We just got off of the Ovation on Friday. There was also a Celebrity ship at the pier as well. After the nightmare of getting onto the ship on May 11th in Vancouver we were hoping for a better experience in Seattle. Unfortunately, neither port wins awards for their handling of embarkation/debarkation.
If you get off the ship early you will have no problem getting a taxi and getting to the airport quickly. I would give some serious thought to using the cruise line's pre-arranged shuttle to the airport or get off as early as you can (self-assist). We were staying in Seattle for an extra day and were in group 31 getting off of the ship. The leaving the ship part was quick and orderly and the baggage pickup was well organized. Once you left the terminal building everyone got mixed together and it went down hill from there. You walked out of the terminal there was no coordination by staff as to where the lines were. It was a massive mob of people crossing the road to get to all of the different transportation options. The taxi/Uber lines were atrocious. We waited in the taxi line for over an hour and had port staff directing people to go past us and get into the taxi line ahead of us (no good cue system/process). They didn't even have the strap barriers available to create a zig-zag line for the taxis. It became a free for all getting out of the port. After being in line for about an hour and the staff saying it would be about 2 hours more to get a taxi, we ended up sharing a gypsy cab (Uber driver dropping off that just drove over and offered a ride for as many people as he could fit in the vehicle) for $20 a person to get to downtown Seattle.
The ride share parking lot is a decent walk from the terminal (1/4 - 1/2 mile). They do have a shuttle, but then you have to wait until you get to the parking lot to request your ride or you will pay a waiting fee or loose your ride. As we passed the ride share lot, the line was a good 200-300 feet long waiting for rides (it crossed the road to leave the port). There was traffic trying to get into the port backed up all the way to Alaskan Way. We actually saw a couple who had walked all that way getting picked up by an Uber/Lyft out there.
The people arriving (at 9:30 am) to board the ships were intermixed with those trying to leave. This caused even more issues because the traffic flow was all combined onto a road that was one lane in each direction in and out (split into 2-4 lanes at the terminal building). This was for all traffic (buses, taxis, ride share and personal vehicles dropping off and picking up).
Even being early in the season for the port and cruise lines this should have been handled better. This wasn't the first year for either having cruise lines in port and the processes learned in past years shouldn't have to be re-learned each year.
