Butchart Gardens Advice

[teacherman]

We selected our Alaska cruise because it spends a full day in Victoria (9-6). Our main goal is to visit Butchart Gardens and then have time to walk about in Victoria. Need advice whether to take the ship tour or private CVS tour. I believe CVS drops you off and you can return when you want, while ship tour gives you about 2.5 hours at the gardens. Cost is similar. This will be our third Alaska cruise but first time in Victoria. Hopefully, some of you have had experience with one, or both, of these tours. This will be on Thursday, July 16. Any advice is most welcome. Thank you.

[cruiseryyc]

Take the CVS tour, you won't have to spend your whole time there looking at your watch making sure you get back to the bus in time. They have a very good reputation.

[judynorth]

We took the ship's tour and felt that we didn't have enough time at the gardens. There is so much to see that it takes a while. If you take the private tour you could even eat lunch at the gardens.

[chipmaster]

Price the same private, nothing is worse than a ship tour and a bus load of people with different perception of time

[Budget Queen]

My sister took the CVS tour, it was cheaper than the NCL Pearl's shore excursion. They were satisfied with this tour company.

 

With all that port time, I'd suggest going by cheap city bus. :) $2ca each way (last year cost). You do have to get into the inner harbor area.

[plenox]

which itinerary has full day stop at Victoria? Last time we went with Princess, it docked in the evening, we only spent 3-4 hrs there, which is obviously not enough

[xlxo]

I see two mistakes when visiting Butchart...

• upon getting off the bus.... I seen some spend too much time in the parking lot or just past the admission gate. Lost in the beauty?
  
• when entering the Rose gardens... many get disoriented and miss out on the Japanese gardens. Instead they just go to the park exit.
  

Here's a map... http://www.butchartgardens.com/gardens/map

[teacherman]

RCCL Jewell of the Seas-July .10-17, stopping in Victoria on Friday, July 16. Sailing RT from Seattle.

[caltroon]

And I mean DARK! Princess Cruise arrived in Victoria September 2, a little late at about 7:30 pm. We got to the Gardens at 8:35 which gives 1 hour and 25 minutes to see the gardens. That would have been barely okay except at this particular time of the year it is VERY dark and you see very little. I expected the gardens to be lit almost like a fair or a street carnival. Wrong. We could barely see where to walk and everyone had their phone flashlights on to see the flowers. If you're there when it's just starting to get dark it's probably okay, but when it's totally dark it's very hard to see anything. You can take flash pics of the flowers and they turn out better than what you can see with your own eyes. Big waste of money and I wish we'd known how dark it was going to be. If you search for Butchart Gardens after dark, be sure the images you are looking at are truly when it's dark - not just when it's getting dark. If we had gone in the summer it would probably have been beautiful.:(

[Coral]

I did a CVS tour that met at the Empress and had an assigned time to get on and supposedly could return on any bus coming back.

 

The bus driver indicated that "we were guaranteed a seat on a return bus at X time, otherwise, we would have to take our chances there would be a seat on another bus". It sort of scared me as I didn't want to miss the ship. I did feel rushed.

[Coral]

And I mean DARK! Princess Cruise arrived in Victoria September 2, a little late at about 7:30 pm. We got to the Gardens at 8:35 which gives 1 hour and 25 minutes to see the gardens. That would have been barely okay except at this particular time of the year it is VERY dark and you see very little. I expected the gardens to be lit almost like a fair or a street carnival. Wrong. We could barely see where to walk and everyone had their phone flashlights on to see the flowers. If you're there when it's just starting to get dark it's probably okay, but when it's totally dark it's very hard to see anything. You can take flash pics of the flowers and they turn out better than what you can see with your own eyes. Big waste of money and I wish we'd known how dark it was going to be. If you search for Butchart Gardens after dark, be sure the images you are looking at are truly when it's dark - not just when it's getting dark. If we had gone in the summer it would probably have been beautiful.:(

 

I am sort of surprised. I was there late in July (more daylight obviously) but I thought it was pretty lit up.

[SuperCrewBear]

We took a cab from the dock to Butchart Gardens (about a 30 minute ride) but I have no idea what it cost... $30CAD??? We then were able to take our time. On the way back to the ship we split a cab with two ladies going back at the same time - so only half price. :) We were probably at the garden about 4 hours. Didn't have to look at the clock or watch once. We were there from noon until midnight. We went back to the ship for dinner around 6 PM then took a $5 round trip bus ride to downtown to walk around. We were back on the ship by 10-11 PM.

[caltroon]

There is probably a big difference in darkness between end of July and beginning of September. It may be as much as an hour or maybe more and that's a lot. At the beginning of September you really can't see much of the flowers at 9-9:30 at night.

[mapleleaves]

If you need it, there are web sites that provide sunrise/sunset times for locations all over the world, such as this one.

 

http://www.sunrisesunset.com

 

BTW, this thread is over a year old so the OP has come and gone

Edited September 7, 2016 by mapleleaves

[TheCalicoCat]

Since you have the time, do it privately so that you are not with a crowd on their schedule.