Seattle rental car drop off

[sailingsusie]

 We are driving down to Seattle to sail on a one way cruise to Australia next year on Carnival Luminosa, from pier 91 ( I believe). We plan on renting a car here in Vancouver BC where we live , and dropping it off at the closest rental return to the port. Does anyone know if the car rental companies will shuttle us to the pier after the drop. We think this will be the easiest way. 
If we drop at SeaTac, do you think they would shuttle us to the pier? Thanks for any help you may give 

[princeton123211]

21 minutes ago, sailingsusie said:

Does anyone know if the car rental companies will shuttle us to the pier after the drop. We think this will be the easiest way.

I'm speaking generally here because I don't know who you are potentially renting from but the major car rental offices downtown are mostly franchised and located in hotels/parking garages. They do not offer shuttles and often have limited hours that are geared mainly towards business travel during the week. 

 

Having often rented cars in the past between Vancouver and Seattle I think you will find that the most economical options will have you dropping off at SeaTac (which is an owned/operated site by most major rental car companies). 

 

23 minutes ago, sailingsusie said:

If we drop at SeaTac, do you think they would shuttle us to the pier? Thanks for any help you may give 

They do not offer a shuttle downtown or to the pier. You would need to Uber. The car rental center at SeaTac though is quite easy to navigate and is very easy to use-- you are just a bit of a distance from downtown. Like I said above though-- the savings might be worth it. 

[Meander Ingwa]

Totally agree with Princeton.  Return your car to the corporate linked agency at Sea Tac.  From there you can Uber/Lyft or take the Light Rail.  The small agencies often have very limited space open hours and accommodations. 

 

HOWEVER

 

Double check with your rental agency about the cost of taking your car international and one way.  The fees may be such you may wish to consider taking Amtrak train to Seattle or Quick Shuttle bus 

[princeton123211]

16 hours ago, Meander Ingwa said:

Double check with your rental agency about the cost of taking your car international and one way.  The fees may be such you may wish to consider taking Amtrak train to Seattle or Quick Shuttle bus 

This I agree with-- I would take the train a million times before I would deal with the fees and hassle of a one way international rental. I only did it because work at the time was paying for it-- the one way drop fees and international fees they hit you with can be exorbitant. 

[Gardyloo]

The rental car offices in downtown Seattle have pretty normal hours; it shouldn't be hard to do some comparison shopping to see where the cheapest place is, counting base rates, one way drop fees, etc.  A taxi or Uber from Seatac airport to Pier 91 will run around $50, more like $15 - $20 from downtown, so add that to the total.  

 

I have to wonder, however, if taking the train (twice daily, morning and evening) might not be a better choice.  One-way fares between Vancouver and Seattle run around US$40, and the (daylight) ride is pretty scenic.  Home Page | Amtrak Cascades

[princeton123211]

3 hours ago, Gardyloo said:

The rental car offices in downtown Seattle have pretty normal hours; it shouldn't be hard to do some comparison shopping to see where the cheapest place is, counting base rates, one way drop fees, etc.

They don't though. Just looking at Avis-- most close between 2pm and 3pm daily. One is only open on Sunday from 8am-noon. SeaTac is 24/7. The franchised downtown locations of the major rental car companies can be a craps shoot and on international one ways can cost significantly more when using them vs a corporate owned location.  

 

Also rental companies will show "sold out" to these franchised locations on an international rental but show availability to their corporate owned location at SeaTac. I used to do this all the time. 

 

3 hours ago, Gardyloo said:

I have to wonder, however, if taking the train (twice daily, morning and evening) might not be a better choice.  One-way fares between Vancouver and Seattle run around US$40, and the (daylight) ride is pretty scenic.  Home Page | Amtrak Cascades

This I agree with. 

[Meander Ingwa]

I love a train ride, for southbound, sit on right.  However the bus service I mentioned will deliver you directly to Pier 66 or 91.

[LeeW]

We often rent cars northbound for Vancouver cruises but don't rent for southbound - dropoff charge can be $200 or more.  Last time we took the quickcoach shuttle bus that picks up from Canada Place and various hotels and drops off at a Washington casino, in downtown Seattle and the airport.  Took around 5 hours and the border crossing was somewhat of a pain.  But the $40pp was much cheaper than rental car dropoff and we had the time.  You would have to stay at a hotel in Seattle to make this work.  Seattle Shuttle Express does pickups from both SeaTac and downtown hotels and shared shuttle probably cheaper than Uber.