Seattle to Alaska Aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines Pearl - Day 1 and 2 out of Seattle

Beautiful Chamber of Commerce weather on departure.  Sunny, warm, and beautiful -- with Mexican Navy Training Vessel docked behind us adding color to the waterfront.

We've noticed that NCL makes a big deal about Sail Away - Live music and dancing amidship.  If you haven't tried a GoPro yet, they do great selfies aboard ship when you want to get some background scenery in.

Travel Intelligence Tip
We always bring our wine along with us on cruises.  NCL has a good policy in this regard - bring as much as you want but they will enforce a $15 corkage charge for every bottle brought on board.  We went down to deck 7 to "rescue" the bottles they found in our bags and added the corkage to our room charges.

After departing port, we headed out into the Pacific, sailing north past Vancouver Island towards our first port, Juneau Alaska.  This is a fairly long leg - two nights and half the third day enroute.

Travel Intelligence Tip
We had good AT&T cell phone coverage while we were in Puget Sound so we could Facebook, Tweet, and check email.  Later the first evening, we noticed AT&T was replaced by a Canadian service so we immediately put our phones into "Airplane Mode" so we wouldn't suffer international roaming charges for phone calls or data.  We didn't get US coverage again until we were an hour or so out of Juneau.  At this point, we could use our Cell and Data services again without extraneous charges.

Our first day at sea was a little "frisky" - winds at 20-24 knots and seas of 7-10 feet.  Pearl handled everything smoothly but there was definitely some movement and a lot more patches behind the ears of people we saw out and about.

Travel Intelligence Tip
We had a balcony room on 8 deck port side forward (548)  Port side is definitely the side you want to be on for viewing glaciers in Glacier Bay.

Travel Intelligence Tip
NCL has a very poor smoking policy if you aren't a smoker.  The two cabins forward of ours were smokers -- this meant that every time they lighted up, our balcony became uninhabitable and we couldn't leave our sliding door open to hear the ship moving through the water. We have heard they are changing this but we wouldn't book again nor book someone else on NCL until their smoking policy ensures that balconies are smoke-free.

Our first formal was dinner on our first full day at sea - September 1st.  The theater was beautiful and the show -- Frankie Valley and 4 Seasons tribute -- was entertaining.

Travel Intelligence Tip
We were traveling with a group of 8 - with NCL's "Freestyle Dining"  we tried to make dinner reservations in the main dining rooms for our group -- all they would give us were either 5:30 or 8:30pm slots when we checked in on-line.  We hoped we'd have more flexibility when we got on board -- this wasn't the case.  After a couple of days, we just showed up when we wanted to eat and the Maitre D' was able to accommodate us each night.  We found eating later - 8:30 - the service was slow and distracted because the staff was setting up for breakfast -- ideal time to eat was around 7pm - good service and good food.

Next stop -- Juneau

Seattle to Alaska aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines Pearl - Getting there

Getting There

First time we've ever flown west to catch a cruise - flying from Ft Myers (Regional SW Florida airport - RSW) to Seattle to catch NCL Pearl sailing on August 31, 2014.  We left RSW on August 30th to ensure there wouldn't be any travel gremlins -- plus we hadn't been to Seattle for a while and wanted to see what our Alaska cruise clients would see pre or post-cruise.

Flew United with an airplane change in Houston (IAH) on-time arrival and on-time departure. Arrival in Seattle Tacoma (SEA) was smooth and all checked baggage arrived as expected.  SEA taxis are very "Green" and all that we saw were Toyota Prius hybrids - great for environment; tough to fit cruise luggage into.  Our driver was very resourceful and managed to get it all in by putting one bag in the front passenger's seat -- we couldn't have gotten a third person or another bag (three large checked bags and one wheelie carry-on) in if we'd wanted to.  $42 plus tip and 20 minutes later we arrived at the Homewood Suites - 206 Western Ave West.

Hotel Accommodations
Great location - Safeway was three blocks away (for last minute pre-cruise purchases) and a large number of restaurants within a 4 block walk.

Pike Place Market was an easy 25 minute walk from the hotel.  Homewood was one block from an elevated pedestrian walk that let us get down to the waterfront and a relaxing walk along the Elliot Bay trail.

Check In Tips for NCL
After an easy 20 minute walk we arrived at Pier 66 to check out our Embarkation location.  Talking with the folks that worked there, we found out that we could arrive as early as 10:30 to begin our check in.  You carry your bags into the building (there are porters to do this if you need them outside the baggage drop off door) and then walk around to the front of the terminal to check yourself in.  This turned out to be great intelligence because when we checked in the next morning, there were no lines and we were done with check-in 10 minutes after we arrived.  We began boarding at 11:30 and since we were early had nice seats right in front of the embarkation door.

Dining Experiences
We had two meals in Seattle - one at Blue Water Taco Grill (515 Queen Anne Ave N) where we had Steak and Shrimp burritos - large, good, and very filling and dinner at Roberto's in Pike Place Market (1501 Pike Place #200) - brand new Italian restaurant with an appetizer you must not miss - Caprese (heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, olive oil, and balsamic glaze) on a salt block.

Overall, there isn't a single thing we would change on this portion of our trip - Arrive a day early with enough time to check out where you are getting on the ship, have a great meal, and get your taxi or shuttle scheduled for embarkation the next day.