Upper Deck Dad

Thanks Upper Deck Dad, I appreciate it.

 

IMO there is no reason not to concentrate on both the cruise and Seattle. If we had had more time in Seattle we would have done a lot more. We have already said we would love to go back to Seattle whether for a cruise or just a Seattle area trip. If we do go back for a cruise we will def spend time in the city and area either before or after the cruise again. Best part for you is you have a lot of time to plan.

 

They feed the Bald Eagles on every excursion on the Aleutian Ballard from what I have seen. They go in to a cove where they know there are Bald Eagles. They actually tell you to set your camera phone video on the slo-mo setting if you have it. The Bald Eagles ended up being on the highlights of the entire trip for my wife.

I know the feeding of the eagles would also be a highlight of my trip as well. There is so much in the area to do that I think a trip (not including a cruise) might be in order. Besides Washington, Oregon has some amazing areas I would like to get to as well.

FWIW - if doing a concentration on Seattle area (w or w/o cruise) plan it for August to Mid-Sept. This tends to be the most sunny or at least a rain free period of the year. Some people say to cruise Alaska in May for best weather and that may be true for the AK Panhandle but not Seattle.

Thank you for that information. That is exactly when I am planning on going. I just watched this years weather and is was near perfect in both locations for this time frame.

Then you'll be pleasantly surprised by Seattle! ;) I've been to NYC, but it was a long time ago. I still remember how busy & noisy it was. We just didn't see the same level of traffic at all when we were in Seattle. We stayed by the Seattle Center so we could hop on the monorail to get downtown when we wanted. Plus, we wanted to see the Chihuly museum, EMP, and Space Needle.

I've looked into all these places and want to see them as well. Also the Skyview Observatory is supposed to have great views and be less crowded than the Space Needle. The Freemont Troll looks interesting too. Another great view is the view from Green Lake. Of course, I want to go to Pike's Market and see the Gum Wall but that can be done within a few hours.

Got reminded of this over Labor Day weekend when we went over to Steamboat Rock state park near Grand Coulee dam to camp. Raining on the West side until the pass then suddenly clear sky and lots of sunshine. On the way we crossed Moses Coulee which is a very eerie place - used for a lot of car commercials for some reason. Discovered a delightful oasis and pretty waterfall at Summer Falls near Coulee City.

 

Doing a loop over to the east side and back is a great suggestion.

This is very tempting and I do need to look into this further. Thank you and Gardyloo for the tips on venturing further out.

By all means focus on the cruise and the sorts of activities you could experience during those 7 days.

 

One thing about the Seattle city area during cruise season is that it's very crowded and very expensive. One of the benefits of getting a car and exploring a little is that you can actually save money - on lodging, food, etc. - even counting the car rental. This region is so diverse and with so many options that you really can see a lot without traveling a great distance.

 

One thing I'd mention, however, is that you could consider what sorts of landscapes you're going to be seeing during the cruise, and consider something of a contrast afterwards, just to cover some more bases as it were. On the cruise you're going to be surrounded by water, forests and mountains the whole time, with the odd glacier thrown in. What if your "extra" days involved something different?

 

Don't know where you live, so maybe this is coals to Newcastle, but let me mention that Seattle is a couple of hours from marvelous "Old West" scenery - sagebrush, canyons, desert, rodeos, Native American reservations, etc.

 

Let me describe a three day loop from Seattle that will knock your socks off:

 

Start by crossing the Cascade mountains on Interstate 90 from Seattle. You'll pass through the foothills (an easy 20-min. detour to Snoqualmie Falls) and then it's up to alpine scenery. An hour east of Seattle you cross the summit and the landscape starts drying out - first into gorgeous ranching country, then orchards. You turn south on I-82 toward Yakima and the country becomes high desert with tumbleweeds and lots of rocks.

 

Then you descend into the Yakima Valley with more orchards and vineyards - and a lot of quality wineries - all over the place. You turn south onto US 97 and travel through the Yakama Reservation and up to Satus Pass, back into near-desert.

 

You then travel through beautiful rangeland - cottonwoods, antelope and red rocks - until you re-enter dry pine forest. You emerge into more ranching land, with Mount Adams looming to the west, then you zigzag down a long grade to the mile-wide Columbia River at Maryhill.

 

At Maryhill you visit the Maryhill Museum, an elegant, eclectic and slightly funky institution featuring numerous original sculptures by Rodin along with other collections (an amazing Native American arts exhibit, for example) in a mansion perched on the edge of the Columbia Gorge. Nearby is a "replica" of Stonehenge.

 

You then travel west along the Columbia River, through the red-rock chasm and eventually start hitting trees again, with Mount Hood now appearing on the horizon across the river. Soon you arrive in the lovely little town of Hood River, Oregon - self-described windsurfing capital of whatever, home to numerous wineries and breweries.

 

Hood River sits at the mouth of the Hood River Valley, with its "fruit loop" road network that passes umpteen fruit stands, vineyards and wineries, U-pick orchards and the like, leading to Mount Hood which looms over the valley. If you want, you can drive up to Timberline Lodge (featured in "The Shining" - heeere's Johnny!) and ride their ski lift up to the permanent icefields above the lodge.

 

Back down at Hood River, you then continue west through the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, with umpteen waterfalls, vista points... visit Herman the Sturgeon at the hatchery at Bonneville Dam, and presto, you're in Portland.

 

From there it's three hours back up to Seatac airport, and zoom, off you go. If you had a full day you could include a side trip to Mt. St. Helens on the way.

 

Here's a map - https://goo.gl/maps/NrifUGCDe4t . You could spend the first night in The Dalles or around Maryhill, then two more around Hood River, see everything and be back at the Seattle airport easily in time to fly out. Or, although the car would be more expensive as it's a one-way rental, you could drop the car at Portland airport and fly home from there.

 

This is a crash course in Pacific Northwest geography, culture and history, easy and inexpensive compared to the same number of days in Seattle. And VERY different from what you'll experience on the cruise.

This is fabulous advice. A friend of mine has done something similar. Going to Columbia River Gorge with all the falls Crater Lake, Painted Hills, Mt Hood, etc. ending with a stay in Portland before flying home from Portland. He had a great trip. Again, more things to think about.

I will say that this depends on where you're from. Being from Chicago, we were shocked at the "rush hour" times for the city. It was nothing compared to what we're used to. And we were also there over the weekend and even then, just wasn't as crowded as what things are in the city during the summer. Now expensive - yes!! We stayed a little further north, near Seattle Center, and it was still a little more than $200/night. The downtown hotels were all around $325-375/night.

I am from the NYC area so traffic is normal for me. I did check the downtown hotel prices and they are quite high. I was looking into the airport hotels and using the light rail or an AirBNB which are a little more reasonable.

We did a little of both. We arrived Fri night for a Sun-Sun and flew home Monday. We didn't do as much as you have planned but if you are interested my trip report is here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2379752

Your review and photos were amazing. I think it has made me realize that maybe I am trying to plan too much into this trip and should concentrate more on the cruise end of it and not so much the Seattle end of it. Luckily, I still have some time to think about it.

The feeding of the bald eagles...is that something that goes along with that excursion or was that just good timing? That is something I would definitely be interested in experiencing.

Thanks both Sequim88 and xlxo for the information and tips.

I see I have some decisions to make.

I think the time of year is pretty well set. That's the only time I will have available to be off.

If I do the post cruise of 3 or 4 nights I will definitely do the one night pre-cruise. I just like to be where I need to be the day before a cruise.

If I don't do the post cruise then I'll do the week before as pre-cruise with no post cruise at all. Lots to see out in the area.

I guess I have some homework to do. :eek:

We did pre-cruise and glad we did. I think I would have been more tired after the cruise. Here's my report on all we did, similar to what you're looking at doing...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2381435

Thank you for the tip about pre cruise vs. post cruise and your trip report which is very helpful. Covers a lot of what I planned to do in Seattle. Very helpful information on the Enterprise service as well. Which location did you initially rent from that provided a shuttle to the pier?

Sunday through Wednesday will help you avoid peak crowds at many visitor destinations, but a lot has to do with your specific timing (what month?) and also what you'd plan to do with those days.

 

The region has many, many places and activities that you could visit or experience, from national parks to picturesque islands and waterfront villages, waterfalls... what are your thoughts on activities?

We are thinking of late August or September. Looking into all the downtown Seattle spots (Space Needle, Pike's Place Market, Underground, etc), Mt Rainier, Olympic Nat'l Pk (Quinault Rainforest) possibly San Juan Islands and/or Mt St Helens, if time permits. Snoqualmie Falls area looks interesting too.

I realize some of these locations are a good distance away from city center.

That's why I'm thinking after the cruise might be a better idea.

I just hope the cruise isn't too tiresome in itself with activities/excursions. Might just end up touring Seattle and the local area around there without venturing out for a few days too.

Trying to decide whether to tour Seattle and the area before our cruise or stay several days after our cruise. If we do it afterward we would just come in for one night before the cruise.

This would mean the difference of touring a Wednesday thru Saturday compared to a Sunday thru Wednesday.

Never really did an extended stay before or after a cruise so have no idea which will work out better.

The cruise is Sunday-Sunday

Splendid review! Sounds like you had a fab time.

Thanks for info on the tour companies as well,

Did you sail the Inside Passage on this cruise?

We are thinking of Pearl for our Alaskan Cruise (Princess and HAL are also in the mix too-any line that does Glacier Bay).

Do they offer free breakfast? How did you get to the pier? How much was it? Thanks

Just go on Tripadvisor or on any hotel site and sort the Sea-Tac hotels by star ratings, and what you want like airport shuttle, free breakfast, free parking, wifi, etc. and it will sort them out for you, then you can choose between the ones that have everything you need.

i've narrowed mine down to the Sleep Inn, Best Western, Hampton, Radisson,

Crown Plaza and Ramada Suites.

I know the Radisson doesn't have free breakfast but believe it's within walking distance to the airport. It doesn't look like the Crown Plaza does either.

I know the Sleep Inn, Hampton, BW and Ramada do.

Thanks for all the great feedback!

I feel very confident in my decision now.

The Sleep Inn is the hotel that I am most interested in at this time. Seems to get good reviews and offers the shuttle.

We would like to book a few night pre-cruise in Seattle but don't want to pay the high prices of the downtown hotels.

The airport hotels are more reasonable and we can take the light rail downtown to visit the city and just use a cab or shuttle company to get to the pier on departure day.

Some of the hotels I am looking at offer free shuttle service within a few miles radius which would be the airport, light rail and nearby restaurants and they offer free breakfast.

Does anyone have any experience with the light rail system and staying up at the airport for a few days?