live2vayk

My sister doesn't spend a dime on board. Literally- not one extra dime! She prepays gratuities and she does not drink or gamble. Me? Not so much... I like a drink now and then, like to visit the casino a bit.... often buy a few things in the shops, always go to Johnny Rockets or other extra fee venues. My bill scares my sister. She would hyperventilate if she ever saw my bill when I go with my husband and kids! Ironically she is very comfortable financially. She doesn't have to be a penny pincher at all. She just can't help it! I make up for her lack of on board spending.

I have also sailed FOS and Glory. If the choice of ship is more important to you than where you are going, then I would give the edge to FOS. It is newer, bigger and more pleasing to the eye. (The Glory looks like a circus everywhere, it is really very tacky.) HOWEVER, having said that, in this case, I would give the itinerary edge to Glory. I prefer Southern over Western any day. And to be frank, IMO, the food is pretty much the same on both lines, entertainment can be a hit or miss on either, and Carnival so far has had better rooms. For me, the ship doesn't matter as much as where I am going, as long as it had good service and decent amenities.

I realize you didn't ask, but I also like NCL, worth a look to see what they have for sailing options that might work for you.

I have sailed mostly Royal, but am in no way loyal to them, they just don't knock my socks off enough over any other line to make it worth being loyal to them only. We often end up on them because friends of ours are "loyal to Royal" and we like to cruise with our friends. When we are on our own, we often go with other lines.

Whatever you choose, I hope you have a wonderful time!

I was on the Fantasy with my two sisters. We had a great time! It was such a fun trip. We used the serenity area a lot, and just enjoyed ourselves. It is one of my favorite cruises. I still remember one night when we were at the comedy show, the comedian was hysterical. I thought my sister was going to spit her drink out several different times!

I have only been on 9 cruises, most of those with RCI, but my last one was with NCL and I can tell you that I will be booking with them again soon. I have some cruises booked already with RCI, but I think I am going to cancel one and move that booking to NCL. I loved NCL. I also love RCI, but to me, both lines have their pros and cons, or maybe I should say ALL lines have their pros and cons. At this point, with RCI and NCL, no way could I put one over the other for my preference. (again, only been on NCL once, so I do realize that needs to be considered... but I have also been on Disney and Carnival, and honestly for some ships, I wouldn't put them above RCI either.) I pretty much will sail any line/ship that I liked the itin on. (it is funny, not only on this board, but I find cruise critic in general that folks adore RCI to the point of being mean if you favor a line over them, I find it gets a little weird actually!) I say pick the itin you prefer, make sure you will be OK with what the ship offers, and that you are comfortable with what you can get for the price point you are willing to pay, and from there you just can't go wrong. It is a cruise!! Enjoy!

None of the cruiselines offer perks that are great enough to be a primary cause for choosing to sail with that line.

 

Would I consider it secondarily? Perhaps. But I cruise primarily based on itinerary and secondarily on size of ship and cost.

Agreed! :)

I am going solo for the first time in 10 days and I have my time dining. I want to really do wat I want to when I want to. I want to have dinner on my own. Do people think differently of someone who does this? I am totally fine eating on my own but just wondered what the general feel was.

No doubt some with think it is odd, but some (like me) will think it is fantastic! It only really matters what you think. Have a GREAT time! :)

...go 4 days on liberty of the seas or 6 days on carnival freedom? Price is the same.

 

 

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It would depend on ports for me to make the ultimate choice, but based on the information, I would go with Carnival Freedom for the extra days. Whatever you decide, enjoy!

My brother in law is convinced he will be sea sick. Therefore, I bet he will! :rolleyes: His family would like to go on a cruise, so I hope he is willing to give it a try, and that he can keep an open mind.... (I believe he is also convinced he won't like it... therefore..... :() And the open mind thing... not sure he can do that either.

Mendenhall Glacier, and Part of Glacier Bay.

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Whale watch in Juneau.

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A few pics of our stateroom #11098

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This was our last full day of the cruise before disembarking. :( We made a quick stop in Victoria, British Columbia from 6 pm to midnight. We got off the ship, but we did not have plans. So we followed the crowds. We ended up at a dock that had several little restaurants, and ice cream stand, and some floating houses. Then we continued on a bit further to see what else was around. I wanted to go all the way into town to see the buildings and the area, but my two daughters were whiney, so we headed back to the ship. Next time I will go!

Back on the ship we ate at the buffet, a little easier to get a table since some folks were off the ship. We attended the farewell show which was nice, it had a little of all the weeks shows. Then we packed up and put some of our luggage in the hall to have it brought down for us. Disembarkation was easy. We had picked up our tags, and read the instructions. We left our room by 9 as asked, then we went to breakfast at the buffet. We ate then hung out for a bit until they called our tag color, then we got in line and it moved along pretty swiftly. I actually wanted it to stall! We were staying in Seattle and I didn't want to get to our hotel early! But we were off by 10, and got to our hotel at 10:30.

Our post hotel was near the Space Needle. It was Quality Inn and Suites. It was a good option for us for the price. To be clear, it was far from 4 stars, not even 3 stars. But it was clean, and in a good location for us. We felt safe. And the front desk was so friendly and helpful. They had a room ready when we arrived at 10:30, so they let us check in very early. They arranged a shuttle (for a small fee) for us to attend a Mariner baseball game, and also one to take us to the airport when we left on Tuesday. The room was tiny for four of us, and the bathroom was the smallest we have ever had. I think it was a renovated broom closet. Seriously. But it worked. (we had been spoiled by a large bathroom on the ship, ironic...)

A few final notes:

We really enjoyed NCL, and will no doubt book with them again. Many reviews I have read talk about extra fees, and yes there were extra fees. BUT, I did my homework on pricing, and with the extra fees added in, it was still on point for the total price as compared with a couple of other cruise lines I looked at. I don't mind paying extra for some things when the overall value is still good. We felt it was. All the people who have complained about the food, well we all have different tastes, but I can not imagine not being able to find good options. We felt the food was just as good if not better in some cases as other cruise lines we have been on.

The Pearl is a nice ship. It was well maintained and had everything we needed for an enjoyable experience.

Alaska is just simply amazing. It is one of those places you just have to see for yourself. I think my husband and I will return someday, but do a different itin.

I didn't take a bunch of pictures of the ship, but I will post a few of our stateroom, and a few others.

Enjoy!

live2vayk, I loved reading your review. We also loved everything about the Pearl and enjoyed our trip with Harv and Marv's. Since Alaska is a trip I would love to repeat it is nice reading about your adventures in August since we went in May.

Glad you enjoyed it Linda! I enjoyed re-living the cruise a bit as I went along. I am going to finish it up now, and add a few pictures.

Happy sailing!

Ketchikan is another short stop. We arrived at 6, and left at 1. Here we did a duck boat tour, and then just walked around the town. We passed a tram that went up the side of the mountain, hoping there would be more village up there to explore, but don't bother doing this. It is $4.00 per person, and the only thing up there is a hotel. Granted the hotel is nice and has wifi, and a few interesting exhibits, so if you want wifi, it works. There was a fair amount to explore around town. We reboarded the ship to have lunch since we were leaving port at 1 anyway. My girls and I did a bit of shopping at this point, the shops were typical that you would find on any ship, and pretty much the same stuff. I went to a future cruise seminar. The presenter was less than uninspiring, and just basically read slides in a monotone voice. BUT, it was a pretty good deal, and I liked NCL, so I bought one. Basically you pay $150.00 for a coupon good for $250.00 off from a future cruise that can be used anytime in the next four years.

We had dinner at La Cucina. It was pretty good. I LOVED the bread and dipping oils. The bread was so soft and warm. YUM. Our dinners were good, not fabulous, but good. We were happy with them.

For entertainment we attended a show that was done by Second City. They involved the audience, it was fun! Then, we went to the show "Oh What a Night". If you like Frankie Valli music, or music from that time period, you will enjoy this show very much! It made me decide to go see "Jersey Boys" on broadway soon. It was that good.

On to Victoria, British Columbia. The last day! Then I will close with a few overall thoughts/observations.

Glacier Bay was fabulous. I had picked this particular cruise in large part because it had Glacier Bay on the itin. It did not disappoint! Again, we had a warm sunny day. However, being near the glacier made it cool in temp. We had jackets on and sat on our balcony all morning. It was stunning. We also got to go to John Hopkins glacier since it was such a nice day. We saw seals swimming next to the ship. When we we were at the glacier, the Captain spun the ship around slowly several turns in front of it so everyone got a good view. And a few times we saw it calve. It was just spectacular.

That night we had dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse. The food was very good, and of course we were entertained. We all really liked this restaurant.

For entertainment, we went to sport trivia game that afternoon which was fun, and that night we went to the Marriage Game show. Always good for a few laughs.

A few random notes here. This was our first cruise on NCL, and I LOVED not having to dress up. I have to dress up for work everyday, and often for cocktail events related to work. Not having to get dresssed up on vacation was so liberating! We brought resort casual wear for dinner dress, and it was fine. Some folks were really dressed up, then there was middle of the road, and some folks were in true weekend wear. No one seemed to care. I did notice some PJs at the breakfast buffet, that might be going a bit far, but to each their own I guess!

I will also mention here that we did not see a lot of picture taking opportunities. We bought our boarding photo, and a couple of times at dinner (not every night, only twice) a photographer came around, I bought a couple of those as well and that was plenty. I only saw a couple of places set up to take pictures, not nearly as many as I am used to seeing. We usually purchase a picture package, but we didn't this time, and I was glad. Usually when I do purchase the package a large part of our evening involves me herding my family into as many picture stations as possible. To the relief of my husband, we didn't do that this time.

On to Ketchikan....

We were docked in Skagway for much of the day. The ship arrived at 7 am and we did not depart until 7:45. So we had the day to explore. The disembarktion was much more orderly, since we got into Skagway early in the morning. And being there all day meant folks didn't feel the rush to get off all at once.

Our plan for the day was to rent a jeep from "Green Jeep Rentals" and journey on our own up to the Yukon in Canada. Now, if it were just my husband and I we would have probably done the train ride, much more relaxing. But, with our teens, we wanted control over what we did when. They would not have sat well for a long train ride. And as it turns out, renting the jeep was a great way to go for us. The paperwork from the Jeep company stated that there was a courtesy shuttle from them that would meet folks at the peir at 8 am, and again at 9 am. We got off the ship and waited for the 9 am pick up. It never arrived. I didn't realize you have to CALL them for the courtesy shuttle. I guess I should have known that, but since that direction was not in my paperwork, I assumed they just came down at those two times. Not a problem however, becuase the rental company is only about maybe a half mile away if that, so we walked. It was a flat easy walk, and we were able to see the town on our way.

We had our jeep rental, and were on our way by about 10 or so. The drive is very easy to do. The jeep rental company provides a USB that provides information along your drive, and they also give you a book of information. You don't need a map, there is only one road! Along the way we saw beautiful scenery. We had hoped to see some wildlife, but we didn't.

We drove to a town called Carcross. There they had a small museum of native wildlife exhibits, a cafe, a petting zoo, and an area that you could see the sled dogs and visit with the puppies. My girls LOVED the puppies. We enjoyed our time there, but it wasn't what I expected. Other than this place there was pretty much nothing in Carcross. So we we spent most of the time there with the puppies. The drive was enjoyable, so while the destination wasn't what I was expecting, it was fine. We continued on up to Emerald Lake, which was beautiful, then we turned around and headed back.

We returned back to Skagway about 2, dropped off our jeep then we walked around the town. It was sunny and very warm! If you are a history buff, there is a lot to do in Skagway. There was a building with folks in there giving information and talks about the history of Skagway. We saw several walking tours going on as well.

We boarded the ship and took a rest from our busy day. We attended a couples game show that was cute, and then returned to Indigo (a MDR) for dinner as we had enjoyed it so much the first night.

Also, I will post some pictures tonight!

Our third day was Juneau. We didn't get to Juneau until around 2 pm, so we slept in a bit, then we went to get breakfast in Summer Palace, a complimentary MDR. Breakfast was good, we felt there were enough selections, and as we found to be the case throughout the cruise the service was fine.

A word about disembarking in Juneau. If you don't have something booked right away, wait to get off the ship. The line was LONG, and people were snarky. It went fairly fast, and we were patient, but the people in front of us and in back of us were not! It really isn't a big deal, just know that if you try to get off the ship quickly, it is going to be a mad dash with a LOT of other people trying to do the same thing. It took us about a half hour to leave our room and get to our check in with our excursion just off the ship.

We had booked a whale watch for Juneau. I had done a lot of research and decided to book with an outfit called "Harv and Marv's". We are glad we did this. The boats they use are small, allowing you to have a more personal experience. We had Captain Liz on our boat, and two other folks joined us. So in total there were 7 people aboard. It was enclosed, but you could go out the the back or the front of the boat for better viewing. I was a bit nervous about going out on a whale watch in a smaller boat, but my fears were unfounded. They take you out into a bay area, and it was not much different than being out on a lake. At least the day we went, it was fairly calm and smooth. This was a highlight for my girls, we did see several hump back whales. We even saw some jump out of the water in the distance, and up closer we saw several blows and then backs/tails come out of the water. It was very organized as well. They met us directly off the ship, we took a bus to their dock, and then on the bus ride back, they took us to Mendenhall Glacier for about 10 minutes. Long enough to get pictures. And on the bus ride back and forth the driver gave information about the area. I would recommend this excursion if you are interested in a whale watch.

On the way back, the bus driver did stop in town so that we could spend some time there before going back to the ship. We had dinner in town, I can't recall the name of the restaurant, but it was very good. We did a little wandering around, and then we walked back to the ship. It was an easy walk, but it was probably about a mile or so, maybe a touch further so if you have any mobility issues you will want to make arrangements to get back to the ship from downtown if you get off the bus there.

A few notes about the Pearl before I move on... while I felt it was clean and well maintained, I also get frustrated more than once trying to navigate it. It has some "you can't get there from here" features, which drove me nuts. When you check in your are given a piece of paper that has a deck plan, keep it! If you are not familiar with the ship, you will need it to help you get about. On other ships they had small map cards of the ship, and I went to guest services to get one, but they don't have these on the Pearl anymore. The paper deck plan is fine, I kept it folded up in my pocket for the first few days. I had read in other reviews that paint was peeling, and there was visible wear. I did not notice any of this, and while we were there I did notice crews painting/cleaning. That might be why we didn't notice, it is being addressed.

The Pearl has an open Atrium area, but other than that, it really lacks any "grand" area. There were many areas/spots that I appreciated and were pleasing to the eye, but it doesn't have an indoor promenade or anything of the sort. We did enjoy going to the Atrium at night, there was usually a guy that sounded a lot like Neil Diamond playing Neil Diamond songs, and other songs. He was pretty good. It was nice to have a drink and sit back and listen after a long day of fun!

Hello Shealea,

We really did luck out on the weather didn't we?!? I had prepared for lots of rain, but was delighted that we didn't need our rain coats and umbrellas!

To all reading, I will get this wrapped up soon, I promise!

Our weather on this voyage was fantastic. The Captain told us that we had the best weather of the last 10 weeks that he had been aboard the ship! We had virtually no rain, and it was sunny and in the mid 70s much of the time. A friend of mine that had cruised to Alaska earlier this year told me we wouldn't use our balcony much, but we used it for several hours each day. You just never know with Alaskan cruises what you are going to get for weather.

OK, day two was a sea day. We used the jogging track in the morning to get in some exercise, and then had a light breakfast at the buffet. I will say that this ship seemed to have the least amount of seating in the buffet than I have ever experienced, and it was more painful than I can recall from past sailings to get a table. But with patience and diligence we made it work. There is a buffet area outdoors in the back of the ship that was delightful to use if you could get seating there. On this day we had a Meet and Greet from our roll call. It was well organized by NCL, and many of the officers on the ship came and introduced themselves and answered questions. I was impressed with their willingness to make themselves available to the group.

I attended a wine tasting that afternoon. For I think $15.00 I tasted 6 wines, and there was lecture by a member of the dining crew about pairings and such. I enjoyed doing this.

I had made some specialty dining reservations a few months prior to the cruise, and this night was our Moderno Churrascaria night. We were able to have several different meats from skewers. They had many very good selections! Very enjoyable.

The entertainment that evening was "Encore!" A NCL production of some snippets of Broadway musicals. It was OK. We had seen several of the shows that they did snippets of, so we enjoyed it.

I will resume tomorrow evening and finish this up. Sorry to drag it out, but we are a busy family, so I have to do this in stages as time allows. But I will not let it drag on past tomorrow night.

Do you remember your Hotel and Bridge Officers were?

Hello www3traveler,

I recall the first name of the Hotel Director, it was Cary, and I recall he was from the US. Our Captain was Paul van Knorring, and the Cheif Engineer was Filip Specht. I had been given a card that had the crews names in it, and their positions, but I am sorry to say that I can't find it! But I do recall these folks. They were pretty visible on the the ship, they seemed to make themselves available. I am still a relative newbie to cruising, this being #8, but this is the very first time I actually met the Captain and the Hotel Director, as well as a few others in lead positions on the ship.

Originally when I booked this cruise, I had booked a balcony for four of us. But, I am a rate watcher, and I noticed the balcony rate drop fairly substantially one day, so called my TA and for an additional $84.00 I was able to upgrade to a mini suite. I am so glad I was able to do this! I LOVED our mini suite! It doesn't have any "suite" benefits, which is fine with me, I hate asking anyone to do anything for me that I can do myself anyway so a butler/concierge wouldn't work well for us. We had that perk once at a hotel and I never asked them to do anything for us, so it seemed silly to have them. The benefit of a mini suite for us was the extra room. We had a large bathroom that included a full tub, and the main part of the room had the standard double bed (two twins pushed together) and then it had a living room area with a pullout couch for the kids. Between these areas was a heavy curtain to divide the room. Our balcony was pretty standard in size, but fit our needs perfectly.

The decor was lovely. The carpet was a beige color with light green ivy pattern, and the accents in the room were maroon. Very pleasing. I did notice that the mini suites around us were decorated differently. I don't know why. But when doors were open I would look in, and the carpet pattern in the other room was bright colors with crazy looking patterns. Not a big deal, who cares as long as it is clean, but I preferred our decor.

What I LOVED about this room is at the end of the closet facing the hall there were four deep drawers, with a cabinet on top. With these drawers as well as the closet, we were easily able to unpack all of our stuff and put the suitcases under our beds for the week. Sometimes it is the little things in life...

I have to sign off now, but will finish up later with the notes on the rest of our journey for anyone who might be interested.

So we had flown in a few days early, and did some exploring around the Seattle area. The morning of the cruise we were ready to get on the ship and be able to relax! We were picked up at Sleep Inn in Seatac by Seattle Express. I had set that up online a few months prior to our cruise and it was super easy to do. I did it all online, and got a confirmation back. We were picked up in a shuttle that then had to stop at two other hotels to pick up folks, but it was fairly quick, and I didn't mind seeing other hotels in case we ever get out that way again. We arrived at the NCL Terminal at the port at about 10:40 or so I think, I might be off an little on that, but not much. It was a pretty quick ride once we got going.

Two notes here: My motto is "less is better" so we did this 12 day trip for four of us with two medium sized suitcases and two carry on sized suitcases, and two back packs. To make this work, I did laundry the morning before we left for our cruise at our hotel, and I did laundry at the post hotel stay as well. This allowed us to only have to pay for two checked bags, but more than that I just like not having to contend with more than I need. Usually we have rooms that don't have much drawer/closet space. That was not the case this time however. I will explain our room in a future post coming up. But first to finish up the day we boarded the ship:

The process was just like any other cruise line we have been on. RCI, Carnival and Disney. No surprises. We were checked in and had our cards in hand pretty quickly. Then we went to a waiting area. We did not have to wait long, then we were in the buffet having lunch, I think by about 11:30 - Noon. While having lunch, they announced our cabins were ready. I was excited to check out our cabin! We went and unloaded the things were were carrying in our room. That night, we went to one of the complimentary MDRs, Idigo, for dinner. It was excellent, and efficient. We were in and out of there in about an hour and a half, and our meals were very good. I had the "signature special" that night which was a strip steak of some kind, it was very tender and flavorful. After dinner we attended the "Introduction show" which was a musical number, as well as a snippet of the comedian. It was OK.

On to day two...

Hello,

Myself, my husband and our two teenage daughters sailed to Alaska RT from Seattle on NCL Pearl from 8/17-8/24. I wrote a review on "member reviews" (that has not yet posted) about the ship mostly, but thought I would post some thoughts/notes here as well. To the best of my ability I am also happy to answer any questions!

We are from the East coast, and flew into Seattle three days prior to our cruise, so we had two full days to explore the area. We drove to Mt. Rainer one day, and toured Seattle another. We had rented a car and stayed at Sleep Inn in Seatac on the front end of our trip, so we had our own transportation for two full days prior. Then we returned the car the night before the cruise and took the hotel shuttle back to the hotel that night, and hired Seattle Express to pick us up the morning of the cruise to get us to the terminal. This worked well for us. It gave us some freedom the two days prior to the cruise having a car, and since on the front end we were in Seatac getting around was easy. We did drive into downtown Seattle one day, but for the most part we were not driving in Seattle much. After the cruise we stayed a few extra days and we were right in downtown Seattle, but did not rent a car on the back end of our cruise. More on that part later....

A few notes on Sleep Inn, it was clean (had a very odd odor, like BO in the lobby, but once you get to the room you can't smell it...) the room we got was on the small side, but clean and had everything we needed. It was about 10 minutes if that from the airport, so that was convenient. The front desk was friendly and helfpful. It had a laundry room (which I used), and a fitness room. There was an IHOP in the same parking lot, which was nice when we got in at 11 pm our time, but 8 pm Seattle time. We needed dinner, but were exhausted from flying all day. Going to IHOP fit the bill that day.

I am going to do this in stages. (hopefully it works like I expect it to...)

Just to be clear: You do NOT have to pay extra for lobster or steak on RCI.

 

Actually, on my last RCI cruise on Liberty of the Seas in February, we ate at the MDR every night, and not once was Lobster offered, UNLESS you paid an upcharge for it. It was not on the regular menu at all as an offering. It was a shorter cruise, so maybe that is why... but we were disappointed. It in no way was a huge deal, but was just something we would have enjoyed.