Seattle to Vancouver

We will be taking the Coral Princess out of Vancouver in early August. I've been researching airline ticket prices and have found that Seattle is significantly cheaper than Vancouver. While I really like Seattle, I have never been to Vancouver and would like to spend a couple of days prior to the cruise there. From the experience of others, do people usually fly into Seattle and then find a way to Vancouver? Is Amtrak a viable option? I think the only train leaves at 730 AM. The other departures are buses. So, which is the best way to get to Vancouver?

There are several ways to travel the 100 or so miles from Seattle to Vancouver one being Amtrak which you have already looked into. The other would be the shuttle which I have linked here: http://www.quickcoach.com/

The third way would be to rent a car and drop it in Vancouver. The advantage of the rental car would be that you could use it for sightseeing in Vancouver and then drop it on the morning of your cruise. Metro Vancouver’s population now exceeds 2m so virtually every international hotel and motel chain you can think of is represented with one or more properties. Elsewhere in this section you will find a great deal of information on Vancouver hotels, restaurants and sights.

I have same questions as OP and have found that Alamo rental car (probably others too) charges no drop-off fee for renting car in SEA & dropping at cruiseport. Also read somewhere that the US/CA border crossing by car is quite lengthly compared to bus or train -- can someone fill us in on this???

Thanks for the link Putterdude. I will definitely keep that in mind.

I have same questions as OP and have found that Alamo rental car (probably others too) charges no drop-off fee for renting car in SEA & dropping at cruiseport. Also read somewhere that the US/CA border crossing by car is quite lengthly compared to bus or train -- can someone fill us in on this???

Car and bus both lengthy. Train no time at all, because they do Customs in YVR.

I have same questions as OP and have found that Alamo rental car (probably others too) charges no drop-off fee for renting car in SEA & dropping at cruiseport. Also read somewhere that the US/CA border crossing by car is quite lengthly compared to bus or train -- can someone fill us in on this???

I have crossed the border going into Canada, sometimes the wait can be 5 minutes other times it can be much longer. It really depends on the day, time of day and if you are crossing during a holiday weekend. I have found that the wait time going into Canada is much faster than going from Canada into the US, I am sure others will say different, but this is my experience. We were in Vancouver one Canadian holiday weekend and it took us well over 2 1/2 hours in line at the border to get back into the US. That is the longest we have ever waiting.

If you take the QuickShuttle from the airport, you will go through the truck crossing and the buses have a special area they go through so it can speed up the crossing time, you just have to take your luggage off of the bus and put it on a luggage ramp then claim them after talking to the agent and then take it back to the bus to be loaded back on. I did not think it was that big of a deal. The ride from the downtown Seattle area up to Canada Place on a week day took me about 4 hours total because of all the drop off / pick up stops they make.

Riding the train last year took us about 4 hours also and we boarded the train just north of the downtown terminal. This option you get a more scenic view.

The reality is that the Canadian dollar is now strong against the US dollar and many Canadians cross the border to do their shopping at the nearby Bellingham Mall. This results in generally long lines going from Canada to USA in the mornings and in reverse in the afternoon/early evening when these shoppers return. Canadian Holiday weekends are especially brutal. :mad: