My family seems to have entered an architectural era of travel where we purposely visit towers and buildings like the Space Needle the CN tower, or maybe the Rookery in Chicago to check out the views of a city, and even in our own city, and learn a bit about the history of a place. We have also always been intrigued with behind the scenes tours, like chocolate tours, or bakery tours and all the coffee and farm tours too. When I noticed tours at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle pop up in my instagram feed (I follow Climate Pledge Arena because my family loves the Seattle Kraken) I really wanted to try this tour out as well-Climate Pledge Arena is such an iconic Seattle place-a tour sounded so intriguing and fun. I recently partnered with Climate Pledge Arena to visit and host a giveaway for one of these tours in Seattle and we had an even better time than I imagined. So I thought I’d share a little bit about what we saw just in case you’re curious about a Climate Pledge Arena Tour too.
A Climate Pledge Arena tour with teenage boys in tow
Did I mention I brought my teenage boys on this tour? We easily found signs that pointed us to Entry 10 where the tour begins and we went through security and met our group and our guide and waited for our tour to start. We booked our tours online the day before and they start at 44 dollars for Washington Residents, ages 3-12 and Military. I found easy street parking nearby and parked for over 2 hours. I knew I would need at least 75 minutes for the tour and also we read that we should arrive there 20 minutes before our tour time. We were extremely early and arrived an hour before our tour time so we stopped at Seattle Center Armory for cold drinks at the Starbucks pre-tour because it was an exceptionally hot day.
Don’t bring water on a Climate Pledge Arena Tour
Unlike concerts and events, when we visited Climate Pledge Arena for the tour we could bring small bags that didn’t have to be see-through (they were thoroughly searched in security and someone else on the tour even brought a backpack) but I don’t think you can bring strollers. I also know you can’t bring full water bottles or our cold Starbucks drinks-empty water bottles are fine but our drinks had to be consumed before we went on our tour. You can find all this info in the FAQ’s section on the Tours website. These things always change so I suggest you also read them before you go on the tour too.
So where do you go on the Climate Pledge tour?
Because every day is different at Climate Pledge Arena, every tour will probably look a bit different as well. Our tour took place when the Seattle Kraken were in their off season so we were able to go inside their locker rooms but because they weren’t playing we also didn’t get to see any ice. The Seattle Storm had started their season so we only got to see the outside of their locker rooms on this tour. We visited private suites and clubs and watched a video welcome from Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of Pirates of the Caribbean and so many other movies that we know (I had no idea he was one of the owners of the Seattle Kraken). We also visited the Press Bridge. I was surprised that we were allowed to take photos in most places but there were a few areas like in an Amazon Music Room where we couldn’t take any photos at all.
We also learned about how the roof was saved from the original arena and how how the history of Climate Pledge Arena goes back to the World’s Fair at Seattle Center in 1962. I don’t remember all the historic details or how deep they dug the arena in order to keep the Seattle skyline, but you’ll learn all about this on the tour. We also learned about many of the art installations that we walk by but don’t fully pay attention to when we come to events and I will be on a lookout for them now when we visit again. I know we’ll probably go to a Kraken or Storm game soon and we have tickets to Macklemore later this year.
Our tour guide was also one of the reasons why our tour was phenomenal. At one point in the tour one of my guys turned to me and said “As soon as I saw our tour guide and heard him talk for the first couple minutes, I knew this would be a good tour.” He was energetic, knowledgeable and excited to show us around Climate Pledge Arena and I think that made our group really enjoy our tour too.
And Climate Pledge Arena is the most sustainable arena in the world
We learned about the rain to rink program at Climate Pledge Arena that is so very Seattle-rainwater is harvested and then used to resurface the ice. Our tour guide mentioned this might also make the ice smoother than in other rinks because of the difference between rainwater and tap water and apparently they’ve had a lot of compliments for their ice here. The lights are 100% renewable energy. There is a Living Wall in the arena and we learned that there are even a few western hemlock trees growing in the wall-these trees are capable of growing up to 80ft! I always look forward to seeing the Living Wall at Climate Pledge Arena when we come for games and events. And including the Living Wall there are around 12500 plants and trees on site.
So if you come to Seattle a tour at Climate Pledge Arena would be a great idea
As a Seattleite I felt like our tour at Climate Pledge Arena really showed off the best of our city and the heart of what so many of us love. Between the art, the behind the scenes look at places where our sports teams and musicians spend time and getting to know the stadium’s history and goals for the future, it was a really fun and unique way to spend some time too. Having the most sustainable arena in the world in our city is a pretty cool thing for sure.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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