Vancouver Canada Place parking--book in advance?

[DougK]

We're on the Coral Princess, leaving Vancouver for a 7-day cruise on May 8. We live just across the border in the US, so we'll be driving to the port, and I'm looking for parking options. I'm ruling out parking far away (e.g., the airport) because I don't want the hassle of taking SkyTrain with luggage--we're not good about packing lightly, especially when there's no airline constraint. As best I can tell, this pretty much leaves parking right at Canada Place, which is very convenient (and pricier). What I can't figure out is whether it makes sense to book in advance. It's extremely hard to tell from their web site, but I think it actually ends up being more expensive to book in advance--no price break for advance booking, plus an added "convenience fee." Does anybody know if that's actually correct? Do I need to worry about parking spaces filling up? Or should I just plan on driving in without a reservation the day of the cruise?

 

Thanks for any help!

[DougK]

I just called WestPark to get clarity. Although it's almost impossible to tell from their web site, there actually is a price break for advance booking. If you just drive up, it's $32/day; with pre-booking, it's $26/day (plus the convenience fee). So I guess we go with pre-booking, unless somebody knows of a better parking alternative that doesn't involve taking luggage on the SkyTrain.

[martincath]

Didn't answer first time around Doug because I've never used the parking; hoped you'd get some other tourists who did park at the pier giving info, but you've got it right from the horses mouth so all good on the pricing front. As to other parking - there's so much demand for short-term parking downtown, especially daytime (lots and lots of office towers), that you can get some decent overnight rates but I don't think there's any real downtown 'leave the car 24/7' options that will be much cheaper.

 

Airport economy parking does not have to involve SkyTrain - but if you take a cab, the $35 fixed rate to the pier/similar meter on the way back works out to be a total price of basically the same as pier parking, so pointless. You could drive downtown, drop bags and other pax, then just drive yourself to YVR and pay $10 or less to get back (and only $4.20 or less to get back out to YVR to collect the car again) - so you'd save $50+ but end up with about an hour's extra travel on each leg. If you value your own time at less than $25 an hour, this would therefore be worthwhile...

 

Other possibilities involve not bringing your own car - depending exactly where you live you may be able to board Amtrak without much travel/get a buddy to drop you at a station, and if Bellingham is convenient that opens up QuickShuttle, Bolt, Greyhound buses too (just checked and you can get 2 seats on the 8:30am Bolt May 8th returning May 15th 11:30am for $42 total incl booking fees!!!) A one-way car rental for each leg might even be cheaper than the parking fees if you get a bit lucky. Or perhaps you have a friend of family member who could drive you to Vancouver and back - bribing them with a nice steak dinner would still be cheaper than parking;-)

[SLOlady2014]

We'll also be on the Coral May 8th, and decided to drive from our home on the Kitsap Peninsula and park at Canada Place. I paid for our reservation in February to make sure we had confirmed parking. Our rate for 7 days came out to $216, which I don't mind paying, considering how convenient it is. We took Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver for one cruise, which worked out well for us, but that was before we moved up here. 

[DougK]

Wow, seems like you have quite a drive from the Kitsap Peninsula--including a ferry. I feel very lucky to just be coming from Bellingham. I've gone ahead and booked parking at Canada Place as well, voting for convenience over price. You might want to check your booking, and possibly modify it. I almost didn't catch this, but if you just enter the dates, it assumes you want the full day on each end, and charges you for 8 days. I was able to modify my arrival to be 11A on the 8th, and departure at 10A on the 15th, and then it only charged for 7 days, so a total of $190. Given embarkation and disembarkation times, 11A and 10A seemed to be plenty generous for what we'll actually end up doing. What time do you plan on arriving at the terminal?

 

BTW, feel free to join the roll call. I don't think I've seen you there yet. It's not particularly active, but there has been a little good info.

[DougK]

Oh, I forgot to note that the parking prices are in Canadian dollars, so with the good exchange rate, it's only costing about $140 US, which isn't bad for the extreme convenience.

[CruisinEars]

Thanks for the info. We, too, will be on the May 8 cruise coming from Everett.  Looked into taking the train, which we have done in the past, and it will cost $268 round trip for 4 people. We decided to just drive up and park at Canada Place. We will have some seniors with us and want easy access so it looked like the airport parking would be a  big hassle to save minimal money. 

[c-cruise]

Thanks for the info as well. We are driving up from Seattle and parking for our 9 night Alaska cruise. Looked at various options, but Canada Place seems like the best way to go. Works out to be less expensive and more convenient than taking the train.

[SLOlady2014]

On 4/1/2019 at 9:13 AM, DougK said:

Wow, seems like you have quite a drive from the Kitsap Peninsula--including a ferry. I feel very lucky to just be coming from Bellingham. I've gone ahead and booked parking at Canada Place as well, voting for convenience over price. You might want to check your booking, and possibly modify it. I almost didn't catch this, but if you just enter the dates, it assumes you want the full day on each end, and charges you for 8 days. I was able to modify my arrival to be 11A on the 8th, and departure at 10A on the 15th, and then it only charged for 7 days, so a total of $190. Given embarkation and disembarkation times, 11A and 10A seemed to be plenty generous for what we'll actually end up doing. What time do you plan on arriving at the terminal?

 

BTW, feel free to join the roll call. I don't think I've seen you there yet. It's not particularly active, but there has been a little good info.

Hi Doug. We will have a bit of a drive, so we'll be heading up the day before our cruise and spending the night in Surrey. With three ships scheduled to be in port, we want to get through check-in and immigration as early as possible. We're planning on getting to Canada Place around 9:30-10:00am.

[DougK]

Having just gone through this experience last week, and now preparing for a second time in July, I thought it made sense to share this gained knowledge:

 

Pre-booking a parking spot at Canada Place does *not* guarantee a space will actually be available. When we drove in on May 8, there was a shortage of spaces. We eventually ended up parking in a "reserved" spot, after calling WestPark and clearing it with the attendant. Today I called and inquired about this in connection with booking my next trip, and was explicitly told that pre-booking merely involves prepayment, and is not used to actually manage garage capacity (despite it being called "Reserve a Space Online" on their web site). He said that they have already had at least two days where the garage has filled up and they had to turn away people with reservations. They refund the payment, but it's up to the person to find their own parking alternative. He specifically said that I should have a "plan B" for parking in case it fills up.

 

My plan B is to drop off passengers and luggage, drive out to the airport and park there, and take the SkyTrain back to Canada Place. Hope I don't have to go that route--it will actually save money, but take extra time and involve extra hassles, including getting back to the car at the end of the cruise.

 

Be warned!

[nw gardener]

Doug,  thanks for the heads up !  I am "reserved " for this Saturday and have used the parking garage for the last 2 years with no issue.   I hope I don't need plan B , but do plan on getting there early,  by 11 a.m. and  crossing my fingers!