Greyhound and Me

In the past I've shied away from personal experiences because I'm in the middle of a work crisis and don't want the blog to be too whiney. But I just had an experience with Greyhound that I figured if I post about, it can save other people some time and grief.

Greyhound currently offers advance purchases for tickets even for routes that didn't used to have them. Last night I needed to make a purchase or miss the cut-off for the 14-day cut-off. Unfortunately, I failed to read in advance for a Will Call ticket and didn't realize that meant the buyer will pick up the ticket in person (neither "will" nor "call" screamed out "pick up in person" to me. So I went with the Mail option and missed the fact that that costs $7.

That said, soon after I bought the ticket I realized my mistake, so I found a form on the Greyhound site and filled it in, since you can't reply to the itinerary e-mail.

I hadn't heard back so I tried two general Greyhound Canada numbers, both of which had the same options, none of which involved dealing with ticket matters. i tried calling the local downtown office but only got an answering machine.

Since the ticket was to be mailed to me, I tried calling the courier office. They gave me an extension to try for one of the numbers I previously tried.

That extension insisted the itinerary number didn't exist and told me I'd have to contact Gryhound through the wesbite. When I told him i hadn't found any such contact info (I had pretty much written off the online form route I had tried the night before at this point), he gave me a 1-800 number.

After being put on hold for a few minutes, I got someone who told me that this wasn't the customer service number. They gave me a new number to try but tried putting me through first. Thankfully, since the new number wasn't a 1-800 nor 1-888 number, the call went through. After being put on hold a few minutes, they did manage to locate my itinerary number, but confirmed my fears that the ticket had been mailing. My online form attempt the night before hadn't been checked before the mailing.

So to save everyone a bit of hassle, here are some tips for dealing with Greyhound. 1> No matter how sleepy you are, make sure you have all the pricing info handy before ordering. 2> The name notwithstanding, "Will Call' is probably the option you want if you don't want to nullify most of the savings offered by advance purchase. 3>Avoid purchasing after hours where possible in case you do need to speak to a series of people. And finally, if you do get in a jam, 4> The customer service number for Greyhound is 214-849-8966. Your best best is to let the computer go through the options a couple times, let yourself get put on hold, then wait for a human. Pressing any buttons will just give you more buttons to press. Note that I ordered the ticket through Greyhound.ca but 214 is a Texas area code, so this number should work for both Greyhound Canada and Greyhound US. If your local Greyhound office is pretty reliable you might want to try them first to avoid being put on hold, but then try that number.

Cheapest Way to Get from Victoria BC to Seattle WA

UPDATED January 10, 2021. This trick should work again once the border reopens.

The reverse is obviously true for any Seattle-ites reading this. I'm not including times because it's possible to vary this, and because times are variable. 

1. Go to the Inner Harbour of Victoria and take either the Coho (Black Ball Transport) to Port Angeles. For best results in terms of time, take the 6:10 am Coho ferry during the summer when ferry service is at its peak. 

2. From Gateway Transit Center in Port Angeles, now just across from the Victoria Express, take the 30 Commuter bus to Sequim (Clallam Transit). You'll most likely have time to explore Sequim before the next bus 

3. At Sequim Transit Center, take the 8 Sequim bus to Haines Park & Ride in Port Townsend. Buy a daypass when you enter the bus (Jefferson Transit) 

4. Depending on schedule adjustments a small amount of time if you want to rush into town, but if so I recommend taking the 11 Downtown Shuttle (still Jefferson Transit, so your daypass is good) one or both ways, dashing the other on foot. Usually this will be easier on the way into town than the reverse, but I recommend grabbing a bus schedule on the bus to determine how best to do so or if indeed there's enough time to do so. If the timing seems extra tight, instead of getting off at Haines Park & Ride, get off at Four corners Park & Ride and wait for the bus below to arrive there from Port Townsend. In the reverse direction, you'll have to get off at Four Corners more often than not rather than seeing Port Townsend.

5. Back at Haines Park & Ride, use that daypass to take the #7 Poulso/Port Ludlow/Tri Area bus (Jefferson Transit once again) to North Viking Transit Center. There's a gas station nearby if you want to grab some food, but there isn't much to see here so you're probably best off just waiting for the next bus unless you have a long wait.

6. Take the 90 Poulsbo/Bainbridge bus to Bainbridge ferry terminal (Kitsap Transit). You probably won't have time to visit Winslow (Bainbridge downtown) unless you opt to take a later ferry, which is certainly do-able as they run pretty frequently. 

2-6b.  For only a little more, if you don't mind spending a bit more time in Port Angeles, 123 The Strait Shot (Clallam Transit) goes directly from Gateway Transit Center in Port Angeles to Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal.

7. Take the Bainbridge ferry to Seattle. You'll only have to pay Seattle to Bainbridge, not the reverse. Yes, this is a longer route, but it's cheaper than the Clipper or going to Vancouver and taking a coach/train from there. And some of the stops along the way are worth a visit.