Color me confused, but I need some help with Seattle!

[Curly-Q]

Hi folks,

 

Booked on NCL Alaska cruise for July. Will fly into Seattle two days before departure and stay at a hotel, but will fly out of SeaTac when cruise arrives back to port. I'm having a problem determining transportation and, yes, I saw the FAQ thread, and have tried searching, but really.....229 pages.....seriously! (Suggest the thread be broken down into more individual threads, just way too much info there!) I couldn't find the info I'm looking for so I need your help!

 

I haven't made my hotel reservation yet, since transportation is a major component for my choice. I know NCL will be at Pier 66. I am searching for:

 

1) Transportation from SeaTac to hotel;

2) Transport to Pier 66 from hotel;

3) Transportation back to SeaTac upon cruise disembarkation/Pier 66.

 

Searching Pier 66 transportation indicates shuttle pick-up service from Pier 91 -- are they close to each other? I will need to get to airport as soon as possible to catch my scheduled flight. I've searched ground transportation, i.e. Shuttle Express and Greyline, but their websites are not really that informative. I will choose my hotel based on ease of transportation. A couple of hotesl used to offer pier shuttle service, but I have not been able to find any that continue this service and I am not planning to rent a car.

 

I'm not looking for the least expensive, I AM looking for dependable, easy, on-time, and fast. Thanks for your help!!!!

[melody-s]

Pier 66 and Pier 91 are about 3 miles from each other. Pier 66 is in the downtown area and Pier 91 is north of that. A good way to get to downtown from seatac airport is to use the lite rail. The lite rail system is brand new and very convenient. You can find more information at http://soundtransit.org

 

I think it would be a short hop in a taxi from the pier to the downtown transit tunnel to catch the lite rail to seatac.

 

FYI - Downtown is walkable (if you are OK with hills) and there is a monorail from downtown to the Space Needle.

[Gardyloo]

I'm not looking for the least expensive, I AM looking for dependable, easy, on-time, and fast. Thanks for your help!!!!

In which case, book into either the Marriott Waterfront or the Edgewater hotel, and plan on taking a taxi to the hotel on arrival and from the pier on departure. The Marriott is literally across the street from the T66 and the Edgewater is on the same side of the street, a block or so north. If you can roll your luggage from the carousel to the taxi stand at the airport, you can roll it from either hotel to the cruise terminal.

 

The taxi will be around $35 plus tip from the airport, and a flat rate of $32 plus tip from the dock. The Marriott/Edgewater/pier are around 25 min. from the airport depending on traffic.

[Dan G]

totally agree that the thread is 'unworkable'. Tripadvisor is a sister site to Cruise Critic. Suggest you look at Tripadvisor.com seattle forum and you will see all your questions answered on top right FAQ's. I only wish cruise critic would do the same.

[Jen1000]

A couple of ideas. You can take the light rail from Seatac to down town Seattle. The Double Tree and Fairmont are close to stops. You can take a cab or shuttle from the hotel to the pier. I found cabs are reasonable in DT Seattle because it is not that large an area. Staying at the Marriott is good as well because it is close to the pier. You can take light rail to DT and then a cab (my brother did that).

 

I stayed at the Quality Inn and Suites on John. They have a shuttle from the airport (paid) to the hotel and then a shuttle to the port (paid). They were very good about calling us a cab when needed as well. We also went to a baseball game and they had a paid shuttle to and from the game. It was very walkable to the Space Needle/monorail so sightseeing was easy from that location.

 

If you stay at a hotel by the airport, Seattle Express has scheduled service for $12 to the pier. If you stay by the airport they have free shuttles from the airport to the hotel. You can use the free shuttle to take you to and from the airport and use the light rail to get to DT Seattle for very cheap.

 

Have you looked at what NCL offers for transfers on return? Several in my party used Carnival transfers (some did transfer with tour) and it worked well.

 

Jen in SoCal

 

Hi folks,

 

Booked on NCL Alaska cruise for July. Will fly into Seattle two days before departure and stay at a hotel, but will fly out of SeaTac when cruise arrives back to port. I'm having a problem determining transportation and, yes, I saw the FAQ thread, and have tried searching, but really.....229 pages.....seriously! (Suggest the thread be broken down into more individual threads, just way too much info there!) I couldn't find the info I'm looking for so I need your help!

 

I haven't made my hotel reservation yet, since transportation is a major component for my choice. I know NCL will be at Pier 66. I am searching for:

 

1) Transportation from SeaTac to hotel;

2) Transport to Pier 66 from hotel;

3) Transportation back to SeaTac upon cruise disembarkation/Pier 66.

 

Searching Pier 66 transportation indicates shuttle pick-up service from Pier 91 -- are they close to each other? I will need to get to airport as soon as possible to catch my scheduled flight. I've searched ground transportation, i.e. Shuttle Express and Greyline, but their websites are not really that informative. I will choose my hotel based on ease of transportation. A couple of hotesl used to offer pier shuttle service, but I have not been able to find any that continue this service and I am not planning to rent a car.

 

I'm not looking for the least expensive, I AM looking for dependable, easy, on-time, and fast. Thanks for your help!!!!

[more cruises]

If you want to get to the airport quickly after the cruise don't use Shuttle Express. I walked by the pier quite a while after disembarkation and saw many people waiting for Shuttle Express to show up.

 

Cabs are the quickest and easiest but I'm cheap and would probably hike the few blocks to get to the light rail.

 

I think the light rail is a great way to get downtown but it is a long walk through the airport parking garage to get to it. Get a cart unless all your luggage has wheels. There will be a place to drop it off at the light rail station.

 

Most all the hotels in downtown Seattle are just a short cab ride away from the pier - try Priceline for a good deal.

 

Pier 91 is not in downtown so you don't want any shuttles going there - 2 completely different places.

[Cruisin' Chick]

You may also want to note that SeaTac isn't in Seattle but way south of there.

[JJ2sail]

We've used A Plus Town car, from Airport to hotel and Pier 66 back to airport.

We took a cab from downtown hotel to pier. Worked out great, no problems, fast, reasonably priced, and comfortable.

 

:)

[jean95404]

Cab ride from SeaTac is about $40 for two people (at least that's what it cost us last April). It's far south of Seattle. Upon arriving back at Seattle we decided to take the pier shuttle back to the airport and the cost was about the same. If I had a choice I would take a cab back to the airport. The bus dropped everyone off at one place and we felt by the time we had arrived at our ticket counter that we had walked (and dragged our luggage) halfway back to California! SeaTac is big! Cab fare from our hotel in Queen Anne District to the port cost $10.00. Seattle had a very good transit system and, we thought, cheap.