which does mean showing up early (10:30am at the latest) is less bad than boarding at say 1pm... but you will still wait if you're early because both CBSA and CBP have to agree that the ship has been 'zeroed out' of all incoming pax, including the B2B folks who get first dibs on being processed for re-entry to the US.

Since check-in comes before Security and CBP, it also means that folks with priority on each line get allocated the lowest numbers - as a first-timer, unless you've paid for suites or are traveling on one of the lines that literally let you buy an early boarding slot, even if you are the very first people at the pier you won't be the first to leave the convention hall waiting room... every single one of the folks with some kind of enhanced Status who arrive before boarding actually begins (usually ~11am) will be leaving the big waiting room before all you non-Status folks!

CBP preclearance is the biggest bottleneck - once their room fills up, everyone further back in the line stops moving. So you will generally find that even after being called to leave the waiting room, you will advance in a rather stop-start fashion.

On the other hand, if you shave the margins as tight as possible for last boarding (ensure you are there 2 hours before the ship is supposed to depart - passenger manifests have to be supplied to both Canada and the US, so cut it too close and you may be denied boarding!) you'll have basically zero wait time at any stage of the process. When we roll in at the 2 hour mark we expect to only stop walking when we are speaking to someone behind a desk, scanning IDs at the CBP terminals, or removing belts and whatnot at the security scanners - total time curb to cabin of 20mins or less.

I would much rather do that than show up at 9:30am, sit on a plastic chair for ~90mins plus however long it takes for the priority boarding groups to get called before you, then spend another 30+ minutes actually moving through the big lineups!

We've done the early thing (or first cruise we didn't know any better; our first 'booze included' fancy cruise we went early too, so we could indulge) and frankly unless you value your own time at virtually zero the math just doesn't work - I'd rather pay for another meal ashore and board at 3pm than get on by 11:30 after wasting almost two extra hours of my life waiting around.

There's soooooo much great stuff to do here - and even the stuff you have to pay for is discounted due to CAD vs USD - that even an extra 3 or 4 hours ashore is worthwhile if you haven't visited us before. There's even enough free and cheap stuff within 15mins walk of the pier that you can very safely shave those time margins - no need to worry about traffic, a bridge closure etc. if you leave Gastown or FlyOverCanada or the Harbour Centre until the last hour before you plan to board.

And if you aren't fussed about doing touristy stuff and would rather pamper yourself, the cost of spa treatments here is a fraction of the onboard pricing and frankly generally better quality - BCs massage therapy standards for example are the highest in the developed world, every local RMT has racked up a minimum of 3000 hours of education before they can qualify.

Being local, it's walk to the pier to drop bags ~10am, go for a couples massage, blow a hundred bucks on an absolutely top-notch lunch (still saving us money compared to onboard massages!), head back to the pier for departure-2 hours, saunter onboard all nice & relaxed with no waiting, bags are already in the cabin so we can unpack right away, grab a cocktail for sailaway... that's how we roll!

Edit - oh, and if you really want to you CAN leave the ship after you embark, but it does mean being processed by CBSA (entering Canada again) and then having to re-clear CBP (you might have bought some shiny things that need declared!) to get back on again... unless the rules have changed recently. It's the worst possible use of your time though as even if your second boarding is nice and late and thus quick, you still had to go through the first one on top of it, so I definitely don't recommend it!

1 hour ago, Dwaff85 said:

Hi, 

where can you store your bags in Vancouver? We have a cruise booked for June and don’t fly home until 7pm, we have not decided when we have disembarked so any advice on luggage storage is appreciated.

we are flying in a couple of days pre cruise so will have done some exploring before 😊

If you don't want to book something in advance, the Pan Pacific hotel right above the pier holds bags ($10ea last year, accepts non-guest clients); with your flight time the overpriced official pier storage also works ($13 last year; but reduced price if you book a tour through WestCoast - who run the HOHO as well as various coach tours) as you would need to collect them again by 4pm to get out to YVR (the worst thing about the pier storage is that they shut down at 4:30pm, so it's both the most expensive in the city and craptastic for anyone with a real redeye!) If you are considering a bus tour on your last day though, the price becomes reasonable and the hours work fine for a 7pm flight.

Various local establishments have also signed up with online services like Bounce, Luggage Hero etc. - just google "baggage storage in vancouver BC" and a long list will appear - with prices from about $6 up. Some are limited hours, some are 24/7, some give exact locations in advance and others only an approximate location until booked (like AirBnB etc.) Being local, I've never had to use any local storage so I cannot give a qualitative comparison of the options - but personally I'd only book one that I can see exactly where it is, and the hours operated, before payment!

13 hours ago, DAVID 212 said:

... I am thinking about doing the hop on hop off tour. 

 

By all means ride the HOHO, but be aware that this is a massively overpriced package which you can buy individual parts of easily and save buckets of cash by doing so...

Even without any discounts - which are frequently available online, and worst-case you can literally pick up a flyer with a discount code on at the tourist office just downt the street from the pier - the HOHO 'rack rate' price is CAD$65. Riding SkyTrain to the airport is at most CAD$4.55pp (go after 6:30pm weekdays, or any time on weekends, and that drops to $3.15 - Seniors and kids pay about a buck less per ticket), and you don't even have to use a ticket machine any more... simply tap a Smartphone with wallet enabled or a Visa/MC with the NFC chip to open the gates, do the same when you leave, and the system even does the math for you for the fare price based on day/time traveled!

The only component you cannot replicate these days is moving your bag - but if the markup remains the same this season as in the past, with adult rates of approx. US$80pp, that gives you at least CAD$37pp to pay for storing a bag for the day downtown (no more than $10 per bag) and could be $50pp if you buy the HOHO at a discount. If you really cannot manage to roll your suitcase around at all - as in you always get a porter at the airport and pier - then going DIY won't work, but for anyone capable of rolling their own bags around an airport you can absolutely manage the very short distance involved getting to SkyTrain from the pier (about 400 yards).

If there's two of you, the savings would buy you a cheap lunch AND cab fare to the airport instead of taking the train (expect to pay under CAD$40 unless you're traveling in rush hour). Plus, you won't have to go anywhere to find your bags in an unfamiliar airport!

On 3/5/2024 at 12:40 PM, Cerbiattina said:

... We could get a taxi or the bus afterward and spend the afternoon/early evening at Grouse Mountain. Probably the taxi is quicker. The next day we will have the entire morning free since our flight leaves at 7:00 pm. I was thinking about visiting Gastown and the Chinese Quarter. We are staying at the Westin Bayshore which should be fairly close to the two neighborhoods. Do you think this plan is doable? Do you think it would be nice?...

Doable? Absolutely. Nice? Probably very nice, but I can't really advise on whether there would be even nicer opportunities you miss by visiting these as I don't know your personal tastes! If you're looking for the most generally-popular overview of the city, most bus tours manage to get you around those in ~3-4 hours albeit with very few real stops - the HOHO has the advantage of far more stops, and flexibility in how long you take at them, as well as being priced a little less, but they won't let you take suitcases onboard so popping over to your hotel first (even if room not ready, they should hold bags no problem) is required.

On the practical front, logistics of your listed sites so far - yes, a cab will be quicker than the bus to Grouse almost every time, BUT as soon as you cross a bridge onto the North Shore traffic becomes problematic. Since you're here midweek, both morning and evening rush hours just plain suck - far too many commuters drive from the north shore for the number of bridge lanes! In a bus you might lose time with traffic - but in a cab that meteralso keeps on ticking! Plus, with the one-way roads, cabbies hate calls to pick people up at certain points inside the park (they're driving to you for free!) but then love it when your destination means that you have to circle the park really slowly to get out again, so depending exactly where you are in the park you may find it hard to get a cab to come or the cab fare is already ka-ching before you even leave the park!

Personally, if I were going to combine Stanley Park and Capilano or Grouse same day I'd be inclined to take transit - several services pass through the park and over Lions Gate bridge, and you can transfer to the 232 or 236 bus (which both go to Grouse; most bus drivers are good about helping out with reminders if you ask them when you board where is best to make a transfer). Stops for these buses are just outside the park entrance - very close to your hotel, so if you wanted to pop back to refill water bottles, grab fresh socks, use your own loo etc. it would be convenient.

On the way back down the mountain rather than hustle to meet the last 'free' shuttlebus of the day if you're still enjoying yourselves you could even consider dining up at Grouse - outstanding views of downtown from the Observatory resto. Ride the 236 all the way to Lonsdale Quay - there's a lot of casual but decent dining around the quay, the nearby Shipyards area, and streets between them - then take the Seabus back across to Vancouver for a dirt-cheap extra 'cruise'! Or stop at Capilano on the way down if you're inclined to do even more outdoorsy stuff - they drop their prices in the evening after 5pm, and with sunlight until after 9pm in June there's ample time to see it all without the hordes of bus tours earlier in the day.

Combo bus tours that take you to Cap and Grouse generally run about 5 hours - not quite enough time at either site to do everything, but with an entire day you could easily spend 3+ hours on-site at Grouse, and Cap is easily done in 2hrs if you avoid the worst crowds. It's just Stanley Park that is problematic - even folks very familiar with the park have almost never seen all of it, it's just so darn big at over a thousand acres! The Seawall trail around the outside is over 5 miles - assuming you cut back across via Lost Lagoon to where you started but otherwise don't go anywhere else on the interior. But that means missing Prospect Point, the Rose Garden, Beaver Lake, the Hollow Tree... you could literally walk around the trails for days! Bike rentals are a big win - and your hotel offers free bikes to guests (although limited to 2 hours, and first-come, first-served!) which you could try making use of. Due to the one-way Seawall (no, it's highly unlikely any cops will enforce it, but the sheer insanity of trying to bike headlong into a sea of other cyclists dissuades anyone with an ounce of self-preservation instinct from trying it in summer!) it would probably be best to try and snag bikes at the hotel, do a loop all the way around (even with photostops, 2 hours is plenty) then go do your Grouse etc. and go for a second ride later, or early next morning, to the Rose Garden, Prospect Point, Beaver Lake and any other interior parts - you can ride back out on Pipeline Rd and various trails which are not one-way but do be aware the hill up to Prospect is pretty steep!.

Day two, with a 7pm flight, even if it's to the US I would not show up at YVR before 5pm - if you are very nervous travelers, 3 hours early is the official line for US/Int'l flights but that is only ever needed mid-morning through early afternoon. You can prebook a slot at security for free (I'd suggest doing this for 60mins preflight, so if anything goes wrong and you are running late and barely manage to check your bags in time you can go right to the short security queue... I would be genuinely shocked if security and Preclearance took more than 40mins total around the time you're going to be there) to play safe.

That means you can safely plan to be Doing Stuff Downtown until at least 3pm - even if you're in Chinatown and need to go all the way back to the Bayshore for your bags, you can be out at YVR in an hour total. What to do though?

Honestly, the Things To Do list in Chinatown is very short other than Eat and Shop - see the new Gate and the copy of the old one, the skinniest building, visit the new Storytelling Centre if you want to learn something (an hour or so), visit Dr Sun Yat-Sen garden (if you take the docent guided walk, allow an hour unless you plan to chill and meditate), compare with the free park nextdoor (10 mins if you've already done the 'real' garden).

Gastown has even less in the way of specific sites (the Steamclock requires a visit on the hour for the 'full' show, or any quarter hour for a shorter one, and that's the only specific Thing now that the statue got pulled down - Generic Ye Olde Cobbled Street vibe can be absorbed just walking a couple of blocks on Water St) so it's basically down to again how much shopping or eating you want to do that determines how long you'll need. Touristy T-shirts and the like are cheaper in Chinatown - most cruisers only get as far as Water St on foot and all the shops there are just a wee bit gouge-y in their pricing (never, ever, ever buy Maple Syrup in a tourist shop - Costco is by far the best value if you're a member, but any supermarket you pass by still spanks the souvenir shops - Safeway on Robson would be closest to your hotel).

The good stuff in both 'hoods IMO, other than dining, is what you find out from a tour guide about the history, architecture etc. There are some virtual guides online these days (free city wifi, look for #VanWiFi broadcasting if you don't have free roaming data), lots of paid guides offering private tours, but you could also take a free ('tip what you like') Toonie Tour which run 10am-1pm; get in touch with AIBC to see if they will have one of their superb walking tours running on your dates (pre-Covid this was the most informative $10 you could ever spend!); or reach out to Stroll Buddy to see if a local is available for a free (no tips expected) walk just with your party (2 caveats here - firstly, I'm a Buddy but since it's entirely free I don't feel it's a conflict of interest to inform you about the service; secondly, all Buddies are volunteers so whether any of us are free during your short stay is a bit of a crapshoot - but for the price of ~five minutes of your time to fill out the request form, you might get a private custom tour for zero bucks...)

Personally I'd consider Granville Island to be another of the places which most tourists visit and enjoy - and with your overnight, you have the luxury of not being forced to visit it during the horribly-busy chunk of time that all the pre- and post-cruise bus tours drop people off! While the Public Market is a great place to lunch in theory - soooooo many food options - it's a far more pleasant place to visit either as soon as the shops start opening (9am is good), or mid-afternoon and later (there's a comedy club, a theatre, various restos open at night) when you can stroll the streets and especially the interiors of the shops without feeling like you're the filling in a tourist sandwich!

Regardless of your tastes, I would also plan for a Rainy Day Alternate unless you are happy wandering around in the rain - many of us locals use the term 'June-uary' as it seems that we quite often get a rather toasty warm dry chunk of time in May but then have a string of several days of drearier, drizzly weather come June. You should of course be packing layers anyway for your cruise, but especially if the 6th is wet you might not want to get too damp when you have to load yourselves onto a plane rather than having a night to let wet socks etc. dry out.

Various general and more-niche museums and art galleries abound; Scienceworld, the Aquarium, and the indoor bits of Granville Island might entice more than outdoor parks and gardens when the liquid sunshine is flowing!

Sorry if this just adds more work for you in your planning - but with less than two full days it's crucial to prioritise, see the places and do the things that YOU like most rather than what Joe Q Public says a visitor to Vancouver 'must do'... there's no such thing as a must do tourist site, so the more research you do now to figure out which of the many options in our fair city appeal most to you, the better time you'll have here!

10 hours ago, Kingsmom said:

I just double booked both the YMCA and the Blue Horizon for early July. The YMCA ended being $1 more. Is there any reason to choose one over the other?  

If they're that close in price, BH - it gives you a view and a bigger room ( every room is a corner). While there have been a few reports of service standards dropping since Covid, the location is also a little superior for cruisers and first-timers.

Personally I think the walkability of the YWCA is better for food - though there are some genuinely excellent restos close to BH too - and it's nearer Gastown/Chinatown/Yaletown, but English Bay and Stanley Park are closer to BH, plus there's a stop right outside for the Capilano shuttle and the HOHO bus which are both very popular things to do.

The pier is very slightly closer to BH - and if you planned to walk, any vaguely direct route is fine from BH whereas the most direct walking route from the Y would pass through a couple of pretty seedy intersections, and some folks are more comfortable avoiding such things.

Whether BH have started cutting their prices to entice back some of the folks who were a bit disappointed with them post-Covid, or the Y has finally started pricing more reflectiveky of its excellent standards, I'm still a bit shocked that the pricing matches!

In case it doesn't work out finding an alternate OP @dmacleod, we've stayed at that LaQ a couple of times and found that it was actually a great hotel for us - the lack of pubs/clubs/restos very close by meant it was the quietest Seattle hotel we ever stayed in!!!

Yeah, you might need to do a bit of walking or cabubering around - but a $10 ride gets you to a shedload of nice places in the 'hoods already mentioned above and it sounds like you'd have to spend a lot more than the price of some cabs to swap hotels!

If you haven't already checked (it sells out regularly) the YWCA Hotel is usually the cheapest downtown option, as well as one of the best-reviewed at any price... it's also one of the closest to the train station (although given how small the downtown core is, staying in the furthest hotels would barely be an extra 10mins cab ride...)

Otherwise, if you can handle schlepping bags up stairs there are a couple of older properties with decent reviews just lacking in froo-froo stuff like elevators 😉 The Buchan remains 'cheap & cheerful' across the board, but The Victorian seems to be positioning itself as Ye Olde Authentice Heritagee Hotele these days with fancy mattresses and linens and trying to call shared bathrooms 'a European Experience' - their rates aren't as good a deal as it used to be, but the lack of en suites and elevators puts enough people off that they are still often much cheaper than others.

+1 to what Andy said - there's parking right at the pier for ~$25/day, you won't save much at all anywhere else downtown (indeed, some other lots are even pricier!) Longterm airport works out around $13 a day, with a SkyTrain station literally in the longterm lot which you can take downtown for ~$9pp... depending on group size though, cab fare might be very reasonable (fixed rate per vehicle of $37 to most of downtown, $41 to pier) so with 4 bums on seats only a couple of bucks pp more than SkyTrain...

You could try for suburban hotels with longterm parking rates though - e.g. the local chain Accent Inns has a Burnaby and Airport location. I don't think they offer 'park & cruise' deals anymore, but that's not a problem for groups (it added a shuttle ride into town on the already-running local 'milk run to the pier' service that booked separately is poor value for anyone except a solo at about $20pp - i.e. 2 people cost as much as a cab which you can fit potentially four in!)

YWCA Hotel also offers unique 5-bed rooms as well as regular hotel type 1 & 2 bed rooms - if you plan to stay for a while and do some touristy stuff, a downtown hotel location is more convenient and the Y is usually less than airport hotels anyway!

2 minutes ago, jlawrence01 said:

I am staying in Richmond, BC about a block from the SkyTrain.  How feasible will it be to use it to Canada Place.  Is there a place to hold on to the luggage for the 35 minute ride on a Sunday morning??

 

I have used rapid transit to get to airports and it is hard to carry luggage on some of them. 

If you're boarding at Richmond-Brighouse it should be just as easy as at YVR (another terminus station, so almost nobody stays onboard, and a longer delay from train arriving to when it departs again which gives you ample time to slide your big cases under the seats)

If it's one of the other stations on the Brighouse fork, e.g. Aberdeen which has the Radisson just across the way, then every additional station will add some bodies but Sunday morning shouldn't be too bad in terms of commuter numbers; I'd say that finding a seat is still likely but you'll only have about 30 seconds to stash your cases underneath (there are no luggage racks, but every seat has significant legroom and space underneath as well - if you're short then a big case may even fit between your knees and the back of the seat ahead so you can get away without slipping it underneath).

Bridgeport station is the only one in Richmond I'd be at all worried about - because you'll have all the YVR folks aboard every second train, so lots of fellow suitcase folks plus perhaps a few early shoppers at the big airport mall also taking up space with their purchases. If it's the River Rock casino hotel you're staying in and the first train is packed, wait for the next one - they alternate as to which fork they're from so it should be mostly regular Richmond commuters on the next train, far fewer suitcases.

Worst case, you can always ride it backwards to either terminus standing up then when everyone else piles off you can claim a seat, stash your bag, and ride it to Waterfront. The actual ride time is only 25mins on the Brighouse fork, 26mins from YVR, all the way to the Waterfront end so if you were expecting to take 35 you've got a bit of padding to skip a train or take a cheeky backwards trip!

2 minutes ago, kayehall said:

What would you recommend for dinner that evening?  Maybe room service since we have a Sunset Veranda?

Sure, if the weather's nice enough to dine outside the timing would be great to do that while crusing the IP; or perhaps a 'pay extra' resto which would likely be a smaller room, proportionately more window tables? But unless you're really late eaters, sunset in June is probably more 'take a cocktail to somewhere with a nice view' and with just a drink in hand you can wander the decks to find the best viewing spot ("Oh no, woe is me, the sun is setting over on the portside but the scenery off starboard is even prettier!" means being somewhere up top where you can see both sides is better than almost any balcony, even a corner... And if some a**hole dolphins decide to start playing in the bow wave at sunset you really need as close to a 360 view as possible to see it all!!!! 😉)

If the sun's up and the temperature is tolerable, you should be outside - if the temp isn't tolerable, you should have brought more layers of clothes 😉

Some of the narrowest, most spectacular land-on-both-sides views of your entire cruise are on that first day (and in June, especially around the solstice, you'll have until ~9:30pm for sunset and then a good chunk of viable twilight scenery-watching even after that!)

12 minutes ago, JLMcruise said:

...We enjoy a restaurant in Gastown  thinking of stopping there for an early lunch (can't get good clams in the Rockies) and then grabbing an Uber to the station - Do you recommend a good place for clams - I will be your new best friend...LOL

Love me a nice clam dish! Fried, strips, bellies, baked, chowder (well, not that heathen Manhattan nonsense with tomato, blech!), spaghetti (oddly enough no problem with tomato based sauces and pasta, just not soup!) - though given my druthers, I'd eat razor clams every time in preference to regular manillas (fortunately I can usually find them pretty easily along the Oregon coast in Mom & Pops, even some chains).

Unfortunately all open-at-lunch clam places I would have personally recommended near the pier closed during or not long after the 'vid. I can still give you one reliable downtown location, Rodney's Oyster House in Yaletown - they offer both the good and bad kind of chowder, plus two pounds(!) of steamed manilla clams, on their lunch menu. I've got plenty of friends who love Rodneys, never had a food issue, I just find the resto a bit loud so only go if I've been invited by one of the folks who love it.

You can also get Ivar's chowder onboard the Amtrak, I think $5 a bowl in the bistro car these days - a couple of bowls would make a passable dinner onboard if you really want to slam as many clams as possible in a day 😉 

2 minutes ago, Scrapbookhappy11 said:

@Ferry_Watcher I have already made reservations with Mediterrenan Inn. I will figure it out when I get there.  Thanks for your help! Appreciate it. 

While I'm sure you'd have gotten a useful reply from F_W, we've literally done exactly what you want to - stayed at the Med while coming in from Seatac on the light rail!

There are transit options to get you closer, but we weighed the additional hassle of schlepping bags on buses or using the monorail and walking the ~half-mile across Seattle Center's greenspace, and in the end we decided to keep it simple, disembarked the train at Westlake then took a cab (~1.5 miles, ~$10 on the meter without traffic). A little under $20 for both of us, compared to over double that plus tip for the fixed rate cars from Seatac - though if we'd been traveling heavily laden with more than 1 modest suitcase case each we'd have taken a car all the way (and if there's 3 or 4 of you rather than a couple, I would just say take a car even if you are counting pennies carefully...)

1 hour ago, trivia addict said:

... the Amtrak station while clean and safe is in the middle of nowhere and has almost no real food or drink options. ...

There are certainly train stations around the world with more and swankier on-site food options than Pac Central, which only has three which are all pretty casual (A&W, a sushi joint, and a coffee shop) - but that's still three more than Seattle's King St!

As to 'middle of nowhere' - Thornton Park with its many trees does a great job at making the station feel a bit isolated, and obviously the corridor eastward for the railway lines stays mostly light industrial for a mile or two, but Main Street is literally the other side of Thornton Park. It has several indy restos just in the 1 block immediately north of the park, with at least a dozen more if you head another couple of blocks north or south; Chinatown and the Athlete's Village are both less than 800 yards which adds dozens more dining options; for drink, two pubs and several coffee shops within less than 400 yards (personally I'd walk further to Johnny Fox's - much better food than the Ivanhoe, worth the extra 150yds!); I'm not even counting purely fastfood in those resto counts - two different Tim Hortons, a McDs, Subway, and another A&W are all within two blocks, as well as the White Spot at Science World which sells via a window to folks who haven't bought a ticket. Even with in the very industrial Flats area around the tracks there's a bunch of art galleries and breweries these days, and some food carts always appear around the station at lunchtime.

Baggage storage on site open at 6am allowing a leisurely wander without bags - and you can usually check bags well over an hour before the evening train departs if some sort of takeout food on the train for dinner appeals more than the bistro car (which I've always found decent and not too overpriced).

Next time you're in town, reach out - unless I'm out of town myself I'd be happy to let you stash your bags at my condo and show you around the 'hood a little, including the best value foodie sit-down lunch spot in the city (I don't like to spread the world online, it's already busy enough, but I always take visitors - CAD cash or Interac only, but I'll swap you for greenbacks at current FX rate since we can use 'em in Portland!)

Same goes for OP @JLMcruise - we'll almost certainly be home the first couple of weeks in May, even if DH can only handle short walks with places to sit-down between legs there's a ton of quirky stuff most visitors never see close to the station (first nations longhouse, hundreds of murals, some of our best local coffee and beer, all sorts of stuff) I'd be happy to show you. Unless you got well off the beaten track on those prior visits, likely a whole different side of city for you!

21 hours ago, JLMcruise said:

Just looking at the schedule and price.... seems pretty reasonable but the train doesn't arrive in Seattle until 9:00pm. Does anyone know if the train station is a "safe place'' for older folks at night? We would get a hotel. A new adventure!  Thanks for the info!

I wouldn't be worried about arriving at King St station - cabs pull up right outside, so whatever hotel you book you won't need to worry about wandering the streets downtown!

There is also a morning train (even though your ship in theory docks at 5am the hours that CBSA work mean you probably won't be able to actually disembark until ~7am at the earliest so it only works after at least one night in Vancouver) and a few bus-based options including one that leaves right from the pier at 9am (QuickShuttle) which cruisers find convenient (NB: pricing does tend to be higher than the buses which run from the regular station plus cab fare to that station from the pier as soon as more than 1 person is being priced up, but if you are dealing with mobility problems the extra bucks might feel well-spent).

But since you're here already, with time and money to spare originally allocated to the second leg of the cruise, maybe consider spending a little time here after the now-only-leg? Chances are that local hotels, food etc. for the full 6 nights of the original second cruise would work out a lot pricier, but you might be able to find a cheaper day to swap your flight home to if you went midweek, so a night or two or three here in Vancouver before Amtraking to Seattle might make a decent consolation for losing out on your expected B2B?

They're both going to give you a guarantee of whale sightings, but Juneau has a lot more alternatives available - so unless you are mad keen to do either the huge zipline or a bear tour in ISP, there's pretty much nothing else except a whalewatch in ISP that would eat more than an hour (wandering into Hoonah proper is quick and easy, there's a cultural dance performance at the pier several times a day IIRC, and the cannery that the cruise tender dock was built from has a 'museum' which is basically like a Disney ride queue zone, various little exhibits to look at as you shuffled slowly along waiting to board your tender - now that there's a proper pier so you won't have that experience unless you're unlucky enough to be on a multi-ship-day it would take maybe 15minutes to read all the signs in the building)

21 hours ago, akyraty said:

Very helpful post and responses.

 

If I may also piggy back on to this -Our original departure was 8pm - now postponed to 1AM - however still all aboard by 5pm.

 

We will drop off luggage 11am, staying at PanPacific the night prior.

Is there time enough to visit Granville Island? Specifically the zodiak tour finishing around 3pm.

Would we make it back to port by 5pm via Public Transit on a Thursday eve?

 

When I saw reference to other side of the bridge, I'm rethinking my plan.

Thanks again.

Firstly, being a Torontonian you'll likely be awake at oh-dark-hundred thanks to your body clock so you should take advantage of that extra local-time hour or two! And unlike others, you don't even have to check your own bags so no need to wait for the drop to open, early or regular... hand over your bags in your room to one of the bell staff, it's one of the perks of being in the PP. Others have posted pics in prior seasons of the little reminder card you may find in your room, which helpfully gives the suggested tip per bag for this service - you do need to ask for the service the night before, so I'd just do that as soon as you have your room number at check-in.

Secondly, Granville 'Island' despite the name isn't one - it's firmly attached to shore, just on the wrong side of False Creek. You can ride the 50 bus back to the core for dirt-cheap in <30mins, or take one of the wee water taxis for about $4 across to the right side of the creek and walk <3klicks total, or walk about half again as far if you walk over a bridge (you have to backtrack a lot up a hill to reach deck level). Long story short, it's WAY less risky than being at e.g. Capilano, over Lions Gate with its notorious traffic disasters on a regular basis.

I would have zero worries about getting from GI to the pier with 2 hours in hand - but I would not be taking a small boat trip right before that deadline! Anything at all goes awry on that boat ride and who knows how long you bob around awaiting a tow or transfer, or how much extra time limping back to port takes... unless it's a tour around the city's waterfront, rather than say up Howe Sound, in which case you'd never be far from somewhere to land and call a cab or even hop on a bus back to downtown and there would be loads of other boats around to lend a hand.

If it is an out-of-town tour, and the same tour goes in the morning, take THAT one - you could easily walk from the PP to GI to board it before 9am. Every time we fly back here from TeeDot we're up at 6am next day whether we want to be or not, so if you make use of the PPs bag delivery you could be out hunting down a decent brekkie by 7am easily, and have plenty time to either walk the long way or have a nice wander around GIs industrial achitecture while you wait until boat-boarding time...

To illustrate, here's a Google map with the default 'walking' route from PP to GI (not sure which pier your boat would leave from, but most of the tours tend to be on the side of the island I ended the map at, and while you do need to use a water taxi it's almost a straight line!) - flip it to Transit to see the bus route, choose Option: Avoid Ferries to see the longer routes all-on-foot. In T.O. terms, it's pretty much like visiting Centreville from somewhere near Union Station in terms of distance/difficulty to get back to the core (i.e. about 4Klicks, could use transit or just walk it, best to spend a few bucks for a boat unless you're a great swimmer!)