Cruise review, Pearl to Alaska, July 7-14th (a bit long)

I had so much fun reading reviews before my cruise that I decided to write my own. Hope you enjoy it.

When I decided to take a cruise to Alaska, I was not sure what cruise line to take, or what the itinerary would be. I just knew that Alaska sounded like a cool place to see, I wanted to take a cruise, and I had already done the Mexican Riviera (the other itinerary that would be fairly convenient for us to get to, travel-wise). We had previously done Carnival and liked it, but recently they have had a lot of bad luck, which freaked out the teens that we were bringing with us. My husband did some research and decided that he liked NCL. When I looked at it, I thought that the Freestyle aspect would suit us, since we are very informal people.

The two ships that sailed when we were available were the Jewel and the Pearl. I wanted to leave on Saturday, so that I could have a day to recover on the back end, but after reading reviews of Glacier Bay, decided on the Pearl, which left on a Sunday.

We flew to Seattle from San Jose on Saturday. As we were waiting for our flight, we heard the terrible news that a plane had crashed at San Francisco airport. We were relieved to hear that most of people aboard survived, and were secretly relieved that our flight was not affected, as we could have just as easily flown from that airport.

After an easy two-hour flight, we arrived in Seattle and met up with my mom, who had flown from San Diego. We had chosen to stay at the Clarion, which was basically across the street, was inexpensive, and had a free shuttle from the airport. While comfortable, it was obvious that it was an inexpensive hotel.

Sunday morning, we got up early and walked a half block to catch the light rail. Instead of taking a taxi to the pier (likely $40 plus), we paid about $10 to ride from the hotel to a block or so from Pike’s Market. At the end of the market, we found a nice breakfast place, which had a view of our ship! After eating, we walked less than 10 minutes to the pier. Even though it was only about 11:00, we were able to check in and get on the ship within about 15 minutes! Somehow, we missed seeing where to check our bags, but since we each only had a small carry-on and a backpack, we had no problem carrying them aboard.

Once onboard, we went to guest services to get our cards punched so we could carry them on a lanyard (we don’t always have pockets and have found that lanyards work for us). They informed us that although the rooms were not ready, we were welcome to go put our luggage away. So, we were in our room by 11:30. (Our cruise documents said that 12:00 was the check-in time, so we felt like we had earned some bonus time on the ship.)

We had booked a balcony for myself, DH, and my mom; with an inside cabin right across the hall for DS, age 15 and his best friend, age 16. I had to book my husband in the inside, and one of the kids in the balcony, since they require at least person to be over 21. The only time it was an issue was when my husband wanted to go to the room and had to borrow my room key. The balcony room was about the size that we expected, and was fine for the three of us. However, when the couch was pulled out to be a bed, it blocked the access to the balcony and we had to either climb over, or disassemble the bed partially to get outside. We found that there was enough storage space, since we all packed lightly. The bathroom and shower were small, like expected, but adequate for our needs. I did wonder how a large person would fit into the bathroom stall, as it was not too big.

My mom and I spent most of the next few hours exploring the ship from the top deck down. We took a ton of pictures inside and outside the ship. People were nice enough to offer to take photos of us together, since we were taking them of each other. We took some photos of the Space Needle and the Ferris Wheel-thingie. My husband was happy to find the “buy 5 beers, get one free” table and spent a few minutes deciding what to get. He ended up visiting that table a few times during the cruise, LOL.

Around 2:00, there was a BBQ on the pool deck. We had read about it on CC, so knew to wait to eat. We had planned to eat in the MDR (also something we learned from CC), but since we had a late breakfast, we just waited for the BBQ.

We had dinner in Indigo the first night so that we could have the lobster that I had heard about on CC. We went at 6:20 and did not have to wait at all. (When we left it seemed that there was a bit of a wait). The lobster was listed as a surf and turf option. Since I don’t like steak, I asked for just lobster. The waiter was nice enough to bring me two tails since I did not have the steak. They were good-sized and really yummy. The bread pudding was really good also.

The first day was a sea day. For some reason, we all woke up super early (before 6:30). Most days, we enjoyed breakfast up in the Great Outdoors (our cabin was two floors above). We noticed that the food was basically the same as the buffet, but usually there were less people and more seating options. Note: The best (free) coffee machines on the ship are just inside the Great Outdoors. They grind the beans fresh when you push the button. I also enjoyed the caramel lattes from the coffee bar in the atrium (you can order them in the MDR and they will bring them to you-charged to your room card). They generally served things like made to order omelets, French toast, bacon, sausage, fresh salmon, fruit, oatmeal, etc. We always found something that we liked.

We did a martini tasting that first day. For $15, you get to taste 5 different martinis. We ordered two tastings and shared between the three of us. I noticed that there were other tastings during the week, with different martinis each time. We had a cosmopolitan, regular martini (which I did not like, but DH did), espresso martini (my favorite), appletini and one other that I forget. They played a game, which DH and I both volunteered for. The women stood behind the kneeling men, with a shaker. We had to dance around the men, while shaking our shaker, and then pour it into a glass that they held on their head. Since I am a lightweight and had already had quite a bit to drink by then, I spilled some on my poor husband, LOL. I was happy that we ended up with the espresso martini and were able to drink it in addition to the one that was already included. By the time we were done, I was stumbling and laughing back to my room. Even though I had planned on getting the daily drink of the day each day, after that I did not really feel like drinking much. I guess I got my fill J.

Souvenirs: I only brought a carry-on and a backpack, so was limited to what I could buy, or would need to send things home. The first night on the ship, I went to the shopping desk and got a free charm (for a bracelet). The next day, we went to the port shopping talk, and were given two or maybe it was three more charms. She gave us a flyer to get more charms and a bracelet in each port. We did this on our last cruise and had fun collecting them all. In Juneau, they offered 5 charms for $5, plus the bracelet for free. Since a few of the charms were duplicates to what I got on the ship, I was able to trade and get the ones that my mom and I both needed. This was the only port that charged me for the charms. Not sure why. I think I remember paying for some on the last cruise also. We got charms in Ketchikan and Skagway also. I bought an Alaska jacket in Juneau, but ended up finding a different one the next day that I liked better, so bought that one also. I also bought some Xmas tree ornaments in each port, which depicted scenes that I wanted to remember or had experienced there. I will probably hang them on a wall so I can see them year-round. I also bought some playing cards in a few ports. Onboard, we got thermal mugs with our coffee during our Glacier bay day. The last thing that I tried to get in each port was a smashed penny. Before the cruise, I researched online and found a site that listed places in Alaska with penny smashing machines. I missed the one in Juneau, but got some in the other ports, as well as on the ship.

Juneau: We arrived just before 2PM. It was a bit drizzly, but not bad. I had arranged to go on a “photo safari”, since I am an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I scheduled the rest of the family to go on the “Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching” excursion. My tour only had 13 people on it. We were able to stop and get some nice shots of the glacier from a distance on the way to whale watching. Supposedly the larger tours do not stop there. The tour was led by Gastineu Guiding. I looked at booking it individually, and if I remember correctly, the price was basically the same, so I booked it through the ship. Our boat was smaller than the other whale watching tours, which was nice. We had a photographer/naturalist with us all day. She was very knowledgeable about whales, having led tours for many years in different parts of the country. Unfortunately, we did not have much luck with the humpback whales. We saw one from a distance, but by the time I got my camera ready, it had gone under. I did see that another passenger managed to get a great tail shot. (I spent the next hour feeling pretty jealous, LOL). We visited a buoy that a bunch of seals were hanging out on. We did end up seeing some orcas (three of them). We followed them for awhile and got some good photos, so I started feeling a bit better J. After that, we drove to a parking lot near the glacier. We hiked about a mile on an easy trail, called “Trail of time” (I think). Our guide knew a lot about the area, even though she has only been in Juneau for 2 months. We saw the original visitor center, which illustrated how far the glacier has receded over time. It was amazing to see the glacier up close. I did not realize quite how large it was until I saw some specks near the waterfall, and realized that they were kayaks/people! It really put it all into perspective. The funny thing is, that as I walked down the stairs with my group, I ran into my family, who were there with their tour! So, we were able to get a family photo in front of the glacier. On my trip, we were given photo tips, bottled water, a treat bag (with nuts, chocolate, fruit leather), and saw a slide show during the bus ride. It was well worth it.

My tour got back about an hour or so before the ship embarkation time. It was a bit rainy by then, but I had the tour bus drop me off in town and walked around a bit. I had enough time to buy a jacket (which I later gave to DH, as I found one later that I preferred), get a charm for my bracelet, and go to Tracy’s crab shack to meet up with DH. Since it was late, we got 3 pounds of king crab legs ($110) to go. It came with coleslaw and some delicious biscuits. We were able to “sneak” it onboard in a backpack. I say “sneak” since they announced before we got off that no food could be brought on or off the ship. However, the backpack went through an x-ray and they did not say anything, so I guess it was okay. We had a great time eating it on our balcony as the ship pulled away.

Skagway: I booked an independent tour of the White Pass rail through Chilkoot Tours. I was able to find a tour that did a bus/rail combo, which gave us more options for photography. None of the combo trips that the ship offered appealed to me and most were all-day excursions. The one we did was about 3.5 hours, which ended up being just right for us. The teens fell asleep on the train, so anything longer would have been a waste. After the trip, we walked around town and had lunch at the Skagway Brewing company. My husband tried the “spruce tip ale”, which is a local favorite. It is made from the leaves of a spruce tree. The town was easily walked in a couple hours, so we headed back to the ship well before it left port.

Glacier Bay: We were up early again. We were able to go to an early ranger talk (7AM in Spinnaker lounge) where we learned what we would be seeing and bought some souvenirs. We spent some time on deck, but mainly hung out on our balcony. We saw Margerie glacier calving, which was pretty cool. There was a ship nearby that looked like it might have been a scientific explorer boat of some sort. While looking for calving, we saw some dots moving and realized that there were kayakers in the bay. Like at Mendenhall, it really put the size into perspective. At 9:00, we had some coffee drinks delivered to our room (those not in a balcony room could order on the deck). Since I could not decide which to order, we had three different ones and then at 11:00, tried a 4th. They were all yummy (and alcoholic). They had regular hot chocolate available for kids. At one point, all 5 of us were squished on the balcony looking at the glacier.

Ketchikan: We arrived early in port and chose to get off before our scheduled time to meet our tour. We walked around town and took photos of the famous rain gauge and the welcome sign, and looked for where to get our charms later. We had no problem meeting our tour on the dock instead of inside the ship like our tickets told us to do. Mom and I did the Misty Fjords excursion through the ship, and DH and the two teens went on the Deadliest Catch excursion. Both boats were docked right by our ship. My boat was two stories, with an interior area and an exterior area. This was the coldest day, so we were glad to be inside most of the day. Our naturalist, Betty, was really interesting. They gave us complimentary coffee and hot chocolate, as well as clam chowder (probably the best I have tasted), and samples of salmon berry jelly. We saw a lot of awesome scenery that day. We saw a baby bald eagle in its nest, as well as an old pictograph. After the tour, we had just enough time to go get our charms and a few other small souvenirs.

Victoria: We did not book a tour this day. We arrived before 6 and exited the ship right away. We walked around the waterfront to get to the main area. It was cool to see a small village of “float homes”, which were houses on the water (but not house boats). We went to the Flying Otter Grill to sample poutine, which is a Canadian dish. Although my mother grew up in Canada, she had not heard of it before. Basically, it is fries with brown gravy and cheese curds. It was really yummy and I was happy that we were able to find it.

Random thoughts/tips: We enjoyed sitting in the Spinnaker lounge when entering and leaving ports. The views were great and it was warm. The Great Outdoors was a nice option also, but was cold sometimes. The sushi bar had good prices, good quality, but limited options. We ate there twice (a la carte pricing). The white hot party was not what I expected. I thought that there would be black lights and that we would all glow. Despite that, the music was good and the party was fun. I was able to buy a White Hot shirt in the gift shop, but had to ask for it, as it was not on display. I enjoyed the fish and chips in the Blue Lagoon. It was a nice option instead of the buffet or MDR and only had a short wait both times that we went. The entertainment was okay. We enjoyed the Frankie Valli tribute, but not the show where they did songs from Broadway shows. My teens did not enjoy the teen club. They are at the age where most things are “lame”. I am sure that the club was fine, and I saw a lot of teens having fun.

Before the cruise, I read another person’s review where she talked about packing light. I looked at the website she mentioned and learned a new packing method. (I think it was called “packing light”). It seemed to be an efficient way of packing. Once we were in Alaska, I generally wore a tank top (snug, for warmth close to my body), with two long sleeved shirts on top, and a fleece jacket. I had on long underwear under jeans or hiking pants. I was comfortable 95% of the time. I was a bit cold on one excursion when I went outside and it was raining.

Debarking: We walked off with our luggage and only took 10 minutes once we decided to leave. We chose not to leave it outside the night before and were happy with our decision.

We ended up walking to the Space Needle (did not realize it would be mostly uphill!) and then taking the train back to where we could catch the light rail. Despite lugging our bags, it was fairly easy to get around and spend the day before going to the airport.

I would definitely recommend the Pearl and Alaska to my friends.

Feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer.

Sorry, but next time figure out how to format. It was a good review, but painful to read.

Wall of text. Tried, but couldn't read it.

A challenge, but worth it. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the great review! I had no trouble reading it all!:)

Thanks for the great review! Alaska is one of the places my DH and I would like to go. Hopefully in the next 10 years. Glad you had a great time!

Thanks for your review! Which coffee drink did you like best on Glacier Bay day? I assume the thermal cup comes with a lid, correct? Oh, and did you get a cup with each drink?

Do you recall how much the other coffee drinks were from the café?

I can't wait for our trip in September! I also plan to take the Photo Safari excursion, so I'm glad to hear it was fun!

great review. I cant wait to get on the pearl in sept. we will really use the coffee machine by the great outdoors for our freshly ground coffee. im so glad to read I will get a thermal mug on glacier day. :).

Wish I could read it:(

Wish I could read it:(

I had a little trouble reading it, but I took my time so I could soak in all that the op had to say. I give the op a lot of credit for taking the time to do this review. I am not a review writer person , so anyone that takes the time to do it, and give so much great information, I give a big Thank You. :)

I had no problem reading! Thanks for the review. Do you, by chance, have any of the dailies (or whatever they are called)?

i would like to see the dailies as well. especially the menu's from the mdr would be great also. that is for anyone who has them, please post . :)

Thanks for your review! Which coffee drink did you like best on Glacier Bay day? I assume the thermal cup comes with a lid, correct? Oh, and did you get a cup with each drink?

 

Do you recall how much the other coffee drinks were from the café?

 

I can't wait for our trip in September! I also plan to take the Photo Safari excursion, so I'm glad to hear it was fun!

Yes, each drink came with its own cup and lid. I liked them all! The lattes were around $3 or so. Not sure about the rest.

Enjoy your trip!

I had no problem reading! Thanks for the review. Do you, by chance, have any of the dailies (or whatever they are called)?

I have the dailies, but won't have time to scan them until next weekend.

I have the dailies, but won't have time to scan them until next weekend.

Next weekend would be great! That would be so nice of you if you could scan them.:)

Thanks for your great review. My family have 9 people will go on Pearl from Aug 4th-11th. Good to know you enjoyed the trip.

I have the dailies, but won't have time to scan them until next weekend.

I would also love to see the dailies!

(and menus if you have any)

I'll be sailing in three weeks!

So looking forward to it.

Also anticipating flying in a seaplane from Seattle to Victoria for the flight home to Toronto!!!!

:):)

I enjoyed your report, thanks for sharing. We are going next year for our 40th anniversary and am really looking forward to the trip.

Great report. Thanks for the coffee tip!

I tried to break it up into paragraphs for you OP....hope you don't mind. great review!!!!

When I decided to take a cruise to Alaska, I was not sure what cruise line to take, or what the itinerary would be. I just knew that Alaska sounded like a cool place to see, I wanted to take a cruise, and I had already done the Mexican Riviera (the other itinerary that would be fairly convenient for us to get to, travel-wise). We had previously done Carnival and liked it, but recently they have had a lot of bad luck, which freaked out the teens that we were bringing with us. My husband did some research and decided that he liked NCL. When I looked at it, I thought that the Freestyle aspect would suit us, since we are very informal people.

The two ships that sailed when we were available were the Jewel and the Pearl. I wanted to leave on Saturday, so that I could have a day to recover on the back end, but after reading reviews of Glacier Bay, decided on the Pearl, which left on a Sunday.

We flew to Seattle from San Jose on Saturday. As we were waiting for our flight, we heard the terrible news that a plane had crashed at San Francisco airport. We were relieved to hear that most of people aboard survived, and were secretly relieved that our flight was not affected, as we could have just as easily flown from that airport.

After an easy two-hour flight, we arrived in Seattle and met up with my mom, who had flown from San Diego. We had chosen to stay at the Clarion, which was basically across the street, was inexpensive, and had a free shuttle from the airport. While comfortable, it was obvious that it was an inexpensive hotel.

Sunday morning, we got up early and walked a half block to catch the light rail. Instead of taking a taxi to the pier (likely $40 plus), we paid about $10 to ride from the hotel to a block or so from Pike’s Market. At the end of the market, we found a nice breakfast place, which had a view of our ship! After eating, we walked less than 10 minutes to the pier. Even though it was only about 11:00, we were able to check in and get on the ship within about 15 minutes! Somehow, we missed seeing where to check our bags, but since we each only had a small carry-on and a backpack, we had no problem carrying them aboard.

Once onboard, we went to guest services to get our cards punched so we could carry them on a lanyard (we don’t always have pockets and have found that lanyards work for us). They informed us that although the rooms were not ready, we were welcome to go put our luggage away. So, we were in our room by 11:30. (Our cruise documents said that 12:00 was the check-in time, so we felt like we had earned some bonus time on the ship.)

We had booked a balcony for myself, DH, and my mom; with an inside cabin right across the hall for DS, age 15 and his best friend, age 16. I had to book my husband in the inside, and one of the kids in the balcony, since they require at least person to be over 21. The only time it was an issue was when my husband wanted to go to the room and had to borrow my room key. The balcony room was about the size that we expected, and was fine for the three of us. However, when the couch was pulled out to be a bed, it blocked the access to the balcony and we had to either climb over, or disassemble the bed partially to get outside. We found that there was enough storage space, since we all packed lightly. The bathroom and shower were small, like expected, but adequate for our needs. I did wonder how a large person would fit into the bathroom stall, as it was not too big.

My mom and I spent most of the next few hours exploring the ship from the top deck down. We took a ton of pictures inside and outside the ship. People were nice enough to offer to take photos of us together, since we were taking them of each other. We took some photos of the Space Needle and the Ferris Wheel-thingie. My husband was happy to find the “buy 5 beers, get one free” table and spent a few minutes deciding what to get. He ended up visiting that table a few times during the cruise, LOL.

Around 2:00, there was a BBQ on the pool deck. We had read about it on CC, so knew to wait to eat. We had planned to eat in the MDR (also something we learned from CC), but since we had a late breakfast, we just waited for the BBQ.

We had dinner in Indigo the first night so that we could have the lobster that I had heard about on CC. We went at 6:20 and did not have to wait at all. (When we left it seemed that there was a bit of a wait). The lobster was listed as a surf and turf option. Since I don’t like steak, I asked for just lobster. The waiter was nice enough to bring me two tails since I did not have the steak. They were good-sized and really yummy. The bread pudding was really good also.

The first day was a sea day. For some reason, we all woke up super early (before 6:30). Most days, we enjoyed breakfast up in the Great Outdoors (our cabin was two floors above). We noticed that the food was basically the same as the buffet, but usually there were less people and more seating options. Note: The best (free) coffee machines on the ship are just inside the Great Outdoors. They grind the beans fresh when you push the button. I also enjoyed the caramel lattes from the coffee bar in the atrium (you can order them in the MDR and they will bring them to you-charged to your room card). They generally served things like made to order omelets, French toast, bacon, sausage, fresh salmon, fruit, oatmeal, etc. We always found something that we liked.

We did a martini tasting that first day. For $15, you get to taste 5 different martinis. We ordered two tastings and shared between the three of us. I noticed that there were other tastings during the week, with different martinis each time. We had a cosmopolitan, regular martini (which I did not like, but DH did), espresso martini (my favorite), appletini and one other that I forget. They played a game, which DH and I both volunteered for. The women stood behind the kneeling men, with a shaker. We had to dance around the men, while shaking our shaker, and then pour it into a glass that they held on their head. Since I am a lightweight and had already had quite a bit to drink by then, I spilled some on my poor husband, LOL. I was happy that we ended up with the espresso martini and were able to drink it in addition to the one that was already included. By the time we were done, I was stumbling and laughing back to my room. Even though I had planned on getting the daily drink of the day each day, after that I did not really feel like drinking much. I guess I got my fill J.

Souvenirs: I only brought a carry-on and a backpack, so was limited to what I could buy, or would need to send things home. The first night on the ship, I went to the shopping desk and got a free charm (for a bracelet). The next day, we went to the port shopping talk, and were given two or maybe it was three more charms. She gave us a flyer to get more charms and a bracelet in each port. We did this on our last cruise and had fun collecting them all. In Juneau, they offered 5 charms for $5, plus the bracelet for free. Since a few of the charms were duplicates to what I got on the ship, I was able to trade and get the ones that my mom and I both needed. This was the only port that charged me for the charms. Not sure why. I think I remember paying for some on the last cruise also. We got charms in Ketchikan and Skagway also. I bought an Alaska jacket in Juneau, but ended up finding a different one the next day that I liked better, so bought that one also. I also bought some Xmas tree ornaments in each port, which depicted scenes that I wanted to remember or had experienced there. I will probably hang them on a wall so I can see them year-round. I also bought some playing cards in a few ports. Onboard, we got thermal mugs with our coffee during our Glacier bay day. The last thing that I tried to get in each port was a smashed penny. Before the cruise, I researched online and found a site that listed places in Alaska with penny smashing machines. I missed the one in Juneau, but got some in the other ports, as well as on the ship.

Juneau: We arrived just before 2PM. It was a bit drizzly, but not bad. I had arranged to go on a “photo safari”, since I am an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I scheduled the rest of the family to go on the “Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching” excursion. My tour only had 13 people on it. We were able to stop and get some nice shots of the glacier from a distance on the way to whale watching. Supposedly the larger tours do not stop there. The tour was led by Gastineu Guiding. I looked at booking it individually, and if I remember correctly, the price was basically the same, so I booked it through the ship. Our boat was smaller than the other whale watching tours, which was nice. We had a photographer/naturalist with us all day. She was very knowledgeable about whales, having led tours for many years in different parts of the country. Unfortunately, we did not have much luck with the humpback whales. We saw one from a distance, but by the time I got my camera ready, it had gone under. I did see that another passenger managed to get a great tail shot. (I spent the next hour feeling pretty jealous, LOL). We visited a buoy that a bunch of seals were hanging out on. We did end up seeing some orcas (three of them). We followed them for awhile and got some good photos, so I started feeling a bit better J. After that, we drove to a parking lot near the glacier. We hiked about a mile on an easy trail, called “Trail of time” (I think). Our guide knew a lot about the area, even though she has only been in Juneau for 2 months. We saw the original visitor center, which illustrated how far the glacier has receded over time. It was amazing to see the glacier up close. I did not realize quite how large it was until I saw some specks near the waterfall, and realized that they were kayaks/people! It really put it all into perspective. The funny thing is, that as I walked down the stairs with my group, I ran into my family, who were there with their tour! So, we were able to get a family photo in front of the glacier. On my trip, we were given photo tips, bottled water, a treat bag (with nuts, chocolate, fruit leather), and saw a slide show during the bus ride. It was well worth it.

My tour got back about an hour or so before the ship embarkation time. It was a bit rainy by then, but I had the tour bus drop me off in town and walked around a bit. I had enough time to buy a jacket (which I later gave to DH, as I found one later that I preferred), get a charm for my bracelet, and go to Tracy’s crab shack to meet up with DH. Since it was late, we got 3 pounds of king crab legs ($110) to go. It came with coleslaw and some delicious biscuits. We were able to “sneak” it onboard in a backpack. I say “sneak” since they announced before we got off that no food could be brought on or off the ship. However, the backpack went through an x-ray and they did not say anything, so I guess it was okay. We had a great time eating it on our balcony as the ship pulled away.

Skagway: I booked an independent tour of the White Pass rail through Chilkoot Tours. I was able to find a tour that did a bus/rail combo, which gave us more options for photography. None of the combo trips that the ship offered appealed to me and most were all-day excursions. The one we did was about 3.5 hours, which ended up being just right for us. The teens fell asleep on the train, so anything longer would have been a waste. After the trip, we walked around town and had lunch at the Skagway Brewing company. My husband tried the “spruce tip ale”, which is a local favorite. It is made from the leaves of a spruce tree. The town was easily walked in a couple hours, so we headed back to the ship well before it left port.

Glacier Bay: We were up early again. We were able to go to an early ranger talk (7AM in Spinnaker lounge) where we learned what we would be seeing and bought some souvenirs. We spent some time on deck, but mainly hung out on our balcony. We saw Margerie glacier calving, which was pretty cool. There was a ship nearby that looked like it might have been a scientific explorer boat of some sort. While looking for calving, we saw some dots moving and realized that there were kayakers in the bay. Like at Mendenhall, it really put the size into perspective. At 9:00, we had some coffee drinks delivered to our room (those not in a balcony room could order on the deck). Since I could not decide which to order, we had three different ones and then at 11:00, tried a 4th. They were all yummy (and alcoholic). They had regular hot chocolate available for kids. At one point, all 5 of us were squished on the balcony looking at the glacier.

Ketchikan: We arrived early in port and chose to get off before our scheduled time to meet our tour. We walked around town and took photos of the famous rain gauge and the welcome sign, and looked for where to get our charms later. We had no problem meeting our tour on the dock instead of inside the ship like our tickets told us to do. Mom and I did the Misty Fjords excursion through the ship, and DH and the two teens went on the Deadliest Catch excursion. Both boats were docked right by our ship. My boat was two stories, with an interior area and an exterior area. This was the coldest day, so we were glad to be inside most of the day. Our naturalist, Betty, was really interesting. They gave us complimentary coffee and hot chocolate, as well as clam chowder (probably the best I have tasted), and samples of salmon berry jelly. We saw a lot of awesome scenery that day. We saw a baby bald eagle in its nest, as well as an old pictograph. After the tour, we had just enough time to go get our charms and a few other small souvenirs.

Victoria: We did not book a tour this day. We arrived before 6 and exited the ship right away. We walked around the waterfront to get to the main area. It was cool to see a small village of “float homes”, which were houses on the water (but not house boats). We went to the Flying Otter Grill to sample poutine, which is a Canadian dish. Although my mother grew up in Canada, she had not heard of it before. Basically, it is fries with brown gravy and cheese curds. It was really yummy and I was happy that we were able to find it.

Random thoughts/tips: We enjoyed sitting in the Spinnaker lounge when entering and leaving ports. The views were great and it was warm. The Great Outdoors was a nice option also, but was cold sometimes. The sushi bar had good prices, good quality, but limited options. We ate there twice (a la carte pricing). The white hot party was not what I expected. I thought that there would be black lights and that we would all glow. Despite that, the music was good and the party was fun. I was able to buy a White Hot shirt in the gift shop, but had to ask for it, as it was not on display. I enjoyed the fish and chips in the Blue Lagoon. It was a nice option instead of the buffet or MDR and only had a short wait both times that we went. The entertainment was okay. We enjoyed the Frankie Valli tribute, but not the show where they did songs from Broadway shows. My teens did not enjoy the teen club. They are at the age where most things are “lame”. I am sure that the club was fine, and I saw a lot of teens having fun.

Before the cruise, I read another person’s review where she talked about packing light. I looked at the website she mentioned and learned a new packing method. (I think it was called “packing light”). It seemed to be an efficient way of packing. Once we were in Alaska, I generally wore a tank top (snug, for warmth close to my body), with two long sleeved shirts on top, and a fleece jacket. I had on long underwear under jeans or hiking pants. I was comfortable 95% of the time. I was a bit cold on one excursion when I went outside and it was raining.

Debarking: We walked off with our luggage and only took 10 minutes once we decided to leave. We chose not to leave it outside the night before and were happy with our decision.

We ended up walking to the Space Needle (did not realize it would be mostly uphill!) and then taking the train back to where we could catch the light rail. Despite lugging our bags, it was fairly easy to get around and spend the day before going to the airport.

I would definitely recommend the Pearl and Alaska to my friends.

Feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer.

Great review of your trip! Easy for me to read! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for your review. It sounds like you had a really good time. Alaska is beautiful.

I would also love to see the dailies!

(and menus if you have any)

I'll be sailing in three weeks!

So looking forward to it.

Also anticipating flying in a seaplane from Seattle to Victoria for the flight home to Toronto!!!!

:):)

CdnDragon1 Join us over on the roll call...There are a few of us on the August 18th sailing. We would love to connect with a few more.

Thanks for your review. We are off to Alaska in a few weeks. :D

I was going to scan the dailies and link to something like Flickr, but they ended up as pdf files and Flickr wouldn't work. So I am going to try to upload them here as attachments. When I did a test, my computer tried to flag them as potentially harmful, so hopefully people will be able to see them.

I scanned the Entourage schedule, the whole day 1 daily, the hourly schedules of days 2-7, and the drink menu from Glacier Bay day.

A look at your cruise page 1.pdf

A look at your cruise page 2.pdf

Daily day 1 page 1.pdf

Daily day 1 page 2.pdf

Daily day 1 page 3.pdf

Daily day 1 page 4.pdf

Daily day 2.pdf

Daily day 3.pdf

Daily day 4.pdf

Daily day 5.pdf

Daily day 6.pdf

Daily day 7.pdf

Entourage page 1.pdf

Entourage page 2.pdf

Glacier bay drink menu.pdf