Yes you read it right, you queue for everything!

We arrived at pier 66 almost four hours before the due sailing time to be confronted by a massive queue outside of the pier head. We queued to have our luggage checked in then queued for security (airport style but unbelievably there were just two scanners for the 2500 passengers), then queued again to be given our cabin keys and to have a credit card scanned. This process took just short of two hours on a pleasant day and mainly outside, if it had been baking hot, cold, windy or worse raining then I really don't know how we would have managed. The boat was an hour and a half late in leaving Seattle - unionised dock workers.

Our first impression of the ship was that it was very good and this proved to be the case throughout, however as virgin cruisers we were totally confused as to what was where. The accent was on selling drinks packages, restaurant packages, internet packages, side trips, photos, etc, but what was included in our cruise package? As we had not had anything to eat or drink and had been on our feet for several hours we just wanted to sit down for a drink and a bite. After queuing again to ask at the help desk we were sent to the 12th deck where we queued yet again for something to eat and drink and then wandered about looking for a vacant seat, welcome to cruising!! Read more