Amtrak Cascades on the morning of an Alaskan Cruise

[Robinsoncruiseso]

We take the train from Bellingham (last stop on the US side) frequently to board in Vancouver. We have never had any issues. Taking the train to Seattle next weekend to board in Seattle. I have found the morning train to be quite reliable.

 

If there is a substancial delay, Amtrak will usually send a bus. It will take about 15 minutes after you clear customs at the Vancouver station to reach Canada Place if you take the skytrain.

 

Boltbus also goes from Seattle to Vancouver (train st. to train st.)

 

A car rental may be the easiest. You could drive about north after you land and stop before the border (Burlington, Bellingham, Ferndale) then cross the border in the morning and you should have no issues.

 

Good luck and enjoy Alaska!!

[Jmariab64]

Thank you all very much for the input!

 

For martincath, I'm relieved to hear that the Cascades trains are largely on time. I'm very concerned about driving in an unfamiliar area at night-especially as I don't have any noticeable sense of direction-to another unfamiliar area. I'd much prefer to take the train, and just get a taxi outside of the station, especially since it's already paid for ;)

 

For Robinsoncruiseso, I hope your trip goes smoothly! Buses would work for me, too.

 

For Langley Cruisers, I have the train booked for the return trip as well, so if I end of taking a different means of transportation to Vancouver, I can (hopefully) still take it on the way back.

 

For Nic6318, thanks for the reminder about the rental car rules!

 

For ShipsandDipper, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, too, probably for the whole trip :)

 

For reallyitsmema, thanks for the info about the seating!

 

For EGG, I'm not actually concerned about getting the seat. I'm concerned about the train making it to Vancouver on time!

 

For mtwingcpa, it would be nice if the shuttles were running at a time that would work for us, which isn't the case, but it sounds as if they have delays, too.

 

And for Keroppi2011, a quick border crossing would be great!

 

Thanks again, everyone, for all your help! I'm so glad I stumbled onto this site! :)

[mtwingcpa]

For mtwingcpa, it would be nice if the shuttles were running at a time that would work for us, which isn't the case, but it sounds as if they have delays, too.

 

FWIW, I always take the first Quickshuttle bus in the morning. In my experience they do get delayed long the way, but the earliest bus should nevertheless get you to the pier in plenty of time.

 

Plus, that company is really focused on serving the cruise market. On one of my trips with them, they realized they were falling behind, and therefore had an extra bus meet us at Red Rocks Casino where they transferred the passengers on one particular sailing so that they could go directly to the pier (skipping any other scheduled stops). In my case, I was bussing in the day before my sailing, so I had no problem. But I was impressed with how they made the effort!

[Jmariab64]

Thanks! That's also great to know!

Edited September 6, 2015 by Jmariab64

[cruznjan]

We've taken the Cascades twice day of, and had no problems.

[EGG]

Here is a recent thread on the west coast departure boards about taking the train. If you search by putting in a search word on the right side of the blue stripe towards the top of the page you might be able to find more on the topic. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221444&highlight=train

[Jmariab64]

Thanks so much!

[reallyitsmema]

We are back so here is the scoop on our trip on the Amtrak Cascades. We got to the train station around 6:10am, we were among the first five people in the building. Ticket office opens at 6:15, luggage area was just getting their act together. A very helpful security guard told us where we needed to line up for business class. We went and sat in line until they started assigning tickets at 6:45. We would have been fine to get there closer to 6:30. Boarding started at 7:20 and the train left on time. The single seats were on the left side of the train in the business class car, not the two side by side as I have read on cruise critic. I sat in a forward facing seat and my DH sat facing me so he rode backwards the whole way. He didn't mind it but we would take the two seats together in the future since we had limited foot space since you are sharing the same area, the single seats have no cup holders and also no tray table. We did have a large window with beautiful views, but we would have been fine looking from the other side of the aisle.

 

There is free wifi until you reach the Canadian border. The coffee in the dining car was actually not bad. The bagel sandwiches were not good at all, I wish I had brought our own breakfast as we had originally planned.

 

Our train was on time. Business class gets off first. All luggage is unloaded and along a fence as you get off. You just grab yours and head to customs. There is no waiting for luggage as I had read on a different thread. Four customs agents were working the day we arrived and they were very quick. There were very few taxis out front and we had to wait about ten minutes for more to show up. We took the taxi to the Marriott Pinnacle and were checked in and in our hotel room before 1pm. Our hotel was a five minute cab ride from Canada Place.

 

All in all it was an enjoyable ride. I would not have an issue taking Cascades the morning of a cruise. There were people in our car who were headed to a Carnival ship and had taken the train in the past with no issues.

 

Not sure what your final decision was but if you choose the train, I hope it is as enjoyable as our ride.

[Jmariab64]

Thanks so much for posting your experience! I hope you had a great trip!

[Cruisin' Chick]

One thing I didn't see any mention of but would be a concern if your cruise is a northbound (rather than round trip) one out of Vancouver: if you miss the ship in Vancouver, you won't be able to bound the ship at a later port because you won't have the foreign port to satisfy the PVSA.

 

I would reserve using the train for when you're coming in a day early.

 

We did take the Coast Starlight between Oxnard, CA and Seattle and it was late four hours each way. But if we had booked the train for a few days later, we wouldn't have been able to take the train straight through as there had been a fire in a tunnel in Oregon. Those passengers had to get off the train south of the tunnel, take a bus (I've heard it was a 9 hour trip for this portion) to detour around that point, and reboard north of the fire.

[Jmariab64]

Ugh. That would be my luck. Thanks for the info, though!

[kiwimum]

Just returned from a repo out of Vancouver to San Pedro. We spent a week at our home in Bainbridge and then rented a car from Seatac to Vancouver airport, did not want to deal with the drop off at the cruiseport. Originally booked a Thrifty car at $104, picking up on Saturday at Seatac dropping Sunday at Vancouver. Checked the night before leaving Bainbridge and found an Alamo car for $46. Thrifty lines were horrendous, Alamo in and underway in 20 mins. Alamo printed a contract off at the exit from the parking structure for customs. No issues with border crossing. Crossed at 10:00am, on the ship by 12:30. We used skytrain from yvr to Canada place.

 

Travelling companions booked train from LA to Vancouver . Due to a fatality on the line on Seattle train was terminated. They, along with others spent the night in the station at Seattle and then were transferred the following day via bus to Vancouver. They were unable to continue via train as it was overbooked for the morning transit to Vancouver.

 

Keep in mind the number of ships in port Vancouver. The port is extremely poor at handling 3 ships at once. If, and at this time, slim chance that I will cruise out of Vancouver again with multiple ships in port allow at least 3 hours to board no matter what your status or ship.

[Langley Cruisers]

Again, I reiterate that we would never, ever arrive the day of embarkation - too many things can go wrong. Just because we hear of a wonderful trip with plenty of time to spare, doesn't mean it always works out for everyone. :(

.

[Jmariab64]

Thanks, everyone!

 

I love hearing about your experiences, even if they sound scary!

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks, everyone!

 

I love hearing about your experiences, even if they sound scary!

 

Don't be scared off by a few tough experiences. People tend to post bad experiences more than they post good experiences. Our cruise sailed on a Friday, many on our rollcall took Amtrak Cascades all week long starting on Tuesday. I have not heard of one bad experience from anyone on our sailing. Cascades seemed to be a topic of discussion at our pre-sailing gathering in the Schooner Bar since so many really enjoyed the trip.

 

Do what makes you feel the most comfortable and own it!

 

Just make sure you come back and tell us how it went, whether good or bad.:)