snplw

Thank you for the reply.

We are planning to do the bridge on September 18th but the free shuttle download only lists thru September 5th. Do they run the shuttles after September 5th?

Also, we will be boarding at Canada Place, are the loading spots different on the weekends and marked.  I thought I saw a different location on weekends, but can't find it now.

Any help will be appreciated...thanks

On 5/4/2020 at 6:17 PM, Aladdin22 said:

Where did you hear this cruise is cancelled? We’re on this cruise and haven’t heard anything and it’s still being sold

I called my travel agent because we were thinking on canceling.  Wanted her opinion on it due to final payment was due in a week. Was wondering if NCL would waiver the date by a month or so.  She called back in less than a half hour and told me NCL had told her that the cruise was canceled.

September 7th

I would watch that very closely. NCL cancelled our Alaska September 2020 cruise on the Jewel this week.

1 hour ago, martincath said:

Yes, absolutely 100% get your Amtrak tickets booked! I honestly don't know if they even ALLOW walkup tickets (Amtrak take passport info during the booking and pass along, just like airlines do) - though since you preclear US immigration before boarding I suspect you could turn up and be allowed on if there are seats available... but in cruise season trains do sell out.

 

Prebooking a cab does make sense - in our experience it's slightly less likely that the cab will be late if you book online than if you call them but there's also a better-than-average chance the cab will show up a fair bit too early rather than on-time. With Uber now operating, you could try using them if you do decide to wait until on-the-day to book (i.e. see how long Uber app says the nearest car will take to arrive vs. calling a cab) - turns out that they actually are being allowed to charge less than cabs, though not much cheaper. Given the very small Uber fleet right now, there are way more cabs - so your best bet for 'on the day' fast arrival would be the local Vancouver Taxi app, which dispatches the nearest cab from all four of the main fleets to you.

 

Regardless of prebooking or calling, I'd suggest that your ETA at the station depends mostly on the date you're traveling. You MUST arrive 45mins beforehand to check a bag, but with small bags you can lift yourself it's possible to show up much closer to departure. CBP recommend arriving an hour before for immigration so most folks aim for that - which means if you are picky about trying to get seats on the water side (right on the way south), you have to beat at least half the other passengers to the station as seats are allocated first-come, first-served. So if it's peak summer, I'd say that 90mins before departure is what you need to do if you REALLY want a waterside seat - but if it's early/late in cruise season you should be fine just 75mins beforehand.

 

Drive time from Coast Airport is about 25mins without traffic, which would be about $30 on the meter of any local cab. Uber would charge a higher base fare but lower travel time/distance cost, so somewhere in the low $20 range I'd guess.

 

Lastly, the question you didn't ask but I'll answer anyway - yes, you should change hotels! Coast Airport is in a uniquely poor location, in that it is actually in Vancouver but right on the bottom edge in a light-industrial area with very little in the way of restaurants in an easy walk, inconvenient for transit (SkyTrain station is a little under a mile walking), and the cab fare is basically the same to downtown as from the airport thanks to the fixed rate zones from YVR - in fact if you hit any traffic coming down to sightsee you could easily spend $40 in a metered cab! Almost any of the Richmond hotels near YVR would be superior in both what is near you to eat and also access to SkyTrain for getting downtown, and given you are heading to Amtrak frankly a downtown hotel would be way less hassle (and if there are rooms available in the YWCA Hotel, almost certainly cheaper too).

 

Thank you.  We have a post cruise tour to the Capilano Bridge, and downtown.  The hotel is just for somewhere to sleep and stretch out.  We are not the YWCA type.  The date is mid Sept. on a Monday.  I appreciate your input.  Does any of this info change anything? 

Looking for advice.  I have reservations at Coast Vancouver Airport Hotel.  I need to get to the Amtrak station for the morning train to Seattle.  I found the Yellow cabs web site that shows I can pre-book a ride.  Is this my best option?  Am I looking at roughly a 4AM pickup?  Any advice would be helpful as this will be on our last leg of our trip.  The hotel has already told me their shuttle will not go to the train station.  Also is it wise to pre-book the Amtrak tickets as well?  It will be 2 adults and I am hoping 2 carry ons and 2 smaller bags. 

10678 Aft. Great views

We are coming into Vancouver in Sept.2020.  Doing a day long tour then taking train down to Seattle.  Any thoughts on staying near the train station?  Not comfortable doing either of the backpackers places right at the station.  We are 50+, and will have at least 2 carry-ons.  Plus the kicker would really like a shuttle to the station at 4-5AM.  Thanks all.

Figured that out too late.

You keep saying to chat with you.  I don't see how to do that, or is it through here?

We are scheduled to be on this one in Sept. 2020.  We hope to be along for your chat.

We are on the Jewel, tentatively, Sept 2020.  We had thought about winter boots, from the northeast.  So we would be good with just some decent insulated hiking boots?  Even out on deck and balcony?  That would save on considerable weight.

New to Princess and following this Coffee package thread, the main point I come up with, I take it there aren't any coffee makers in any rooms or suites on Princess cruises.

Tagish Lakes Kennel has dogs and puppies on display but the only way to see them is driving on your own out of Skagway. More photos and videos in links in signature.

 

It would be helpful to other posters to know your itinerary.

 

 

 

As the OP stated I also have a wife that wants to play with the dogs, but not really into the sled ride. We hope to be on a SB Jewel cruise in Sept. 2020. We aren't planning our land tour to Denali, it is going down to Homer prior to cruise. Is there anything out there for our situation? Thanks All

We did the float, and to put it bluntly it was freaking awesome. I lost count of how many eagles we saw. The description of the float is pretty accurate no fast water, well not really it's moving at a pretty good clip, but it's so shallow that the chance of hitting any rapids is pretty much nonexistent. I'll admit I was a bit nervous about taking some expensive camera gear out on the river. Even it I had somehow managed to fall off the raft I don't think the gear would have gotten wet at all.

 

I got some amazing photo's that I still have to go through. If I can figure out a third party hosting site to use I'll put some of them up.

If your talking about the Chilikat Bald Eagle Preserve float down the river. I'm doing that next Friday. I'll try relay my experience best I can.

That is the one. I would appreciate any info.

Matthew, We are tentatively planning a SB cruise in Sept of 2020. As it stands now on the Jewel, but of course that could change. When you stopped in Skagway, did you here of anyone taking the Chilkot Eagle Preserve excursion? That is the one main highlight I am doing the cruise for.

Thank you to everyone for the responses! We've decided to stick with what we have. If SW ends up cancelling, we have options within driving distance (Boston, Hartford, Newark, BWI, etc). I'm still stressed out, but i'm reassuring myself that it'll all be ok :D

Do we all assume you made your cruise?

Liberty is more upscale than Skyline.

My family will be doing a pre-cruise hotel stay at the Marriott for our cruise next June. Was it a hassle to book an additional night with the hotel? Did you have to check out and check back in or change rooms for your 2nd night, or did they just extend your promo booking? How many shuttles did they have going from the hotel to the pier on embarkation day? Trying to figure out how much time we'll have to explore before the shuttle takes us to the pier.

 

Enjoyed reading your review!

Our travel agent booked the room prior. All she did was call ahead to book a room, then mentioned we had the pre-cruise room already booked, and they made sure to note it. We had no problems with it at check in. It was one room for two nights. Of course we called a couple of weeks prior to be sure the hotel had us down for 2 nights. As I stated be prepared for sticker shock, unless you have a Marriot reward night. There were at least 2 Greyhound type buses lined up when we left at 10:30. When you check in they give you your shuttle time. We actually had time to climb Diamond Head prior to leaving for the ship. Hope this helped.

I was wondering which side of the ship to choose for a room if we want to see the Napali Coast from the room. Thanks

Port

After picking up our bags from CDS baggage storage at Canada Place, we caught a taxi to Pacific Central Train and bus station. We caught the evening train on Amtrak (leaves at about 5:30pm). You arrive into Seattle about 10:15pm. I recommend the train, it's relaxing and they have a Bistro car where you can get dinner.

 

The train arrives downtown Seattle at King Street Station. So it's a short Uber/taxi ride to downtown hotels.

Based on this years timetable there are only 2 departures 6:30 am and 5:30 pm. I would assume the early one is impossible. Is the station an easy/short ride from the pier? Cost less than $20? Or closer to $50? We haven't ventured into the Uber life yet, so is there a bus that would do the trick?

Enjoyed your review! Went through it 2 or 3 times. As we are looking at doing a S/B cruise with 3-5 day DIY land tour in and around Anchorage/Homer/Seward in 2-3 years. My question is you took the train from Vancouver to Seattle after your city tour. But I didn't see where you names the line, or how you really got there. I am looking at options on how to get back to Seattle after our cruise, w/o just flying down as we want to spend a couple of days there on our return. Thanks

Hi - Martha is who we interact with the most at Cagney's. We eat breakfast at Cagney's and we've had dinner there. Lunch at Cagney's has been a bust two times so were kind of done with lunch there.

 

 

I haven't met Brenna yet- but Theresa one of the waitresses bless her heart and got married on Sunday – had Sunday night off and then was back to work Monday morning.

 

They work these folks hard.

Thanks, when we were leaving she was on her next to last cruise I think. So she may be home on vacation now. I just thought it may have been a shot as we are on the east coast as well.