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Vancouver 1-day suggestions with 8yo son


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Hello all,

Our southbound Alaska cruise on HAL ends in Vancouver, July 1st (a Sunday) at 7am. We won't fly home till early the next morning. Never having been there, I'm looking for suggestions on what to do on a Sunday that is kid-friendly, after we drop off our luggage at our hotel.

With my limited research, I've narrowed down thus far to: Stanley Park, Science World British Columbia, Vancouver Aquarium, and Granville Island Kids Market. But we can't do it all in one day without feeling too rushed to enjoy.

In NJ we do have access to the Camden Aquarium, Liberty Science Center, and The Franklin Institute. And Seward, Alaska has the Alaska Sea Life Center (never been here either). Are the analogous Vancouver institutions preferable to / unique vs these places? Thank you for your insight!

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Abandon much of your planning - for it is Canada Day, and the pier is the literal centre of celebrations! There will be family-friendly stuff going on all day that only happens that day, from around noon until fireworks late in the evening. They'll update the website with a detailed schedule nearer the time, so keep checking Canada Place every month or so. Search for 'Canada Day Vancouver' and you'll find lots of youtube videos, news articles etc. about previous years (NB: since 2017 was Canada's 150th birthday it was a double celebration spread over 2 days, that's not normal).

 

So unless a parade, fireworks, bands and general hoopla sounds like something you & your kid would hate, you basically just have to deal with the morning - and I'd say that Stanley Park would be the single most-definitively-unique-to-Vancouver place to go. The Aquarium is inside the park, so you have to visit the park to visit the aquarium anyway (NB: the aquarium now has no dolphins or whales and never will again, so while there are still some excellent exhibits it's lost the 'wow factor' that made it one of the greats - though it's now much more safely on the ethical side of things). July should see the Park Shuttle operating (website should be updated in Spring when dates are confirmed) - so for $10pp you can pootle around hopping on and off at lots of parts of the park without having to hike for miles. This is even cheaper than bike rentals, although the latter is more flexible if everyone can ride. The kid might enjoy the splash park on the Seawall - and as parents you'll definitely appreciate the walk-through kid dryer so you don't have to worry about dealing with soaking wet clothes for the rest of the day;-)

 

In comparison to your other options - the kid's market is literally shops plus an indoor 'jungle gym' so unless you plan to do a lot of toy shopping it's best approached as somewhere you can leave your kids safely while one of you hits up the Public Market for lunchables; ScienceWorld is good but it's not even the best of it's kind in Canada - we've never made it more than 2 hours inside, while we can literally spend every minute from opening until being kicked out at the end of the day in the OSC in Toronto (sorry, can't compare directly with Liberty but I can say it's also IMO less enjoyable than equivalent sites in Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, or Cleveland; on par with Orlando; better than Gainesville).

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martincath,

One word--wow! What are the chances we would be lucky enough to end up being in Canada during such an important day! Okay, I will definitely keep tabs on the website for more info. Sounds like we can leave the science center off our list (unless it's raining), and stick with the outdoor activities. And we don't feel the need to shop away the day in Granville, with good weather. So Stanley Park it is, until the celebrations begin! Bike rentals do sound interesting...riding is a favorite family activity.

Ontario's science museum in Toronto is on our future list of places to go in Canada--ever since I saw a show on it once (Rick Mercer).

One of my other questions was going to be which hotel we should stay in. I'm keeping the decision between Vancouver Airport Marriott (VAM) and Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown (RIVD), because I'm getting excellent rates at those properties, hundreds less than other hotels in that category. I'm leaning toward the latter, judging by location, as long as we can easily taxi to the airport the next morning. VAM has a free airport shuttle, but RIVD looks like it has a much better location for exploring Vancouver, especially with Canada Day celebrations being underway then!

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Definite yes on downtown hotel. With only a day, the time wasted heading out to drop bags then coming back in again is an annoying proportion of your limited schedule on any date - but on Canada Day, which will have extra busy SkyTrain service most of the day thanks to all the bridge & tunnel folks coming downtown for parade & fireworks then heading home... to be blunt you'd be insane to stay out of town if there's an affordable downtown alternative you can walk to. Get it booked right now before they jack up the rates!

 

Next day a cab will be quick - should be 30mins or less door to door, and Sundays no rush hour to worry about. SkyTrain is also a very viable option - you are walking downhill <800yards to Yaletown/Roundhouse station, then only paying $2.85 for adults and $1.85 for the 8yo to get to YVR (compared to ~$35 on the meter). Unless you are on one of the very first flights of the day <7am - earliest train gets you to YVR a little after 5am so you may not be comfortable with the time available for check-in/security/immigration - it's another safe way to save a few bucks, and faster than a cab if there's even a little traffic.

 

Plus, with automated trains, if you score the front seats your kid can pretend to drive. Unless I beat him to it;-)

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Take a ride on the SeaBus. It leaves from the Subway stop by the cruise terminal and goes to North Vancouver. On the other side there is a marketplace with local products . Then hop back on and watch as you see the ships at the Cruise Terminal as it docks back where u started.

 

 

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Great suggestions for SeaBus and gelato (enough variety for breakfast, lunch, and dinner lol!)! And yes we'd compete for front of the train!! ;p

We're arriving Sunday July1st, and flying out on a 9am flight Monday July 2nd--how's the traffic Monday mornings as far as getting to the airport 3h early?

I've got a little more of a hotel "dilemma," as far as which to location pick (I'm getting good Marriott rates/points redemption rates). What do you think?

Marriott Pinnacle--can we walk there with luggage? City view basic room. Can we walk back to pier for Canada Day? And could we walk to Stanley Park?

Delta Hotel Marriott Downtown--1 BR suite, city view, can we walk there with luggage? Can walk back to pier for Canada Day? Stanley Park?

Vancouver Airport Marriott--close to airport, has free shuttle to airport

Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown--free breakfast

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Both Pinnacle and Delta are easily walkable with luggage (and obviously back to the pier without) at <700 yards away each, and Residence is still walkable if you can handle 1 mile on foot with luggage. Google Map with all three and the pier here. Airport you already know my opinion on, you'd need to save SIGNIFICANT sums for the wasted time to make it a rational choice...

 

Gelato-wise, Bella Gelateria is not just better than Casa (it's the award-winningest in town, and not just local - Italian prizes too!) it's also much more convenient being super-close to the pier. The only caveat is that new flavours are notably weaker than old - the original owner was ousted by his (ex) wife during a bitter divorce, so had no input on recipes since spring last year and the chain was sold last fall; the new owner retains rights to all prior recipes so the quality of the product remains top notch... another local big hitter is Earnest Ice Cream, which has a branch just outside the Athlete's Village (where you can also visit Amato Gelato cafe - at 'only' 72 flavours not as many as Casa, but an even longer local history selling to restos for 40+ years).

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That map was helpful, martincath. Would the Marriott Pinnacle allow for us to walk to Stanley Park? Or are the roads en route not pedestrian-friendly?

I'm learning that a gelato tour in Vancouver would require more time than we'll have! Thanks for all the interesting insight! My son's flavor of choice is vanilla, and my husband's is mint chip. I'm more adventurous!

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That’s Canada day I was in Vancouver for it last year and Canada place all closed off I know it was the 150 Canada birthday but cousin was telling me it’s a big event every year

 

 

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judymag, so I'm thinking then that we are better off staying in a hotel that's walking distance from Canada Place and therefore the festivities. I wonder how they'll handle passengers embarking on the 2 cruise ships scheduled to leave at 4:30pm that day...

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That map was helpful' date=' martincath. Would the Marriott Pinnacle allow for us to walk to Stanley Park? Or are the roads en route not pedestrian-friendly?

I'm learning that a gelato tour in Vancouver would require more time than we'll have! Thanks for all the interesting insight! My son's flavor of choice is vanilla, and my husband's is mint chip. I'm more adventurous![/quote']

Everywhere downtown is pedestrian-friendly by design, with more bike lanes than you can shake a stick at too. We invented a whole genre of 'people first' urban design - go and read up on Vancouverism! You will literally struggle to find a city anywhere in the world that is more convenient to walk around - as long as you can handle the mileage of course, the Pinnacle would add almost 2 miles to your park walking (there and back).

 

Renting bikes near your hotel (e.g. EzeeRiders at the convention centre) is likely cheaper than doing so at the park entrance (Spokes etc. right next to the park get so much passing foot traffic that they can charge more than others easily and still do great business) and means you can travel faster to and from it not just around it (NB: best to use no-vehicles, totally separated bike lanes like the Seawall unless you're experienced at riding on city streets).

 

If your kid likes vanilla, then you might just need to head to Earnests - their Sweet Cream is probably most like a 'normal' vanilla, with Tahitian Vanilla having a much more intensely-vanilla flavour than the norm. Mint Chip isn't green (no food colourings!) but is very minty! I'd suggest Whisky Hazelnut as the most popular 'local' flavour for you: real Canadian rye whisky and local hazelnuts from Agassiz, which IMO are simply the finest anywhere in the world - and we also live in Oregon, where 75% of all US hazelnut production occurs... we love our nuts;-) Being diabetic I'm more inclined to ice cream than gelato anyway even when cheating (less sugar as long as 'low fat' nonsense is avoided), and the mouth feel of Earnests is just superb - super old school, very high dairy fat, unctuous texture.

 

If you did rent bikes, you could zip around the sea wall all the way from Stanley Park down to the end of False Creek (even if you don't go inside Science World, there are some fun outdoor things to look at and even play with), grab some burgers and a Pirate Pak from the White Spot window (Vancouver's local equivalent to McDs, started as drive ins back in the 50s) then park in the village and walk over to Earnests on Quebec (there's never room to lock bikes up - usually the pedestrian queue fills the whole block).

 

judymag' date=' so I'm thinking then that we are better off staying in a hotel that's walking distance from Canada Place and therefore the festivities. I wonder how they'll handle passengers embarking on the 2 cruise ships scheduled to leave at 4:30pm that day...[/quote']

Access is retained for cars, but only one route - so it's an even-worse bottleneck for cars than normal. You'll find maps of street closures as the date draws closer, but usually it starts just west of Canada Place and runs along past Jack Poole Plaza (where the Olympic cauldron is) throughout the day, and additional closures for the actual parade part.

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I suggest booking your hotel now before you can't get a good rate any longer. I would go with the Pinnacle, it's better located for walking dt Vancouver. If you're able bodied and don't have a lot to carry (e.g. You can roll your suitcases), then it is walkable from the pier just a few blocks.

 

 

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martincath, I've got to try unique-to-Canada ice cream flavors! Imagine needing a designated driver for ice cream, lol! Good thing we're not renting a car :)

We're not used to road biking, and stick to paths here in NJ, so we'll look into the possibility of renting at EzeeRiders if that is near a trail into Stanley Park/sea wall. Biking to a picnic lunch in the park sounds like a great plan!

dolfan1980, I grabbed a room at the Pinnacle, location looks perfect. We may end up cabbing just to avoid the luggage drag if I end up needing more than 2 suitcases and 3 carry-ons. We're doing 5 nights on land in Alaska before the 7-night cruise, and although there'll be laundry facilities along the way, I'm packing layers for a range of weather types, which could get bulky.

Have a great day, all!

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Great suggestions for SeaBus and gelato (enough variety for breakfast' date=' lunch, and dinner lol!)! And yes we'd compete for front of the train!! ;p

We're arriving Sunday July1st, and flying out on a 9am flight Monday July 2nd--how's the traffic Monday mornings as far as getting to the airport 3h early?

I've got a little more of a hotel "dilemma," as far as which to location pick (I'm getting good Marriott rates/points redemption rates). What do you think?

Marriott Pinnacle--can we walk there with luggage? City view basic room. Can we walk back to pier for Canada Day? And could we walk to Stanley Park?

Delta Hotel Marriott Downtown--1 BR suite, city view, can we walk there with luggage? Can walk back to pier for Canada Day? Stanley Park?

Vancouver Airport Marriott--close to airport, has free shuttle to airport

Residence Inn Vancouver Downtown--free breakfast[/quote']Thoughts....

  • skip the airport Marriott... it's not going to save you much time compared to the downtown hotels.
  • I'm going to vote for the Delta Marriott.
    • 5 block luggage drag from the cruise terminal.
    • convenient access to Seabus or taxi to La Casa
    • Marriot Pinnacle is tempting if there's a view of the fireworks from the room, but it's going to be like a warzone going through the crowds on July first from 8am til midnight.
      • I do not walk to be pulling luggage through there. If you do choose this hotel... I would drag the luggage South to Hastings and then West to the hotel for your sanity past the convention center
      • not sure if there's a Canada Parade planned for this year, if so, it would add to the congestion around the hotel. https://www.canadaplace.ca/events/canada-day/parade/

    [*]9am flight? You can leave the Delta hotel at 5:15am. Traffic should be non-existent on July 2nd as many will have the day off. You only need to be at the airport at 6am for your 3hrs of check-in, customs, and security searches.

    [*]Bella is also a good suggestion for Gelato. I strongly recommend visiting them earlier in the day. By late afternoon and evening... don't be surprised if there is an hour long line up with the Canada Day festivities just steps away. I just think La Casa décor is more appealing to the kids, despite the cab ride (or the #22 bus)

    [*]I think you want a few more extra days in Vancouver.

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As for biking in the park - it is a paved separated pathway from where you pick up your bike to and all the way around Stanley Park and most of the trails in the park itself are hard pack gravel and easy to ride on. I in the good weather hit the seawall or trails in the park about once a week.

Hope this helps

Cheers!

Dennis

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martincath' date=' I've got to try unique-to-Canada ice cream flavors! Imagine needing a designated driver for ice cream, lol! Good thing we're not renting a car :)

We're not used to road biking, and stick to paths here in NJ, so we'll look into the possibility of renting at EzeeRiders if that is near a trail into Stanley Park/sea wall. Biking to a picnic lunch in the park sounds like a great plan!

dolfan1980, I grabbed a room at the Pinnacle, location looks perfect. We may end up cabbing just to avoid the luggage drag if I end up needing more than 2 suitcases and 3 carry-ons. We're doing 5 nights on land in Alaska before the 7-night cruise, and although there'll be laundry facilities along the way, I'm packing layers for a range of weather types, which could get bulky.

Have a great day, all![/quote']

There's not enough booze to worry about left in the finished product (alcohol plays havoc with the freezing point of ice cream, so you have to add it to the cream at the beginning when you're simmering the milk - by the time you have the custard ready to go at least half of the alcohol has evaporated - and since it's only about 1/4 cup of whisky per quart of ice cream to start with, it's less alcoholic than a ripe banana...)

 

For a picnic, you could hit up a supermarket (there's a Safeway and an Urban Fare that are both pretty convenient for en route to the park) but if you don't want to risk stuff getting warm/schlepping too much around there are dining options in the park - Prospect Point Cafe is a popular casual lunch option, with bike racks and some benches you can sit and watch the boats passing under Lion's Gate bridge.

 

xlxo makes a couple of good points re: Canada Day: Bella will be hoaching from noonish to closing, so the 'nothing else around it' location of Casa would be an advantage if you feel like gelato later in the day; walking straight up Howe (left open for cars to access the pier) to Hastings is only a teeny bit longer to walk if the crowds are already building along Canada Place when you disembark. And I'd never argue with Dennis about cycling trails, he's on them much more often than I am;-)

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xlxo,

I've nixed the airport Marriott and the Residence Inn. I'm booked at Pinnacle right now, but I'll give Delta a second look given the crowd factor. Air Canada just moved our flight to 8:45am, but I won't stress since it'll be light traffic on the 2nd of July.

I feel very fortunate and thankful that one of our critical decisions is where to have ice cream and gelato. How refreshing after all the serious decisions that have to made everyday!

Dennis, glad to hear that the park has good paved or packed trails. On my to-do list is downloading a trail map. My son is excited to see the sea wall!

Martincath, we'll go for a place in the park for lunch, instead of worrying about a packed lunch hitting the danger zone (public health nut here, although restaurant food isn't always safe!).

I appreciate the pros and cons being detailed here--I'm definitely a planner!

Edited by Dev'sMom
public health
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  • 6 months later...

Hello all. I was hoping to post a review in early July about our Alaska trip and my new camera. Unfortunately we couldn't go. I was diagnosed cancer in mid-June. I'm in the midst of chemotherapy now. I'm praying to be able to beat this terrible disease quickly. And re-book for 2020. I feel most terrible for my young son. I need to be here for him as he grows up. There's so much more I want to do with him. I'm praying to have many more quality years with him. He and I are best friends. Everything I do is either directly or indirectly for him. I can't even look at the camera right now. Once I get some good news about my health, I will feel comfortable planning again and learning the camera to capture the all-important memories with my son. I'm struggling emotionally for him as much as I am physically.

p.s. I'm re-posting this in my other longer threads where I got helpful replies to my questions, where I intended to report back.

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Wow. I can't believe you came back to update us on your lack of review given the circumstances. That's just so far above & beyond any hopes of posters letting us know how things worked out I don't have words.

 

Best of luck in your fight, and hope you do get to come visit us in 2020. There's a new gelato chain opening any day now from James Coleridge, he of Bella Gelateria fame, so there are even more delicious sugary treats to look forward to sharing with your son. I'd be more than happy to show you all around personally when you visit.

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