Port Angeles to Sea-Tac, then to Pier 91

We're thinking of doing a few days on the Olympic Peninsula, then a 7-day cruise to Alaska out of Seattle. Emerald Princess departs Sunday Sept. 16 at 4 pm (I think from pier 91). Are we cutting it too close by spending Saturday night in Port Angeles, return the rental car to Sea-Tac, then take a Lyft to the ship?

Depends on how early you're prepared to get up on Sunday. Figure 3 - 4 hours in transit from PA to Seattle using the Bainbridge Island ferry, or around the same amount of time driving down to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge then back up to Seatac.

What if you split the difference and spent the last night somewhere in between? You could take the ferry from Port Townsend over to Whidbey and spend the night in, say Coupeville, or drive south and spend the night on or near Bainbridge Island... several options.

Seattle and Puget Sound environs traffic is SO BAD and unpredictable, I'm not sure I'd want the stress of that plan the morning of the cruise. Even though it's Sunday, accidents and/or road construction can cause long delays. And Sundays can have long waits for ferry trips. There isn't a home game for the Seahawks, so that's in your favor at least, LOL.

If it was me, I'd come across Saturday night and stay closer to downtown.

We're thinking of doing a few days on the Olympic Peninsula, then a 7-day cruise to Alaska out of Seattle. Emerald Princess departs Sunday Sept. 16 at 4 pm (I think from pier 91). Are we cutting it too close by spending Saturday night in Port Angeles, return the rental car to Sea-Tac, then take a Lyft to the ship?

YES! My personal opinion is that waiting until Sunday morning to travel from Port Angeles to Seattle is foolish, unless you are willing to take the chance of not getting on your cruise! I have seen, literally, busloads of people missing their cruise out of Pier 91 due to one thing or another. It is much better to arrive into Seattle on the previous day and have only a few miles to drive/ride to get to the pier than to take a chance on not making your cruise. Just think of all the things that can happen to delay your arrival at the pier. Accidents, wrecks (others not just yours) road closures, weather. You name it and it can happen. Get most of the travel behind you and have a nice, restful sleep the night before and arrive at the pier well-rested and unstressed, ready to cruise.

Oh, and I was not exagerating about the busloads of people. Four or five years ago we had 4 buses of people coming down to Seattle from Vancouver, B.C. for a Princess cruise. Unfortunately, when the buses arrived at the border, the computers there went down and it was 4 hours till they came back up. The border people decided to process all the small buses first, then the big ones (the pax were in big buses.) Two of the buses made it to the pier in time and got on the ship. One bus arrived but too late and was sitting at the front of the terminal building as the ship pulled away. The 4th bus got misoriented and we watched it drive back and forth over the long bridge that goes over the pier area. It finally made it into the pier area but pulled onto the next pier over. All the people got out of the bus and were waving at the ship hoping it would stop (it didn't). The people on the ship, seeing them waving at them thought they were being friendly and were waving back! Funny, but still very sad. So, out of 4 buses, 2 made it, 2 didn't. Was this ordinary? No, not at all, but they'd have made their cruise if they had arrived the day before.

Oh, and the 2 buses that didn't make it? On their way back to Vancouver, one bus got turned the wrong way on I-5 and headed south instead of north. They didn't realize they were going the wrong way until about 45-60 minutes south in Tacoma. By the time they got turned around, the bus drivers were out of crew rest limits and they had to pull into a motel and put the passengers and driver into motel rooms and they didn't get back to Vancouver until the next day! A comedy of errors? Sure enough, but I'm sure that nobody was laughing. But, as they say, ship happens!

So, please, don't take the chance, drive down from the Sequim/Port Angeles area on Saturday and don't wait till Sunday to make the drive!

Tom