Seattle: best hotel, rental car

[TampaMom2Girls]

I apologize for posting what has probably been addressed a number of times. But I did truly try to search out the answer on my own, but am getting very confused. so I'm going to post, no flames please...

 

Here is our situation:

Sailing out of Seattle June 28th on Princess. Flying into Seattle June 27th, staying overnight. Would like to rent a car from the airport, and heard there is a rental car return at the cruise terminal but cannot find any information. I don't know the seattle area at all, so we don't know where the better place to stay is: near terminal, near downtown, near airport??

 

My question is this: Can seasoned travelers tell me:

1: is there a rental car return at the cruise terminal, and if yes, what company?

2: can you recommend a hotel or location that is best when sailing out of peir 91 (that is Princess' terminal, correct?) Would like to do a little sight-seeing in Seattle as long as we have the whole day before the cruise, and will be getting a rental car.

 

Thanks in advance. Trying to do some planning but i don't seem to be making progress.

[SeattleCruiselover]

I apologize for posting what has probably been addressed a number of times. But I did truly try to search out the answer on my own, but am getting very confused. so I'm going to post, no flames please...

 

Here is our situation:

Sailing out of Seattle June 28th on Princess. Flying into Seattle June 27th, staying overnight. Would like to rent a car from the airport, and heard there is a rental car return at the cruise terminal but cannot find any information. I don't know the seattle area at all, so we don't know where the better place to stay is: near terminal, near downtown, near airport??

 

My question is this: Can seasoned travelers tell me:

1: is there a rental car return at the cruise terminal, and if yes, what company?

2: can you recommend a hotel or location that is best when sailing out of peir 91 (that is Princess' terminal, correct?) Would like to do a little sight-seeing in Seattle as long as we have the whole day before the cruise, and will be getting a rental car.

 

Thanks in advance. Trying to do some planning but i don't seem to be making progress.

 

At this time, there is no rental car vendor at either Pier 66 or Terminal 91. This was to have been announced 6-8 weeks ago, and has not, so it is not looking good for this to happen before at least the first week of the season. Closest would be downtown, and there are hefty fees to drop off somewhere other than where you pick up.

 

 

Look for hotels either downtown or Queen Anne, as there are no properties in the Terminal 91 area proper.

[NWWanderer]

There's really no reason to rent a car IMO--take a cab or shuttle from the airport to downtown. Any hotel in the downtown core will be within walking distance of mosts of the sights you'll want to see with just an overnight here. Rentals at the airport are extra expensive due to airport taxes and fees in any event, plus you'll pay for parking (most hotels charge $30-35/night).

[TampaMom2Girls]

Seattlecruiselover and Wanderer, thanks for the input. I'm still confused, unfortunately. Now that we've decided not to rent a car, I've been looking at maps but am confused as to what neighborhood exactly is "downtown". I see so many differently labeled neighborhoods and can't figure this out. I wish I knew the area better, but that's what the boards are for, right?!

 

Our plan is this: arrive Sea-Tac 2pm Saturday, get a cab to whatever hotel we get in "downtown", walk around, see the sights (i'd like to see Pike Place market), then get a cab the next morning to Pier 91 (that's Princess, correct?).

 

any suggestions? when you say "downtown", what exactly am I looking for?

[SeattleCruiselover]

Seattlecruiselover and Wanderer, thanks for the input. I'm still confused, unfortunately. Now that we've decided not to rent a car, I've been looking at maps but am confused as to what neighborhood exactly is "downtown". I see so many differently labeled neighborhoods and can't figure this out. I wish I knew the area better, but that's what the boards are for, right?!

 

Our plan is this: arrive Sea-Tac 2pm Saturday, get a cab to whatever hotel we get in "downtown", walk around, see the sights (i'd like to see Pike Place market), then get a cab the next morning to Pier 91 (that's Princess, correct?).

 

any suggestions? when you say "downtown", what exactly am I looking for?

 

Actually, downtown should be labeled as downtown on most of those maps. Consider it to be the area roughly from the Sound to about 8th Av running east and west, and about Bell St (give or take) to James St going north to south. The downtown hotels are pretty much within that core, other than those that are in Queen Anne/Seattle Center (but those are two different neighborhoods).

 

Seattle is a city of neighborhoods. None of them are particularly large, and there are lots of them. But the above should find you the hotel that you are looking for.

 

Yes, taxi to Terminal 91.

[dfitz]

I just went through a lot of what you're trying to figure out ... I got it all done this past weekend! We have the added bonus of figuring out getting back/forth from Seattle to Vancouver for our cruise the end of May :) rt flights for 3 to SEA are less than $500total, compared to about $1200 to fly into Vancouver! So we're incorporating a fun day and overnight in Seattle at the beginning, and a day in Vancouver on the way back, and a r/t Amtrak ride for the cheaper air :p

 

I got a lot of suggestions of hotels from various threads here, and then I went to Mapquest, typed in the address for a place I knew was close to the downtown/Pike Mkt area (Space Needle Sky City, 400 Broad St, Seattle, WA 98109) ... a page comes up that maps that specific address, but from there you can go a little ways down from the top and you'll see a box that says "Search Nearby" ... go to the right side of that search area and choose hotels from the dropdown menu ... that will bring you to a list of 150 hotels in the "downtown" area (too many to list in one place so you have to page through), all are marked on the map and w/ hotel website links, so you can decide which hotel location is best for you. I ended up choosing the W Seattle Hotel which you can google for more info, PanPacific was also recommended and was running a supersaver special rate of $139 (I think rooms are normally closer to $300+) so a very good rate if not sold out for your dates.

 

I also orginally planned to rent a car, but then decided it's going to be easier to catch a cab (about $30) from Sea-TAc to our downtown hotel, and from there it sounds like we can walk or bus everywhere. Sounds like parking is difficult/in demand and expensive (most hotels seem to charge an extra $18-30/night). Most of the downtown hotels I spoke w/ offer some type of shuttle or will arrange cabs for you, so I'd recommend calling to see what kind of arrangements various hotels will provide to get you to the pier ... the W has an "Acura Ambassador" to take us to Amtrak station free of charge, they'll also drive us to the SpaceNeedle, but not back for some reason (or maybe it was because we are going for evening dinner there & they don't drive there at that time of the day).

 

Good luck w/ your planning ... and have a fun cruise!