Amtrak Cascade

We are flying into Seattle for an Alaskan Cruise leaving out of Vancouver. Would it be ok to take the Amtrak Cascade Train to Vancouver the morning our cruise? It gets into Vancouver at 11:45 am but my husband is nervous about taking the same day as departure. Also what transportation is available from the Train station to the cruise terminal?

I agree with your husband and I would NOT do this! Amtrak Cascades on time performance in only 37% - 47.1%. No way would I take this kind of risk when you need to get to your ship in a timely manner. All it would take is another train being in the way and you could be delayed for hours.

https://www.amtrak.com/cascades-train&mode=perf&overrideDefaultTemplate=OTPPageVerticalRouteOverview

You need to fly in a day ahead of your cruise and then spend the night in Vancouver (I recommend the Pan Pacific Hotel as it is right next to the cruise terminal).

Never depend on Amtrak. Look up Bolt Bus.

Also look at Quick-shuttle from Seattle Airport to Vancouver.

Let me join the chorus of "DON'T DO IT! (take the train in, the day OF, that is). We tried that, a few years ago, and nearly 'missed the boat' -- literally. We had purchased advance tickets, Everett (north of Seattle) to Vancouver -- to arrive around noon -- with our Celebrity Pacific Coastal cruise setting sail at 4:30. Well, good old Amtrak -- decided to make some last minute train car substitutions, and there were NO seats left, when it departed Seattle. The poor guy at the Amtrak Everett station had to make that announcement to a lobby full of cruisers (some destined for other ships). Needless to say, he nearly had a riot on his hands -- but, he turned out to be our hero, that day. He quickly got on the horn to his supervisor, who dispatched a bus to Everett, for all of us. We had to wait about an hour, but we all got to Canada Place in time to catch our various cruises. But, if we ever decide to take the train again, we'll be sure to go up a day early. You also need to be aware that, especially in the rainy season, the train tracks north of Seattle are frequently shut down by mudslides.

Oh, and probably your best option for getting from the train station to Canada Place (cruise terminal) would be a cab. I don't do Uber, so I don't know if that is an option in Vancouver, or not. In our case, since we had a whole bus load of passengers going to Canada Place, the Amtrak bus driver took us directly there (to help make up some of the time we had lost, waiting at the train station).

No Uber or Lyft in a Vancouver at this time. They are talking about Dec 2017 possibly.

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You would be far better off going by bus or rental car than train. There is a National Car Rental at the Pan Pacific Hotel - right in the lobby, so you could drop the car there prior to your cruise and reserve one for your return. Even so, I firmly believe you should make the transfer from Seatac to Vancouver the day before and spend the night before your cruise in Vancouver, not Seattle. You just never know when something might change at the border unexpectedly and the line might be unusually long and slow. It could all change without notice due to weather, or a terrorism incident or a strike or something else random that has nothing to do with you, but then you have to wait around while the authorities resolve it. Is it really worth taking this kind of chance with your vacation and putting yourself through a lot of stress prior to your cruise?

We did the Amtrak train the other way from Vancouver to Seattle for our cruise. It was smooth, no issues, and we enjoyed it very much. BUT we went two days early as we wanted a day in Seattle as well.

The way I see it, taking the train follows the same rule as flying -- arrive at least the day before so you have time and options to deal with the unexpected.

So far on my cruises I've never had issues with my flights but I'm not changing my "no same day arrival" rule anytime soon. On our first cruise on the flight in, somewhere over Kentucky a lady on the flight was having a diabetic incident. Fortunately a nurse on the flight was able to keep her stable until we arrived at MCO but it was touch and go for a bit -- could have easily required a emergency landing then who knows what would happen next.

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The train ride from Seattle to Vancouver is Wonderful...the day before a cruise. If you must fly in the day of the cruise, I would recommend taking Quick Shuttle. Being a local, I personally use Bolt Bus and the Sky Train in Vancouver, but given you have luggage and are not familiar with the area, the Quick Shuttle would be your best bet. They go direct from Seatac to Canada Place. www dot quickcoach dot com

You would be far better off going by bus or rental car than train. There is a National Car Rental at the Pan Pacific Hotel - right in the lobby, so you could drop the car there prior to your cruise and reserve one for your return. Even so, I firmly believe you should make the transfer from Seatac to Vancouver the day before and spend the night before your cruise in Vancouver, not Seattle. You just never know when something might change at the border unexpectedly and the line might be unusually long and slow. It could all change without notice due to weather, or a terrorism incident or a strike or something else random that has nothing to do with you, but then you have to wait around while the authorities resolve it. Is it really worth taking this kind of chance with your vacation and putting yourself through a lot of stress prior to your cruise?

A rental car is expensive with the drop off charge - about $170 including fees and taxes for the cheapest car.

Bus or shuttle service might be the best choice; and actually faster - about 3.5 hours for the bus rather than 4 hour on the train.

Quite a few bits of erroneous info here, especially about trains. While I'm also a fan of day-before arrival, if you have no choice but to arrive on the day the morning train is a very low-risk option.

The stats for the entire line quoted above are very misleading taken out of context - first, they include the entire Cascades network rather than the specific train involved, and secondly they only indicate a train was late but not by HOW MUCH it was late.

The 510 in the morning Seattle-Vancouver has very poor on-time stats because even a single minor issue usually triggers a late report - a journey this short means Amtrak have to report it as late if it arrives even 10 minutes behind schedule. Since there are no dependencies on other routes and the rolling stock overnights in Seattle this train usually leaves bang on time, unlike the evening train which almost always gets delayed somewhere en route to Seattle.

Even the disastrous scenario mentioned above was handled - Amtrak have a big fleet of buses, and until quite recent track improvements were finished it was the norm for trains to be cancelled at short notice several times each winter due to landslides blocking the track. If something goes wrong, they are very used to handling all sorts of 'get folks off the train and onto a bus' scenarios.

There has been only one report ever of folks on the 510 train being late enough to miss a cruise - usually the train runs 15-20mins behind, most often because of unlawful freight prioritization making the Cascades sit in a siding or at a station for long enough to let another train pass it (Amtrak has legal priority, but this is in practise never enforced; freight makes money and passengers cost money - without subsidies from BC, WA, OR gov'ts this route would not exist).

Buses are on paper faster - but are MUCH more variable. I5 doesn't have a lot of good detour options, and having to stop at the various pickup/drop points en route means even if the bus could get around an accident or issue, they often cannot because they have to get to those stops. There is always something problematic on the highway. It's not a question of whether or not there will be a slowdown, but where - if it's one of the little towns with only one decent bridge option, you're hosed (many locals will recall the disastrous bridge collapse of a few years back).

The train is also an absolute dream at the border - because you don't have to stop at all, immigration/customs happens at the station in Vancouver. Worst case 'border' delay on the northbound train is a half-hour (we roll into the station 5mins pre-departure northbound so always get seats in the last carriage, are last off the train to stand in the queue for CBSA, and are usually still done within 20mins of arrival).

Worst border delay I've personally had on a bus was over 2 hours - despite the bus-only processing area, until the bus can actually get to within a couple of hundred yards of it they share the road with cars. Lots and lots of cars sometimes. Plus, if one person on your bus gets pulled for Secondary, you all wait for them - until they are actually forbidden to enter the bus cannot leave (I've spent 45mins+ waiting around while a fellow pax was grilled before).

The best bus option is a Cruiseline transfer - it's often available from Seatac to the pier in Vancouver, costs less than QuickShuttle (usually listed at $39pp), has no stops except at the border and probably a 'comfort break' in Bellingham just beforehand. Not all departures have these available though - seems to depend how many folks book cruiseline air and want to fly into SEA - so you may not be able to do this.

Rental car still has traffic issues, but you can choose to head to a different border crossing (there are 4 viable choices). You can also leave the highway anywhere you like. At the border you're stuck with the other cars, but at least it's just YOU being interviewed so the actual interaction with CBSA is quick and usually painless - and if you brought too much booze or otherwise need to go inside for Secondary, at least it's usually for factors that were under your own control unless you just have truly bad luck.

As to fees - it's trivial to find a one-way car Seattle-Vancouver for under a hundred bucks, with many posts of $50 or lower rates. All you have to do is shop companies - there are so many cars coming and going that someone will have a car that 'should' be in Vancouver and needs taken back. High drop fees are common if you book long in advance - but check again a month out and you should have no problem getting a good deal. Canada Place isn't the only possible drop site - all major companies have downtown offices, and the furthest is only about a mile from the pier. Even if you don't want to wait for a shuttle, $10 in a cab will get you and your stuff to CP (and you can always do the 'drop bags and all passengers at CP then just the driver returns the car to the office' thing).

Given how often we drive, bus, and Amtrak between our Vancouver and Portland places I have a lot of experience at traveling this route, and if I were in the position of being forced to get from Seattle to Vancouver on cruise morning I would choose, in this order: cruiseline transfer if available; one-way car rental that I picked up the night before (i.e. remove the potential of problems collecting it in the morning); the morning train; the first Bolt Bus of the day (has the smallest number of stops and the nicest fleet); the first Greyhound of the day (more stops than Bolt, mixed fleet but at least they all have WiFi); Quickshuttle (old and small fleet so if anything goes wrong it'll take longer to get you an alternative vehicle than any other bus line- and many vehicles still lack WiFi); Amtrak scheduled bus (just horribly overpriced - way more expensive than the train!)