Each way. If it's a weekday you'd be looking at ~40 min. travel time as well.

I just looked on Map Quest and they indicated 11 mins / 4.58 miles from the Best Western Loyal Inn to the Water Way cruise port in Renton. How does that come to a $50 - $60 taxi bill and a 30 - 40 minutes drive? The cruise starts at 4pm on a Friday.

Can't comment on the estimated taxi bill because I seldom use taxis, but I would take the Mapquest time with a grain of salt.

Mapquest is in error. Here's the Google map showing directions. It's 16 miles by the shortest route, which entails transiting downtown Seattle, the Mercer Island floating bridge, Mercer Island itself, and finally I-405 through some of the thickest and slowest traffic areas that road traverses. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...08647&t=h&z=12

According to this website, http://www.taxifarefinder.com/main.php?city=Seattle , the fare would be around $50. I think that's a bit optimistic owing to traffic congestion - the route would be among the most heavily traveled roads in the region. The same site indicates a fare from the airport to my house that is around $7 less than I actually pay off the meter in numerous trips, so I'd put the $47 to the dock closer to $50 - $52.

Note the same map site shows "40 minutes in traffic." For a 4 PM departure on a Friday, I'd allow more like 60 minutes - the Renton dock is adjacent to the Boeing 737 plant, which IIRC has a shift change around 3:30 or so. We're talking about a lot of cars on all the region's roads at that time.

Thanks everyone for the information. I finally just went to the source and asked Waterways directly. They actually have two piers that their cruises go out of. They stated Renton was about 30 minutes and their other is 4 miles. Of course we want the Renton one, so debating if paying that much for a taxi would be worth it.

Why not just rent a car? There's a Budget Rent a Car office around a block from the Loyal Inn, and a 2-day rental after Labor Day will run about $60 all in. (It would be about $120 if you pick it up at the airport and drop it downtown, owing to our horrendous airport taxes and fees; however if you consider the price of a taxi or towncar from Sea-Tac to the Loyal Inn it might be close to a wash.)

Anyway, if there are two of you then you can use the HOV lanes, which will cut the rush-hour time needed to get to Renton, plus you'll have the car if you want to explore some of the neighborhoods that are hard to reach by public transportation - maybe have dinner one night on Lake Union or Shilshole Bay, or a fab sunset dinner in West Seattle... many options. I imagine the Loyal Inn charges for parking ($10 per night is the going rate) but after 6 you could park on the street; there's a lot of street parking in the area, as well as inexpensive pay lots all around.

There will be 4 of us (my spouse and I and my elderly parents)we really didn't want to rent a car.

I looked around some more and found a Murder Mystery dinner cruise on Argosy. A little more expensive ticket wise, but not so far to get there.

If it was just my spouse and I we would do the cruise in Renton and just cough up the cab fare.

I think using Argosy instead is an excellent alternative.

I recommended that on the 17th. Good choice.

well I *thought* about it on the 16th but didn't want to sound bossy
;-)

Thanks everyone with suggestions and information. They all were apprecaited. We didn't want to do an "typical/standard" dinner cruise as we have been there, done that so many other trips. I personally would prefer the Happy Hour cruise, but my parents would enjoy the Murder Msytery more. Not so much a drinker as we are.

Any other suggestions for things to see and do? So far, we have dinner at the Space Needle, The Music Project Experience, the underground tour, a walking food tour of various restruants, the dinner cruise, and a 3 hour city bus tour of Seattle/close surrounding areas. That seems like a lot for 2 1/2 days.

Underground Seattle was a fun tour we went on--it was fairly short (maybe an hour or two of walking) and had people of all ages. Also liked Pike's Market--lot of lovely flowers & food. Bought D a handmade journal with handmade paper! Ate a nice meal at Museum of Modern Art, MOMA.

If you haven't booked a room yet, have you looked into the Silver Cloud Inn Lake Union? They have a free shuttle downtown and there's convenient access to the downtown trolley. Prices are usually good, but I haven't checked the rates for your dates.

HImom, Do you mean the downtown Seattle Art Museum (SAM)?

Narnya, yes we are booked at the Best Western Loyal Inn. Got a great rate for $107 per night.