Pre/Post Alaskan Cruise

[Adreyer]

This is still over a year away for us, but it's now a permanent part of my daily thought processes... If you were to spend a few extra days before or after your Alaskan cruise touring and could only pick one city, would you tour Seattle or Vancouver (never been to either)? I'm thinking we'll Amtrak out from Chicago and then fly home from Seattle. We'll be cruising in June 2017. Also, for those who have done Alaska at the end of June, is there any swimming going on? Is there a certain air temp at which the pools on the ship stay closed? TIA.

 

[TeaBee]

I'd vote for Seattle, but only because we love it enough to live here. Vancouver's fine too, I guess. Actually, you might get more bang for your buck in Vancouver because of the favorable exchange rate. Plus, it's a beautiful city with plenty to do in the city limits and close by. It would be hard to go wrong with either spot.

 

[Lunarias]

Personally I loved Vancouver, but I've been to Seattle 4 times so the novelty has worn off for me.

For swimming we used the pool on our cruise , but we were not on Disney and had a covered pool area, but this was the last week of April, and we got lucky and it was 70 for all of our port days, only really cold day was Glacier Bay.

 

[xlxo]

I guess it depends on your interests....

 

[LoveMickey]

This is still over a year away for us, but it's now a permanent part of my daily thought processes... If you were to spend a few extra days before or after your Alaskan cruise touring and could only pick one city, would you tour Seattle or Vancouver (never been to either)? I'm thinking we'll Amtrak out from Chicago and then fly home from Seattle. We'll be cruising in June 2017. Also, for those who have done Alaska at the end of June, is there any swimming going on? Is there a certain air temp at which the pools on the ship stay closed? TIA.

We loved Vancouver. We stayed there 2 nights ore-cruise. Very friendly city and great for walking. We got a great rate via Hotwire at the hotel at the port and we walked to Stanley park. They also have a trolley around the city. Enjoy.

 

[brewcrew]

I've never been to Seattle (someday maybe) but we stayed in Vancouver for 4 days prior to our cruise last year. WE absolutely LOVED it!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I have been to both and definitely Vancouver for us! We are returning again prior to our 8/8 sailing and can't wait. There is just something extra magical about Vancouver and most people who have visited there seem to agree Seattle is also a very cool city with a unique charm but still Vancouver without hesitation. Our first sailing was 6/17/13 and yes there was swimming in the pools (they are heated) but we had warmer weather than expected and they weren't packed like they can be on the Caribbean sailings.

Heather

 

[xlxo]

We'll be cruising in June 2017

When you share your finalized June cruise date, we can advise for seasonal opportunities/congestion. For example, if you time your post-cruise visit for a July 1st in Vancouver... there will be a cruise terminal fireworks show in the evening.

 

[xlxo]

Some go to Alaska to see wildlife... a Vancouver bonus would be the Grouse resort where there is a bear breakfast. Please don't feed the spouse to the bears. Naughty kids may be an exception.
https://www.grousemountain.com/products/breakfast-with-the-bears

 

[fairy oma]

We loved Vancouver (2-day pre-cruise). We took the ferry to Victoria and went to Buchart Gardens...it was beautiful. We also self-toured Vancouver by using the transit system. We really enjoyed it.

 

[sharksfinatic17]

We spent two days in Seattle and three days in Vancouver pre-cruise. That is a tough one, but I have to give my vote to Vancouver.

 

[courtneydisney]

We're doing both in May/June - we're going to the Harrison Hot Springs outside Vancouver before our cruise, then staying in Vancouver for a few days, then taking the train to Seattle for another three days after that. It actually worked out that we could fly home from Seattle cheaper than Vancouver, even including the train, and Southwest gives us free checked bags - souvenirs galore!

 

[mollyclairesmom]

Ditto Vancouver.

As for your pool question, we cruised the end of June and the day the we boarded and the last sea day were definitely warm enough for swimming.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We would split the difference and arrive in Vancouver so we had the day we arrived plus one more day before boarding the ship to explore, and then tack on two days at the end so that disembarking day would give us time to get to Seattle, explore the city for that day plus the next and then head home. So many times people skip over the embarkation city as a port - we made that mistake the first time we did a Mediterranean cruise - we didn't account for jet-lag or just the exhaustion of a long journey to get there and we had only a few hours to see Barcelona - not even as long as we would have had if we'd just ported there - we had flight delays that had us arriving later than we had anticipated, too.