Embarkation in Seattle?

[frchteaze]

There's a thread going on now on the Norwegian board where several people just returning from the Seattle to Alaska cruise mentioned a horrible experience at embarkation where they had to wait for 8 hours or more at the convention center in Seattle instead of the pier.

 

Has anyone ever heard of this for X out of this port before? (I would especially love to hear from anyone just returning from X to Alaska.)

[bububr]

at pier 66 is always an adventure. It is a little disorganized, and the way it is layed out passengers can sneak by in places, cut in lines, etc.....There is usually a line to go up the escalator to check in. But unless they've changed things you drop off your bags with a porter before you actually enter the terminal. X needs to organize the process at this port a little better. However we never had a problem with disembarkation. Always fast easy, convenient to transportation etc....

 

It sounds as if there was something else going on with the terminal or the ship itsself as NCL is the only line that shares this pier with X.

 

I just hope all goes well for our 9/8/06 cruise. But we do expect some confusion as usual at the pier.

 

Not that much help, but thought I

d share some background with you.

 

Dave:eek:

[frchteaze]

Thanks Dave. :)

[trcori]

the NCL trouble was a totally unusual situation with evening embarkation. I watch the cruise ship comings and goings almost fanatically around here, and I wasn't even aware a ship was coming in that night, till I saw a story about it on TV news the next morning. Not sure exactly what went wrong in this case -- some kind of conflict with scheduling at the pier -- but it won't apply to the vast majority of cruises with the usual afternoon departure times.

 

That said, much as we love our hometown, our embarkation experience from Pier 66 with Mercury last August was one of the more convoluted experiences we've had in our seven Celebrity cruises -- we had to wind our way through a couple of different lines in a couple of different buildings, with lots and lots of waiting, before we EVER got to the check-in counter (where things finally moved quickly) -- and this was with a noon pier arrival for a 4-something p.m. departure. Haven't had that kind of backup ANYPLACE else. So be prepared for POSSIBLE waiting ... TR