Seattle is a very popular port city for cruises to Alaska. Our Virgin Voyages Alaska cruise embarks and disembarks at Pier 91 in Seattle. Since we always try to fly into a city of embarkation the day before a cruise, this left us looking for a hotel in Seattle for one night. After much research, we settled on Hyatt House Downtown. While there are a lot of hotels to choose from in the area, the reviews were mixed and none really stood out to us. The Hyatt House has the least negative reviews, so that is why we chose it.

We booked our King Den with Space Needle view through Chase Travel about a month before the cruise. We paid $379 for the room, which was an outrageous amount in our opinion.

When selecting a hotel for a pre-cruise stay it is important to know from which pier your ship will be sailing. Brilliant Lady sails from Pier 91, which is farther north than Pier 66, which is where many other ships sail from. Hyatt House is only a 12-minute drive from Pier 91. Some hotels are located closer to Pier 66 and might be a better choice depending on where your ship sails from.

The Seattle airport is not close to either of the pier locations and it was about a 40-minute drive to the hotel. The cost for the Uber from the airport to downtown was $90 + tip. Of course, this will vary depending on time of day and availability of drivers.

Check in time at the hotel is at 4pm and we arrived at 4:45. While on the flight I checked the hotel website and noticed that they still had rooms available. Our King Den room was listed for $239. significantly less than the $379 we paid through Chase Travel! My tip is, check to see how many ships are going to be sailing out of Seattle on the same day as your ship. If there are only one or two ships, you can probably find a room last minute for a much better rate. In our case, there is only one other ship in Seattle on the same day as Brilliant Lady, and I suspect that is why the hotels are not sold out.

To make matters worse, the clerk at the front desk informed me that I would not get any Hyatt points for the stay since it was not booked through the Hyatt website!

The Hyatt House is located right next to the Space Needle and we upgraded to a Space Needle view room located on the back side of the hotel. Turns out, that was a good decision since there is a monorail that runs right in front of the hotel. So, if you want a quieter room, definitely upgrade to the Space Needle view.

The King Den room was just okay, nothing special. This is obviously an older property that has undergone some refurbishments over the years. The bed is soft and was a little lumpy and the pillows not very comfortable. The bathroom is small with almost no place to put toiletries, but it did have a nice size shower stall that looked relatively new. There was a mini fridge, but no glassware. A coffee maker, but no coffee cups or mugs.

The room can also be very noisy when other guests walk down the hall talking and slamming their doors. But, the worst part was the A/C vent blew cold air right on my head. I ended up getting up at midnight and MacGyverying a way to redirect the airflow using a paper bag and my iPhone mag charger!

The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast buffet from 6:30-9:00 on weekdays (7:00 - 10:00 on weekends).

The offerings at breakfast are pretty much the same as you will find at any mid-level hotel (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, etc.). Scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, potatoes, cereals, yogurt, fruit and so on.

Check out time at the hotel is 11 am, a little early for our 1:30 embarkation time. I did ask the morning desk clerk if we could arrange a late check-out and she did give us until 12 noon.

To be fair everyone has different expectations and many would be fine with this property, especially for a one-night pre-cruise stay. But, for the price we paid? No way.

We would not stay here again and I would not recommend it to our audience.

Hyatt House Downtown Seattle

Le Germain Hotel - Quebec City, Canada