Here, There and Everywhere – Home to Seattle to Vancouver to Alaska

This blog post will outline transportation options for those who fly into Seattle and then travel to Vancouver to board their Alaskan cruise!

I don’t know about you but when I think of a honeymoon I think of sunshine, beaches and umbrella drinks.

I don’t typically associate large bodies of ice

Winter jackets and hats

Or sled dogs

But maybe that was my bad. Because Alaska for a honeymoon was incredible.

And look, we even got to experience what resembles Caribbean waters (even if the bright blue coloring was caused by glacial deposits – it counts, right?)!

We sailed on the Disney Wonder May 22-29 and our ports of call included Skagway, Ketchikan and Juneau. The cruise also included a day of sailing through a fjord that ended with this semi-decent view:

The next few blog posts will go in-depth into this trip and I hope they are helpful to anyone planning an Alaskan cruise on Disney Cruise Line or any other line that sails to Alaska! I know it was sometimes overwhelming planning some of the logistics of the trip and making sure we were getting everything out of the ports that we could (whales, that was what I wanted to get out of the trip).

We spent quite a long time trying to figure out how we would actually get to Vancouver. We’re from the U.S. so traveling to Vancouver would have been considered an international flight. We weren’t able to find any direct flights to Vancouver and since I’m not exactly the easiest flyer, we (I) wanted to eliminate as many takeoffs and landings as possible.

So, with a little research we realized an alternate option that many people go with is flying to Seattle and then traveling to Vancouver from there. We liked this idea because it also gave us the option of exploring a new city – Seattle. It also allowed us to take a one way domestic flight which was easier. Flying to Seattle was also cheaper for us than flying to Vancouver was.

We ended up flying Alaska Airlines to Seattle for $198 and used Delta SkyMiles points for the return trip. So our total cost to fly was $209 when factoring in the taxes you pay using your SkyMiles points. I highly suggest an air miles card if you don’t have one already!

Of course, we had to figure out a way to get from Seattle to Vancouver for the cruise itself. From Seattle to Vancouver is a little over three hours and there are a few ways to get there.

1. Amtrak Cascades train
   1. Pros:
      1. Probably the most scenic route
      2. Easy border crossing into Canada (stay on the train and immigration officials come around to check your passport)
   2. Cons
      1. Slightly longer travel time (four hours vs. about three)
      2. Limited schedules (one morning – 745am – and one evening departure – 7pm)
      3. Possible delays (traffic or mechanical issues)
2. Bus
   1. Pros
      1. Various options
         1. Bolt Bus
         2. Amtrak Thruway Bus
         3. Quick Shuttle
      2. Extensive scheduling options
         1. Bolt Bus – 6:30am, 10am, 11:45am, 1pm and 6pm
         2. Amtrak Thruway Bus – 10:45am, 1:45pm, 4:45pm and 9pm
         3. Quick Shuttle – 10:10am, 1:40pm, 4:45pm and 7:40pm
      3. Bolt Bus cost: Varies depending on time and day but ranges from $14-$20 on a weekday to $20-$25 on a weekend. We paid $20.50 per ticket from Seattle to Vancouver on Sunday May 21 and $30 for our return trip on Monday May 29 (which was also a holiday – Memorial Day – which may account for the slightly higher pricing)
   2. Cons
      1. Less scenic
      2. Possibly longer wait during border crossing
      3. Need to exit bus with all luggage and enter building to clear customs
      4. Cost of Quick Shuttle and Amtrak bus
         1. Quick Shuttle: $43 one way, $69 round trip to and from downtown Seattle
         2. Amtrak Bus: $42-$75 depending on accommodations
3. Renting a car
   1. Pros
      1. Flexibility
   2. Cons
      1. Most costly option

Here is a map of where all three stations are located in Seattle:

We ended up taking the Bolt Bus mostly due to cost and flexibility. It cost us a total of $50.50 per person round trip (Seattle to Vancouver and then returning from Vancouver to Seattle to fly home after the cruise). Overall, this was a good experience. The pro was definitely the cost and even with the negatives mentioned below, we would use Bolt Bus again.

1. Experience at the border: Everyone on the bus has to exit with all pieces of luggage and enter a building where customs officials check your documentation and process your baggage through a scanner. Overall, this wasn’t a horrible experience at all but just slightly inconvenient in that we had to account for all of our luggage and exit the bus. We also ran into some difficulties with two passengers that made the customs stop longer than it typically would be. I think overall crossing the border took about a half hour.
2. Wifi: Part of the appeal of the bus was the availability of wifi. The Quick Shuttle and the Amtrak trains offer wifi also. As far as I know, the Amtrak buses do not offer wifi. The Bolt Bus driver provided us a password to the on-board wifi but we could never seem to get it to connect. Passengers around us had similar issues. This was a little frustrating since after we entered Canada, we were worried about using our cell data and preferred to connect to wifi to avoid any charges.
3. Pickup location in Seattle: The email we received from Bolt Bus had directed us to the pickup location of 5th Ave S at Dearborn St. We had an Uber take us to this location (our hotel was only about a mile away but since we had all of our luggage we opted for the Uber). Once we got to the location though, there were no other people around and no bus to be seen. We asked somebody who appeared to be an employee of the station we were at and we were told to just wait there and the bus would come. As it inched closer to our pick up time of 6:30am, we started looking around to see if we might be in the wrong location. We did see a bus about two blocks away on the other side of the street and noticed people lining up. This did end up being the Bolt Bus pickup location so there was some slight confusion there.

Like I said though, overall we thought this was a fine experience and would do it again.

All of that just to discuss transportation. Phew.

I wanted to add a quick tip here that was helpful to me throughout planning. Find your cruise group on Facebook and also join the Disney Cruise Line – Alaska Q and A page on Facebook. There are some awesome and knowledgeable people out there and it’s a great way to exchange information with each other.

I promise to get into the fun stuff next post including our stay in Seattle! I wanted to make sure I included a detailed bit on the fun, logistical stuff regarding transportation since this was confusing for us when we were researching and booking this part of the trip.

Up next: Exploring Seattle!