We are frequent cruisers, but had previously sailed only on various ships of the Royal Caribbean Vision class. Overall, our experience on the Westerdam was about equal to those on RCL, which translates to a little less value for the money since HAL costs more.

We spent the night before departure at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle. It was comfortable but a bit pricey. We took a cab to the cruise terminal. The hotel's advice that every cabbie knows every ship's berth seemed to be accurate.

Embarkation went very smoothly. The people-traffic patterns in the terminal are efficiently laid out and the HAL people were very helpful. We were on board in about twenty minutes. We traveled with a group of 14 friends, and no one reported more than thirty minutes for embarkation. Unlike our experience with RCL, the main dining room was open for lunch on embarkation day. Most of our luggage was delivered very quickly, and all was in hand before dinner. Read more