Late arrival Vancouver hotel

[PJnVA]

We are scheduled to arrive in Vancouver at midnight. We will just need a room to sleep and shower. Should we stay close to airport once we arrive or close to the cruise port?

Will hotel shuttle be available that late if offered?

If staying at airport what is the best way to get to cruise port the next day? Approximate cost?

 

I know staying at either end has it's pros and cons. I am more interested in the safety and ease of getting around after midnight. My husband is mildly handicapped but a walk to the cruise port of up to 1 mile is doable.

 

TIA

[martincath]

Head downtown - fixed rate cab is only $32 to most hotels, though if you splurge on one REALLY close to the pier it will cost $36 to get there. Compared to SkyTrain inbound, it's probably worth the extra cost given your mention of your husband's physical limitations - but so you can compare total cost and distance, you'd be looking at $16 on SkyTrain (if you are >65, this reduces to $13.90) to any downtown station, with the walk to your hotel then being entirely based on which hotel you're in, possibly just a few yards but perhaps up to a mile. Google maps are accurate here, if you plug in any hotel you're considering and check how close it is to Waterfront Station, Vancouver Centre Station, and Yaletown-Roundhouse Station as these are the only three on the Canada Line in the downtown core.

 

Airport hotel shuttles can take anywhere from zero (they happen to be there as you walk out) to 30+ minute delay before they arrive, as some hotels use shared shuttles which do a mini milk run around a few hotels, and even those with their own dedicated shuttle bus only ever have one vehicle. Many stop running entirely in the wee small hours - some of those hotels will pay for a cab instead - but at midnight I would expect all of them to be available.

 

The key issues is that waiting for the shuttle, compared to hopping right in a taxi and heading downtown, may work out such that you actually get to a downtown hotel faster due to no traffic - and even the best-case airport hotel shuttle will still take at least 10 mins to get you to the hotel from YVR whereas late at night a downtown hotel is almost certainly within a 30 minute drive... and when you wake up you are good to go right away, squeezing every last minute possible out of your precruise morning here in one of the best cities on the planet!!!

 

Whereas at airport hotel you will waste a lot more time the next day - a metered cab to the pier will be $40+ from most, or you can waste time shuttling back to YVR for a fixed rate cab deal. SkyTrain may be convenient from your hotel - that's about 24mins to Waterfront, then a <400 yard walk on fairly flat sidewalks to the pier to drop bags. There is one cruise shuttle - but for 2 people you may as well take a taxi as the shuttle won't save you any money, and you'll be stuck with a long milk-run around YVR hotels and only 2 choices of timeslot. Regardless, you also lose valuable unencumbered sightseeing time as you cannot check bags at the pier whenever you wish - officially not before 10am, though in practise 9:30am you usually can drop them off.

 

But that's still 30-90mins of time you cannot spend in ticket attractions, whereas with a downtown hotel you just leave bags there and head out as early as you like to see the parks and seawall (no gates, so as soon as the sun is up you can enjoy them), hit ticketed things when they open, return after lunch for your bags then go check in at 2-3pm when the queues should also be at their shortest so it's win-win-win.

 

[PJnVA]

On 1/26/2020 at 8:29 PM, martincath said:

Head downtown - fixed rate cab is only $32 to most hotels, though if you splurge on one REALLY close to the pier it will cost $36 to get there... so it's win-win-win.

Thank you for the great advise :-)

 

On 1/26/2020 at 8:29 PM, martincath said: