Where to fly into for Alaska Cruise

[Tasmen]

Source: I live in Vancouver, have family in Seattle, have stayed in Seattle downtown recently (at a hotel), and used to regularly ride the Amtrak multiple times per year.

I also live in Seattle and am pretty up on costs here including hotels (we sometimes stay downtown when social events like convention demand). Hotel prices are completely dependent on which hotel and when. I've seen hotels downtown Seattle for $200 a night (before taxes). That was this last December when we were pricing for a work event we planned to fly people in for. This was the price for the Hyatt Regency as well as Hyatt Olive 8. The Grand Hyatt was $250 plus tax.

Every individual needs to price out based on their budgets AND the time they are traveling.

I stated the additional trains because I saw a story just recently about expanding the line. I used a jump to conclusion mat and have already corrected my statement in a later reply.

 

[Tenkawa]

Every individual needs to price out based on their budgets AND the time they are traveling.

Agreed.

 

[auntlynne]

 

[Chrispy97]

My suggestion is you will fall into one of the following categories, and here are my recommendations:

Category 1: The experienced frugal traveller.

You have been to Seattle and Vancouver before, and know how to get around. For you it is all about the cost. Flying into Seattle and then taking a bus works out for you, and you are familiar enough with the area that if things go wrong, you can correct, but if the price isn't right, you'll go direct.

Category 2: The explorer.

You haven't been to Seattle or Vancouver, but want to spend time ahead of the cruise checking it out. You could fly into Seattle, check it out for a couple days, then take a train or bus up.

Or fly direct to Vancouver and spend the time exploring Vancouver. You have the time to make it worthwhile

Category 3: Get to the ship!

Fly into Vancouver, get to the port, get on the ship.

Category 4: Infrequent international traveler

I suspect this might be a number of people here. Fly direct to Vancouver. Trust me, you don't want the other headaches that come with not being used to a lot of this. Land borders can be even more stressful than air, and you could be on a coach bus with 50 of your closest friends. Note you also have to pull all your luggage off the coach at the border.

Agree with the categories, but I’ll add one to #2:

We flew into Victoria a couple days before the cruise, toured Victoria on our own, then took a boat across to Vancouver the day before the cruise. Nice addition to the trip and the boat ride over was pretty and not stressful.

Not sure how frequent those boat trips are post Covid though. We had a package that took our luggage, took us up to Bouchard Gardens and then had the boat from there to Vancouver; I can’t find that one now.

 

[blabbermouth]

Agree with the categories, but I’ll add one to #2:

We flew into Victoria a couple days before the cruise, toured Victoria on our own, then took a boat across to Vancouver the day before the cruise. Nice addition to the trip and the boat ride over was pretty and not stressful.

Not sure how frequent those boat trips are post Covid though. We had a package that took our luggage, took us up to Bouchard Gardens and then had the boat from there to Vancouver; I can’t find that one now.

The ferry goes daily, every hour or every other hour from 7am to 9 or 10pm. It's an hour and a half trip.

 

[Tenkawa]

Yup. As blabbermouth mentioned.

One big warning though: the ferry terminal is not in Victoria proper, and neither is the terminal in the Vancouver area (It is actually Twassessen). But there are coach buses, local transit buses, and various car services which can get you to these terminals.

Victoria Airport is quite small, and only has flights to Seattle (The only international location), Vancouver, Toronto (1 a day), Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, and Prince George. So you will likely need a connecting flight.

But.... I love Victoria. Tea at the Empress Hotel, the Royal BC Museum, and tons of stuff around the downtown core. I also like the Fort Rodd Hill historical site / Lighthouse, but it is a bit of a drive to get there.

 

[Sophie’smom]

We are traveling from Philadelphia In late May. To get a direct flight and save money, we chose the Seattle and train option. We booked in December and were notified last week that they cancelled the departing/starting of trip direct flight, it will have to have a connection. It reminded me how at any time, you have to be ready for cancellations and changes. Still looking forward to the train, but it’s tough to go from a 5 hr flight to 9+ travel time.

I appreciate all the details Tenkawa and others are giving ! This trip will be a big adventure for us.

 

[Starwind]

Was hoping to fly Southwest to use flight points, but I do not see a flight from Vancouver, .

Southwest does not fly to Canada.

 

[Tenkawa]

We are traveling from Philadelphia In late May. To get a direct flight and save money, we chose the Seattle and train option. We booked in December and were notified last week that they cancelled the departing/starting of trip direct flight, it will have to have a connection. It reminded me how at any time, you have to be ready for cancellations and changes. Still looking forward to the train, but it’s tough to go from a 5 hr flight to 9+ travel time.

I appreciate all the details Tenkawa and others are giving ! This trip will be a big adventure for us.

If you have any questions or issues, post and we can try to help you out.

 

[BrokeMack]

Southwest does not fly to Canada.

That would be so convenient. They just opened up Bellingham, but that's not a whole lot more convenient than SeaTac.

 

[Kwami]

That would be so convenient. They just opened up Bellingham, but that's not a whole lot more convenient than SeaTac.

SeaTac doesn't look so bad if Amtrak increases the number of trains running to Vancouver. There seems to be a train from SeaTac to King St. Station and another train to Waterfront once you get to Vancouver. I guess three trains isn't as nice as one train, but at least you don't have to worry about buses or taxis.

Still, the cost to fly to Seattle and then deal with three trains can't be that much better than just flying to Vancouver, unless you have lots of points with an airline (like Southwest) that doesn't fly to Vancouver.

 

[BrokeMack]

SeaTac doesn't look so bad if Amtrak increases the number of trains running to Vancouver. There seems to be a train from SeaTac to King St. Station and another train to Waterfront once you get to Vancouver. I guess three trains isn't as nice as one train, but at least you don't have to worry about buses or taxis.

Still, the cost to fly to Seattle and then deal with three trains can't be that much better than just flying to Vancouver, unless you have lots of points with an airline (like Southwest) that doesn't fly to Vancouver.

My specific issue has more to do with scheduling and routing. No amount of money gets me back to Albuquerque from YVR without either a 4 hour layover or a stopover, unless I go West Jet (which I don't want).

 

[Kwami]

My specific issue has more to do with scheduling and routing. No amount of money gets me back to Albuquerque from YVR without either a 4 hour layover or a stopover, unless I go West Jet (which I don't want).

Flights back from Vancouver (and Seattle) seem terrible all around.

 

[Tenkawa]

Flights back from Vancouver (and Seattle) seem terrible all around.

Terrible all around? No.

The downside is that they are pretty far from other major hubs, leaving them as end points. The closest other major areas as LAX (a 1.5h flight), or Calgary (for Westjet only), 1.5h flight.

Then you add in the time zones and it gets real fun. It is impossible to leave in the morning from the west coast, and not arrive in the evening on the east coast. Even though it is a 4-6h flight time, the 3h time shift eats up the day. (Now it is better flying TO the west coast, but the hub problem happens again).

For an example, to fly Seattle to Orlando, only 1 airline does direct, Alaska Airlines. Their HQ is in Seattle. From Vancouver? There are 0 direct flights. This is because (other than Alaska Airlines) neither are a hub airport for NA travel.

They are both jumping off points for international travel though. They are the primary gateways (along with SFO and LAX) to Australia, Japan, China, India, and most of Asia. So lots of flights go through there, but the longer flights almost always come from a hub airport (eg: Chicago, Houston, LAX, NY, Toronto). So coming from Albuquerque is going to be awkward.

Most of the low cost carriers have limited range too, so their routes to the PNW are coming out of LA or Vegas.

Both airports are pretty good, and for international travel they are great. (From Vancouver I can fly direct to Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York, Beijing, Delhi)

 

[lilsonicfan]

I will say it's super easy to fly to Asia and Hawaii etc from Vancouver.... I'm flying to Hawaii on a 6 hour non-stop flight and there were tons of options. In contrast, very few non-stop flights to Orlando from YVR.

 

[Kwami]

Terrible all around? No.

The downside is that they are pretty far from other major hubs, leaving them as end points. The closest other major areas as LAX (a 1.5h flight), or Calgary (for Westjet only), 1.5h flight.

Then you add in the time zones and it gets real fun. It is impossible to leave in the morning from the west coast, and not arrive in the evening on the east coast. Even though it is a 4-6h flight time, the 3h time shift eats up the day. (Now it is better flying TO the west coast, but the hub problem happens again).

For an example, to fly Seattle to Orlando, only 1 airline does direct, Alaska Airlines. Their HQ is in Seattle. From Vancouver? There are 0 direct flights. This is because (other than Alaska Airlines) neither are a hub airport for NA travel.

They are both jumping off points for international travel though. They are the primary gateways (along with SFO and LAX) to Australia, Japan, China, India, and most of Asia. So lots of flights go through there, but the longer flights almost always come from a hub airport (eg: Chicago, Houston, LAX, NY, Toronto). So coming from Albuquerque is going to be awkward.

Most of the low cost carriers have limited range too, so their routes to the PNW are coming out of LA or Vegas.

Both airports are pretty good, and for international travel they are great. (From Vancouver I can fly direct to Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York, Beijing, Delhi)

Well, terrible for Albuquerque, Orlando, and Boston, at least! Even NY didn't have great options. You can get direct flights to NY and Boston, but the times are pretty terrible. Who wants to leave at 10pm and arrive at 6:30am? I saw a small number of flights are more reasonable times, but the prices are crazy compared to the overnight flights.

Seattle is just about the same, though.

 

[lilsonicfan]

My specific issue has more to do with scheduling and routing. No amount of money gets me back to Albuquerque from YVR without either a 4 hour layover or a stopover, unless I go West Jet (which I don't want).

I guess if you want to fly nonstop, that is more difficult.
But I do see round trip flights from ABQ-YVR that have fairly short stops, 1-1.5 hours in LAX, SLC etc.

Well, terrible for Albuquerque, Orlando, and Boston, at least! Even NY didn't have great options. You can get direct flights to NY and Boston, but the times are pretty terrible. Who wants to leave at 10pm and arrive at 6:30am? I saw a small number of flights are more reasonable times, but the prices are crazy compared to the overnight flights.

Seattle is just about the same, though.

BOS-YVR - I agree times aren't great for the non-stops with Jet Blue (similar to flights from YVR to Hawaii though - often one of the legs is a red-eye) - but I did a quick google search for July 15-25 (just test dates) and found Air Canada runs a flight that leaves BOS at 7am, arrival in YVR at noon, with a 1 hr stop in Montreal, and then there's an 8:40am flight, nonstop, on the way back.

 

[Kwami]

BOS-YVR - I agree times aren't great for the non-stops with Jet Blue (similar to flights from YVR to Hawaii though - often one of the legs is a red-eye) - but I did a quick google search for July 15-25 (just test dates) and found Air Canada runs a flight that leaves BOS at 7am, arrival in YVR at noon, with a 1 hr stop in Montreal, and then there's an 8:40am flight, nonstop, on the way back.

That's too early coming from a cruise, though.

 

[lilsonicfan]

That's too early coming from a cruise, though.

Oh true it is. I was thinking it could be a next day thing. I have often not flown back straight away after a cruise.

Edit: there is a 12:45 flight on Monday July 24 with 2 hr stop in MSP. Or some 1:30 pm flights with shorter stops. Pretty typical out of YVR to get to anywhere in the eastern time zone in the US.

 

[auntlynne]