Trip Report, Seattle to Vancouver by Amtrak, plus one day in Vancouver

[CC Help Michell]

Hi, all!

 

Prior to our cruise I spent a lot of time on this board looking at information for our pre-cruise time. We sailed from Vancouver on June 1, but had flown into Seattle, taken Amtrak to Vancouver, and spent the rest of that day exploring Vancouver.

 

My full review is now available in Member Reviews (http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=43324), but I wanted to lift the part about our pre-cruise, including our Seattle hotel, our limo service in Seattle, the Seattle to Vancouver Amtrak Cascades train, the Pacific Palisades hotel in Vancouver, and the activities we chose for our day in Vancouver -- Stanley Park, Capilano Suspension bridge, and Grouse Mountain. We chose to rent a car with Hertz, and that worked well for us -- we liked being able to come and go as we chose. What follows is the part of my full review about our pre-cruise visit, and there are photos of all of this at the link in my signature -- hope this helps someone, and feel free to post any questions!

 

 

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Pre-Cruise Travel and Hotel Arrangements: We flew AirTran from Atlanta to Seattle for this cruise, even though the ship departs from and returns to Vancouver, B.C. We live in Atlanta, AirTran's headquarters, and flying round trip ATL/SEA on their seasonal flights (offered only during cruise season) saved us just under $350 per person over flying ATL/YVR round trip. $700 is a lot of cash to free up for other things, and we gladly did so, stretching our vacation by two days on the front side, and one day at the end. AirTran is now offering upgrades to business class for pretty reasonable rates at check-in time, so we took advantage of this. We were able to upgrade to business class for $99 per person - for such a long flight, we thought this was well worth it, plus it got our vacation off to a really "pampered" beginning!

 

We arrived on time at SeaTac, and found the free shuttle bus to our hotel for the night, the Radisson Gateway (booked via Priceline for $50 per night). We had a nice room, with a Select Comfort bed, and a really good coffee shop/restaurant in the hotel.

 

The next morning we got up early and met our previously arranged ride with Already There Limousine service for the trip to the Amtrak Station in downtown Seattle. This was so nice, and for only $10 or so more than a cab gave us a very "luxe" feeling.

 

We arrived at the King Street Amtrak Station in Seattle around 6:00 AM, which was plenty of time to pick up our tickets to Vancouver ($28 per person, booked online, with AAA discount), check our luggage, and later to obtain our seat assignments (left side, or "wet side," as the agent said). We LOVED this train ride as the beginning of our vacation! The seats were large and comfortable, and the views of Puget Sound and the landscape as we headed north were just wonderful. I also took the best eagle-in-flight photos we got on the entire trip right from the train as we passed through White Rock, B.C., where there were nesting eagles.

 

The train was on time into Vancouver, and we picked up our reserved Hertz rental car for our stay there. We drove to our hotel, the Pacific Palisades (another Priceline booking, at $125) and found we'd been upgraded to one of their one-bedroom units, which was so nice it made us feel bad we'd only be there overnight! They let us leave the rental car in the front entry for the few minutes it took us to literally drop off our bags in the room, and then we headed out for a day of exploring a little of Vancouver.

 

We drove through Stanley Park, stopping for photos and enjoying a very lovely day weather-wise. We ate an early dinner at Prospect Point, and then finished driving completely around Stanley Park before taking the Causeway and the Lion's Gate Bridge over to North Vancouver.

 

We stopped at Capilano Suspension Bridge, and used the 2-for-1 Entertainment Book coupon there (the only one we used - which more than paid for the book, so that was good, plus let us leave the book itself as a tip for our hotel housekeepers, which I hope they appreciated). I put this stop in the itinerary because I knew my SO would love it - and he did. I figured I'd be okay with it, but for some reason this bridge really threw off my inner ear. It wasn't the height that bothered me; it was something about the motion - it almost made me feel seasick, and it was like suddenly having "land legs" after a long cruise. It took several hours to wear off, so I mention it just as a note for those considering doing this.

 

We continued up the road to Grouse Mountain, where we thoroughly enjoyed the tram ride (we had a pretty day, weather-wise, or we wouldn't have gone), and had fun in the snow. We spent a good while watching Coola and Grinder (the brown/grizzly bears), who were freshly out of hibernation, and we also watched the video about them. We then headed down the mountain, stopped at a shop to pick up some soft drinks and such for the cruise, and returned to the hotel. The next morning we slept in, and my SO was kind enough to go get us breakfast from a McDonald's on Robson near the Pacific Palisades (plus coffee from Starbucks -- there are like five on Robson within a few blocks of the hotel!) -- then we returned the Hertz car to their downtown location, and took a cab to the pier to board the Volendam.

[Putterdude]

Sounds like you had a good time and we are glad that you did, come back soon.:)

[Urban trekker]

Thanks for the review and I am glad that you enjoyed your visit and Grouse - Cooler and Grinder were playing in the snow this morning when I got up the mountain - no I didn't do the Grind - but after I did a short hike up to the actual peak of Grouse and returned to the bear pit they were in hiding in the shade to get out of the 30C or 90F heat.

 

I have watched the progress or growth of those two bears since they first arrived a number of years ago - I find Grinder - the smaller of the two to be the showman of the two - he seems to know when to play for the crowds.

 

A new feature that has been added since your visit is zip lining - there are currently three platforms with a couple more planned for the fall.

 

And yes that is a beautiful train ride up from Seattle

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[DisneyScrapper]

What awsome picture you took. What kind of camera did you have?

[CC Help Michell]

What awsome picture you took. What kind of camera did you have?

 

Thanks for your kind words -- it's hard to take a bad picture in Alaska! :) Almost all the photos were taken with one of two cameras -- mine, which is a Canon Powershot A650 IS, or my SO's, which is a Samsung D74W. Those are both point and shoot digital cameras -- the Canon has image stabilization and the Samsung has a wide angle capacity. A few of the photos were taken with our Bushnell binoculars with a built in digital camera (like the one we just were lucky enough to catch of the breaching orca).

[ukbballfan]

MitchellP

 

Your time in Vancouver sounds like what we were thinking of doing next May. Can you give me some kind of a timeline from the time you got off the train till you returned to your hotel that night. We have friends flying into meet us at 5:30 the evening we are in Vancouver so I was wondering if they could catch up to us or should we just plan on meeting them at the hotel later. Could Grouse Mountain ...mainly just riding the tram...be done on a morning before boarding the ship? I think we have to be onboard the Island Princess by 2:30.

[Charlie_Neri]

Thank you for your review. Your information of what you did before your cruise in Vancouver is exactly what I want to do! :o

 

On your review, you had mention the Entertainment Book coupon. Where did you get one and how much was it?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Cheers,

Charlie