Pearl to Alaska 9/6-9/13, general notes.

[Elde]

I'm not one to write a novel length review, so here are some random general comments and impressions of the trip. I'll likely add more as they occur to me over the next few days.

 

While there will be some whining and complaining in these notes, overall we had a smashing time!

 

We sailed in 14514, the port side A3. Overall, we're mixed on the value of a courtyard suite. Nothing we can quite put our fingers on though. Having the continental breakfast handy for coffee and snacks to get our day started was great, but we ended up spend most of our hangabout time in the suite. If we do sail in the courtyard again, we'll strongly consider the starboard side as the private sundeck on Pearl has views only to port. (Which means we had to go down to deck 13 for views to starboard.) During the cabin crawl after the CC Meet & Greet, we were quite dismayed to discover how small our balcony was compared to some of the others...

 

The staff was unfailingly helpful and polite. Gary (our butler) and Hassan (our cabin steward) handled our modest needs quickly and deftly. When we arranged with Gary to bring up a pitcher of Mimosa fixin's (to go with the sparkling wine that came with the cabin) on Glacier Bay day, he delivered (unasked) two plates of snacks along with the fixin's. Hassan was excellent at making up our cabin without disturbing us, despite our erratic schedule. (He's either telepathic or had some kind of sensor to know when we'd made a spur-of-the-moment decision to leave the cabin for some reason.)

 

We didn't make use of Monica (the concierge) except to make a reservation at Le Bistro, but she always asked how we were and let us know she was available when we did encounter her.

 

Julie, the Cruise Director, has a wicked sense of humor... She came up next to me at the Java Bar and after exchanging pleasantries I asked her how often she heard the obvious joke. She looked at the ceiling of the atrium with a poker face, counted on her fingers, looked at me and said "you're the third this hour" - and then just when I thought she was upset, she laughed and gave an evil grin. (Well played Julie!)

 

When we were having a late dinner in Cagney's (9ish-10ish?), I was quite impressed to see the Executive Chef come through. And not just a nominal walk through either - he stopped and checked the dishes in progress in the open kitchen and talked with the cooks before making a long and careful scan of the diners before departing.

 

The coffee onboard ranged from vile (the machine in the cabin) to acceptable (urn in the courtyard and room service). The coffee at the Java Cafe varied wildly depending on who the barista was. (And who the barista was varied so often...) Either their automagical machine needs adjusting, or they need better training. We found that a packet of sugar or a dollop of milk in the bottom of the cup vastly improved the coffee from the machines in the Garden Cafe. (We drank a lot of that coffee with meals and while watching the scenery from the Great Outdoors.)

 

We never ate in the MDR as the waits were long and the menu selections seemed uninspired.

 

With our erratic schedule, the Garden Cafe or the Great Outdoors were better fits. The food there was generally good, though I would have liked a better selection of starches and cooked vegetables along with a more thoughtful selection of salad dressings. And oh Lord - the crepe station... I could have gained ten pounds right there had I allowed myself. (Tip, after getting a crepe head aft to the ice cream bar for a quick squirt of chocolate or rasberry sauce.)

 

Breakfast in Cagney's was a great perk, lunches not so much. (The menu selections were limited and seemed unispired in selection, preparation, and presentation.) They serve a mean steak for dinner though, and the shrimp cocktail was excellent - I could have made a meal of of it. We weren't impressed by the famous Cagney's Fries.

 

The hot wings in the Blue Lagoon lived up to their reputation, but the fish 'n chips were an unheralded delight. Highly recommended.

 

I was disappointed in Le Bistro - while the service was excellent, it was quite obvious that the components of the Choucroute garni (while individually excellent) had been prepared separately and combined at the last minute rather than being cooked together.

 

As expected, the selection of beers onboard was disappointing. (I admit to being a beer snob, and living in the Pacific Northwest being somewhat spoiled in this regard.) So I consoled myself with the excellent selection of whiskies at Malting's.

 

Based on advice from here on CC, we headed to the spa as soon as practical on Embarkation Day and bought a pass for the week - probably the best money we spent all week. We were down there practically every day, and when we were chilled and our feet hurting after a long day - the thalassotherapy pool was just the thing. (Brenda would have lived on the tile loungers had she been allowed...)

 

Having rambled on enough for the moment... I'll repeat that despite minor inconveniences and disappointments, overall we had a smashing time. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask away!

[cliffd64]

Nice review :)

[knuts1]

We were on the same cruise a few weeks ago and Stephan is an artist with the crepes!!:p I think we all gained about 10 lbs as well and he suggested the Chocolate trick as well to us.

[mypleasure]

 

As expected, the selection of beers onboard was disappointing. (I admit to being a beer snob, and living in the Pacific Northwest being somewhat spoiled in this regard.) So I consoled myself with the excellent selection of whiskies at Malting's.

 

 

We found the same with the beer. My husband is a lifetime member of Campaign For Real ale here in the UK and he barely had a drink all week. Last year on Star they had some beers from the Alaskan Brewery and they seemed to satisfy him but these were absent on the Pearl sailing in June this year. You would think with some of the great beer we had in Seattle they would have had some local brews available.

[puppymama1]

We are thinking of doing the same cruise and same time period next year - first time cruisers too..... How was the weather? Did you feel like there was too many pressured sales pitches? Those are the two main concerns I have with September and NCL.... We are looking at an aft balcony room, but haven't made any reservations yet.... Did you do any shore excursions? How did you like them? Thanks!

[Elde]

We are thinking of doing the same cruise and same time period next year - first time cruisers too..... How was the weather? Did you feel like there was too many pressured sales pitches? Those are the two main concerns I have with September and NCL.... We are looking at an aft balcony room, but haven't made any reservations yet.... Did you do any shore excursions? How did you like them? Thanks!

 

Well, being both a Pacific Northwesterner and ex-Navy, I'm about the last person to give rational advice on weather and sea conditions... :) (Riding the tram down Mt Roberts, some folks in the back were complaining about the rocking and rolling the previous night, and I'm all like "you folks really have no idea".)

 

That disclaimer out of the way, I didn't find the weather too bad. We had some roughness when we were exposed to the open ocean, but no storms. (You can get roughness from storms hundreds of miles away.) It was pretty much light rain and cloudy most of the time, but proper clothing took care of the first, and I find as much beauty in seeing the clouds and mountains interact as seeing them stark under the sunlight. It's all in the preparation and attitude after all. We had fairly clear views in all the ports even so.

 

Alaska can be rainy or gorgeous any time during the season, tending towards the former.

 

We tuned out the sales pitches on the loudspeakers, I think there was only a handful a day anyhow.

 

So far as excursions... (all arranged through NCL)

 

In Juneau, we did the Medenhall Glacier and had a great time and great views. We got back to town in time to do Mt Roberts (we just bought the tickets right there) and just a little shopping. (We wanted to do the crab shack, but opted for Mt Roberts to snag a geocache that was up there.)

 

In Skagway, we did the Musher's Camp & Sled Dog Discovery, which was a blast. The lecture/Q&A session with the musher was very interesting. My wife rated the 'snuggle the puppies' portion as one of the highlights of the cruise. This was followed by lunch at the brewery, and a liesurely shopping/wandering stroll down the street.

 

In Ketchikan we did the Bering Sea Fisherman's Tour - and had an absolute blast. We had several Orca approach the boat and I got some wonderful photographs. Due to the length of the tour, we didn't get to see any of Ketchikan.

 

We just stayed aboard in Victoria as we can go up there any time we want.

[puppymama1]

Glad to hear the sled dog discovery was good! That is one of the tours I said was a definite must do for us -- (I want to snuggle the puppies too!!!) Thanks for the info!

[LadyShiva]

A very efficient and informative review. I appreciate your time writing this review, and I enjoyed reading the OP and the follow-ups. :)

[drsb]

Nice review! Question on the spa pass. What was the cost and what were the spa hours? Could you go any time? Was it open when in port, do you know?

 

Thanks!

[Elde]

Nice review! Question on the spa pass. What was the cost and what were the spa hours? Could you go any time? Was it open when in port, do you know?

 

The spa pass was $198/couple, $99 individual. The spa was open daily (including inport days) 8AM-10PM.

[Lurbanic]

Great review Derek! I wanted to chime in with my impressions...

 

We flew into Seattle on Saturday and stayed at the DoubleTree Arctic Club Hotel. Very nice hotel, historic, would definitly recommend. Took the free shuttle to the light rail station and it dropped us off 1/2 block from our hotel for $2.50 each! Can't beat that. FYI it will extend to the airport in December 2009 and the free shuttle will not be needed. Went to Pikes market to spend a few hours and picked up a beautiful bunch of flowers to bring on the ship the following day. Sun. morning took a quick taxi ride to the pier.

 

Embarkation at noon was as expected - quick moving line. Funny thing was our general population line for the ship cards was quicker and shorter than the Latitudes line! The counter guy said it did not matter which group you went to since they helped both groups. Our bags arrived around 3. We had our first lunch in the Summer Palace MDR to avoid the massive crowds at the Buffet.

 

We had an interesting room on deck 8 - cabin #8057. It is an inside cabin that is positioned sideways (fore to aft). After talking with other inside cabin cruisers it was agreed that I had a better layout and more manuvering room inside. So while we like the layout, the design of deck 8 drove us nuts! It is very rat-maze like with lots of twists and turns as well as up and down ramps as it bent around the lifeboats. Honestly we wished we were on any of the other decks to have a straight shot down the hall esp. during the two days of rough seas!

 

If you are considering an Alaksan cruise and prone to sea-sickness you would do well to stay mid ship. We thanked our lucky stars that we were not up high on 14 with Derek and dutifily took our Dramamine to keep the queasiness at bay during the roughest seas.

 

The ship is in great shape but could use a good carpet cleaning - our cabin (and many other common areas) had quite a few stains. I know they don't have much time to address it since there is such a quick turn-around of passengers - but I kept my socks on in the cabin due to the creep-out factor!

 

Service by our room stewards was great. I asked for a vase for my flowers and they provided one within 15 minutes! We had 5 towel animals and I loved and cherished each one :). My only gripe was that after taking a shower I tried to use the hair drier only to find a horrible smokey smell and tiny whisper of air blow out. We called twice to have it fixed and 1.5 hours later still no replacement. Finally I went down (hat on head) to the pursers desk to complain - they showed no record of either call. :eek: After the purser chick grilled me about my "actually calling", they then placed a call and it was fixed in 30 minutes. Grrr!

 

The meet and greet was great. Started off rather quiet, only got to view the assembled Pearl officers before they scurried away. I thought we would actually get the chance to mingle and meet them. Then on to the trivia and the gift exchange. It was neat to see the different gifts. For me the highlight was the cabin crawl. I really enjoyed seeing the different levels of cabins.

 

We really enjoyed our sea days to unwind and enjoy the ship. The food was OK but not as good as the fare on Royal Carribean. I really wished they had one more non-pay restaurant to choose from. We did go to the pay Italian restaurant La Cucina one night. The food was OK and the service better than the MDRs but if it was a restaurant back home I would not go back. The service was super slow at the MDRs and the food a bit on the bland side. Lobster night consisted of 1/2 a lobster tail and some fish...can you say "cutbacks"? We could always find something to our taste in the buffet but the crowds got old after a while. I was determined to escape whenever possible and always brought my fleece to eat out on back deck. The breakfast buffet had plenty to choose from and the OJ was not watered down. I had brought my insulated coffee mug to drink hot chocolate as I enjoyed the passing scenery - very relaxing. Oh, for the chocolate buffet, line up at the main doors since they will not let you in the rear. I miss the grand display RCI had with their special dessert night - that was a sight to behold.

 

Juneau - We took the blue MGT shuttle bus to Mendenhall Glacier. Quite the crusty driver, but it allowed us all the time we needed to see the glacier and walk to the waterfall. BTW - they are working on making an official path along with bridges to the waterfall. We got a bit dirty hiking there but it was so worth it - I think we spend about 1.5 - 2 hours there. Unfortunately we did not have time to go to the Alaskan brewery. Did some shopping in town.

 

Skagway - We took the Chilkoot train/van/Emerald Lake/dogsled camp tour. I loved not being on the large greyhound bus tours and we did stop quite a few places the buses did not. What was maddening Was that while we took the train for the first leg, the group that was on the van on the first leg held them up since they had left their passports on their ship and our driver got to us 45 minutes or more late while we stood around waiting for him on the train platform. The puppies were adorable, the food good, and the scenery was fantastic. The leaves had started changing and added a bit of color to the hillsides. Saw my first bear along the side of the road - cool! Oh, forgot to mention we had our own train car just for Chilkoot so we were not crammed in their too tight like the cruise ship cars.

 

Ketchikan - Just did some walking around town and toured Dolly's house on Creek Street. The sun peaked out (rare for that town) and it was a nice leisurely day. The ship docked early and we shipped out early as well.

 

Victoria - We did not tour the town since we arrrived so late (after 6:30 pm) and not much was open. After Labor Day I guess the gardens close early and we could not tour it. It was nice to just relax about he ship, pack and enjoy our last day.

 

Disembarkation went smoothly and we took our time leaving the ship as we had a 6pm flight back home. Did the Ride the Ducks tour in Seattle which was fun.

 

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

Lisa

[Lurbanic]

Forgot to mention the soda card. Go to any bar and ask for the soda card. They place a sticker on your room key with a Pepsi symbol. Just flash it at any bar or soda stop (Buffet area) to get a drink. FYI - the bartenders don't like to serve you because they don't get a tip each time even though you pay 18% gratuitiy when you buy the card. If you purchased a soda on board you would quickly find out they use small glasses, lots of ice and only use about 1/2 a can or less in each glass. :eek: Total cost with tip and gratuity $50.31

[Cubechick]

Forgot to mention the soda card. Go to any bar and ask for the soda card. They place a sticker on your room key with a Pepsi symbol. Just flash it at any bar or soda stop (Buffet area) to get a drink. FYI - the bartenders don't like to serve you because they don't get a tip each time even though you pay 18% gratuitiy when you buy the card. If you purchased a soda on board you would quickly find out they use small glasses, lots of ice and only use about 1/2 a can or less in each glass. :eek: Total cost with tip and gratuity $50.31

 

 

Just an FYI. They do the cup of ice w/ partial cans for those who have the soda card. If you buy a can of soda they do give you the entire can with a glass of ice on the side.

[fleet]

Good review and great info. Thanks Derek and Lisa.

[CaseyJr]

The coffee onboard ranged from vile (the machine in the cabin) to acceptable (urn in the courtyard and room service). The coffee at the Java Cafe varied wildly depending on who the barista was. (And who the barista was varied so often...) Either their automagical machine needs adjusting, or they need better training. We found that a packet of sugar or a dollop of milk in the bottom of the cup vastly improved the coffee from the machines in the Garden Cafe. (We drank a lot of that coffee with meals and while watching the scenery from the Great Outdoors.)

 

We cruised a month before you and thought the coffee was horrible. We looked for a decent cup of coffee at every port.

 

Since we were complaining about the coffee to anyone who would listen ;), we received a couple of suggestions. The bus driver to Mendenhall suggested putting 8 grains of salt in the coffee. Surprisingly it worked better than we expected. One of the waiters in Summer Palace said that he rarely drinks the coffee but, when he does, he adds soft serve ice cream to it rather than cream and sugar. We needed a bigger cup than what was provided but the combo of soft serve and coffee made a somewhat acceptable beverage.

[Smkymtncpl]

Glad to hear you had such a great cruise! We were disappointed in our last cruise (Carnival). Service was great, but bitterly disappointed with the FOOD! We found ourselves wishing we were back on NCL!!

 

We've been on Star, Dawn, and we'll be on Pearl for the first time in April, going to Caribbean. Can't wait to cruise her!

[2tnts]

Since there are no comments about Victoria, I will add my two cents:

 

We booked the garden / wine / chocolate tour thru NCL. Due to the bad weather, we did not get to Victoria on time. Then to top it off - we had to wait on several people who had booked the tour before the bus took off. And I must mention, there was a "free loader" trying to take the tour without paying (saying he was there to help a person in a wheelchair".

All this said, we arrived at the gardens at about 8:15 p.m. The tour guide kept saying that there was back light at the gardens, and you would be able to see the beautiful flowers. At 8PM it is dark. So, I considered this tour, "lost money". We saw a few flowers near the entrance. The guide gave us directions when we arrived.... "enter the gates, head left.......... go to the sunken gardens (not to be missed)......." Well, all I can say, is that at each path, looked liked we ended up back near a parking lot. So we gave up, went to the gift shop. We met some people from other ships that arrived in Victoria on time, and they said the gardens were a sight to behold. Would I encourage anyone to book a tour to the gardens - No.

Now the winery and chocolates were OK. You get to sample 2 whites, 2 reds. Probably would pass on this tour again as well. If you buy wines from a company / distributor, you can sample more varieties of wines at tastings, promotions, shows etc.