This review will be mixed because I have to say, with my first cruise using Norwegian, I LOVED free style cruising. We have cruised with other cruise lines and I loved not being tied in to dressing up and having a set time for dinner.
We flew to Vancouver 4 days before the cruise as we had never been there before. We stayed at the Westin Grand. Although a nice hotel, our room was great, I did not like the location. My husband, however, felt the opposite. We were across the street from the library but far from the main center of town. While there we took the off and on trolley, which is the way to go. Not too expensive but it allows you to see the town at your leisure, including Stanley Park. Vancouver is a beautiful town, we loved it. We had an opportunity to attend a comedy fest which was a lot of fun.
Sunday we left the hotel for the ship. We were early (11:30)so it was a little of a pain, very little, standing in line waiting for the doors to open (12:00). We met some very nice people in line. Once the doors opened, however, this was the easiest embarkation that I have gone through. Although we were in a suite, the line for everyone moved so fast we did not even bother going over to the suite line...we just moved on through and was on the ship within 5-10 minutes.