Experienced Only! Pacific Coach Lines

[Zoolander]

Just spoke to reservations at PCL's and now have two options on getting to Victoria from the cruise terminal (May 27th).

 

1) Reserve and take the 11 am bus/ferry (ship arives in port at 7 am/would depart the ship as late as possible) combo or

2) Take a cab to the bus terminal and take the first come first serve bus/ferry combo (would depart the ship ASAP).

 

Not sure what the ten minute cab ride will cost for option number two to the bus terminal, but can this option save us a couple of hours or so?

 

Option number one gets us to Victoria after 3 pm!

 

Thanks.

[cruiseryyc]

Well if the ship arrives on time and clears customs quickly and you can disembark yourself (i.e. carry all your belongings with you in one trip); you might save yourself an hour or two by cabbing it to the bus terminal. If your ship docks at Canada Place, the taxi fare should be well under $20. I'm trying to figure out why option number 1, gets you to Victoria at 3:00. Normally a bus leaving downtown Vancouver at 11:00 would put it on the noon ferry, which would arrive at Sydney at 1:30, drive into downtown Victoria is 30 minutes, so that would mean a 2:00 arrival. Obviously option 1 bus does some other stops along the way and it's the 1:00 p.m. ferry you would be on.

 

Hope this info helps.

[Putterdude]

I think the reason that you are getting to Victoria at 3pm is because the sailing out of Tsawwassen is at 1 pm not at noon and the earlier sailing is at 11am. So this likely no advantage in cathching a cab to the bus depot plus by catching PCL at the cruise terminal will mean that you will only have to handle your luggage the one time.:)

http://www.bcferries.com/schedules/mainland/tssw-current.html

[cruiseryyc]

Oh Putt you're so smart, I totally forgot that the summer hourly schedule wouldn't be operating yet. In that case I agree that the OP might as well take option 1.

[scottbee]

Just spoke to reservations at PCL's and now have two options on getting to Victoria from the cruise terminal (May 27th).

1) Reserve and take the 11 am bus/ferry (ship arives in port at 7 am/would depart the ship as late as possible) combo or

2) Take a cab to the bus terminal and take the first come first serve bus/ferry combo (would depart the ship ASAP).

Not sure what the ten minute cab ride will cost for option number two to the bus terminal, but can this option save us a couple of hours or so?

Option number one gets us to Victoria after 3 pm!

 

May 27th, ferries run at 11am and 1pm.

To catch those ferries, the bus leaves Pacific Station 1h15m earlier (9:45 or 11:45) which would put you into downtown Victoria at 1:15pm or 3:15pm. Cost is about $45 one way.

 

Depending on which cruise terminal you're at, you have a couple of choices. At Canada Place, you can head outside, grab the subway (Skytrain) and ride it to "Main St" station (4 stops), and that's where the bus terminal is. Probably faster than lining up for a cab. At Ballantyne pier (RCCL/X) you'll need to grab a cab, but it's a sub-10$ fare to the bus station.

 

If you don't mind doing the bits individually and carrying your luggage, you can shave that down to about $20 by taking the city bus (a few blocks from the cruise terminal) to Tsawwassen ($5), walk on the ferry ($13), walk off, then grab the city bus ($2.50) into downtown Victoria. It might take a little bit longer (esp on the Victoria side), but it's a very pleasant ride, and generally the #70 on the Victoria side is a double decker. Vancouver bus/transit info at http://translink.bc.ca/ Victoria bus info at http://bctransit.com/

example;

Depart: 9:31a - EASTBOUND W PENDER ST AT BURRARD ST P1

On route: "601 SOUTH DELTA"

Arrive: 10:18a - LADNER EXCHANGE BAY 5

Transfer: 10:25a - LADNER EXCHANGE BAY 1

On route: "620 TSAWW. FERRY"

Arrive: 10:40a - TSAWWASSEN FERRY TERMINAL

walk on 11am ferry. The victoria side is even easier, grab the #70 bus and it goes right downtown.

 

Another option, if you'd like to get to Victoria quicker, next to Canada Place you can take a floatplane. Travel time downtown to downtown is 40 minutes, but cost is $125.

[Putterdude]

Oh Putt you're so smart, I totally forgot that the summer hourly schedule wouldn't be operating yet. In that case I agree that the OP might as well take option 1.

 

Not smarter...just live in a ferry dependent community which tends to make one very aware of schedules!:)

[cruiseryyc]

...just live in a ferry dependent community

 

Lucky you!!

[Zoolander]

Excellent, excellent info. So, it looks like option 1 or...

 

Initially we had decided against the flight to Victoria because of the baggage weight challenge (once in Victoria we were going to ship a box or two home), but my wife assures me we can do the flight with no challenges.

 

Okay...we are looking at West Coast from Vancouver Harbour to Victoria and then Harbour Air from Victoria to the Vancouver Airport Area.

 

These choices are predominately because of the schedules...not prices.

 

Any "better" ideas or choices out there to save us as much time as possible. We will only be in Victoria from Wednesday to Friday...so time is of the essence.

 

Thanks, once again.

[scottbee]

Excellent, excellent info. So, it looks like option 1 or...

 

Initially we had decided against the flight to Victoria because of the baggage weight challenge (once in Victoria we were going to ship a box or two home), but my wife assures me we can do the flight with no challenges.

 

Okay...we are looking at West Coast from Vancouver Harbour to Victoria and then Harbour Air from Victoria to the Vancouver Airport Area.

 

These choices are predominately because of the schedules...not prices.

 

Any "better" ideas or choices out there to save us as much time as possible. We will only be in Victoria from Wednesday to Friday...so time is of the essence.

 

I read on the other thread you're flying Alaska Air(AS) YVR-SEA-SAN to go home. The best way to deal with this is phone AS reservations and change the return ticket to YYJ/Victoria-SEA-SAN. QX/Horizon Air (aka Alaska Air's regional carrier) fly YYJ-SEA 5x/day.