Disembark time for train in Vancouver, BC

[NitaBcruising]

1 hour ago, sunviking90 said:

I’m sure you know an acceptable route, but I would NOT recommend any tourists try to walk from Canada Place to Pacific Central train station. Best to take a taxi. 

We're walkers, but no way are we dragging luggage any distance! Uber or taxi will be perfect.  Thank you!!!

[helby]

9 minutes ago, NitaBcruising said:

We're walkers, but no way are we dragging luggage any distance! Uber or taxi will be perfect.  Thank you!!!

You could catch the Skytrain from Waterfront Station on Cordova(not Canada Line to the airport) to Main Street  Station and the Pacific  train station is across the street. There is good signage for the station when leaving Canada Place.. The trains are frequent and the trip is short. You would have to drag your luggage a block or so on either end which may be more than you want to do. The line to get taxis  can  be very, very  long  so I think that  Uber is a better bet to get to the train station. 

[NitaBcruising]

11 hours ago, helby said:

You could catch the Skytrain from Waterfront Station on Cordova(not Canada Line to the airport) to Main Street  Station and the Pacific  train station is across the street. There is good signage for the station when leaving Canada Place.. The trains are frequent and the trip is short. You would have to drag your luggage a block or so on either end which may be more than you want to do. The line to get taxis  can  be very, very  long  so I think that  Uber is a better bet to get to the train station. 

Thanks!  Beings we decided to stay one night, we will get an Uber to our hotel. It will be easy to get one to the train the next morning. Certainly, I hope so, to be there by 6 am, eek!

[joeflow80]

18 hours ago, martincath said:

The 9am Bus/Train is more efficient due to less time hanging around in Seattle waiting for the train - and still easily made if you self-disembark. Unlike the train, where CBP preclear pax at the station so you're supposed to arrive an hour before departure, all the buses you only need to show up 15mins early (indeed, any earlier and the bus probably isn't even there yet, still parked out the back somewhere!) because immigration happens at the land border.

 

You could literally walk from the pier to Pacific Central in time! We live just across the park from Pac Central and I walk both mine and my wife's big suitcases home every time (she goes straight to her office or a meeting downtown) - it's only 1.5miles on nice wide sidewalks, slightly downhill going to the train...

 

Since it's July 4th, you'd definitely be home in time for the fireworks (even if you head into Portland for the bigger show here) if you took this departure instead... the later train could easily be delayed enough to miss them.

We're doing a similar itinerary for the following Crown cruise (4th-14th). I already booked the 11:30 train (bus) as we didn't think it would be possible to make the 9:00 departure. Anyone know how flexible Amtrak is if we kept our current booking and then, if we made it in time, switch to that earlier departure? Or is the reverse of that better? Switch now to the 9:00, and if we miss it could switch to the later departure? The earlier one would be preferable as we'd make it back to Albany before 8PM (instead of midnight). And also fewer bus/train/bus transfers.

 

16 hours ago, sunviking90 said:

I’m sure you know an acceptable route, but I would NOT recommend any tourists try to walk from Canada Place to Pacific Central train station. Best to take a taxi. 

Is this because of going through some rough neighborhoods, or too tough a physical challenge? We'd probably be OK with the physicality of it if the sidewalks are decent. How easy is it to catch an Uber (surge pricing?) or taxi coming right off the boat?

 

[sunviking90]

18 minutes ago, joeflow80 said:

We're doing a similar itinerary for the following Crown cruise (4th-14th). I already booked the 11:30 train (bus) as we didn't think it would be possible to make the 9:00 departure. Anyone know how flexible Amtrak is if we kept our current booking and then, if we made it in time, switch to that earlier departure? Or is the reverse of that better? Switch now to the 9:00, and if we miss it could switch to the later departure? The earlier one would be preferable as we'd make it back to Albany before 8PM (instead of midnight). And also fewer bus/train/bus transfers.

 

Is this because of going through some rough neighborhoods, or too tough a physical challenge? We'd probably be OK with the physicality of it if the sidewalks are decent. How easy is it to catch an Uber (surge pricing?) or taxi coming right off the boat?

 

Taxis should be right there I would think. If you need to you can go up to the Pan Pacific or across to the Fairmont Waterfront and they can get one for you. Uber is fine too, but you may have trouble getting one for such a short ride. 
You may come across some less than scenic areas, homeless camps, etc. It is also a good 30 minute walk even if you take a good route. I’m fit and I wouldn’t do it with a suitcase, lol.

[martincath]

5 hours ago, joeflow80 said:

We're doing a similar itinerary for the following Crown cruise (4th-14th). I already booked the 11:30 train (bus) as we didn't think it would be possible to make the 9:00 departure. Anyone know how flexible Amtrak is if we kept our current booking and then, if we made it in time, switch to that earlier departure? Or is the reverse of that better? Switch now to the 9:00, and if we miss it could switch to the later departure? The earlier one would be preferable as we'd make it back to Albany before 8PM (instead of midnight). And also fewer bus/train/bus transfers.

 

Is this because of going through some rough neighborhoods, or too tough a physical challenge? We'd probably be OK with the physicality of it if the sidewalks are decent. How easy is it to catch an Uber (surge pricing?) or taxi coming right off the boat?

 

Amtrak sell out pretty regularly on trains; not sure whether buses are more likely to have a same day ticket available, but I wouldn't chance it. Make the change if you can though - between the advice already given about other close-by spots to find cabs if the queue under the pier is long, the possibility of Uber/Lyft use (for both of these I'd be inclined to walk a block or so away to avoid the mess of traffic right at the pier - since unlike cabs in the queue Uber etc. show drivers the route in advance, having to navigate a known bottleneck before your fare starts paying you means long runs might be accepted but a short ride to the station would be a really low priority!)

 

SkyTrain I personally never recommend on the older lines - nowhere to put bags that's within the rules - but going against commuter flow should be relatively quiet so you might feel it's worth the risk (the trains themselves are automated, but during rush hours Translink staff are more likely to be around the platforms, so there's a slim chance of you being told to get out if you have big bags).

 

Given how cheap cabs are - expect maybe $12 on the meter if there's some traffic - SkyTrain doesn't really save any money. I always walk because frankly after cruising with all the extra dining opportunities, I just like to stretch my legs more than I object to spending a few bucks!!! 1.5 miles, net downhill, on perfectly functional sidewalks is trivially easy to do - I'm in pretty bad shape and I can do it pulling a 28" roller in each hand just fine!

 

Walking I really mentioned in my prior post to illustrate how easy it is to make the earlier bus - even if there were no cabs available, you didn't have a Lyftuber account, and you didn't want to risk SkyTrain it would still be absolutely feasible to self-disembark and walk all the way to the station, even with bags. Would I recommend it? Only if you really want the exercise! Seeing that the other folks I was answering were from Original-but-not-the-best-Vancouver (sorry-not-sorry!!!) I also assumed they were probably familiar with downtown Portland - which I can say from personal experience has all the same 'joys' of urban life that Vancouver does but with a greater risk of violence - so I doubt they'd be scared of our streets. You're not from that much further away (Go Beavers!) so maybe you're similarly innoculated against urban grit...?

 

There's no special local knowledge needed to avoid 'the bad bits' - the worst bits of the walk are right through Tourist Central... You'll get hit up by far more beggars along Cordova outside Waterfront Station than anywhere that the Google map deviates from the classic tourist drags. East Hastings has always been the main area of concern in the modern era - right down to having 'tent cities' cleared recently - but the default Google route cuts across it only once, a single street crossing on Abbott. My wife's walk to her office covers much of the same ground as the Google route does, just not all the way to the pier - by herself, in the dark both ways in winter, and she's all of 5'3" and has never once felt uncomfortable - and the elementary school a little over the midpoint means you'd also see parents with kindergartners walking many of the surrounding blocks of Abbott, Carrall, Expo, etc. bringing their kids to school if it wasn't shut for the summer.

 

In short - most of this route you'll see less 'scary urban stuff' than if you just just walked Water Street, home of most of the tacky tourist souvenir shops!