Hotels near the port in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada pre cruise stay

[BcIcemen]

Looking for hotel recommendations for pre cruise stay. TIA

[martincath]

Since you gave no criteria except 'near the port' this very-recent thread covers it perfectly.

 

If you do have other requirements from your hotel that TripAdvisor ratings don't already provide feel free to return and ask in more detail.

[DaveOKC]

I know that you said "near the port", but I wanted to point out that the hotels near the airport are considerably less expensive.  Plus, most have access to the Skytrain/subway which has easy and inexpensive access to the port.  So, if you are looking to save money, this is a good option IMO.  If you want to be near the port in order to explore Vancouver, then that is another, more expensive approach.

 

[Kellie in Texas]

We are looking for June 2020 as well.  Just found the Ramada Limited Downtown Vancouver on Pender St.  We plan on flying in the day before our cruise and spending one night, and then spending two nights post-cruise.  I had originally thought we'd stay the pre-cruise night somewhere near Canada Place and then stay post-cruise somewhere closer to Stanley Park.  HOwever, after looking at the Ramada's location, it looks excellent.  

 

We would take the SkyTrain from the airport; it looks like the Granville Station would be closest to the hotel.  @martincath can you confirm that?  Is it okay to walk from Granville Station to the hotel?  What about walking from the hotel to Canada Place on cruise embarkation morning?  It's hard to tell from the map what types of roads these are; are they typical downtown city-type roads?  I wouldn't want to be walking on the side of a major highway. 

 

@martincath I checked out the YWCA that you had recommended and it looks like an awesome facility but seems quite a bit farther away from Canada Place.  

[martincath]

Kellie - Granville isn't on the Canada Line. It does connect via the interior of a large mall to City Centre Station (which is on the Canada Line) but it's a shorter walk from Waterfront to that hotel. All streets in Vancouver are city streets with sidewalks (well, the alleys don't have sidewalks - but if it has a name, there's generally a safe and separated pedestrian pathway both sides). We actually don't have any highways at all except right at the very outskirts of the city, thanks to having invented the city planning methodology known as 'Vancouverism' - you can thank the inhabitants of Chinatown mostly, who derailed the plans to run a highway right through downtown and Stanley Park. Without them, we'd be a much crappier city to live in today!

 

YWCA is indeed further away than the Ramada Limited, but it's on a much more pleasant block (stuff doesn't get real gritty until a block east of the Ramada, but it's right on the verge of the skeeviest parts of the city) and it's a significantly-better-rated hotel on all review sites. And check the scale of your maps - it's still only a mile from the port, as our entire downtown core is nice & compact! Since you'll only have to get to the pier once, personally I'd place a custom-built modern concrete hotel that's inside one nice 'hood (Yaletown) and an easy walk into Chinatown, Gastown, and the Seawall around False Creek (and a $10 cab ride from the pier, in traffic) over a refurbished old building with thin walls that offers really just a slight proximity improvement as a bonus. Odds are that the Y is enough cheaper over three nights to pay for that cab ride and at least one nice dinner for the group too 😉

Edited June 17, 2019 by martincath

[hallux]

1 hour ago, martincath said:

(stuff doesn't get real gritty until a block east of the Ramada, but it's right on the verge of the skeeviest parts of the city)

I walked down that road (Granville) when I was there, I will not dispute this!  We walked up Howe to Helmcken, then over to Granville and back, that was quite the eye opener!  Howe was quite nice though.

[martincath]

1 hour ago, hallux said:

I walked down that road (Granville) when I was there, I will not dispute this!  We walked up Howe to Helmcken, then over to Granville and back, that was quite the eye opener!  Howe was quite nice though.

If you thought Granville was skeevy, it's just as well you didn't walk where I was warning about... 😉

 

Granville is our official downtown Party Zone - late licensed clubs & bars, drunken buffoonery a-go-go especially in the wee small hours after SkyTrain stops so folks hang around, being loud, waiting for the 'Vomit Comet' nightbuses - but still plenty of touristy hotels, condo towers etc. around. East of Victory Square, especially along Hastings, is where things begin to seriously decline - that's the heart of the DownTown EastSide, the poorest urban post code in the country, and the only hotel closer to the edge than the Ramada is the Victorian at the next cross-street. Don't get me wrong, as a tourist you won't be rolled for your wallet - we're still in Canada after all - but you can expect to see all the urban vices in plain sight pretty much any hour of the day. The biggest market for fenced goods used to be just outside the Police HQ, that's how much of a cr*p is not given - and the cops moved away before the market did!

[Kellie in Texas]

@martincath thank you for the reply.  I will keep the YWCA on my list as I continue researching.  

[martincath]

No problem. Skimming some of your other posts it looks like you're traveling as a family: the Y has some 'Jack & Jill' rooms that share a bathroom that are by far the cheapest way to get two rooms; other sensible hotels that cater well to families are the 'condo hotels' like Rosedale on Robson, or Times Square Suites if you do want to be nearer the park. Friends just stayed in that one last summer (2 adults, 2 very big teenagers) and found the 2-bedroom setup with a kitchen worked really well for them, prepping brekkies and packed lunches and stashing stuff in their own fridge. The Y does have huge communal kitchens with plenty of space and pots/utensils, but leaving food in a communal fridge gives me flashbacks to student days and other people always stealing my cheese!

 

The other thing to know is that taxis are as cheap as SkyTrain if there are four of you coming into town - fixed price of $32 (vs. SkyTrain of $8-9pp depending on time of day) to all downtown core hotels except a tiny number right at the pier or very close to Stanley Park. Even if it's just you and one of the kids, it might be worth the extra few bucks for the convenience of door-to-door service - the Canada Line only has 3 stops in downtown (Waterfront, City Centre, Yaletown-Roundhouse - all the others are on the older Expo line) so you usually have a ~10min walk to most downtown hotels.

[Kellie in Texas]

@martincath I know you are replying to 2 or 3 of us on this thread, but I'm paying attention to all of it.  🙂  Thanks for the previous reply re: taxis from the airport vs. the SkyTrain.  We will have four people so we might want a taxi; we'll see.  I did make a hotel res for our one-night pre-cruise stay at the Auberge Vancouver Hotel; it was a little more $$ than what we'd normally pay for a hotel but the proximity made it worth it.  Very close to the Waterfront stop if we use the SkyTrain and close to Canada Place.  I'm still looking for our two-night post-cruise stay, so I'll continue following this thread. 

[martincath]

@Kellie in Texas Yeah, the Auberge is extremely convenient if you want to just walk to port the next day - and it generally seems to be a relative bargain compared to Pan Pacific/Fairmonts which are the only ones closer. Even though it's on the Canada Place side of Hastings, it's still a $32 cab fare as any address on a Zone boundary street the lowest fixed fare applies - so with 4 people a cab, even with a tip, would be a wash compared to 4 daytime tickets ($9.10pp) and will save you a wee bit of uphill walking from Waterfront station.

 

If you arrive in the evening or on a weekend, SkyTrain is cheaper but not by much - $7.95pp so it's basically just the tip you're paying extra to the cabbie (since your kids are all >13 they pay full adult fare, not Concession rate, on transit). The only real win for SkyTrain would be timing - unless you're all traveling light you won't fit in most of the cabs with your luggage, as over 80% of local fleets are various models of Prius (so 4 seats, but trunk space reduced by all those batteries). Minivan cabs cost the same price and have a ton more room for bags if you don't need to strap down a wheelchair user inside - so you'd probably wait a few minutes extra at YVR before a cab that fit you all rolled up (and of course the polite thing to do is check that there isn't someone who actually needs an Accessible cab behind you in the queue before taking one).

[sunneesmile]

Are there hotels that allow us to see the ship arriving on embarkation day?

[AlanF65]

1 hour ago, sunneesmile said:

Are there hotels that allow us to see the ship arriving on embarkation day?

Pan Pacific

From the Restaurant / bar

 

Ovation coming under the bridge

 

Ovation from Outside on the balcony

 

Balcony of Buffet

 

More from Buffet

 

[martincath]

As well as the PP, the Fairmonts Pacific Rim and Waterfront have a lot of 'pier view' rooms; Blue Horizon, Coast Coal Harbour, Marriott Pinnacle and Pinnacle Harbourfront have some high up rooms you can also see the pier from; Westin Bayshore you can see ships coming & going through the harbour but the conventions centre's western half blocks view of most of the parked ships; and the pier itself means that pretty much no hotel except the PP gets a view of ships docked on the East side.

 

Other side of the harbour in North Van you have yet another Pinnacle ('at the Pier') which is tall enough high floors would see all ships but from a but further away; Lonsdale Quay hotel is positioned on top of the quay so has even more rooms with that same view.

 

Given how close ANY downtown hotel is to the pier though, it's utterly trivial for you to head down to the pier and walk around it, seeing the ship closer than even the PP's fanciest rooms, so even if you are someone happy to pay a lot extra for a view do bear that in mind 😉