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Victoria Harbour Ferry

raider23

By raider23,
in Canada (Alaska/Pacific Coastal)

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raider23

raider23

Posted
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Has anyone used the water taxis for sightseeing in Vicoria. We will be aboard the Grand Princess in May next year from 7 am - 2 pm. Is the walk to get on the ferry close? I will be traveling with my wife who has back issues and my mother who is 75. It looks like a great way for us to see both the Empress Hotel and Fisherman's Wharf. Any and all help/info is appreciated!:)

Thanks in advance

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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The Victoria Harbour Ferries don't get a lot of play on these forums but yes they are a super way to sightsee in Victoria. Victoria metro's pop is only about 350K and the city itself is only about 85k so as may imagine the downtown is quite compact so as you can imagine you can see a lot from the little ferries. If there is something that you would like to get off and see then that is certainly an option. The one caveat is that our weather in May can be a bit cool and perhaps rainy so I would suggest you may care to have a plan B...just in case.:)

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airheadfan

airheadfan

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This year and hopefully next year as well there was a 40 passenger ferry from Ogden Point (where your ship will dock) to the Inner Harbor with a stop at Fisherman's Wharf. I tried it out and you get a very nice introduction to Victoria from the water, and the ferry docks right in the harbor, almost in front of the Legislature and close to the Empress.

 

It is a short walk from your ship to the ferry dock - it is near where the pilot boats dock. This year the cost was only $5 but might be more next year - good value at either price.

 

As a local I really enjoyed the trip and if I was a visitor I think this would be a great introduction to Victoria. Much better than taking a shuttle bus.

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cruiselvr1

cruiselvr1

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This year and hopefully next year as well there was a 40 passenger ferry from Ogden Point (where your ship will dock) to the Inner Harbor with a stop at Fisherman's Wharf. I tried it out and you get a very nice introduction to Victoria from the water, and the ferry docks right in the harbor, almost in front of the Legislature and close to the Empress.

 

It is a short walk from your ship to the ferry dock - it is near where the pilot boats dock. This year the cost was only $5 but might be more next year - good value at either price.

 

As a local I really enjoyed the trip and if I was a visitor I think this would be a great introduction to Victoria. Much better than taking a shuttle bus.

Do you have to make reservations?

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airheadfan

airheadfan

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No reservations - from the Ogden Point departure point just get on the boat and the attendant takes your money. Coming back from the Inner Harbor there is a ticket kiosk just above where you board.

 

The ferry was not well advertised this year, and according to the attendant when I was on, most of the passengers were locals curious about the service rather than cruise ship passengers.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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The ferry was not well advertised this year, and according to the attendant when I was on, most of the passengers were locals curious about the service rather than cruise ship passengers.

 

I am very inclined to agree with you, in fact I don't think they have ever done much of a job advertising. They tend to be so low in my mind's eye that I probably only mention them once a year when responding to posts of people wondering what to do in Victoria. It's really to bad because they do a great job and on a nice day you would be hard pressed to find anything better to do.

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notentirelynormal

notentirelynormal

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I am very inclined to agree with you, in fact I don't think they have ever done much of a job advertising. They tend to be so low in my mind's eye that I probably only mention them once a year when responding to posts of people wondering what to do in Victoria. It's really to bad because they do a great job and on a nice day you would be hard pressed to find anything better to do.

 

Well, after reading this I tried to find info. Without having the info I had here I would never have found it but even with it I wasted about 15 minutes and still came away with feeling I had learned nothing. Very poorly advertised.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Not hard to find but getting information on the ferry from Ogden Point to the Inner Harbor is not obvious. This link should take you to the James Bay Explorer, and the photo shows how close the ferry dock is to the cruise ships.

 

http://www.victoriaharbourferry.com/tours-services/james-bay-explorer

 

You are correct of course, we with any knowledge of Victoria know this, however being the devil's advocate, you as a cruise ship pax from Podunck,ID is arriving at the Victoria cruise dock...at best he knows hey is visiting Victoria and just maybe he is landing at Ogden Point.....who knows anything about James Bay. Me thinks that Harbour Ferries haven't done themselves any favours.:)

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notentirelynormal

notentirelynormal

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You are correct of course, we with any knowledge of Victoria know this, however being the devil's advocate, you as a cruise ship pax from Podunck,ID is arriving at the Victoria cruise dock...at best he knows hey is visiting Victoria and just maybe he is landing at Ogden Point.....who knows anything about James Bay. Me thinks that Harbour Ferries haven't done themselves any favours.:)

 

Thanks for this Putterdude. I think it is only easy to find if you know exactly what you are looking for. I was born in Vancouver and have been to Victoria numerous times as a child. As an adult I have visited mostly by the Twawassen (sp) ferry or cruise ship. I never even knew it existed until this thread. I had to do some serious looking to find it.

 

Like any place, you know what is there if you live there. Come to my town and you will have difficulty looking up things to see and do without knowing the name or even what it is you want to do. It's like proving a negative. I'm sure that airheadfan and cruiseryyc didn't mean it but frankly it came across as condescending.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Like any place, you know what is there if you live there. Come to my town and you will have difficulty looking up things to see and do without knowing the name or even what it is you want to do. It's like proving a negative. I'm sure that airheadfan and cruiseryyc didn't mean it but frankly it came across as condescending.

 

Speaking of condescending, I don't have a clue where Oak Park, CA is but I just drove some 500+ miles through the smog and gunk or what ever was south of Redding and I am very happy to be in Fort Mohave, now look that up in your Funk & Wagnall atlas.:D.

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cruiseryyc

cruiseryyc

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Like any place, you know what is there if you live there. Come to my town and you will have difficulty looking up things to see and do without knowing the name or even what it is you want to do. It's like proving a negative. I'm sure that airheadfan and cruiseryyc didn't mean it but frankly it came across as condescending.

 

You're correct, I did not mean it to sound condescending - my apologies.

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notentirelynormal

notentirelynormal

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No worries on my part. I really did spend about 15 minutes trying to find out information. Information that I would never have found except for the comments here.

 

Putterdude I live in an upscale neighborhood in Ventura County just outside of LA county. NO ONE know where Oak Park is. The vast area is known as Belair West. It is not unusual for a movie guy or sport figure to be sitting next to you at a restaurant. My point on this is that saying it is easy to figure out what to do and how to look it up is easy .... when you know what you are looking up.

 

Look, we all have things we are comfortable about. I get it. But making it sound like people should know about it.... not so much. In 20 minutes I can be in Malibu. Everyone knows Malibu. But... what is actually to do IN Malibu?

 

Thank you cruiseryyc for you comments. Really, I do appreciate it.

 

I'll say a while ago, I asked for some information on the skytrain. I made the mistake of saying Prince George Highway (the little guy was in all the People's magazines) instead of King George Highway. The comment I got back was when you can figure out where you are to come back and ask for advise. Really?! I said South Surrey. The poster KNEW what I meant but was a jerk.

 

Again, thank you cruiseryyc for stepping up to the plate.

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Cruise_More_Often

Cruise_More_Often

Posted
Posted (edited)
Has anyone used the water taxis for sightseeing in Vicoria. We will be aboard the Grand Princess in May next year from 7 am - 2 pm. Is the walk to get on the ferry close? I will be traveling with my wife who has back issues and my mother who is 75. It looks like a great way for us to see both the Empress Hotel and Fisherman's Wharf. Any and all help/info is appreciated!:)

Thanks in advance

Raider23, I have never seen (or even heard of) the ferry from Ogden Point into Victoria. However, we have used the little Harbour Ferry numerous times to get from Fisherman's Wharf to or from downtown, and we have also done their Gorge Tour. Both of those tours are shown on the Harbour Ferry Website here. Fisherman's Wharf is a few blocks from the cruise ship terminal (at Ogden Point), so depending upon how far your mom can walk, you could start your tour at Fisherman's Wharf. Otherwise, you could take one of the buses right outside the ship terminal and go into town, then get on the harbour ferry right across the street from the Empress Hotel.

 

I think you'd love seeing Victoria from the water.

 

Here's a map showing the walking trip from Ogden Point, which is right next to the Heliport, to Fisherman's Wharf:

 

Capture-M.jpg

 

If you like fish and chips, I recommend Barb's at Fisherman's Wharf. No matter what we do, we always stop their for either lunch or dinner.

Edited by Cruise_More_Often
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raider23

raider23

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I received a response from Victoria Harbour Ferry regarding pick up service from ship terminal (James Bay Explorer) as follows:

 

 

We are closed now for the season and will be re-opening at the beginning of March. 2015 was the first year for the “James Bay Explorer” service (40 passenger shuttle) so we need to look at how it went before committing to another year. If this service continues next season, we won't have the schedule or pricing for it until next season.

 

We do have a water taxi service (H2O Taxi) that drops passengers off all around Victoria's Inner Harbour. The closest H2O taxi stop to the cruise ships is at Fisherman's Wharf which is about a 15 min walk from Ogden Point. Take a look at our website map http://www.victoriaharbourferry.com/destinations. On the map legend you will see "H2O Taxi Service" with a yellow icon with a boat on it. Our water taxi will take you anywhere you see that icon. It costs $5/adult to go from Fisherman's Wharf to Causeway Marina (the heart of downtown Victoria). If you would like to know the pricing of any other taxi hops, take a look at our fare calculator and enter in the stops that you are interested in traveling to/from. http://www.victoriaharbourferry.com/ferry-stops-fares/fares

 

Hopefully they will have this back in place as I believe a lot of cruise ship passengers would use it.

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twins_to_alaska

twins_to_alaska

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Just in case you are not aware, there are specialized threads on each port stop and cruisers post all sorts of information, recommendations, and Q&A's on port stops and you might find what looking for there - and more.

 

Could you please share the link for the Victoria thread? I haven't been able to find it. thanks!

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yyjguy

yyjguy

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A word of caution. The poster mentioned a travelling companion with back issues, and other that was elderly. If you use the marine shuttle, there is no way to avoid a very steep climb up out of harbour to street level. The ramp is very steep and the staircases are rather long. Street level is up much higher than the floats. A shuttle or taxi totally avoids climbs of any kind. Just saying!!

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