dfitz

Thank you Putterdude,

caught your info on the other thread, and thank you for the addtl info here :) Very helpful.

~Denise

Thanks for all the helpful info! Glanced through and there's a lot to read here, sorry if I missed answers to questions I have! Sounds like best thing to do if we only have one day is Stanley Park, would have liked to see some of the other sites in the downtown area too though ... we'll have from whatever time we get off the ship (around 8am) til cking in for ride back to SEA.

Wondering what the best way is to get from Ballantyne Pier to Stanley Park for a family of 3 (mom, dad, 20yr old daughter) w/ luggage in tow I'm thinking rental car? Or would it be reasonable to drop our luggage at Amtrak early in order to do trolley or big bus?

We are planning to take either Amtrak of Quick Coach back to Seattle, so need to be at one of their p/u spots early enough to ck in for a 5:45pm train, or 6:10 Quick Coach.

Advice/suggestions on best way to get around and spend the day in Vancouver would be great :D

Thanks bassnote, hope you don't mind me pasting the link into our roll call/m&M thread ... it's great :D

We were in Maz early Dec '09. Made reservations online ahead of time w/ Randi, I recall $45/pp. She was easy to find at the port, she gets you back and forth to Stone Island, her horses are very well-behaved, and you are allowed to ride at your own pace rather than riding in a nose to tail line, we all galloped and another rider I met asked me to explain how to get her horse to gallop, when her horse ran down the beach she was so excited :) I'm experienced, daughter has ridden a little, husband no experience and was concerned, but you can see the big smile on his face in the pic ... we all enjoyed the ride, oh, and even saw dolphin playing in the ocean as we rode along the shore.

At the end of the ride, Randi takes you to Victor's and the first drink (choice of soda or beer) is on Randi. She didn't rush us back, so we had plenty of time to kick back and relax on the beach and at Victor's after the ride. We also ordered garlic and coconut shrimp after reading on the boards about how great Victor's shrimp is. I would not plan to go to Stone Island with Victor's garlic shrimp as the main reason ... it was ok (we weren't so keen on the coconut shrimp and didn't finish it). We have all lived/grown up near the coast in CA so maybe we are used to extraordinary seafood, so Victor's was only ok for us.

When we were there, there was not a massage tent near Victor's. There were a lot of "vendors" approaching us both while at tables at Victor's and while sitting on the beach.