Vancouver Hop-On Hop-Off

Going to be in Vancouver 24 hours before our cruise in June (Coral Princess, leaving 6/20). I read recently that the Trolley Company and West Coast Sightseeing have merged. Looking at reviews from last summer, there are a lot of terrible reviews on Yelp and a pretty good mix of reviews on Trip Advisor. Most of the complaints being that the wait was sometimes 3-5 buses long (1+ hour). They're also pretty expensive.

Bottom line - is the Hop-On Hop-Off worth it to go see the majority of the city? Has there been a tangible impact from the merger improving the tour? Any locals noticing that there are long wait times for tourists? Any thing else I should know/consider?

Thanks

Can't say as I've noticed lots of people waiting at the 3 or 4 HOHO stops I frequently pass, but it is very early in the year. Despite the 20% price hike, personally I feel that the concept retain value - if you treat it like a 'regular bus tour' and just ride around you see more downtown places while paying <$60 instead of $80.

Again though I feel that CC is not the optimal spot for your questions - your subset of tourists is 'people who have taken a HOHO this year and who visit CC and who actually read and answer others' questions.' Given we've only had less than a handful of ships and won't see any remotely significant numbers until May has come and gone, there's probably three people on this site who can actually answer experientially at this time!!!!

From a purely logistical viewpoint, the total buses have declined by about a third. Frequency is not even close to the 'every 15 mins' it would be if they just kept the same numbers running from both fleets. Without knowing the mix - half and half or skewed to one or the other company - it's hard to say if the total number of seats per hour will be better, worse, or about the same as in prior years compared to the demand (WestCoast buses seat many more people than Trolleys do).

It's very possible that folks waiting for one of the companies were passed by a bus from the other which had seats in previous years, so perhaps the 'every 20 mins' new Summer frequency will actually end up being perfect - and they will definitely have a crapton of vehicles lying around unused, so as long as there are staff who can drive them 'floater buses' to go to busy stops might be much more easily organized than in the past.

Until enough folks actually use them and report back though... impossible to say. I honestly expect there will be teething problems this year with the new setup, so next summer will likely see changes to routes/vehicle mix/pricing and again any significant changes will make reviews pointless for months afterward!

TL;DR - sometimes you just have to suck it up and be the guinea pig!