This is in regards to the May 31st -June 7th 2008 cruise. A short drive to the terminal since we live in the Seattle area and we drop off the vehicle to be parked (they also delivered our luggage to the ship so we only had to deal with our carry on, very nice!). The 4 of us (2 teens and 2 adults) had a very smooth embarkation. We walked into the building to have them process us at approximately 10:30. By approx. 11:00 am we were sitting down waiting to be boarded. They had refreshments in the waiting area so we had a glass of OJ. Around 11:30 they invited us to begin boarding. We were in group 6 and it only took about 10 minutes until they called our group. Once aboard they had us use the hand sanitizers. You didn't proceed until you did which I think is great! They swiped our cards and were entered the inside of the ship to be greeted and offered champagne or mimosas. Thanks to other reviews we knew just what to do: 1. Go make reservations for whatever restaurants you want to eat at that evening (if you have a balcony or higher room you can make reservations 48 hours in advance). 2. If you haven't booked your shore excursions yet, go do that because some of them sell out fast. 3. If you aren't starving, don't go to the Market Cafe like the recommend you do as you board the ship. At 12:30 they serve lunch in Versailles and it was wonderful. If you like bananas then I highly recommend the chilled banana soup! It sounded weird to me but I tried it anyways and my only regret is I didn't ask for a second bowl of it.

Our room was ready by 1:30 and we had our luggage was delivered by 4:30 (it may have been sooner). We ate at Soho our first night and 2 of us had surf and turf and the other 2 had the whole lobster. Our server was very friendly and helped the girls with their lobster. I need to interject this as it bothers me when I read negative reviews. NCL very clearly states that their freestyle is casual. They mean it. If you want to dress up you are more than welcome to but if you would like to wear jeans to dinner you can to (except in Versailles). This is not a cruise for snobs or people that don't like to be around us "common folk". This cruise I very much felt was for normal people who wanted special treatment. The food was very good at all the restaurants we ate at. There is something for everyone. We tried a couple things we didn't care for but that doesn't mean it's not good. The staff at every restaurant were very friendly. Only a couple times did they see our yellow card (for mini suite) so I know it wasn't because we had a more expensive room than others. So if you cannot stand to be around casual regular people, this cruise may not be for you. If you want to relax, get great service and experience some foods you don't normally have (in our case anyways), you can take chances too because if you don't like it, let them know and get something else. give it a go. Back to the review, sorry for the rant. We actually didn't do a lot of things on the ship as we spent a lot of time on the balcony in our room. The view is so beautiful and the balcony is so peaceful it's hard to want to do anything else. You can make a pot of coffee and sit on the balcony watching the waves or looking at mountains. But there are tons of things to do on the ship. Since I am becoming long winded in this review I'm going to change formats mid review.

Restaurants we ate at: 1. Versailles, we ate there several times and found it very very good. 2. Soho, had the steak and lobster enjoyed the food and service. 3. Aqua, had our last dinner there and enjoyed it. It's a little more intimate than Versailles but pretty much the same menu. 4. Teppanyaki, very entertaining and delicious food! 5. Trattoria, be very hungry or don't get the 6 course meal. Lots of great food. I personally didn't care for the lobster ravioli but I really liked the chicken parmigiana. 6. Endless Summer, good food but we eat at an amazing Mexican restaurant at home so it's tough to compare. Great service. 7. Market Cafe, buffet style. Something for just about anyone I think. We really enjoyed the sandwiches, hotdogs and turkey burgers at lunch. 8. Blue lagoon, we only ate there once and I wish we went back at least once more. I liked the fish and chips and the chicken strips weren't too bad. 9. Room service, brownies are great! Everything else we tried was ok to "I don't think we will get that again". But it's sent right to your room and it's inclusive so if you don't want to go out of your room it's hard to beat. Read more