Princess Embarkation Pier 91 Seattle

It appears that we will be arriving at Pier 91 a bit early for our upcoming Alaska trip on the Ruby in early September, possibly as early as 10AM. For those who have been through Pier 91 recently, were there any issues? I understand that we may not be able to hand off the bags to the porters until somewhat later, possibly as late as 11AM per a recent thread here? As Platinums, we like to arrive early, start embarkation as soon as possible, usually around 10:30, and sit in the waiting room until boarding, somewhere between 11:30 and noon. Will there be somewhere to sit until we head through security, or will be standing outside in line as in Port Everglades? At least in Port Everglades the pre-embarkation waiting line is covered.

Thanks in advance..

Good morning,

We arrive just about 10:00 AM when we cruise out of Pier 91 and that is not a problem. We park at the Armory Lot and they shuttle us over. On July 3rd, by 10:30 we were checked in and waiting for our HAL cruise. By 10:15 the porter had our luggage and my husband was being wheelchaired in. Sometimes you have to wait until closer to 10:30 for the doors to open but this time they were open and we breezed right in. Once checked in there are plenty of places to sit and it is quite comfortable. HAL and Princess share the same building and the check-in areas are back-to-back. Enjoy your cruise!

Karen

It appears that we will be arriving at Pier 91 a bit early for our upcoming Alaska trip on the Ruby in early September, possibly as early as 10AM. For those who have been through Pier 91 recently, were there any issues? I understand that we may not be able to hand off the bags to the porters until somewhat later, possibly as late as 11AM per a recent thread here? As Platinums, we like to arrive early, start embarkation as soon as possible, usually around 10:30, and sit in the waiting room until boarding, somewhere between 11:30 and noon. Will there be somewhere to sit until we head through security, or will be standing outside in line as in Port Everglades? At least in Port Everglades the pre-embarkation waiting line is covered.

 

Thanks in advance..

Usually porters start taking luggage around 9:30.

IMO it would be very rare to take luggage at 11:00am and would indicate maybe a disembarkation problem etc with the ending cruise or some other issue.

Since the cruise usually leaves at 4:00pm they have to take luggage asap to make sure the process is finished by sailing.

There will be porters wearing two different color vests. One color is for Holland America and the other one will be for Princess. Are you driving? If so, go to the parking lot, and take their transportation to the pier. If you drive to the pier, you will be stuck in traffic as there will be people picking up and dropping off. Commercial vehicles have their own lane and move quicker that privately owned vehicles.

It appears that we will be arriving at Pier 91 a bit early for our upcoming Alaska trip on the Ruby in early September, possibly as early as 10AM. For those who have been through Pier 91 recently, were there any issues? I understand that we may not be able to hand off the bags to the porters until somewhat later, possibly as late as 11AM per a recent thread here? As Platinums, we like to arrive early, start embarkation as soon as possible, usually around 10:30, and sit in the waiting room until boarding, somewhere between 11:30 and noon. Will there be somewhere to sit until we head through security, or will be standing outside in line as in Port Everglades? At least in Port Everglades the pre-embarkation waiting line is covered.

 

Thanks in advance..

We’ve cruised out of Pier 91 many times. You’ll be getting to the Pier at a good time, it’ll be a breeze to get processed to get on your cruise. Princess will be on the left side of the terminal, drop off your baggage downstairs with the longshoreman running the scanner, fill out your health form, go up the escalator, go through security, they’ll want to see your passport/boarding pass, and get in the Elite/Platinum check in line and within a few minutes you’ll be checked in. They have a small lounge area that you can sit in. They had refreshments there, coffee, juice, water and a few rolls etc. In June we were on the ship by 11:30 and had a wonderful lunch in the MDR.

It appears that we will be arriving at Pier 91 a bit early for our upcoming Alaska trip on the Ruby in early September, possibly as early as 10AM. For those who have been through Pier 91 recently, were there any issues? I understand that we may not be able to hand off the bags to the porters until somewhat later, possibly as late as 11AM per a recent thread here? As Platinums, we like to arrive early, start embarkation as soon as possible, usually around 10:30, and sit in the waiting room until boarding, somewhere between 11:30 and noon. Will there be somewhere to sit until we head through security, or will be standing outside in line as in Port Everglades? At least in Port Everglades the pre-embarkation waiting line is covered.

 

Thanks in advance..

There will be people there. I love Pier 91! It's a great spot to depart from

It appears that we will be arriving at Pier 91 a bit early for our upcoming Alaska trip on the Ruby in early September, possibly as early as 10AM. For those who have been through Pier 91 recently, were there any issues? I understand that we may not be able to hand off the bags to the porters until somewhat later, possibly as late as 11AM per a recent thread here? As Platinums, we like to arrive early, start embarkation as soon as possible, usually around 10:30, and sit in the waiting room until boarding, somewhere between 11:30 and noon. Will there be somewhere to sit until we head through security, or will be standing outside in line as in Port Everglades? At least in Port Everglades the pre-embarkation waiting line is covered.

 

Thanks in advance..

If you arrive at Pier 91 at 10am you are going to be stuck outside of the terminal building for probably at least 1/2 hour as the ships will probably not have gone to zero-count yet and until that happens, you will not be allowed inside.That is the case whether you have given your bags to a porter or not. Usually the embarking passengers are not allowed into the building until about 10:30 although it can happen earlier. This year, however, the Princess ships have been pretty slow in beginning their disembarkations. If you will be looking for a porter to take your bags, as someone mentioned in an earlier message, the porters will have 2 different colored vests on. The Holland-America porters will have on orange vests and the Princess porters will have on light fluorescent green vests so you will be looking for those in the green ones.

When you enter the hall, you will first drop off your luggage in the luggage hall and then come back out of the luggage hall and stop to fill out your health form. (If a porter took your bags, you'll go directly to the health form area.) After you fill out the health form you will get in line to have your travel docs checked after which you will go up the escalator and go through security and then check-in. (If there is a line for the travel document check and you have a pen/pencil with you, I would suggest you just grab a form for each adult and get in the line and fill out the form as you move along the line as that will save a bit of time. Don't do that if the line is short as it will just delay you and others.) Boarding itself is scheduled to begin at 12 noon, although that is usually moved up and begins about 11:30.

There is a large seating area after check-in but it does fill up and many end up standing before the boarding process gets started. The pier is a relatively small one and there are usually about 5500-5600 passengers getting on the two ships every day so space is at a premium.

The first check-in "lines" don't usually start appearing until about 12:30 or 1 and even then they don't usually get very long as there are between 30 and 40 people checking passenger in on the Princess side of the pier.

Tom

What is the best time to arrive if you are not elite/ platinum or any special status?

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

cancelled

I can't say what is the best time but on July 8th, we arrived at Pier 91 at 12:40 PM and were in our stateroom at 1:10 PM. It was our first Princess Cruise and we have no status with them. We enjoyed a wonderful morning and outing Seattle and had plenty of time to explore the ship prior to sailing as well as eat lunch

We sailed out of Pier 91 in May. We parked in the parking lot and took the shuttle to the pier. Much to our amazement the shuttle driver said "if you have tags on your bags, I can take care of them for you". It was wonderful. Getting through check-in took a bit of time, but there were plenty of places to sit once that hurdle was complete. They started embarkation around 11:30. Our bags were in our room shortly after we got to our room.

What is the best time to arrive if you are not elite/ platinum or any special status?

 

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

We arrive around 10:30 regardless.........

The earlier you get there the better chance you have of getting in one of the first boarding groups.

I look at as the sooner you are onboard the sooner the vacation starts! :hearteyes:

10:30 - 10:45 is about the right time. I like to get there early, beat the big rush, get on the ship and head to the MDR for a nice peaceful lunch, they close the door to the MDR around 1:15 for lunch, they say 1:30. We try to stay away from the buffet as much as possible, to crowded.

I can't say what is the best time but on July 8th, we arrived at Pier 91 at 12:40 PM and were in our stateroom at 1:10 PM. It was our first Princess Cruise and we have no status with them. We enjoyed a wonderful morning and outing Seattle and had plenty of time to explore the ship prior to sailing as well as eat lunch

Sent from my Lenovo TB-X103F using Tapatalk

We were on the Ruby in mid June. There were no porters outside the terminal as there had been in the past. We had to drag our bags way inside the terminal to drop them off. :( Maybe they've changed back to having porters outside???

We arrived at the terminal about 10:30 and waited quite a while to get on the ship. There was not enough room for everyone to have a seat while waiting...

Loved the free valet service at the end of the cruise! :)