Victoria Day Weekend-Vancouver Booked Hotels

[cruiserjanet]

We tried to book our favorite hotel for the weekend of May 18, 2013 and found out that not only it, and many other hotels are completely sold out. I was stunned that so many hotels are already sold out. Does it have anything to do with Victoria Day weekend or could something else be going on? Fortunately we booked a hotel I've been wanting to stay at so all is good.

[Urban trekker]

Did you contact the hotel directly or were you using a search engine or hotel web site - it's about 11 months out so perhaps they haven't opened up those dates for bookings yet.

 

While that is a big weekend it shouldn't result in sold out signs this far out so if it isn't what is mentioned in the above paragraph then my hunch would be a large convention has blocked booked rooms.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[cruiserjanet]

Hotel directly and they were specific in that they were sold out and not just not available for bookings yet.

[Putterdude]

Likely the holiday weekend and it is often a weekend that is huge in the number of cruise ships that are repositioning.

[bobhsv]

We had trouble booking too for this date, and after 2 hrs or more of searching, finally found and booked the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown. No idea what it is like. My searches came up saying 'fully booked', whereas when I had looked a month ago the message was 'unavailable for bookings, open 330 days in advance'.

Any fireworks or special events on during this Victoria Day weekend? Hoping so.

[Putterdude]

Ut is pretty good about knowing of special events going on but ordinarily on the Victoria Day week there is not much in the way of a celebrations...no parade ... no fireworks.

[Urban trekker]

I checked the Convention center web site and there is nothing showing for that weekend - there is a big one the following weekend but perhaps as PD stated with a large number of cruise ships likely due in that weekend perhaps the cruise lines and on-line TA's have reserved a large bloc of rooms for there clients.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[cruiserjanet]

Interesting.

[Putterdude]

The only things that I could find that would have a modest impact on rooms that weekend is that the Dragon Boat people are have some tryouts for boat Canada and Kenny G is in town. But over those 3 or 4 days we could have 8 to 10 cruise ships in town would call up of need for a significant number of hotel rooms and the hotels could just be playing a waiting game.

[cruiserjanet]

I'll check again in a month the "sold out" and not just "not available".

[bobhsv]

The only things that I could find that would have a modest impact on rooms that weekend is that the Dragon Boat people are have some tryouts for boat Canada and Kenny G is in town. But over those 3 or 4 days we could have 8 to 10 cruise ships in town would call up of need for a significant number of hotel rooms and the hotels could just be playing a waiting game.

 

 

Where would the Dragon boats be? That would be nice to see. That is a lot of cruise ships in town....is this normal for Canada/USA? If so, I had better get cracking on our other port accommodation. Thanks for you tips.

[Urban trekker]

The Dragon Boats events are held in False Creek near Science world - the main festival is this weekend - 180 teams competing and yes I got soaked to the skin working as a volunteer on the docks today and it does n't look that much better tomorrow.

 

The link for dragon boating is http://www.dragonboatbc.ca

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Putterdude]

Where would the Dragon boats be? That would be nice to see. That is a lot of cruise ships in town....is this normal for Canada/USA? If so, I had better get cracking on our other port accommodation. Thanks for you tips.

 

Ut is the expert on the Dragon Boats....but I think may be a bit different from the normal event, this is tryouts for the national team....Ut, help.

The number of ships would be over the 3 to 4 days but during a couple of repositioning weekends in May it is not unusual for there to be 4 ships tied up on at least one day. Once all the ships are homeported for the Alaska season the maximum we see is 3 and there is a day or two a week where we have none. However, we won't have a cruise schedule for Vancouver for 2012 until late February or early March.

[bobhsv]

Thanks for the extra info UT and PD. I will have to get a folder to keep all the stuff I print out from you two, as it is piling up fast.

[cruiserjanet]

Putterdude, I'm going off track here a little. There used to be a webcam that looked down onto Canada Place but either it no longer exists, is taking a long time in repairs or I just can't find it anymore. Any ideas?

[Urban trekker]

Re the hotels room questions - I checked with one of the directors of the Dragon boat races while volunteering there today and the event on that weekend isn't very large in scale so it won't take up many hotel rooms so my best guess is that the hotels are holding them for TA's and cruise lines because of the number of ships in town.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Putterdude]

Putterdude, I'm going off track here a little. There used to be a webcam that looked down onto Canada Place but either it no longer exists, is taking a long time in repairs or I just can't find it anymore. Any ideas?

 

Yes there was a great one that was either on the top of Harbour Centre or Granville Square but it stop operating last spring and I am guessing it was for want of sponsorship. Here is a link to one that is located on the North Shore looking toward Canada Place but it falls short of what the other one was.

 

http://www.northvancouver.com/webcams/cruisecam/