Vancouver Marathon 5/7/23 -- Will it affect cruise ship check-in that day?

[jennaja]

I was reading on the HAL board about the horrendous boarding experiences people are having at Canada Place, when I received a notice from HAL that the Vancouver Marathon is taking place the day we board.  Does anyone know if the marathon path goes past the cruise ship terminal, and approximately how many runners there usually are?  Any tips for dealing with the crowds of passengers that will be trying to board that day?  There will be 3 ships in port.

[MBP&O2/O]

Try a search on the subject? The dedicated website has a map and all the information you need.

[martincath]

This issue already arose, so if you just browse the first page of threads you'll probably find some discussions and possible mitigation methods @jennaja! Race website with maps and info is here.

 

Long story short - the race does not run past the pier, nor will all the roads to the pier be closed, BUT the finish area is close by and runner numbers are ~20,000 between all the races if memory serves. With traffic much increased compared to normal Sundays, it's actually not so much the EMbarking pax as the DISembarking pax who will be hammered - the usual HOHO and tour bus pickup spots, the convenient Uber/Lyft pickup area, will be completely unavailable and bumped several blocks away.

 

Spectators will mean more locals using SkyTrain to get downtown to cheer on friends/family but Sunday pax levels are really low normally and Translink bump service frequencies up to midweek levels on big event days and the races themselves start early enough not to have the runners impact your inbound SkyTrain travel. Brunch resos are a goddamn nightmare on marathon day (my wife's a runner - she comes home to shower then we go eat in East Van rather than downtown!) but the only real issue for you will be slower driving to the pier from most downtown hotels - how much annoyance is very specific to each hotel as how much of the shortest route is made unavailable varies, but really your worst case is likely to be a $10 ride becomes a $20 ride given how small downtown is.

 

3 ships worth of pax sucks more than the marathon - either be there as early as you possibly can, before 10am regardless of what your tickets say, or go as late as you possibly can (aim for no less than 2 hours before planned departure, but shave that margin close). On marathon day, things are cleaned up as the race moves - near the start it's back to normal by 10am, but at the end it does drag on until well after noon, with 2pm marking the start of when e.g. HOHO tours are able to start using their stops in the area again. Since most ships leave 4:30-5:30pm, this means that avoiding your fellow pax by showing up late ALSO neatly avoids the marathon issues!

 

If your ship is a 5pm one and you show up at 3pm, you might not even realise there had ever been any problems! BUT, whatever you do for the day if boarding late, be very careful not to be far away from the pier as your boarding cutoff approaches - the ideal thing is to do whatever in the morning, have much (booked well in advance!) downtown, then do the closest things to the pier last. Fly Over Canada is right on the pier, takes about 30mins to experience, so booking that for an hour before your deadline is ideal... or just wander Gastown on foot, check out the Steamclock etc. You want to know that if your ship leaves at 5pm then you can walk to the pier by 3pm from wherever you are at 2:45pm, so that CBP will let you board (they get very, very picky - the full passenger manifest MUST be delivered before sailaway, so you NEED to be at the pier 2 hours before sailaway!)

 

Oh - you can however drop your bags early, go away and Do Stuff, then come back to board late. It's what we've been doing for years - usually from 9:30am you can hand them over, worst-case it's a bit after 10am. And while reports thus far are not great, early each season ALWAYS sucks - new staff! By Sunday, all those new staff will have already had a 'trial by fire' so each 3-ship day after the first generally sucks less and less; the April people suffered so that you can have a slightly easier time in May 😉

[jennaja]

18 hours ago, martincath said:

This issue already arose, so if you just browse the first page of threads you'll probably find some discussions and possible mitigation methods @jennaja! Race website with maps and info is here.

 

Long story short - the race does not run past the pier, nor will all the roads to the pier be closed, BUT the finish area is close by and runner numbers are ~20,000 between all the races if memory serves. With traffic much increased compared to normal Sundays, it's actually not so much the EMbarking pax as the DISembarking pax who will be hammered - the usual HOHO and tour bus pickup spots, the convenient Uber/Lyft pickup area, will be completely unavailable and bumped several blocks away.

 

Spectators will mean more locals using SkyTrain to get downtown to cheer on friends/family but Sunday pax levels are really low normally and Translink bump service frequencies up to midweek levels on big event days and the races themselves start early enough not to have the runners impact your inbound SkyTrain travel. Brunch resos are a goddamn nightmare on marathon day (my wife's a runner - she comes home to shower then we go eat in East Van rather than downtown!) but the only real issue for you will be slower driving to the pier from most downtown hotels - how much annoyance is very specific to each hotel as how much of the shortest route is made unavailable varies, but really your worst case is likely to be a $10 ride becomes a $20 ride given how small downtown is.

 

3 ships worth of pax sucks more than the marathon - either be there as early as you possibly can, before 10am regardless of what your tickets say, or go as late as you possibly can (aim for no less than 2 hours before planned departure, but shave that margin close). On marathon day, things are cleaned up as the race moves - near the start it's back to normal by 10am, but at the end it does drag on until well after noon, with 2pm marking the start of when e.g. HOHO tours are able to start using their stops in the area again. Since most ships leave 4:30-5:30pm, this means that avoiding your fellow pax by showing up late ALSO neatly avoids the marathon issues!

 

If your ship is a 5pm one and you show up at 3pm, you might not even realise there had ever been any problems! BUT, whatever you do for the day if boarding late, be very careful not to be far away from the pier as your boarding cutoff approaches - the ideal thing is to do whatever in the morning, have much (booked well in advance!) downtown, then do the closest things to the pier last. Fly Over Canada is right on the pier, takes about 30mins to experience, so booking that for an hour before your deadline is ideal... or just wander Gastown on foot, check out the Steamclock etc. You want to know that if your ship leaves at 5pm then you can walk to the pier by 3pm from wherever you are at 2:45pm, so that CBP will let you board (they get very, very picky - the full passenger manifest MUST be delivered before sailaway, so you NEED to be at the pier 2 hours before sailaway!)

 

Oh - you can however drop your bags early, go away and Do Stuff, then come back to board late. It's what we've been doing for years - usually from 9:30am you can hand them over, worst-case it's a bit after 10am. And while reports thus far are not great, early each season ALWAYS sucks - new staff! By Sunday, all those new staff will have already had a 'trial by fire' so each 3-ship day after the first generally sucks less and less; the April people suffered so that you can have a slightly easier time in May 😉

We're staying at the Auberge, so it may be easiest to roll our luggage over to the port.

Thanks for all the info!

[Urban trekker]

I will post this on this thread as well as your other one which I saw first.

 

I am a marathon volunteer and also a cruiser.

There will be about 20,000 runners in the three main categories. The current course DOES NOT GO BY CANADA PLACE. It ends a short distance away on the other side of Burrard Street. Unless you are coming to Canada Place from either the North Shore or East of Burrard you will be alright. Traffic control will be in place as well.

If you think 3 ships on Sunday will be a zoo and it likely will be - there are four ships in port tomorrow and it addition to all the cruisers many of the marathons runners will be picking up their race packages in the Convention center which is part of the Canada Place property.

Hope this helps

Dennis