Victoria to Vancouver

[OttawaJohn]

So we're looking at a cruise that goes from LA to Vancouver. And the port before Vancouver is Victoria.

 

The cruise is scheduled to leave Victoria at 9pm and arrive Vancouver at 730am.

 

Last time I checked, the ferry takes about 2 hours to go from Victoria to Vancouver.

 

So curious for any who did this and were up, how does it work? Does the ship get to Vancouver early and just sit there all night out in the bay? Go to the berth? Drive around in circles? :)

[drjc]

We were on the Emerald Princess from May 9th to 13th with the same itinerary. I was at the top deck and watched us pull away from the Victoria dock at about 10:30 pm, about half an hour early. We arrived at the Vancouver port the next morning at about 8:30. The Captain’s summary lists 80 nautical miles at 13.3 knots.

[Fisherwoman]

I've done this many times. They take their time, cruising going slow through the Strait of Georgia! I'm, sure they pass the port of Vancouver and turn around in the night. They usually pull into port just after 6:30 AM. It's protected water so it's really nice. The best part about docking in Victoria first, you clear customs in Victoria so in Vancouver you just walk off the ship. If it's busy at Canada Place, it's a huge bonus!

 

The BC Ferry takes 1 hour 40 minutes but it goes from Tsawwassen to north of Victoria. The cruise ship is MUCH nicer.

[WVBill]

As we were leaving Vancouver for Hawaii I had my GPS running while we navigated through the San Juan Islands between Vancouver and Victoria and noticed we were doing 2-3 knots. The ferry can go faster because it's much more maneuverable than a cruise ship. The waterways through the San Juans are very congested with pleasure craft that are not well lighted and, thus difficult to see.

[Thrak]

If it's anything like the California coastal cruise we took one time they go out past the limit so they can open the casino. It's 14 miles from LA to Catalina but it took from 4:00 PM until 7:30 AM to get there. They went out to sea a little way so it was legal to open up the casino and the duty free shops.

[wheezedr]

There are many places where this goes on. The distance between 2 ports is maybe 100 miles or less so the ship goes slow and takes a bit of a circuitous route. Sometimes it sails farther out so it can open the casino as noted above. Just the vagaries of how ports line up on an itinerary.

[Coral]

They just sail for hours and hours and then go to the next port.

[OttawaJohn]

Cool, thanks all for the explanations!

[tanyaewa]

On the same cruise as Drjc and FYI - there is no casino open between Victoria and Vancouver it closed at 10pm the night before arrival in Victoria and remained closed the rest of the cruise