larcklorn

Which both? There are four US Virgin Islands- St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island.;) It is pretty easy to see any two except St. Croix, which is a plane ride away from St. Thomas...

St. Thomas/St. John would be the two in question. Looking for recommendations on what to see at both or is it not worth it and I should just focus on one big activity (catermeran, snorkling, diving, hiking, etc.).

Is there a company or tour option that would allow my wife and I to see the best of both islands? Never been before and in port for 1 day 9 to 5. I see the tons of options available, just no idea how to pick between it all.

Great information, most of the 7 day trips through Celebrity only touch two ports are there other cruise lines I should consider (have heard bad things about food on RC).

My SO and I did an Alaskan cruise last year on Celebrity and enjoyed it. This year we are looking at a 5 to 7 day cruise in the Caribbean, but have no idea what we are getting into here. Would prefer more history, hiking, and snorkeling type of activities vs. beach lounging. We have no kids, so can travel whenever. So questions:

What ports of call are best for what we are looking for?

What is the best time of the year to go (weather/pricing considered)?

Any other information or wisdom you would pass on?

Thank you all,

D and M

OP... How did your day in Vancouver go? I'll be on the NCL Pearl near the end of September for their Alaska cruise and we end in Vancouver. It sounds like we have the same flight time out of the city and I've been trying to figure out how to spend the 10ish hours we'll have there. My biggest question was if the ship/port had a service where they would transfer your bags from the ship to the airport, and it sounds like they do. Can you let me know if you used that service, how it worked and how much it cost?

 

Thanks!

We ended up with our itenary changing at the last minute and needed to be at the airport by 5:30, but it was still a lovely experience. We rented a car from Canada Place (book in advance and request a GPS ahead of time if you need one - remember no cell service or roaming charges for some of us). There were bag services for the ship for like 37 dollars per 2 bags, but the car was only 48 dollars - so thought we got the better deal. We traveled to Stanley park and visited the highlights and then to the Chinese Garden and lunch in China town. We had then planned to go to the botanical gardens, but unfortunately did not make it. If we were repeating I would skip the Chinese garden, it was interesting, but very small - its actually a representation of a scholars house instead of a larger japanese or chinese garden like Portland has. I was not that put off by the traffic, although there was some on the 1A/99 going to the airport, but overall it was easy to get around (fyi - originally from Atlanta and can deal with traffic). Would add the botanical gardens to the list of things to see and then gastown probably. Best of luck on your trip - it was amazing.

Saw that our cabin prices for the June 27th Millennium cruise had gone down this week. Had the TA call Celebrity and was switched from an interior to Oceanview room.

Chinatown is busy generally - lots of street parking so if you drive around a little you'll almost certainly find a spot within a block or two of Sun Yat Sen garden. There's also a pretty convenient, well-lit multi-storey parking garage right at Keefer & Columbia - super convenient for the garden, next block over. You might feel a bit safer leaving your stuff in the car here as casual 'smash a window and grab visible stuff from the car' theft is very common in the area.

 

I'd drive to the airport after 7pm - rush hour traffic will be finished. We don't have highways inside Vancouver proper, so traffic can be a real bear (we were just officially announced as the most gridlocked city in Canada, with the average 30 minutes/day 5 days/week commuter spending 87 extra hours waiting in traffic every year!).

Thank you again for the great information. Any suggestions for a great place to eat in Chinatown?

For a clear day I took out the suspension brigde and have us renting a car, looking around stanley park for 2 hours, lunch at the Fish House, going to Queen Elizabeth Park, then the Chinese garden with food afterwards.

I will probably use your suggestions for the rainy day activities for a second alternative itenerary.

The rental car option seems nice - 45USD for the day (plus fuel) and we can pack our luggage in there without a problem. What is the drive over to chinatown and the airport going to be like in the afternoon?

Gut feel is that this is too much. Even with a rental car and a GPS, or paying someone to give you a custom 'drive you around exactly where you want' tour it would be unpleasantly busy - if you thrive at planning a day in a Disney park to the minute *and* can actually keep to your schedule, you *might* be able to pull it off; but frankly I don't think you'll be spending enough time anywhere to really appreciate the sites.

 

...

 

I already mentioned about choosing which side of the water you want to stay on and I stick to that as good general advice.

Martin,

Thank you for the advice. It sounds like We should try and see the highlights at Stanley and then make our way through the different gardens. You mentioned the fact that we can have rain and I have been thinking about this, but not sure what there is to do in the city - any suggestions.

As far as a decent no rain day - what is the best way to stow or tansport luggage and make it around to these areas?

I first want to say that this forum has been amazing and I have enjoyed learning and helping others as we have researched and thought through our trip. Our final day is in Vancouver on July 4th and arrive in port at 7am. I do not know how the disembarkation will work really, but I am sure you can tell me an apx time we will get off the ship with luggage, etc. At this point we have a flight departing at 10:20pm and I image we will want to be at the airport for international travel by at least 8:30 (please please please correct me if I am wrong here).

As far as our day goes in Vancouver we have narrowed our list down to this:

1. Grouse Mountain (if it is a nice day and not totally fogged in to just ride up the mountain)
   
2. Capilano hatchery and suspension bridge
   
3. Walk through some parts of Stanley Park (looking for recommendations)
   
4. Vancouver Lookout if the city can be seen that day
   
5. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden
   
6. Maybe some good food in china town (do you know a place)
   
7. Queen Elizabeth Park
   
8. VanDusen Botanical Garden
   

First, is this even possible? Second, how is going to be the best way to see it? Know of any tour companies or we looking at bus hopping?

Thanks CC

Luggage gets a bit tricky if you're not using a tour bus or rental car - the storage at the pier only keeps bags until 4pm, so you're stuck with returning to the pier and then dealing with bags again over dinnertime. You could try offering an up-front 'tip' to a hotel bellman to hold your bags for the day (Fairmont or Pan Pacific right at the pier are about as convenient as it gets), go sightseeing, have dinner early-ish then pickup bags & hop right onto the Canada Line to YVR.

 

With only one part-day, I'd strongly suggest prioritizing either the North Shore (Grouse, Cap, or Lynn Canyon) or Vancouver itself - trying to include both sides of the water will suck up a lot of your time in transit.

 

Since you seem to like gardens, parks, outdoorsy stuff I'd recommend considering Dr Sun Yat Sen garden in Chinatown - it's the best traditional Chinese garden anywhere outside China. Excellent location too, easily combined with exploration of Chinatown/Gastown on foot or by HOHO. Walk about 100 yards to the bus stop on Pender and you can hop a 7 or 19 bus to get you to City Centre Skytrain station and take Skytrain up the hill to QE park (about 600 yard walk from Oakridge/41st ave station).

 

Van Dusen is less than a mile from QE Park for even more gardeny goodness - and the 17 bus runs right past on Oak to get you back downtown (or take it instead of Skytrain if VD sounds better than QE to visit first...)

Very good information - although I now feel like I should have started planning this part about a year ago. I really like the idea to prioritize ourselves. Like any large city - you just cannot visit for a day and see everything thanks :)

I wouldn't rent a car. Traffic and parking are both bad in downtown Vancouver. On the flip side, an all-day transit ticket is under $10, and will get you absolutely everywhere. The Hoho only sticks to the downtown core and you can't visit places like Lynn Canyon, Grouse Mt, QE Park etc etc.

 

Also, just use your transit ticket at the end of the day to get to the airport on the Skytrain Canada Line (subway)

Absolutely interested in the Canyon, Grouse Mt, and QE Park - so it sounds like car is bad, but either a bus pass or tour is the best option. What other attractions would you put on your must do?

What do you do with your luggage during this time?

We are on the June 27th cruise and will at Hubbard on June 28th (southbound). Itinerary has us there sometime between 2pm and 6pm. What are some of the best places on the ship to view the glacier from?

Getting in early on July 4th to Vancouver off of the Celebrity Millenium and want to see the city before our flight out at 10pm. Would you suggest a city tour company or DIY it with a rental car?

If city tour - what company would you use?

I am not familiar with the excursion, Adventure Bound, that you mention but have you contacted the company to see if they also offer a tour geared to cruise passengers?

There are quite a few excursions to take in Juneau. Have you done two very helpful things...checked out the Ports of Call boards for Alaska AND joined your Roll Call. You don't have much time left and many of the whale watch excursions booked with the recommended vendors are probably full but you can catch a local bus to the Mendenhall Glacier and spend a wonderful day there. Also, when you dock there will be vendors on the pier selling almost every kind of tour you might be interested in. They are a little pricier than a pre booked excursions but definitely less than any the ship will offer.

Have a wonderful cruise. Alaska is special.

Done and done alcpa1, we have whale watching booked out in Icy Strait - so good to go there, just wanted to see if I had any hope of making the Tracey Arm trip. Thanks.

I think the OP may be trying to do the Tracey Arm Excursion with Adventure Bound which is less expensive than the cruise line offering that is operated by Allen Marine tours.

 

I do agree that cruise line excursions can be pricier. I have arranged my own many times. (Taking the train to the Acropolis in Athens for 2-3 € instead of ship transportation costing considerably more.) I have just done the Tracey Arm Fjord excursion through the cruise line. I actually made the conscious choice to do so because the Allen Marine Tour boats are faster and have top deck viewing instead of bow and stern which appeared more crowded from pictures in my research. Faster to and from Tracey Arm Fjord means approximately 6.5 hors vs 9 to 9.5 hours as I'm lead to believe. Adventure Bound may not spend more time at the Sawyer Glacier...just more time getting to and from.

 

In this case, if it is acceptable to the budget, the higher cost ship excursion through Allen Marine Tours was good value for me and I do not make a habit of the higher cost ship offerings. The boat is roomy, clean, spacious and the crew is friendly and talkative. Tracey Arm Fjord was definitely worth the price of admission. Don't miss it just because you can't go with the cheaper company. How often are you up in Alaska anyway?

 

If it is something like whale watching through Adventure Bound then just ignore everything I just typed. :)

You are correct Mediaman, I was looking at the Tracey Arm trip, Allen is not providing it on Sunday when we are in town and unfortunately the ship does not get in until 9am and Adventure Bound leaves out earlier than that. Currently looking into Helicopter Glacier Tours or just doing Mendenhall ourselves as whale watching is being planned for Icy Strait. Thanks for everyones help on this questions - you guys are amazing.

Thanks everyone for the quick information. Time to look at activities to do outside of the Fjord travel.

We will be on the Millennium and arriving in Juneau on 6/29/14. We would love to do the Adventure Bound trip, but it leaves out at 8AM or so and we arrive at 9AM. Is there any chance that we will arrive early and could make this trip?

If so, is it ok to forgo booking anything and leave that as our first choice? Will I still be able to find another activity to do?

Thanks CC