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1 hour ago, Tnjewels said:

Need a place to stay in Vancouver July 4th and 5th, 2019 and can't spend an arm and leg.  Recommendations appreciated.  

This should be posted in the North American Homeports section. This is for help using the boards.

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Hi, Tnjewels, and welcome to CC!

 

7 hours ago, gnome12 said:

This should be posted in the North American Homeports section. This is for help using the boards.

 

You can have a look at the boards home page to see the variety of different forums discussing different topics, but if you want a quick link to the forum that gnome12 is referring to, try this: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/315-west-coast-departures/

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1 hour ago, Globaliser said:

Hi, Tnjewels, and welcome to CC!

 

 

You can have a look at the boards home page to see the variety of different forums discussing different topics, but if you want a quick link to the forum that gnome12 is referring to, try this: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/315-west-coast-departures/

Thank you. I haven't figured out how to post urls and don't want to learn on my phone.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/7/2018 at 4:54 PM, Tnjewels said:

Need a place to stay in Vancouver July 4th and 5th, 2019 and can't spend an arm and leg.  Recommendations appreciated.  

 

Depends what your looking for.  The hotels that are downtown (close to the terminal) are all expensive.  The ones near the airport or downtown Richmond are a better deal.  The River Rock is a good option if you are looking for a casino environment.   If you get one near skytrain you can take the train into the city to catch your cruise.  Skytrain also runs out to the airport terminal.

 

 

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On 11/18/2018 at 3:13 PM, Tnjewels said:

Thanks em-so.  I think we are going to look for something near the airport.   

 

Then you will want a hotel in Richmond BC.  There are a number of hotels around Westminster Hwy and Minuro. This is a very walk-able area.  Also anything near number 3 road.  Most of these will offer a shuttle to/from the airport.

 

The River Rock Casino Hotel is a more self contained hotel.

 

All of Richmond is good from a safety perspective. 

 

Most of Richmond is on Lulu Island.  Also part of Richmond is Sea Island, and this is where the airport is located, there are only two hotels directly on Sea Island, one if a Fairmount connected to the airport terminal and generally expensive.  The other is the Pacific Gateway Hotel that is probably a better deal.  That said, the hotel in Richmond proper (Lulu Island) will likely be a better deal and less isolated.  These are very much airport hotels and most are with shuttles etc.   

 

I would grab a taxi the next day to get downtown to catch the ship. By mid-morning rush hour will have died downed a little bit and it will be relatively easy getting downtown.

 

Edited by em-sk
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Canada Line will get you there faster and if not leaving from YVR it is cheaper.   Transit adds a $5 surcharge for 3 YVR stations on top of the fare.

 

Weekends are much cheaper and for Seniors better again.    All 1 zone on weekends and holidays.

https://www.translink.ca/Fares-and-Passes.aspx

Get off at Waterfront Station and walk 1 block? to Canada Place.

 

for 12 people it could be difficult to take a taxi.   You would need more than 2 taxis.  Or else one big limo or a Taxi Van?

 

There are hotels in North Vancouver--- taken by the Seabus to get there.   The Seabus goes- to and from- Waterfront Station.   That maybe cheaper to find accommodation there.    Then take the Seabus into town to tour.   I believe it runs every 15min?

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Thanks CVU..  We have decided to stay at Hampton Inn by Hilton near the airport.  Hopefully, it is in a location that has easy access to the airport and the sky train.  Would you recommend the sky train for transportation from that location or something different?

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SkyTrain is definitely worth considering from the Hampton - it's walkable (~7mins on foot, level) to Bridgeport Station and no AddFare so your cost to go downtown will be very low (Seniors/kids/time of day makes a difference; CVU's link above gives the exact fares and you're looking at the 2 Zone pricing for daytime travel Mon-Fri, 1 Zone for evenings and weekends, so somewhere in the $25-50 range total spend for 12 peeps depending on age and day of travel). The hotel shuttle will almost certainly be willing to drop you right at SkyTrain too (especially if tips are offered!)

 

Cabs direct from the hotel will be metered, ballpark $35-40 per cab and realistically you'd have to take 4 (in theory all cabs seat 4+, but since most are Prius with modest trunk space 4 people may fit but their luggage will not... minivans are usually set up for wheelchair pax so still only have 4 seats but have plenty of luggage space, but they are <20% of local fleets so waiting for three of these could take hours). Taking the hotel shuttle back to YVR gets you fixed-price cabs, definitely $35 each to the pier, but adds a lot of time for a pretty minimal saving - if pennies are tight, SkyTrain is definitely what you want to do.

 

NB: if you are staying precruise to do some sightseeing, you'll also have to budget the time (~1 hour) and cost (as above) for coming downtown every day, as there really isn't anything around the Hampton for tourists (well, the Night Market is walkable on summer evenings for an interesting dinner/shopping experience).

 

A non-refundable bargain booking at a 3* hotel downtown, a good bid on Priceline or Hotwire, or just booking the YWCA hotel downtown will likely all be a better deal than the Hampton airport in terms of your total spend as you can walk to all the attractions. For just an overnight stay then heading to the pier though, it'll do you just fine - head down early to drop your bags at the pier then do some sightseeing before boarding!

Edited by martincath
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Thanks martincath.  All the information that you shared is great information.  I am sure that we can use it to make our choice.  Is there one thing in Vancouver that you would recommend that we see or do while we are there for a day?

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2 hours ago, Tnjewels said:

Thanks martincath.  All the information that you shared is great information.  I am sure that we can use it to make our choice.  Is there one thing in Vancouver that you would recommend that we see or do while we are there for a day?

You're welcome - with 12 people to consider who may have wildly-different ideas about the best thing to see/do the best thing I can suggest is to get them all to look at Tripadvisor! Skim the 'top 10' lists of sites, tours etc. independently and flag say each person's own top three. Compare lists and see if there's a natural breakdown where you split into two or three groups and do different things at the same time. If there's something on which you all agree, do it first (no issues waiting if some folks are delayed en route since you'll all go together) or last (if everyone meets up at site X at Y o'clock, then it becomes easy to corral everyone straight to dinner afterward).

 

The most uniquely-Vancouvery things are almost certainly the 'easy to combine into one walk' Stanley Park and the Seawall. The latter rings the entire park as well as a bunch of the rest of the city, but is way too long to walk or ride all of on a short visit; the former is also enormous and you could spend days inside to see it all, but the most popular parts tend to be close to the Seawall (e.g. totem poles) or overlooking it (Prospect Point) so they're a very logical combo.

 

But don't get caught up in 'everybody must do X' planning, especially with a big group! Figure out what's the best choice for your specific bunch, be willing to split up (even if you don't all have cellphones with plans that work cheap in Canada, we have a free Wifi network downtown that makes even kid's tablets without phone features into perfectly feasible comms devices to stay in touch with each other - look for the #VanWiFi hotspots).

 

I'd say that your biggest problem will be finding dinner for twelve if you all want to dine together. Beyond the issue of finding one menu that will fit all palates, as someone who has regularly booked big group night outs for Meetup and the like, many Vancouver restos absolutely detest large group dining - to the extend most of the good independent mid-range Western spots flat-out refuse to take bookings except on quiet nights (Mon/Tue/Wed are usually doable, but Thu-Sun are a nightmare) unless you book the whole resto. Super-pricey places have private dining rooms and will customize menus - so if you can throw money at the problem, no worries - but for more affordable options you face looooooong waits or a really short list of viable bookings.

 

Personally I'd suggest the more tolerable chain restos - e.g. Milestone's which has a couple of downtown branches and a very broad menu - if you need 'normal' food, but if everyone is up for Chinese seafood then 12 people would be ideal for arranging another unique-to-Vancouver thing to do, an Alaskan King Crab feast! In general large Chinese restaurants are an excellent choice for big groups - they have big round tables for 8 or more, usually various sliding wall 'private' rooms can be made too, and assorted group menus with prepackaged lists of options at various price-points cuts down on how many choices you need to make.

 

Out near your hotel in Richmond are several restos who offer this (Richmond is the main Chinese-dining area in the region) but there are also some downtown. Sun Sui Wah started the whole thing off and still do it well - they have a Vancouver and a Richmond branch - but a bit of Googling and reading some local food blogs may suggest a specific other resto that's doing something interesting you all like the sound of, e.g. Dynasty Seafood and Red Star have both innovated a bit on how they prepare the crab over the years. Sun Sui Wah is always who I recommend to first-timers though as they not only do the crabs well, but their house specialty of Squab (pigeon) is available to add on to any menu and is delicious - roasted to a dark caramel & crispy-skinned, and they come out whole with their heads on. That does put many people off, but each bird is small compared to a chicken so even just adding one for the entire table is enough for a little taste (they'll cut it up for you too).

 

Even if all your folks won't be happy with a heavily-seafood focused meal, with 12 you can easily handle combining a crab feast with a 'regular' prix fixe menu for some of the group. King Crabs are rarely under 10lbs, and the regular rule of thumb is a pound of crab per person since about 75% of the weight is shell. It's brought alive to your table for display, then served up as part of a 5+ course extravaganza where the crab is used at least 3 different ways: always (the best!) with the legs split, stuffed with garlic, then roasted; some kind of house fried rice dish served up inside the crab's body shell with more meat mixed in; and then varying other possibilities like a soup, deep-fried crab knuckles etc. There's always a selection of non-crab starters to eat while waiting for the first crab dish, a dessert to finish off, and of course you can add additional courses for extra cash to the whole experience.

 

Absolute minimum price for the simplest crab feast will run you at least $40 a pound without adding extra courses or alcohol - so it's a pricey meal for small groups, but becomes very affordable for a big group as adding extra portions of the 'filler' dishes is minimal. Plus, unlike even the fanciest of Alaskan restos, the crabs are always served fresh here not frozen - they live year-round in huge tanks so the extremely narrow fishing seasons are only a factor in price not availability - which means not only a better texture but that for example the garlic-stuffed legs actually have a chance for the flavours to infuse the flesh, whereas the typical steamed and frozen legs can only have a sauce poured on the outside.

Edited by martincath
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WOW  -  What a boat load of information.  Thanks so much for all of your help.  We are really looking forward to our visit in July.  I will be sure to share all this knowledge to our group of 12 just to get them thinking about what they may want to do.  You sure have a way of making that crab sound very tasty.  Have a good weekend...

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On 11/28/2018 at 1:47 PM, Tnjewels said:

Thanks CVU..  We have decided to stay at Hampton Inn by Hilton near the airport.  Hopefully, it is in a location that has easy access to the airport and the sky train.  Would you recommend the sky train for transportation from that location or something different?

 

The Hampton Inn is (as others have said) a short walk to skytrain.  The area around the hotel is a mix of suburban retail (there is a Costco a few blocks away).  The one thing about most of Richmond including that area is there is a very Asian feel.  So you will find lots of Asian markets and restaurants within close proximity to the hotel.

 

The nearest Skytrain station is next to the RiverRock Casino and Hotel.  That may be something that some members of your group are interested in.  

 

If you walk in the opposite direction along No 3 road there are a number of Asian retailers that have large outlets and a few multi-store shopping complexes.  If you are interested in shopping,  Oakridge station has a number of high end stores. 

 

The Richmond Night Market is a typical Asian night market.  Well worth a visit if you have not been to one before.

 

If some members of your party is interested is First Nations (Native history), the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is a short drive.  There is a rental car outlet next to your hotel.  

 

Stevenson Village (also in Richmond) is also a short drive from your hotel and is an old fishing village with some interesting history and museums. 

 

Give you are on or near Skytrain there are a host of destinations you can easily get to.  There are many tourist attractions downtown but not exclusively downtown.  Does depend on what your interested in.  

 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm a fan of the River Rock Casino when I come to Vancouver for business.  Even though it's a long way out of downtown.  The Skytrain (read subway) is connected to the hotel.  The hotel has decent enough restaurants including the ever present casino Buffet.  Can have entertainment in the theatre and has decent pool/hot tub area. It is also on the Sky Train connected to the airport so getting to the hotel is easy, and obvious...it kind of stands out in it's location. Anyway, I'm downtown in 25 minutes by Skytrain and with a day pass can use the whole of the transit system.   Like any city anywhere, the further from downtown the cheaper the prices.

 

As for something Vancouver...ish to do with a large group I would definitely suggest a trip to Granville Island Market.  A food, craft, clothing, and industrial hodgepodge of a location that is quite wonderful.  Have the chocolate decadence cake at Bridges café or restaurant if you want a full meal.  I suggest that you share a piece with a friend, it is super rich.  Or was, it's been a few years but it had been on the menu for 30 years, I see no reason for them to remove it.

 

Good luck on your trip, it's a truly wonderful place to visit.  Almost as nice as Victoria, but not quite. :classic_wink:

Edited by Aesop081
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