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🚢 Cruises
Seattle cruises
Two cruise piers, two different days. Choose by your booking — your cruise line picks the pier — then open the pier-specific page for time-budgeted shore-excursion options, embarkation timing, and emergency cab estimates if you cut it close.
Carnival Spirit sailing from Pier 91 today.
⚽ FIFA World Cup overlap — June + July 2026
Sailing on a match day? Build a buffer.
Lumen Field hosts six FIFA World Cup matches on Jun 15, 19, 24, 26 and Jul 1, 6. The pre- and post-match windows gridlock downtown and the waterfront — both piers are affected. The two days that matter most for cruise passengers:
- Jun 19 — USA vs Australia (noon kickoff). Coincides with Juneteenth. Citywide capacity. A morning embarkation will run into the pre-match crowd build-up; an afternoon embarkation hits the post-match wave.
- Jun 26 — Egypt vs IR Iran (8 PM kickoff). Pride weekend overlap. Most embarkation completes before kickoff, but post-disembark traffic that evening will be heavy.
Add 2–3 hours to your normal terminal buffer if your embarkation or disembarkation falls on any of the six match days. Take Light Rail or pre-arranged terminal transport rather than rideshare — surge will be punishing.
Step 1 — Find your pier
Which pier is your cruise sailing from?
Your cruise booking confirmation lists Pier 91 or Pier 66. Verify the morning of embarkation — do not assume from your cruise line alone, since some lines use both piers depending on ship and date.
🚢 Pier 91
Smith Cove Cruise Terminal
2001 W Garfield Way, Seattle 98119
Industrial waterfront, ~3 miles north of downtown. Most large Alaska sailings.
Walking from terminal: Nothing walkable from the terminal. Cab or rideshare for everything off the ship.
Cruise lines using this pier: Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, Cunard, MSC, Virgin Voyages
Open Pier 91 guide →
🛳️ Pier 66
Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal
2225 Alaskan Way, Seattle 98121
Downtown waterfront. Walking distance to Pike Place, the seawall, and Colman Dock ferries.
Walking from terminal: Pike Place Market is 8–10 minutes uphill. Colman Dock (Bainbridge ferry) is 12 minutes south on foot.
Cruise lines using this pier: Norwegian, Oceania, Windstar, Silversea, Cunard
Open Pier 66 guide →
Step 2 — Plan the surrounding day
Before and after the ship
Before your cruise
Most Alaska cruise passengers fly in the day before. Hotel choice, rental-car return, what to do with the afternoon before boarding, and how to get to the pier without missing the ship.
Open before-your-cruise →
After your cruise
Disembarkation morning, the 4–8 hour gap between leaving the ship and an evening flight, where to stash luggage, and getting from pier to Sea-Tac on a deadline.
Open after-your-cruise →
Where to eat & stay
Twelve cruise-passenger picks beyond the main day-before page — six Pike Place restaurants, four waterfront seafood spots, and two more Seattle hotels in Belltown and the U-District.
Open the directory →
Honest note
These pages are written for the cruise-passenger frame: hard timing, fixed origin, hard deadline. We try to give specific times, distances, and cab estimates rather than soft recommendations. If a piece of timing here is off — last ferry, walk distance, parking rate — we want to know. Email hello@seattle.net with the correction.