what a wonderful experience!

This was our first cruise on Norwegian and our first trip to Alaska. We were

celebrating our 30th anniversary and were looking for something different than

a cruise in the warmer waters.! Everything from beginning to end was a wonderful -and tasty- and fun experience.

I had read some of the negative reviews prior to our trip and beg to differ. The ship may be older,  but everything was always kept up clean, top to bottom. The staff couldn't have been nicer to all of us. The entertainment was great, especially the Cirque Illumination. Go see the shows!  We took the Skagway bus excursion that went up through the Yukon. The driver shared lots of interesting stories and pointed out the wildlife; our pictures look like postcards! Even in mid September, it was jacket weather. One of the mornings that we were eating breakfast on the top deck, we watched the humpback whales and a couple of seals out in the still waters around Victoria, B.C.!

Plan to spend an extra day or two in Seattle to visit Pike Market (the Chowder House is fabulous AND definitely worth the wait for varieties of seafood chowders served in a fresh sourdough bread bowl!)  and make a dinner reservation ( they fill up fast) on the Space Needle online (rotates 360 degree view of the city!) to round out a wonderful vacation. 

Our flight back home didn't leave until much later on the day we finished the cruise and learned that you can leave your luggage at the concierge for $3/suitcase until 3:30 PM, which freed us up to get around town for a few more hours. You can then have your transportation pick you up from there to the airport.

Contact SpeediShuttle on line for very reasonable- and mostly on time transfers to and from the airport. It costs around $63 round trip for two persons (I say this because they ran a little late picking us up for the airport), so allow at least 3 hours before boarding time.

Hope this information encourages you to take this cruise. It was truly a wonderful time. PS book at least a cabin with a picture window, midship if you can.