Hi Gim,
To answer your specific questions:
- In other years I would have told you to book a hotel downtown but now, book at the airport unless you are sailing out of Pier 66. If you are, you can book the Marriott Waterfront or the Edgewater. Do not stay in downtown if you can avoid it. (I will explain why below).
- Your only real option for your luggage is to use the luggage service that Bob mentions above. To go 20+ miles south to the airport and then back again just won't work time-wise. Check with your cruise line. Some of the cruise lines let you check in your bags and you don't see them from the night before you disembark when you put them outside your stateroom until you get to the luggage carousel at home. They will get them to the airport and check them for you. It's pretty awesome but there is a charge and not all cruise lines do that.
- If you are disembarking at Pier 66 walk up the waterfront and cross over to Pike Place Market. One of the best places in the city. If you are at Pier 91, you will need an Uber/Lyft or taxi. It's too far to walk. If you do go up to the Market, do not go passed the Market into downtown. Again, explained below.
- If you want to see the Space Needle or anything at Seattle Center (Chihuly Museum of Glass is awesome) take an Uber/Lyft/cab. Do not try and walk it.
- Under no circumstances should you try and use the bus system in the downtown core. Again, explained below.
Here's what's going on in Seattle right now:
As a person who LOVES Seattle and loves living here I hate to say this but know it needs to be said:
If you come to Seattle as a cruiser...be careful. Downtown Seattle is NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE. This letter to the editor appeared in The Seattle Times this morning and I felt those of you from out of town need to be aware before you come this summer for the reopening of the Alaska season. It is from a Seattle business owner who has a business on a street you have to cross to get from the downtown hotels to the Pike Place Market. Be aware!
"I am watching a block of downtown Seattle die. From my office on Third Avenue between Pike and Pine streets, in recent weeks numerous tents have been erected. More keep coming. No one has come to remove them. Daily, I observe people passed out on the street with needles in their arms. I must watch my step to avoid human excrement.
We have 30 employees in our firm. They do not want to return to work because they fear getting off the bus. Our offices have been burglarized four times in 12 months.
I am not conservative. Homelessness has complex causes and must be addressed through a variety of means. But allowing tent dwellers and drug users to occupy a city block is not acceptable. What message does this send to the businesses on the block and tourists who visit our city? Our company will not renew our lease if this persists.
Two blocks from Pike Place Market, where Wild Ginger previously welcomed diners pre-theater or symphony, now only remains graffiti, trash, drugs and tents. Are we willing to let what appears to be less than 300 people destroy a block of economic activity in our city? Apparently, we are."
That about covers it all right there. Check out this Instagram account. It details how bad things are in the city right now. https://www.instagram.com/seattle.looks.like.shit/
It was getting better but this week has been a LOT worse. Mentally ill woman throwing rocks at cars and at a senior citizen with a cane. Tackled by passerby. Passerby threatened with arrest.
Another mentally ill person destroying cars including a meter maids vehicle. Police showed up and said there was nothing they could do because it was only property damage.
We are going to hell pretty quickly. Be very careful.
This makes me so sad but you need to know. Be careful when you are here.
