Back from Alaska... ask me anything.

[FailWhale]

I sailed to Alaska on the Norweigan Pearl from August 16th to the 23rd. I'm still working on a review, but feel free to ask me any questions.
Just to throw it out there I thought this was a horrible cruise, but I absolutely LOVED Alaska. I will most likely go back to Alaska but never on a cruise ship again.

We did:
Juneau: Whale watching and Mendenhall glacier combo tour with Orca Enterprises
Skagway: Glacier Point canoe tour and catamaran tour through the Fjords plus a three hour hike to Lower Lake on our own
Ketchikan: Totem Heritage Center, Eagle reserve and Hatchery, Hike through the rainforest, and city walking tour
Victoria: Dinner at Irish pub and walking through town (on our own)

Send me any questions...

[PennyAgain]

Why was it a horrible cruise?

[DCWolf]

We were on the same route Aug 21-28 but on Celebrity. We met another cruiser from a NCL ship in Juneau and he was miserable too. I'd also be anxious to hear what you disliked about your cruise. We absolutely loved every aspect of our trip.

[Overtime4me2]

Originally Posted by DCWolf

We were on the same route Aug 21-28 but on Celebrity. We met another cruiser from a NCL ship in Juneau and he was miserable too. I'd also be anxious to hear what you disliked about your cruise. We absolutely loved every aspect of our trip.

We were on the Ryndam, Aug 14-28 and had a wonderful time. We saw the Infinity, Pearl and Radiance often.

I'm interested too to hear what made the cruise so horrible.

[kb996]

Looks to me like the OP isn't a true cruiser. No way can you do what they said in Skagway or Ketchikan in the port times (Skagway - glacier point canoe doesn't go to fjords). There is another thread (under a different name) on the NCL boards that blasts the Pearl and the cruise the week before this one. People there have already discounted it as a fake.

[CaseyJr]

We cruised the Pearl the week after the OP. Leaving Seattle, we cruised East of Victoria because the previous day the ship hit very rough waters on the way back. At our M&G we were told that the week before our cruise, furniture was broken and several bottles of liquor fell off the shelves, creating a "distillery."

[Budget Queen]

Cruising isn't for everyone.

[Yukon]

Originally Posted by kb996

Looks to me like the OP isn't a true cruiser. No way can you do what they said in Skagway or Ketchikan in the port times (Skagway - glacier point canoe doesn't go to fjords).

What the OP said they did at Skagway and Ketchikan definitely CAN be done - Skagway is located in a fjord.

[Yindella]

Better cancelling an excursion than getting into trouble. Heard a float trip raft got flipped over in Juneau the week I was in Alaska (Aug 14-21)

[Yindella]

Oops, I replied on wrong thread. Sorry.

[sbartist]

Originally Posted by FailWhale

I sailed to Alaska on the Norweigan Pearl from August 16th to the 23rd. I'm still working on a review, but feel free to ask me any questions.
Just to throw it out there I thought this was a horrible cruise, but I absolutely LOVED Alaska. I will most likely go back to Alaska but never on a cruise ship again.

We did:
Juneau: Whale watching and Mendenhall glacier combo tour with Orca Enterprises
Skagway: Glacier Point canoe tour and catamaran tour through the Fjords plus a three hour hike to Lower Lake on our own
Ketchikan: Totem Heritage Center, Eagle reserve and Hatchery, Hike through the rainforest, and city walking tour
Victoria: Dinner at Irish pub and walking through town (on our own)

Send me any questions...

I was also on this cruise and we did hit some rough seas that caused items to go crashing about (not in our cabin), but I heard it in other cabins early, early in the a.m. While eating breakfast, some of the restaurants had dishes go crashing, and they had to tether them down. The Dufry shops were closed for an extended period of time while they cleaned up the mess. At any rate, we still had a good time and none of us got sick or hurt and most activities still went forward.

[sbartist]

Originally Posted by Yindella

Better cancelling an excursion than getting into trouble. Heard a float trip raft got flipped over in Juneau the week I was in Alaska (Aug 14-21)

Our float trip was cancelled in Juneau, big bummer of a day for us, as it was too late to really book anything else by the time we arrived in port without an upsell from NCL. We feel they (NCL) should have booked us on a similar excursion for the same price instead of trying to upsell us something we hadn't planned on doing at the last second.

[CowPrincess]

Originally Posted by sbartist

Our float trip was cancelled in Juneau, big bummer of a day for us, as it was too late to really book anything else by the time we arrived in port without an upsell from NCL. We feel they (NCL) should have booked us on a similar excursion for the same price instead of trying to upsell us something we hadn't planned on doing at the last second.

If you'd been one of the 9 people who got dumped into the flooding river, and had to be rescued by people who owned homes along the shore, you may have felt that a cancelled excursion was far, far better. I think NCL made a good decision to cancel the Juneau river float. If it was truly a last-minute cancellation, NCL probably didn't have a lot of excursions with space available to offer you.

[timetravler]

We were on the Sea Princess 8-12 to 8-22 and had a great time but all flight shore excursions were cancelled because of rain. We went bicycling in Juneau in the rain and had a great time. No rough seas for the whole cruise. Loved Tracy Arms fjord. No complaints what so ever.

[FailWhale]

I am a real customer that was on the NCL trip. Am I a "true cruiser"? After this trip, no.
We had all day in Skagway and while only in Ketchikan, if you use your time wisely you can do exactly all the things I said we did. The trick was to not take an organized tour so you don't waste all that time with them shuttling people on busses and to and from locations. Wherever possible, we walked.

In Skagway the glacier point tour is six hours, when we got back we had another four+ hours to kill and we don't like shopping and found the town unbearable because of how crowded it was, so we took a tip from our glacier point guide and hiked up the mountain. Fantastic hike. If you're able I highly recommend it.

Wrong with the cruise? Let's see. I knew they would charge us for things on the ship and I was fully prepared for this. HOWEVER, I was unprepared to feel like I was in a mall for 24 hours a day, trying to be sold something by every employee on the ship. I wanted to relax and enjoy myself and like I said before, I'm not a shopper, so turning everything into a salespitch was frustrating for me. For instance, the first day we were at sea all day so my husband and I tried to take some classes, lectures, and tastings in. EVERY SINGLE ONE was an employee trying to sell us something. If it was a wine tasting, they were trying to sell us a bottle. If it was the towel folding demo they were trying to sell you the DVD. If I wanted to go to a timeshare presentation on my vacation (and I don't) I would have done it on land at least. But here, you are trapped.
I ended up spending most of my time in our room, reading on the balcony, but even there they loudspeaker would come on from the ship announcing some "SALE RIGHT NOW" in the mall or wherever.
That lack of peace and quiet and absolutely no place to retreat to away from people made me more stressed when I came home than before I left.

Anywhere on the ship they were able to place a cocktail waiter they did. And not just one. FIVE. Even if I had JUST been served a drink, and hadn't even take a sip yet, four cocktails waiters would circle around me like vultures asking me to buy another one. Again. No peace to relax.

On top of that, the policy I'd read about before hand, both on their site and on here mentioned we'd be allowed to bring wine bottles on board. Not the case. They allowed no alcohol on board. One employee said directly to me, "Well we won't get you to spend enough on alcohol if we let you buy your own bottle."

Our room was dirty upon embarkation (although I can't imagine how they turn a ship around two hours) and our balcony window caked in dirt so you couldn't even see through it. After they recleaned we asked them not to come in our room (hoping again for some privacy)
We set our "Do not disturb sign" and asked our attendant not to ever turn down our room. We would frequently come back and find our sign switched to the "Welcome!" Sign and someone would have been in our room. It took a couple times complaining, but they finally stayed out.

Another thing I take issue with is the spraying of hand santitizer. I think this is a great thing, and I'm glad they are concerned with norovirus, but i wash my hands right before I enter the dining room every time and I hate hand santizer, so I would decline. The employees would yell at you, as if you were a child in elementary school being punished. I know they are just fearful of being reprimanded, but again, I'm on vacation and I'm an adult, stop with the yelling! Although, after talking to a few I realized they are basically slave labor, working 7 days a week for ten months straight and then having two months off. Do labor laws not apply on cruise ships because they are international? I'm not sure if NCL is an American company or not.

The food was inconsistent. If two people ordered a medium rare steak, one would come medium and one would come completely rare. The one night we made the mistake of ordering wine by the glass (instead of the bottle) two in our party ordered the most expensive French wine you could get by the glass. They switched it out for a cheap white wine without saying anything (Presumably thinking we wouldn't notice). Well, we drink a lot of wine and we did notice. That's a completely unacceptable way of hustling people. About midway through the week they started running out of items and wouldn't tell you before bringing your food. The result was one person would get one dish and the other a completely different one. For instance a cioppino that would come with calamari and mussels vs. grouper and shrimp. Service could be great, but a lot of times it was spotty. Asking for a coffee after dinner got you an empty cup and a fifteen minute wait with no sign of a waiter.

The crowds really got to me. Especially since it was rainy/cold a lot of the time, public spaces indoors were crowded. I did buy a membership for the week to the spa, and that was probably the nicest thing about the ship, since they limited it to 120 people for the week. I spent almost every day that I wasn't in port hiding in the spa and reading, trying to get away from people and actually feel like I was on vacation.

We only booked the glacier point tour through the ship. Everything else we did on our own. I guess NCL decided we weren't spending enough money, so on our final bill they charged us for all kinds of shore excursions we'd never done. Much arguing got them to remove it, but then when we got home we found out they went ahead and charged us an extra $1500 anyway. This is still in dispute, as they couldn't get to it right away.

Items we knew we couldn't bring on board from port we checked willingly (like knives). These they "Lost" because someone else had "claimed them already" at debarkation. It took seven of us throwing a fit and being the absolute LAST people out of the debarkation area to get them back, and by then they made us miss our shuttle to the airport.

There are a hundred other things I could say. I'm sure many of you will tell me that cruising isn't for everyone and I would say you're very right. I fell in love with Alaska, but the next time I go it will be on my own time.

And here are where I'm putting my photos in case you still think I'm a fake poster:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknodi...7622144937398/

[Yukon]

FailWhale, I am so sorry to hear about your bad cruise. I haven't been on NCL but like you I want to be left alone. The extra level of service we got on HAL, which my wife enjoyed after 3 RCI cruises), was just annoying to me. Perhaps a different ship would work for you, but I can see that being burned to that degree isn't conducive to another try

[PennyAgain]

What you describe is mass market cruising. NCL is not a US owned company. US labor laws do not apply at all.

Call your credit card company about the overcharges and do it NOW.

You might be happy on a small company with small ships such as Cruise West which is US owned. Might. Be then again it is possible that cruises aren't for you.

I travel by cruise ship for the destinations and live my own life on board unaffected by the group behavior and crowds. In Alaska I drive myself as much as possible and get very far off the beaten path.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I am also sorry for your bad cruise. Cruising is not for everyone. We have enjoyed every one of our cruises. It may be NCL as I have heard similar complaints about NCL from other CC members, such as service issues, constant "hawking" of goods and services, the loudspeakers blaring constantly, food issues (you have to eat in the pricey specialty restaurants for a good, consistent meal), etc. I have heard enough to make me unwilling ot try NCL to be perfectly honest. I think all the mass market lines do try to sell "extras", but not to the extreme you describe. I hope you try again on another line. I would suggest Princess for what you have described as your desires - especially a ship with the Sanctuary, or one of their smaller ships. I think you would enjoy that.

Back to your original offer - I am interested in what you did in Victoria. We will be there from 6PM - midnight. I was thinking of finding a nice place to eat, not too pricey and enjoying the downtown area. I like photo ops, so would be interested in the architectural features there. Thanks!

[CowPrincess]

to the OP: IMHO you picked the wrong cruise line. We sail HAL (and no, we are not in our 80s ) and seldom experience announcements, sales pitches, pushy servers. HAL allows one to take unlimited wine onboard. If you drink a personal bottle of wine in one of HAL's venues, there is an $18 corkage fee. There is no charge to enjoy a personal bottle of wine in your cabin.

HAL's space to passenger ratio is great, and we have only a couple of times felt "crowded". DH and I absolutely LOATHE crowds, and really haven't experienced much in the way of crowding onboard. Once or twice when getting ready to leave the ship at a port. Otherwise, not really at all.

The insistence on hand sanitizer is about EVERYONE using it. Not everyone washes their hands, some have touched railings and elevator buttons and such on the way to the food venue, so at least if EVERYONE is forced to use it before handling utensils, salt & pepper shakers, etc, there's at least a somewhat better chance that germs will be kept in check.

I'm so very sorry you hated the experience, and I suspect you'll never want to cruise again. But if you DO decide to try another cruise, on a mid-market ship, please research Holland America. Much of what you disliked on NCL is not an issue on HAL. (And my husband, Mr Picky/Mr Frugal, had not cruised until May of 08 -- now it's all he wants to do. HAL exceeded every expectation he had.)

[cw2go]

As stated by many I too am sorry for your unhappy expierience but I will not say that cruising is not for you. You have legitimate complaints and I am sure spent many months planning not to mention the amount of money invested in this trip. I started my research many month ago for our family trip to Alaska for June 2010 and for the exact reasons you've sited we are not sailing NCL. It seems to be too big a risk and for our first time visiting I would rather feel assurance we will have a great cruise. I am well aware of obstacles and that people will be people but this is certainly not a cruise I would have enjoyed.


In my opinion your validated and I never felt you were a fake...

Good luck with your next trip,
patty