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Getting to Pier 91 on cruise morning for Explorer of the Seas


Max and Ruby
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Hello!

I read on another website that if you take a taxi to the Pier you will get to the Pier drop off area faster than if you take a shuttle/uber/private car service. The lady mentioned taking Uber and having to wait for an hour in a que before actually getting to be dropped off. It almost doubled her Uber fare.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Unfortunately for us I have been warned by multiple cruisers that Embarkation is a Zoo and expect to wait.

 

Now this is for Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Sea cruise. Maybe other lines have different policies? Drop off procedures? Just wanted to check ahead of time.

 

Thanks!

A

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Hello!

I read on another website that if you take a taxi to the Pier you will get to the Pier drop off area faster than if you take a shuttle/uber/private car service. The lady mentioned taking Uber and having to wait for an hour in a que before actually getting to be dropped off. It almost doubled her Uber fare.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Unfortunately for us I have been warned by multiple cruisers that Embarkation is a Zoo and expect to wait.

 

Now this is for Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Sea cruise. Maybe other lines have different policies? Drop off procedures? Just wanted to check ahead of time.

 

Thanks!

A

 

I thought when you Uber that your fare is confirmed and agreed on when you confirm your ride in the APP and get picked up?

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No clue! Have never used Uber. Like I said just trying to learn the norm versus someone's bad luck for 1 week.

 

We currently are going with the hotel's shuttle per person rate, but if I can get on ship faster using a taxi that is my plan.

 

A

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I used Seattle Express. They have designated parking spaces at Pier 91 where they dropped us off. Don't know about Uber or Lyft. Seattle Express picked us up at our hotel. I've cruised 3 times from Pier 91 - Carnival, Princess, and HAL - and it was never a zoo and I never waited in a line to be dropped off.

 

Roz

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Taxis aren't flat-rate to or from Pier 91 to anywhere except the airport. So any metered service runs this risk. While there is a taxi queue, they don't skip the line to get into the port (if there is one) and they're subject to congestion in their queue the same way the queue for private cars, Uber and shuttles will be.

 

What I suspect happened was that the person who got the doubled fare was arriving while passengers were still departing the other ship. It is cloggy at times and people picking me up have been delayed.

 

I hate shared shuttles - I'm an only child and I don't like waiting for other people to get their acts together. So I would sooner eat mud than rely on someone else's travel habits to be on time. Your mileage and birth order may vary.

 

What I would do, if being *very* early to the pier mattered to me, is use UberX and if getting into the pier proper is backed up, have the driver divert to the parking area, where the parking shuttles will pick you up and drive you down the pier. I also use this trick to get to the airport terminal when the arrival and departure drives are clogged.

 

Bon Voyage!

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We got off the Legend this morning. Took an Uber from the W in downtown to the pier and it was less than $10. They dropped us off in the taxi lane (but got yelled at because they were supposed to be in another lane apparently). This morning we took an Uber from the pier to the Space Needle (to pick up car rental for day) and it cost $17 because it was "peak time" (rush hour and high demand). Uber and Lfyt are a lane next to taxi but not any longer or further..vet easy to navigate!

 

 

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I got on the Explorer on May 26 and the terminal was a zoo. Uber, taxis and shuttle buses all waited in a line to approach the terminal. The shuttles were allowed ahead of Uber and taxis. I am handicapped and stood outside the terminal from 1130 am until I got on the ship at 4 pm. No wheel chair availability, no bathrooms, if you got out of the line you lost your place, nothing to hydrate yourself.

 

I wrote a letter to Adam Goldstein and have heard back. Hopefully changes will be made.

 

Candie

 

 

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I got on the Explorer on May 26 and the terminal was a zoo. Uber, taxis and shuttle buses all waited in a line to approach the terminal. The shuttles were allowed ahead of Uber and taxis. I am handicapped and stood outside the terminal from 1130 am until I got on the ship at 4 pm. No wheel chair availability, no bathrooms, if you got out of the line you lost your place, nothing to hydrate yourself.

 

I wrote a letter to Adam Goldstein and have heard back. Hopefully changes will be made.

 

Candie

 

 

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Candie , I am sorry that you had that experience. Original source had a similar experience. Being handicapped you should have had access to a wheelchair or some help.

 

My last 2 embarkation experiences in FL have been zoos, and so I have been trying to pre plan!

A

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I have taken about 30 cruises and only one problem with embarkation in Miami until this Alaskan cruise.

 

Every time I stopped to talk to someone on board this was the topic of conversation.

 

In Seattle Royal hired Intercruise to run port terminal operations but Royal said they are at fault for this mess up.

 

Candie

 

 

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My Miami cruise on Carnival Victory June 2015 was a zoo.

 

My Fort Lauderdale cruise on Indy of the Seas this past Nov was a zoo.

 

Don't know why Carnival 's embarkation was a mess... always had good luck sailing out of Port Canaveral.

 

Indy had issues because the boarding computers kept breaking down.

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Wow. Seattle is usually my favorite port for boarding because I've never taken more than fifteen minutes from door to cabin. Usually it's ten.

 

This has to all be on Intercruise - Carnival Corporation brands (CCL, Princess, HAL) all use directly-employed staff at Seattle and it has worked well for years. I'm so sorry you had that experience at our port - I swear it's not usually like that.

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As I indicated earlier, I've sailed Carnival, Princess, and HAL out of Seattle, and it was quick and easy. I thought all the cruise lines operated the same way. I learned something.

 

Roz

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Hello!

I read on another website that if you take a taxi to the Pier you will get to the Pier drop off area faster than if you take a shuttle/uber/private car service. The lady mentioned taking Uber and having to wait for an hour in a que before actually getting to be dropped off. It almost doubled her Uber fare.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Unfortunately for us I have been warned by multiple cruisers that Embarkation is a Zoo and expect to wait.

 

Now this is for Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Sea cruise. Maybe other lines have different policies? Drop off procedures? Just wanted to check ahead of time.

 

Thanks!

A

Two weeks ago I went to pick my son and family up at Pier 91 at 10 AM. I had to wait 40 minutes in the lane for pickups before I got to the pickup area. The pickup and dropoff area holds 15 cars in a single lane. The other lane is for leaving the area. The pickup area is strictly enforced and once a car leaves the area another car is allowed to enter the area. What caused the delay and congestion was 6 limousines ( all without a visible driver), as they were in the terminal with their signs for cruise passenger pick ups. My son said that some of the Limos were at the pickup/dropoff area when you got there, 1 hour before. Pier 91 has 3 lanes that are strictly enforced 1. Taxi 2. Shuttles 3. Private vehicles

Edited by chewap
correct sentence
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Pier 91 has 3 lanes that are strictly enforced 1. Taxi 2. Shuttles 3. Private vehicles

 

Actually, the first lane (counting from the left) is for privately owned vehicles, limos, etc; the second lane is for taxi's, and the third (right-most) lane is for buses which include both the regular sized buses (47to 56 pax) that are taking passengers to the airport or coming in to pick up groups, and smaller Seattle Express & Shuttle Express buses.The first 2 lanes are usually crowded as they're waiting for earlier vehicles to clear the area so they can move in. The 3rd lane is usually pretty clear but sometimes it can get crowded.

 

Fridays can get really crowded as the ships on those days are larger and there may be up to 7000+ passengers disembarking and/or embarking on them. Saturdays and Sundays may have up to 5300+/- on the two ships there. Mondays and Tuesdays only have 1 ship each so crowding is less of a problem on those days.

 

Tom

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So I am screwed... :-)

 

1) Going Royal with their outsourced company in charge

2) Leaving on a Friday. I think 3 ships leaving that day.....

 

Good thing there are 4 of us so we can leave line for bathroom. And yes, if I have a child that needs bathroom I am taking her!

 

Well being prepared is the first step.

 

Will make sure we eat breakfast at hotel, pack snacks and just make the best of it.

 

A

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I'm going to be the contrarian here:

 

Why be there before boarding starts? Seattle is a modestly cosmopolitan metro area with lots of interesting things to see and do. Go do something fun and arrive closer to departure. Being miserable and standing in a line so long you have to ponder bathroom access and packed snacks sounds like the worst possible way to start a vacation.

 

Here's what I would do if facing this, which will be notable for suggesting the use of a Yellow Cab (ugh), since they have access to the taxi lane:

 

1) Plan to get there at your usual time. Arrive by cab and give your baggage to the porters. Have the cab leave the meter running.

 

2). If the lines suck/exist, get back in the same cab and go to the Space Needle, MoPop, the Aquarium, Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place Market, literally ANYPLACE ELSE than standing in line at the pier. Get some lunch.

 

3) come back at 2:30 via UberX or even a nice stroll via Myrtle Edwards Park (it's about a 45 minute walk from downtown to Pier 91).

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So I am screwed... :-)

 

1) Going Royal with their outsourced company in charge

2) Leaving on a Friday. I think 3 ships leaving that day.....

 

Good thing there are 4 of us so we can leave line for bathroom. And yes, if I have a child that needs bathroom I am taking her!

 

Well being prepared is the first step.

 

Will make sure we eat breakfast at hotel, pack snacks and just make the best of it.

 

A

 

Well it will be crowded, that's for sure. :( However, while you are correct that there will be 3 ships cruising from Seattle that day, only 2 of them, Explorer Of the Seas and Celebrity Solstice will be cruising from Pier 91, Crystal Serenity will be sailing from Pier 66. So you're still batting .500 on your assumptions which isn't a bad average. :)

 

 

As to bathrooms, if you're outside of the terminal building, there will be 2 bathrooms outside on the front of the building to the left of the 3 doors labeled 3, 4 & 5. If those are full, or if you're inside, there are 2 bathrooms to the left side of the doorways previously mentioned, one for men and one for women. So that's a solution for that problem! ;p Any other problems I can solve? :D:D (NO!, I will not pay for your cruise! )

 

Oh, and there is a small area outside the building where you can buy coffee, sandwiches and a few other things.

 

Tom

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Sorry pressed post before finished. Captain said it is the closest he has ever gotten to the glacier. Victoria was 60 and sunny. Best weather for an Alaskan cruise ever.

 

Just have a good attitude about the port and you will be on the ship and having fun soon.

 

Candie

 

 

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My advice is get there early, we had a friend drop us off at Celebrity on the 26th and as another person said, it was a zoo!!

We got there around 10:30 after waiting in traffic to get to the pier. Taxis were zooming by because they were going to pick up those getting off the ship. Once out of our car a guy grabbed our luggage and we went into the terminal and were on the ship by 11:35.

I did look out later at the RCCL line and it was crazy long.

When you return carry your luggage off if possible, we were off the ship by 7:30 and catching a taxi was a breeze.

Good Luck!!

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