I traveled with a group of 4 (3 of us in our early 50's, one in her 80's) on the Norwegian Pearl from July 6 - 13, and NCL did a fine job resulting in a great vacation. I find it interesting that there's such a range of opinions here, even from people on the same cruise dates, so I thought I'd give you some background to understand my perspective. If you're looking for a 5-star hotel/restaurant experience, you'll probably be disappointed on this ship. However, our group is independent-minded and doesn't need to feel that staff are bending over backward to please us. We appreciated the concept of being able to dine where and when we wanted, and it worked just fine for us. Here's an overview:

We stayed at the Best Western Executive Inn the night before the cruise in Seattle. It had nice rooms, and was just a block away from the Space Needle and monorail. The only negative was the soundproofing of the rooms, but it wasn't bad. The staff at the front desk booked a town car for us for 11 AM the following morning at $6/person. A cab might have been cheaper, but the town car was ready and waiting for us when we checked out, and things went very smoothly.

From looking at other posts here, we decided to show up at the pier early - we were unloaded from the town car by 11:15. That was a great suggestion, as we breezed through entry with very few people in line. The waiting room to board the ship had a decent amount of people, but just as we settled into seats to wait, they started calling group numbers to board the ship. The whole process was very efficient, and within 20 minutes of showing up we were sipping the complimentary champagne and orange juice once on board. The Garden Cafe wasn't crowded when we got on, so we grabbed some food and explored the ship. Our cabins were ready at 2:15, and our luggage was delivered around 4:15. Read more