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arriving after 8:00PM Vancouver Canada Place


skings
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Okay Martincath you advised us not to do it but we did anyway LOL Our V2V ferry has rescheduled all

passengers on Victoria to Vancouver route to depart Victoria 4:00PM. Arriving 7:30PM. We are booked for last day of ferry running. again LOL. My question to you is, Taxi availability running from ferry to our hotel Pinnacle Harbour on Hastings St. We will opt for room service since sit down would be too late.

 

All of our plans were thought out very carefully but assume nothing. Have nightmares of ferry being cancelled and we are stranded in Victoria. Of course there are seaplanes and BC ferries but all this limits our time in Vancouver. Upside another 1/2 day in Victoria. Please let us know if you hear about cancellation of this route before Oct 15th (last day). They did say they would transfer our reservation to BC ferries but promised that they would be running until Oct 15th. Our cruise on Eurodam departs Oct 17th.:):eek:

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Okay Martincath you advised us not to do it but we did anyway LOL Our V2V ferry has rescheduled all

passengers on Victoria to Vancouver route to depart Victoria 4:00PM. Arriving 7:30PM. We are booked for last day of ferry running. again LOL. My question to you is, Taxi availability running from ferry to our hotel Pinnacle Harbour on Hastings St. We will opt for room service since sit down would be too late.

 

All of our plans were thought out very carefully but assume nothing. Have nightmares of ferry being cancelled and we are stranded in Victoria. Of course there are seaplanes and BC ferries but all this limits our time in Vancouver. Upside another 1/2 day in Victoria. Please let us know if you hear about cancellation of this route before Oct 15th (last day). They did say they would transfer our reservation to BC ferries but promised that they would be running until Oct 15th. Our cruise on Eurodam departs Oct 17th.:):eek:

Interesting! I'll give V2V this - they aren't scared of changing their schedules around!!! At least you booked the day before, rather than the noonish arrival on day of cruise, and have a couple of days padding. Taxi drivers are generally not idiots - any form of transport that rolls in only a few times a day or less (buses, train, V2V) will have at least a few cabs lurking. But considering your hotel is less than 300 yards away regardless of which Pinnacle it is on Hastings, and there's an elevator inside the complex that takes you up to the Convention Centre and street level, I'd walk - it will be faster! By the time you walk to the nearest street where a cab can collect you, you only have to walk two blocks or less...

 

Unfortunately I won't be able to help notify you as we'll be en route to New Zealand then - but you shouldn't trust me or anyone else to let you know about your travel plans being impacted at short notice anyway;-) If you won't have data on your phones, just make use of free internet in hotel/cafes. Weather-related problems will have at least a day or two of obvious bad weather warnings beforehand so you can start to prepare 'just in case' plans, but unfortunately any weather bad enough to stop regular ferries means no flights either - and V2Vs Cat is more stable. Victoria itself is much more prone to high wind issues than Swartz Bay - but cruise ships are huge so wind batters them much worse than a low and wide Cat...

 

Whichever Pinnacle you are in has an in-house resto with service until at least 9:30pm (as in, you can book a table for that time - they'll serve up until about 11pm).

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Thank you! Didnt realize that hotel was so close. We will download all apps including weather so that we can monitor variables. Hopefully weather will cooperate and all else will go smoothly.

 

Have a wonderful trip to New Zealand. Thanks again for all the great tips and info you have shared

 

Sandra

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm taking the V2V back from Victoria next weekend, so I'll let you know if there's any snags along the way! This will be my 2nd time with them - I take the regular BC Ferry to the Island for the weekend and then the "VIP" V2V back as a treat.

 

We do seem to have moved back to our "normal" fall Vancouver weather of rain, but "touch wood" no signs of any storms or weather that would cause any problems or delays and while this might not make you feel any better - if the weather was bad enough to stop the V2V it would probably stop the regular BC Ferry and the seaplane service too!

 

Like Martincath said, your hotel (Pinnacle) is very close to where the V2V docks - I'm not sure how far up the elevator will take you from the dock (not sure if it takes you up to the convention centre level), but you need to aim for street level and then turn right. As for restaurants (if you want to eat outside your hotel), there are several around that area, Tap & Barrel, Cactus Club, Rogue, or there's Cardero's or Lift if you want to walk a few minutes along the sea wall, just to name a few. The area is safe and normally well lit, so no worries there.

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Thank you for the info Westcoast. Looking forward to read your review of V2V. Hope we get "good weather" but we are on vacation so will take it all with positive attitude. Just hope no storms that make cruising a problem.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/2/2018 at 6:27 AM, skings said:

Thank you for the info Westcoast. Looking forward to read your review of V2V. Hope we get "good weather" but we are on vacation so will take it all with positive attitude. Just hope no storms that make cruising a problem.

Well skings, I hope all went well for you.  I didn't rush back here to post a review as the board was down until after you needed to know about it!  For the sake of anyone searching the forum in future times, I going to post a link to my previous review (comparison) of the V2V and BC Ferries, which can be found here (see post #7 on this thread):

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2548361-have-booked-new-v2v-ferry-with-bogo/?tab=comments#comment-54951248

 

This time I did a similar trip, but took the BC Ferry on a Thursday afternoon (instead of the Friday before the long weekend) and booked the "Royal" class on the V2V as a bit of a treat for the return trip of Victoria to Vancouver on the Sunday afternoon (I had to work on the Monday!).

 

BC Ferries was much the same as the first time, a bit quieter as it wasn't the Friday, and I went to Pacific Buffet (C$26 per person) on board instead of the White Spot (burgers).  I can recommend the Buffet, great roast beef, but go there immediately when you board, it fills up and they end up turning people away.

 

For the V2V, the Royal class was nice, but to be honest you don't get much for the upcharge.  I think there is more included luggage allowance, if that applies to you, but for a quick weekend away I only had an overnight bag this time.

One free alcoholic drink is included in the Royal class (but that wasn't actually explained until I heard someone behind me ask about it).  Unlimited tea/coffee/soft drinks - the attendants will come around a couple of times, but you can go and ask for more at any time.  The included "meal" was really only a snack, a small salad, a choice of sandwich and chocolate truffles (yummy) as a desert.

The seating is on the upper deck of the 2 decks, but type of seating is the same as the lower deck.  There did seem to be more vibration from the engine on the upper deck than I remember being on the lower deck - but that might have been my imagination.  

We saw some Orcas and the V2V stopped to watch for a few minutes - that's something that wouldn't happen on BC Ferries!  One of the crew was very knowledgeable about the whales and talked about them while we were stopped to watch.  As it was October it was dark by the time we came under the Lions Gate Bridge but it was pretty to see the downtown lights (even on a rainy October evening!)

 

They had swapped around the timing of the V2V with the Vancouver to Victoria run being in the AM and the return Victoria to Vancouver leaving Victoria harbour at 4 pm.  I actually didn't mind this - it worked for me and I understand their reasoning, as tourists can now use it as a day trip to Victoria from Vancouver.  (The morning run arrives around midday and then you would have about 4 hours to explore Victoria before catching the evening run back to downtown Vancouver).

If you were to pay the full $120 (standard class) each way, that would be somewhat pricey, however if you can catch the 2 for 1 (or 50% off, as they were recently offering), then that is quite reasonable for a full day trip.

 

I still think it is a good product and give them a 👍 for the service.  If you can catch it with the discount then it's a great way to travel!  (Just don't go for the Royal class unless you have money to spare...)

 

Edited by westcoasttech
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