We flew into Seattle the day before the cruise. We wanted to see a little of Seattle and not have to worry about flight delays. I booked the pre-cruise at the Red Lion on 5th avenue. The location was perfect. It was only 2 blocks from the market. I bid $74 for each room on priceline and was very satisfied with this hotel. The only negative was the $30 charge for parking. We rented a car to get around. We rented from Thrifty and was able to pick up at the airport and return at a pier about 2 miles from the ncl dock. There was a shuttle to bring you to the dock once you returned the car. The van rental was less than $40 for the day. We went see the music experience, the market, and we did the Duck tour. The Duck tour was really fun and I would recommend this if you have time.

Embarkment We did not get to the ship until about 2:00. We figured we would try to wait till some of the crowd got through. When we arrived there were lots of people in line trying to get on the ship. The whole process went very smooth and pretty fast. My sister had misplaced her cruise paperwork and this caused a little delay, but that was the only issue we had. As soon as we got onboard, our room was ready. We settled in the room a little and started unpacking. Our luggage was there very fast. We tried to get a bite to eat, but everything was shut down from 3:00- till after the safety drill was completed. The safety drill seemed to be much more organized than Carnival and they even checked off names to make sure everyone attended.

Cabin; We were in a mini-suite. The room was really nice. It had a double bed and a very large sofa that opened up to a double bed. The bathroom was really nice. It had a bath tub with a glass door, a vanity in the middle, and another section with a closed door for the toilet. It was much more roomy than other cruises that I have been on, but I have always booked cheaper rooms. The cabin was very clean. We had the room steward empty our refrigerator out so that we could use this for our own water that we had brought. Also, we had him remove the coffee maker and coffee supplies since we wouldn't use and it was taking up room on the vanity area. We had two adults and two teenagers in this room and had enough room to unpack all the suitcase and put away all our things. The luggage fit away under the bed and in the closet. The balcony had two chairs, which was fine because the teenagers never stuck around the room. They hung out with the other teens in the teen club. Our cabin stewards worked as a pair, so we had two. They did a great job. We didn't see them often, but they kept the room up nicely. Read more