NCL PEARL Alsaka 7/3-10 Review

[titangas]

Family trip of a lifetime

 

Took over 3,000 pictures but I apologize for not being Savvy enough to include some.

 

Background Information: Family of 5 (DD 20, DD 17, DS 13)

We have been on several cruises before (Disney, RCL, CCL, Celebrity and NCL) but this was the first family cruise on NCL, our first Alaska cruise and our first cruise in a suite (2br - Ruby Penthouse 11506)

 

Only 1 direct flight from Raleigh to Seattle - Alaska Air and gets in at 8:30 pm, so we decided to fly in on Friday to give us a full day in Seattle before cruise. ** Alaska Air was awesome, probably the cleanest and best plane I have ever flown.

 

Stayed 2 nights at the Embassy Suites near Seatac. Great clean hotel with nice breakfast included, didn't cost anything used Hilton rewards certificate earned.

 

Saturday Day before cruise:

The hotel shuttle dropped us off at the airport to catch the light rail to downtown. Very convenient and easy to get around Seattle using public transportation. We had pre-purchased the Citipass for 5 admissions and decided to do the waterfront activities today, as we were staying near the Space Needle after cruise and could do the Seattle Center sites then.

 

First was the Argosy Harbor Cruise (1 hour). We timed it perfectly as we walked up as they were boarding the 10:45 tour, we were able to get on because we had Citipass, saw some turned away who walked up with us but did not have prepaid tickets. Fantastic way to start off the vacation. Gave us a nice overview of the city, our guide Gabby was wonderful and very knowledgeable. Got lots of great pictures of Seattle skyline, Space Needle etc.

 

After the cruise we decided we would walk the waterfront a bit, then get lunch and after lunch hit the Seattle Aquarium. Really enjoyed the atmosphere and shops. Picked up some inexpensive Seattle souvenirs to take home including a nice rain jacket for 1 daughter who did not have one.

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop was a blast.

 

Ate lunch at Elliot's Oyster House after debating between them Ivar's and the Crab Pot. Had a delicious Bloody Mary that I knocked over, broke the glass and spilled all over the place, but the staff quickly helped clean up and replaced for me. We shared an appetizer of Oysters Rockefeller that were very very very good. After that the meal kind of went south. The food got mixed reviews from the family, I thought my 1/2 smoked salmon salad sandwich/chowder was very good. The service was really lacking, it was busy but what started out as seemingly really good service, turned into pretty crappy by the end. The wife thinks because we mostly ordered cheaper meals (salads and sandwiches) the server decided to turn in attention elsewhere. I am not sure about that as the total bill was over $150.

 

The Aquarium was nice but nothing special, it was included in the Citipass and the kids love aquariums so it really was a no-brainer. By far our favorite was watching the Sea Otters (Which we were lucky to see in the wild on Glacier Bay day).

 

After that we decided to head up to Pike Place Market and were also in some desperate need of some Starbuck's. We decided that the going to the one on 1st and Pike would be a better option than waiting in line at the original, got served quickly and really enjoyed the atmosphere. When walking through the Market, we got a sample of the best peach I ever had. Best sales tactic ever as we purchased 5 huge peaches that would eventually become our dinner along with bagels bought at the Market.

 

My son had a project at school where they had to pick an american city, were given a budget and had to plan a trip last year. He did it on Seattle, so he had a lot of sites we needed to check out, some we did this day like the gum wall (gross) and some we did after the cruise (world's largest shoe).

 

We stayed around Pike Place until the vendors were packing up, but decided we would definitely come back on Monday after cruise.

 

Exhausted we headed back to hotel to rest for the big embarkation day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cincicruisers]

Great start, following

[jm485]

CC's editor in chief was live-reviewing a Mississippi River cruise and SHE was having problems with the photos, so don't apologize! Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[titangas]

EMBARKATION DAY

 

Used Shuttle Express to get us from the hotel to port, We had a lot of luggage for the 5 of us, so I booked an SUV and it held all of the luggage and was quite comfortable. Driver was 15 minutes early picking us up and there was absolutely no traffic going downtown early Sunday morning.

 

Arrived at pier, dropped bags and were escorted to the suite check in waiting area. Check in was quick and easy, the children enjoyed the fruit while I welcomed a nice cup of coffee. There were about 10 passengers in the room when we arrived, the room was a little small and did get a little cramped before the concierge came down and welcomed us.

 

 

We were escorted on board and taken directly to Cagney's for lunch. The service here was phenomenal this first lunch and the menu, albeit limited was very good. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their choices.

 

Lunch the rest of the cruise was in Moderno. We did not eat lunch here day 2, but did on Day 3 Juneau. The service was beyond terrible. We were seated for at least 15 minutes and were never even greeted for a drink request. Finally flagged down a server and they told us someone would be right with us. Over 5 minutes later a server walked up still tying his apron. When asked about the soup of the day, he did not know and had to go check. Food took exceptionally long to come out, drinks were never asked to be refilled and finally had to get up and leave before coffee in order to get off ship for excursion, after being in dining room for an hour and 25 minutes.

We did complain to the Hostess and also the Concierge, but we never ate in Moderno's again for lunch.

 

Breakfast on the other hand in Moderno was fantastic and service was always good. The fruit on the buffet was fresh, delicious and plentiful especially the pineapple, kiwi and berries. I enjoyed the Eggs Benedict and Lox (Salmon) multiple times, the family said the waffles and french toast were excellent.

 

Other Suite Perks:

 

Concierge - A++

One was leaving the ship in Ketchikan (Friday) don't remember name as I dealt with Yahira who was just coming on board, so there were 2 for most of the cruise. I did not book Teppanyaki in advance as we were a party of 5 and could not do odd number online. Yahira was able to get us in on the day we wanted and time, on Wednesday 8:30 the Skagway day that the ship departed at 8:00.

 

We usually do not do ship excursions, but my kids wanted to zip-line in Ketchikan. There were 3 listed and all mentioned needing an adult signing a waiver, so we used Yahira to check out if it would be okay for my 20 year old to supervise the 2 younger ones and any of them. So she booked that for us, as well as my wife and I doing the Butchart Gardens through the ship.

 

Yahira was also able to get us into LeBistro one night when the iConcierge App showed no availability, it took a little time for her to get back to us and she said the Maitre' D had to move some things around.

 

Yahira also facilitated getting off the ship quickly and easily at every port. In Skagway and Ketchikan, we took a crew elevator behind the Moderno bar (after breakfast), in Juneau and Victoria, we took a back stairway behind the Martini bar on deck 6. Getting off the ship on the last day was a breeze, as we met her by theater and was led directly to the front of line and off the ship.

 

Butler - A-/B+

 

Cons - Lazaro, never really formally introduced himself. We were never given instructions on how to use the Lavazza machine, but I figured it out without much difficulty. We were also never told about the cordless phone and how it worked. Still not sure, but my kids said some of their friends carried them so their parents could call them from room.

 

Pros - He was very visible and available all cruise. When he noticed that my kids always ate the banana and grapes and not the apples from fruit bowl, he changed the mix to include at least 3 bananas and more grapes every day. One day after coming back from port, one of my kids mentioned how they loved the chocolate covered strawberries the day before, he returned shortly after with a plate and left some another day.

Coffee was always well stocked, had to ask for more sugar once, but after that always overstocked.

 

We had room service delivered twice and breakfast twice both times very quick and extremely courteous setting up.

 

The Suite itself was phenomenal. The 2br was more than enough space for 5. The girls had the second bedroom and the bathroom in that room was bigger and better set up than on the Sun or Spirit. It met there needs perfectly.

My son slept on the couch. Very ingenious how it does not pull out but rather flips over, so it does not take up any additional floor space when set up as a bed. This was key as I awake well before anyone else and could head to the balcony unimpeded.

The master bedroom was incredible, the mattress was sooooo comfortable, I generally do not sleep well, but slept like a baby. The bathroom was incredible space wise, my only complaint was the the separate room for the toilet was a little small and there was a phone on the wall that my son, wife and I all kept knocking down.

The shower was spacious, had multiple body jets and great pressure. I enjoyed many a long shower gazing out at the open sea. I did not use the tub, but wife enjoyed a bath as we cruised Glacier Bay and said it was fantastic.

 

Embarkation Day Continued -- the rest of the day we just explored the ship, the teens signed up for Entourage, Muster Drill was quick and painless.

Dinner was at my favorite NCL specialty LeBistro (booked online) We booked early and had the original Ultimate Dining Plan, so no MDR or Buffet dinners for us -- It was pretty empty and the waiter said that is usually the case on embarkation day. Food was great. I had escargot, endive salad and Roasted Duck, the rest of family had same or Onion Soup, Lobster, Rack of Lamb.

We also had UBP (truly free one) so my wife and I both had glasses of wine. We were disappointed with the choices by the glass but beggars cannot be choosey.

Everyone left very pleased after sharing 2 chocolate fondues for 2 and of course a Bailey's on the rocks for me.

 

[JillL]

Waiting for more! :)

[jonsmom]

Me too

[titangas]

 

A Few notes on Embarkation day that I forgot.

 

All of our bags were delivered before the muster drill, We had received luggage tags in the mail as a suite guest that were marked priority, not sure if that helped but it helped to get mostly unpacked before the muster.

 

We did attend the sail away party on the pool deck. The kids had a lot of fun dancing the various line dances with cruise staff, wife and I had a couple of fruity drinks (figured this was going to be as warm as it gets)**, I know there has been some mixed info from various ports, taxes were charged on drinks for UBP in Seattle.

 

** Turns out we had fantastic weather entire cruise, not a drop of rain any day in port, the only rain was sailing between Ketchikan and Victoria near the end of cruise, most of the locals in all 3 Alaska ports were wearing short sleeves.

 

We also attended the Welcome Aboard variety show. We tend to not go to shows every night, but usually do go the first night to get a feel for the entertainment. The show itself was nothing special, not great not terrible just meh. I did get brought up on stage by the comedian Tim Kaminski* for his intro sketch and had to waddle, stomp, wave my arm like a trunk and blow like an elephant. Quite embarrassing and I had people recognizing and coming up to me the whole next day at sea.

 

* A side not on Tim Kaminski , I took my daughter on a Western Caribbean cruise on the Sun for her sweet 16 in March of 2015, Tim K. was on that ship and his opening show and his main act later in the week were IDENTICAL, the guy really needs to come up with some new material, cruisers tend to repeat and it is pretty lame not having any new material.

 

Lastly I mentioned that we used the iConcierge app to try and get some dinner reservations. The app itself works great. You can check availability for dinners, see the times and events for what is going on on the ship etc.

We signed up for the texting (messaging) service and I highly recommend NOT doing so. From past experience we knew that DD17 and DS13 would be off roaming the ship and meeting/hanging out with friends, so we wanted a way to keep in touch as our only main rule is that we eat dinner together as a family on sea days. It costs $9.95 per device and does not work very well at all, there seemed to be dead spots all over the ship and it never really worked at all for us in the Spa, on a couple of days it stopped working for hours and it only seems to work if the device receiving the message is on and the app is open to receive the message, otherwise it just says sent and the receiver does not get the message until they open up the app, not the best system for teens preoccupied, forgetting to check the app once in awhile.

I have no regrets as we had OBC to use up, and with the UDP, UBP we were not really going to rack up much of a bill, but would not do it again.

 

Next up Day 2 At Sea.....

 

 

 

 

[Newfun4me]

Enjoying your review!!!! We are on the Jewel to Alaska on 7/30 and really looking forward to it!

[Clarea]

Following.:)

[lmintzer]

Great review so far! Reading with much interest. Will be on Pearl in just 6 days!

 

Very disappointed to hear the texting feature on iConcierge doesn't work well.

: ( We were counting on it to keep in touch: 6 of us traveling (me and my tween and teen boy who would like some freedom to roam as well), my dad (who doesn't like to separate from the group but might need to), and my 30 something brother and wife who will like their alone time but still want to be connected.

[cruisin07family]

Following. Please come back and finish....

[titangas]

 

Day 2 - At Sea

 

The younger kids (DS13 and DD17) both stayed out pretty late the night before, both past the old folk as DD20 went to bed. They both met some friends through the entourage club that they hung with the entire cruise and have still been in contact with post cruise.

 

One funny note, during the sail away party while the kids were dancing a well built young man walked by in a swim suit, and my wife turns to me and says why can't DD17 meet a guy like that. It turns out that my 2 daughters were in a hot tub and seen him walk up and go into the other hot tub, and DD17 turns to her sister saying Damn, why couldn't he get in this one!

Well one of the activities/competitions later that night in Entourage was to go find some teens who had not signed up and try to get them to come to the club. Well my DS13 approached this young man, he turned out to be 17 and ended up friends with DD17 (More on this to follow).

 

So about 5:00am I here a bang, you know sometimes you here some strange noises on a ship. Then I hear another one and that's it I am up now and going back to sleep isn't going to happen. So I get up to use the rest room, and all of a sudden I hear - "In the shower", not truly registering I hear it again "I'm in the shower" -- Why on earth my son was standing in the shower without the water running yet I still to this day don't know, but I am guessing he was figuring out the controls.

 

In the Master on the suite, the picture window and the long window in the shower let in a lot of light, so you really do not need to put the lights on during the day.

 

So, I proceed to the living room and let him finish in private, and make some cappuccino with the Lazazza machine and enjoy the quiet peacefulness of the balcony. I understand everyone's priorities are different, but for me a balcony is a must. On any given week long cruise, I am certain I spend at least 20 hours on it.

 

I realize that the room steward did not draw the blackout curtains, and because of the early sunrises in that region the living room was well lit and must have triggered his waking up so early. Also the clocks got turned back 1 hour to adjust the ship's time to Alaska time, so it was more like 6am.

 

After he gets out of the shower and we talk a little, I can see he is still exhausted so I tell him, if he wants to go lay in my bed to go ahead. He informs me that he is meeting his new friends at 8am for breakfastt and could I wake him up at 7:45 if he is not up.

 

7am rolls around, so I decide to head up to Moderno by myself for breakfast. I am used to eating breakfast by myself on cruises. I am an early riser and always want to sit in the MDR and enjoy it over time, the rest of the family sleeps in and is content to eat a quick bite from the buffet.

I was the only one in Moderno for a good 15 minutes, I love the press pot coffee and enjoyed Eggs Benedict and a bagel (had to request it) with some lox, not the last time this would be my breakfast. Service was great!

 

When I get back to the room DS is gone, and the rest of the crew is just getting up. I decide to accompany them back to Moderno while they all have breakfast and DD17 fills us in what happened last night.

 

DD17 has plans to meet friends at 10am, not in club area so DD20 tags along, but unfortunately anytime they want to go in Entourage she is not allowed in so it turns out she doesn't really spend much time on the ship with her sister when it is not the whole family.

 

DD20 and I decided to play Bingo while the wife wants to get ready for the day. We only play this first time (not too crowded) and on the last day(madhouse). Our cards sucked and we were not even close in any game. The assistant cruise director Henry was very entertaining and after all isn't that what is all about anyway.

 

My wife and I pre-purchased spa passes before the trip. We debated about getting one for DD20, but once we got the vibe that she wouldn't fit in with DD17 and friends we told her that if she wanted use her room key and buy a pass and meet us. This was the best decision because she ended up using the spa more than us, and we used it A LOT! Both of the ladies loved the showers there and used them multiple times instead of the room. Our room was literally below the treatment rooms of the spa, so it was very conveniently 1 flight up to get to.

 

** The Spa was well worth the $129/$149 we spent. The women both loved the heated ceramic loungers, which were at times difficult to get an open one. The regular forward facing loungers always seemed to be in use, but you could usually get one while the forward facing loungers in the unisex areas were pretty much empty most of the time. I spent the majority of the time when I was not on a lounger reading, in the large Therapy pool. There was one area which was like a rack in the shape of a lounger at the end and tons of bubbles from underneath. If you sat just right you could also gaze out the front windows.

 

We told DD13 and DS17 that they were free for the day, but had to meet us back in the room to get ready for our Cagney's reservation. So after a 2-3 hours in the spa (around 1), DD17, Wife and I decide it is time for lunch.

 

My previous 2 cruises on NCL were on the Spirit and the Sun, so I was pleasantly surprised by O'Sheehan's our lunch decision for today. While both of those ships had places (Blue Lagoon and Las Ramblas) where you could get similar food, there is simply no comparison. I was amazed at how large it was completely encircling the atrium area, I deck up.

I ordered a drink off there bar menu, a BBC which was a Bailey's Banana Colada - which I loved and would be back for more.

The food was very good. I am a Buffalo Chicken Wing nut, and I thought these were very very good. My daughter really liked the mozzarella sticks and my wife enjoyed the chips with artichoke dip. We felt that the appetizer portions were nice and small, so it left room for you to eat your meal.

I had a burger, wife had tuna salad and DD had a hot dog and we were all very happy with the meals.

 

A bonus to eating at O'Sheehan's was that we were able to hear what was going on in the atrium. We played Name that Tune while we ate. There were 15 songs, 1 point for Title and 1 point for Artist. We scored 28 out of 30 while the winner got 29. Good time though.

 

We also played Name that Broadway Tune just after lunch in the Martini Bar area, but boy that was hard -- although we enjoy Broadway Musicals a lot of the tunes were from before our time.

 

Got to go -- Will pick up with Dinner at Cagney's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[titangas]

Great review so far! Reading with much interest. Will be on Pearl in just 6 days!

 

Very disappointed to hear the texting feature on iConcierge doesn't work well.

: ( We were counting on it to keep in touch: 6 of us traveling (me and my tween and teen boy who would like some freedom to roam as well), my dad (who doesn't like to separate from the group but might need to), and my 30 something brother and wife who will like their alone time but still want to be connected.

 

I think it could of worked better for us but my kids would not check the app and it would not chime or let you know you had a message if the app wasn;t open.

 

The calling feature did work.

 

The Spa was the biggest dead zone for us, and the Entourage club for the teens. Both of those locations are way forward inside, so that may have something to do it with.

 

There were 2 days that the whole system was not working for at least a couple of hours.

 

So use your best judgement, it may still be worth it.

[fourxk]

are you ever coming back to finish this?!?!