Pearl Alaska Photo Review 9/21-9/28/14

This was our 15th cruise (wow), 5th on NCL. DH and I are both 42, we live in Florida so it means temperatures below 65 are rare and that to fly to the west coast there were no direct flights and lot of time was spent on the plane.

Our flight left at 6 am on Saturday the 20th, we were going to spend a few hours in Seattle, stay in the hotel and start the cruise the next day. We had to get up at 3 a.m. to get ready walk the dogs and leave for the airport. We had a layover in Dallas and arrived in Seattle shortly after we were scheduled to at 11:30 PDT.

We took a cab to the hotel. We stayed at Hotel 5, I liked it, I like the bright colors and modern furniture. We arrived a couple of hours before check in, but they let us check in anyway.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

They provide an umbrella for you to use in Seattle:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I wanted to try Five Points Cafe which was close by the Space Needle. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and no humidity. When we got to the cafe they said it was a 20 minute wait. We waited in the park outside the cafe.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The cafe refers to itself as a dive bar and it is, but the food was just what I wanted after the long flight, trying to adjust to the new time, fried.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Picture of statue in park in cafe.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

My lunch, Mac and Cheese jalapeño balls, chicken wings, chicken strips and onion rings.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

DH cheeseburger with a ton of fries:

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Walked to Space Needle.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

My watch stopped working at the airport and I had not found another one my ipad said it was after 4, so we stood in the Kiosk and bought the tickets for the computer for 5:00, only it was after 2. We went to the line and said unless we wanted to upgrade to a vip pass we would need to come back at 4:30. Ride the ducks was across the street, so that solved the problem.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The duck was fun, but we were both so tired and not really into it. My ipad lost its charge during the ride so I could not take any more pictures. Afterward we went to the Space Needle, but even with tickets we waited in line for what felt like a long time. We felt a little underwhelmed when we made it to the top, but again a lot of it had to do with being tired.

We then went to Pike Brewing Company for dinner. On vacations, I try to eat or drink at least one local item. I ordered the pumpkin ale and then afterwards the apple cider, the pumpkin ale was a little much for me. We had some crab dip and I had Poutine and DH had club sandwich.

We took a cab back to the hotel. I plugged in the ipad and logged into the WiFi (included) for DH so he could look at Fantasy football. My head hit the pillow and I slept soundly,

Went downstairs to Max's, Hotel 5's restaurant which is open for breakfast and lunch.

Hotel 5 loans bicycles, if you are so inclined, you can see the yellow bikes in the back of the picture.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Coffee:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

They had the pineapple bellini on special. I thought the rim was sugar, but it was salt, after the first initial shock, I enjoyed it.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

DH's standard breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns and toast.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

They had waffle sliders with a choice of 3 fillings, i had the elvis with peanut butter, fried banana and bacon, the other one was canadian bacon with maple bacon cream cheese, it was amazing. I gave my husband a piece and seriously thought about taking it back:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

It was a great breakfast. Seattle Seahawks were playing the Denver Broncos so you saw jerseys everyone and it seemed like half of the city was going to the game. That's it for tonight. Next leave the hotel for the pier.

DH tells me at breakfast he forgot his toothbrush, so now we need to buy watch for me and toothbrush for him. We check out, the bell hop tells us he can try to hail a cab for us, but due to the game could not tell if he would be able to. He said they had a car service, and asked if we were going to pier 91, I told him we were going to 66 and asked how much it would be, he said $12, so we jumped at it.

As the guy was loading our luggage a cab driver came by and yelled that he was taking fares from him, seemed an ongoing dispute. The driver drove us to pier 91 not 66, but I told him we were supposed to be at 66 and he took us there.

We checked in our luggage, the woman made a comment about how mine was not full and light, this was in contrast to my husband who had 3 bags and included everything he could fit, he insisted we were going to freeze in Alaska.

After checking the luggage and since it was still early, we went to walk and see if we could find the watch and toothbrush. I did not find them, but got a t-shirt and some pictures.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I'm enjoying your review so far. Looking forward to more....

I'm glad to see that you seemed to enjoy Seattle, my home city.

Dh and I have cruised to Alaska 4 times. Twice on the Pearl. I'm anxious to see how you liked that ship. We loved it!!!

Looking forward to reading and seeing more! We live just outside of Seattle and have cruised to AK 10 times - twice on the Pearl. I'm sure you had a great time. Thanks for sharing!

I'm enjoying your review so far. Looking forward to more....

 

I'm glad to see that you seemed to enjoy Seattle, my home city.

 

Dh and I have cruised to Alaska 4 times. Twice on the Pearl. I'm anxious to see how you liked that ship. We loved it!!!

Seattle was great, just not enough time there. We liked the Pearl, but we have enjoyed every NCL ship we were on.

Looking forward to reading and seeing more! We live just outside of Seattle and have cruised to AK 10 times - twice on the Pearl. I'm sure you had a great time. Thanks for sharing!

We did have a great time. Alaska was beautiful.

After our walk back, we went to check in. We were Silver under the Latitudes program (after the cruise we are now gold), there was a much shorter latitudes line, which was great, there was an even shorter one for gold and platinum-next time.

We went to the room to drop my purse and DH's carry on and check out the room. Last year we were on the Jewel and had a suite. Suite life was perfect, when i booked the cruise I booked the suite. However, we bought a house, and it was the proverbial money pit, so after redoing almost all of the electricity, I thought we should downgrade.

We had a mini-suite 11508 forward close by the elevators. I liked the room, especially the curtain and the full couch. The only thing I did not care for was the small tv. We did not watch it much but had on as background noise, but the screen would go black at night and you could only use the remote to change the channel down, not up. Not a bid deal.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

We tried the thermal suite on the Epic and thought it was heaven. We always get the spa pass. We were headed there, but they had a table set up and were selling them when you walked on the ship. We bought the passes and they gave us a complimentary scrub.

After checking out the room, we went to have a drink and watch football. Being on the east coast we are used to football not starting until 1, so thought it was great it was already on.

We went to Maltings, originally they only had nascar, but someone found a game.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

My first cosmo of the week:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

My husband is a smoker, but i am not. He is always on the lookout for a smoking area, he likes the sky high bar and casino bar, since this was an Alaska cruise we figured he would not be up there very much.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

We had the muster drill, we were in the theater, it was over quickly. Walking down the stairs DH and I were amused by the animal murals, I went back to to take pictures.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I went to the room and unpacked and went to the spa raffle, I did not win anything. This was the only time I was in the gym. I was tempted by the Yoga classes, but didn't want to do them at 8.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Joined DH at sky high bar for the sail away.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I try to get a fishbowl every cruise, they had a special drink in one, so I grabbed it.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I got a burger at the sailaway bbq:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I like the slots and played for a while and went to dinner at Indigo, I ate in there two nights and thought the food was good and enjoyed the new menu.

Crabcakes:

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

I ordered the chef's special which was steak with a baked potato. They brought the steak from the main menu, which came with potatoes. I thought it was good

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

On our last cruise we went to the piano bar on carnival and had a great time, we were there and everynight. They had Jim the piano man for music and humor. He tried, but I thought his show was more geared towards a retirement home in Florida. We stayed for a while hoping the show would get better, but it never did.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

End of the day.

I find the main dining room much more relaxing for breakfast, without juggling plates, coffee and juice and looking for a place to sit.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

Eggs Benedict is one of my favorites, but I liked my eggs very well done and order them that way, but they do not come out that way about half of the time. These were perfect. With Salmon and Spinach

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

They had bingo in Spinkakker's Lounge

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

The morning drink specials: mimosas and bloody mary's

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

We did not win anything, but at some point the captain came over the loudspeaker and announced there were whales on the port side. This happened a few times during the cruise.

Fried cheese and potato skins

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

My husband had the cream of tomato soup and hot dog (no picture)

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To the casino and a apple martini

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We were going to deal or no deal, there was an Alaska movie in the theater before

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At $20 a card this isn't cheap, but it is an activity I really enjoy. We ended up winning a 8 x 10 picture and an instant win game strip.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

At $15 the Martini tasting is a great deal for 7 martinis and is a lot of fun.

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

1. Vodka Martini

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2. Cosmo

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3. Apple Martini

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4. Le Fizz

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Captain Booze explaining the history of the martini

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Bartender tricks

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5. Mango Martini

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6. Espresso Martini

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7. Rum Cake Martini-yum

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Thallasotherapy Pool

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Hot Tub

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr

image by alrichards4003, on Flickr