Getting There & Parking at Port of Seattle

Start with the thing that trips people up. Pier 91 and Pier 66 do not sell the same product, and their published numbers are not in the same units. USP Parking, which runs the Smith Cove lot at Pier 91, publishes a table of zone rates by cruise length: economy, standard, premium, wheelchair transport, and RV and oversize, each with a price for a 7-day, 10-day, 11-day and 28-day cruise. Economy for seven days is $187.00. The operator describes that pricing as all-inclusive, covering service fees, taxes, the free shuttle to your ship and luggage assistance. Republic Parking Northwest, which runs the Bell Street Pier Garage serving Pier 66, publishes a single figure instead: $30 per day for general parking, marked with an asterisk noting it is subject to change, and the Port of Seattle's own page adds the important qualifier that this is not including taxes. So a naive comparison says Pier 66 costs $30 a day and Pier 91 costs $27 a day, and concludes that Pier 91 is cheaper. That comparison is broken in two places. The $27 figure is not a published rate at all, it is $187 divided by seven, rounded up; the same arithmetic explains the '$47 a day' RV figure on the Port's own Pier 91 page, because the RV and oversize zone is $329.00 for seven days and $329 divided by seven is exactly $47. And the $30 Pier 66 figure has tax still to be added while the $187 does not. The deeper point is that this comparison is usually pointless anyway, because you do not get to choose your terminal. Your cruise line does.

• Pier 91 publishes totals for the whole cruise, by zone: economy $187.00, standard $220.00, wheelchair transport $250.00, premium $329.00 and RV and oversize $329.00 for a 7-day sailing.
• Those Pier 91 figures already include service fees, taxes, the shuttle and luggage assistance.
• Pier 66 publishes $30 per day, before tax, and marks it subject to change.
• The per-day figures quoted for Pier 91 elsewhere are the cruise-length rates divided by seven, not published rates.
• Longer cruises are where the units matter most: the Pier 91 table climbs far more slowly than a flat daily rate would.

The zone rate table and the all-inclusive wording are from USP Parking's own site at seattleportparking.com; the $30 daily rate and its subject-to-change marking are from rpnw.com; the 'not including taxes' qualifier and the derived per-day figures are from the Port of Seattle's own pages. All read on the date in the sources below.

This is the question to settle before you look at a single price, because booking parking at the wrong pier in Seattle is not a minor inconvenience. The two terminals are on opposite ends of the downtown waterfront and each is served by a company that has no relationship with the other. Smith Cove Cruise Terminal sits at Pier 91, 2001 West Garfield Street, up in Interbay north of downtown, and the Port lists it as the terminal for Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Virgin Voyages. That is the large majority of Seattle's Alaska capacity. Bell Street Cruise Terminal is at Pier 66, 2225 Alaskan Way, right on the downtown waterfront near Belltown, and the Port lists it as serving Norwegian Cruise Line, including Norwegian Bliss, Encore, Jade and Joy, along with Oceania Cruises on Riviera and Regent Seven Seas on Seven Seas Explorer. The practical consequence is worth spelling out. If you are on a Norwegian, Oceania or Regent sailing you are almost certainly at Pier 66, which means a covered downtown garage, a skybridge, a daily rate and a hard height limit. If you are on anything else you are almost certainly at Pier 91, which means an open-air surface lot, a shuttle, zone pricing and no height limit at all. Almost everything else on this page follows from which of those two sentences applies to you. Confirm it against your own cruise documents rather than against a list, because line-to-terminal assignments do get revised between seasons, and the Port maintains a 'Find My Ship and Terminal' tool for exactly this reason.

• Pier 91, Smith Cove, 2001 West Garfield Street: Carnival, Celebrity, Cunard, Holland America, MSC, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Virgin Voyages.
• Pier 66, Bell Street, 2225 Alaskan Way: Norwegian, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas.
• Different operators entirely: USP Parking at Pier 91, Republic Parking Northwest at Pier 66.
• The two are not interchangeable and neither parking booking transfers to the other.
• Check your cruise documents, or the Port's Find My Ship and Terminal tool, before booking parking.

Terminal addresses and the cruise line assignments for each pier are from the Port of Seattle's own Smith Cove and Bell Street terminal pages, read on the date in the sources below.

The Smith Cove lot is an open-air surface lot with 800 spaces at 2001 West Garfield Way, described on the operator's FAQ as Lot D. It is secured and gated with 24-hour security patrols, and it has no vehicle height restrictions whatsoever, which for anyone driving a truck with a canopy, a van conversion or a roof box makes it the easier of Seattle's two terminals by a wide margin. The zones are simpler than they look. Economy is the discounted zone furthest from the shuttle stops. Premium sits at the shuttle stops. Standard is general parking in between, and there are separate wheelchair transport and RV and oversize zones with their own published rates. Since the shuttle serves the whole lot regardless, the $142 gap between economy and premium on a seven-day sailing buys you a shorter walk across a car park, and nothing else. That is a straightforward call for most people. On timing, the lot operates 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM on cruise days, shuttles run continuously through the peak embarkation and disembarkation periods and typically start around 7:00 AM, and the operator specifically recommends not arriving before opening time. Do not plan a 6:30 AM arrival at Pier 91; there is nothing there for you yet. Reservations are not strictly required for general parking, but the operator recommends them to guarantee a space in peak season, which in Seattle means the Alaska summer, and reservations are mandatory for the RV and oversize zone. Payment runs through a Honk Mobile portal taking Visa, MasterCard and American Express. The cancellation term is the one to note in advance because it is stricter than most: cancellations must be made seven days prior to the booking date. That is a week, not a day, so if there is any real chance your plans change, book with that deadline in your calendar. One last Pier 91 detail worth knowing: the Port offers same-day luggage storage on site at $6 per bag, with bags to be collected by 3pm to avoid a late fee, which is genuinely useful on a disembarkation day when you have a late flight and a free afternoon in Seattle.

• 800 spaces, open-air and uncovered, gated with 24-hour security patrols. No height restrictions.
• Address 2001 West Garfield Way, described on the operator's FAQ as Lot D.
• Economy is furthest from the shuttle stops; premium is at them. The shuttle serves the lot either way.
• Open 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM on cruise days; do not arrive before opening.
• Reservations recommended in peak season, and mandatory for the RV and oversize zone.
• Cancellations must be made seven days before the booking date.
• Payment via Honk Mobile: Visa, MasterCard, American Express.
• Same-day luggage storage at the terminal is $6 per bag, collected by 3pm.

Lot size, zones, hours, shuttle behaviour, reservation and cancellation terms, payment method and security are from USP Parking's own site and FAQ at seattleportparking.com. The luggage storage charge is from the Port of Seattle's Smith Cove terminal page. Read on the date in the sources below.

Bell Street Pier Garage is a genuinely different proposition and, for the right vehicle, a nicer one. It is a covered structure of roughly 1,500 secure spaces with its entrance at 9 Wall Street, east of the railroad tracks, and it connects to the cruise terminal by lift and skybridge: you take the lift to the fifth floor and cross directly into the terminal. No shuttle, no waiting, no standing outside in Seattle weather with your bags. It holds 36 designated accessible stalls. The garage runs seven days a week from 6am to midnight, and reservations are handled through SpotHero rather than by the operator directly, which is worth knowing because it means the booking experience and the cancellation terms are SpotHero's rather than Republic Parking's. Now the constraint that decides this for a lot of drivers: maximum height 6ft 6in. That is a low ceiling. A standard sedan or crossover is fine. A pickup with a canopy, a lifted SUV, a Sprinter-style van, a roof box or a bike rack mounted high is not, and there is no oversize option in this garage the way there is at Pier 91. If you are sailing from Pier 66 in a tall vehicle you need a different plan entirely, and the honest answer is usually to leave the car at home and take a rideshare or a taxi to the terminal, because the surrounding downtown garages have their own clearance limits and none of them offer a cruise product. Drop-off at Pier 66 is comparatively civilised: the Port describes a security officer stationed on Alaskan Way to direct traffic and assist with passenger drop-off, using the curb lane on Alaskan Way in front of the terminal. If someone is driving you and then taking the car home, that curb is where you want them.

• About 1,500 covered, secure spaces. Entrance at 9 Wall Street, east of the railroad tracks.
• Lift to the fifth floor and a skybridge straight into the cruise terminal. No shuttle involved.
• Maximum vehicle height 6ft 6in, with no oversize alternative in this garage.
• 36 designated accessible parking stalls.
• Open 6am to midnight, seven days a week.
• Reservations through SpotHero, not directly with Republic Parking Northwest.
• Drop-off uses the curb lane on Alaskan Way, with a security officer directing traffic.

Space count, address, skybridge access, height limit, accessible stalls, hours and the SpotHero reservation route are from Republic Parking Northwest's own cruise parking page at rpnw.com. The drop-off arrangement is from the Port of Seattle's Bell Street terminal page. Read on the date in the sources below.

If you have cruised from Galveston or Port Canaveral you will arrive at Seattle expecting a ring of independent cruise lots competing on price with free shuttles, and you will find that Seattle's version of that market is much smaller. There are two structural reasons. Pier 91 sits in Interbay, an industrial pocket hemmed in by rail yards and the water with very little spare land, and Pier 66 sits on the downtown waterfront where every square foot of parking is already earning money from office workers, hotels and events. Neither location has the cheap perimeter acreage that off-site cruise parking depends on. What that means in practice is visible if you look at what the reservation platforms actually list around Pier 91. The nearby lots on SpotHero are ordinary neighborhood parking rather than cruise parking: the listed options sit between 0.9 and 1.6 miles from the terminal with walking times from 19 to 35 minutes, at rates ranging from a few dollars to nearly $38. Some of those numbers look attractive next to $187, right up until you picture yourself walking a mile and a half along Elliott Avenue with a week of Alaska luggage, with no shuttle and no luggage assistance at the other end. They are a reasonable option for a day trip and a poor one for a cruise. The hotel angle is similarly narrower than the Galveston or Florida version, and the Mayflower Park Hotel is a clean illustration of why. It runs scheduled shuttles to both the Bell Street terminal at Pier 66 and the Smith Cove terminal at Pier 91 at $15 per guest for the 2026 cruise season, arranged through the bellman, and it is upfront that parking is available during your hotel stay but that it does not currently offer long-term parking for cruise travelers. That is the Seattle pattern in miniature: downtown hotels will very often sell you the ride to the pier, and far fewer of them will keep your car for the week. If a park-and-cruise package is the thing you actually want, confirm the long-term parking element specifically and in writing before you book the room, because a cruise shuttle and a week of parking are two different products here and hotel marketing pages routinely blur them.

• Seattle has far less independent cruise parking than Gulf Coast and Florida ports, for reasons of geography rather than pricing.
• The lots listed near Pier 91 on SpotHero are 0.9 to 1.6 miles out, a 19 to 35 minute walk, with no shuttle or luggage help.
• Mayflower Park Hotel runs scheduled shuttles to both Pier 66 and Pier 91 at $15 per guest for the 2026 season.
• The same hotel states it does not currently offer long-term parking for cruise travelers.
• Treat 'cruise shuttle' and 'park for the week' as separate questions when booking a hotel, and confirm the second one explicitly.

The nearby-lot distances, walking times and rate range are from SpotHero's own Pier 91 destination listing. The shuttle price, the piers served and the long-term parking statement are from Mayflower Park Hotel's own cruising page. Read on the dates in the sources below.

Seattle-Tacoma International is about 15 miles south of the waterfront, and the Port describes it as a 30 to 40 minute direct ride to either terminal. Believe the upper end of that on a summer Saturday. Seattle's Alaska season concentrates sailings into a narrow weekly pattern, and when several ships turn around on the same morning both the airport corridor and the downtown waterfront carry it at once. Getting to Pier 91 by car has one route that matters. From Interstate 5 you take the Mercer Street exit, exit 167, continue about 1.7 miles, turn right onto Elliott Avenue West, then right at the West Galer Street flyover, which everyone in Seattle calls the Magnolia Bridge. That flyover is the pinch point. It is the practical way into the Smith Cove terminal area and it does not have a convenient alternative, so anything that slows it, an incident, roadworks, or simply three ships worth of cars, slows everyone. The Port puts the terminal at about 10 minutes from the city's retail core in normal conditions; on an embarkation morning treat that as a floor rather than an estimate. Pier 66 is easier to reach and harder to park near, which is the trade. It is on Alaskan Way in the middle of downtown, so you are driving into the densest traffic in the city, but once you are there the garage entrance on Wall Street puts you a lift ride and a skybridge from check-in. Pier 66 is also the terminal that connects properly to transit: the Port notes that Sound Transit Link light rail runs from the airport into downtown, from where a short taxi or rideshare finishes the trip. That is a real option for a couple traveling light and a poor one for a family with four large cases. The overall advice is the same as at every Alaska homeport, and it is worth repeating because the consequence here is severe. Do not fly in on embarkation day. A single delayed flight into SEA has no recovery path, the ship sails on schedule, and the next port is a long way north.

• SEA is roughly 15 miles out; the Port describes a 30 to 40 minute direct ride to either terminal.
• To Pier 91: I-5 to the Mercer Street exit (167), 1.7 miles on, right onto Elliott Avenue West, right at the West Galer Street flyover.
• That flyover, the Magnolia Bridge, is the bottleneck into Smith Cove and has no easy alternative.
• Pier 66 is easy to reach and expensive to park near; the garage entrance is on Wall Street.
• Link light rail serves downtown, which suits Pier 66 passengers traveling light far better than Pier 91 ones.
• Arrive in Seattle the day before. Embarkation-day flights into SEA leave you no margin.

The driving directions, the 30 to 40 minute airport figure and the light rail note are from the Port of Seattle's own Smith Cove and Bell Street terminal pages, read on the date in the sources below.