Seattle CityPASS Review

Seattle CityPASS Review

On our first visit to Seattle, we bought a Seattle CityPASS in order to visit a bunch of our “must-see” Seattle attractions. Being that we had never visited the city before, we wanted to be sure we saw all the best things to see in Seattle. The CityPASS Seattle includes admission to 5 things to do in Seattle, each of which is located within the city limits and was easily accessible by walking and public transportation.

Seattle CityPASS Options

• Space Needle
• Seattle Aquarium
• Argosy Harbor Cruise Tour
• Museum of Pop Culture OR Woodland Park Zoo
• Chihuly Garden and Glass OR Pacific Science Center

Seattle CityPASS with Kids

We had two little kids with us for this trip but only had to pay for one child admission. My younger daughter was only 20 months at the time and was free! If you are looking for things to do with kids in Seattle, the Seattle pass is a great option. For the two attractions that we got to choose one or the other, we chose the more kid-friendly options. But for my next trip to Seattle I’d love to visit the two we skipped. Here are our thoughts on each of the attractions we saw on our tour of Seattle.

1. Space Needle

We went to visit when it first opened in the morning around 9 AM. Unfortunately, we still had to wait in a line to ride the elevator to the top. The girls were definitely a little bored standing in line waiting to go up. Strollers have to be parked on the bottom before you even wait on the line. The kids were not interested in reading all the history of the Space Needle on the walls. When we got out of the (quick) elevator ride up to the top the views were absolutely breathtaking. You could see 360 degrees of the city line, the sound and mountain ranges. We probably spent a good 20 minutes circling the top on the outside, taking pictures and admiring the views. The space needle viewing deck offers floor to ceiling windows, allowing even the shortest of spectators to get a great view. This was a new upgrade to the attraction in 2018. Also, during this renovation, a glass floor feature was introduced as well.

After we saw enough we went back down the elevator and spent a while in the gift shop looking for some cool souvenirs. One of the coolest things about the Space Needle is that you can see it from all over the city. It is just sticking up in the air in the middle of the city for all to see!

2. Seattle Aquarium

Aquariums are no-brainers whenever you have a toddler with you because the tanks are so accessible and the fish are easy to see. We never pass up an opportunity to visit a new aquarium when given the chance. The Seattle Aquarium had lots of your typical fish tanks and displays like we’ve seen in other aquariums. However, it also had a ton of cool things we haven’t seen at other aquariums. We picked up a map but didn’t bother really following it, instead, I just let the girls lead the way. The aquarium had a place to leave strollers, so my hands were free as I followed the girls around the aquarium as they explored. We probably spent 2 hours here and pretty much saw everything the aquarium had to offer. Our favorite part about the aquarium was the sea otters outside – they are so cute!

3. Argosy Harbor Cruise Tour

We took the one hour Seattle Argosy harbor cruise tour which was a nice way to see the city from a different angle. Honestly, I think my girls were a bit bored on the cruise other than the fact that they were excited to be on a boat. Most of the narration wasn’t interesting to them – they were just too little. I could see older kids being more interested in the information they were sharing as we cruised around the Puget Sound. You can bring a stroller on board which we did but you had to leave it on the bottom level. We spent time on each level because my girls were not sitting still long but at least we got to see all parts of the boat. I liked the cruise a lot and learned a lot of neat facts about the city. We didn’t see any interesting wildlife on our tour. But I have heard that they have seen whales and seals on past tours.

4. Woodland Park Zoo

So obviously, we chose the zoo because we had little kids with us and I am sure glad we did. Our family has been to a few great zoos so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one. But, we soon found out that the zoo in Seattle is seriously awesome. We got there shortly after it opened and it wasn’t very busy at all.  The zoo is pretty big! We had a map and tried to go in a logical flow but we were kind of all over the place. It was definitely a lot of walking – but there were plenty of benches to take breaks. If we were to go again I’d pack lunch because all the food places were fairly busy and we wasted a lot of time waiting for lunch. I am fairly certain we didn’t see every single animal in the zoo. For the year we actually lived in the city of Seattle, we got an annual pass to the Woodland Park Zoo and went a ton of times!

5. Pacific Science Center

Our last CityPASS visit was the Pacific Science Center. We chose it over the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum because of the little kids in tow! The museum was a giant interactive museum for children with a focus on science. The girls played here for a few hours and had a great time. They ran from exhibit to exhibit to find out what they could try next. Outside there were water activities and even a science show was going on. Inside the girls loved the physical fitness centers, butterfly house, laser show, tot area and tons of other interactive exhibits. We probably could have spent even more time here. The museum was super busy the day we were visiting so we didn’t stick around all day.

We definitely took full advantage of all the City Pass in Seattle had to offer! I know we got more than our money’s worth. This was the first time we bought a City Pass when visiting a new city! I plan to look into it for other cities in the future.

The attractions included with the Seattle CityPASS:

• Space Needle
• Seattle Aquarium
• Argosy Harbor Cruise Tour
• Museum of Pop Culture OR Woodland Park Zoo
• Chihuly Garden and Glass OR Pacific Science Center