Vancouver to Seattle after Alaska Cruise

[razorbackmom]

We are flying in and out of Seattle for our Alaska Cruise in June. When we arrive in Seattle, we are going to take the Amtrak train to Vancouver. We will spend a couple of days in Vancouver before our cruise. After the cruise, we want to get back to Seattle as soon as possible to sightsee there before flying home the next day.
The train leaves Vancouver much later than we want. Our options are to rent a car or take a Quickshuttle bus, which leaves at 10:45 am. Disney tells me this is too early & we might not be through customs to catch that bus. The Quickshuttle bus people say we will be fine.
Has anyone done this? What about renting a car? Any issues crossing the border back into the US?

 

[MPS516]

The issue we found about car rental was you could not rent one way. We ended up taking a flight, it was cheap, quick and time convenient.

 

[bumbershoot]

Any issues crossing the border back into the US?

Nope.

There's also bolt bus and the Amtrak BUS (bookable through the same site where you book the train). Bolt takes you to the airport.

The issue we found about car rental was you could not rent one way

That's not an always thing though. That just meant that the agency didn't need any cars to be moved from
Bc to Seattle at that time on that day. The op needs to check their trip out.

 

[Geomom]

We are flying in and out of Seattle for our Alaska Cruise in June. When we arrive in Seattle, we are going to take the Amtrak train to Vancouver. We will spend a couple of days in Vancouver before our cruise. After the cruise, we want to get back to Seattle as soon as possible to sightsee there before flying home the next day.
The train leaves Vancouver much later than we want. Our options are to rent a car or take a Quickshuttle bus, which leaves at 10:45 am. Disney tells me this is too early & we might not be through customs to catch that bus. The Quickshuttle bus people say we will be fine.
Has anyone done this? What about renting a car? Any issues crossing the border back into the US?

You should be fine to take a bus at 10:45AM, if you're travelling by plane, they recommend after Noon for time to get through security/customs at the airport. We were out on the street after our cruise by 9:30AM...would've been closer to 9AM if we weren't missing 1 piece of luggage and had to put in a claim for it. I think they had everyone off the boat by 10AM.

 

[lorimay]

We have done Quick Shuttle it takes several hours to arrive in Seattle, there are several stops. It was much quicker Vancouver to Seattle. We did the 930am shuttle, with plenty of time, but we did not send the bags, we carried them off.
When we did Seattle to Vancouver it took 8 hours to arrive at The Pan Pacific, it was longer than our plane ride from Ft Lauderdale.
Next time I would do Alaska Air, they have a plane every hour or so, that's 45 minutes gate to gate.

 

[KristiMc]

The issue we found about car rental was you could not rent one way. We ended up taking a flight, it was cheap, quick and time convenient.

We did two one-way rentals in June 2015.

 

[LeslieG]

Has anyone managed to fly home from Seattle the same day?

 

[lorimay]

Has anyone managed to fly home from Seattle the same day?

No, we had to book a flight the next day, everything nonstop to Ft Lauderdale was very early in the morning.
But that all depends on where you're heading.

 

[xlxo]

Thoughts...

• 10:45am bus is doable.... looking at the schedule, I think you can even make the 9am buses if you are willing to give up debarkation breakfast and being one of the walk offs at 7:30am. What do others think? http://www.quickcoach.com/schedule.htm
  Hmm..... the 9am S4 bus appears to be an express bus that has you down in Seattle by 1pm. Travel time is 4 hrs travel instead of the regular 5 hrs on the schedule
• Quick Shuttle picks you up conveniently at the pier.... the train and Bolt/Amtrak buses need you to find your own way to the bus terminal
• Quick Shuttle does 6 to 7 trips to Vancouver to Seattle each day to fit your schedule.
• Alamo has rentals at the cruise terminal that can be dropped off in the USA. Book your rentals early to secure a vehicle from their tiny cruise terminal fleet..... especially if you need a luggage friendly minivan/SUV.
• check if Monday is a long weekend.... you might be surprised with long multi hour waits at the border.

 

[Ware Bears]

We caught the 9am bus, we walked our luggage off so were one of the first through security and were first in the line for the bus at 7:30am. We don't enjoy debarkation breakfast anyway, it's too sad, so no hardship giving that up. The bus was clean and comfortable and I'd have no problem travelling with Quickshuttle again. When we got to the border we had to get off, collect our luggage to take it through border control, then reload it but that wasn't a problem, it was very well organised and it was nice to get chance to stretch our legs. We were dropped off in downtown Seattle about 1:15pm.

 

[BartmanLA]

The issue we found about car rental was you could not rent one way. We ended up taking a flight, it was cheap, quick and time convenient.

In 2013 (Yes I know it was pretty long ago) we disembarked in Vancouver rented a car from Alamo at Canada Place with a one way Rental to Seattle, drove down, crossed the border and turned the car in the next day in downtown Seattle and caught Amtrak home to Los Angeles. So one way car rentals are available across border. At least at that time they were.

 

[MUN]

We are flying in and out of Seattle for our Alaska Cruise in June. When we arrive in Seattle, we are going to take the Amtrak train to Vancouver. We will spend a couple of days in Vancouver before our cruise. After the cruise, we want to get back to Seattle as soon as possible to sightsee there before flying home the next day.
The train leaves Vancouver much later than we want. Our options are to rent a car or take a Quickshuttle bus, which leaves at 10:45 am. Disney tells me this is too early & we might not be through customs to catch that bus. The Quickshuttle bus people say we will be fine.
Has anyone done this? What about renting a car? Any issues crossing the border back into the US?

We did 2 one-way rentals in 2014. It went well and there are car rental agencies near the port in Vancouver.

 

[Judyat]

We did boltbus.com Lots of times to leave. Comfortable and cheap.

 

[CM Dad]

My wife and I did Alaska in 2014 and took the Amtrak back to Seattle afterwards. We had stayed in the Pan Pacific pre-cruise. They we able to hold our luggage for the day for us post cruise. We did some exploration of Vancouver until it was time to pick up our luggage and head for the train.
.

 

[razorbackmom]

We did boltbus.com Lots of times to leave. Comfortable and cheap.

I looked at the bolt bus also but they don't release their schedules until 4 to 6 weeks out.

 

[Judyat]

I looked at the bolt bus also but they don't release their schedules until 4 to 6 weeks out.

The bolt bus is usually the same times as listed now. I just waited until as you say 4 - 6 weeks out and booked it. You can get an idea of times now.

 

[xlxo]

Is there a certain time of the day they release the dates for those incredible rates? Just remember that Bolt is cheaper because it excludes cruise/hotel/airport transfers that Quick Shuttle includes.

 

[jetskigrl]

We did the Quick Shuttle bus in 2014 and it worked out great. We had plans to stay 2 nights in Seattle and then take the Amtrak train home so we didn't want to mess with the airport at all.

I think we booked the 10:45 bus and we were at the waiting area way before that. So much so that they put us on the bus before ours. I'm thinking that was because it wasn't very full. We each had a row to ourselves to stretch out in and there were still many empty rows. We stopped at one hotel and then made one other stop but the people weren't there so we left. When we got to the border, the driver told the officer that we had all just gotten off of cruise ships so we were not required to remove our luggage from under the bus. We just took our carry-ons in, went through customs and back out to the bus.

It would have been even faster but we had to wait for one family from an earlier bus that had been retained by customs and that bus had to leave them (knowing our bus could take them). Then we were on our way. Super easy and I would use them again.

 

[Shanti]

Thoughts...

• 10:45am bus is doable.... looking at the schedule, I think you can even make the 9am buses if you are willing to give up debarkation breakfast and being one of the walk offs at 7:30am. What do others think? http://www.quickcoach.com/schedule.htm
  Hmm..... the 9am S4 bus appears to be an express bus that has you down in Seattle by 1pm. Travel time is 4 hrs travel instead of the regular 5 hrs on the schedule
• Quick Shuttle picks you up conveniently at the pier.... the train and Bolt/Amtrak buses need you to find your own way to the bus terminal
• Quick Shuttle does 6 to 7 trips to Vancouver to Seattle each day to fit your schedule.
• Alamo has rentals at the cruise terminal that can be dropped off in the USA. Book your rentals early to secure a vehicle from their tiny cruise terminal fleet..... especially if you need a luggage friendly minivan/SUV.
• check if Monday is a long weekend.... you might be surprised with long multi hour waits at the border.

Do you think Tuesday, August 2nd would be doable from the pier to Seattle airport using Quick Shuttle? We'd want to arrive at the airport by 4pm, to catch a 6pm flight.

 

[xlxo]

I can only go by the schedule.... I recommend.....

• calling Quick Shuttle and ask them how often they get behind schedule.
• getting one of the earlier Quick Shuttles on the schedule to give yourself some contingency for problems/delays