Glaciers

In your price range, look at La Quinta near the airport. They have free breakfast and shuttle to the airport. You could take the light rail into downtown to explore. You'll find nothing within that price downtown.

Unless you're looking at much smaller ships like the ones offered by UnCruise, Alaskan Dream & Lindblad, most of the main line ships including their smaller ships go to the same areas and are port intensive. The three mentioned, particularly UnCruise & Alaskan Dream spend more time in remote areas of SE Alaska. They provide an exceptional experience.

If you do find yourself with quite a bit of time at the airport. Look at this site for things to do. https://www.portseattle.org/sea-tac/things-to-do

It looks like you may be on NCL. If you’re arriving at pier 66, there is luggage storage at the pier where you arrive although the bags need to be picked up by 3pm. “On-site same day luggage storage is available at Pier 66. Cost is $5 per bag. Luggage must be picked up by 3pm to avoid late fee. Luggage storage location is in the Crew Center at the south end of cruise terminal building.” The Purple Store can be more convenient as you can store them for most of the day and it’s located next door to Pike Place Market.

We ate at 13 Coins on Tuesday. Timed it so the Mariners game had started hoping it wouldn’t be too busy. Forgot about the Stones concert on Wednesday. It was packed with elderly concertgoers who were headed to the concert the next evening. 30 minute wait.

Check the menu for 13 Coins. It's a restaurant next door to the train station and is very good. Very popular place.

It is better to go first thing in the morning although if there is another ship in port before yours, you've lost the advantage.

You've asked this question before, months ago. Previous posts indicate disembarking in Whittier is between 6:30am-7am. We were on the Royal 2 years ago and folks were walking off at 7am. No idea who your private transfer is with but hopefully it's Bear Valley Roadrunner. I believe they are the only private transfer company in Whittier. Have to imagine they would know as they probably pick folks up every cruise that arrives in Whittier. Maybe you could contact them. They should know.

Downtown was really a mess last year when the Vice President made a visit. 520, I-5 and I-90 were all blocked to traffic for about 30 minutes but the traffic problems lingered for a while after that. Plan plenty of time if you’re on a schedule.

If not the glacier tour and as someone else mentioned, the Portage Pass Trail is a good short hike. The trailhead is just over a one mile walk along the waterfront. Although the trail goes over the pass and down to Portage Glacier, just hiking to the top gives you fantastic views of Passage Canal down one side and Portage Glacier down the other.

Smith Cove, Pier 91.

With the inconvenience of having to go back to the ship after the whale watch and then to the glacier and the added expense, you might look at one of the vendors that have a combo whale watch/Mendenhall Glacier trip. Juneau Tours has them for $212.

I"m not on here enough anymore to tell a difference.

Yeah, about 30 minutes to the Market from there. Not a bad walk. Also have the monorail as an option from the Seattle Center to downtown/Westlake Station. Walk down, monorail back to avoid the hill on Lower Queen Anne. Although, not a bad hill by Seattle standards. Good idea to go early!

Yes, more go up for the view and the unique & historical décor than the bar. It ticks you boxes though.

Smith Tower Observatory Bar. https://www.smithtower.com/

@njhorseman Yes, I agree @Ferry_Watcher is a wealth of cruise information, particularly for Pier 91. This from their previous post which indicates embarking passengers are dropped at the terminal. It does seem to deviate from the Port’s website although I’d like to get a confirmation from Ferry_Watcher. It’s from 2019 so things may have changed. Did you see a more recent post from them? “The Uber/Lyft area is just used in the mornings for passengers disembarking. All passengers arriving to embark (Uber/Lyft, bus, private car, town car, etc) are dropped off in the driveway area close to the Terminal 91 building.” This map may be out of date as well but is on the Port's site but indicates the ride share lot is for pick up. https://www.portseattle.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/Terminal 91 Map.pdf

They can drop at the terminal.

Just to clarify, the Yellow Cab app can do most of what the Uber app does including tracking the vehicle as it approaches. It allows you to pay in advance through the app as does Uber but unlike Uber, you also have the option of paying at the end of the ride with a credit card or cash. We compare prices and in nearly all instances, Yellow Cab is less expensive. Unless things have changed, for those arriving at Pier 91, the ride share pick up lot is ¼ mile from the terminal. Yellow Cab can pick up at the terminal.

The website indicates $10 to the cemetery round trip.

The Mediterranean Inn is one of the closest to the pier. It's near many restaurants and a 10 minute walk to the Space Needle. They have a shuttle to the pier for $10/person. A cab/Uber is now closer to $20 to the pier from most downtown hotels.

The Gold Rush Cemetery makes for a nice stop. The Smart Shuttle goes out that way. From there you can take the short walk to Lower Reid Falls.

There's a Safeway across the street from the Mediterranean with a decent selection of wines.

We've used them from downtown to the airport a couple times and would use them again. They have an app to schedule a pickup. The car they used both times was barely big enough for 2 of us plus luggage. You may need to request a larger car if you can. I live downtown and have never heard of a "Day Resort hotel". What is it?

I don't like salmon.