Anchorage(Whittier) and Vancouver BC

[indygirl99]

We had a cruise booked that I had to cancel (work issues) but have recently been able to finagle my schedule and with a great drop and go rate we are doing a southbound Alaska cruise on Princess.

 

My plan is to fly into Anchorage the morning before the cruise leaves to have a day to play and then take the train the next morning to Whittier.

Is the Princess transfer a bus or the train. If not the train we want to be able to book the train while spots are still available.

 

We are also hoping to do the 26 glaciers tour.  Can we check into the ship before the tour? If not what do we do with our bags?

 

When we get off in Vancouver we want to spend one night there to play and then take Amtrak home.

Amtrak leaves at 6:30 am so we need to be there by 5:30. 

Any suggestions on a hotel that is central to be able to walk/bus to see some of Vancouver?

Also to get to the Amtrak station in the dead of night is our best bet a taxi?

 

I know flying home is much quicker and easier but hubby really likes trains and this is a train trip he has been wanting to do for awhile.

 

Thanks for any suggestions. This group was a big help last time I took a cruise.

[martincath]

The Vancouver questions - yes, you should cab to Amtrak and literally ANY downtown hotel is in a great location for sightseeing (downtown core is very, very compact). Even if you were right up by the park you'd be looking at about a $15 cab fare to the train, no traffic in the wee small hours! Stick the station (Pacific Central) into Google Maps and compared directions to there from whatever hotels you're considering, most are within 1.5 miles and even the furthest-away is less than 2.5 miles.

 

Depending on your budget and what you want out of a hotel you could spend not much or a metric buttload, but in terms of location basically a hotel that is extra-convenient for the park is less convenient for Chinatown and so on. So it really depends what you plan to do - with only one day that means focusing on perhaps just a handful of spots, so if they're all in the Gastown/Chinatown/Yaletown end a hotel there would save you a few minutes time, but if you want to spend all day in Stanley Park (easy - it's over 1,000 acres with many trails, and the Aquarium is inside it) then something up at English Bay makes more sense. HOHOs circle around the whole downtown core, so no hotel is more than a few blocks from at least one stop.

[CruiserBruce]

Our 26 Glacier tour didn't sail until 12:30, so you certainly should be able to check your bags in. The Princess ship and the 26 Glaciers operation are almost on the same pier.

 

The 26 Glacier excursions is truly fantastic. We had absolutely crystal clear skies...so we probably saw more than 26 glaciers.

[disneyochem]

We took the 6:30 train from Vancouver last year.  Stayed at the Sylvia Hotel.  We got off our ship, took a taxi to the hotel (15 mins), checked in and then rode the Hop On/Hop Off bus.  Was a great way to spend the afternoon.  Got off and spent some time on Granville Island as well as Stanley Park.  Ended our evening at the bay across the street from the hotel (good food and drinks).  Sunset was lovely.  And it was nice to be away from the downtown area.

 

The Sylvia was a little bit quirky but we loved it as well as its location.  We're booked to stay again in May 2020.  We'll rent bikes--lots of bike trails!

 

The Sylvia called us a taxi in the morning (waited five minutes); we were at the station in about 15 minutes.  Are you booked in Business Class?  We paid a bit more and was glad we did.  The checkin line at the station was crazy long!  Was very nice to be loaded on the train first and bypass that line!

[indygirl99]

9 hours ago, disneyochem said:

We took the 6:30 train from Vancouver last year.  Stayed at the Sylvia Hotel.  We got off our ship, took a taxi to the hotel (15 mins), checked in and then rode the Hop On/Hop Off bus.  Was a great way to spend the afternoon.  Got off and spent some time on Granville Island as well as Stanley Park.  Ended our evening at the bay across the street from the hotel (good food and drinks).  Sunset was lovely.  And it was nice to be away from the downtown area.

 

The Sylvia was a little bit quirky but we loved it as well as its location.  We're booked to stay again in May 2020.  We'll rent bikes--lots of bike trails!

 

The Sylvia called us a taxi in the morning (waited five minutes); we were at the station in about 15 minutes.  Are you booked in Business Class?  We paid a bit more and was glad we did.  The checkin line at the station was crazy long!  Was very nice to be loaded on the train first and bypass that line!

 

Yes definitely booked business class on Amtrak. I like to "rough it" as hubby says (not).  We like the extra room and first boarding and first off is a definite plus. Especially as we are going from Vancouver to California. I debated a sleeper but hubby does like some interaction with other humans.

 

Martincath  Are there food carts at Stanley Park or Granville Island? If so which ones should we look for. After all the fancy food on the ship we will be looking for some Portland style food cart food.

[martincath]

On 7/2/2019 at 9:12 PM, indygirl99 said:

Martincath  Are there food carts at Stanley Park or Granville Island? If so which ones should we look for. After all the fancy food on the ship we will be looking for some Portland style food cart food.

Sorry for delay - was cruising until today. There's actually a whole bunch of new food concessions for the Vancouver park system, including a few of the folks who also run food trucks. Complete list here.

 

Actual food trucks are rarely seen in the park or GI (GI is already a nightmare for traffic, and when the Public Market is right there competing with dozens and dozens of food options all under one roof it would be a dang hard area for any cart to make a profit!) If you can't find something decent to eat in the Public Market, you either have the worst food allergy combo ever... or you're so picky you don't deserve to eat!!! 😉

 

Food trucks are more spread out than in PDX - we don't have any official 'pods' but there are some locations, like around the Art Gallery, which usually have 3+ carts on the block. Best suggestion is to point you to the Streetfood App which will tell you exactly which carts are where, and to hit up Yelp reviews as well as the reviews on the app itself (these days there are so many carts I can't possibly guess which you might enjoy the most!) My personal faves include some of the oldest: Japadog, which has sitdown resto, trucks, and actual carts (Kurobota pork terimayo is probably the definitive 'dog to try first); Roaming Dragon (pan-Asian fusion); Tacofino (not even remotely authentic, but they do have a Michelin-starred chef in charge of the recipes so they're dang tasty!) If Mr Bannock is out and about (not very often - tends to be at outdoor events rather than a regular presence) they're worth trying as one of the very, very few indigenous food operations.

[indygirl99]

10 minutes ago, martincath said:

Sorry for delay - was cruising until today. There's actually a whole bunch of new food concessions for the Vancouver park system, including a few of the folks who also run food trucks. Complete list here.

 

Actual food trucks are rarely seen in the park or GI (GI is already a nightmare for traffic, and when the Public Market is right there competing with dozens and dozens of food options all under one roof it would be a dang hard area for any cart to make a profit!) If you can't find something decent to eat in the Public Market, you either have the worst food allergy combo ever... or you're so picky you don't deserve to eat!!! 😉

 

Food trucks are more spread out than in PDX - we don't have any official 'pods' but there are some locations, like around the Art Gallery, which usually have 3+ carts on the block. Best suggestion is to point you to the Streetfood App which will tell you exactly which carts are where, and to hit up Yelp reviews as well as the reviews on the app itself (these days there are so many carts I can't possibly guess which you might enjoy the most!) My personal faves include some of the oldest: Japadog, which has sitdown resto, trucks, and actual carts (Kurobota pork terimayo is probably the definitive 'dog to try first); Roaming Dragon (pan-Asian fusion); Tacofino (not even remotely authentic, but they do have a Michelin-starred chef in charge of the recipes so they're dang tasty!) If Mr Bannock is out and about (not very often - tends to be at outdoor events rather than a regular presence) they're worth trying as one of the very, very few indigenous food operations.

As always very helpful. Thank you so much.