Post Cruise Seattle Excusrsion

We will be on the Ruby in June and have flights out of Sea-Tac at 3:10.

Princess has a post-cruise excursion (SEA-100) that shows it is 8:30 - 12:30 and drops you at the airport. In the fine print, it says it's only available for people with flights from 3:30 or later. I called Princess and they said we couldn't do the excursion since we have a 3:10 flight.

I also found https://showmeseattle.com/tour/post-cruise-city-tours/, but they show you need to have a flight 3:45 or later.

So I am thinking about doing it on our own. It will require a bit of creativity - we are a party of 5, so we'll have a lot of luggage.

Here is what I was thinking - I take an Uber to a rental car place and rent a large passenger van while my family stays at the cruise terminal with the bags. I drive back to the port to get them and the luggage, then we do our tour (probably Pike's, possibly the Space Needle, we'd like to do Chihuly Garden, but it doesn't open until 11 which wouldn't give us much time). When we are done, we drop the van off at the airport.

My questions are:

• Is this plan crazy? Would it give us enough time?
  
• How does Princess assign disembarcation times? Any way to 'improve' our odds to get an earlier time?
  
• Could we choose the "Walk off" disembarcation? Or is that limited to those with 'carry on' luggage only?
  
• Can you think of a better way we could accomplish this?
  

Thanks!

That sounds like a lot of running around to pick up a car, return it, park it, etc. With 5 of you it maybe makes sense to contact a private driver with a car and see what you can see and get to the airport on time. And the luggage is easier then too. Seattle traffic is no joke...I live here.

I'm not sure about disembarking earlier... I've always waited to my assigned time... which sometimes means hours after the first disembarkers. (That's not a word but I like it!)

5 minute walk from cruise terminal to Pike Place, 15 minute walk from Pike Place to a space Needle, $2.50 using Monorail or $5 uber. Then just catch the Link Rail down to the airport. It's about 40 minutes.

5 minute walk from cruise terminal to Pike Place, 15 minute walk from Pike Place to a space Needle, $2.50 using Monorail or $5 uber. Then just catch the Link Rail down to the airport. It's about 40 minutes.

I think you're thinking of the Bell St. Terminal. Princess doesn't use that one. They're out of Smith Cove and it is not a simple 5 minute walk to Pike Place. It's quite a distance away.

OP - I think you'd do much better to hire a driver. You're going to waste a lot of time waiting for the Uber/Lyft to pick you up, get to the car rental place, then fight the traffic to get back to the terminal and load everyone up, only to fight the traffic again getting out of the port. You might check the Ports of Call section for Seattle departures for driver referrals or TripAdvisor.

Last year Princess offered a "luggage valet" service for flights out of SeaTac so if that is in effect this year, that solves your baggage issue. Then you could explore on your own on foot for a few hours. You might need two cabs or Ubers to get to your starting point - the market or SpaceNeedle. You could then take the light rail to the airport. But do be aware, the past couple years we've flown out of Seattle, the security lines were pretty long! so give yourself plenty of time.

I think renting a car and dealing with the traffice would waste alot of time!

I think you're thinking of the Bell St. Terminal. Princess doesn't use that one. They're out of Smith Cove and it is not a simple 5 minute walk to Pike Place. It's quite a distance away.

 

OP - I think you'd do much better to hire a driver. You're going to waste a lot of time waiting for the Uber/Lyft to pick you up, get to the car rental place, then fight the traffic to get back to the terminal and load everyone up, only to fight the traffic again getting out of the port. You might check the Ports of Call section for Seattle departures for driver referrals or TripAdvisor.

Oh I didn't know that, that's good to know! We are considering an Alaska cruise this summer so better to learn this now than wander around the waterfront looking for a giant boat.

I do still recommend Uber though, I've never waited longer than 5 minutes in DT seattle and I exclusively bus/uber.

OP, don't take this as advice, but just an option. The tour provider wants to have a three hour cushion at the airport so that just in case anything happens, they will not be faulted for causing you to miss your plane.

However, if you and your group are willing to accept the risk, you could tell them you have a later flight and take the tour. IF nothing goes wrong, 2.5 hours should be more than sufficient to catch your plane (however Seattle airport is a little notorious for long security lines).

Good luck with your planning!

Thanks, everyone! I think I will look into private driver options.

The luggage transfer to the airport would be great, but we'd still need to deal with carry-ons.

One thing I failed to mention in my OP - When I asked Princess about their excursion, which is listed as 8:30 - 12:30, I said that looked like we'd have plenty of time at the airport. They said, "The tour leaves the port around 10 and would get to the airport around 2:00." Didn't seem to make much sense to me.

We took this tour in May, 2016, because the last stop was the Doubletree Hotel where we were staying post cruise. The tour guide had no concept of time, and we didn’t get to the airport until 3 pm. People were very upset, and some of them had already missed their flights.

Last year Princess offered a "luggage valet" service for flights out of SeaTac so if that is in effect this year, that solves your baggage issue. Then you could explore on your own on foot for a few hours. You might need two cabs or Ubers to get to your starting point - the market or SpaceNeedle. You could then take the light rail to the airport. But do be aware, the past couple years we've flown out of Seattle, the security lines were pretty long! so give yourself plenty of time.

 

I think renting a car and dealing with the traffice would waste alot of time!

I'm 99% sure that the Luggage Valet program will still be in place this season. As long as you're flying one of the participating airlines (Alaska, American, Delta, Jet Blue, United or Southwest), have a T/O time between 11am and 1am, have 3 bags or less apiece, and are not flying internationally on Delta, you should be good to go.

Tom

Thanks, everyone! I think I will look into private driver options.

 

The luggage transfer to the airport would be great, but we'd still need to deal with carry-ons.

 

One thing I failed to mention in my OP - When I asked Princess about their excursion, which is listed as 8:30 - 12:30, I said that looked like we'd have plenty of time at the airport. They said, "The tour leaves the port around 10 and would get to the airport around 2:00." Didn't seem to make much sense to me.

They cushion those times on either end ....so, if you are supposed to get on your excursion at 8:30 AM, it probably starts out from the port around 10 AM at the very latest. Then, the tour is through 12:30 PM and you still need to get to the airport, which is expected to roll in to the terminal around 2 PM. But, getting to the airport around 2:00 PM in Seattle, in my opinion, is not enough time to catch a 3:10 PM flight. You could always try it but I would definitely have a back up plan. If there is one airport I've been to in the last couple of years with long delays, it would be SeaTac.

And the traffic in Seattle can be horrible. I didn't believe it at first when my sister, who lives up there, told me that. I asked her if she had forgotten what traffic in the Bay Area and Los Angeles is like. Well, I experienced it first hand and never questioned her on that again. For a 3:10 PM flight, I would probably try to leave the port area by 12:15 at the latest. Yeah, I a bit obsessed with being early but so much better than cutting it too close.

I read on TripAdvisor that the Edgewater, a hotel down by the downtown pier, will allow you to check your luggage for the day even if you aren't a guest. I see that on TripAdvisor, each bag will cost $5 ..posted about 1 year ago. I would take Uber from the pier to the Edgewater hotel and check your luggage and walk right to Pikes Market from there. It's not a bad walk at all. If you have time, you can even walk to the monorail and go check out the Space Needle as well as other attractions ...although, you could probably use all your time up just down at Pikes. You really won't have so much time that you can schedule a lot of touring. Then, some time shortly after noon, I would go back and grab your luggage and head to the airport.

Just another option that won't leave you dragging your luggage around or leave you without enough time to get through the security lines at SeaTac.

You can be a "walk-off" disembarker (I like the word, let's keep it) and get off the ship in one of the earliest times. When we cruised the Ruby rt Seattle in May, my Mom walked off and was assigned the earliest slot when she asked. You don't have to just have carry-ons, but you do deal with your own luggage. So, don't set your bags out the night before. You take them with you in the morning if you're a walk-off.