Vancouver post cruise day

[cusematt4]

Hi all,

 

We are excited for our first ever trip to Alaska in June.  It goes from Alaska to Vancouver.

 

When we disembark in Vancouver, we will have a full day as our flight isn’t until 10pm.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for a full day in Vancouver?  We are open to anything, whether a tour or spending some time in some of the best areas.

 

So far we have been looking into the hop on and hop off tour.  If we book with Princess it’ll be $150pp and they’ll take our luggage to the airport vs $50pp if we book direct without the ability to have bags taken to and stored at the airport.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on spending a day in Vancouver for first timers?

 

Has anyone done the hop on hop off tour?  If so how was it?  It looks like the bus run from 9-5 which would allow us to spend some time at a few of the stops after the tour itself.

 

If we don’t book hop on hop off with the cruise line, does anyone know what we could do with our bags?  It seems like a lot to pay an extra $100pp for the same tour except for the ability to have bags taken to and stored at the airport.

 

Thanks so much.

[Cbtours]

3 minutes ago, cusematt4 said:

Hi all,

 

We are excited for our first ever trip to Alaska in June.  It goes from Alaska to Vancouver.

 

When we disembark in Vancouver, we will have a full day as our flight isn’t until 10pm.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for a full day in Vancouver?  We are open to anything, whether a tour or spending some time in some of the best areas.

 

So far we have been looking into the hop on and hop off tour.  If we book with Princess it’ll be $150pp and they’ll take our luggage to the airport vs $50pp if we book direct without the ability to have bags taken to and stored at the airport.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on spending a day in Vancouver for first timers?

 

Has anyone done the hop on hop off tour?  If so how was it?  It looks like the bus run from 9-5 which would allow us to spend some time at a few of the stops after the tour itself.

 

If we don’t book hop on hop off with the cruise line, does anyone know what we could do with our bags?  It seems like a lot to pay an extra $100pp for the same tour except for the ability to have bags taken to and stored at the airport.

 

Thanks so much.

Pam pacific hotel at the port as you disembark will store your bags for $10 a case

[cusematt4]

Thanks.  Is this far from the airport?  Could it make sense for us to do this and pay $50 for our bags, saving $400 by not booking hop on hop off with Princess?  Just wondering if it would make sense to come back to the hotel after hop on hop off before going to the airport?

 

Thank you.

[Cbtours]

2 minutes ago, cusematt4 said:

Thanks.  Is this far from the airport?  Could it make sense for us to do this and pay $50 for our bags, saving $400 by not booking hop on hop off with Princess?  Just wondering if it would make sense to come back to the hotel after hop on hop off before going to the airport?

 

Thank you.

Walking distance from the port is the waterfront station skyrail going direct to airport. It only cost us $8 odd each with concession card but I think only $12 reg. However the taxis have exact fare worked on zones. It only cost us $38 for taxi to the pan pacific set price. We had long flight from Australia and just wanted to get to hotel.

so if there are a few of you (5 cases?) the taxi might work cheaper

[martincath]

23 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

Thanks.  Is this far from the airport?  Could it make sense for us to do this and pay $50 for our bags, saving $400 by not booking hop on hop off with Princess?  Just wondering if it would make sense to come back to the hotel after hop on hop off before going to the airport?

 

Thank you.

Answered in general on another post (you really covered the bases of which board would get traffic!) but specific to this - followup Q, yes it's well worth having bags stored downtown rather than sent to the airport for an extortionate cost. If you use the PP hotel, you may walk less far to SkyTrain then you did coming from your cabin to the curb - it's <400 yards to the Canada Line entrance, downhill too.

 

SkyTrain has no Addfare going to YVR, only coming in, so in the evening costs a maximum of CAD$3.15pp - you don't even have to buy a ticket if you have a VISA/MasterCard with tappable chip, or a Smartphone with NFC payments enabled, you can just tap directly on the fare gates to enter and leave. If you also use transit around town during the day, and end up crossing a fare boundary on a weekday, tapping also gets the system to do the math for you about how many zones you crossed and charge the correct amount - at interbank exchange rates. It really doesn't get any simpler!

 

If you did buy the madly overpriced excursion, it would include a SkyTrain ticket - but with your savings you could splurge for a frickin' LIMO and still save buckets (we have fixed limo and taxi cost bands, a towncar would run you about double cab fare, so a hundred bucks for 3-4 people total including a generous tip for the driver, rather than the $100pp extra from princess...)

Edited April 7 by martincath

[Clashed]

we have used Pan Pacific for luggage, it's right as you exit the cruise terminal, super easy

 

we took a public bus from downtown to Granville Island 

 

we also paid $30.67 (Canadian) for a Lyft ride (like Uber) from downtown to airport this past Saturday, which seemed very cheap for a 30 minute ride (we were planning on using SkyTrain but i didnt mind paying a little extra for the convenience