Traveling to Storybrooke- The Struggle Was Real

Sometimes you plan a trip and everything goes perfectly. Sometimes you think you have perfectly planned a trip and hell welcomes you and your hand basket with open arms. And then there are trips that fall somewhere in the middle. Everything works out, but you may return home with a few more grey hairs.

This is one of those stories…

If you are a fan of ABC’s Once Upon a Time, then you have probably thought about traveling to Storybrooke. Though being located in Maine, USA on the show, you will actually find this quaint little town (called Steveston) in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Last year we decided to go for a visit. Neither of us (or our friend Hillary) had ever been to Canada, so we were up for the adventure. There was an OUAT convention in March and we thought that would be a great opportunity to meet some of our favorite characters and see Storybrooke live and in person. So we bought our convention tickets, booked our flights and hotel, mapped out our locations, and set off feeling prepared and ready!

The first mishap occurred before we even left Atlanta. We were on the way to the airport, almost there, when the question of what terminal we were flying out of came up. International! It must be. We were going to Canada! So we took the exit for the international terminal and pulled up with our one checked bag and two carry-ons.

What we did not take into consideration was that we had a layover in Texas on our way to Vancouver. Texas is not international. We had picked the wrong terminal. We talked to two of the very few employees in the terminal (it was very dead in there) and they informed us that we could have gone ahead through security where we were, if not for our one checked bag. We were flying American Airlines, you see. And American Airlines does not have a check-in desk in the international terminal in Atlanta.

So we then had to catch a shuttle to ride back to the domestic terminal, check a suitcase (with which there was a problem and we had to go inside to get it resolved), rush to our gate, and immediately get on our flight that was already loading. Once we were seated, our flight was delayed due to mechanical difficulties (something you always want to hear). We were late getting to Texas and had to board our next flight immediately, barely having time to grab a sandwich to carry onto the plane for lunch.

Finally, we could relax. We hadn’t missed any flights, despite all of the craziness, and it was smooth sailing into Vancouver. All was well…

Except, as it turns out, it wasn’t.

Taking a closer look at our convention tickets that night, we realized that our daily passes and our Lana Parilla photo op tickets were for a completely different OUAT convention.  This has NEVER happened to us before and we’ve been to quite a lot of conventions. How? HOW?

So we arrived at the convention the next day prepared to bargain with the gate keepers to switch our tickets. Luckily, they were nice and let us switch the entry tickets out no problem. Then, we discovered that the Lana photo op had sold out! Because of course it had. It took a bit more maneuvering but they were able to swap the tickets out for us. So, once again, everything seemed to work out in the end.

Then came time to venture to Storybrooke itself.

One very important thing to note… Steveston is not very close to downtown Vancouver and, despite what we were originally led to believe, cannot be accessed by SkyTrain only.

Because the universe did not want this trip to run smoothly, the directions we had were wrong. It appeared as if we could take the SkyTrain to the furthest stop (Richmond/Brighouse) and walk a few blocks to our destination. But alas, that was not the case. You can take the SkyTrain to that stop, but then you must board a bus to take you the rest of the way to Steveston.

We got off of the SkyTrain with no clue where to go and with rain peppering down upon us. (It rains a lot in Vancouver, just FYI.) And no one was working in the station. I mean no one. Not sure if SkyTrain stations are normally void of employees, but both stations we visited were. This also turned out to be quite unfortunate when we bought zone tickets thinking it would save money. Zone tickets, we later discovered, expire in an hour and a half. So we ended up having to buy another ticket, which cost us more money than a day pass would have. We would recommend you buy a day pass if you’re taking the SkyTain anywhere and back.

It took us a good long while to Google directions and then figure out which bus to take. If you are planning a trip, you can find out more info and get directions here. Make sure you know which bus to look for and look up the bus schedules the night before you head out.

Once we finally got to Steveston, we had to meander a bit to find the buildings. They were not filming at the time so there were no signs up to indicate which store was which. We finally recognized the library/clock tower (there really is no clock) and were able to orient ourselves. A trip to the visitors center was super helpful because they had maps showing what each building was. Though most of the building signs were not up, there were a few odes to OUAT around the town.

All in all, despite the setbacks, we had a pretty great trip to Canada. We got to meet some of our favorite Once characters and explore the real life Storybrooke. It is always really neat to see where your favorite shows and movies are filmed. If you love Once Upon a Time, you should definitely check out Steveston if you have the chance. Hopefully your trip will run a bit smoother than ours did!