Vancouver - Renaissance Hotel
 

I would like to hear from people who have stayed in the Renaisaance Hotel recently. I have heard the hotel and rooms have been updated. Is it a nice place to stay? We are looking for a place that is convenient to the cruise ship dock, as we will be boarding a cruise ship for Alaska 3 days after arriving in Vancouver. We plan on doing Vancouver sightseeing for a few days prior to the cruise.<BR>Thanks for the input.

We stayed here in August 2001. Nice location downtown, right next to Burrard Inlet. We requested and got a room with a water view, and we could see the cruise ships docking nearby, just to the east of the hotel.<BR><BR>The room was pretty small (via Priceline--don't know if that had anything to do with it, but we paid less than $40/night for our room), but it was nicely furnished, clean, and met the needs of my wife and me. We could tell by the diagrams on the fire-exit maps that there are larger rooms than the one we had, so maybe you'll get one of those. They've got a nice lobby and a piano bar area with nice views of the water. They've also got a restaurant, which we didn't try. They also have an exercise room, a hot tub or two, and an indoor pool.<BR><BR>If you have a car, parking underneath the hotel is about $16-$18 Canadian with unlimited in/out privileges.<BR><BR>The hotel was very conveniently located near Stanley Park (maybe 1.0-1.5 miles away) and, as I said before, close to the cruise ship dock.<BR><BR>If you have a car, we highly recommend going to Sophie's Cosmic Cafe in Kitsilano (just across the bridge heading south). It's a funky place, but the breakfasts are great. If you like Indian food, we had a great dinner at Vij's. Sun Sui Wah has great Chinese with very fresh seafood.<BR><BR>Anyway, hope you enjoy Vancouver and your cruise!

We are paying $115.00 Canadian per night through the Entertainment Book. I haven't used Priceline - did you request the Renaissance Hotel or do they pick the hotel for you? We will not have a car - is there a bus we could take to Sophie's or is it too far?

Ilene, Unfortunately, with Priceline you don't get to pick a specific hotel--just a zone in the city (in this case, the Downtown Vancouver zone) and a star-rating (in this case, 3*).<BR><BR>Here's a list of the 3* hotels in downtown Vancouver that have come up on Priceline (as reported on BiddingForTravel.com, a great site for info on Priceline bidding):<BR><BR>Renaissance Vancouver<BR>Sheraton Wall Center<BR>Crowne Plaza Vancouver<BR>Coast Plaza Suite Hotel<BR>Hyatt Regency<BR><BR>I don't know how close any of the other four hotels is to the cruise ship dock. One person commented on their stay at the Sheraton Wall Center and wasn't completely satisfied. So if you choose to go the Priceline route to try to save some money, it's possible you could get a hotel that you won't like as much as we liked the Renaissance. I'd probably stick with the Renaissance and pay a little more, because I think it meets your specific needs pretty well.<BR><BR>I don't know anything about the transit possibilities in Vancouver--we had a car, so we didn't use mass transit. As I recall, Sophie's was maybe a 15-minute drive from the hotel.<BR><BR>Here's a link to the Vancouver mass transit site, plus a little info on getting a map showing the bus lines once you get to Vancouver: <BR><BR>http://www.translink.bc.ca<BR><BR>For detailed route information you may call our Customer Information Centre at (604) 953-3333 (6:30 am - 11:30 pm), email us, or you may purchase a route map, called the Transportation Services Guide for Greater Vancouver, for $1.95 at local FareDealer outlets.<BR><BR>Sorry I can't be more helpful on the bus question. Hope this answers a few of your questions, anyway.

Thanks for the information. I wound up getting a better rate for the Renaissance Hotel through Marriott Rewards program (better than through the Entertainment Card).<BR>I look forward to touring this lovely city.

I got a room @ renaissance this weekend thru priceline for 70 us.