"Getting to Seattle for Cruise Ships" Top 5 Page for this destination Multi-Choice Tip by glabah

This tip has been inspired by the large number of requests every year for information about getting to cruise ships in the Seattle area. I am no expert in the area of cruise ships, but I have seen enough of the cruise ship activity in Seattle to know a little bit.

Please understand that cruise ships leave from two locations in Seattle. One is directly downtown (Pier 66, called the "Bell Street Pier") and serves some cruise ship companies. There is another terminal northwest of downtown in the Magnolia area (Pier 91, called "Elliott Bay Terminal") which serves other cruise ship companies. See the web site below for the best set of information from the Port of Seattle directly.

As there are two completely different locations, I have created one tip about each of these, as the specifics are quite a bit different for each. The tip you are reading deals mostly with the Bell Street Pier in downtown Seattle, with most of the specifics on the Elliott Bay Terminal is covered at my Elliott Bay Terminal tip at at
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/20266c/

Even as recently as a few months ago, I have run into tourist maps of Seattle that showed a pier 30 south of downtown Seattle for cruise ships. This terminal is no longer in service for passenger ships, and in fact is now a container terminal. If you run into this terminal number in association with cruise ships, start questioning your source of information.

If you do not know where your ship is departing from, please see the web page at the bottom of this tip, which is from the Port of Seattle. Among the pile of useful information, it will tell you a little bit about what cruise ship lines wind up at which terminal. The "Bell Street Pier" is very close to Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. The "Pier 91" location is in Magnolia, which is several miles outside downtown Seattle.

There are quite a number of different options available to get to the two cruise ship terminals. There are taxis, shuttle buses, and free services operated by the various cruise ship companies. If you are looking for airport to cruise ship vanpool services, type "SeaTac Airport Transport" into Google or any other search engine and you will find a host of companies offering their services between the airport and the cruise ship terminal. However, I highly suggest contacting your cruise ship company, as they may have a service already in place that is included with your cruise package. The Port of Seattle also has some information on shuttle services.

If you decide to get a taxi, make sure you know which pier number you will be needing to get to, as that will help the taxi driver. With the two locations for these ships, you can't just tell the driver you need to go to your cruise ship.

The Bell Street Pier in downtown is served by a free transit bus (bus route 99) that also interchanges with a number of other transit routes and goes about 1/2 block away from the Amtrak station. It also goes right by SoundTransit's station, which features connections to a wide assortment of transportation options, including the LINK train service to the SeaTac Airport.

If you are coming into Seattle on Amtrak: The Amtrak station in Seattle is on the south side of downtown, and it is a very quick trip to get from that station to your ship. It is maybe 15 minutes to 20 minutes (depending on traffic) if your ship is in Magnolia, and about 5 minutes if your ship is at the downtown location. There are always a large number of taxis at the Amtrak station whenever a train is due to arrive. If your ship is at the Bell Street Pier, it is a matter of about 15 blocks, and is a fast trip by taxi, and can be made by using the free Route 99 bus, but that bus route has very limited service and will be difficult to handle with a lot of luggage.

If you are coming by plane, then keep in mind that the airport is quite some distance south of downtown. While it is possible to get from the airport to downtown Seattle by taxi, it is expensive. Airport shuttle services can be in the $70 range. Public transit is available, but it is not going to be very useful if you have a large amount of luggage, and the transit train between the airport and downtown doesn't serve anywhere with huge numbers of taxis waiting for your arrival, unlike the Amtrak station does.

There are some local van shuttle services that are contracted by the cruise ship companies to transport their passengers, so you might also want to contact your cruise ship company to see what they suggest in terms of options. You will find that there are usually some free of charge options that are included with your cruise package, based on what the Port of Seattle and several cruise company web sites say abou the matter.

If you go to the web site at the bottom of the page, select the "Parking and Transportation" item from the list at the left side of the page. This will give you a number of options, including shuttle information and various other details.

As you can see in Photo 4:, coming from the south you can not see the huge cruise ship terminal sign on the Bell Street Pier building. Instead, what you see is a huge sign indicating this is the Bell Harbor Conference Center. The entrance to the cruise ship terminal is on the other side of the building. The stairs and elevator you see lead to a pedestrian walkway that connects the Bell Street Pier to downtown Seattle near the north end of Pike Place Market, and provides a convenient point to cross Alaskan Way.

Don't expect there to be much at the cruise ship location in Magnolia, if you are leaving from Magnolia. While it has all the passenger services most people probably expect at the terminal, in terms of nearby restaurants or hotels, there are several restaurants and no hotels that are within usual walking distance of that location (If you don't mind a bit of exercise, it is less than three miles to downtown Seattle, and Elliott Bay Park has a bike path connecting this area with the Seattle Waterfront, but you won't want to do this with luggage.)

Be that as it may, please see may Pier 91 Cruise Ship Terminal tip for a little more information and photos specifically related to that location.

What the Photos Show:

Photo 1: Celebrity Cruises Infinity at Bell Street Terminal, as seen from Seattle to Vashon Island ferry

Photo 2: The Magnolia cruise ship terminal. In the background it is possible to see what looks like a small ship in downtown Seattle. That is the Celebrity Cruises Infinity from the above photo, which should give you some idea as to how far it is between downtown Seattle and the Magnolia cruise ship terminal. See my Magnoliacruise ship tip for more information.

Photo 3: This is the entrance to the Bell Street Pier cruise ship terminal, but you can not see this from the south. This is only how it looks from the north.

Photo 4: From the south, the Bell Street Pier looks something like this, as part of the building is also the Bell Harbor Conference Center. There is little indication from the south this building is the home of a cruise ship terminal. The sign in the previous photo is only visible from the north.

Photo 5: The ship side part of the Bell Street Pier looks like this when there isn't a cruise ship there. Note that in the distance there is a high level walkway going from one of the upper levels of the building to connect to one of the upper decks of the cruise ships.

Nearby Lodging:

Many people ask about being right on the waterfront and within walking distance of the cruise ship terminals. If you are departing from pier 66, then you have several options.

The only true waterfront hotel in Seattle is right next door to Pier 66, and that is the Edgewater Hotel located right on Pier 67. It may be a bit of a walk with luggage, but in reality the walking distance between the two is a shorter distance than you face within many airports.

Some Other Photos that May Help:

Here is a ship at the downtown location, as seen from the Columbia Center Skyview:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/44c757/
In the center right side of the photo, you can sort of see some tiny white blobs. Those are cruise ships at the Magnolia dock.
You can see them a little better in this photo, though the telephoto lens distorts the size of everything a little bit:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/44cd0f/
Slightly to the right of the exact center of the photo, you may notice a road bridge. This bridge has the nearest bus service to the cruise ships that are out there.

Here is another zoomed-in view of the cruise ships at Magnolia:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/460c58/

Please remember that the details of your cruise may include many of the shore side transportation details, so always ask your cruise ship company first.

Mode: AROUND
Type: Other
Website: http://www.portseattle.org/seaport/cruise/cruiselinesandschedules.shtml