Review of Pearl to Alaska 6-3-18

Can you give more of your thoughts about the scenic drive excursion? Would you recommend it to others? Did you compare your experience to others' outings on the ship and what did they have to say?

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Congratulations!

Congratulations!

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After a quick breakfast we got a bus for our first excursion. We chose the Yukon Territory Scenic Drive, mostly because I wanted to see emerald lake. We were on a little bus that seated 29 passengers. There were only 27 of us. Sitting on the right side of the bus was a good idea. We got tired on the way back and I closed my eyes involuntarily for about 20 minutes on the way back. We saw Lake Tutshi, Carcross, the Carcross Dessert, Emerald Lake, and many other places along the highway whose names escape me. We even saw a black bear on our way back. Lunch was 3 types of sandwiches, two types of soup, fresh fruit, banana bread, and apple pie.

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This is what we chose too, for the same reasons Glad to know to sit on the right side of the bus. Nice pictures. Thanks for all your updates.

Oh, and one more question about the bus tour...how was the legroom?

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About the tour. Leg room was tight, but we were at the very back of the bus. We loved this tour. Our driver was funny, she stopped for all the things were wanted to see and more. Unfortunately no one else in my family did a tour in Skagway. They just walked into town and went to a saloon.

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Dinner last night was Teppanyaki. We enjoyed it. The show is always worth seeing. They do try to aggressively sell you a photo, which I thought was tactless.

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Glacier Bay day! We ordered room service. The food came hot and delicious and right on time. Our ship saw several glaciers. We did not go all the way down to John Hopkins glacier, but Margerie calved while we were there. Having our own balcony was great! While the ship was turning we could go back in our cabin and keep warm.

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Day 5 Freestyle Daily

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Dinner tonight was Le Bistro. Everything was delicious as usual. I did not get pictures of our appetizers (we were so hungry!) since we had a comparatively late dinner after being up at 530 to see us enter into the bay. I had the scallops, four mushroom soup, duck duo and creme brulee. Sean had asparagus, four mushroom soup, lamb, and chocolate neopolitan.

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Day 6 Freestyle Daily

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In Ketchikan we went to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack show. Funny and well worth your time and money.

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We seem to be doing the same excursions you are. Glad to know we chose good ones. Thanks again for all the reviews.

Dinner last night was Cagney's again. My parents got all 11 of us together for another dinner since the 9th is my birthday. It's the big 30! [emoji50] We got another free cake.

After dinner the younger group of us went to the White Hot Party in Spinnaker for dancing and shots.

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Freestyle Daily Day 7 and Disembarkation flyer.

We ate breakfast and lunch in summer place today. Between the two we took a nap, and after lunch we packed. Arrival in Victoria wasn't until 6 so we had a slow, lazy day.

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In Victoria we did the horse-drawn trolley ride through town. A lot if the ride was historically protected houses. We did get a very good view of the parliament building. We passed the Empress Hotel from afar and a couple of totems. Plus we got to ride all the way to the end of the Trans-Canadaian Highway and see mile marker 0.

Tomorrow will be a sad day. We are getting off reasonably early to head to our after cruise hotel. The trip isn't over yet. We don't go home until Wednesday. Stay tuned for Seattle sight-seeing!

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After a quick and kind of sad breakfast in the Garden Cafe, we disembarked. The rest of our group all went separate was, most going bhome today or tomorrow. I arranged a shuttle with Shuttle Express. This is a different company than the one who brought us in. I found out they mostly do airport transfers. After being told we would have to wait quite a while since everyone else was going to the airport, one of the drivers called dispatch and offered to drop us off at the Sheraton downtown before heading to the airport. In retrospect I wish I would not have booked this transfer. A cab would have cost about the same and we wouldn't have had to stand on the side of the road for a half hour waiting.

At the Sheraton at 9:30am we were pleasantly surprised to find our room ready. After heading up to the 25th floor, we headed out to see the city.

I had allotted today as waterfront day. We rode the great wheel first and saw the sights. It was a novelty. Realatively cheap and fun. It would be more exciting for kids. After we walked through the Pier 57 building. There's a carousel, an arcade, a gift shop, and several restaurants.

We ate lunch at The Crab Potin pier 57. There signature item is their seafeasts. The table next to us ordered one and we're brought the wooden boards and mallets. We ordered shrimp in the Shell as an app and Sean had the salmon and I had their fried seafood platter. It was all great. I had never had deep fried salmon (who's even heard of that?) but it was pricey. After lunch we wandered down for homemade ice cream, also in pier 57.

After lunch we had reservations for a Chittenden Locks cruise through Argosy Cruises. They were just down on pier 55. Neither of us had been through locks before so that was quite the experience. After the drop off in Lake Union there was a bus to take us back. It drove right past the MoPop and the Space Needle.

After that we wandered down to the ferry terminal and took the Bainbridge ferry round trip, because... Grey's Anatomy!!!!

Dinner tonight was a wonderful little pizzeria hidden along the gum wall in the market. The Alibi Room is pretty small, but it packs the flavor! The dungeoness crab dip is phenomenal, and the pizza was great too!

More tomorrow!!!

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After a quick and kind of sad breakfast in the Garden Cafe, we disembarked. The rest of our group all went separate was, most going bhome today or tomorrow. I arranged a shuttle with Shuttle Express. This is a different company than the one who brought us in. I found out they mostly do airport transfers. After being told we would have to wait quite a while since everyone else was going to the airport, one of the drivers called dispatch and offered to drop us off at the Sheraton downtown before heading to the airport. In retrospect I wish I would not have booked this transfer. A cab would have cost about the same and we wouldn't have had to stand on the side of the road for a half hour waiting.

 

At the Sheraton at 9:30am we were pleasantly surprised to find our room ready. After heading up to the 25th floor, we headed out to see the city.

 

I had allotted today as waterfront day. We rode the great wheel first and saw the sights. It was a novelty. Realatively cheap and fun. It would be more exciting for kids. After we walked through the Pier 57 building. There's a carousel, an arcade, a gift shop, and several restaurants.

 

We ate lunch at The Crab Potin pier 57. There signature item is their seafeasts. The table next to us ordered one and we're brought the wooden boards and mallets. We ordered shrimp in the Shell as an app and Sean had the salmon and I had their fried seafood platter. It was all great. I had never had deep fried salmon (who's even heard of that?) but it was pricey. After lunch we wandered down for homemade ice cream, also in pier 57.

 

After lunch we had reservations for a Chittenden Locks cruise through Argosy Cruises. They were just down on pier 55. Neither of us had been through locks before so that was quite the experience. After the drop off in Lake Union there was a bus to take us back. It drove right past the MoPop and the Space Needle.

 

After that we wandered down to the ferry terminal and took the Bainbridge ferry round trip, because... Grey's Anatomy!!!!

 

Dinner tonight was a wonderful little pizzeria hidden along the gum wall in the market. The Alibi Room is pretty small, but it packs the flavor! The dungeoness crab dip is phenomenal, and the pizza was great too!

 

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Great review, thank you. Question about your room key, do they still pass it thru a scanner every time you disembark or did they upgrade to the scan gun?

 

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They have both. The key they gave me was bent a little and only liked being swiped some of the time. They used the gun a lot for mine. I never had a problem using it to open the room door though.

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Today was our day in the Seattle City Center.

We got up early and walked down for breakfast at the Cafe Lieto site for Biscuit Bitch. This little cafe was great. The atmosphere was very cool. I ordered my sandwich without remoulade and they wrote 'no bitchin'' on the wrapper. [emoji23] Everything on their menu is a bitch. Bitchwiches are breakfast sandwiches. The homemade biscuits are huge and delicious!

We walked back up and took the monorail to the city center. It was only $2.50 per person each way, it came ever 10 minutes, and the ride was only 3 minutes.

By the time we got to the Space Needle it was a bit after 8am. We bought tickets for 8:30 and since there was no line and it was not full up top, they let us go up early. In the afternoon when we were headed back to the monorail the line was ridiculously long, so I suggest getting there early if you want to ride up to the top. They are still remodeling, but parts of it are finished. The new benches slant backwards towards the glass walls. The walls also slant outward, so when you sit down, you feel like you are hanging over the edge. It is cool and in Sean's words, "A little terrifying."

After the Needle we headed to the Dale Chulily Garden of Glass. So beautiful!!!! I've never seen glass sculptures quite like this.

Our next stop was the Museum of Pop Culture. The exhibits we had time for were Nirvana, Indie Video Games, Jimi Hendrix, Marvel and we did the Virtual Reality Holosphere. This was by far the coolest thing we've done so far. If I had known how cool this was and how much there was to see, we would have skipped the Space Needle and Chulily and got straight here. We missed parts of this museum I wish we hadn't. We ate lunch at the museum cafe, Culture Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck. We we're a little disappointed. It was good, don't get me wrong, but with Wolfgang Puck's name on it I expected more.

After riding the monorail back and the short walk to our hotel, we got changed into nicer clothes for dinner at The Pink Door. This little Italian restaurant is nestled in Post Alley and has no sign. The only way to know you are in the right place is that the door is pink. I got us reservations at the right time to see the first performance of their aerialist. They do not allow pictures[emoji26], but it was a very good performance. The food was delicious, too! I had the amazing lasagna and we shared a Cabaret cake for dessert.

I took what feels like a billion pictures today, but I'm just gonna post the highlights.

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It's our last day in Seattle! [emoji26]

We got up very early today, since we have to get up early tomorrow too. I'm kind of glad we did, because when we walked down to the original Starbucks at 7am it only had a handful of people inside along with a small group doing some kind of tasting.

At 7am, none of the small vendors are set up. Technically the market doesn't open until 9am, but we found that most people weren't set up until closer to 10.

While we waited we took our Starbucks down past the fish market and took a seat overlooking the Bay. Once we finished out drink we headed up the market to a little restaurant called Lowell's. Sean is a big fan of eggs Benedict, and there menu boasts both a salmon version and a dungeoness crab version. He got the combo of the two while I had french toast, cheesy eggs, and ham.

We wandered the market after breakfast and bought and sampled many things. Seeing the cheese get made at Beechers was very cool. By late morning Sean was tired to we headed back to the hotel and did a little packing.

We had Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Sean had never been to one. I did not expect to be impressed. I ate at one in New York when I was in high school and wasn't thrilled with my experience. This was probably the juiciest burger I've had in a long time. We also split a brownie sundae.

More walking, more packing, a nap, and even more walking later... We had dinner reservations at the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. The food here was amazing! I had lobster Mac and cheese and creme brulee and Sean had halibut and apple crisp. Just a note: this restaurant charges a 20% gratuity on all tables. This did not bother us, because we felt we got great service, which we would tip 20% for at home.

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A Big Mahalo to you for your excellent postings!

Chuck:)

Great review! Thanks for posting and congratulations

Can you give more of your thoughts about the scenic drive excursion? Would you recommend it to others? Did you compare your experience to others' outings on the ship and what did they have to say?

 

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We've done the NCL scenic drive excursion twice and the non NCL Chilkoot drive/train once. The scenic drive excursion is beautiful and the tour guides are usually extremely knowledgeable and entertaining. We were lucky in that we had Pete as a guide both times on the NCL tour and he was great. Being honest, the drive up in the morning can be extremely foggy and although enjoyable, it's a long day in a van.

On the Chilkoot drive/train excursion, the train is not only a change of pace but you also see so much more being off road. As for the lunch...so so. We DID NOT enjoy the area that has the dog sled rides however.

Great review and photos (y) makes me yearn for a trip to Alaska even more!