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Post by Dane on Aug 17, 2023 17:32:00 GMT -8
Coquitlam to route 2 for a round trip at the expense of route 3?
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Post by Dane on Aug 17, 2023 9:31:58 GMT -8
I made it on Hullo. Hopefully I make it home 🤣. But seriously if there's any questions let me know, I'll post some detailed thoughts soon. This post is largely to test the Wifi, which is pretty decent.
We left a bit late because of slow boarding, but there must be 75%+ seats filled. Pretty smooth out here. And already learned by first hack, if you're in business (and traveling alone) select seat C or H. They're singles with no one on either side. Was bummed out I didn't get a window seat, until I got onboard. In seat 2H living the high life!
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Post by Dane on Aug 16, 2023 21:17:58 GMT -8
The Renaissance will not sail tomorrow, either. The Alberni will take her place and route 30 will loose the two extra sailings each way. Good timing, the Alberni was just back from repair isn't it?
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Post by Dane on Aug 16, 2023 20:11:38 GMT -8
Marine Traffic shows the same info. Both boats tied up in Nanaimo. Has anyone here gone through the complete online booking process? What are your thoughts on the ease of use? Better, worse or about as good/bad as the BCF process?
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I feel as if Hullo should have gone with a few days or maybe a week of 'soft sailings' rather than 'in service' scheduled sailings only to have to cancel most of them.
I have now made five bookings, four of which were cancelled and very quickly refunded. The process itself was fine, there seems to be a few extra steps; the amusing one being selecting the number of seats you need after you've selected the number of passengers. But I'm sure that's just come with whatever software they've purchased. The only actual substantive issue I've had, at least twice, was the website crashing after I made the actual reservation. In one case, the booking was actually made, and in the other case it wasn't. The only way to tell was whether I got an email confirmation as in both cases my credit card was actually billed as a hold. When the booking didn't go through, the hold did release in about 12 hours. -- Right now, I am booked for tomorrow. But I'm pretty seriously considering canceling that. Today's cancellation still are not showing on their website, so how can I have any idea that they are operating tomorrow? Driving from Victoria, to Nanaimo simply to have a canceled sailing is rather ridiculous. (And, I had gone to Vancouver for the first set of canceled sailings at fairly significant expense).
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Post by Dane on Aug 16, 2023 16:58:49 GMT -8
It looked like the morning sailing went off without a hitch. However, Vesselfinder shows both boats in Nanaimo, meaning no 6:30 sailing from Vancouver? Vesselfinder seems glitchy right now. It isn't sailing.
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Post by Dane on Aug 16, 2023 13:17:43 GMT -8
It looks like the walking distance from where they are docking in Vancouver to Waterfront Station and connections to Skytrain, Canada Line & Seabus is about one km. A one km walk for me is no big deal but for lots of people it would be a challenge. Good thing you will only have carry on luggage to pack around.
It would have been better if they had secured the same spot as that once used by Royal Sealink. While the convenience of transit at the SeaBus terminal is undeniable, the airport is much nicer accommodation for waiting passengers by both literal comfort & amenities. All the float plane services are at the exact same spot, obviously. There is a SkyTrain entrance at Howe/Cordova which is the nearest entrance and much closer to Hullo than SeaBus is.Â
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Post by Dane on Aug 16, 2023 10:10:32 GMT -8
As of 10:19, the good ship Sthuqi is running at 35 knots. I wish them good luck! They've made the advertised run time it looks like; just approaching the terminal as I type this and they had left 68 minutes prior.
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Post by Dane on Aug 15, 2023 8:49:35 GMT -8
From Hullo:
Due to the power outages experienced late Sunday night that caused a loss of power to the berth and to the vessels, in addition to the strong wind conditions, our crew has made the decision to cancel all sailings for the remainder of the day. All sailings scheduled for Tuesday, August 15th are also suspended with a plan to resume sailings on Wednesday, August 16th with a revised temporary launch schedule in place until August 30th. This schedule includes sailings departing Nanaimo daily at 10:00am, and 4:30pm, and departing Vancouver 12:00pm and 6:30pm. Guests currently scheduled on the first and last sailings will be contacted by customer service to facilitate rescheduling and travel support.
Something is up - I am so curious what is going on here. First two days scrubbed, and then the service is cut in half and only bookable through to September 30th.
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Post by Dane on Aug 14, 2023 9:49:06 GMT -8
I can understand the first round trip being canceled, there was a power outage that would have affected the terminal. Additionally, the Strait yesterday was surprisingly bumpy. Notwithstanding that, it didn't seem like anything particularly outlandish and even more so when compared to what they will deal with in the fall.
I had the first Vancouver departing round trip booked, which obviously was canceled which is very disappointing.
The emails were relatively prompt, so no real fault there. The website was slow to update and a bit inaccurate at times, but again I will give them some room for first day struggles. In my opinion they need better messaging on social media though, to make it clear what is going on with cancellations as the noon sailing showed as a go for 3 hours when it was abundantly clear it wouldn't be.
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Post by Dane on Aug 7, 2023 18:49:19 GMT -8
The Spirits construction was heavily subsidized by the "Spirit BC" labour/education program which started in 91 from the first NDP budget. Spirit of British Columbia is a politically 'influenced' name, and appears as early as '92 in BC Ferries materials. I'm confident there was never an intent to be "Queen of British Columbia". I thought the BC Spirit campaign was a Social Credit initiative. The NDP wouldn't have had a budget in 1991 because 1) they came to power after a mid October election, so they would have barely had four and a bit months left in the fiscal year to actually table one, and 2) I'm pretty sure the first sitting of the legislature didn't happen until 1992 when they would have tabled that first budget. I'm trying to find the 1992 budget to see what was said in those documents. I did find the 1994 budget (Elizabeth Cull was minister at that point), which was more referring to the BC21 infrastructure program (of which I think the fast cats were part, but announced a little later that year). The 1991 budget was Spirit BC so I have the NDP part wrong, then. The early 1992 sitting would make sense. The program must have been a carry-over (or just not cancelled yet? Insert appropriate end here). Im trying to remember when the Spirit order started, 1990? 89? (Dane in the future here after looking at my old notes, it was September 9,1990. And the project was referred to as the BC Spirit Ferry. Totally Social Credit. April 1992 is the earliest reference I can find to the actual ship name, but that doesn't in itself mean anything) Edit to add - I forgot all about the BC21 time. I was actually reasonable aware of the world by that point and that logo was all over the place!
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Post by Dane on Aug 7, 2023 12:46:36 GMT -8
The Spirits construction was heavily subsidized by the "Spirit BC" labour/education program which started in 91 from the first NDP budget. Spirit of British Columbia is a politically 'influenced' name, and appears as early as '92 in BC Ferries materials. I'm confident there was never an intent to be "Queen of British Columbia".
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Post by Dane on Jul 29, 2023 15:21:17 GMT -8
The Coquitlam seems to have been the #1 vessel on Route 3 for a couple days. Anyone know why?
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Post by Dane on Jul 24, 2023 7:01:31 GMT -8
Starbucks and to a lesser degree Sea West closed these days is pretty rare - although my usual frequent observations come to an abrupt end in mid-June as I've been flying lately to avoid the mayhem that is BC Ferries.
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Post by Dane on Jul 21, 2023 6:45:31 GMT -8
That six sailing wait posted about last night has continued into today. I appreciate with the high reservation load on the ferries these days six sailings actually represents a fairly small number of cars, but that's still a pretty dramatic wait. The loss of four sailings per direction per day with the Celebration out is certainly felt.
I was just playing momentarily on the reservations page, and if you bought a reservation right now, for today, you'd get to Vancouver faster via Route 5/9!
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Post by Dane on Jul 9, 2023 12:49:07 GMT -8
I just booked my first Clipper trip. Curious to try it out - was very convenient for my itinerary. Kenmore Air, the alternative I was seriously looking at with their sea place service, was just way to expensive. Conventional flights were very limited and also quite expensive.
I get a 15% discount on the Clipper. Even with that, in the worst seats, I'm in for $250 Canadian and am pretty sure I'll get dinged for a baggage fee when I travel.
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Post by Dane on Jun 26, 2023 22:44:02 GMT -8
They're already named, here is the names above ^^^
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Post by Dane on Jun 11, 2023 13:12:18 GMT -8
Now if only we can get Rouge to go away! I appreciate its existence for low cost travelers, however, as a Victoria-resident I hate that our only jet flights on AC are Rouge.
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Post by Dane on Jun 9, 2023 18:36:40 GMT -8
Wow that's inefficient! But appreciate the operational knowledge. I continue to believe the widespread use of the reservation system will mitigate some of the problems created by service minimization between Nanaimo and Vancouver, but I still think it's going to be a unpleasant peak season.
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Post by Dane on Jun 8, 2023 6:11:07 GMT -8
Pricing is lower than I expected at a three class service, $40, $50 and $60. The first two classes are downstairs in the main cabin and the other upstairs at the highest fare category.
You save $10 when you book a sailing for the first time. I'll definitely sail in their first few days of operation, however my work schedule allows.
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Post by Dane on Jun 6, 2023 13:24:37 GMT -8
"We can't do the buffet but we can do something similar with a higher margin."
Okay.
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Post by Dane on May 30, 2023 17:31:45 GMT -8
Well, it's forced deterent to a degree. There's simply not going to be capacity to get on Route 2. Might be a little messy at the start of the summer.
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Post by Dane on May 15, 2023 19:34:50 GMT -8
Maybe the summer will prove me incorrect, but I think BC Ferries has acclimatized vehicle traffic so well to reservations that the down-the-highway lines won't be what we once knew. Not saying they'll be gone, but the reservation system will likely effectively move some traffic to Tsawwassen.
This is, as has already been pointed out, a reduction in sailings - I find that the most interesting part.
Wonder if we would ever see the #2 Langdale boat to relief to Departure Bay?
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Post by Dane on May 6, 2023 16:18:22 GMT -8
Currently there is a new special burger on the menu, basically just a BC burger with additional bacon, onions, and maybe nothing else? Anyways, it's exceptionally delicious.
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Post by Dane on Apr 21, 2023 18:56:05 GMT -8
Coastal Renaissance is now at Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal for Route 1 I was on the CR today; from a customer experience point of view probably the worst sailing I've ever been on? Almost all the washrooms were closed. The open two, one for each genders, had no paper towel. This also meant Deck 5 had no washrooms available, despite being fully open. Cafeteria opened late, ran out of cutlery, and my first tray was visibly dirty. The turkey bacon on my partner's sandwich was the size of a quarter, it would have been amusing had it not been $10. They forgot to make that sandwich, twice, so I was in the cafeteria loitering for quite some time. Paper plates were used. The Deck 7 stairs got closed, for unknown reasons, why we were still up there, and nothing was said to us. We had to take down stanchions and set them back up. Nothing catastrophic, and the crew we interacted with were wonderful. I'm assuming the ship was running with minimum crew, and likely new crew to many areas (or I'm getting old and everyone seems really young, also possible).
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Post by Dane on Apr 13, 2023 23:55:21 GMT -8
There was an equal amount of ferries at Tsawwassen as there were berths, that morning. If the CCel ran to Tsawwassen there would be one more boat than berths. She could’ve use Duke Point berth if they wanted too due Duke Point vessels sailing during the morning. It was a Sunday morning. Route 30 wasn't running.
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