Alaska cruise ending in Vancouver

[cusematt4]

Hi all,

 

We are excited for our first ever trip to Alaska in June.  It goes from Alaska to Vancouver.

 

When we disembark in Vancouver, we will have a full day as our flight isn’t until 10pm.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for a full day in Vancouver?  We are open to anything, whether a tour or spending some time in some of the best areas.

 

So far we have been looking into the hop on and hop off tour.  If we book with Princess it’ll be $150pp and they’ll take our luggage to the airport vs $50pp if we book direct without the ability to have bags taken to and stored at the airport.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on spending a day in Vancouver for first timers?

 

Has anyone done the hop on hop off tour?  If so how was it?  It looks like the bus run from 9-5 which would allow us to spend some time at a few of the stops after the tour itself.

 

If we don’t book hop on hop off with the cruise line, does anyone know what we could do with our bags?  It seems like a lot to pay an extra $100pp for the same tour except for the ability to have bags taken to and stored at the airport.

 

Thanks so much.

[nordicacres]

We are going to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge park and/or rent bikes and bike to Stanley Park via the seawall trail. Last time we were there we walked a portion of the seawall trail, walked around downtown, and went to Granville Island. 

[karatemom2]

When we had a similar long time frame before our flight, we rented a car at port that we used for the day and then dropped off at the airport. It was way more reasonable then the Princess excursion, we were able to easily able to keep our luggage with us stowed in the trunk, and we had full freedom to do whatever we wanted to do. At the airport we returned the car and took the shuttle from the rental return to our terminal. It was great!

[Coral]

12 hours ago, nordicacres said:

We are going to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge park and/or rent bikes and bike to Stanley Park via the seawall trail. 

I did the Capilano bridge last time. I was surprised how much I liked it and was impressed how I "faced my fears" as I never thought I could do several things there due to my fear of heights.

[1025cruise]

You might ask on the West Coast Departures board, where Vancouver is covered as it is not in Alaska.

[karylrocks]

Check the hoho website, they have baggage storage available.

[trivia addict]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:28 PM, karatemom2 said:

When we had a similar long time frame before our flight, we rented a car at port that we used for the day and then dropped off at the airport. It was way more reasonable then the Princess excursion, we were able to easily able to keep our luggage with us stowed in the trunk, and we had full freedom to do whatever we wanted to do. At the airport we returned the car and took the shuttle from the rental return to our terminal. It was great!

This is such a great idea! I wish we would have done this last year when we were in the same situation. We did it all wrong! We took a suggestion to use a company that advertised locations to drop off bags at various retail spots in the city, then took buses to various places we thought we wanted to visit. Big waste of time and effort!

With a car and google maps, we would have done much better!

Have done the HOHO bus in Vancouver on a previous trip. We did get a thorough look at the city with it, but remember with the HOHO you are at the mercy of the timing of the bus schedule at each stop. A car is the way to go!