CupKayke, thank you for such a detailed review and great pics. We were on this same cruise. I had a lot of the same reactions and thoughts as you.
SLOTheta, like you, we filled out the Luggage Direct info on the HAL site, got confirmations and so on and planned on using Port Valet (which is the same thing as Luggage Direct). No one on the ship told us it was not being offered. Late in the cruise, I called the Neptune Lounge concierge to ask if I needed to do anything else about it and he let me know it was not an option on this cruise. Just glad I found out before disembarkation; we got off 15 minutes earlier than planned to allow us to pick up and deal with our bags and those of my 89-year old walker-using parents. HAL really should disable that Luggage Direct function for the Seattle cruises if Port Valet is not being used.
And wow, was SeaTac ever a horror show on June 26. I have NEVER seen it anywhere near this crazy. We had noon flights so had hired a limo to pick up up by 8:30 a.m., thinking that would be ample time. Luckily, we breezed through disembarkation and were out earlier than that, and the driver was able to pick up up before 8:30 a.m. We ended up needing that extra time. When we walked into SeaTac, I literally gasped out loud at the crazy sight before me. People everywhere, no real rhyme or reason as to the crowds or real lines, just a massive mess (this was in the Alaska Air terminal). Hordes and hordes of confused people (us included). My husband and I got in the enormous First Class check in line (which wrapped all the way back to the security lines) to try that for mode of bag drop off, and my sister took her bags and those of my parents to the kiosks and bag drop off complete mess. I assumed we would be through before her so we could start taking my parents through security, but no. My sister got rid of their bags first and because the three of them did not have TSA PreCheck, she managed to get my elderly parents and their walkers and all their stuff through the regular security lines while my husband and I were still stuck in the First Class check in line (albeit getting closer to the front). And even though we had TSA PreCheck and CLEAR, we had to schlep quite a ways away to use both (neither of the nearest security lines had both, and the TSA PreCheck lines were not that short) and my sister and walker-using parents still beat us to the gate. We ended up making our flights easily (my sister made her 11:40 a.m. flight as well) but I was a bit panicked for a while, while we waited endlessly to dump our bags.
So the moral for Alaska cruisers flying out of SeaTac, be ready for a bit of an ordeal and allow a lot of time. And if you can grab a bag cart (I miraculously nabbed a free ranging one left by someone), think about using it. That made our endless wait in line to drop our bags a lot easier; something to lean on and plonk our backpacks on. I hope this June 26 was an aberration but maybe not (we flew almost exactly a year earlier out of SeaTac and while not as bad as this year, it was PLENTY crowded and busy).