Vancouver or Seattle?

[tiyana4]

When I go on vacation, I want to do it without calculating every mile and every dime. I just want to get away from a very stressful job and enjoy myself. I flew roundtrip to YVR from DFW in a first class seat (bought with miles) and stayed in a beautiful hotel 2 nights (unbelievable rate from Priceline) before I left. I simply looked for the easiest and most comfortable way to get me to my Alaska cruise and booked it. All this analysis wears me out. :D That said, I travel solo so I don't have to worry about buying airfare for several family members. However, I do pay that rotten 200% single supplement :eek: for the aft balcony I must have. I guess it all evens out in the end.

 

My opinion -- just go and enjoy. Life is short and vacations are valuable. Don't stress over every little detail. :D

 

We feel exactly the same way. We are not early risers by nature, so having to get up at 5 am to get breakfast and catch a train by 7:40 AM to travel 3-4 hrs was not our idea of a relaxing way to start a vacation. It was so much nicer to fly into Vancouver a few days earlier, enjoy the city, and have a taxi drive us all of 6 blocks from the Hyatt Regency on sailing day. We also used FF miles, so no concept of what savings flying into Seattle would have been.

 

We now have the 2nd half of this RT ticket to use for a future trip home since we sailed one way to Whittier. Maybe we can catch the Olympics sometime next year. If not, Vancouver is a fantastic city in itself to visit.

[scottbee]

We are going to Alaska next July and I am undecided about flying into Seattle and taking a transfer bus to Vancouver. It seems to cost less to fly into Seattle. Has anyone taken the transfer from Seattle to the ship terminal? Should I just fly into Vancouver and pay the difference?

 

Options;

1) Fly (or book the SEA-YVR separately, it's about $125 ea way)

2) Train. Two Amtrak departures per day. The evening train (7pm ish in Seattle) actually starts in Portland, so you could fly into Seattle or Portland. If you do fly into Seattle, the train stops at Tukwila (one stop south of Seattle - but only 2 miles from SEA airport).

3) Quickcoach's bus service http://quickcoach.com/

4) Rent a car one-way, and drive. (3hrs approx)