I went on the Argosy Harbor Tour in Seattle as a part of the City Pass I purchased. Their main competitor seems to be Salish Tours. The selling point for Salish is their boats which have stadium seating in the front. The counterpoint is Salish has a recorded audio tour where Argosy has an actual person who can adapt to what is actually in the harbor that day and answer questions.

This is the Salish boat.

Salish looks to be about $5 cheaper on an adult ticket if you’re buying Argosy without having a City Pass.

Argosy is easy to find with the blue canopy. First we have to buy our ticket or in my case redeem City Pass which is done in the office on the other side of the canopy.

Redeeming City Pass for a ticket was quick and easy. I wish I could do it at the canopy without going into the office, but it’s not that far of a walk.

I was concerned about the length of the line but there was room for all of us on the next boat. While we waited this guy with the microphone, Peter, kept us entertained. He was funny.

Spirit of Seattle is one of their boats but not ours. This one is going to be leaving when we get back.

Salish Explorer is our boat.

I was pretty far back in the line and nobody is on the first floor.

On the second floor we have the bar. I’m going to grab a couple beers so I don’t have to come back down here.

A trend I’m noticing around Seattle is a lot of places only carry local beers. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. If you come to this city hoping to drink Bud light, Miller light, or Coors light everywhere you go, you will be disappointed more often than not.

I went with a Lower Deck Lager and a Rainier.

I brought my Lower Deck Lager up to the upper deck and we’re off!

We are coming up on NCL Encore. It’s refueling now and should be leaving soon.

Here is a bit of our narrator talking about the cruise ships.

This is a grain ship.

This group of buildings is the Expedia campus. Apparently it was built just before COVID so people are just now starting to use it.

This is pier 90 which is next to the pier I’m going to be leaving out of.

This is Pier 91 which is my pier. It’s the Carnival pier.

Behind the clouds you can see Mount Rainier which is only visible from Seattle about 90 days a year.

To the other side we have the Olympic mountain range.

One thing about this cruise is it allows is a lot of good city skyline pictures.

Just laying out.

This is a dry dock that has a contact with Washington State ferry and the U.S. Navy. They currently have one of each in dry dock. 

This stealth navy ship is likely waiting to go into dry dock.

Another Washington state ferry.

These ships are what supply remote areas of Alaska. I got to see both ends of this because I saw one of these on a tour in Alaska and the guide asked if anyone knew where it came from: Seattle.

This is a container ship.

Here is another bunker barge used for refueling like the one we saw next to the cruise ship.

Starbucks Headquarters.

These are some coast guard ships. The red one is literally an ice breaker. The other two are cutters.

T-Mobile Park where the Seattle Mariners play.

Lumen Field where the Seattle Seahawks play. If you are interested in a closer look, check out Seattle Stadium Tours.

And we’re coming back around to downtown. The tall building on the right is Columbia Tower. It has an observatory on the 73rd floor. They wanted to make it taller but since the airplanes fly right through downtown to land, the FAA had a problem with it.

Smith Tower was once the tallest building in Seattle. It has an observatory with a speakeasy themed bar at the top. 

And we pulled back in next to the Spirit of Seattle.

NCL Encore is on it’s way.

I enjoyed the harbor tour. It definitely was nice to learn about the different ships and buildings in and around the harbor. I personally would go with Argosy over Salish as long as they have an actual person narrating instead of an audio recording. I think that’s huge.

 

 

 

 

 

• Seattle