My husband and I chose the Pearl to go to Alaska. We usually cruise in suites which we initially did. We bid on a Haven Owners Suite and won the bid. I contacted pre-concierge for new luggage tags and while I was on the phone, the very nice NCL lady asked what we wanted to be in our room when we got there. From past experience, I know that doesn't always get done but I gave her my list anyway.

We flew to Seattle on Friday, stayed at the Mayflower Park Hotel and toured the city for two days which was great! Seattle has so much to offer. The Mayflower was located in a great spot but I wasn't a fan of the hotel itself. The staff was rude and made us feel like we were putting them out by being there. Sunday was embarkation day and we were more than excited! Dropping luggage off was a little confusing. Usually when we get to a pier, the porters are more than willing to help us. This time, they were kind of all standing around talking and not paying attention to any of the passengers. My husband asked one of them if he could help and he did. We walked down the street and followed the signs to check-in. The woman at the door asked if we were VIP guests and escorted us to the separate, much shorter line go go through the scanners. That only took a couple minutes. From there we were escorted to the Haven/Suites check-in. We were all set and sitting having coffee about 20 minutes after arriving at the pier.

Anoop, the best concierge we've ever had, came over to introduce himself to us and said he had something for us. The one change I asked the pre-concierge woman to make on our dinner reservations had been made and was all set. We were escorted to Cagney's at around 11:15 and had lunch. Rooms weren't ready until about 1:00 but that was ok. We knew the layout of the ship after being on the Dawn and the Gem so we walked to The Great Outdoors and had our first beverage! When we heard the announcement that rooms were ready, we headed to our room. Read more