Boeing Tour from Cruise Ship

I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday 5
May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour. Is this
option possible with the time I have and how could it be done without
hiring a car?
thanks in advance
Glen
Australia

"Glen" wrote in message
...
I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday 5
May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour. Is this
option possible with the time I have and how could it be done without
hiring a car?
thanks in advance

I can't answer how you get there, but the deal is that you will have to get
lucky. People start to queue (usually) at about 7:00 and when they open at
9:00 (I think) they give out timed tickets for later in the day. Even on a
slack day, all tickets have gone by about 13:00, on a busy day it could be
that not every one the queue when they open gets one.

Unless Monday is a holiday, Tuesday will be a slack day, early May is
probably middling.

tim

"Glen" wrote in message
...
I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday 5
May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour. Is this
option possible with the time I have and how could it be done without
hiring a car?
thanks in advance
Glen
Australia

Did a quick net search on "boeing tour" and came up - among others - the
following....

http://www.seattletours.us/tours/tou...MSagodj CXQmg
http://www.allseattletours.com/City-...&aid= ltg1140
http://www.viator.com/tours/Seattle/...f=02&aid=g3077
http://www.graylineseattle.com/sight...roduct_id/1318

Looks like all you need do is make your way to one of the indicated downtown
hotels at the designated time. And presumably your ship will be close
enough for a short taxi ride to your chosen hotel. The various tours are
about four hours in duration such that it would seem that you have more than
ample time.

"tim....." wrote in message
...

"Glen" wrote in message
...
I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday 5
May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour. Is this
option possible with the time I have and how could it be done without
hiring a car?
thanks in advance

I can't answer how you get there, but the deal is that you will have to
get lucky. People start to queue (usually) at about 7:00 and when they
open at 9:00 (I think) they give out timed tickets for later in the day.
Even on a slack day, all tickets have gone by about 13:00, on a busy day
it could be that not every one the queue when they open gets one.

Unless Monday is a holiday, Tuesday will be a slack day, early May is
probably middling.

you can ignore that.

It now seems that you can book in advance.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html

tim

Also the Museum of Flight on Boeing Field is an option
also........they have the Concorde and Air Force One tour where you
can go inside and board the planes......

---
http://www.moviesitearchive.com/travel

On Jan 17, 1:09*pm, Glen wrote:
I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday 5
May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour. *Is this
option possible with the time I have and how could it be done without
hiring a car?
thanks in advance
Glen
Australia

"Glen" writes:
I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday
5 May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour.

The first thing to note is that if they say you are docking at 10 am
and departing at 7 pm, what they really mean is you get to leave the
ship at 10:30 or so and they want you back on board by 6 pm, maybe
6:30 at the very very latest. And if it happens that there isn't
space in the dock, you might only be able to go ashore using a boat
(called a tender), consuming more time both ways -- although I guess
that's unlikely at a major city.

Is this option possible with the time I have and how could it be
done without hiring a car?

The factory is in Everett, which is 25 miles (40 km) from Seattle.
Most of the journey is freeway, but of course you have to get to
the freeway. I'd guess that even if you had a car you'd need
something like 45 minutes each way, longer if you hit rush-hour
traffic. By bus it would have to be significantly slower (since
you have to wait for the bus), and by taxicab it would be significantly
expensive.

What you want to do is contact the cruise line and find out if the
tour is available as a shore excursion, which means you pay for it
on board the ship and they supply a bus to take you directly from
the port to the destination and back. This will likely cost a fair
bit more than arranging it yourself, but the payoff is that *they
are responsible for getting you back to the ship on time*. In your
situation I think that makes this option a clear win.

Shore excursions may sell out, so also be sure to find out when is
the earliest you can make a reservation for one. Probably you have
to do it after boarding the ship, but you still want to know *when*
after boarding.

Assuming it's not available as a shore excursion, you aren't doing
it by rental car, and you find the cost of a taxi each way prohibitive,
there are two remaining choices.

First, there are tour companies where you pay one price that includes
a bus from Seattle directly to Boeing in Everett and back to Seattle
as well as a ticket for the tour. One is Seattle Tours, which charges
about $60. I don't know what other companies do this or where in
Seattle the buses are boarded. It is quite possible that if the trip
is run as a shore excursion the cruise line simply uses one of these
tours, but with boarding at the ship (or a separate bus to get to the
tour bus); I don't know.

Second, according to the Boeing web site, there is "limited public
transit" (i.e. bus) service available from Seattle. For details they
just suggest you phone (Seattle) Metro Transit at +1 206 553 3000.
I tried the transit web site http://transit.metrokc.gov and was not
able to identify a service from Seattle to Everett, but that might be
because I didn't think of the right way to look for it. If you want
to consider this route it would probably better to phone them and speak
to a human.

Hope this helps. I've been there myself -- back when they allowed you
to take photos -- but I did it the easy way, by car.
--
Mark Brader "There are three rules for writing the novel.
Toronto Unfortunately no one knows what they are."
-- Maugham

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Worth a try, Glenn.

We did it - but in a rental car - having arrived in Seattle on a Saturday,
and having to leave on Monday (for Brisbane, via Narita and Kuala Lumpur) at
4 pm. We booked the first tour on Monday (internet) morning - got there from
our motel, after checking out early - completed the tour and were checked in
for our NW flight at the airport by 1pm.

Easiest would be as a booked tour from your cruise - but!! If your cruise
arrives at 10 am - and assuming you get ashore by 11am, it should be
possible. Transport will be the key. Why not rent a car for the day?? Not
difficult to do I'm sure - cheaper than a taxi!!

Good luck.





"Glen" wrote in message
...
I will be on a Cruise Ship in Seattle Port from 1000 - 1900 Tuesday 5
May and would like to visit the Boeing Factory for a tour. Is this
option possible with the time I have and how could it be done without
hiring a car?
thanks in advance
Glen
Australia