Vancouver from cruise ship to hotel and hotel to cruise ship

We are going to stay one night in Vancouver to experience the city. We may have too much luggage for us to handle. (bad back for hubby) What advice can you offer and if it is a cab service can we prearrange or payment in american dollars wont be a problem or pay via credit card. Hotel will be downtown somewhere, not sure where yet.

One more question. The Trolley looks like it goes to Stanley and N. Vancouver Cam. Bridge. That are the two must do places. Do we have enough time in a day to do? Would the hotel hold the luggage till we could check in?

When you say 'one night', do you mean after your cruise? i.e. morning after disembarking plus all afternoon and evening? If so, with almost a whole day to play with spending time in Stanley Park and heading up to Capilano bridge is very doable - although do note that the trolley doesn't include Cap bridge on the HoHo route, they run a separate shuttle from Canada Place (and a handful or other stops that overlap with the HoHo) to Cap bridge.

NB: the shuttle to the bridge is free for everyone, not just if you buy a package through the trolley company. Since we do have rather variable weather and you might not want to be outdoors if it's a terrible day, I'd recommend not pre-buying a trolley package - their 'north shore attractions' includes both Grouse mountain and Cap bridge at a very minimal discount over just buying the tickets separately yourself - and if you only want to do the bridge not the mountain it's a real waste of $. This way you can have a bad weather Plan B and not worry about wasting $ having paid for something too.

As to the cab - you can prebook towncars for $50 on top of their regular fees, no prebooking of regular cabs. The system at Canada Place is very clear though, with staff on duty to direct you to the right queue if you miss the signs. There are porters to help get luggage to the cabs and then hotel staff will be able to help at the other end. Even if you're in a really budget hotel you should be able to store your bags with them if your room isn't ready yet (and in cruise season downtown hotels run pretty full, so odds are you won't get an early check-in).

Whoops - edited to add that cabs do take credit cards and US dollars, at the usual slightly-worse-than-Bank-rates. Your fare from the port to any downtown hotel is unlikely to break $10, so it would definitely be nicer for the cabbie if you manage to get hold of a little local currency...

I appreciate your input. I was thinking of prepaying transportation via credit cards, but would it be better to get Canada $$ before? I am thinking just of transportation, which service is better to get me and hubby to Cap. Bridge and then Stanley Park. Maybe the next day to Granville and then the airport from the Blue Horizon Hotel. I wonder if I do need currency, how much? I believe in tipping the service industries as my family has/had worked in it.

Sorry I was really thinking of going to Stanley Park first and then Cap. Bridges, etc... Not sure if it makes a difference.

Currency-wise, if you're planning to get hold of some Canadian $ at all it's better to do it in advance through your own bank before coming. Technically you don't *need* to have Canadian money, as taxis and many stores & restaurants will take US cash. As with any other country with a solid currency of its own though, locals would prefer to be handed Canadian cash - no need to go to the bank etc.

Tipping expectations are basically the same as the US, so tip as you do at home - Canadian cash is obviously best for this, but no one will complain if you tip them in US $, especially if you mention you're sorry but don't have local currency. For small tips (<$5) you might also find our currency very annoying because of our 1 & 2 $ coins - bills start at $5.

In terms of prepaying for transportation, you can prebook towncars as I already mentioned, or you can buy tickets in advance on any of the tours - but all of these will take walk-up customers on the day and do accept credit cards for payment on-board. Buying a HoHo ticket in advance does not guarantee a seat, it's first-come, first-served on all of them and the rest wait for the next vehicle. Both the airport and pier have huge numbers of cabs - unless you arrive on a three-ship day and are among the later people to disembark, you shouldn't have to wait long for a cab so pre-booking a car service just doesn't seem good value.

Transport *to* Stanley park is many and varied - it's walkable from downtown if you can handle a mile or so on good sidewalks; you can hire bikes; regular cabs or towncars will take you there; and one of our bus routes, the 19, stops right inside the park. Transportation *around* the park other than on foot or by bike would include negotiating an hourly rate - cheaper than running the meter! - in a cab or towncar, using the park shuttle which is run by the Vancouver Trolley HoHo people and stops at more places, taking a carriage ride, or using the regular HoHo stops (the Trolley has 6, which seems to be enough for most folks with only a few hours to spend). Oh, I guess you should also include hiring your own car as a possibility here too.

'Better' has as many definitions as there are people... But since every ticket to Cap Bridge includes their shuttle to get you there from downtown, and it has only a handful of stops before heading straight to the bridge then it's certainly a very convenient, and effectively free, service. Right now their dates only run to April, so service might be more frequent in July.

Unless you want to pay to store baggage at the pier (which you can!), your first stop should be your hotel - and as you'll see on the above link, you can get on the Cap Bridge shuttle right outside your hotel. You said elsewhere that hubby has a bad back to schlepping bags on transit isn't an option for you - I'd say cab to hotel from pier, check in if you can or store bags if you can't, grab the shuttle to Cap Bridge outside your hotel and do that in the morning.

If you do want to see Granville Island as well as the park and the bridge, then a HoHo tour can be a fairly efficient way to do it - I think the most efficient order is hotel first, then board HoHo to the Park (getting off and back on at least at the Totem Poles & Prospect Point), then to Granville Island (using the HoHo free ferry ticket to get there) where you have lunch, then HoHo again which brings you through Yaletown/Chinatown/Gastown back to Canada Place, at which point get on the Cap Bridge shuttle to do the bridge and get brought back by the shuttle to your hotel.

That should take up 6-8 pretty full hours... because the HoHos go clockwise, the park has to come before the island but you could do the bridge either first or last. I prefer bridge last because the island has by far the best dining options, so being there at a convenient time for lunch just makes sense.

We hired a limo at the airport for four of us, would have done a town car for two. Our driver was congenial, and we worked out a deal where he picked us up in the morning, took us to port to drop off our luggage and then took us on a tour of Stanley Park and part of the city before dropping us at the ship. And he picked us up after the cruise and took us to airport. The price from airport to hotel wasn't much different than taking a cab. The rest we figured as a port excursion as we had never been to Vancouver. It made everything so easy, and fun, as we are not usually limo passengers for anything.

We hired a limo at the airport for four of us, would have done a town car for two. Our driver was congenial, and we worked out a deal where he picked us up in the morning, took us to port to drop off our luggage and then took us on a tour of Stanley Park and part of the city before dropping us at the ship. And he picked us up after the cruise and took us to airport. The price from airport to hotel wasn't much different than taking a cab. The rest we figured as a port excursion as we had never been to Vancouver. It made everything so easy, and fun, as we are not usually limo passengers for anything.

Would you be able to tell us what the approximate cost was for your trip?