Seattle Flight Home - 11:30am

[caravellov1]

If I book a flight home from Seattle for 11:30am after an Alaskan cruise am I cutting it too close? I really don't want to take a "red eye" home.

[Jeter02]

I saw at 11:30ish flight home from Seattle as well for my Alaskan cruise. Luckily I then found one that was for 3:00 p.m. . You could possibly still make the flight just fine as long as you just take an Uber to the airport. I really never had problems with traffic to and from the port from Seattle from the airport. I would just make sure you're one of those first ones off that's all. You should be just fine!

[Buckeye10640]

1 hour ago, caravellov1 said:

If I book a flight home from Seattle for 11:30am after an Alaskan cruise am I cutting it too close? I really don't want to take a "red eye" home.

I have booked an 11:45 flight. We will probably walk-off with our luggage and take a cab/Uber. We also are TSA precheck which should help with security lines. 

[memoak]

If you can walk off early and have TSA Pre you will have a pretty good chance. We will be walking off in June and have a train scheduled for before noon and are pretty confident 

[JudithLynne]

We are disembarking the Crown in Seattle in Oct.                               Our flight is at 11:25 AM. As that is early, we have booked transfers through Princess, we bought our airline tickets through Princess.  We will take advantage of the Port Valet program if offered and so should you.  With all of that, we will have our boarding pass in hand when we enter SeaTac and will go right to the TSA line, no need to go to the ticket counter.

Sticking with the cruise company, we feel that we will have some assurance that we will be helped if there are any obstacles.  We use Seattle all the time for cruises and have never had a problem making an early flight, we have always had time to spare.

 

[VibeGuy]

Local here.  My guidance is 10:50 if you’re pretty mobile and can manage your own luggage.  Plan on an Uber/Lyft/cab to the airport and you’re golden.  
 

With your departure flight being on a Saturday or Sunday, I don’t worry about local traffic gridlock - any savvy driver will use navigation that is traffic aware.  What I would suggest you, the passenger, do, is monitor the SeaTac web cams starting as you get out of downtown.  You are looking at the Departures drive.  If it’s a mess, ask the driver to use Arrivals.  If both are a mess, ask him to enter the parking garage and pull to the skybridge for your airline.  While one of you deals with luggage, the other takes the parking ticket and “pays” at the machine, which will be $0 and give the driver 15 minutes to exit.    While this isn’t usually necessary at SeaTac, it’s a lifesaver when it’s needed. 

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

Done it several times, great tips above.

May I add, sometimes uber wait can be Longer than grabbing a taxi.

Last couple times, we walked right up to cab line and there was NO wait.

And what looked like a 100 people waiting for their uber/lyft rides.

In that case, taxi IS faster and not much more of a price difference.

 

When you have an early flight like that... (were usually on Southwest and have TSA Pre)

Request Walkoff Group A, and be ready to go with your luggage.

Grab taxi, its about 35 min ride to airport.

Were usually there 8:45 ish.  Good luck.

 

 

[ilovebananas]

We have done this (twice). We walked off early (8am- ish) with luggage and took a pre-reserved shuttle one time (pre-COVID) and the other time we took an Uber/Lyft that we pre-requested. Both were on a weekend day and got to the airport in about 35-40 min. We have TSA pre-check and flew through. We sat around, looked at shops and realized we had more than enough time. If you are leaving on a weekday be mindful of commute traffic because that will slow your trip to Sea-Tac, but you should still make it if you are off the boat first thing.

[caravellov1]

Thanks everyone. This was a great help/

[Sea Hag]

18 hours ago, JudithLynne said:

We are disembarking the Crown in Seattle in Oct.                               Our flight is at 11:25 AM. As that is early, we have booked transfers through Princess, we bought our airline tickets through Princess.  We will take advantage of the Port Valet program if offered and so should you.  With all of that, we will have our boarding pass in hand when we enter SeaTac and will go right to the TSA line, no need to go to the ticket counter.

Sticking with the cruise company, we feel that we will have some assurance that we will be helped if there are any obstacles.  We use Seattle all the time for cruises and have never had a problem making an early flight, we have always had time to spare.

 

Sadly, Port Valet is only available for flights no earlier than noon.

[Buckeye10640]

On 3/2/2023 at 6:57 PM, JudithLynne said:

We are disembarking the Crown in Seattle in Oct.                               Our flight is at 11:25 AM. As that is early, we have booked transfers through Princess, we bought our airline tickets through Princess.  We will take advantage of the Port Valet program if offered and so should you.  With all of that, we will have our boarding pass in hand when we enter SeaTac and will go right to the TSA line, no need to go to the ticket counter.

Sticking with the cruise company, we feel that we will have some assurance that we will be helped if there are any obstacles.  We use Seattle all the time for cruises and have never had a problem making an early flight, we have always had time to spare.

 

Do you know typically what the earliest Princess Transfer time is? I could definitely consider this approach....port valet for luggage and Princess transfer. We rarely use Princcess transfers. 

[RD64]

Why cause yourself so much stress? Get a flight for later in the day or the next day.

[jeromep]

I wouldn't openly subject myself to this early of a flight directly off a cruise, but it could work if...

 

1.  You do the earliest walk-off, luggage in hand, disembarkation.  You need to be off the ship and through customs by, say, 8:30 and on the curb hailing a cab or catching an Uber/Lyft directly to the airport.

 

2.  You use the SeaTac Spot Saver to schedule a "reserved" time through TSA at the airport.  Here is the link:  https://www.portseattle.org/SEAspotsaver  Please click and read.  SeaTac has a terrible reputation for long security lines so be aware of this.

 

Why not book a hotel room for the night after you get off the ship and stay and enjoy Seattle and some of the surrounding areas?  There is a lot of touristy things to do town, some nice hotel properties, and you can still avoid the red eye by staying a day and flying out in a more leisurely manner the next day.

 

 

[red4u2]

About how much time does it add to have to collect your luggage instead of walking off with it?    Doesn't walking off mean you have to be able to carry your bags down the stairs?

Thank you in advance.

[VibeGuy]

59 minutes ago, red4u2 said:

About how much time does it add to have to collect your luggage instead of walking off with it?    Doesn't walking off mean you have to be able to carry your bags down the stairs?

Thank you in advance.

Walk offs can go as soon as the ship is cleared.  Luggage handling requires the cages to get hauled off the ship and the luggage splayed out by tag color, tasks that are performed by very unionised stevedores.  
 

usually things go OK and the first luggage tag colors are being called by 7:30. Sometimes they don’t go well and there is a delay.    It’s also possible that there’s a delay caused by agricultural or customs inspection.   I wouldn’t necessarily count on having luggage in my hand and being on the terminal sidewalk before 8:00 *even if you requested the earliest disembarkation time*. The absolute worst case scenario I have seen was more like 9:45-10 for the last bag tags  to be called - a perfect storm of not enough stevedores, a large number of passengers who needed US VISIT / I-94 processing (and had tour buses waiting, so had a pretty early off), etc. 

 

There are no stairs required.  It’s a ramp like a jetway to the terminal and then elevators or escalators to the CBP level and exit. 
 

long story short, luggage service adds at least a twenty minutes to your on-sidewalk time and can add a lot more.  If you’re rushing to get to the airport for a departure before 10:50, those minutes count.  On cruise days at SEA, you *really* need to allow two hours from when you step onto the sidewalk to when your plane is scheduled to depart, to have 90% confidence in making the flight.  

[Buckeye10640]

7 hours ago, red4u2 said:

About how much time does it add to have to collect your luggage instead of walking off with it?    Doesn't walking off mean you have to be able to carry your bags down the stairs?

Thank you in advance.

Yes you need to carry bags. We use the elevator. 

[JudithLynne]

Sea Hag……...thank you for the information about Port Valet’s earliest time of use.  I had forgotten that.  We have changed flights based on that and from finding out that Monday mornings are very busy at SeaTac!  We are going on a later flight in the afternoon so that we can have Port Valet take care of our luggage.  As seniors every little bit helps.

[red4u2]

On 3/3/2023 at 10:50 PM, VibeGuy said:

Walk offs can go as soon as the ship is cleared.  Luggage handling requires the cages to get hauled off the ship and the luggage splayed out by tag color, tasks that are performed by very unionised stevedores.  
 

usually things go OK and the first luggage tag colors are being called by 7:30. Sometimes they don’t go well and there is a delay.    It’s also possible that there’s a delay caused by agricultural or customs inspection.   I wouldn’t necessarily count on having luggage in my hand and being on the terminal sidewalk before 8:00 *even if you requested the earliest disembarkation time*. The absolute worst case scenario I have seen was more like 9:45-10 for the last bag tags  to be called - a perfect storm of not enough stevedores, a large number of passengers who needed US VISIT / I-94 processing (and had tour buses waiting, so had a pretty early off), etc. 

 

There are no stairs required.  It’s a ramp like a jetway to the terminal and then elevators or escalators to the CBP level and exit. 
 

long story short, luggage service adds at least a twenty minutes to your on-sidewalk time and can add a lot more.  If you’re rushing to get to the airport for a departure before 10:50, those minutes count.  On cruise days at SEA, you *really* need to allow two hours from when you step onto the sidewalk to when your plane is scheduled to depart, to have 90% confidence in making the flight.  

Thank you very much for all that information!  very helpful!!

[red4u2]

On 3/4/2023 at 5:15 AM, Buckeye10640 said:

Yes you need to carry bags. We use the elevator. 

Thank you, just wanted to make sure they don't force you to use the stairs with heavy bags.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, red4u2 said:

Thank you, just wanted to make sure they don't force you to use the stairs with heavy bags.

Just be aware that the elevators are usually very full with other passengers who are disembarking.

 

You may need to catch an elevator on its way up to be sure you are on it for going down.

[Buckeye10640]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

Just be aware that the elevators are usually very full with other passengers who are disembarking.

 

You may need to catch an elevator on its way up to be sure you are on it for going down.

True and a good tip. We usually stay forward and on higher decks - Lido or Sun (on the ships that have Sun Deck cabins) so while we have had to wait it has always  been managable. 

[roxievegas]

The timing issue is always going to be debatable.  Recently a ship was due to dock in L.A. at 7:00 a, but due to our crazy weather, and coming in from Ensenada, it was announced that the ship would not dock until 9:30a.  That affected a number of guest that were expecting to fly out before noon.

 

No matter what time you book your flight, make sure that you have alternate flights that you can switch to if you miss your flight.  We normally do the "after" 12:00p flights, but I have the flight times and flight numbers, so if we need to switch, I can call and get put on another flight.  

 

We did a cruise out of San Francisco and decided to fly in the morning of the cruise.  Our flight was a 7:00a out of L.A,  but we sat on the runway in SF for 45 minutes waiting for a gate to open.  I was starting to panic that we would miss our transfer - everything worked out fine, but I don't like the stress.

 

bottom line, give yourself the time and don't stress out.