Seattle port to Airport

We are booked on the Celebrity Solstice, due to arrive back in Seattle at 7 am, next June 19th, A Friday.. How early do you think I could safely book flights to LAX? I guess I really mean how long will it roughly take to disembark, go through customs etc and then allow 2 hours pre flight airport time? Does Celebrity offer a shuttle service? their website keeps crashing on me and I am getting so frustrated. TIA.

From just down the board:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2090727

I don't know if Celebrity has a shuttle (I imagine they do), but a shuttle has restrictions. They will not allow you to book their shuttle if your flight is before a certain time, probably noon in Seattle. You have to wait for the bus to fill up before it departs.

As commonly recommended, if you want an early flight, arrange your own transport. It will be cheaper in most cases than the cruise line shuttle.

it's a 30 minute drive from either pier to Seatac, but I advise an hour due to road construction, city events, and the usual congestion around Seattle.

Plus 2 hrs for domestic flights, so you need 3 hrs altogether.

I guess the sticking points are .... can you guarantee the ship will arrive by 7am? or that you can disembark by 8am?

There is a taxi line at both piers. For 2 people it's $40 from Pier 66 and closer to $50 from Pier 91. If you choose to cut it close, definitely have a cab or car service lined up.

I would find out what Celebrity's disembarkation process is like.

We were on a HAL cruise last month and we did self-disembarkation. That meant we brought everything off the boat ourselves, but we were the first group off. We were off the ship before 7:30. We arranged private transportation from the pier with Seattle Express, which was $12 a person. We had them bring us to our hotel in Seatac, but there were people in our shuttle that were dropped off at the airport as well. We got to the airport a little bit after 8. The traffic was already starting to build up at the airport at that hour, and our shuttle driver said it would be swamped and crawling in just a while from then.

It's doable if you can be off the boat almost immediately, but you'll need to investigate that a little more before you make any decisions.

Avoid flights earlier than 1230 or 1300.

Instead of taking the shuttle, pre-book a cab with East Side for Hire http://www.eastsideforhire.com/ for around 0930. You can call them and adjust the time if you find you will be off the ship earlier or later, and they will call you when at the port to tell you where to meet the cab and the cab's number (be sure you have a cell phone). You will have a set rate already when you book with them.

You really need to be at SEA/TAC no later than 2 hours prior to your flight. Lines for TSA can be very slow on Fridays & Saturdays in the summer because of the number of cruise ships disembarking. Although you can get into any of the TSA lines for the terminal, we have found all of them to have long waits on these days.