Pre-Cruise

We usually book cruises a year in advance, but over July, we checked the HAL website, watching for any openings. It was a bit frustrating to see cabin categories open, close, open again, and close before we could even book one. I will admit to checking almost hourly. Persistence paid off and I found a SS category cabin open up on the Noordam. We snatched up the cruise about 25 days in advance! On August 12, embarkation day, we flew to Seattle. Our taxi ride to the port was only around 10 minutes long since we breezed through the construction and traffic.

Embarkation Read more