Seattle: hotel, transportation and things to do:

Hotels and Shuttles:  
We’ve stayed in downtown Seattle twice times, have done Pike’s Market, etc. so we are just looking for a basic hotel. Know that many sections are hilly and if you have walking issues, bad knees, you might need to taxi or Uber around.

Last time, we chose to stay near Seatac and found a great hotel that is very highly rated on TripAdvisor. It is the SleepInn Seatac. They offer a complimentary breakfast and a free shuttle for a 2-mile radius and airport. We chose this one again in Oct 2017 and it was great.

Here’s what we did wrong the first time:  We didn’t know about Seattle Express! We chose Shuttle Express for our trip to the cruise port. The hotel shuttle took us to the airport, and we waited until the Shuttle Express van was filled up in the garage before we left.

The hotel staff advised us to contact Seattle Express for the trip back. What an efficient run!

So, here is what we did in 2017: Booked  Seattle Express to pick us up at the Sleep Inn Seatac to go straight to the cruise port. We were able to choose the time we left months before the cruise.

That said, many of the travel websites show the hotel as fully booked (other cruisers know about this great place). I found a room on their own website. $94 +tax.

Good luck! BTW- we stayed an extra day or two in 2013 and took the light rail to see a Mariner’s game. The light rail is a breeze!

Pike’s Market (for those of us who have seen this place before, they are opening up a newly expanded area in June, 2017.

http://pikeplacemarket.org/

Boeing Plant Tours (largest building in the world!)

https://www.futureofflight.org/

Chihuly Gardens and Glass (next to the Space Needle in Seattle Center)

http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

Here is a clip from my review from 2013, so the prices have gone up.

Seattle: we arrived at Seatac in the evening and quickly found the free shuttle for Sleep Inn Seatac. The front desk was consistently friendly and helpful and our room was very good. I didn’t realize until our post cruise stay that we were put in a handicapped room because we had the senior rate. The room was near the ice machine in the hall and I could hear it throughout the night. The breakfast the next morning had the usual choices, both healthy and hearty and was well stocked.
We had decided to take the hotel shuttle to the airport and pick up Shuttle Express from there. We didn’t realize there was a better option: Seattle Express picks you right up at this hotel and goes right to the piers for $12 pp. Shuttle express was fine and seems to have the larger share of the cruise market but cost us $22 pp. from SeaTac. We made arrangements with Seattle Express to take us back to the hotel post cruise and this was a wise decision.
We had stayed at Downtown hotels on previous cruises and wanted to try the airport hotels. We were very pleased and can recommend the Sleep Inn Seatac with Seattle Express option. Sleep Inn was $71 precruise/$76 post cruise (2013) and is the #1 hotel in the Seatac area as rated by TripAdvisor.

Extensive advice for travel on Seattle’s Wikitravel: http://wikitravel.org/en/Seattle