We booked the cruise online (NCL's website makes it very easy), and booked our airfare and hotel for the night before the cruise on our own (not through NCL). We took the Seattle Light Rail from the airport to the last station downtown and then walked a couple blocks (uphill) to the Homewood Suites Hotel. The hotel was very nice, and we went out for a great dinner at Palisades Restaurant that night.

On embarkation day, we arrived at Pier 66 around 10:30 (by taxi), dropped our bags off with NCL, went through security (doors opened around 11:00) and checked in. Then we left the building and went to Pike St Market, just up the elevator and a few blocks away. It's a wonderful outdoor market with incredible seafood, produce etc. We had lunch, picked up some smoked salmon for the trip, and arrived back at the Pier around 12:30. There was a very long line which we were able to skip, so we boarded the ship without any problem.

There was no welcome from the staff, and no one offering directions, but I asked someone if we could drop off our carry-ons (which we had been lugging around with us) in our room. I was told that was fine, but when we got there our room steward actually yelled at us for arriving too early! Well, this was my 4th cruise but that certainly was a first. We managed to avoid our room steward most of the time by displaying the "do not disturb" sign, but he did a good enough job of turning down the room each night while we were at dinner. He did not get the tip that we usually leave the room steward. Read more