Trip Report: NCL Pearl, 5/7 - 5/17 - Alaska!

After a crazy week following my return home, I’m finally sitting down to do my review of my May 7 – 17, 2015 cruise on the Norwegian Pearl through Alaska. I’m going to do it in chunks, and intersperse the photos. My tech skills are outsmarting me today, but I’m hoping to plow through them and get this done.

I’ll start with the basics:

Who: I’m April. I’m in my mid-30s, and live in Chicago. This was my fourth cruise, all on NCL. Previous trips have been on the Sky (Bahamas, solo), Jade (Mediterranean, with relatives), and Epic (Eastern Caribbean, solo). This, too, was a solo trip – and embarkation day was my birthday!

Where: Alaska, of course! This was the last leg of the Pearl’s repositioning as it prepped for the full Alaska season. We left out of Vancouver and returned to Seattle. Here’s the full itinerary:

May 7 – Vancouver (embarkation)

May 8 – Sea Day (Inside Passage)

May 9 – Juneau (1PM – 10PM)

May 10 – Skagway (7AM – 8:15PM)

May 11 – Sitka (10 AM – 7PM)

May 12 – Icy Straight Point (7AM – 6PM)

May 13 – Glacier Bay National Park / Sea Day

May 14 – Ketchikan (9AM – 6PM)

May 15 – Sea Day

May 16 – Victoria, BC (10AM – Midnight)

May 17 – Seattle (debarkation)

I actually left Chicago on May 2nd, and spent the weekend in Seattle. I spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday in Vancouver before boarding the ship.

The Plan:

I think I’ll go day by day. I’ll gloss over some of the less interesting parts, but this is as much for non-CC people as it is for CC, so bear with me!

I’m happy to address any questions as well, so ask away!

Pre-trip:

I’m a researcher. I had originally booked a 7-day RT Seattle, scheduled for September, 2015, back in January of 2014. In July of 2014, I realized I could switch to the 10-day in May for about $200 additional – and leave on my birthday. Well, done and done. I thought. ;)

I started plotting out excursions. I knew, for Alaska, that I wanted to do it and do it well. This could well be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for me, and I didn’t want to end the trip and wish I had done something different. So I spent a TON of time researching the ports, and what could be done where and when. I had a list of the ship’s excursions, and used Google, Cruise Critic, Trip Advisor, and several other review-oriented websites to track down my options. I was making people crazy with my research and constant chatter about Alaska!

Around October, I decided that an inside cabin wasn’t going to cut it, even traveling by myself. It wasn’t about the space – I was in an inside on the Sky, and a studio on the Epic, and both were just fine. It was about not wanting to spend all my time on deck surrounded by other people trying to watch scenery. I had intended to spend most of this cruise much the way I had my other solo trips – ignoring nearly everyone and enjoying the peace and quiet (more on that later). Having to spend time on deck to see the scenery sounded awful, and so I splurged on my balcony.

Cue more research, planning out my time in Seattle and Vancouver, and booking flights. Come January, I was poking around and realized there had been a huge price drop on my trip – to the tune of nearly $2000 – plus the offer of the free UBP. Well. Two hours spent on hold and a conversation with a lovely NCL staff member later – and the money was being refunded to me, with the UBP added to my reservation. Woot!

About two weeks later, it’s the eve of my final payment date. A quick check of the website – and another price drop! This time, it was only about $200. Half an hour later, I’d been upgraded from a BC balcony to a B2 balcony – a tiny bit more space, and a deck higher. I’ll take it!

More planning, finalizing Vancouver, etc – now we’re about two weeks out from sail date - and another check of the site yields yet another price drop. This time, I scored an upgrade to a mini-suite guarantee, and when it was assigned just a day later, ended up as an upgrade to an MA mini suite, cabin 11032. Not bad!

Day 1 (May 2nd, 2015 - Seattle) coming up shortly!

May 2nd, 2015: Travel to, and Seattle, WA

My flight was an early one out of Chicago’s Midway airport on Southwest Airlines. SWA was not only cheapest for what I needed; I also had enough miles that one leg was free for me. So I left early – and arrived in Seattle around noon.

We had a beautiful view of Mount Rainier on the way in:

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Though I had considered taking the light rail in, I ended up needing a bigger suitcase than I’d anticipated. So, a taxi was the answer for me.

I had settled on the Moore Hotel as my accommodations. As a solo traveler, I tend to go with cheap hotel options. As long as the Trip Advisor reviews are reasonable (i.e. no bed bugs, and at least a 3-star average), and not way out in the boonies, I’m pretty much good to go. The Moore is in a great location – only a couple of blocks from the Market, and from Westlake Center. The neighborhood is solid, though there’s not a ton of restaurant/bar options in the immediate vicinity. That said – it met my needs just fine. I had a Single Queen room, at $100 a night.

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Once I’d dropped my stuff off and settled in a little bit, I decided it was time to start exploring. I’d purchased the Seattle CityPass ahead of time, since I wanted to see everything that was included in it anyway (more on that later). I decided my first order of business was to head to the Experience Music Project.

I walked the three or so blocks over to the Westlake Center to take the Monorail to the Seattle Center. It was super easy to find, and the monorail is quick. You could easily walk to the Seattle Center, but I’m kinda lazy, and besides, the monorail seemed fun.

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I checked in with my CityPass at EMP’s ticket stall, and got right in. I wandered around for a while and checked out some of the exhibits. I will say this – I really should have done more research. I was really disappointed in EMP. I was expecting much more music-related stuff than was actually there. The Hendrix exhibit wasn’t open, though, which could’ve added a bit to that. I ended up spending less than two hours there. There was a cool instrument sculpture, though:

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

I had grandiose ideas for the rest of the day. I was going to go out to dinner somewhere, and then to the Great Wheel (ferris wheel). But I found, after leaving the EMP and wandering Seattle Center a little, that I was really, really tired. So instead, I opted for a quick bite to eat at the Retro Restaurant & Lounge, around the corner from the Moore on Stewart Street. It was a quiet little bar. The fish & chips were delicious, though. After that, I ended up back at the Moore, where I gathered up stuff for the next day and just sort of lounged around.

Day 2: May 3, 2015 - Snoqualmie Falls / Seattle

For my second day in Seattle, I had booked a day tour with Shutter Tours to go out to Snoqualmie Falls, and hit a few other stops in the city. I tend to stay pretty close to the touristy areas when I’m traveling solo, and so this tour provided a great opportunity to get outside of the downtown area and see more.

I got up a bit early and had breakfast at the coffee shop that’s connected to the hotel. They do waffles, in addition to coffee and pastries. My waffle involved bananas and Nutella – and, really – how can you go wrong?

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The tour included pickup at my hotel, though you could also meet the tour at Pike Place Market. Terry, the owner and our guide for the day, had called the previous night to confirm my pickup time, and arrived just a few minutes after that time. Our transportation for the day was a typical mini shuttle bus-type vehicle that seated about 14 people, plus the driver and passenger. We had 13 that day, I think, but it was still a very comfortable ride. Tracy was our driver, and she was also great!

The ride out to Snoqualmie was about 40 minutes, mostly highway driving. We were dropped off at the gift shop area, and had a quick 3-5 minute walk to the viewing areas for the Falls. The Falls were beautiful, particularly because we’d really lucked out on the weather (a theme for this whole trip!).

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

My only (minor) complaint was that the time at the Falls seemed really short. We only had about half an hour. By the time you got out to the viewing area and took some photos, there really wasn’t time to walk to any of the other viewing areas – or at least I didn’t have time for it.

The gift shop was cute, and had some snack and drink items as well as your basic souvenir stuff. We met the bus again, and headed back toward Seattle.

Our next stop was the Fremont Troll – a public work of art tucked underneath a bridge. Cool concept, if a little odd!

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Next up, the Ballard Locks. Living in Chicago, seeing a locks system wasn’t all that special, but the very idea of a locks system is kinda cool. There was some neat metal sculpture work next to the locks, and we did see a couple of seals (sea lions?) hanging out in the inlet area.

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The locks themselves were interesting:

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Our last stop of the tour was Kerry Park, for a great view of Seattle:

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

I asked to be dropped off at Pike Place Market, though they gladly did hotel drop-offs within the immediate downtown area.

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I walked around a bit, though it was a little bit crowded. I ended up stopping at Beecher’s Cheese for a block of cheese and some crackers, and then wandered up to Cupcake Royale for a drink and a cupcake. That constituted my (late) lunch while I killed some time waiting to meet a friend to go and get Molly Moon’s ice cream. After Molly Moon’s, it was back to the room to chill and prep for Monday’s tourist extravaganza!

Excited to read more:)

April

Looking forward to your report.

We just completed a cruise from San Francisco to Vancouver on the Regatta around the same dates as you cruised.

Sounds good so far. We did our Seattle visit after the cruise...STILL had good weather...until about halfway home. LOL. But I'll take that any day. Can't wait for more if your review. I about have my pictures done so I will start writing mine soon too.

I am enjoying your writing and pictures. I liked the Falls that you went to visit. I might have to schedule that next time, it looked beautiful. Well done, April!

Lisa

Joining in and loving it

Did 10 day Sun from Vancouver 5/8, looking forward to your views.

April, love the review and pictures so far! Keep up the good work! :)

Thanks, everyone! Hoping to get a couple days up still tonight - don't want to leave you hanging for too long :)

Monday, May 4, 2015

Today was the big “act like a tourist” day. After a few days of slacking off (based on my self-created plans!), I had just today left to finish using up my City Pass.

Up first – the Space Needle. I was up early and at the Needle by about … sometime. I thought it was 8:30, and the observation deck opened at 9 – but looking back at the website, either the hours have changed or I was off by an hour… In any case, I was too early and they were not yet open, so I wandered around the area for a bit just seeing what was around. The fountains weren’t running yet, but the grounds of the Seattle Center are beautiful.

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

When it was time, I bought my tickets and straight up to the observation deck I went. I have to say – having been up in the Empire State Building, the John Hancock building and the Sears (yes, Sears, not Willis) Tower – the Space Needle was a little underwhelming. It was tough to get decent photos with all the glass everywhere, too.

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I was literally at the top for maybe 15 minutes, tops. Back down I went, and it was off to the Chihuly glass exhibit.

I wasn’t expecting much of Chihuly, to be honest. A bunch of blown glass – whoop de doo. But I admit – so much of this exhibit is absolutely beautiful. I’m so glad I went, because I was truly amazed at what one can do with glass with the right talent and tools. Lots of pics here…

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

This was one of the coolest things – the glass pieces were in the ceiling, illuminated from above.

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

More from Chihuly…

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Still more (sorry, but it was really cool!)…

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Yep, still a few more (almost done, I promise!)

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

OK, enough on Chihuly. Next, I was off to the Seattle Aquarium. It ended up being much smaller than I expected, but it was still a lovely aquarium. The sea wall construction didn’t impair getting there at all.

More glass, though not Chihuly, I don’t think:

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Sea otters are my favorite animals ever. Like, ever. More on that later though..

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Next up was a harbor cruise with Argosy. I just did the base level trip, which was a lovely trip up and down the shore line. Great views!

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Last up was a round on the Great Wheel – a giant Ferris wheel right on the shore line. A fun ride, and also great views!

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Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

I wandered around the market a little bit more, trying to find one of the reusable Pike Place market bags to purchase. No dice, plus I was a little fed up with the crowds. I headed back to the hotel to get my act together to leave the next day, but ended up walking down to the Virginia Inn for dinner. Quiet little place, but great food and good service. I don’t recall exactly what I had, but it involved a steak and wine. ☺

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 – Seattle to Vancouver

Tuesday was an early morning and a cab ride down to the King Street Amtrak station. I had the bad luck of having my train cancelled due to work on the rails, and so I was stuck with taking the bus to Vancouver. Not my favorite experience – would certainly have preferred the scenery and comfort of business class, but it ended up being OK. The bus wasn’t full, so the seat next to me was open, and it was a straight shot into Vancouver – no other stops.

Going through customs was an interesting experience. The driver had to stop the bus and unload all of our luggage. We had to collect our luggage, walk it into the building, and talk with the Canadian customs officer. Fairly standard experience there – why are you here, where are you going, etc. Then we got to put our luggage back on the bus, load up, and head into Vancouver.

We got into Vancouver and it was pouring down rain. The station wasn’t quite ready for our arrival, and lots of people obviously wanted to hop in a taxi. There weren’t a lot waiting, so phone calls were made, and taxis slowly trickled in. I got in one, and headed to my hotel – the Budget Inn Patricia Hotel.

Let me be clear. I booked a cheap hotel on purpose. I read the reviews, and decided that I was a bit hardier than some of “those” folks. Homeless people don’t scare me, and what was being described as a “bad” neighborhood didn’t sound so bad. I was right, as far as my tastes and comfort levels were concerned. It was off the beaten track, and so not particularly convenient to sightseeing – that was really the only down side. The hotel itself was quaint, clean, and comfortable. The front desk staff were pleasant, if a bit brusque at first.

I booked a budget room – their smallest, and only $50 a night. It was actually a bit smaller than the photos showed. That said – I was traveling solo, only there two nights, and was really only planning to sleep there. So who cares?

Again – my room was clean and comfortable. The only downside was that the elevator was on the other side of the wall, and unlike the Moore in Seattle, this one was a bit on the noisy side. It wasn’t disruptive, and didn’t wake me in the middle of the night, but a light sleeper might have had trouble with it.

So I was standing at the wall when I took this – there was literally only about a foot and a half walkway around the two sides of the bed. The sink/mirror were right out in the room, and then the toilet/shower were separate. It was tiny.

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

Untitled by april7901, on Flickr

It was still pouring down rain, and I really didn’t have a solid plan for the afternoon. I was kinda tired, so I just hung out there for the night. I did go downstairs and hit the attached brewpub for dinner. Fish and chips again, and again delicious. Took an early night, because I had a big day scheduled for Wednesday!

*that's a wrap for today*

Great pictures and I read through a lot of your review posts. We didn't meet on the cruise but I think you were down the hall from us. Are you blond with glasses?

Great pictures and I read through a lot of your review posts. We didn't meet on the cruise but I think you were down the hall from us. Are you blond with glasses?

Yep, tis me. On 11?