How to get from Vancouver - Seattle

[lydnsyd]

We are looking to go on a cruise from San Diego and ends in Vancouver

We want to travel from Vancouver to Seattle and eventually fly home to London from Seattle.

Someone posted a while back that AMTRAK was a good way to do this. Is the train station far from the Cruise terminal?. Is it easy to do with luggage etc?

The other question is Immigration - years ago we travelled by road from Vancouver to Seattle & we had to stop at the border to clear immigration --- how would that work if we went by train?

Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[DaveOKC]

On 10/21/2019 at 7:02 AM, lydnsyd said:

We are looking to go on a cruise from San Diego and ends in Vancouver

We want to travel from Vancouver to Seattle and eventually fly home to London from Seattle.

Someone posted a while back that AMTRAK was a good way to do this. Is the train station far from the Cruise terminal?. Is it easy to do with luggage etc?

The other question is Immigration - years ago we travelled by road from Vancouver to Seattle & we had to stop at the border to clear immigration --- how would that work if we went by train?

Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

We did the reverse - Amtrak train from Seattle to Vancouver and really loved it.  No stops for the border, but they did a customs check as we disembarked.  The train station is a short $15 taxi ride away - too far to walk for sure.  Baggage is not a problem on the train.  
 

If possible, take a daytime train as the views are great!  BE CAREFULL when booking however on the Amtrak website, as they also run buses instead of trains and it is easy to get confused (I think there are only 2 trains a day).  I think there are 2 passenger categories to book (not on all trains though) and we did first class for only a bit more than coach.

[Heidi13]

The cruise port to the train station is about 1.5 miles, so too far to walk with luggage. Taxis are the easiest option, but can be in short supply during 3 or 4 ship days. You also have the Skytrain option, but with lots of luggage it isn't the easiest

[scottbee]

On 10/21/2019 at 5:02 AM, lydnsyd said:

We are looking to go on a cruise from San Diego and ends in Vancouver

We want to travel from Vancouver to Seattle and eventually fly home to London from Seattle.

Someone posted a while back that AMTRAK was a good way to do this. Is the train station far from the Cruise terminal?. Is it easy to do with luggage etc?

The other question is Immigration - years ago we travelled by road from Vancouver to Seattle & we had to stop at the border to clear immigration --- how would that work if we went by train?

Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

 

Cruise terminal to Pacific Station is about 2km.  Inexpensive taxi ride, or 4 stops on the subway (Skytrain - Expo Line.  All of our subway system is called Skytrain because the bulk of the system is elevated above ground -- either that, or they're Sir Freddie fans).  For that distance, a taxi is probably easier, but Skytrain isn't tough.  Exit cruise terminal, 1/2 block on your left you'll see escalators down to the platform at Waterfront Stn.  Get off at Main St, and Pacific Stn is right there.

 

When heading south, customs is pre-clearance, done at the station, so you'll arrive in Seattle without needing additional formalities.

[meh56]

Our cruise is arriving in Vancouver on a Fri AM.  We are planning on spending a night in Vancouver and taking the early train to Seattle.  We could use some help with Hotels in Vancouver, we need one that has a restaurant on property or within a couple of doors away as husband uses a walker.  It would be great if we could pick up some sandwiches for the train. We can take a cab to train station as we will be checking luggage on train.  Hotel maybe between 150 to 200 per night.  On arrival in Seattle we are going to rent a car for a few days before we fly home.  We have been to Seattle before so we are looking to get out of the city.  If anyone can suggest a resort that would have restaurants attached to it that would be great.  Don't want to have to leave the property for meals.  Any help would be great. Thank you.  

[fastpitchdad]

41 minutes ago, meh56 said:

Our cruise is arriving in Vancouver on a Fri AM.  We are planning on spending a night in Vancouver and taking the early train to Seattle.  We could use some help with Hotels in Vancouver, we need one that has a restaurant on property or within a couple of doors away as husband uses a walker.  It would be great if we could pick up some sandwiches for the train. We can take a cab to train station as we will be checking luggage on train.  Hotel maybe between 150 to 200 per night.  On arrival in Seattle we are going to rent a car for a few days before we fly home.  We have been to Seattle before so we are looking to get out of the city.  If anyone can suggest a resort that would have restaurants attached to it that would be great.  Don't want to have to leave the property for meals.  Any help would be great. Thank you.  

 

For the near Seattle Resort, I would suggest:

 

The Salish Lodge https://www.salishlodge.com/

Willows Lodge https://www.willowslodge.com/

The Quinault Resort and Casino https://quinaultbeachresort.com/

The Lodge at Columbia Point https://lodgeatcolumbiapoint.com/

 

The first two are within 30 mins of Seattle. The Quinault is on the Pacific Ocean about 2 1/2 hours away in Ocean Shores and The Lodge is in Richland (Washington Wine Country) about 3 hours away. 

 

[martincath]

1 hour ago, meh56 said:

...We could use some help with Hotels in Vancouver, we need one that has a restaurant on property or within a couple of doors away as husband uses a walker.  It would be great if we could pick up some sandwiches for the train. We can take a cab to train station as we will be checking luggage on train.  Hotel maybe between 150 to 200 per night.  ...

While not all Vancouver hotels have an in-house resto, the ones that don't usually have several options on the same block. Not knowing when your cruise is, hotel pricepoint doesn't help an awful lot - even some pretty fancy places can have rooms <US$200 a night if it's right at the start or end of cruise season whereas in peak cruise season on a Friday night you could easily see our cheaper downtown hotels breaking the top end of that budget. If you meant CAD$, then it's even more likely you'll have difficulty finding a hotel if your cruise is in summer.

 

The YWCA is the only hotel I can pretty much guarantee you would never spend more than $200 at any point in the season for a room for two - especially if you're Seniors as there's a discount. It doesn't have a resto but does have huge shared kitchens to prep your own food (so making sammiches for the train would be trivial, and you could easily cook your own dinner the night before too if you wanted - the only thing the kitchen lacks is consumables, all the tools and pots & pans you could ever want are available) but it does have the Hampton Inn's resto almost next door and literally dozens more restos within a couple of blocks. Also has accessible rooms - from your comments here and some other posts I recall earlier this year it sounds like you may need an accessible room for DH - but you have to contact the hotel directly to get one of those, they don't let them be booked on the website.

 

To buy rather than make train sammiches, your very early arrival at the station (aim for no later than an hour before the train leaves to ensure you have time to check bags, i.e. 5:35am if the schedule remains the same) means most restos are not open yet. There's a fastfood place (A&W) inside the train station and 24hr Tim Hortons/McDonalds very close to the station too. Plus, the food onboard is actually pretty decent and not badly priced - I always eat the breakfast sammich on morning trains, as I just can't make myself eat early enough to have brekky before boarding. The train also accepts CAD$ so you can use up any leftover cash at a fair exchange rate. Cheapest way to get them, without making them, would be to buy pre-packaged sammiches from a supermarket the night before.

 

 

[meh56]

Thank you both for your help.  I will check out all the Seattle hotels you gave me.  We are going to be in

Vancouver on the 8th of May.  I don't think the YMCA would be something we are interested in.  As far as the 

sandwiches are concerned just thought there maybe a store or cafe we could purchase them at the day before

and hopefully the room would have a small fridge.  I was looking at the Hampton Inn on Robson street...Is that a

safe area and do you know if there are any restaurants within walking distance. We may need accessible room depending on the shower and I always contact the hotel directly.  Just want to make sure that we have a restaurant near by - we can always take a taxi for dinner.  The 24hr Tim Hortons sounds good for an early morning snack. 

[martincath]

19 hours ago, meh56 said:

Thank you both for your help.  I will check out all the Seattle hotels you gave me.  We are going to be in

Vancouver on the 8th of May.  I don't think the YMCA would be something we are interested in.  As far as the 

sandwiches are concerned just thought there maybe a store or cafe we could purchase them at the day before

and hopefully the room would have a small fridge.  I was looking at the Hampton Inn on Robson street...Is that a

safe area and do you know if there are any restaurants within walking distance. We may need accessible room depending on the shower and I always contact the hotel directly.  Just want to make sure that we have a restaurant near by - we can always take a taxi for dinner.  The 24hr Tim Hortons sounds good for an early morning snack. 

I suggest you look at reviews on the YWCA before writing it off - it's a real hotel not a hostel and has been consistently inside the TripAdvisor top 20 for years. Rooms with en suite private baths just like a 'regular' hotel, no large dorms they sell individual beds in (biggest rooms are 5 bed Quints for families) and every room has a fridge.

 

As mentioned above it's on the same block as the Hampton you're looking at, so both have the same huge selection of restos available (the Hampton has Bogart's - a rather generic modern resto - on their ground floor) - and aside from noise when crowds are coming & going to events at the stadium (which always shut down before 11pm) it's an ideal location that's safe to wander about even in the wee small hours.

 

I suggest that you get familiar with the area around any potential hotel using Google Maps - that way you can see for yourself exactly what restos are where, and even use Streetview to 'walk' the route virtually to ensure there are no steep hills etc. Given the time of day you'll be cabbing to the station, being a little further away will add cents rather than dollars to the cab fare - and since the Hampton is both the only Hilton family hotel in downtown and one of very few with a 'free' shuttle it tends to cost more per night than similar quality hotels as you don't subsidize that shuttle with your room rates. OTOH, if it's comparably priced then the Hampton's 'grab & go' breakfast solves your train food problem and chances are the shuttle may already be booked for a run to Pacific Central at the time you want to go, as everyone taking the train is supposed to show up an hour early for preclearance even if they aren't checking bags.

[meh56]

Thank you for all the information.  I have never used Google Maps but will give it a try.  I love cruise critic because everyone is so willing to share information.  Thanks again.

[Cam6959]

Does Royal Caribbean have a shuttle that takes you to the Seattle Airport from Vancouver? Years ago they did and was wondering if still the case.

[martincath]

19 hours ago, Cam6959 said:

Does Royal Caribbean have a shuttle that takes you to the Seattle Airport from Vancouver? Years ago they did and was wondering if still the case.

Yes and no - all the lines sometimes offer transfers (though the cost has gone up a lot, as they finally figured out that offering a non-stop service direct from pier to airport was better than QuickShuttle's multiple stops version, so started charging US$69pp rather than the previous US$39pp - QS is $59 for comparison). Unfortunately, unless you see it being sold online for your cruise, it may not happen at all - and if it does you might only see it advertised on-board, by which point you will have already made your own arrangements unless you're a complete idiot or a very, very laissez-faire traveler...

 

You can probably wait until just a few days before cruising to book QS - they add extra buses if they fill up - if you want to wait and see if RCI does offer a transfer, but if you want to use Amtrak you need to book long in advance to get Saver tickets (usually every train in summer, north and south, sells out of saver tix well before the 14 day cutoff). A one-way car rental can also be left until pretty late if you are just a small number of people - i.e. any car size will work for you. If you need a Minivan though availability is much worse, and may come at a serious premium (as in, half the price to instead book 2 regular size cars).

[Cam6959]

Thanks martincath - I told my travel agent to look into getting us from Vancouver to Seattle. It might end up renting a car to SEA. She is supposed to call back tomorrow and tell us the best option.

[Sam.Seattle]

On 11/6/2019 at 11:09 PM, Cam6959 said:

Thanks martincath - I told my travel agent to look into getting us from Vancouver to Seattle. It might end up renting a car to SEA. She is supposed to call back tomorrow and tell us the best option.

I love renting and taking my time to drive and stop when and were I want... Be sure to allow up to 2-hours to cross the boarder.  It could take less time, but plan for a wait,  Enjoy!

[Cam6959]

Thanks Sam - we decided it costs the same to change our flights and fly from Vancouver. We downgraded to Comfort Plus but otherwise we arrive home the same time.