Seattle Cruise Port back to Canada Place

[hulamoon]

I am considering taking another cruise before my cruise. To do so means I need to get back to Canada Place from Seattle Cruise port. Is this possible by ferry or what is the most comfortable option? Alternatively I am considering the possibility of getting off the ship in Victoria. I know I would need permission to do so, but long ago many ships missed this port, is that still true? Your assistance is appreciated. the cruise before is a 10 day, so I can't add that due to time, and the one after ends a day to late for a work conference call so I will have to pick another ship or find another alternative. a 7 day vacation just will not do. Thank you. 

[martincath]

Many? Some ships do miss Victoria do it's not a total certainty, but with CBP tightening up their rulings on PVSA-compliance stops the ships do make best efforts to dock.

 

Rather than miss your last night though, just take a bus from Vancouver. The simplest method is QuickShuttle - they charge extra for the convenience (US$59pp) but if you want to get from pier to pier on the same day with no transfers it's the way to go. Leave Canada Place at 9am, and drop you at both Seattle piers (in theory very early afternoon, but even if border crossing is REALLY bad there's enough padding that a cruise leaving at the typical 5pm you should be as close to guaranteed to make as it gets).

 

Other buses also have departure times that in theory work - Bolt and Greyhound get to downtown Seattle by 2pm or so, enough time to cab to either pier. A one-way car rental might be the cheapest way to do it if you are a couple or family rather than a solo traveler.

 

There's no ferry without taking two different ones (back to the Island, then the Clipper to Seattle) and if there were it would be slower than a bus! Flights are an expensive possibility - we actually have daily floatplanes Vancouver to Seattle these days aimed at tech workers (which cost 2-3x as much as regular turboprop & commuter jet flights from YVR to SEA).

[Gardyloo]

21 minutes ago, martincath said:

Flights are an expensive possibility...

Around US$113 one way most days, so not earth-shattering, but by the time you get to and from the airports plus security and immigration, the Quick Shuttle bus is probably time competitive.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Gardyloo

[martincath]

9 minutes ago, Gardyloo said:

Around US$113 one way most days, so not earth-shattering, but by the time you get to and from the airports plus security and immigration, the Quick Shuttle bus is probably time competitive.

Totes agree - I've seen it a little under a hundred bucks quite often on the 'normal' planes. It's no doubt the time saving that lead to those 'tech flights' which I've never seen go for less than $300 - with the delightful 'security and immigration is done in five minutes' due to the small size of the planes and airports, and of course you are also downtown to downtown without traffic to worry about from the 'burbs, I guess if your time is worth at least a hundred bucks an hour they're not a bad deal;-).

[hulamoon]

Ok great, I assume quick shuttle goes both ways, I will google their schedule. If I can get a day in Victoria, and if the bus is long I think that might be the way to go. We were given the option to board early on the already booked cruise, so getting back gracefully is a good idea.

[martincath]

7 hours ago, hulamoon said:

Ok great, I assume quick shuttle goes both ways, I will google their schedule. If I can get a day in Victoria, and if the bus is long I think that might be the way to go. We were given the option to board early on the already booked cruise, so getting back gracefully is a good idea.

Yes, whoops, should have given you the SEATTLE departure times! You did mention northbound travel, and on that front QS actually becomes a riskier affair - their first pickup at either pier is 10:30am, with arrival at the pier in Vancouver not until 3pm... if they're on time! Getting yourself to downtown enables using their 8:40am departure, much less risky with ETA 12:35pm at Canada Place. Full schedule here - just scroll way down to find the Summer Northbound trips if it's for a cruise in May or later.

 

Unfortunately Bolt's schedule is worse than QS going north - first bus is too early to possibly be off the ship (6:50am) and the second is slightly after the QS pier shuttle (10:40am), so even though it's more direct you still have very little padding with ETA 2:15pm and a ~15min cab ride to the pier from the bus station. Greyhound sucks even harder, first bus is in the afternoon!

 

Personally I'd give careful consideration to a car rental - that way you have total control of which border crossing and that's the biggest delay with buses (50+ other people all to be processed, and none of you leave until everyone is accepted or refused so even one person getting a grilling makes for a delay). With 4 viable crossings you can take by car though, you can aim for the quickest route even if one of them is unusually slow. If you aren't picky about the size of the car rates under $100 are the norm for at least one major company with an office at the pier of close by in downtown.

[Tourist1292]

I also think car rental may be the better option to OP.  There is free shuttle from the pier to downtown rental car pickup. Amtrak Cascades leaves at 7:45am and you need to check in much earlier than that so it is not an option for you. Otherwise, it would be really cheap and relaxing.

[DaveOKC]

While we were fine with our SuperShuttle experience, I would leave the earliest possible.  Or bus had to stop part way to pick up passengers whose bus broke down and I doubt that they made their cruise (we were fine as our cruise was next day and we got dropped off in the airport area).

 

 

[hulamoon]

So the fastest way is a rental car? How long would that take if direct?  

 

Is there some some type of border crossing alert That suggests which one to take?

 

We will choose the most stress free way. If the small plane mentioned is it, we will do it. 

 

Thank you!

 

 

[Gardyloo]

Here's how the car rental would work.

 

National, Enterprise and Alamo (the same company, by the way) have kiosks at the cruise terminals, and they will put you and your bags on a shuttle bus that will take you to their downtown office, located in a big parking garage across the street from Macy's.  You'll get your car there and make your way to Interstate 5 northbound, probably using Olive Way, which goes straight from the car rental garage to the freeway.  

 

From there it's around 2 hours (wheels turning) to the main "Peace Arch" border crossing at Blaine, WA.  Along the freeway between Bellingham WA and Blaine, there's a reader board that will say what the waiting times are at the border.  It will show both the Peace Arch and also the "truck crossing" border station (called "Pacific Highway" on the Canadian side.)  Sometimes the truck crossing is a little faster, but in general it's best just to stay on the freeway to the Peace Arch.

 

Image:   https://goo.gl/maps/oszp4WqYEJ52

 

Here's what it looks like from the air -

 

 

it's anybody's guess as to how long the wait at the border will be.  It depends on the day of the week and time of day, but even on summer weekend mornings it's seldom longer than 30-45 minutes, and often quicker.  (It's typically considerably longer on southbound drives entering the US.)  You'll hand over passports and answer a couple of questions (how long will you be in Canada, etc.) and if you say you're departing on a cruise you'll probably be waived through badda bing.  Here's a map showing the whole route - https://goo.gl/maps/Rvqcoru8neC2

 

From there it's around an hour to central Vancouver, depending on traffic and also the status of traffic through a big tunnel under the Fraser River, which has reversible lanes.  If you're traveling in the morning (which you probably will be) the reversible lanes will be running northbound (to accommodate morning commuters into the city) so it shouldn't pose a source of delay.

 

The freeway (now called BC Hwy 99) ends near Vancouver airport, and you'll follow city streets north to the city centre (note spelling.)  National, Alamo and Enterprise all have stations at Canada Place, so return the car and bang, you're there.  It's really quite simple.

 

If this is a same-day departure, you'll need to disembark in Seattle as early as possible in order to have enough time for the transfer to the rental car office and the rental formalities, and to supply a cushion for the time - at the border, in Vancouver traffic, etc.  I'd imagine the door-to-door total time, ship to ship, will be something like 5 - 6 hours, so an early afternoon arrival (say 1 - 2 PM) isn't out of the question.  This will be competitive with the elapsed time the bus would take (best case) and probably close to what flying would require, counting time to and from the two airports, security at the US end and immigration/customs at the Canadian end.  Vancouver airport has a number of long-haul flights from Europe and Asia that land in the late morning to early afternoon, and the immigration hall at YVR can be a mob scene, as can security at SEA, so while the flight is only 45 minutes or so, the total street-to-street time is a lot longer.

 

If you had more time, like a whole day, there's a marvelously alternative driving route that I'd highly recommend, which includes lovely Whidbey Island, marvelous Deception Pass, and Chuckanut Drive, a scenic road leading to the historic Fairhaven district of Bellingham.  Google the places on this map - https://goo.gl/maps/6YQRx7kcC1C2

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Gardyloo

[martincath]

Remarkably thorough GL!

 

Additional tidbits of info re: border crossing times - the screens on the highway are delayed up to 15mins in reporting and also use time blocks in multiples of 5 or even 10mins so they're always a little wrong. There's also another screen before Bellingham that lists the other two crossings further east so you can leave I5 earlier and take one of them if there is an egregious delay at both Peace Arch/Pacific Highway - due to the extra driving distance to the 539/9 crossings you really want to be saving an hour before you head over there when driving to Vancouver. Stuff happens though - not long ago the Peace Arch just completely shut, no explanation given, for almost half an hour. We were already in the queue so it was too late for us, but if we'd had even 2 minutes earlier notice we could have deviated to Pacific Highway - and since the delay for Regular Joes climbed to over an hour at both I5 and PH as the stoppage backlog was dealt with it would actually have been worthwhile heading over to Lynden or even Sumas if you had been on I5 approaching Bellingham!

 

Best thing is to have your passenger check their phone for bang up to date info - there are several sites that collate the feeds from CBSA including the official Washington dept of transportation site (which also has pretty good data on any kind of road issues, planned or accidental, throughout the state - we check the I5 corridor info every time we drive) but of course the horses mouth is always optimal - CBSA's own site here gives exact delay times for all border crossings (the bottom 4 on the list are the relevant ones in BC, it reads from Eastmost down to Westmost).