Debarkation in Seattle, WA

[2pbears]

We are sailing with HAL for the first time in June to Alaska.  We booked our air through HAL and initially they had us flying out of SEATAC at 11:05 AM.   A couple of months ago we received an email saying our flight had been changed to 11:50 AM.   I guess we just have to trust that they know what they are doing but we are just flying into SFO so there are quite a few options for later flights if we don't make this one.

[jhannah]

On 4/8/2019 at 11:57 PM, Sue from Canada said:

I've booked Already There Town Car more than once.  It's about the same price as taking a taxi but so much nicer.

 

https://alreadytheretowncar.com/

Ditto! We had great service getting to the airport. We took the HAL shuttle to Sea-Tac, and got dropped off at the Delta Airlines tent. We were on American! So we had to schlep our luggage about a block to get to check-in. Never again!

 

At any rate, 12:30 is the earliest I would book a flight.

[ricko999]

On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 11:57 PM, Sue from Canada said:

I've booked Already There Town Car more than once.  It's about the same price as taking a taxi but so much nicer.

 

https://alreadytheretowncar.com/

Thanks for the link, and the reviews look good. That's how we prefer to ride.

[bjgill17]

On 4/8/2019 at 10:17 PM, CruiserBruce said:

The limiting factor here is the HAL transfer. They will not take you if you have a flight before noon, I think. That is your key defining point. If you carry your bags off, and either have a private transfer arranged, or grab a cab, you can catch a flight before noon.

 

There is also the Seattle Luggage Valet, where you put your bags outside your cabin the night before, and you next see them at your home airport,  unless flying internationally. They also provide your airlines boarding pass. It is a free service. They will get your bags to a flight after 11:30.

 

All of these options are regularly discussed on the West Coast Departures board. 

 

Booking a flight at this late a date is not creating lots of options. 

Thank you so much for info. I was able to book flight out of Seattle for 2:09pm. So I bought my Holland SHIP TO SEA Airport directly after finishing flight 

[knittinggirl]

Coming from Vancouver to Seattle cruise we had an easy disembark.  But it's a long ride from cruise port to airport. 

 

We've had weird lines at the Seatac.   Once we had a forever line just to get to our transfer bus that took us to the ship, then we got in a traffic jam. TSA is horrible w/ long lines going back and forth four or five times before finally getting to the identification check.  Even with TSA pre-check, they sent us down a long hallway to another gate.  (Something similar happened at DFW last fall.  Those seasonal events do cause traffic delays.  Once we had a Grand Prix in Baltimore, and took forever to go a few miles to our post-cruise hotel.  We were happy we didn't need to make a flight until the next day.

 

Also, once we had the ship in Seattle lose our luggage, because it got sorted into the valet batch by mistake.    It went to the airport w/o us and sent back to port later, then shipped to us.

 

Flights are also getting fickle recently.  Twice now, we've had to stay overnight in Dallas, because we couldn't get a good connection.  We try to get a minimum of two hours when flying domestic.  Has helped us in the past.  Once we were in St. Louis, and had to return to the gate due to a medical emergency.   Then the plane had to refuel, causing more delays.  Others really freaked out about missed flights, but we knew we had that two hour connection.

 

While these annoyances have happened over several different cruise lines and ships. they still happen.  Therefore, we usually book a post-cruise night somewhere.  That way we are able to get a better choice of flights.  We also book a pre-cruise night.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2019 by knittinggirl

[Ferry_Watcher]

When you get to SeaTac look for the overhead reader boards that have info about TSA line wait times.  There are 5 different checkpoints.  1 & 4 are for Pre-Check and Clear only.  Checkpoints 2,3 & 5 are for everybody else.  There are SeaTac personnel in green coats who manage the lines.  The folks in blue coats can help direct you find where you need to go.  Just ask SeaTac personnel if you need help.

SkyTrax just recognized SeaTac for having the Best Airport Staff in North America.

[sciencegrrl]

As a Washington native, I always leave myself 3.5 hours before my flight for travel and the awful lines and I'm in Tacoma!  Most of the time I have pre-check, but sometimes, I set off the sensors for the weirdest reasons.  Like others said, make sure your flight is after 1:00 pm.

 

~ Marci

[kevingastreich]

On 4/9/2019 at 5:15 AM, midwest 852 said:

One problem we did have is when using the luggage service they print your boarding pass for you when we got to the TSA they wouldnt scan so i had to go back to the kiosk and reprint them. Now i just reprint them before getting in line.

 

Was the scan problem for an Alaska Airlines boarding pass by chance?  We've had that same problem.

[midwest 852]

No Delta