Ferry_Watcher

My two favorite cruise lines are HAL and Celebrity. When I am on HAL, I am happy. When I am on Celebrity I am happy. This October I will be on a 21 night HAL cruise, and three days after disembarking our HAL cruise we will be on a 12 night Celebrity cruise. It will be interesting to see/experience the differences between the two cruise lines.

The Pier 66 terminal literally empties out on to a sidewalk. This is a large plaza type space just to the south of the building, between Pier 66 and the restaurant Anthony's, so you can regroup there if you need some time.. It can get congested, but people handle it. Since you will be staying in Seattle before your 11 PM flight, you should take advantage of the light rail system. You can get on light rail, take it to the Westlake station and either take the monorail to Seattle Center (Space Needle, the Chiluly Glass Garden & Museum, the Museum of Pop Culture, and the food court at the Seattle Center Armory). Or, after getting off at Westlake Station, you could walk to Pike Place Market and explore that. As for eating out, May 12th is Mother's Day, so all restaurants will be busy. There is a Marnier's Baseball game @ 1 PM, and the stadium is pretty close to where you are staying (there is a no bag policy except clear bags). There is good food there. Or, you could wander the International District and find some great Asian food.

RE the cc name - I was thinking the same thing!!!

Congratulation on your engagement and up coming wedding and honeymoon cruise. The 8 day cruise sounds perfect. Even though it is your honeymoon cruise, I am guessing that you probably won't have photo ID with your new married name that quickly, so make sure that you book the cruise under your current name. The important thing is that your Carnival Cruise booking name matches your gov't issued photo ID, usually a driver's license. If you are traveling with your birth certificate, the check-in agent will be looking to see if your first & middle name, as well as your date of birth are the same on both the birth certificate & your driver's license. Many married women use their birth certificate, so don't worry about your last name not matching. Since you have nearly 18 months before you sail, you have time to update your passport or driver's license from your previous married last name to your maiden name (if that is something you want or need to do). Again, congrats.

I bring sweet treats, or light flat items like scarves, tote bags, necklaces or earrings for friends. It's important that whatever it is, it is easy to pack and doesn't add any significant weigh to my checked luggage.

Holland America 450 3rd Ave W Seattle, WA 98119

If this is your first cruise to Alaska, I would go with HAL. As you said, the itineraries are somewhat similar, but HAL has Glacier Bay and Skagway,, and Celebrity has Icy Strait Point & Hubbard. As for the Persian Gardens, that is only available for free with a booked Aqua Class stateroom. Alaska cruises are very port intensive, so you don't have a lot of time to take advantage of it. A day pass may be available (but limited availability). If you did book Aqua Class, your dining room is Blu, and that is a plus. Also, Icy Strait Point is a favorite port-of-call for me, but I still would recommend HAL because of the glacier viewing in Glacier Bay. If you cruise with HAL, the train ride in Skagway is fun (we did train up and shuttle down with Chilkoot tours - and I highly recommend them). If you do go with Celebrity and visit ISP, I highly recommend Glacier Winds for whale watching.

Your kids should be able to be in the same room, assuming it is relatively close to you. Re the SeaPass cards. Concierge card are gold in color.

There really isn't 'perks' with Concierge Class, other than the embarkation lunch (which basically means you get to have lunch in the MDR on embarkation day, rather than the buffet), and each Concierge room is entitled to a bottle of sparkling wine. The crew person who works the Concierge desk (often times at a desk in an open area by the library), can and does assist any passenger walking by. This is very different than the dedicated suite host/concierge found in the Retreat. Booking a concierge stateroom sounds fancy, but there isn't much to it. Sometimes Concierge class passengers are invited to the helipad for a special viewing of a sail-a-way, or maybe some other scenery viewing. And as to your question, your non Concierge stateroom family members won't be able to avail themselves of the embarkation day lunch. And there isn't any priority boarding for most passengers - only suite passengers.

Catching an 11 AM flight maybe if you are traveling during the very early or late in the season (April/early May or late Sept/Oct), and the travels gods are smiling down on you that morning. Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays are 2 ship days at Pier 91, and on weekends a very large NCL ship is at Pier 66 on Sat & Sun.. That means that at least a few thousand disembarking passengers are all headed to SeaTac Airport about the same time as you. As other posters have mentioned, the lines to drop off your luggage with your airline will be long, and the TSA lines are even longer.

Just a FYI re credit cards and checking in. Only counter agents have the needed equipment to swipe your credit card to enter it into the system, or to change the card a passengers wants to use. Any time an agent is on a passenger's folio page on their check-in lap top, only the registered credit card's last four digits are shown. If a passengers asks about what credit card is registered, we say 'you registered your Visa card ending in 2387' because that is all we see.

LOL, how is this possible?!!! ; )

If you don't have a credit card registered at embarkation you will be sent to a counter agent. They can see when pulling up your boarding info, that you don't have a credit card on file and they will ask you if you want to add one now. Depending on how much you value your time, the easiest option is to add the credit card with the counter agent. If you don't, expect a letter from Guest Services a couple days into your cruise asking you to come to Guest Services (where you can stand in a line with everyone else). If you don't add a credit card or put a cash deposit down, your usage of your SeaPass card will become restricted.

While that is true, it only takes one passenger who either doesn't want to get off the ship, isn't ready to get off the ship, or still passed out to wake up to get off the ship to muck up the flow of disembarkation, and the transition to embarkation. The decent thing to do is to get off the ship when you are expected to, not when you want to - especially when pushing the outer disembarkation timeline.

You may be able to buy OBC (on board credit) prior to your cruise, but you can't put down 'cash' on to your account until you are on the ship.

Passengers who purposely wait until the very last minute to walk off a ship on disembarkation morning are being inconsiderate and selfish. No one wants their cruise to end, but sadly it does end, and the entire crew must work together to quickly turnaround the ship for the incoming passengers. Being flippant and waving off leaving the ship in a timely fashion is disrespectful of the ship's crew and of pier-side staff. Making comments like, 'well they can make up my room last' is not only disrespectful to the room attendants, but it shows a sense of outsize entitlement. And 'tipping extra well' doesn't entitle anyone to over stay in their stateroom. Just because the room attendants didn't ask you to leave your stateroom, doesn't mean that they didn't want you outta' there. On the pier-side, staff have to remain in their positions until the very last passengers leave. This includes directional folks, the staff by the elevators and escalators, luggage hall personnel, the US Custom & Border Officers, terminal security folks, Longshore, and the ground transportation folks just outside the terminal. Many of these people take their meal break in during that 30 - 45 minutes between disembarkation and when the terminal building reopens for embarkation. So if they are late to start their break, that means that they are late returning to the start of embarkation, which impacts the newly arrived guests. It isn't a badge of honor to be one of the last, or the very last passenger off the ship. It should be an embarrassment to walk pass all those crew members, all the pier-side staff, and finally past all those newly arrive passengers eagerly waiting to begin their embarkation.

Not the above poster first rodeo with comments about gratuities. Similar comments posted a year ago, and again in 2022.

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@Bedruthen, hope you plan to drive along the Oregon Coast on either direction between SF and Seattle. It's quite beautiful.

One morning I was arriving for work at the pier and I passed a departing car (not a Prius) that was packed with so much luggage that the trunk could not be closed. And the trunk wasn't just opened a little, but the luggage was actually extending out of the trunk. It was one of those times that I wished I had time to take a photo - it was crazy. Hopefully, that car was staying on local roads, and not going far. I couldn't image that it could have driven to the airport without losing some of the suitcases. : )

It shouldn't be hard. It may cost you $50 - 60 depending on traffic, but since taxis seem to be your comfort level, it is worth the price. FYI, Many of the taxis used in Seattle will a Toyota Prius,, so if you need a larger vehicle, let the dispatcher know to send a mini van.

As a check-in agent I once had a passenger (pre pandemic) give me grief about where the special departure lounge was, along with the continental breakfast. I tried to explain to him that amenity was on the morning they were departing the ship (disembarkation day), and not arrival day (embarkation). He didn't really seem like he accepted my answer, but walked away chalking it up to 'another lie from the cruise line'. He certainly wasn't going to even entertain the possibility that he had been mistaken. And honestly, when you think about it, any area actually set aside for special pre boarding seating or light refreshments is really only in use before the ship is open for boarding. It may benefit upper suite level passengers from check-in at 10 am until 11:15 when they can board. Once the ship is opened for boarding, all passengers want to do is get on to the ship. Not even suite passengers want to stop by a dedicated lounge area for light refreshments rather than getting on the ship immediately.

The other parking option for either Pier 91 or Pier 66 is the off-site Seattle Cruise Park which uses a very secure parking lot (a former armory). This parking option was many spots, but it does fill up (especially during the peak summer cruising months) and you do need a reservation. Seattle Cruise Park has their own shuttle service to bring their parking customers to either Pier 91 or Pier 66. https://www.seattlecruiseparking.com/safe-and-secure/ If you use either the on-site parking at Pier 91 (Republic Parking), or the off-site parking option (Seattle Cruise Park), please try to remember which parking lot you booked. We have so many passengers who literally can't remember, and will accidentally go to the wrong lot. Sometimes pier side staff has to ask multiple questions trying figure out which of the 2 parking lots the disembarked passengers has parked their car in. Pier 91 (only) On-Site parking is Republic Parking. Their shuttle located at terminal parking slots A & B and is driven by Longshore workers Pier 91 & Pier 66 Off-Site parking is Seattle Cruise Park aka 'the Armory'. Their shuttle located for Pier 91 customers at terminal parking slot "R" I am not sure exactly where Pier 66 passengers are picked up after disembarkation.