Dana, Larry and Natalie Mudd Chris and Steve Caro NCL Spirit Aug 21-28, 2004

Pre-cruise: We arrived the evening of Thursday, July 19. I had already made arrangements with Townepointe Limousine (http://www.townepointelimousine.com) to meet us at the airport and take us to our hotel. Greg, from the Townepointe was extremely helpful in arranging this service. Glen met us at Baggage Claim. If you do arrange for a car service, ask the driver to bring the car around while you are claiming your bags. Glen waited to see how much luggage we had and then went to get the car. It seemed to take forever for him to come back to us! After being on a plane for 5 hours we were ready to go! He had lots of information about Seattle. He gave us a great map of the area. We had other maps but his turned out to be the best. The ride was going smoothly until we realized Glen had the wrong hotel-there are 2 Best Western Hotels within a block or so of each other. Not sure how this happened, I looked at my e-mail when I got home and I had sent the correct address. Oh well! We could see the right one so we just went around the block. No problem. We had really enjoyed the ride and the conversation with Glen. My sister-in-law made reservations through Priceline. Best way to go in my opinion. Hotel rates in the downtown Seattle area were outrageous! Best Western Executive Inn was the chosen hotel. When we arrived in our room, we realized immediately that it was smoking room and we had asked for a non-smoking room. We tried to get it changed but the hotel was full. Apparently, if you book through Priceline you basically get whatever is left. The staff was great though.

We went to the lounge for dinner and they brought some kind of machine to the room that got rid of most of the smell. I am extremely allergic to cigarette smoke and never had a problem after the machine ran for about 30 minutes. The hotel was nice and clean. It was very convenient for the things that we wanted to see in Seattle. The restaurant had great food. There is a Laundromat down the street that we used on Saturday morning before we went to the pier so that we would start off with all clean clothes. Neither my sister-in-law or I are good with directions, needless to say we got lost but a helpful gentleman pointed us in the right direction and then showed us the new machines to use! Not sure of the name but it was next to the Five Points bar. The owner of the bar also owns the Laundromat. The hotel has a free shuttle that will take you to the airport. It starts running around 10:30 but you can call the front desk and they will take you earlier. I would advise doing this. We called around 9:30 and we had to wait for a group ahead of us. The ride is only 10 minutes or so. Read more