Victoria & Gardens Pre Cruise ?

[WilCruise]

:confused: Has anybody taken the Princess pre cruise hotel package w/ day trip to Victoria? I am looking for the itinerary for this tour and cannot find one anywhere. I even called Princess and they could not tell me either. Looking at Gray Line's itenerary, it is quite intensive starting with a hotel (Pan Pacific) pick-up at 7:45a in the morning and not returning until 9:00p in the evening. The trips to the ferry and then a 90 min. crossing all adds to the day. Our TA is booking us through Princess but we may change our minds if it is anywhere near the day long Gray Line. Thanks

[Cruise Junky]

:confused: The trips to the ferry and then a 90 min. crossing all adds to the day. Our TA is booking us through Princess but we may change our minds if it is anywhere near the day long Gray Line. Thanks

 

Unless you take a float plane or helicopter, there's no way around this. Princess might shave an hour off, but that's only going to take an hour away from Victoria, you can't speed up the transportation there and back.

[ggprincess2004]

We haven't done this tour per se, but it will be along day if you leave from Vancouver City and go over to Vancouver Island. You are likely to get plenty of warnings from those that have made a trip about the length of it.

Butchard Gardens are a bit of a drive outside of Victoria.

That being said, Butchard Gardens are amazingly lovely. My DH and I live very close by Longwood Gardens, and have held a membership there for years. It takes all day to cover the territory of Longwood, if not more than a full day. And we didn't think anything could really impress us after the beauty of Longwood.

Butchard did - stun us. Just incredibly lovely, and although much smaller than Longwood, it has a lot of diversity. It is very doable in the space of two to three hours, depending upon the crowds and the pace at which you stroll. We were so glad we chose to visit there when we called at Vancouver Island.

[WilCruise]

Thanks for the reply but I still am not getting my question answered. Even had a problem with Princess being able to tell me what to expect, itinerary wise. We are well aware of the Victoria tour opportunities, the logistics of getting there and so on. What I can't find (for the Princess offered pre-cruise tour is a sort of itinerary. For example, Gray lines has one that goes like this:

 

7:45am Board private motor coach at hotel

8:30am Travel the beautiful road -----etc., etc.

9:00am Travel by ferry to ------

11:00am Free time in downtown Victoria and -----

2:00pm motor coach to Butchart Gardens ----so on and so on

 

Gray lines does have a very nice way of laying out what and how you will be doing on your tours. Their Vancouver tour is the same way.

 

Our group (40 strong) meets tonight and we do not have any information about the Princess pre-cruise tour. They just tell you it is a day tour available with the hotel package and the price. The supvr at Princess suggested call Pan Pacific to see if they can help. I thought somebody on here may have taken the package and could give some insight. We have a number of 70's & 80's traveling with us and they may go on a 7 or 8 hour tour but might opt out on a 12 hour (which Gray Line's is)

 

Thank you anyhow

[Lady Librarian]

Have you considered doing this on your own? If Princess can't provide you an itinerary, there are plenty of folks on here that could give you more ideas than you ever imagined.

And I'll make one plug for the Butterfly Gardens in Victoria. It was very cool. Butterflies flit around right over your head and if you sit very still one might even land on you. We did that while on our cruise as opposed to Buchert because it was a rainy drizzly day and the butterfly gardens are indoors.

[WilCruise]

Have you considered doing this on your own? If Princess can't provide you an itinerary, there are plenty of folks on here that could give you more ideas than you ever imagined.

 

And I'll make one plug for the Butterfly Gardens in Victoria. It was very cool. Butterflies flit around right over your head and if you sit very still one might even land on you. We did that while on our cruise as opposed to Buchert because it was a rainy drizzly day and the butterfly gardens are indoors.

 

Not really on my own, but on OUR own. We normally have around 40 people in our church travel group and over the years we have had great service from the travel company. Absolutely, first class service has been our experience. On this trip however it seems we are being thrown over the fence to Princess. You know the ole "that's not us, it's princess." Sign up is tonight with payment to be made. The price quoted includes the Princess Pre-cruise hotel package with Day Trip to Victoria. I am going to let it alone and trust it will be fine. The Princess price (for what ever it is we are getting) is actually competitive with other tour outfits in the area. I do like the Graylines proposal I recieved from them but it would have to be toned down a little, much, much too long. I would also have to be the coordinator as well and I really don't want that hassle.

 

Thank you everyone for your input. Everybody in our group is really excited about our June cruise.:) :)