We recently sailed out of Seattle on the NCL Pearl to Alaska on June 29th (7 nights, visiting Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Victoria BC).

Although this was our 6th cruise, it was the first time not on a Carnival ship. Extended family from various parts of the country flew or drove to meet in Seattle. We had a party of 11, with the youngest being 9 and the oldest being 82. We had a bit of difficulty getting down to the port, due to the streets been closed for a parade. So after a delay of about 50 minutes, everyone seemed to arrive at the port all at once. The lines were quite long and it took 1 - 2 hours to board the ship. Our rooms were ready by about 1:30. The weather in Seattle was nice and a few members of our party were climbing the rock wall before we even left port.

Our 2nd day was at sea, and while running on the track mid-morning I heard an announcement that whales were being spotted near the ship. We saw several whales that morning (both close and in the distance we could see their spouts). Read more