finiansbay

Happy 60th Anniversary!

We had our 51st in August.

Our first time on Holland America. We board the ship in Quebec on October 8, so I will be checking your posts for information. Good to know about the “freezing” temps on board. Will pack a sweater for dinner. 

Hope you get to see some leaf 🍁 color soon. 

We used the city bus from the ferry terminal to our downtown hotel. It may have required one change....too long ago.

 

We had spent the night in Victoria in order to be at Butchart Gardens when they opened in the morning. After our visit we turned in our rental car and took the ferry back to the mainland.

 

We travel light so managing a bag or two on the bus was no biggie.

Thank you. My husband wished that I traveled light! I have no problem taking buses, just not with a large suitcase in tow. So I think we will have to spring for the taxi. Adding Victoria to the trip is so worth it though. Love Butchart Gardens!

Many locals do this on a regular basis using public transit - but with typical cruise luggage that could be challenging; technically you can't put bags on seats or in aisles, so unless the bus is running less-than-full you'll get booted by the driver and face a very pricey cab fare. You may get lucky - if there's space on the bus nobody worries about suitcases - in which case you'll be paying only $2.75pp and then another $4pp for Skytrain (bus tickets do not transfer to Skytrain) but NB: that you need CAD cash, exact fare for buses so make sure you have enough change left from your 3 days on the island!

 

I would suggest simply returning the rental car in Vancouver. While it will add approx $55 to your ferry ride, a cab is going to run you approx $90 (the rates listed on ridebooker are, to be blunt, rounded-up to the point of ludicrousness - since by law these rates are set by time, cannot be discounted, and traffic means that time and thus cost varies they've obviously chosen to offer a 'fixed' rate that means 99% of the time the metered cost is less - and they pocket the difference!)

 

A much more accurate fare comparison can be found on taxifarefinder - since all cabs must use exactly the same rates by law the info here is 100% correct, only the actual traffic conditions on the day cause a variance - and as you'll see even in extremely heavy traffic they estimate less than $120 including 15% tip even right to the cruise terminal. As someone who drives much of this route on a regular basis as long as you avoid evening rushhour (when 3 lanes out of the city leave only 1 lane inbound or a detour to take a bridge rather than the tunnel) you will most likely be looking at a $90-100 cab fare at most.

 

But like I said - even the cheapest cab fare is much more than the ferry rate for a car and a bit of gas, so see if you can change the rental to a one-way dropping it in downtown Vancouver. If YVR dropoff is cheaper that could work too - just be aware that a cab from YVR to the pier is $35 fixed rate (call it $40 with tip) so unless it saves at least that much, stick to a downtown drop. If you cannot find a one-way rental that adds less than a ~$50 drop fee, stick to your current plan and take a cab from Tsawassen. If it's just two of you, a cab to the end of the Canada Line at Richmond-Brighouse - approx $70 - then 2 SkyTrain tickets ($4pp weekdays, $2.75 weekends) would save a little - but if you're a family of 4 you may as well ride the cab the whole way to the pier as the hassle of changing to Skytrain for pretty much zero saving isn't good value.

Thank you. I appreciate the quick reply.

I went to taxifarefinder and they estimated that the cab fare, with tip, would be just over $90. A small savings. The bus with luggage has absolutely no appeal for me. So we will just add this to the cost of the cruise. Is it best to reserve this in advance?

Once you reach the ferry port in Vancouver, grab a taxi or check out these links. Hope one of these is helpful for you. https://www.ridebooker.com/transfers/tsawwassen-ferry/vancouver-cruise-ships http://xplimousine.com/cruise-ship-ferry-terminal-shuttle-transfer-service

Thank you for this information. $125 is a bit expensive, but I am not sure if there are any other better options. Uber and Lyft do not operate there yet as far as I can tell.

we are staying in Victoria, B,C.for three days prior to our Island Princess cruise. We will return our rental car at the aiport before going on the ferry to Vancouver. Not sure of our transportation options of getting from the ferry to the cruise-port. Has anyone done this before?

I will take my heavier binoculars to Denali. If the Denali Natural History tour is the "included" tour on your cruise, consider taking the shuttle bus tour from the Denali Visitor center instead. $34 pp takes you all the way to Eielson Center, 66 miles into the park. Not a guided tour, but the drivers are more than willing to share much information. The best bargain in all of Alaska! Look it up on trip advisor for reviews.

Great review and wonderful photos! We are northbound on Princess July 5. Hope they have Husky puppies on our cruise! Thanks so much for taking the time to post this.

We also bought our tickets online, in section 5. The first time we went to the Tattoo, it was really cold & windy sitting outside, so this time I am taking a fleece blanket. As one local Scot said to us, "Last year we had summer on a Tuesday". If the weather is pleasant, then the blanket will just be a nice cushion.

Thank you all for your helpful replies. On Diamond Princess it was by the ice cream, and the waffles were just perfect. I bought real maple syrup in Canada and used it every morning.

Where is the waffle Island on the Island Princess?

Thank you! I'm glad you took the time to read it.

I hope you will tune in for my Regal Princess review to New England and Canada. It will show up on the boards on October 22 when we get home to Chicago.

Norris

I just finished reading all 43 pages and love, love, love your review, humorous comments, and photos! We are going on Princess in July North to Alaska, and now I am really pumped about our upcoming cruise. Our third time to Alaska, but your review has me thinking that maybe it is time to buy a better lens for my Canon Rebel... and actually figure out how to use it ahead of time. We are flying to Chicago next week to see the grandkids, followed by a road trip. I could experiment with it then.

Enjoy your New England/Canada cruise. We have done that the last three Octobers and thoroughly enjoyed each trip.

Accidentally hit send! We found a couple onboard our Viking cruise who agreed to share with us. The cost was very reasonable, the driver was wonderful and the Mercedes was impeccable. Best decision we made. I.c. Taxi, look them up online or even facebook for contact information.

We hired i.c. Taxi online from Passau to Prague. We asked for a larger vehicle, I think it was a Mercedes van, because we wanted to share the ride.

We have a Viking Rhine cruise from Basel to Amsterdam on April 3. I just signed on last night to see that they have this new system in place. Not sure if I like this. We have onboard credit that I intend to use for optional excursions, so I don't like having to prepay Viking and then hope to get my money back

Your pictures are great! We are doing many of the same ports on Serenade of the Seas in 10 days, so thanks for your review.

Thanks for posting. We are on the Viking Buri August 9 from Avignon to Chalon-sur-Saone. Hoping the temps go down and the water levels stay the same. We arrive in Paris on August 4. Excited!

I have to agree with most of previous opinions. We were on the Viking Legend in September in an "aquarium view" standard room. We booked the last available room on the ship, so it was not by choice. However, I was so happy with the whole cruise that we booked with Viking again for Portraits of Southern France this coming August. There is quite a price difference, and while we almost always book a balcony for ocean cruises (too cold in the Baltics) I found it unnecessary for the river cruise. So we have again booked the less expensive standard room, and added wonderful B&B's in Provence and beyond with the savings.

We are taking our first Viking Danube River cruise in less than a month. Very excited but now a little bit apprehensive. I can certainly understand the frustration of the OP, but also know that weather is beyond the control of Captain or Viking. We once had an entire European trip canceled due to that volcano in Iceland. bummer! As several have pointed out, attitude can be very important. Vent on Cruise Critic. Write a letter to Viking. But remember to look for the positive. I consider bad lighting for applying my makeup a good thing. I look 10 years younger!

We've got several houses in our area who took down their Halloween decorations over the weekend - and put up their Christmas lights! I guess they just wanted to deal with changing decorations once!

There are four houses on my street with Christmas lights up. They were up before Halloween. At least I know that it's not just Florida where this happens. I love Christmas, and have come to expect it early on the retail level, but not on my neighbors houses already! However I am looking forward to it in two days at Disney World because we are taking our little grandson. And now I guess I will be hearing the music on the Oasis next week. Fa la la.

I'm sad that your review is over.:( But it has made me even more excited about our next Dream cruise (our fifth), only two months away. For your next cruise, I definitely vote for you to take your mom on the Fantasy, and book Palo for brunch! Sometimes, you can find a great price. We recently saw an amazing deal for early October, but on a weekend when we have a previous commitment. So we continue to look. It looks like have persuaded some other CC members to give the Dream serious consideration though.

I hope that you and your mom continue to cruise, and look forward to the next epic Gambee review!

Gamble,

Once again you are doing an outstanding job. You got me hooked with your review of the Allure as we are traveling soon on the Oasis. But first we will be on our favorite ship, the Dream, so I have enjoyed this review even more. I have read many trip reports on CC and TA, and no one comes close to capturing the feeling of "being there" as you do. Your photography skills are legendary at this point. You are nonjudgmental, informative, and your reviews are just plain fun to read. Those of us who are mothers also appreciate the genuine affection you show for your mom. Not only should cruise lines be offering you a free cruise, but Target should be grateful as well. I happened upon a very good deal today as I (almost) passed by the camera department. There it was, the Sony Nex F3... On sale for $399. They even gave me an extra 10% off because it was the last one and I took the display model. :p

I have really enjoyed your review and your wonderful pictures. I recently found it and feel like I have been tagging along on your whirlwind vacation with you and Claire. I hope that your older daughter is okay. I am amazed that you have been able to deal with all of that, another trip, and still yet still came back to post more great photos complete with narrative. Very impressive. Even though our Dream cruise is not for another two months, we are going to WDW next week to get our Disney fix. Thanks for all the inspiration.

This is the first cruise on which I plan to decorate our door(s). It embarks on Halloween and, most importantly, we are going with our 2 yr. old grandson and his parents. I plan to let him help put up the Pirate Mickey Mouse "parts". I am not too concerned about anyone stealing it. I might have to decorate the inside as well though, just so he won't want to open the door to have a look!

Gambee,

First I want to say how sorry I am about the loss of your Milo. I have been through this several times and I understand how you must feel.

Anyone who has read your reviews feels like they know you because you share so much. You take the reader right along with you, and you are a great tour guide!

I'm so glad that you and your mom went on the Disney Dream! We are big Disney fans and love their ships. Your reviews are amazing and your pictures are truly outstanding. I love the special effect photos -I must to learn how to do this! The Dream is our favorite ship and we are looking forward to the Halloween cruise with our 2 year old grandson, our Dd and her hubby (who are former Disney cast members).

I must say that your balcony was huge. Good choice.

I know that you want to try different cruise lines, but if you ever go back on Disney, do try Palo and Remy. The food is incredible, and you will be impressed with the service and quality.

Can't wait to read the rest of your review.

This will be our first time to St. Martin. After reading all the positive comments here about Bernard's, I booked a tour yesterday. Bernard sent a confirmation right away. We will be there on 11/20/13, with an estimated 19,466 fellow cruisers! I certainly hope that they don't run out of rum (or those tiny little paper umbrellas)!