Pre and post cruise questions

[Giantfan13]

we are doing a crusie to Alaska in August. We are arriving a week earlier and plan on touring the State of Washington before getting back to Seattle to board our cruise.

 

we are arriving about 2PM in Seattle and plan on renting a car and probably driving out of town for our first night.

Question, we see renting a car is cheaper if you do it out of the airport. Do we have to take a taxi to, say downtown, to rent the car??. Do any of the rental places not at the airport, have shuttles that will pick you up at the airport and take you to their location>>. If we decide to stay the night in Seattle, depending on how we feel, do most of the hotels have shuttles that will get you at the airport??. Then, would it be easier to rent a car from the hotel area???

Which brings me to my second question. If we rent at the airport or say downtown, how would we get to the pier when we drop the car off?? (Public transportation is not an option, as we are seniors and lugging luggage around isn't our thing). Is a taxi our only option??. What might the difference in price be to get to the pier from the airport vs downtown???

 

And last question (sorry for so many), we are flying back a day after our crusie comes back to Seattle. Would it be preferable from the crusie dock to get a hotel by the airport (we have a very early flight on Monday), or a hotel near the crusie dock or downtown. Do any hotels have shuttles to the pier or, again, to the airport??

 

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

 

Cheers

 

Len