Last year, we posted an offer to connect people coming in by air based on their arrival times, enabling people to share transportation. That was before Seattle built a light rail line that’ll get you from the airport to Seattle Center for less than five bucks. Oh, and you get to ride a monorail along the way.
Mark Sandlin‘s Infothingy has the details:
For the graphically challenged (and to help people find this from the interwebs):
- Catch the Link Light Rail Connector Bus at Bus Bay 2, near Baggage Carousel 1. It will take you to Tukwila International Blvd. Station. This bus is free.
- Take the Link Light Rail train into Seattle. ($2.50) Stay on the train until you reach Westlake Station, which is the last stop.
- Go up the escalation and into the Westlake Center mall. Go to the top floor of the mall to the Seattle Monorail station.
- Take the Seattle Monorail to Seattle Center. ($2.00)
Be sure to click through the graphic to a great discussion of other useful ways to get to BrickCon for cheap — more money for bricks!
Super useful. Thanks Mark and TBB.
Very helpful! Approximately how long does this trip take relative to a taxi? I’m arriving later on Friday, and if a taxi will be much faster than the route described here, I’m willing to pay the extra to have more time to soak in the BrickCon-goodness!
That depends entirely upon what traffic is doing at the time. If traffic is light, a taxi will be faster.
The light rail monorail route will most likely take around an hour end-to-end.
I’d recommend the rail. Traffic can be ugly. what time of day are you coming in?
Thanks for the info, guys!
The flight is scheduled to touchdown at 6:30 pm, so I’ll most likely not be entering into any transit system before 7:00 pm or so. That seems late enough for traffic not to be an issue. I arrived around the same time last year, and I remember the taxi making a very speedy trip to the Seattle Center.
Extra $ but worth it to be able to set-up, talk to folks a bit, and decompress from the flight before plunging into the store event that night!
Attention: The image has been re-designated an Infothingy™.
Thank you for your time.
^ Thanks Mark! I’ve updated the post to reflect this critical change. “It’s an important term, best not to dilute it.”
Awesome tips. I’m only a couple miles from the Tukwila station these days.
Is it better to come as a tourist on Saturday or Sunday?
I suppose that depends on how much you want to get out of being there. If you just want to check out MOCs, coming to the public days is fine, but it can be very crowded and you may only be able to see the MOCs from a distance.
If you want to spend more time chatting with people and seeing their MOCs in-depth, as well as participating in some of the activities and seminars, it’s really worth registering.
Or I may have misunderstood your question, and you may have simply been asking whether Saturday or Sunday would be a better day to come as a tourist.
In which case, I recall both days being pretty busy last year. I think we had something over 3,000 people each day.
^ Indeed. One-day registrations will be available at the door, and will get you full access to the seminars, special deals, and other non-public events and activities. Plus, we won’t kick you out with the rabble when it comes time to shove them out the door.
Last year I went on Saturday, and it was terribly busy. I was thinking about buying some Brickarms, but I couldn’t get close enough to that table. But I was able to take all the photos I wanted. This year I plan to take some photos as well, and also maybe introduce myself to a few people. So a tourist visit will be just fine.
Badger: For what it’s worth, a taxi from the airport to the Seattle center will run nearly fifty bucks (that’s about what it cost me last year). This was late enough at night that there was no traffic, too.
Leigh, I’m leaving pretty early on Sunday, so out of selfishness, I recommend Saturday.
Badger: http://seattle.taxiwiz.com/
Estimates $40, so Dan isn’t far off.
For $50 I’ll ship my LEGOs in the mail and walk my ass to the building. lol
Somewhat costly, yes, but worth the convenience. I also have the advantage of not having to shell out for a hotel room during the con, so even with that expense, this is still a much cheaper con than say Brickfair where I had the multiple hits of airfare, taxi, and a hotel bill.
Plus, who wants to wait on a train platform when there’s convention fun to be had? ;)
^ Glad everyone made it! I got to ride the monorail twice during BrickCon. Not sure I would’ve remembered that it was so convenient without Mark’s Infothingy™.