Butchart Gardens

Has anyone booked an evening excursion through a 3rd party vendor for this tour in the evening? We are in port from 5:30-11:30pm.

I am in the same situation on Celebrity Solstice. Wondering if anyone has booked a ship tour how much time you get to spend at the gardens? Ship tour departs at 6:15 Pm for 3.5 hours.

I am in the same situation on Celebrity Solstice. Wondering if anyone has booked a ship tour how much time you get to spend at the gardens? Ship tour departs at 6:15 Pm for 3.5 hours.

Actual time at the gardens is a bit less than two hours depending on how long it takes to get their from the pier.

OP, you won't find any feasible third party vendors offering this except as a privately-booked custom tour (the shuttle buses stop running outbound to the gardens by 5pm except in peak season when there is one extra 7pm bus - but that gives even less time than the cruiseline trips do!) Plus, the gardens stop allowing admission as early as 5pm so carefully check your date in port against their scheduled hours before doing anything else.

If you're there in peak summer/10pm closing then you could take a cab and save significantly compared to the cruiseline excursion if you put bums on all the seats - AND get longer in the gardens as you can get a cab right outside the ship as soon as you get off, no waiting for buses to fill with booked pax. Sunset can be as late as 9:30pm if you're cruising late June so you might just be able to squeeze in 3 hours of daylight on-site before you leave. If you're coming at the tail end of the season, the sun could be down before you get a chance to see anything - there are lights, but that's a big drop in quality of the experience...

Probably best to book thru your ship even though we rarely do ship excursions....but Butchart Gardens is weel worth the limited experience....the evening viewing is really mystical...go for it!!!!

eclue:cool:

The Gardens are not to be missed regardless as to how much time one has there. It will whet your appetite to return for more! (Believe me with one without a green thumb!)

We've booked this tour from when we're there in August. Will get picked up in downtown Victoria at 6:30 and then returned to the ship, leaving the Gardens at 9:30. Good Trip Advisor reviews

http://www.islandtimetours.com/butchart-gardens-.html

We've booked this tour from when we're there in August. Will get picked up in downtown Victoria at 6:30 and then returned to the ship, leaving the Gardens at 9:30. Good Trip Advisor reviews

 

http://www.islandtimetours.com/butchart-gardens-.html

I hope you're aware of the small print: be on time or they go without you, and no refunds for any reason unless you give at least 24hrs notice... which is why I never recommend this tour provider for cruisers, too many things outside your control (Victoria takes a very random time for clearing pax, is the first port cut back on for Seattle RTs when there has been a delay earlier in the cruise, and can even be skipped entirely in high winds all of which you're unlikely to get enough notice about to be cancel the tour even if you're willing to use expensive ship phone/internet to contact them).

Our port time is 2pm - 11pm (sunset is at 8:54pm) and we were planning on just taking a taxi to the gardens and then back to the inner harbour for a late-ish dinner. Is this ill-advised?

With a 2pm arrival a rental car is actually feasible for you (Victoria is a 'roll up the sidewalks at 5pm sharp' kinda town, so car rental offices are often already closed by the time the late-afternoon cruise ship arrivals happen), which would be cheaper than a cab. Assuming you're used to driving in the US, there's really not much different about doing so up here (speed limits are in kilometres - but then so is the speedo, so still just matching numbers).

But maybe you don't want to drive so you can all get liquored up or whatever;-) The only real hesitation I'd have with a cab at this time of day is that if you're 3 people or less it's cheaper to use the CVS shuttle @ ~CAD$70pp as this includes entry tickets. Fill all the seats in a cab, and even with some traffic you should still save a little (budget $60 each way for the cab, then entry fees of ~$35pp, so you really just start saving at the 4 pax mark).

Thanks for your comments, Martincath...I am aware of the fine print, but since I used Chase Ultimate Rewards to buy our tickets we pretty much got a 33% discount and trip cancellation insurance if we're unable to use the tickets for some, covered reasons. I know it's a risk, but one we decided to take.

^No worries then, as long as you're aware and have chosen to take the risk! These are literally the only folks I've come across locally who both specifically target cruisers and require prebooking, yet do not offer an automatic refund if the ship misses the port, so I figured better too much info than not enough.

A couple of hours is enough for a visit to the Gardens, unless you are someone that has to look at each and every flower.... One thing not to miss is the sunken garden area. I used to be a taxi driver and one of my passengers mentioned that they were told to avoid the sunken gardens as they were boring. I talked them into checking it out and they were amazed that someone had told them to avoid it.

Enjoy your visit to Victoria. It is a beautiful place, this coming from someone who has lived here since 1968.

Karen

We loved the gardens, just beautiful, but were on a ship's tour that ended shortly before it really got dark - a bummer - and went back to the ship! It was so enjoyable to sit outside the shop while sipping coffee (or tea), watching the sunlight disappear, the shade engulf the garden, and the variety of lights come slowly on. Next time we will arrange for a much later stay.

With a 2pm arrival a rental car is actually feasible for you (Victoria is a 'roll up the sidewalks at 5pm sharp' kinda town, so car rental offices are often already closed by the time the late-afternoon cruise ship arrivals happen), which would be cheaper than a cab. Assuming you're used to driving in the US, there's really not much different about doing so up here (speed limits are in kilometres - but then so is the speedo, so still just matching numbers).

 

But maybe you don't want to drive so you can all get liquored up or whatever;-) The only real hesitation I'd have with a cab at this time of day is that if you're 3 people or less it's cheaper to use the CVS shuttle @ ~CAD$70pp as this includes entry tickets. Fill all the seats in a cab, and even with some traffic you should still save a little (budget $60 each way for the cab, then entry fees of ~$35pp, so you really just start saving at the 4 pax mark).

thanks! (and sorry to piggyback on this thread!) this is all very helpful! we were planning on taking a taxi just because it would be easier; we are renting cars in like three other ports and i feared i'd be sick of the whole 'pick up a rental car' process by this point. i had no idea that the taxi fare would be so high. there are only two of us.

i will look into the shuttle. thanks!

I was at Butchart Gardens on a ship's excursion this month and saw only one taxi come to drop off passengers while waiting for our bus to gather all of our excursion members.

There were no taxis looking to pickup passengers. In fact, our bus gave a few gardens visitors a ride to the nearest bus stop.

thanks! (and sorry to piggyback on this thread!) this is all very helpful! we were planning on taking a taxi just because it would be easier; we are renting cars in like three other ports and i feared i'd be sick of the whole 'pick up a rental car' process by this point. i had no idea that the taxi fare would be so high. there are only two of us.

 

i will look into the shuttle. thanks!

It's over 13 miles, at least a 30min drive from the pier to Butchart, with a couple of miles of that at very low urban speeds... how much would that sort of ride cost you at home? Cab fare is actually pretty reasonable here (and set by law - all companies in each region charge identical rates).

I was at Butchart Gardens on a ship's excursion this month and saw only one taxi come to drop off passengers while waiting for our bus to gather all of our excursion members.

 

There were no taxis looking to pickup passengers. In fact, our bus gave a few gardens visitors a ride to the nearest bus stop.

This is a good point - given how far away Butchart is, cabs only hang around there looking for fares if they are in the 'hood (which means 99% of the time, they are dropping someone else off as there ain't much around Butchart!) so be sure you take a phone number or two with you to call one. This is where rental cars win over cabs in convenience, not just cost!

However based on the pricing I see for cruiseline tours (which are all in USD remember!), it might still be cheaper to pay a cabbie to just sit with the meter running for a couple of hours (which adds a little over $60 to the fare) on top of the ride price plus tickets... especially if you find another couple to split the ride with.

It's over 13 miles, at least a 30min drive from the pier to Butchart, with a couple of miles of that at very low urban speeds... how much would that sort of ride cost you at home? Cab fare is actually pretty reasonable here (and set by law - all companies in each region charge identical rates).

 

I use Uber everywhere. I understand there's no Uber in Victoria, which is why I asked about a taxi. Uber rates are very, very low. Like depending upon the time of day, the trip you described would be less than $30 USD.