March 11, 2018. Seattle pre cruise

We, wife and me, will be going on the Celebrity Solstice ( Same ship we took in Australia, Jan. 2017) on an Alaska cruiseearly July.

We want to spend 2 nights in Seattle before the cruise.Have been doing some looking and have found a couple of possibilities:

Four Points By Sheraton, Downtown Seattle. I like this one because there is a QFC supermarket reportedly close to the hotel. Good for buying food and purchasing 2 bottles of wine to bring aboard.

Holiday Inn express, Seattle city center(free breakfast)

Holiday Inn Seattle downtown.

Any thoughts on these or others?

We are looking for a hotel, reasonably priced, close to a store, a way to get from the hotel to the cruise dock and a way to get to the airport at the end of the cruise.

Would appreciate any information.

Don

Four Points includes a shuttle to the pier for around $7 per person. Not sure about the others. It's also close to the Space Needle if you are interested in that. I have it booked for May, but I also have the Sheraton Seattle booked- still trying to decide. We are doing a pre-cruise city tour now, so I don't really need the shuttle anymore or the proximity to the Needle. When I looked it up, it had good reviews.

We, wife and me, will be going on the Celebrity Solstice ( Same ship we took in Australia, Jan. 2017) on an Alaska cruiseearly July.

We want to spend 2 nights in Seattle before the cruise.Have been doing some looking and have found a couple of possibilities:

Four Points By Sheraton, Downtown Seattle. I like this one because there is a QFC supermarket reportedly close to the hotel. Good for buying food and purchasing 2 bottles of wine to bring aboard.

Holiday Inn express, Seattle city center(free breakfast)

Holiday Inn Seattle downtown.

Any thoughts on these or others?

We are looking for a hotel, reasonably priced, close to a store, a way to get from the hotel to the cruise dock and a way to get to the airport at the end of the cruise.

Would appreciate any information.

Don

Celebrity cruises out of Pier 91 (Smith Cove). There's not much around there. Your main options for transport to the pier before the cruise and from the pier to the airport are the usual ones: Cruise transfer, Taxi, Uber, or Lyft. Unfortunately, I think Pier 91 is outside the Downtown to SEATAC flat rate taxi zone. You could also use light rail after your cruise, but it would be a major pain, IMO. You'd have to get from pier 91 to the closest light rail stop (might be Westlake Transit Center), then ride the train to SEATAC. At the SEATAC end you're facing a longish walk from the train station through the airport garage to the terminals.

Your named hotel choices all appear to be in the Seattle Center area. Nothing wrong with that, there's a lot to do in that immediate area. It's a bit of a hike from the other main tourist attractions: the waterfront & Pike Place Market, but there's the monorail to get you into downtown proper and near to those things. As you've likely found, "reasonable" prices on Seattle hotels, particularly in the height of summer, can be higher than you expect.

We sailed out of Seattle last July. Arrived two days prior and stayed at the Marriott Waterfront. NCL docks across the street from this hotel. You are within 5 min walk to Pikes Market and the original Starbucks. You are right across from the water and the aquarium and Ferris Wheel. Lots to do in the area. We took Lyft to the Space Needle and Britto Museum and the Museum of Pop Culture. Lyft was about $4.00 one way to the Space Needle. You can walk to Space Needle it is about a mile. Marriott can arrange shuttle service to the port. Cost was $8.00 per person

Thanks for the information.

All three of those hotels are in rather trafficky areas; the Four Points faces Mercer Street, a key east-west arterial that is pretty jammed day to night; the Holiday Inns are basically on an urban freeway (Aurora Avenue.) Calling any of them "downtown" is a bit of marketing hype; they're both over a mile from the "downtown" that most of us recognize.

If you want proximity to a supermarket, at (probably) around the same price point, look at the Hampton Inn and Suites a block north of the same QFC.

I'd probably look closer to the downtown core - search for the Kimpton hotel group and also look at the Homewood Suites Convention Center, which on Expedia for July 6 - 8 (don't know your dates) is cheaper than the Four Points, and way, way better located.

As for wine, there's a big wine shop right on the road to Pier 91; if you took a taxi to the dock you could just have the taxi stop there while you ran in; it probably wouldn't add much to your taxi fare (around $15 - $20 from most of downtown.) Or just past the turnoff to the pier (but easily reached after) there's a shopping center with a big Whole Foods supermarket with a terrific wine selection.

Thank you for your great suggestions.

We will look into your suggested hotels.

Don

Look at the Edgewater you can fish out the windows

If you do choose to stay in one of the hotels by the space needle there is a QFC grocery store about four blocks from the space needle. I think there is a Hyatt House by space needle. The QFC grocery store about three blocks from this hotel and two blocks from the Four Points which is located on Mercer and 5th. The QFC is located on the corner of these two streets

The Fairfield in Bremerton is very nice -- and INEXPENSIVE (>$150/night including parking). You also don't get gouged for the city resort tax, and you don't have to deal with the Seattle homeless panhandlers. It's two blocks from the ferry terminal to Seattle. Catch a cab from there to the cruise port (too far to walk). If you're going to leave your car, it's secured parking and Bremerton is relatively safe. Ferry is a nice quiet and relaxing end of the day ride out of the hustle and bustle of Seattle.