HA cruiser Alaska

Hey Beth, are you out there? I'm interested in anything you can tell me about getting from Vancouver airport to the cruise terminal easily (I'm thinking taxi might be easiest). Also have some info you might find interesting.

For anyone else--there will be 3 of us traveling; daughter is mobility impaired. I'm familiar with the Sky Train, but I think that may involve too much walking and a taxi might pick us up closer as well as dropping off closer to cruise terminal. The description says 300m. from station to terminal entrance, but what happens after the entrance. She can do short distances with braces and a walker. We will also check on transfers thru the cruise line, but are looking at staying in an airport area hotel when we fly in the night before, so that would mean returning to the airport.

Hi!! i guess you mean me?

we cruised from seward to vancouver....

i don't have any information about vancouver as we rented a car right in the terminal (from alamo - that branch is only open for a few hours when ships are in port)..

so we just went right from the ship to the car rental to the car right there in the terminal...

in seward, we just walked from the hotel to the ship - i pushed my mom in her wheelchair....

it was only a few blocks and all over sidewalk, so really easy..

a bit more challenging was boarding the ship, as the tide in seward is such that the gangplank to get on board can be a crazy steep incline..

to board the ship, they had crew to push wheelchair people up.....and even these super strong guys were challenged by it...

no way could i have done it...

sorry i don't have any vancouver info...

we rented the car and drove straight for the border.....

we were headed for the boeing factory (great tour!! - and HA friendly)

we overnighted across the street from boeing, then headed to seattle airport to fly out..

.

Thanks for the above. I'm working out details, but I'm still thinking the easiest thing will be a taxi from the hotel to the port. That should give us the closest pick ups possible with the shortest walks. She'll use wheelchair assist to board as you never know what those ramps will be like. I'll just take the rollator.

I learned that the Golden Princess has a situation very similar to the Caribbean. Nice deal when you can get it.

there are hotels right by the terminal - but i don't know anything about them

my daughter was in vancouver for a day after her first alaska cruise..

i'll ask her...i'm sure they used a taxi to get from the cruise terminal to her hotel...

and then from the hotel to the train station....she took the train to Seattle...

Hi Moki's Mommy. There is a Taxi line outside of the airport and we waited for a van since there was 4 of us. It took us to the Hotel right across the street from the Cruise port for around $40.00 last September. It was quite easy and only a short wait. The Vans have easy way to load the luggage in the back and W/C as needed. On the way back we rented a car (Ford Escape) for just about $50.00 at the Cruise Port since we had a late flight. Reserve a car if this is a plan. It was a way to store luggage and kill some time by sight seeing until flight time. We dropped the car at the airport and there is a gas station right at the entrance of the Airport to gas up and then return the car. There is a Taxi area at the Port Terminal to the Airport, we have used this too. The line for the Van Rentals is shorter than the Sedans....Hint.

Thanks! All the hints are helpful as this will be our first time at this port.

Thanks for the above. I'm working out details' date=' but I'm still thinking the easiest thing will be a taxi from the hotel to the port. That should give us the closest pick ups possible with the shortest walks. She'll use wheelchair assist to board as you never know what those ramps will be like. I'll just take the rollator.[/quote']

With 3 of you a cab from airport to pier is definitely the simplest, not much more expensive than SkyTrain (CAD$35+tip vs 3x $8.10pp tickets), and will also get you to the absolute closest possible point you can get to before your own power/wheelchair is needed. Taxis drive under the Pan Pacific hotel and right to the end of the loop road inside the pier itself - when you get out of the cab you should easily see, and might actually be right next to, the bag drop depending exactly which cab 'slot' you stop in.

 

 

The able-bodied folks can literally walk all the bags a few yards to left or right and hand them directly to the longshoreman running the conveyor belt (there's always a sign saying 'this belt is for INSERT NAME OF VESSEL/CRUISE LINE'), or you can wait for one of the others with a wheelie luggage cage to come collect your bags and transfer them the ridiculously short distance. Personally I always hand them over at the belt - while uncommon for bags to go to the wrong ship, this removes even the tinest chance of confusion!

 

You will most likely have to change levels multiple times - unless you're the only ship in port, these days the process seems stablized to check-in first up in Hall C, then sitting to wait for your group to be called, then coming back down to pier level for security, then CBP if it's an Alaskan cruise, before you finally get to board.

 

You can also rent wheelchairs and scooters - there are lots of non-sidewalk places in AK ports, so the rollator could be a serious hindrance if the person actually does need to roll it rather than just using it as a support occasionally. Even the small travel wheelchairs with four rollator-size wheels are a real b*gger to move over gravel, wood chips, and uneven ground (used to rent a chair when granny came to visit us), so personally I'd spring for your a chair with a pair of 'normal' big bike type wheels for the cruise - and you can collect it right at the pier from Scootaround. This way you have a chair all the way through, without having to worry about how many are available/how many other folks have already requested wheelchair assistance - one time boarding we saw a couple wait over an hour for a chair to be available.

Thank you! You are confirming a lot of what I had sort of figured out.

I'm a little concerned about AK/excursions, etc. We did it 10 years ago, but her physical situation was much better then. She really wants to do it again, but I'm concerned that what she can do now won't be as much as she'd like. We'll work it out.....

Next area of research--whale watching. Probably Juneau. We has a super experience last time, so we'll see what I can come up with.