Home / Cruise hours
Your hours ashore, counted the way we count them before we quote.
Every cruise-day plan on this site starts with the same arithmetic: your deadline, minus a buffer we will not shave, minus your start. This page runs it on your ship's actual times — for a boarding day before all-aboard, or a debark day that ends at Sea-Tac. No name, no email, no quote until you ask for one.
Use the all-aboard time from your cruise documents, not the sailing time — they differ by 60 to 90 minutes. If you only know the sailing time, take an hour off it.
The answer
Set the times on the left and the window appears here, with the tours that fit it and the ones that honestly do not.
The same answer without a calculator
Hours ashore, and what they honestly buy.
| You have | From | What fits |
|---|---|---|
| 4 hours ashore | Pier 66 | The city loop, or the Market plus the Locks. Nothing out of town. |
| 6 hours ashore | Pier 66 or 91 | Snoqualmie Falls and back, or the full city loop with time to eat. |
| 8 hours ashore | Either pier | Boeing and Mukilteo, Woodinville, or Bainbridge with the ferry both ways. |
| Post-cruise, flight that evening | Either pier | A full day with your bags aboard, finishing at Sea-Tac rather than the pier. |
By tour
How big a window each tour needs.
| Tour | Needs | From, per vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| The Seattle City Tour | 3h | $405 |
| Snoqualmie Falls & the Valley | 4h | $540 |
| Bainbridge Island & the Ferry | 5h | $675 |
| Boeing & the Future of Flight | 5h | $675 |
| Tacoma & the Museum of Glass | 5h | $675 |
| The Rainy Day | 5h | $675 |
| Woodinville Wine Country | 5h | $675 |
| Seattle in a Day | 6h | $810 |
| Skagit Valley Tulips | 6h | $810 |
| The Cruise Day | 6h | $810 |
| Leavenworth | 10h | $1,350 |
| Mount Rainier | 10h | $1,350 |
| Mount St. Helens | 10h | $1,350 |
| Olympic National Park | 11h | $1,485 |
Hours are pickup to drop-off, driving included. A tour fits when its hours sit inside your usable window — we will not book one that does not.
Questions
The timing questions people actually ask.
How much time do I get ashore on a Seattle cruise day?
Most Seattle turnarounds give you six or seven usable hours. Passengers are typically off the ship between 07:00 and 09:00 depending on their disembarkation group, and all-aboard is normally 60 to 90 minutes before sailing. We subtract a further hour from your all-aboard time so you are back at the gangway early, not at a sprint.
How early should I be back at the pier before all-aboard?
We plan every cruise day to have you back at the terminal a full hour before the all-aboard time your cruise line set — not the sailing time, which is later. That hour covers the drop-off, the terminal and the gangway with margin to spare.
Can I do a tour after my cruise if I fly out the same evening?
Yes. With your bags in the vehicle — or sent ahead with Port Valet — a debark morning plus an evening flight is a genuine full day. We finish at Sea-Tac instead of the pier, planned so you are at the kerb two hours before a domestic departure.
Can I fit Mount Rainier before or after a cruise?
No, and we will not sell it to you. Mount Rainier needs about eleven usable hours and a turnaround day gives you six or seven. Snoqualmie Falls is the mountain trip that honestly fits a cruise window.