Arrived in Seattle 2 days ahead of the sailing to visit friends. My daughter and her 93 year-old grandfather were in our party. We booked rooms at the Best Western Executive Inn near the space needle and were pleased with the accommodations. Took a 3-hour tour of Seattle and the surrounding area in a van. It's a beautiful city and has views similar to San Francisco. The highlight here was the Ballard Locks which provides "ladders" to enable salmon to climb upstream to spawn. Boats also enter these waters through the locks to reach the commercial marina. We were able to cross the water on cement walkways to reach the locks.
The best way to deal with getting to and from the airport in Seattle is to take a town car. Your hotel can provide you with a number to call upon your arrival at the airport. The service is swift, courteous and costs about $35.00 for up to 4 persons. We also had them take us from our hotel to the pier and after the cruise, when we disembarked in Seattle and retrieved our luggage, we phone them to take us to the airport.
Embarkation was quite smooth even though the lines were fairly long, but they moved quickly. We were on the ship by noon. Our balcony cabin which was located on Caribe deck was very nicely furnished and we especially enjoyed the balcony which was half covered and gave some privacy from the decks above. This is apparently the only deck which offers the partially covered balconies. Adolfo was our cabin steward and was very pleasant and accommodating. Our ice bucket was always filled as we requested.