Fairmont Waterfront or Pan Pacific?

[Sigyn]

I booked both the Pan Pacific and the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver for our July 2023 cruise and need to figure out which to keep and which to cancel. The Pan Pacific includes a free breakfast at their hotel restaurant and luggage transfer to the ship for $508 a night. The Fairmont is $448 a night. No breakfast. So pretty comparable once you add in breakfast. Those prices include all taxes, etc. Will the Fairmont take our bags to the port? Which hotel is easiest and prettiest and offers the best service? The Fairmont Pacific Rim was about $150 more, so I ruled it out. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by njsmom

[Alberta Quilter]

I’ve stayed at both, although not for a few years now.  Both are great hotels and you won’t do wrong with either one.  The PP, if you have booked a harbour view room, has spectacular views and it is entertaining to watch the goings on in the harbour.  The bellman in both hotels will take your luggage to the ship; you have to be in the room when they come to pick it up.  The PP is between the Waterfront and the harbour, so the views are much more limited at the Waterfront although some rooms have a bit of a harbour view.  If the view is important to you, stick with the PP reservation.

 

Check into the loyalty programs for both hotels to see if a free breakfast or wifi is offered.  I know I did get a free breakfast at the Waterfront but I can’t remember if that was through their loyalty program or my airline loyalty program (I think it might have been the airline program but wanted to mention it just in case my memory is faulty).

 

The PP is located right above the cruise terminal which is very handy but the Waterfront is right across the street and there is an underground tunnel to the PP/Canada Place.  

 

I hope that helps.  There are other hotels that are recommended here on CC, by locals, that are less expensive but I’ve only stayed at these two hotels and the Sheraton Wall Centre (we weren’t fond of the Sheraton Wall Centre). I had booked the Auberge for a couple of trips that got cancelled so I’ve not actually stayed there.  It’s behind the Waterfront so still within walking distance to the cruise terminal.  

[knittinggirl]

Pan Pacific has a wonderful buffet breakfast (at least 3 years ago).

 

The port is right next to the hotel, but it's a long walk, because we have a lot of back and forth.  Once, the porters were gone, attending a union meeting.

[em-sk]

On 10/31/2022 at 4:51 AM, njsmom said:

I booked both the Pan Pacific and the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver for our July 2023 cruise and need to figure out which to keep and which to cancel. The Pan Pacific includes a free breakfast at their hotel restaurant and luggage transfer to the ship for $508 a night. The Fairmont is $448 a night. No breakfast. So pretty comparable once you add in breakfast. Those prices include all taxes, etc. Will the Fairmont take our bags to the port? Which hotel is easiest and prettiest and offers the best service? The Fairmont Pacific Rim was about $150 more, so I ruled it out. 

 

Unless you have a lot of bags the cruise ship transfer is not a big deal.  The cruise terminal is located on a lower level below the Pan Pacific.  Across the street from the Fairmount Waterfront.

 

Both are very nice hotels.

 

[Coral]

Both are great hotels in great locations!

[david,Mississauga]

I believe I have mentioned this before, but I just checked the rates again. We have stayed twice at the Fairmont  and more times than I can remember at the Pan Pacific.  I like them both and my preference is mainly the rate. Even if the rates are similar I  stay at the Pan Pacific.  It has  better views - even in the non-harbour view rooms which actually do have a good view of the harbour but to the east. We almost always stay in the upgraded section of both hotels.  We like the PP Pacific Club Lounge better than the Gold lounge at the Fairmont.  The lounge breakfast is a bit better.  The honour bar at the Fairmont charges outrageous prices, e.g. $17 for a shot of gin. The PP is more reasonable.

 

For our cruise this June the best rate for a Club room at the PP is $530. The best rate at the Fairmont for Gold was just over $1000 which is absurd.  Even the cheapest "Fairmont room" was $850 - more than double the cheapest at the PP.  I would expect the rates at the Fairmont to come down. Occasionally it is less than the PP but more often it is more, but I have never seen it double. 

[lakegirl16]

I have only stayed at the Pan Pacific.  It was lovely.  Beautiful  views.  Having the luggage taken directly to the port was so nice.  Breakfast was wonderful and the setting is very nice.  We also dined in the restaurant and the view was amazing.  For us, it was a nice start to a our Alaskan cruise.

[long4acruise]

Fairmont Hotels in Vancouver: I understand there are three properties and, as stated previously,  the Fairmont Pan Pacific and Fairmont Waterfront are across from the cruise terminal. I've been told the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver is about 5 blocks away. Just trying to verify proximity and without considering pricing alone, any pros and cons of one other the other?  Want to spend 2N there post-cruise to sightsee and hit the "must see" tourist spots for my first visit.  Thanks for any insight you can share!

[martincath]

22 hours ago, long4acruise said:

Fairmont Hotels in Vancouver: I understand there are three properties and, as stated previously,  the Fairmont Pan Pacific and Fairmont Waterfront are across from the cruise terminal. I've been told the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver is about 5 blocks away. Just trying to verify proximity and without considering pricing alone, any pros and cons of one other the other?  Want to spend 2N there post-cruise to sightsee and hit the "must see" tourist spots for my first visit.  Thanks for any insight you can share!

The 'original' Hotel Vancouver is the most historic (it's actually the third one - the lobby has a decent range of pictures of the city back in the days of the first and second), the only one locally that fits original CP Hotel design aesthetic, has an awesome roof terrace, and was the filming location for some of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy... you can rent the suite they used or just a package of nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say-no-more paraphernalia if that's your bag! Even the terrace has limited views though, many tall towers surround it, you'll get some mountain slices down the urban canyons (we protect many 'view corridors' in law locally) but none of the rooms will have a park or water as a view element.

 

The Pacific Rim is hands-down the best resto, best service, best amenities - one of only two 5* hotels in the city (Shangri-La is the other); Waterfront is the in-between, boringest of the trio (it has been renovated since building, but it remains the crappiest design of any Fairmont IMO replacing the original iconic 'castle' style of the old CP railway hotels with a boring-as-heck glass box. Many newer Fairmonts also ditched the original style but they are at least often a vaguely interesting shape - Pac Rim and Airport are both curvy, modern, yes lots of glass but at least not just a box). Both of these have some water views.

 

Of Pac Rim & Waterfront, no brainer - so close together that only price makes the Waterfront worth considering in comparison. The 'original' does benefit from more sights with less walking - and Notch 8 is a very good resto, just not quite as good as Botanist in the Pac Rim - but if you're splurging on Fairmont prices, a cab around town is well within your means! One end of downtown to the other is like 2 miles, as little as $10 on the meter.

 

No such thing as Must Sees anywhere IMO - although if forced, the Seawall and Stanley Park are the most iconically Vancouver-y things, longest and largest in the world/continent in their categories, hard to imagine anyone coming here without at least a quick wander of each... but even 3 days/2 nights is scratching the surface of most any major city, and unlike almost all of them we have not just the typical big urban attractions but also close-enough-to-take-transit ski mountains, canyons with wibbly-wobbly bridges, hardcore outdoor trails - we're the only place on the planet you can hit the beach, the golf course, and go skiing on the same day using public transit (skiing on Grouse has run as late as Canada Day some years).

 

I always point first-timers toward TripAdvisor - all the Big Hits have plenty of reviews, enough to ensure that their relative ranking is very accurate... for Joe Q McAverage-Tourist. Hopefully you know you (and folks you're traveling with) enough to have a reasonable idea where your own tastes lie - so skimming the top 10 things and tweaking the ranking based on your taste should let you prioritize a list of what's most likely to be the best things for you.