Questions for those back from Seattle port and/or Westerdam

[twoatsea]

We are sailing on the Westerdam on 7/9 RT Seattle. Would appreciate some answers:

 

1. What time did the checkin doors open?

 

2. We do not plan to take the HAL transp. from the port to the airport. Were there plenty of taxis? Did anyone arrange other advance transp? If other advance arrangements were made, how did you know what time to be met? I've seen ads for advance pickup resv., but have no idea when we will be allowed to disembark.

 

3. Any good Seattle eating spots to recommend?

 

4. We plan to eat in the Pinnacle for one night. Any opinions on which night is best, based on the dining room menu?

 

5. Was there a pool side Bar-B-Q for one night? If so, which night & how was the food? We ate at the Westerdam Bar-B-Q in March & the meat was dry & tough. If still not any good, maybe we will eat at the Pinnacle that night.

 

We love the Westerdam & with just a few exceptions, the food has usually been good. How was everything during your cruise?

 

Thanks in advance for your help & I'm sorry your cruise is over! :(

[DebLeonard]

We are sailing 6/25 on the Westerdam and I would also like the answers to your questions especially on when to dine at the Pinnacle. I am thinking of the day we go to Hubbard Glacier.

 

We were in Seattle this past December and had dinner at Salty's. The food is excellent and the view looking back at Seattle is awesome.

 

http://www.saltys.com/seattle/

[Joy2Day]

We are sailing on the Westerdam on 7/9 RT Seattle. Would appreciate some answers:

 

1. What time did the checkin doors open?

 

2. We do not plan to take the HAL transp. from the port to the airport. Were there plenty of taxis? Did anyone arrange other advance transp? If other advance arrangements were made, how did you know what time to be met? I've seen ads for advance pickup resv., but have no idea when we will be allowed to disembark.

 

3. Any good Seattle eating spots to recommend?

 

4. We plan to eat in the Pinnacle for one night. Any opinions on which night is best, based on the dining room menu?

 

5. Was there a pool side Bar-B-Q for one night? If so, which night & how was the food? We ate at the Westerdam Bar-B-Q in March & the meat was dry & tough. If still not any good, maybe we will eat at the Pinnacle that night.

 

We love the Westerdam & with just a few exceptions, the food has usually been good. How was everything during your cruise?

 

Thanks in advance for your help & I'm sorry your cruise is over! :(

 

Just back from the 6/11 sailing -- 2nd load of laundry in the washer. :( We did not arrive at the pier until 2:15 and did not eat in the Pinnacle, so I can only help with a couple of your questions.

 

I had an 11 am flight out of Seattle today. I was assigned to one of the very first disembarkation groups. I did not use express disembarkation and had an expected time of 8:15. Disembarkation started early today, and my group was called at 7:45. Taxis were readily available at the pier -- head toward your right past all the busses, then cross to the area behind them. Even with trouble finding my luggage, I was checking in at the airport at 8:30 and at my gate by 8:45. Keep in mind that I beat the airport rush by a large margin!!!!

 

There was a Lido Pool Salmon Bake/BBQ for lunch in Ketchikan. We were scheduled for a culinary class at 2 pm, so we didn't eat there, but it smelled wonderful.

[Scrumpy]

We ate at Pinnacle for lunch the day we were at Hubbard Glacier. It was a wonderful way to enjoy the views. If you like beef, I would recommend this. They had a special for that lunch; I believe it was $15 p.p. and included 3 courses (I think!) and a glass of wine. We aren't huge Pinnacle fans (DH isn't big on beef and we like the DR service better; it's warmer), so chose lunch rather than give up a dinner. My tenderloin was excellent!

 

We got to the pier before 11:30AM and people were boarding. It wasn't crowded and we seemed to be among the first aboard - that was on Oosterdam, so the time may be a little different for Westerdam - wouldn't expect a huge variation, though.

 

There were a lot of taxis. We probably waited ten minutes max for a taxi. It was well-organized. We used Seattle Best Limo for airport pick-up the night before and then to go to the terminal from the hotel. We didn't use them after the cruise since the post-cruise hotel was only a few minutes away. On our cruise, the vast majority of passengers were off the ship by around 9AM; we were off a few minutes after and it was obvious that the rush had passed, although there were still a few people waiting in their rooms. If you arrange a driver and a reasonable "best guess" time, they will wait or may be able to come earlier if you are off sooner. I think the companies/drivers allow for time variations. The man who drove us to the terminal had already taken passengers from the ship to the airport earlier that morning. They try to get those with the earliest flights off first, or I assume that's the point of the debarkation info, LOL!

 

In Seattle, I enjoyed the filet mignon at Metropolitan Grill. I'd say it was one of the very best I've had in years - maybe ever. DH had something else and didn't enjoy it as much. I tried a bite of his and it tasted fine to me:D . Sadly, neither of us remembers what it was...but it wasn't beef.

http://www.themetropolitangrill.com/index.cfm

 

We had Sunday brunch at the Space Needle; it was much better than we expected. We enjoyed it and the views are great! It is a little over-priced, but if you subtract the $14 p.p. that you'd pay just for the ride up to the observation deck, it becomes more reasonable. Yeah, it's kinda cheesy, but it's fun. We stayed a couple of hours. Service was very good; we were simply happy to sit there and watch the world go around - literally! (They have regular lunch and dinner menus, too; depending on your travel plans, you could have Sunday brunch here).

http://www.spaceneedle.com/restaurant/

 

Ya'll have a great time on your cruises!!! Sorry I can't help with specific Westerdam info. I'm sure someone else will step up. Have fun:) :)

[twoatsea]

Thanks everyone; good info. I emailed some of it to my brother; we are going as group of 4 couples.

 

DebLeonard, the dining spot looks good (I checked out their menu). Yum, yum! Hope you let us know about your cruise. Happy sailing! :)

 

Joy, I am so sorry that you are back to the reality of laundry! :( When you said "expected time of 8:15", were you able to get an approximate time from HAL or just your estimation? What is express disembarkation & how does one get it? Our flight is 12:30pm. It would be nice to beat the airport crowd.

 

Scrumpy, lunch at the Pinnacle sounds like a good idea. I'll have to get with the others. The Met Grill sounds good too. The Space Needle sounds wonderful, but not much fun without my hubby. He would freak because it is more than 3 stories off the ground. :eek: Oh those phobias! Not really complaining though - mine is tunnels! That's fun when the only way to "there" is either over a very high bridge or a very long tunnel!

 

By the way, does anyone know - I noticed our sailing is at 4pm. We are accustomed to 5pm. So, am I correct to assume the life boat drill will be at 3:15? Don't want to miss sailaway :) We have early dining, so the early drill & sailing will give us time to freshen up - we don't usually get that on sailaway day.

[Joy2Day]

Because my flight time was so early, someone in customer relations called me to discuss my plans. She originally gave me the 8:15 time as the estimated time for disembarkation to start. The disembarkation talk on Saturday and Sunday's announcements all continued to reference 8:15 as the expected time for disembarkation to start.

 

Express disembarkation is where you take all your own bags off the ship. This started about 7:15-7:30 am. You will receive a disembarkation form mid-week and can select Express there; otherwise, you are assigned a color based on your flight departure.

 

The muster drill was at 3:15 pm. The Sun Princess pulled out first, then the Westerdam. The NCL Sun departed from Pier 66 around the same time.

[richcrow]

Twoatsea,

 

It seems that everyone has answered most of your questions. So, I thought that I would give you a little insight into one good reason you might consider using HAL transportation to and from the airport. If you do use HAL's transfers, you don't have to worry with your luggage anymore after you give it to them at the airport. But the best reason we discovered was during disembarkation. If you are booked for HAL transfer to the airport, you will be included in the first group to leave the ship no matter what time you flight is scheduled. Our flight was scheduled to leave Seattle at 10:30 pm and we were in the first group off of the ship after express dis embarkation. I think the reason for this is because they want to not tie-up their Greyline buses any longer than they have to.

 

Richard

[ugminer]

I agree with Richard on HAL transportation. We were not off the ship first thing like he was but at the airport they had people there in tents to check our luggage and get us our boarding passes. We bypassed that line in the airport and went straight to security ( I know, it's a necessary evil) This was our first cruise and I way overpacked so we welcomed not having to lug our bags any farther than we had to. I felt the price they wanted was reasonable Deb