Pearl Review - 6/8 - 6/15

[Longhorn Cruiser]

Just off the Pearl. We were a group of 9 (Grandparents, Parents and Children ages 19,19 and 23).

We were offered upsells the week before the cruise and were in AA Owner's Suite and two AC's.

Will write a review later but if anyone has any questions let me know.

[TexDisneyMom]

Do you know what movies were showing? I really can't imagine going to see a movie, but my kids that might be fun.

[snow1]

Can't wait to read your review. Did you take any excursions? If yes, did you book them in advance through NCL, or on your own?

[SwimMom919396]

What were your original cabin assignments? 9 people seems like alot of people to rearrange.

[Cooks_Bay]

Just off the Pearl. We were a group of 9 (Grandparents, Parents and Children ages 19,19 and 23).

We were offered upsells the week before the cruise and were in AA Owner's Suite and two AC's.

Will write a review later but if anyone has any questions let me know.

 

I thought AA's and AC's both accomodated a maximum of 2?

[Longhorn Cruiser]

We really enjoyed our Norwegian Pearl Cruise to Alaska. We are a group of experienced cruisers having sailed almost every line (Silversea, Crystal, Queen Mary, Celebrity, Princess, RCCL, Carnival, et. al.) You name we've sailed it. This was our first experience with NCL.

 

The upsell we received was a great surprise prior to the start of the cruise. I have never had the opportunity to sail in a suite and my wife and I really enjoyed our Owner's Suite. We spent much more time in our cabin than we normally would. We even had breakfast brought in for the whole family for our sail through Glacier Bay. The extras that come with the suite are great. NCL really knows how to treat its "VIP" guests. From the priority embarkation the first day to the priority disembarkations in port, NCL really made us feel special. The breakfast and lunches in Cagney's were great and the access to the Courtyard area was fantastic. This is something we may not be able to experience again. This cruise was a celebration of events in our family (anniversaries, birthdays, graduation) so the treatment we received from NCL made it all the more special. Cudos to Norwegian for the Royal Treatment.

 

As I have said we really enjoyed the cruise. In an effort to be an honest, however, I will include a few criticisms. (I'm sorry in advance to those who take criticisms of a particular line personally.) The Pearl is a beautiful ship and it is obvious that it is a new ship. As I said this was our first experience with Freestyle Cruising. It was nice having the ability to have the Concierge make our reservations for the entire week on the first day of the cruise. I'm not sure it would have been the same if we tried to get reservations for a family of 9 at the preferred times without Lisa's help. It great having the choice of 10 different restaurants during the week. In comparison to other cruises we have been on, though, the Pearl does not have the same amount of public space. The space devoted to the numerous restaurants is wasted during the day since the restaurants are closed. This is especially punctuated on an Alaskan cruise where there is very little use of the outdoor pool areas.

 

Since I mentioned restaurants, a few comments. We ate in Teppanyaki, Cagney's, Le Bistro and the Lotus Garden. All were very good, especially the first two. We also ate in Cagney's for breakfast and lunch and it also was good. We ate in the Summer Palace twice and we were all disappointed in this. The selections were not great and the quality was mediocre at best. I say this even though none of us are really picky eaters. We are generally very easy to please. We surmised that this was NCL's attempt to make you eat in the specialty restaurants and in fact we had not planned on eating in the Lotus Garden but made the change late in the week. No one wanted to go back to the Summer Palace. We have no real complaints on the service in the restaurants though we all did miss the ability to get to know our wait staff throughout the week.

 

The only show we saw was Sharkbait and we enjoyed it. We usually enjoy the shows on a cruise but the itinerary makes it difficult. You are in port many nights and "we sure didn't want to miss a meal." Another nice perk for Owner's Suite and above is the reserved seating section in the showroom.

 

Juneau

5 of us went with Captain Larry whale watching (or whale waiting as they say.) We were able to spot 4 or 5 whales. We enjoyed Orca Enterprises and would recommend them. They are very knowledgeable (Larry, Dirk and Sean).

4 of us went to the Red Dog Salon and had a great time.

 

Skagway

We scheduled the Discover Glacier Helicopter Tour for 4:30 but hadn't scheduled anything for earlier in the day. I went out early into town and found a scenic mini bus tour to White Pass that I booked for the 9 of us. The tour goes to the same place as the train and parallels it much of the way. There was only one other family on the bus so we received personal service. Ron, our guide, was great and made numerous stops for photos. He also spotted wildlife for us. The tour is 2.5 hours and less than half the price of the train ($38 per person.) I have the name of the individual if anyone is interested.

The Discovery Glacier Tour that we booked directly with Temsco was fabulous and a "must do." The scenic helicopter ride is amazing and the guides on the glacier really make the trip. Unbelievable experience.

 

Glacier Bay is a site to behold. If you aren't an early riser don't fret. You should try to get up as early as you can, but make sure you are up by 9:00. You reach the Marjorie Glacier around 9:30 and you want to see this. After the Marjorie Glacier the ships sails to the Johns Hopkins Glacier. The Park Rangers on the ship are knowledgeable and really good at spotting bears and eagles. We definitely made use of our suite this day. The ship sails very slowly, so the front balconies are perfect for viewing in Glacier Bay.

 

Ketchikan

We did some shopping on Creek Street and went to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack show which we all enjoyed.

 

Victoria

We did some shopping again and went to the Stickey Whicket Pub for dinner and a pint or two. Grandparents went to the gardens and loved them.

 

A few miscellaneous points.

Freestyle 2.0 appeared to be in full effect. The beds were extremely comfortable. The menus in all of the restaurants have changed which we realized when the menus in our suite were different from the menus in the restaurant. Lobster is readily available and in most cases for an additional charge in the specialty restaurants.

 

Never heard about any outbreaks of Norwalks. Sanitizers are everywhere and they are very diligent about the use.

 

3 bottles of liquor are provided for the Owner's Suite.

 

Movies we watched included Juno, Catch and Release (must have been Jennifer Garner week) Batman Begins and Mystery Alaska.

 

Also, I neglected to mention that we had a balcony cabin for the children. We only had 2 people in the AC's and AA.

 

All in all, it was a great experience and we really enjoyed our cruise on the Pearl.

[TexDisneyMom]

Thanks for the info.

[snow1]

Glad to hear that you had a great cruise!

Thanks for the info!

We can't wait!:D

[Got2Cruise]

Hi Longhorn Cruiser, glad to hear you and yours enjoyed your cruise! How did you like freestyle cruising compared to traditional?

[Longhorn Cruiser]

Got2Cruise,

I think there are definite positives and negatives to freestyling.

I enjoyed the more casual attire of the ship, though I am one of the rare ones who enjoys putting on a tux now and then.

We were lucky that we had a concierge to make dinner reservations for us for the whole week. Not sure how I would have enjoyed trying to make reservations for a large party on short notice (or worse just showing up and hoping they had a large table available.)

I do believe that the Dining Rooms are not as good on the freestyle cruise. It is only in NCL's best interests to steer you to the pay restaurants. The last night we ate in the dining room, it was virtually empty.

On the other hand, the specialty restaurants are very good and we really enjoyed them.

If it was up to me, I think I would tend to lean to the more traditional cruise, but that's just my humble opinion. I'm not sure I would base a future cruise decision on freestyle or not. We chose the Pearl based on specific reasons, we wanted Alaska, we wanted to go out of Seattle and we wanted a ship the 19 year olds could use the casino.

We were very happy The Pearl was the ship that met the criteria.

[mom2agr8boy]

Thanks for the info. I am going on the Pearl in September.

[Cruisin Together]

How was the Stickey Whicket Pub? We are thinking about going there. Was it expensive?

[salty dingo]

I appreciate the review! I was wondering that Freestyle 2.0 meant the quality of the free food was going to decline and the quality of the extra charge restaurants is where the improvements are going.

 

I'll be interested in hearing from other Pearl cruisers as to the quality of the main (free) restaurants.

 

I was on Majesty recently, and found the free restaurants, for the most part, to be just fine, if you stick to what a cruise ship does well. Avoid beef dishes, get all the soups you can, skip salads, etc. I have learned if you adapt to what is available you can usually get pretty good food for free. If you go in wanting to eat what you want and not flexible on your diet, you may be disappointed.

[CruisnGram]

OP: Glad you had a good time. A well balanced review is always great to see. Sorry that you didn't enjoy the food as much as you should have. Perhaps this is a problem on the Pearl that NCL should be aware of. I honestly don't think that poor food in the dining rooms is intentional to push you towards the speciality restaurants and I'd suggest that you write to NCL and let them know exactly what problems you had with the main dining room food. Specialty restaurants should be a choice, not a requirement to get a decent meal.

 

NYFL_TRAVELER: Exactly how many times do you plan on posting that review? I'm pretty sure that everyone has seen it by now.

[brunolvr]

We ate the majority of our dinners in Summer Palace on our May 25th cruise on the Pearl and thought the meals were just fine and some were even "great"!:) A couple of nights there wasn't anything that really interested me, but now they have "always available" and those entrees were great!

[RainbowChaser]

Longhorn,

Which AA were you in? We will be in 9504. Curious if it was too windy to be on the balcony. Anyother comments about suite perks you used or the butler, concierge,etc? Thanks

[Got2Cruise]

We ate the majority of our dinners in Summer Palace on our May 25th cruise on the Pearl and thought the meals were just fine and some were even "great"!:) A couple of nights there wasn't anything that really interested me, but now they have "always available" and those entrees were great!

 

Brunolvr, thanks so much for posting this. ITA, these improved selections I can be happy eating the entire week.:) Kudos to NCL for improving the menu choices.

[terrymtex01]

Longhorn... I thought it was a great review. If I read a review that is all positive or all negative, I will competely disreguard it. I will say that on our last cruise which was two weeks ago on the Star, I was worried about writing the review because it was hard to come up with negatives, it was such a wonderful experience... I thought.. OMG... people are going to bash it.. LOL..

 

Well.. we did find a few negative things to put in it. We are sailing on the Pearl in October and are looking forward to it, especially after readingn your review. It sounds to me like you had a nice time and a memory with your family that will last a lifetime.

 

This is no jab at you by any means because many others have said it, but I agree with CrusinGram that I really don't think it is intentional that NCL has bad food in the main dinning areas to push people into the speciality restaurants. I do believe you had not so good of a time in the main dinning areas, have no doubt you arent just saying that, or whatever.. But I do think you should let NCL know your concerns.

 

The reason I am saying this is that on all three NCL cruises we have been on we found the food in the main dinning venues to be as good as the speciality restaurants.. We genreally just eat in the speciality restaurants for a change of atmosphere.

 

Great review. Thanks for posting it.

 

NYFL Traveler... I know you must have felt like I was attacking you in another posting, and I will probably never get you to believe different.. but I promise you I wasn't. Nothing you said in your review was something I had not read before. It's all good and I hope we are still CC friends.. 8-)

[indimini]

and the access to the Courtyard area was fantastic

Can you tell me more about this access? We sail in an AB in August, but I was under the impression that only the cabins on Decks 14/15 had courtyard access. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks for the review.

[NYFL_TRAVELER]

 

NYFL Traveler... I know you must have felt like I was attacking you in another posting, and I will probably never get you to believe different.. but I promise you I wasn't. Nothing you said in your review was something I had not read before. It's all good and I hope we are still CC friends.. 8-)

 

Ok, hope so.

 

On the 6/8 sailing, who was the comedian? What was the outside music act? What was the "crew" show?

[Cruisin Together]

What night was lobster served in the main dining rooms?

[brunolvr]

Can you tell me more about this access? We sail in an AB in August, but I was under the impression that only the cabins on Decks 14/15 had courtyard access. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks for the review.

 

Only those in Owner's Suites, Deluxe Owner's Suites, Garden Villas and Courtyard Villas have access to the courtyard. AB's do not, however, they can have breakfast & lunch in Cagney's!:)

[brunolvr]

Longhorn,

Which AA were you in? We will be in 9504. Curious if it was too windy to be on the balcony. Anyother comments about suite perks you used or the butler, concierge,etc? Thanks

 

Hi, RainbowChaser! We were in AA 9004 on our May 25th cruise to Alaska on the Pearl. There were times when it was extremely windy on our front balcony -- especially the first full day of our cruise and between ports when the Pearl was cruising along at almost full speed. However, the side balcony was usable most of the time.

My review is posted and we have a lot of pictures of the owner's suite if you're interested.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=43152

[brunolvr]

What night was lobster served in the main dining rooms?

 

Lobster was served Monday night and also again on Friday night they had a lobster dish in the main dining rooms. My husband also ordered the steak on the menu so he could have steak & lobster. If you want a second lobster, just ask!

[Longhorn Cruiser]

We were in 10004. As stated before, we could always use our balcony on the side. The balcony in front was great as long as we were in port or sailing in Glacier Bay. The ship moves very slowly and the front is great for the full view.

 

One additional perk that I forgot to mention was the wireless phone in the suite. This was great. I took it with me most of the time. You are even able to call your own suite which I did a few times to reach my wife. I even called her to let her know where I was in town when we were in port. (I had gotten off a little earlier to check things out.)

 

If available to you, make sure you use the priority disembarkation in Juneau and Victoria. Since you arrive in Juneau at 2:00pm and Victoria at 6:00pm, everyone leaves the ship at the same time. We met in the Star Bar/Concierge Lounge just prior to the departure time. Lisa, the concierge, has her own elevator. You go straight to the gangway on 4, and right off. It's great.

 

The courtyard is available to AA's and above but since we had an AA and 2 AC's, the butler in the courtyard was very kind to allow us all to use it. We were the only ones in there most of the time. It is a great area.