My NCL Pearl Alaska Lengthy Trip Review!

After using Cruise Critic so much to plan my last cruise I thought I would write a review to hopefully help someone out there plan their upcoming trip! Last week I was on the NCL Pearl from Seattle to Alaska. There were 2 couples with 2 cabins. I have been on about 9 cruises with NCL, RCL, and Carnival. I enjoy all of the cruise lines, but NCL has always been my preference. I will try to attach photos, but typically the size is too large to attach. If that’s the case I will post a link to my photos later on.

So we started planning this trip back in September when we went on our honeymoon cruise with NCL to Hawaii. Onboard we decided to make the 250$ down payment on a future cruise. We waited awhile to see if there was a large change in price, after a month we booked. Both couples decided on a balcony room. We had a midship balcony and they got an aft balcony. We also decided to book our hotel in Seattle and we were planning on arriving the day before the cruise, Saturday. We booked the Homewood suites near downtown Seattle.

A couple days before our cruise, I think it was Tuesday, we got a call from the infamous upsell fairy for a Haven Penthouse. For 1000$ we could upgrade. Normally, this would have been a no-brainer and we would have jumped at the opportunity. However, the weekend before my husband’s car had several issues including battery, alternator, and an electrical mishap that caused us some high maintenance bills and we were unable to spend the money on the Haven as we had just spent double that on his vehicle! We were both crushed at losing this opportunity. My husband looked online and saw how cheap the mini-suites were going for and decided to call NCL. He was probably on the phone for 2+ hours being on hold and talking to several people. I don’t know how he did it, but after 2 hours on the phone he hung up and we were on a mid-ship mini-suite with no extra charge. Score! That made us feel a bit better about missing out on the Haven. I will also mention one thing that I thought was a little weird, then again I maybe did not read enough about the original balcony we picked. We picked our cabin when we first booked, with no mention that it was an enclosed balcony. WE had several confirmation letters sent to our email, again not mentioning this. Then right after we made our final payment our cruise confirmation came and in bright red capital letters it said NOTICE: THIS IS AN ENCLOSED BALCONY ROOM. I was pretty surprised and disappointed. Maybe someone else can speak to this and maybe I just didn’t do enough research when booking in the first place. I thought they would have mentioned that before and I didn’t understand why it wasn’t on our confirmation papers until after the final payment? Anyway, it didn’t matter since we got the mini-suite, just thought I would mention it!

So our trip started on a flight from LAX-Seattle- the flight left at 8, and we got into Seattle just a little before 11. Baggage claim was a bit of a nightmare, but that area was under construction so I am expecting it will get better in the coming months. After getting our bags we started following the signs to the light rail. The light rail was easy to find, easy to buy tickets, and easy to board. Best of all it was on $2 a person. We got our tickets from the kiosk and the rail was waiting for us. It was about 40 minutes to the very last stop, which was ours. We then had a .4 mile walk…which ended up being uphill. That was a bit rough but we got there in about 20minutes. So overall about an hour from the airport (after getting bags) to our hotel. Again, the light rail is super easy to use!

Once we dropped our bags off we went up the street to Taylor Shellfish, it received great reviews and I was looking forward to the oysters. They were just okay, after living in the gulf coast I prefer those oysters over the west coast oysters. From there we just walked around the city and did some shopping. Hotel was great, and the location was ideal for us. That night we got a taxi to the Palisades, an excellent restaurant near one of the piers. Beautiful view of the ocean and many sail boats. The food was top notch and it was an amazing way to start our vacation. Recommended for sure!

The next day we took our time getting ready and headed to the pier at 10. It was about 8$ for our taxi ride to the pier, although we did have to take seperate cabs because we couldnt find one that would fit 4 people with 4 pieces of luggage. We dropped our luggage off, then got in line to get our key cards. We waited about 10 minutes for the doors to open (10:30) we were pretty much first in line. Security was a breeze and we were checked in quickly, like 15 minutes. From there we walked across the street to Pikes Place market. We had lunch there at a cheese shop, bought some cherries and salmon, and more wine. We were there maybe 2 hours and decided it was time to head back to the ship. We got to skip the long security line and go into the VIP line since we already had our key cards. We paid the corkage fee for 3 bottles of wine and headed up to the ship! When you pay your corckage fee make SURE the sticker remains on the bottle! Later on in the week when we went to open our bottle the sticker fell off and the waiter would not open it. We had to go back and look through the bag the bottle was in to find the missing sticker. I will also mention that while getting on it seemed like they were getting through fairly fast. The line for security was pretty long at 1, but they had 3 different lanes open. The line for key cards was very small! Remember if you've been on a cruise before try and get in the lane that represents your level!

More coming up as fast as I can type!

Looking forward to your review ... great so far.

What cabin were you originally booked in that had the enclosed balcony? (cabin number). I've never heard that term before, what does it actually mean?

Thanks.

Looking forward to your review. We sail on the Pearl next May and I'm trying to learn all I can.

Looking forward to your review ... great so far.

 

What cabin were you originally booked in that had the enclosed balcony? (cabin number). I've never heard that term before, what does it actually mean?

 

Thanks.

Originally we were cabin # 9652. They couldnt really give us a good explanation of what an enclosed balcony was and even after searching here I couldnt find/understand what the difference is. The only way I can explain it is that a typical balcony the outside is a completely open square with a railing half way up. Under the railing is clear plastic that you can still see through. The enclosed balcony on the Pearl the bottom half of the balony was white and you could not see through it. The sides also had a white material. Essentially it looked to me to be a big open window. Does that make sense?

Okay so like I mentioned the security line was quite long when we came back, I would recmommend getting there before one if you can. The line fo the key cards was very short though. Right as we were getting on (a little before 1) they made the announcement the rooms were ready. We LOVED our room, especially the big tub!

We quickly unpacked then I headed up to the spa. This was by far the best decision I made the entire cruise! I booked the spa pass for 119$. After that we just walked around and took some pictures of the Seattle skyline. My overall impression of the ship was first that it was exactly like the Gem, which was nice because I already knew where everything was! It was clean and so far the crew had been very nice. Our favorite place on the ship was bar city, I really loved the bartenders there and enjoyed the atmosphere. We ordered a drink and relaxed until the lifeboat drill. The lifeboat drill was easy, and was very fast! After that I decided to head up to the spa, which opened right after the lifeboat drill.

The spa was AMAZING. I was so worried it would be crowded the whole week but I really only had one or two hours where I thought it was overly crowded. The staff were so friendly here and be sure to get a mini tour before you book so you know what each area is. I know its been mentioned about the SPA facilities before but quickly I will mention them again. The womens thermal room had showers, lockers, steam room, plunge (57 degrees) pull, sauna, 2 personal hot tubs (the size of a bath tub), and lounge chairs with a huge window. If I can I will attach some pictures. In the main area there were more lounge chairs, tea and OJ, the heated loungers, a big whirpool, and another hot tub. Like most people, I really enjoyed the heated loungers I found them to be super relaxing.. They were amazing. I was surprised I only had trouble finding one available once! Throughout the cruise there were several times where I was the only person in the spa, which was perfect. I also really liked the mini hot tubs in the womens side, they offered a beautiful view of us leaving Seattle! Throughout the week you get some amazing views at almost anytime, with mountains covered in snow in the background, the spa is a great place to view them. Another of my favorite things was to go in the steam bath, jump in the cold plunge, and then wrap in a bath robe and get on the heated loungers. It was AMAZING! I did get some weird looks jumping in and out of the cold tub though! . My only complaint about the spa was the water temperature at the spa. It seems to me that there should be one standard temperature hot tubs should be set at…the hot tub in the main area and the personal ones were all on the same system. The first day I could not even stick a toe in the water it was so hot. You could clearly see from the steam coming off that something was not right. I called one of the ladies over and she stuck her hand in and practically screamed. She said something must be wrong with the temperature control. Finally about an hour later we were able to get in..perfect temperature. Several times later on in the week the water was luke warm if not cold. It was rarely ever warm enough for me to consider it “hot”. I witnessed multiple people complaining that they thought the water was cold. I don’t know if something was broke or what, but my experience was mostly cold, once too hot, and a couple times perfect. Thank god for those heated loungers! There were some spa users who were there to talk, which at some points got on my nerves. They felt the need to talk over the jets which meant I could hear everything they were saying whether or not I wanted too. However when this happened I just went to the womens side which was always silent. I really recommend the spa pass!

Back to the first day now! After my time in the spa we went to the Indigo dining room. We were hungry pretty early that first night so we went around 6pm. We were seated immediately at a great table. Our server was awesome! We had such great service that first night. Also, I will say we almost skipped lobster night since on previous ships I thought it was pretty bad, this was the best main dining room lobster I have had on NCL! It wasn’t perfect, but it was NOT overcooked which was a first for me on NCL. The steak was okay. I also had the salmon tartar which I enjoyed and the bread pudding was good but oh my is that Carmel sauce sweeeet! When we left around 7:30 the line to get in the dining room was incredibly long. I would suggest eating before 7 or after 8 as the line was the longest between 6:45-8. After the dining room we spent the rest of the evening in the spinnaker lounge. I don’t really remember what was going on there, but we spent a couple hours up there before bed. The Spinnaker lounge was one of my other favorite spots on the ship. Great views, fun seats, and friendly waiters!

The second day was at sea. Woke up and went to the gym…yikes was this place a mad house! It was completely packed and people were visibly getting angry at the long line for the use of the machines. After the long wait I finally got on the machines. After the gym I headed to the spa for several hours. One suggestion, at 8am when the spa opens is a great time to get in there! I was the only person in the spa for a little over an hour! After the SPA we decided to have lunch in the main dining room. WE got there right at 12 and had no trouble sitting right away. When we left at 1 the line was really long! Back to the spa I went, while my husband enjoyed the casino for awhile. That afternoon we had also signed up for the beer tasting. The day at sea also had a wine and martini tasting. I wish they wouldn’t have put them all on the same day, I would have rather done wine or martini but my group really wanted to do the beer tasting for 15$. We ended up doing more over the week, which I will go into later, but this first beer tasting was my least favorite. It was unorganized, way too many people, and the beers were boring (blue moon, Guinness). I just thought they could have attempted to serve us beers we may not have tried yet. But anyway after that we relaxed a little more and decided to go to Le Bistro for dinner that night. It was the dress up (or not) night that evening. I’ve been to Le Bistro on every NCL ship I’ve been on. It has always been my favorite specialty restaurant. WE had many dishes that night (and we went again later that week), some of the highlights and not so highlights: savory cone appetizer was bland, ducks was okay, escargot always a favorite, apple tart was delicious! That night we headed up to the spinnaker to watch the newlywed game. Always a favorite of mine, but this time they could not find an older couple to fill a spot. After that they were setting up for some ultimate vodka party. We hung around to watch the sunset on the beds up there. They had a vodka display with infused vodkas and an ice sculpture. We had one more drink and headed to the bed before the real party started there. Looked like it was going to be fun though!

Day 3 coming up next!

Thanks for the great reviewing.

We are really enjoying it, especially as we will be on the same cruise this coming Sunday !

Day number 3 in Juneau! Again started the day off the same way I did before, gym and spa. I attempted for the first time to visit the buffet for breakfast and WOW! It was crazy. I am not sure if all my other cruises were better laid out, had less people, or what but this was the craziest buffet I had ever witnessed. Kids were crazy…I think that’s been talked about enough on these threads, but honestly the kids on the cruise ship were everywhere! So I vowed to avoid the buffet as much a humanly possible for the rest of the week. I hate to complain too much, but the coffee in the buffet was pretty awful. It seemed really bitter to me. I found that putting baileys in it helped…but I didn’t need to be doing that 3x a day. I stuck with tea for most of the week. I did notice they had masala chai tea near the Indian section of the buffet. That tea was delicious, but it seemed to empty quickly and they could not keep up with the demand. The coffee bar in the atrium did not open till 7 so I shouldn’t complain too much! I just remember it being much better back in September. For lunch that day we headed to the blue lagoon. The service was okay here and the food was similar to the buffet. It was just nice to avoid the buffet crowd that we saw for breakfast. My husband didn’t like his meal in the blue lagoon so he decided to go get a plate from the buffet and bring down to our room. He got some butter chicken, naan, and some pork vindaloo. I am by no means and Indian food expert but we go all the time and this food was delicious! If you’ve never tried Indian food I think the ship is a great place to try it. If you don’t like it then just get another plate.

In Juneau we rented a car from Juneau car Rental Company for 59$. The car rental company is just south of where the Pearl docks. We walked off the ship and were there in 10 minutes. The office is pretty much a shed, but the lady was very nice and gave us a map with directions and answered our questions. Our first stop was mendenhall glacier, which I was expecting to be a tourist trap and extremely busy. Maybe because we arrived at 2 but it was not busy at all! We drove there in about 20 minutes and I thought it was amazing! I am so glad I did not skip this. We did the 1 mile hike out to the waterfalls and that was very beautiful. I am so glad we took the time to do that easy hike, it was cold and rainy so it was tempting to just get back in our car, but honestly take the hike its so beautiful being that close to the falls and the glacier. After the glacier we drove north a little more but then realized we didn’t know where we were going so decided to head to the Alaskan brewery. This place closes early, I think like 6 and we got there around 5:15. Samples are free and I was really impressed with the place. My favorites were the summer ale and the white beer. Too bad we couldn’t have stayed longer. After that we headed to tracys crab shack. YUM! There was a line, but it moved fast. We ordered the king crab combo with one large leg, 4 crab cakes, and bisque. The rolls were excellent; I could have devoured 5 of them! It was pricey but soooo worth it. I have never seen a crab leg that big before! If you want more info on the place you can goto yelp and search, there are pictures too. We did a little shopping; most of it was your average tourist shopping so we were back on the boat around 7:30. We went to bar city and ordered a 5$ pizza. The pizza was really yummy. I also enjoyed several banana banshee martinis which I highly recommend! We went to bed early that night because of the early day tomorrow. Also, the weather in Juneau was less than perfect so we had been out in the cold wet weather all day.

Next day was Skagway. We had decided to do an excursion through the boat since I heard that driving to the Yukon can be really foggy and you have to travel up a steep mountain. We decided on the white pass railway and Yukon expedition through NCL. It was a very very long 8 hours. You are on the bus for probably 4 of them and then on the train for 2 more. I would not recommend this tour at all. While the area is nice to see, there is just not a lot to see. I would maybe take the train there and back…I don’t know, but the actual Yukon was nice, but then the tour bus made two stops where it was soo unbelievably touristy, the towns were small and there wasn’t much to do there but buy souvenirs. I think had this excursion been $150 or so I would be fine with it but I believe it was $250 and I was quite upset with myself for spending that much money to essentially be on a bus with a couple of good views. We stopped at carcross (spelling?) for lunch and to see some dogs and a petting zoo. The lunch was okay, chicken with bbq and potatoes. They talked a lot about their donuts which I thought were just okay. If I were to do this again I would either stay on the cruise or just do a local hike or spend some time downtown. Instead of the bus the whole way back we drove an hour and then hopped on the white pass railway. The train was nice and it was great to see the views, but most of it we had already saw. We were back on around 6 and decided to do dinner at moderno, the churrisco style restaurant. I forget how much this was, maybe 15$. The salad bar was awesome! They had so much to choose from, and everything on the salad bar was fresh and delicious. They had salads, meats, cheeses, vegetables, soups, and unique side dishes. I enjoyed this restaurant, although my least favorite part was the actual meat! Some were good, others were okay. The fried bananas and mashes potatoes they served were great, as well as dessert! This is where they would not open our bottle of wine till we found the sticker. That night we just walked around this ship listening to different music. I think that might have been the white hot party night…I am not 100% sure though!

More to come!

Originally we were cabin # 9652. They couldnt really give us a good explanation of what an enclosed balcony was and even after searching here I couldnt find/understand what the difference is. The only way I can explain it is that a typical balcony the outside is a completely open square with a railing half way up. Under the railing is clear plastic that you can still see through. The enclosed balcony on the Pearl the bottom half of the balony was white and you could not see through it. The sides also had a white material. Essentially it looked to me to be a big open window. Does that make sense?

Thanks, yes, I understand what you are saying about the balcony.

Thanks for the review..we will be on the Pearl in a couple weeks. Can't wait!

I was wondering..when the upgrade fairy called you, did you book thru NCL or a TA? I am booked threw a popular Travel Site, and have called them several times about upgrades with little success, but I have 2 weeks so I am going to keep trying!

Thanks for the review..we will be on the Pearl in a couple weeks. Can't wait!

I was wondering..when the upgrade fairy called you, did you book thru NCL or a TA? I am booked threw a popular Travel Site, and have called them several times about upgrades with little success, but I have 2 weeks so I am going to keep trying!

I booked directly with NCL. I have read the to get the upsell they typically call just a couple days before you cruise!

Day 5 was an at sea day/glacier bay. This was one of my favorite days. Again I spent the morning at the spa which was completely empty! They made an announcement early on in the day, maybe like 7 that the rangers were now onboard the ship. We were just entering Glacier Bay at that point and it would take us 2 hours to reach the farthest point where the big glacier was. We went to the aft balcony for the glacier. It was hard at first because they were talking about things we had not seen yet since we were towards the back. But once we got our view it was worth the wait. The sun was out and it was an amazingly clear day. We even got to see large portions of the glacier break off. They provide you with a map that shows you were the edge of the glacier was at different intervals many years ago. They also offered some fun hot drinks that could be delivered to your room or you could go to the atrium bar and order them. It was only 9:00 but I was ready for my coffee. The first one was a coconut coffee drink that was delicious, I think it was called the Alaskan snow plow. My husband got the grizzley bear which was coffee and hot chocolate and chocolate liquor. It was soo yummy. We also go the mulled wine which was sweet but really good as well.

We got some great videos and pictures of the big glacier. After that we headed back through Glacier Bay and stopped at another glacier. This one was smaller but more blue. Pictures just do not do these things justice. Its just something you have to see in person. The rangers were in the spinnaker lounge all morning to answer questions, so that place was really very busy. It was nice to have a balcony to relax on. We also had purchased some salmon in Seattle and today was a great day to eat that for lunch while glacier watching. On that note I will also mention that in most ports (except Seattle) you cannot take food off the boat or bring it back on. There may have been one other stop which allowed you to bring food back on, but most did not. After that it was time for a wine and comedy show we had purchased tickets for earlier on in the week. It was in the spinnaker lounge. We got there early (recommended!) so we could get a good seat. We got an even better deal when we spotted a bunch of whales on the side of the ship! It was amazing to see these guys in action. Throughout the week I must have seen dozens of whales, it was truly amazing how close they were willing to get to the ship. Back to the wine tasting, for $15 or $20 you got 6 nice pours and 1 glass of champagne. The musical/comedy show was just okay, it was more for entertainment and I really didn’t learn anything from it. Something different to do though! The place was packed, I would recommend getting your tickets in advance because it almost looked like they were sold out. There were people walking around the first day selling them. I attached a picture of the mass amounts of just one type of wine that was poured. Hopefully this shows how many people were there. The wine was good and we even purchased a bottle for dinner that night.

After the wine and comedy show we went bowling for $5 a person. It was fun, nothing special though. That night we decided to do Lotus Gardens. We ordered some sushi..I believe the Godzilla roll which was pretty tasty and some yellowtail sashimi. Reasonably priced and pretty delicious. We also had ordered the lettuce wraps and the spring rolls for starters. The lettuce wraps were a little spicy but yummy. For our main course we had the kung pao chicken, low mein, and shanghai beef. The low mein was a bit disappointing, on our last cruise the noodles were the thick noodles and cooked very well, on this ship it was spaghetti. So it was not my favorite. The kung pao chicken was the best meal of the night. There was also some pretty good dessert, I loves the banana pancakes! After that we went to the perfect couple game show. That was pretty funny as well. Again great service and views in the spinnaker lounge.

That night was also the chocolate buffet. Oh boy. I had done the chocolate buffet on a previous NCL and Carnival cruise and this is not what I was expecting. On the gem they had beautiful displays of the ship and since we were in Europe they had famous landmarks made of chocolate. It was also very well organized. In Carnival they even allowed you in early to take pictures. Their buffet was always so impressive. Well the doors opened and chaos was everywhere. Children were literally sprinting through the garden café and running into people. There were no impressive sculptures either. That didn’t really matter to me as much as the people running everywhere and the pushing and shoving. I managed to get a chocolate mouse but then retreated back to my cabin very overwhelmed. I managed a couple crappy pictures that I will attach here. That night I also had the misfortune of having a little bit of an accident. I didn’t realize that our attendant had put chocolates on the bed and I fell asleep on two of them…they immediate melted and were all over me and the bed in the morning. I felt pretty awful about this and made sure to apologize to him. Just a word of warning look out for those chocolates!!!

I wondered what the Pearl was like in Alaska. We were on it in March before she went into dry dock and her last cruise in the Caribbean before heading to Alaska. It was a great time and a beautiful ship.

Where do they have the White Out party in Alaska? It was on the pool deck but of course the weather was much nicer in the Caribbean that Alaska.

We went on the Sun in June to Alaska & we had wonderful weather. The White Out party was in the Blitz lounge and it was very hard to enjoy it because of the chairs and the people.

I am sorry about the people at the chocolate night buffet. I remember on the Pearl it was a big deal and so much chocolate. The staff was singing and dancing as you entered the buffet area. I don't remember any big chocolate designs though. I did enjoy the chocolate rum balls though! :)On the Sun there was a small table set in the corner with a few chocolate cakes & small other treats.

Can't wait to read the rest of you review. Also did you review on your NCL Hawaii Cruise? We are looking at POA NCL Hawaii cruise next!

Day 6 was ketchitan. Slowly our cruise was coming to an end and it was depressing! Woke up and we were already in Ketchitan and it was unlike any other port. There seemed to be actual life outside of the port in this town. It was beautiful there with a ton of wildlife. We saw several bald eagle nest and several bald eagles! The little town close to the port is large and you can find almost anything there. We did another excursion through NCL, this one was much better! We did the crab feast and boat ride. Our driver picked us up at the cruise terminal and we drove about 20-30 minutes. Along the way we saw a ton of wildlife, this place is really great for animal spotting. Once we arrived at Georges Inlet we got on a boat where we were offered binoculars and a blanket. We rode out to a couple spots and pulled some crab out of the water. The tour guides were very informative and friendly. We got to see a ton of crab! Once back at the lodge we were given an amazing lunch. Lunch consisted of a beer or wine, salad, crab, potato, and blueberry cheesecake. On the description of the excursion is says one crab per person, but they were just passing out as much as people would eat. I feel like I ate maybe 5 dungenous crabs! The crab was great too! The cheesecake was good as well. Overall this may have been one of my favorite meals. I have never had so much crab in my life. The scenery is also pretty and they give you time to look around before heading back to the ship.

We arrived back around 10am so we decided to walk around town a bit. We did some shopping and got some delicious coffee from across the pier then headed back on around 11:30. That afternoon we finally were able to enjoy one of the martini tastings. It was held at 3 in bar city. Sophia was a great host and created 4 or 5 martinis for us to try. All of them were really delicious and at the end she asked some trivia questions and the winner got a free martini! She did a variety of martinis at this time, some were sweet, others were not. After this my husband was determined to make it to try another one of the beer tastings. I did not participate in the second one but I did stay by to listen in. The beers seemed to be more unique this time around and it was way more organized.

For dinner that night we went back to Le Bistro. We typically try to spend our last night on the ship at Le Bistro every time. This time I went all out and got the lobster and my husband got the 32 oz steak, yes that’s 32 oz of meat for one person. The dishes were good, I don’t know if the steak was worth the extra cost but I thought the lobster was. I also had the French onion soup which I thought was very good. After dinner we headed to the main theatre for the only show we saw this trip. It was a broadway show. I thought it was…okay. My favorite broadway show is wicked and its just really hard to live up to the standards of real broadway. Anyway it was interesting and I am glad we went. We also decided to play another game of bowling. The place was pretty much empty when we went and we never had to wait.

End of that day. One more post to go!

I wondered what the Pearl was like in Alaska. We were on it in March before she went into dry dock and her last cruise in the Caribbean before heading to Alaska. It was a great time and a beautiful ship.

 

Where do they have the White Out party in Alaska? It was on the pool deck but of course the weather was much nicer in the Caribbean that Alaska.

 

We went on the Sun in June to Alaska & we had wonderful weather. The White Out party was in the Blitz lounge and it was very hard to enjoy it because of the chairs and the people.

 

I am sorry about the people at the chocolate night buffet. I remember on the Pearl it was a big deal and so much chocolate. The staff was singing and dancing as you entered the buffet area. I don't remember any big chocolate designs though. I did enjoy the chocolate rum balls though! :)On the Sun there was a small table set in the corner with a few chocolate cakes & small other treats.

 

Can't wait to read the rest of you review. Also did you review on your NCL Hawaii Cruise? We are looking at POA NCL Hawaii cruise next!

I believe it was in the spinnaker lounge, thats where most of the parties were. Not 100% sure ont hat. I believe I did review POA back at the end of September. I may just posted it on here instead of through cruise critic. Ill see if I cant track it down :)

Our final day on the cruise was a mostly at sea day until we got to Victoria at 6pm. This was my last day at the spa and honestly, its what I miss most about my vacation!! I spent as much time as I could here since it was our last day. For lunch they were doing a german beer fest on the outside deck at garden café. I decided to brave the buffet for my love of german food. It was a beautiful day, a bit of overcast, but mostly sunny. We sat on the outside deck and saw more whales! The German food was good they had pig, red cabbage, sausage, pretzels, potato salad, schnitzel, and strudel. All of which I thought were pretty delicious. They had a special on beer that day as well, by 2 get one free and another special with jagger…I forget the details. We stuffed our faces and then headed yet another martini tasting!! I was excited they were having a 4th one since I really enjoyed the one the day before. Sophia was again the host and this one was mostly premium martinis with lots of ingredients. From what I remember we had a green tea, lychee, peach, banana, and melon one that day. Again they were all great. At the end she gave each couple a free martini and I got the espresso martini, I wish I would have known how great it was at the beginning of the week, it would have been my martini of choice for sure!

Once at Victoria we decided to get a cab to gastro pub called spinnaker. We just wanted a relaxing evening. It was pretty good; they have a nice beer selection. I will honestly say I was shocked with Victoria. I did not expect it to be that beautiful, it was breathtaking. It was so clean and we had the best weather. I wouldn’t mind returning here and exploring the city a little more. That night we enjoyed our last night on the ship by having some drinks and listening to music. We also of course had to pack!

We decided to walk off the ship on our own and with our own luggage. I had booked a 12 pm flight on delta. Two weeks before our trip I got an email saying the flight had been changed to 11:45AM. Ill admit I was a bit nervous, and even considered changing it. Especially after reading about some of the horrible lines in Seattle. I was thinking we would prolly be cutting this flight a little close but was keeping my fingers crossed. At 7:20 the cruise director said anyone with their own luggage could now leave. We were off the ship and in a cab by 7:35. Got to seattle…not a single line. We were at our gate by 8:30. I was so glad I had decided not to switch our flight. I understand every Sunday is different. However; if you carry your own luggage off and attempt to be on the firsts in line and get a cab you should have no problem beating the majority of the crowd that Sunday!

Overall thoughts:

-I loved this cruise, it was probably one of my favorite itineraries I’ve been on. It allowed for site seeing, but also there was time to relax.

-Overall the crew was friendly…there were of course exceptions to this one being the aft balcony attendant, and several of the bartenders. But that’s life.

-Most of my complaints about this cruise are around other people…not NCL, and that’s one thing I can’t fix- I cant quite afford to rent a whole cruise ship out for myself!

-Avoid the buffet if possible, there are plenty of other free options that are better and a ton less crowded!!

- Out of my 9 cruises this has to be the only one that I am wanting to do again!

Let me know if you have any questions, and have a great time on your upcoming trip!

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. Thoroughly enjoyed it and we're looking forward to our cruise to Alaska on the Pearl in September.

Did you have good weather in the different ports?

Thank you so much for your review! The spa sounds great -- I can't wait to check it out. I'm glad you had a good time! :)

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. Thoroughly enjoyed it and we're looking forward to our cruise to Alaska on the Pearl in September.

 

Did you have good weather in the different ports?

Somewhat. Seattle was hot 85+! Juneau was rainy and cloudy, we wanted to do the tram but because of the heavy clouds it didnt make sense. Skagway was a clear day but very windy. Ketchitan was sunny and about 60 degrees. Victoria was sunny and 65-70 degrees. Overall I felt we had pretty goood weather.

My thanks also for the review. I will be a first time cruiser on the Jewel to Alaska next May (we had originally been booked for September but circumstances encouraged us to push this back) and have little idea what to expect to reviews like yours really help. I have been especially curious about the spa and the spa pass you describe so this definitely helps. I am curious - when you spent so much time in the spa - were you mainly chilling out on the heated loungers (which sounds awesome to me) or going back and forth between hot tub, steam room, cold plunge (I'm not much for steam room but my sister loves it). I've heard the view there is awesome and this has definitely been on my bucket list since I first started researching.

Thanks for the review. An Alaskan cruise is definitely on my bucket list.

My thanks also for the review. I will be a first time cruiser on the Jewel to Alaska next May (we had originally been booked for September but circumstances encouraged us to push this back) and have little idea what to expect to reviews like yours really help. I have been especially curious about the spa and the spa pass you describe so this definitely helps. I am curious - when you spent so much time in the spa - were you mainly chilling out on the heated loungers (which sounds awesome to me) or going back and forth between hot tub, steam room, cold plunge (I'm not much for steam room but my sister loves it). I've heard the view there is awesome and this has definitely been on my bucket list since I first started researching.

I really did a mix of everything I could. I tried out pretty much all seats in the house. Even the loungers that werent heated were comfortable and offered an amazing view. The steam room does not have a view, but the sauna does and it is amazing!

How much time was spent not in sight of land? We are considering this cruise for next spring but have heard the Vancouver trip is much more scenic. However, looking at a map it doesn't seem like we would be missing much compared to the extra cost of getting to Vancouver.

How much time was spent not in sight of land? We are considering this cruise for next spring but have heard the Vancouver trip is much more scenic. However, looking at a map it doesn't seem like we would be missing much compared to the extra cost of getting to Vancouver.

I would say 75% of the time I could see land. The very beginning and the very end of the trip were the only times I can remember not being able to see land.

What a wonderful Review. I have read it twice. I am going on the Pearl in September and was on her 2007. It is good to know that she is still a beautiful Ship. Your Review for first time Cruisers will be so helpful. I like to know before I go. I am sure I will be reading it again. It makes me feel like I am on the Cruise with you.

Thank you so much for mentioning the spa pass - I bought one the last time I went on the Pearl to Alaska and loved it. Course that was back in 2007 and I was concerned they might not be doing it anymore.

One question though - when I bought my pass in 2007 the person selling them was just aft of the entryway in the reception area. It sounds from your writing that now we need to go to the spa and purchase directly at the spa?

Plan is to let hubster handle settling the room and my making sure we get spa passes for the week so want to make sure I head to the right spot as soon as we are onboard :)