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If there is a long queue in the corridor area before the entrance to gate 3, then it's not necessarily obvious to a passenger arriving at the back of the queue that there is a priority lane at the top. If you continue walking as if going to gate 2 then it becomes obvious in the door area, left side for general boading, right side for groups 1 to 3, and it feeds through to the window area of the gate, which has only a bit of seating but feeds through to priority boarding of the aircraft.
At NCL, since the pandemic started, they try not to hold people in seating area of gate 3, but basically feed people straight on to the aircraft. So the gate only opens about 30 minutes to departure, the gate number is then updated on the pasenger information displays, and groups 1 to 3 board straight away. If you arrive later on, say 20 minutes to departure you will see the big queue. Regular travellers are likely to be groups 1 to 3, plus those in the Aspire lounge have a head start, geographically, once the gate number is announced. As ever it's not necessarily a bad idea to hang back a bit and board towards the end of the boarding process, say 10 minutes to departure.
If there are delays during the last period before boarding it gets more problematic, but even if the flight is late into NCL then the gate information updates and boarding is still last moment.