My husband and I wanted to travel someplace new and go all out since we were celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. When on a Royal Caribbean cruise in July 2016, we booked this 7 night Alaskan cruise on the Celebrity Solstice. We originally chose this ship because we knew that it was a more contemporary ship and we were drawn to the spa amenities and the wine bar (among other things).
The night before the cruise, we stayed at the Hyatt House on 5th Avenue N in downtown Seattle. It was the PERFECT choice as the hotel itself was in a great location with a complimentary hot breakfast, and it was only a $12 cab ride to the pier for 3 people with a ton of luggage. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone staying one, or several, nights in Seattle before or after a cruise!
We arrived at Pier 91 at 10:30 AM. The pier was quite crowded as there were two ships in port (Celebrity and Royal Caribbean) and many previous cruise guests were still waiting for transportation while new guests were arriving. We were a little confused as to where we should drop off luggage as the area was not clearly labeled. We asked one pier employee for help and he took us straight to the man who was loading luggage for the Solstice. We double checked that the luggage was indeed going to the Solstice and not the Royal Caribbean ship and when he eased our fears, we left our luggage with him and walked right into the main building. Everything was clearly labeled from here on out and it took us less than 10 minutes to travel through very short lines to receive our Sea Pass card (we took advantage of online check-in a few weeks prior) and walk onto the ship. We were on the ship by 10:45 AM.
As mentioned in my review, Aqua Class is PERFECT for those who would like easy access to the spa and fitness centers and Blu itself is worth the extra money! I would recommend a room on the starboard side of the ship for the best views.