Review of NCL Pearl to Alaska (June 25, 2017)

[sjl1222]

This was my second Alaska cruise (my fourth overall). I went two years ago on the same route with Princess, so that cruise is still fresh in my mind for comparison. Overall, I think Norwegian did a much better job for a few different reasons.

 

Firstly, I was really impressed with the ship itself. It was very clean, and I don't take this for granted. Keeping that much ship clean takes a lot of hard work. The layout of the ship is simple and thoughtful. It was very easy to navigate, and though we only used them once, the elevators were smooth and fast.

 

Some of the rooms on the ship were just beautiful. In all my cruises I don't remember just looking around a room and being impressed with the carpet, furniture, art, and ceilings so often. The Summer Palace dining room is gorgeous. Lotus Garden is also a nice space, and the dresses of the servers in the Garden were beautiful. If I didn't have a balcony, I would have spent much more time in Spinnaker Lounge. It is a huge lounge up top on the front of the ship, with large windows giving a panoramic view. There is quite a bit of seating to relax and watch the ocean, but because it's such a nice space, the seats can be a little hard to get.

 

We stayed in a minisuite with a balcony (11618). It felt pretty spacious, the steward did a great job, and I appreciated having a balcony even though the wind was almost too cold to enjoy it much. It was very nice on glacier day though, and pulling in and out of ports. I probably saw about 20 whales just from the balcony alone. I did really like the shower. Tons of water pressure. I thought the location of the room was nice. We could access all three staircases quickly, and my favorite thing about the ship is on deck 11.

 

While we're still on the ship itself, the coolest thing about the ship is the bridge viewing room on deck 11. I've never seen this before on a ship. It's a room with large windows looking right into the bridge. You're standing behind the captain and officers. You can see the computers, the beautiful view, the controls. In the viewing room itself, they have computer screens where you can see what the officers see, such as two radars and two informational panels showing details about the engines and the course. There's maps on the wall and a fantastic model of the Pearl.

 

Entertainment and activities were just okay. One thing I appreciated about the Princess cruise was that we had a wonderful naturalist aboard who did several lectures. NCL didn't have that, just a couple short documentaries. Overall I wasn't too interested in much on the schedule. There was a magician and a pianist/comedian, both were great, but the overall daily activities I felt were pretty bland. The trivia and name that song were geared toward the older crowd, which I totally understand.

 

I didn't book any excursions through the ship, so I can't really comment on that. I booked independently, but I can recommend the train in Skagway and a seaplane through the Misty Fjords. We took Southeast Aviation for that one and the flight was incredible.

 

Service was pretty hit or miss. Bartenders as a whole were not friendly at all. On Carnival, I loved talking with the bartenders and hearing about where they're from and what the cruise world is like. On this ship, I was lucky if they even said one word when I walked up or ordered. Other staff were pretty friendly though.

 

The servers in all dining areas seemed understaffed. Service was slow everywhere, and refills were almost nonexistent the whole week. In the buffet area I often had to push dirty dishes to the side of the table to use it because there were no busted tables. Everyone seemed to be working hard, maybe just a little overstretched.

 

Lastly, and for me, most importantly, the food. I've been on two Carnival cruises and one Princess cruise, and this Norwegian cruise had the best food overall. Princess was the worst (by far). The food is almost the most important part of a cruise for me, because you're basically eating all day long.

 

First the not so good. My least favorite meal the whole time was Cagney's Steakhouse. It is a paid restaurant. We went because a coworker treated us. We had a reservation for 8:00, didn't get in until almost 8:30, and didn't get our first app until around 9. Service was so slow, and the restaurant was dark, loud, and crowded. My appetizer was not good at all, but the bison steak was good. It did not come with toppings indicated on the menu though. Dessert was just okay. So many people love Cagney's, but it was a big miss for me. I didn't have any reason to go back since the food on the rest of the ship was so good.

 

The only other not great thing about dining on the ship was the cocktails. I had three or four cocktails, none of which were made well. And watching the haphazard way they were thrown together, the bartenders did not seem properly trained. I just stopped ordering them. Princess, by the way, had excellent cocktails. Back to Norwegian, I ended up just ordering wine by the glass. The red blend made specifically for Norwegian is delicious and less than $10 per glass. I love whiskey but the selection was awful so I stuck with the wine.

 

So enough with the negatives, because the overall level of food on this ship was outstanding. The dining room menu often had several things I wanted to try, and I was rarely disappointed with what I got. Not everything was great in the dining room, but everything was at least good, and many dishes were excellent. The risotto and the Cornish hen come to mind. The bread was always good. The desserts were always good. Overall, the dining room was better than Carnival and much, much better than Princess (I still have nightmares of the endless, soggy boiled vegetables they called sides).

 

For breakfast, we mostly ate in the dining room. I regret not discovering the poached eggs sooner. I almost didn't order them, because on earlier cruises I ordered poached eggs and got rock solid, old eggs with crusty Hollandaise smothering them. But I took the chance and ordered them on the Pearl and oh my God they were the most perfect poached eggs I've ever had. I even got poached eggs off the buffet one morning and they were perfect too! This made me one happy camper because I love breakfast.

 

I'll go ahead and talk about coffee here, another important one for me. The regular free coffee on the Pearl was good compared to Princess (seriously, the worst coffee I've ever had was the coffee on the Princess ship). The coffee on Norwegian tasted a little too smoky and cheap for me, but it was still drinkable and probably pretty good if you're not a coffee snob. On cruises I always end up at the cafe in the morning. I'm willing to pay $2 for good coffee, and the cafe here delivered. They didn't do drip, but they made awesome Americanos. They have Lavazzo espresso and I really looked forward to my Americano every morning.

 

Don't want to have a long meal in the dining room? Lotus Garden was pretty good. I enjoyed my noodle dishes, but not the orange beef. The sushi is extra, but very cheap and I thought it was pretty good. I had it for lunch twice. O'Sheehan's is pub food. I had a decent burger and wanted to try more but never got the chance.

 

Lastly, I didn't eat at the buffet much, but what I had was great. Breakfast was crazy crowded but the poached eggs on an English muffin were good. They had a crepe bar! A guy made fresh crepes to order which was very impressive for a buffet. The real star for me was the Indian food. I thought buffet Indian food would not be good, but it looked pretty good so I decided to try it. I was really impressed. It tasted like they made it from scratch. They usually had three dishes available with naan and a variety of Indian sauces. If you like Indian food, just eat lunch here everyday. For me, this was the best lunch available on the ship. They did have suckling pig (like, the entire pig) on the buffet one day, but I walked up just as they were closing down. I was sad I didn't get to try it!

 

And the best dessert I had on this cruise was off the buffet. It was in the glass dessert case, just labeled "flourless chocolate cake." You have to try it. I used to be a professional baker, and that might have been the best chocolate cake I ever had. I'm going to contact NCL to see if I can get the recipe. Also try the peach frozen yogurt, and the opera cake on chocolate night.

 

Overall, this was the best cruise I've had. Even with the negatives, the cleanliness and design of the ship with the high quality of food has put Norwegian at the top for me. I have a cruise booked with Celebrity next year (family chose that one), but I would highly recommend Norwegian and would choose them over Carnival or Princess.

[easyboy]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise! Thanks for the comparison.

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

[Clarea]

Thank-you for the report.

[jonsmom]

Which restaurant did you get Indian food? Thanks - good review!

[sjl1222]

Which restaurant did you get Indian food? Thanks - good review!

At the buffet on deck 12. It was delicious!

[jonsmom]

At the buffet on deck 12. It was delicious!

Thank you - I have never tried Indian food. Looking forward to it.

[gingersvp]

Thank you for the review. We ship out on the Pearl this Sunday and I'm so thrilled to hear such nice things about the ship!

[hoopics]

sjl, we were on the same sailing as you -- the opposite end of the hall on Deck 11, in fact. We also had a fantastic voyage, and are sold on NCL after this our first cruise with the line. I'd rate it a sold 4.3 out of 5, which is about where the reviews seem to be trending for Pearl. It was an amazing cruise, trailing very slightly the 13 days we did through the Med on QM2 for our honeymoon. But we went all-in for that one.

 

I've been too busy to post a full trip report, so I may just piggy-back off yours here for a couple observations / thoughts on yours if that's not frowned upon:

 

• Cleanliness -- Not at all surprised you led with this in your review. This was our fourth cruise (one prior on Cunard, two on RCL), and I was affirmatively impressed by how neat and tidy everything was on the Pearl. Granted, she'd just come through a refurb, and a bit of exterior rust is inevitable on anything that floats, but the cabin attendants, hallway cleaning staff, and the like were working hard to keep every shiny surface polished and the floors well vacuumed. I even saw an exterior painting crew while we were in Skagway. Overall she was in better shape than the QM2 when we sailed on her in her second year in service, or either of the RCL boats [by far].
  

• Common spaces -- Agreed the decor and furniture were quite appealing. Loved the Spinnaker Lounge, as well as the Great Outdoors during non-meal times. Two gripes here: as someone noted in another review, there are a number of broken seats in the main theater (I was stuck on one during lifeboat drill) that really need fixing, and the air handling in the casino was terrible. As a non-smoker, it was bad enough to limit my time there, which cut into my gambling spend [hope you're reading this, NCL].
  

• Kid's club / Activities -- we had our two rugrats (8 and 5) with us. You likely heard them running past your door more than once as we headed to the Summer Palace, and / or our shushing them and telling them to slow down. My apologies for that. In any event, they LOVED splash academy. They even begged us to leave them on board in Juneau when we went on our shore excursion [win / win for them and us, as it would have been boring for them]. We found the staff to be attentive, friendly, but good at marshaling lots of cooped up high energy kids. They also loved the scooped ice cream in the buffet, the arcade (expensive, a bit limited), the bowling alley (hard to get a lane -- they should have a sign-up system rather than first come, first served), the sports court, climbing wall, shuffle board, and "big chess / checkers" out on deck. We weren't able to check the last must-do off their list until our final night in Victoria.
  

• Cabin / Cabin Attendant -- we loved our mini suite (11526) which was right under the room where they store and mix the pool chemicals for the forward pool. I know this because we'd periodically hear these gurgling sounds like the world's largest toilet flushing. One day I went up to 12 and pieced it together. They only did the pool work during daylight hours, so the noises weren't bothersome. We found the cabin overall to be incredibly quiet, and well shielded from the wind and rain by the deck 12 overhang above [we were a few cabins aft of where that started]. Unlike your experience, we were able to sit outside virtually every day of the cruise, albeit wearing sweatshirts, gloves and shoes some days. The beds were quite comfortable, and the kids loved the "cave" that was created by the blackout curtains. Everyone slept well all cruise long, and we found it to be enough space for us. I was very impressed by the functionality of the store design. Less so by the two broken drawers that fell off their tracks, which we couldn't get fixed by maintenance until Day 2. Delayed our packing a bit, but our wonderful cabin attendant Ray just worked around our luggage until they fixed it. Our kids' biggest complaint about the cruise -- maybe their only complaint -- was that the TV in the cabin did not have dedicated childrens' programming 24 / 7. We told them to get over it and look out the window at the glaciers and the whales and the eagles and the seals.
  

• Bingo -- way too expensive for what it is. Yeah, it's a cash cow. And yeah, it draws. But $40 minimum entry for an hour session? Please.
  

• Internet service -- BOOOOOO. We went almost 36 hours spanning Glacier Bay and the sail towards Ketchikan without wifi. Granted, they were great about crediting me back two days worth of fee against my unlimited plan, but what I really needed was connectivity with my office. This was a huge disruption -- after I got back onto land. During the period it was down, I just had to deal with seeing glaciers and whales and the inside of my eyelids during quality nap time.
  

• Food / Service -- Summer Palace for lunch was our favorite, mainly for the view out the back as we were sailing. The wait staff there were generally the best, although that's a relative term. I whole-heartedly agree with your assessment of all the dining locations feeling dramatically under-staffed. We were particularly unimpressed by the difficulty finding a table in the buffet in the morning, mainly due to them being slow to clear tables. It also took a glacial amount of time to get a kid's meal delivered from Deck 6 up to O'Sheehan's. Unlike your experience, we had our single best meal experience at Cagney's -- we went for my "birthday" meal, with cake and song, and found the staff particularly attentive. Our worst meal was at the Bistro. So bad I had to complain -- despite it being half empty, the waiter rushed us through every course, to the point that he twice took my plate while I was still chewing my last bite, including once when I pointed out my wife was still eating her meal. Poor showing. At least they comped us the wine for my wife after we complained. We all found the breakfasts in the buffet to be quite tasty, but ate every lunch and dinner after day one elsewhere as we didn't care for the non-breakfast buffet options. Of the non-paid restaurants, Indigo was my favorite for dinner although the service was spotty. Best dish I had on the boat was probably the mixed BBQ at Indigo. Worst was the turkey sausage links at the buffet, which were cardboard-inedible. My kids ate many, many hot dogs. They described them as the best hot dogs they've ever had somewhere other than at a baseball stadium. This is high praise.
  

• Bartenders -- I'm not a drinker, and my wife only had a few glasses of wine at dinner. But I did try and hit the java bar every morning (I'm not as charitable on their buffet coffee as you). The service there was almost surreal in its lack of responsiveness. The effort in trying to get their attention, and then the amount of time it took to make a basic latte, would never fly on land. The coffee was fine, but not even up to Starbucks quality.
  

• Embarkation / Disembarkation -- we'd had some really bad experience with this on both Cunard (initial check-in at the port in Southampton, and at some tender ports) and RCL (worst being disembarking in FLL), so we were apprehensive about how that would run. We were affirmatively impressed by how well NCL had their crowd control together. We flew into Seattle the night prior to the sailing at stayed at the Marriott across the street (average by major Marriott standards, but wow the location), so we were able to arrive around 11:30 after a leisurely morning at the hotel. We encountered zero lines or waits until the post check-in / pre-embarkation area. We were given a tag for group 15; they were in the process of boarding group 12. The wait was maybe 10 minutes, and another 5 minutes in a queue before we were on board. No lines at all for any port disembarkations, except Juneau where we had to be off the boat as soon as we were cleared and the early line took 30 minutes. No meaningful lines at any port to get back on. We chose walk-off for disembarkation on return to Seattle, ate a full breakfast, and headed down around 8:45 AM. Took us about five minutes to clear the checkout line, and another five minutes for Customs. Then back to the Marriott. Couldn't have been easier, better organized, or better explained by the NCL staff. Big win here.
  

• Medical Center -- I can provide informed feedback on this too. But that's going to get its own stand-alone review in a little bit...
  

Edited July 6, 2017 by hoopics