AlwaysFrantic Answers Her Own Questions Alaska Cruise '17

I have asked so many questions over the last year so I'll answer them myself as I travel. Feel free to ask your own and maybe I can can help someone.

Starting on our own in Vancouver. We will fly from here to join HAL in Fairbanks for a land tour prior to sailing on the 11th on the Noordam southward back to Vancouver.

Taxi fare to the Marriott Pinnacle from YVR was $37. Beautiful homes along the drive.

Hotel has floor to ceiling windows and a partial water view from my city view room. The windows are what make the room special. Otherwise it could be any hotel room anywhere. Pretty standard stuff.

Never never allow the cruise line to book you arriving day of your cruise! Was in origination airport on a flight with two families flying from VA to Seattle and Vancouver for cruises departing that day. With a two plus hour dekay in that first flight, they missed their connections. Felt awful for them. Too stressful!

Thank you, always frantic:D I hope you have a great trip. It sounds as If you and Roger Jett, Crew News, may be on the same itinerary:D Which would be great, because then we get a trip report from two points of view. In any case, I'll follow you along, and maybe ask a question or two on the way. Thanks!

Looking forward to hearing more! We leave from SEA on 6/17 and it will be our first time on HAL and first time to Alaska as well.

Glad you have made it to Vancouver.

Looking forward to your "Live" reports.

We never book any flights through any cruise line anymore. Did it once many, many years ago and even though we were going 4 days early to Istanbul, the flights Princess chose for us were terrible. We had no say in the flights.

Have a great cruise!

Thank you, always frantic:D I hope you have a great trip. It sounds as If you and Roger Jett, Crew News, may be on the same itinerary:D Which would be great, because then we get a trip report from two points of view. In any case, I'll follow you along, and maybe ask a question or two on the way. Thanks!

I'll be following your southbound cruise closely, because we are doing it next year, same date minus one day. Thank you for taking us along this year.

glad you have arrived and hoping you have a wonderful time.

Happy to follow along and thank you for taking the time and $ to do it :)

Saw the Noordam upclose and personal today even though not boarding for a week. I'll try to figure out how to post photos tonight. Saw my room. Really surprised the public can walk right out next to the ships. Interesting perspective.

Noordam looked to be in fresher shape than Celebrity Infinity.

Tons of cruise folks staying at Marriott Pinnacle. The lobby was full this morning.

Saw the Noordam upclose and personal today even though not boarding for a week. I'll try to figure out how to post photos tonight. Saw my room. Really surprised the public can walk right out next to the ships. Interesting perspective.

 

Noordam looked to be in fresher shape than Celebrity Infinity.

 

Tons of cruise folks staying at Marriott Pinnacle. The lobby was full this morning.

If you have an IPad or smart phone tapatalk works really well for photos in my experience.

I think it can also be downloaded to the laptops that have "apps".

If you have the ability, choose the medium size and they are not too big normally for the boards here.

enjoy your precruise stay and your wonderful time on land and at sea

Testing using the app suggested. If it works, wow!! Too easy after years of wondering why the forums made it so hard.

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The front of the decks I had asked about.

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Congrats; you did it! :D Great photos, too!

Yes, really good photos, alwaysfrantic. Did you use the Tapatalk app?

If you have a chance while you're in Vancouver, at the north end of the terminal (outside) is a really fun tour called Fly Over Canada.

 

Testing using the app suggested. If it works, wow!! Too easy after years of wondering why the forums made it so hard.

 

 

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YAY! Well done :). A lot easier than shutterfly or photobucket IMO. ;)

Great shot :)

Great thread and great photos!

Sent from my SM-J320W8 using Forums mobile app

We will be leaving on Wednesday heading to Anchorage to do the land portion of the Denali. We are staying in the Westmark Hotel starting Thursday. Then head to Denali on Friday. We can't wait as this is our 2nd trip to Alaska. So we will be on the same cruise.

There is an app for phones that allows you to fill out the Canadian immigration information up to 24 hours in advance. The generated QR code is supposed to scanned at the kiosk.

Everyone on the plane but me filled out their form. The kiosk lines were non existent. Walked right in. The QR code didn't scan. But the paper was irrelevant anyway because it required typing in the information anyway.

At checkout the agent asked how the scanner worked and he said they were having trouble with iPhones that day. But if anyone wants to try it the app is CanBorder eDeclaration

 

Taxi fare to the Marriott Pinnacle from YVR was $37. Beautiful homes along the drive.

 

Hotel has floor to ceiling windows and a partial water view from my city view room. The windows are what make the room special. Otherwise it could be any hotel room anywhere. Pretty standard stuff.

Looking forward to review, thanks for posting. One quick question on taxi fare: Did taxi driver quote you $37? We usually pay $35 for our fare to the Marriott Pinnacle.

Looking forward to review, thanks for posting. One quick question on taxi fare: Did taxi driver quote you $37? We usually pay $35 for our fare to the Marriott Pinnacle.

I thought they were set to specific areas. So not sure if rates were raised maybe??

Fare to Granville Market was $18.50. Return was $13.00. So traffic can make a big difference in the fare.

Vancouver activities: We rented bikes early and rode the sea edge around Stanley Park. Loved every minute of it !

Looked around Gastown and went to Granville Market and did a Vancouver Foodie Tours tour of the market. Good fun and good food.

I thought they were set to specific areas. So not sure if rates were raised maybe??

 

Fare to Granville Market was $18.50. Return was $13.00. So traffic can make a big difference in the fare.

 

Vancouver activities: We rented bikes early and rode the sea edge around Stanley Park. Loved every minute of it !

 

Looked around Gastown and went to Granville Market and did a Vancouver Foodie Tours tour of the market. Good fun and good food.

Thanks for the reply. Reason I asked, fares FROM airport are preset and shown on the Vancouver Airport transportation website. Last year I mentioned we paid $35 fare from airport to Marriott Pinnacle and a local told me I was charged too much so that is why I question the $37.

Sounds like you are having a good time in Vancouver --- may the rest of your trip be great as well.

Looking forward to review, thanks for posting. One quick question on taxi fare: Did taxi driver quote you $37? We usually pay $35 for our fare to the Marriott Pinnacle.

Fixed rate fare to Pinnacle remains $35, not $37, no change since Feb 2016 when they rejigged some zone boundaries and prices. At that time it was officially clarified that the lowest rate applies to boundary streets and they started listing the names of the streets - much more convenient for out of town folks. Unfortunately the Marriott Pinnacle is just a block on the wrong side of the 'jink' from Hastings to Pender down Burrard - if their official address was on Pender they would actually be in the $31 zone (and if you get the driver to drop you at the Pender side of the hotel you can save $4!)

No idea why OP was charged $37, which is for Stanley Park and only kicks in west of Denman street.

Notes on Vancouver. We ate at the Cactus Club; good food and drinks. Enjoyed a meal at Cardero over the water which was such a nice setting. The Flying Pig in Gastown was another good one.

We did Fly Over Canada at Canada Place. For anyone who has been to DisneyLand, think Soarin' over California. That was fun.

My favorite remains bike rentals and riding in Stanley Park.

I'm shocked at the accessibility of the cruise ships. For the excessive security at Ft. Lauderdale, this is completely opposite. It's so nice. People can get a good look at the ships.

We will take a taxi back to the airport for trip to Fairbanks. Will be curious if it's the same unusual $37 that it was coming in to town.

Love Vancouver. Hope to be back again.

Catching up.

Great pictures.

Sounds like you had a great time in Vancouver.

Fixed rate fare to Pinnacle remains $35, not $37, no change since Feb 2016 when they rejigged some zone boundaries and prices. At that time it was officially clarified that the lowest rate applies to boundary streets and they started listing the names of the streets - much more convenient for out of town folks. Unfortunately the Marriott Pinnacle is just a block on the wrong side of the 'jink' from Hastings to Pender down Burrard - if their official address was on Pender they would actually be in the $31 zone (and if you get the driver to drop you at the Pender side of the hotel you can save $4!)

 

 

No idea why OP was charged $37, which is for Stanley Park and only kicks in west of Denman street.

Thanks for the clarification, I appreciate it.