Seattle cruise port embark/debark questions

Hi, all. My husband and I are sailing on the Explorer of the Seas in Seattle for the Pacific coastal cruise September 15-22 (Friday-Friday). We're not new to Royal but have never sailed through Seattle before. How early can we arrive/embark? The ship is scheduled to leave at 4 pm. Trying to plan our transportation for the morning. Also, our flight home leaves Friday out of Seattle at 11:15 am. (Ship arrives at 6 am) Planning on doing luggage valet on ship and then carrying off small bags with first group. Will we be able to easily get a cab or would a car service be better? Does anyone have any other suggestions as far as transportation goes? Thank you so much!

I would take a later flight home if you can . What time does RCI recommend for flights to leave at. The cruise port is about an hour from pier. Being a Friday morning your probably closer to two hours to to the airport. Seattle airport security can be a zoo in the morning to get thru security.

Unless you know for a fact they do luggage valet out of Seattle, I would not count on it being available.

Hi, all. My husband and I are sailing on the Explorer of the Seas in Seattle for the Pacific coastal cruise September 15-22 (Friday-Friday). We're not new to Royal but have never sailed through Seattle before. How early can we arrive/embark? The ship is scheduled to leave at 4 pm. Trying to plan our transportation for the morning. Also, our flight home leaves Friday out of Seattle at 11:15 am. (Ship arrives at 6 am) Planning on doing luggage valet on ship and then carrying off small bags with first group. Will we be able to easily get a cab or would a car service be better? Does anyone have any other suggestions as far as transportation goes? Thank you so much!

Hi,

I'm on that sailing as well and we have a really active roll call going. Lots of the people on the roll call have done this sailing before and have lots of good advice. If you haven't joined yet here's the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2322249

Come join and ask away.

Hi,

I'm on that sailing as well and we have a really active roll call going. Lots of the people on the roll call have done this sailing before and have lots of good advice. If you haven't joined yet here's the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2322249

Come join and ask away.

Awesome! Thanks!

I would take a later flight home if you can . What time does RCI recommend for flights to leave at. The cruise port is about an hour from pier. Being a Friday morning your probably closer to two hours to to the airport. Seattle airport security can be a zoo in the morning to get thru security.

RCL recommends after 11:30. Google maps shows a 30 minute drive from Port of Seattle to SeaTac. We have done this route before and even on a commute day, it wasn't more than 40 minutes. We are on the Sept 22nd sailing and have our flight for 11:40.

We had a Friday morning arrival in port in May. Walked off with our luggage around 7am... got a cab right away and were at the airport with 3 hours to spare before our 11:45am flight. We were also worried about the rush hour traffic, but was not a problem that day.

You may find this helpful, though I did not see if there is a restriction as to what time flights depart..

http://www.portseattle.org/Cruise/Pages/Port-Valet.aspx

H Trying to plan our transportation for the morning. !

Aim to get there by 11.

The airport is only about 20 mins south of Seattle and you will be going the opposite way of commute traffic. Most taxis and private cars already know to take the 509 freeway, which runs west of the I-5...getting over to I-5 would take up a majority of time. I think your 11:15 flight will be fine.

I would take a later flight home if you can . What time does RCI recommend for flights to leave at. The airport is about an hour from pier. Being a Friday morning your probably closer to two hours to to the airport. Seattle airport security can be a zoo in the morning to get thru security.

more like 1/2 hr

I would plan on taking all your luggage off yourself. I think your flight may be slightly too early for the luggage valet. We carried all our luggage off for a 11:45 flight and were there in plenty of time

You may find this helpful, though I did not see if there is a restriction as to what time flights depart..

 

 

http://www.portseattle.org/Cruise/Pages/Port-Valet.aspx

Thank you! That's great - will have to make sure it would be there on time for our flight but otherwise we'll plan on doing that.

Thank you! That's great - will have to make sure it would be there on time for our flight but otherwise we'll plan on doing that.

I doubt that luggage valet will be available on a flight as early as yours

On our last cruises that had luggage valet, your flight HAD to be 12 noon or later.

I am 99.9999% sure that there is no luggage valet in Seattle.

Having flown home out of Seattle I wouldn't pick a flight earlier then 1 PM. I am thinking our OP has moved to their Roll Call by now. We never used luggage Valet out of Seattle either.

I used to commute from Puyallup to Harborview Medical Center Seattle along the I5 weirdest part was on Fridays only the traffic in the morning was light but the afternoon is always a parking lot.

I thought the port of Seattle was starting a luggage transfer service?

Read it here not too long ago.

I thought the port of Seattle was starting a luggage transfer service?

 

Read it here not too long ago.

Yeah there are a couple of threads about it on the West Coast departure boards. Maybe it's different from luggage valet....

We sailed in June on Explorer, the luggage service is available they give you a form to fill out the ship prints your tags and boarding passes and you meet your luggage at final destination. Well worth it in my opinion. This is for flights after 11am I believe.

I believe it is possible to make an 11am flight, just opt for self disembarkation around 6;30, if you have booked transportation in advance it is much faster to get out of port area. We made it to the airport by 8:30 but our flight wasn't until 2:00.

Hi, all. My husband and I are sailing on the Explorer of the Seas in Seattle for the Pacific coastal cruise September 15-22 (Friday-Friday). We're not new to Royal but have never sailed through Seattle before. How early can we arrive/embark? The ship is scheduled to leave at 4 pm. Trying to plan our transportation for the morning. Also, our flight home leaves Friday out of Seattle at 11:15 am. (Ship arrives at 6 am) Planning on doing luggage valet on ship and then carrying off small bags with first group. Will we be able to easily get a cab or would a car service be better? Does anyone have any other suggestions as far as transportation goes? Thank you so much!

We were on this cruise last year and will repeat it this year on the 9/22 departure.

If you're booked on Delta, Delta set up a luggage drop at the pier, opposite the embark building across from the drive up/drop off. At least it was there last year. If Delta you may want to check into that.