NCL Pearl Review - Rocky Start, Awesome Finish!

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This review will be pretty detailed, so if you don’t like detailed reviews, I will be writing one for the Members Review as well. But be sure to enjoy some of the photos posted here.

A little about ourselves, I’m 48 and DH is 51. This was our 6th cruise. We have been to the Bahamas, Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean, “Exotic “Caribbean (Costa Rica, Panama) and Hawaii, and I must admit this has been our favorite cruise, as far as scenery goes. (And Hawaii was hard to beat). It was like you never wanted to leave your balcony throughout the whole cruise. If you can afford to get a balcony, this would be the cruise to get one. If not, there are plenty of places on the ship you can enjoy the view, like the Spinnaker Lounge, the window seats throughout the ship, and most of the lounge areas have windows nearby and of course out on any deck.

Another thing about us is that we are early risers and barely venture out after 11:00pm, so I will not be able to give you any information about the night life as far as dancing, etc. goes. We did go to a few of the shows, which speaking of shows, I was very disappointed that Shark Bait was not on the agenda for the week. I heard so many great things about their show and was really looking forward to it.

Also we did not go to any of the Specialty restaurants with the exception of Blue Lagoon. We mostly ate in MDR and the Buffet. Although, I will admit, the selection in the MDR was not the greatest, but we always managed to find something, when we did go. Food was very good, not excellent.

As the title says, we were off to a rocky start. Our cruise was from May 16, 2010 to May 23, 2010. We always fly in the day before a cruise in case anything happens, but this time we really wanted to do some sightseeing in Seattle, as well. Our flight was scheduled for 6:30am Saturday morning and we were to arrive in Seattle by 12:45pm. We got a call at 10:00pm, Friday night, from American Airlines telling us our flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Dallas. Is this a joke? I figured somebody was playing a cruel joke on me, seeing everyone was sick and tired of me giving them the countdown of how many days left to my Alaska cruise. But unfortunately it was no joke…..40 min. on hold trying to get a new reservation, finally get through and they say there are no flights until Monday…..Monday???? My cruise leaves Sunday and we cannot afford the $800, per person flights we were seeing on line as we were waiting for them to pick up….I tell him this and his response is, well it’s paying that or miss your cruise??? Thanks for your sympathy (place explicit words here, your choice, I thought of them all). So I asked isn’t there another airline they can put us with….he sounds like he really doesn’t want to try, but does so with Delta….a few minutes later he comes on, and says Delta isn’t answering….”call us back in an hour, we’ll try again”. Well I wasn’t waiting no hour…so I redialed and another 40 minutes AGAIN, on hold. This time a more sympathetic agent and she holds a little longer then their “5 minute” allotted time, due to our circumstances….long story short, we got a flight with Delta for 12:30pm and arriving in Seattle at 5:15pm, so much for sightseeing in Seattle, but at least we will get there and get a few sights in…We arrived the next morning, and Delta says that AA has overbooked their flights…..OMG! I’m about to have a heart attack right there. Picture Fred Sanford “This is the big one!” (Sanford and Son for you young folks), yep that was me…But the good the news is that we were first in line if seats become available and we would have guaranteed flights for the 1:30 flight. Again, long story short ….we made the 12:30 flight! (Oh I can’t leave out having to run 75 gates between connecting flights in Detroit, because our flight was 30 minutes late and the connecting flight was leaving in 20 minutes! And that’s quite a feat for me, I’m lucky if I can run to the end of my block!) We arrived in Seattle at approximately 5:25. Thank God!! Called APlus Towncar to let them know we were in town. Then called again at baggage. They arrived in 5 minutes. Great service!

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We arrived at the Marriot appox. 6:00pm. Quick check in. It’s a very nice hotel inside; the outside of it is not the greatest looking. Here is a photos of it. We didn’t get any indoor photos, with the exception of our window view.

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We got to our room and looked out the window….to the left we can see some of the waterfront….ok, cool, maybe we will see the ship in the morning…looked right and there’s train tracks. Great, just what we needed after a day like this. Hopefully, we are just too exhausted and won’t hear it tonight.

 

 

Luckily it wasn’t raining, but it was just a bit chilly, maybe in the lower to mid 50’s. We ventured out to Anthony’s Pier 66, directly across the street. They have 3 type restaurants…Counter service, Casual-wait staff service, and a bit more formal service. We opted on the counter service seeing we were starving (because was 9:30pm, our stomach time). I got the fish and chips and DH got the Clam Chowder and Fried Clams plate….all was very good.

After dinner we headed toward Pike Market. I’m not sure what time it closes but it was closed by the time we arrived there around 7:15-7:30.

 

 

This photo was taken on our way back. It was not this dark at 7:30.

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Got directions from a local, as to how to get to the monorail for the Space Needle. I believe it was the corner of Pine and 5th. It cost $8/per person roundtrip. It was a very short 3 min. ride directly to the Space Needle. The Space Needle cost $17 ($15 military discount). It was a great view from the top. We were only up there for about 15-20 minutes….as I said earlier, it was a chilly evening. When leaving, as you get off the elevator, they have it so the souvenir shops are right there. We did a bit of shopping around.

 

 

 

Got back into the downtown area around 9:00pm. Ironically we ran into 2 past roll call cc members from our last Carnival cruise. They were cruising to Alaska on Tuesday with Carnival and were in Seattle for their pre-cruise. Kiddingly I told him in one of our Alaska post that we were both on when researching, that maybe we’ll run into them in Seattle…..and we did. What a small world.

 

On our way back to the hotel, we were trying to find a store that sells a bottle of wine so we can drink in our hotel and maybe take on the ship…but surprisingly its “Sleeping” in Seattle after 7:00pm…..the locals told us most of the stores that sell bottles of wine close around 7:00pm. Don’t get me wrong, the city is bustling and the bars are open and some stores are open, but the mini marts or whatever you call them are all closed by 7:00pm, so for those of you who want to pick up a bottle or 2 of wine for the cruise, you better do it before 7:00.

 

Got back to our hotel room around 10:00pm. (1:00am, our body time). Exhausted we went straight to bed. During the night I heard the train, a few times, but I don’t think it woke me, I think I was up anyway.

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I woke up at 6:00am, just for the mere excitement of it being cruise day! I looked out my window and there she was, The Pearl!! Yea! My poor husband, for once he would like to sleep in, but nope that ain’t happening with our ship sitting outside our window!!

 

 

Went to the Starbucks downstairs and sat outside staring at the Pearl and eating our breakfast.

 

 

Took a walk down the street to see where we would drop off our luggage and it was just about a “block” walk and right there near the street saying “Baggage Drop Off” or something like that…very easy. Next to the terminal entrance area, was a store Bell St. Deli & Grocery. We decided to pop in to see if they had any wine. Yea! They had some…..we decided just to buy the little 4 pks, seeing we didn’t have a corkscrew and they weren’t selling any in there….so we bought two 4 pks. (Which is equivalent to 2 bottles of wine) and got back to the hotel and put them in our Rum Runners and prayed we wouldn’t get sent to the “naughty” room.

 

We checked out via the TV in the room and dropped off our key at the desk by 10:15am.

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Got to the Baggage area by 10:20am. After dropping them off they direct you to the terminal building, next door. Went through security and checked in….very organized and easy! In the waiting area they had some coffee and OJ. We were given #1 to board. We were allowed to board around 11:15am. We went to the Buffet and the grazing begins!! We walked around the ship and DH bought a bucket of beers. 6 beers for $28.95, (including tip), although our portfolio said $30.95 for the first bucket, not sure if it’s because he got 3 Sam Adams and 3 Buds Lites….There is also an additional $5 deposit for the “bucket” which is actually a helmet. When you return the bucket you get the $5 credited to your account. We hung on to the bucket for the week and returned at the end of the week. (Although we dropped it off on the last night….the bartender said his supervisor would have to do it, don’t know if they forgot, but the credit was not on our report, the following morning.) Not worth standing in line, so we let it go. We then waited for the 2:00pm announcement to be allowed in the room.

 

We didn't get many pictures of the Pearl itself.

 

We had room 10168, an aft cabin. We had read that the Deck 10 aft balconies, were bigger than the other the other BA balconies, aft, on the other decks. I know it was definitely bigger than the 11th deck…but we couldn’t make out what the 9th deck looked like. On our balcony we had 2 loungers and 2 chairs. It was approx. 9x12. The room itself was small, but livable. FYI, the ship does provide body wash and shampoo dispensers in the shower. It also had 2 robes and a coffee maker. (Although, I believe the robes and coffee makers are only for balcony rooms and suites, but I’m not too sure about that.) Our first luggage arrived around 3:30pm…woo hoo! It was the one with the rum runners in it! About 15 minutes later, the other bag arrived. We put all our clothes away….which barely held our stuff, seeing they were a lot bulkier then we are use to packing, but we managed to get it all hung or tucked in the drawers and shelves. Speaking of clothes….this was the hardest cruise I have ever packed for. Didn’t want to over pack, but wanted to make sure you had enough warm clothing, and cool clothing in case we get lucky with a warm day here and there. But the good thing was we didn’t pack any “nice” clothes for dinner. They did allow jeans in Summer Palace and Indigo for dinner. I asked before going. They said that its fine, just no shorts are allowed.

Our balcony

 

 

Our room

 

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We set sail at 4:00pm. Yea! Our cruise begins. We hung out on our balcony until 5:30 or so.

 

 

We went to Summer Palace for dinner and were seated at a table for 2 by the window. Great view! I had the, French Onion soup, Grilled NY Strip and Sugar Free Cream Puff for dessert. DH had the Spring Roll Shrimp, Farm Grown Chicken and Key Lime Pie. All very good. We were done around 7:00 and we had decided that because it seemed to take so long, we will not order dessert anymore, and just get dessert from the buffet from then on, unless they had something really good on the menu. (Which they never really did. I was hoping to see Crème Brulee, on the menu at least once.) Anyway, this turned out to be a great idea, because they had so much more to choose from in the buffet, anyway.

 

We headed to the first show of the week. “Welcome Aboard” @ 7:15pm. It gave you an idea of what shows they will be having during the week. It was pretty good. After the show we went back to our balcony and had some wine. It was a little chilly so we grabbed our Snuggies and enjoyed the view from our loungers. The one problem we had with our balcony was the door slid open and closed as the ship rocked. You can lock it when you are inside, to avoid this, but when outside, we had to come up with a good alternative, we ended up having to put towels or used the lounger so it wouldn’t bang. It still opened and closed but at least it didn’t bang when it did. We had to do this most of the week. This was the best night’s sleep I had in days!

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Temp for the day was about 55 on our balcony (we had a travel alarm with a temperature gage). Scenery was on the starboard side only. We had breakfast in the Garden buffet (as we did every morning). Good selection but the same all week. It was always busy in there, but never crowded. There were about 3 or 4 omelet stations, so there was never a long wait. After breakfast we walked around and scoped out the gym. It was pretty busy. They had several machines, from treadmills to nautilus equip. It wasn’t as big as some of the gyms on some ships, we’ve been on, but it was fine. We headed back to our room and DH changed for the gym and I went to the outside deck of Deck 7 to walk at least a mile. (Deck 7 goes all the way around the ship and approx 3 laps equals 1 mile…it’s something like 2 3/8 or something like that.) I prefer that over a treadmill so I can see different scenery. I saw people pointing out in the water and asked what was out there….they told me a whale was spotted….I saw it from afar, but basically just the blowhole blowing water. One thing about these sightings is you have to be quick…they pop up for just a minute, once or twice, then disappear.

 

11:00am was our scheduled Meet and Greet in the Indigo MDR. NCL provided some juice, coffee and some pastries. There were only about 10 or 15 of us along with our spouses. What a great group of people. We chit chatted for a bit and some of the senior officers popped in and introduced themselves etc. We left around 12:30pm. It was great running into a familiar face during the week. After the meet and greet we went to lunch in The Blue Lagoon. Not because we were hungry, but because it was lunch time! Isn’t that what you do on a cruise ship is eat? We split a 10 piece plate of chicken wings and I had the hot dog with chili and DH had the fish and chips. All very good.

 

We went back to our room and at 1:20pm, we realized that the past guest party was on at 1:15pm. All the way to the front. We booked it over there……we never pass up a free drink! We got there in just enough time to get a rum punch, and then they stopped serving at about 1:45 or earlier (so we only got 1 drink out the event). When you entered you got a picture taken with the captain….but no shaking his hand! They did a little presentation on NCL and introduced the senior officers and drew names for prizes. They presented a bottle of champagne to the person who had the most cruises with NCL. The winner had 118 cruises with NCL. Wow! Lucky her!

 

We were back on our balcony by 2:00pm. We spotted a seal out there, and pulled out the binoculars, but again, just for a couple of seconds. Speaking of binoculars….it is a must for an Alaskan cruise. I had done a lot of research prior to purchasing one. We had a few cheap ones, but from what I had read on CC, a good pair is necessary and I agree. I purchased the 2010 Zen-Ray Vista 8x42 for about $129. OMG what a difference between them and the other pair of binoculars we had. Bushnell 12x32. The Zen-Ray was sharper, clearer, it was just great! We shared the Zen-Ray’s but it was hard giving them up. Temps on our balcony reached 74 degrees and it was partly cloudy.

 

At 4:00pm I went to the Martini Tasting. $15 for 5 tastes. It was a lot of fun. There were about 50 people attending. “G” was the bartender; he was very good and funny and would do a few bartending tricks. They served Classic, Sour Apple, Cosmopolitan, French and Chocolate. DH didn’t care to do Martinis so he bought another helmet of beers and was enjoying them while I enjoyed the martinis. Of course he would come over and have a taste here and there.

 

 

 

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Back to our balcony by 5:00pm - Beautiful views on both sides of the ship, the sun was reflecting off the snow capped mountains…it was a beautiful sight.

 

 

 

 

**These photos are of the inside passage, I'm not sure at what point they were taken, could have been in between ports....but it was always scenary like this...just beautiful. (Not sure what's going on with the sizing of them.

 

 

 

This evening we went to the buffet for dinner. They had a good selection, Turkey, Roast Beef, Stir Fry etc. It was very good.

 

We went to the “Oh What a Night Show @ 7:15. (Tribute to Frankie Valle, 2 shows tonight, another at 9:15) It was OK. We left around 7:50 so we can catch the 8:15 show with David Naster the comedian in the Spinnaker Lounge. He was very funny. It got pretty crowded, especially after the Oh What a Night show ended. (So if you go to any shows in the Spinnaker Lounge, you probably want to get there at least 20 minutes early for a good seat.) Another couple, from San Diego, asked if they can share our booth and we were more than happy too and we are glad we did, they were such a great couple. We ended up hanging out with them after David was done for the next show. They were starting a game called Majority Rules. (Get into small groups and they ask a question like, what is a girl’s favorite color, then one person writes the answer and runs down to deliver it to the table up front. Last person to drop off their answer has to do a little dance, of course no one wanted to be last. It was so funny) It was a lot of fun. It ended around 10:00pm. We went upstairs to the buffet to see what they had to offer for a snack (they have a little section open for snacks 10:00pm-midnight) They had little tuna, ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit, cheese, veggies, cookies, pastries….not a lot but enough.

 

Back to our room by 11:00pm. Set the clocks back 1 hour

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Up by 6:15am. Looked out window and it looked like it rained overnight. Very cloudy. By 7:00am we were going through some beautiful mountains on both sides of the ship.

 

Went to breakfast and sat on our balcony afterwards. Temps were at 51. It started raining lightly on and off. We had the overhang so we stayed put for a little while. Then we both walked at least a mile on Deck 7. It was very windy and felt a lot colder than our balcony (That’s the good thing about an aft balcony, it blocks the wind). We then went up to Spinnakers Lounge on a double lounger in front of the ship. (Sat elsewhere at first, and inched our way to the front as people left).

 

 

It was so relaxing to sit and look out enjoying the scenery and looking for wild life with our binoculars. We spotted a couple of whale tails, dolphins and a seal all from afar and for short durations. We were up there for about 2 ½ hours. (They were also doing some country square dancing in the lounge, some people were even wearing authentic square dancing costumes). We went back to our balcony about 11:00am. Temps on the balcony had reached 71 degrees by this time and the sun was popping out. (I’m sure it felt cooler on the sides of the ship, with the breeze). But it eventually hit 75. I even put on some shorts and a bathing suit top to catch some rays. DH decided to go to the gym, while I stayed on the balcony to read, but found it difficult to read because I was distracted by the beauty surrounding us.

Went to lunch in the Buffet around 1:00. We were expected to pull into Juneau around 2:00pm. We had to wait for the Star to leave, so we were about 15-20 minutes late pulling in.

 

[NEcruisers????]

Enjoying your review... so far...

It is hard to believe that at this time next week we will be in Seattle awaiting the beautiful Pearl's arrival to begin our cruise!

[elsplace2]

We did not have a scheduled tour in Juneau; we were just planning on going on our own to Mendenhall Glacier, Mt. Roberts, Red Dog Saloon and shop. We were disembarking on Deck 4. The stairways were already packed by deck 8. (Elevators were packed). It was like we were a bunch of cattle trying to get through this little doorway at the end. Some people were actually mooing… It took about ½ hr to get off the ship. Once off the ship if you had a tour, there were people with signs and most of the tour buses were off to the right. Those of us who wanted to get into town stayed to the left in another line for about 15-20 min for the free shuttle, which is actually like a tour bus. (It would be about a mile walk if you wanted to walk into town on your own.) It was only about a 5 minute bus ride. When we got off the bus there were several kiosks selling tickets to tours, shuttles to Mendenhall Glacier, etc. We wanted to make sure we got the MGT shuttle seeing it was suggested on CC. We got the round trip ticket for $14 each. We noticed that the Mt. Roberts tramway was right there, as well….easy for when we get back. We hopped on the MGT shuttle at 3:30 and arrived at the Glacier at 4:00. The visitor center was only about 2 minutes away. We didn’t go in, but we did pick up a map, outside. We took the Photo Looking Point Trail. It only took about 5-10 minutes to get there. (If you look at the website map, it says 20 min. There’s no way it takes that long.) The Glacier was beautiful.

 

 

 

We snapped a few photos and saw people at the waterfall. We asked someone who just came from that direction how long it took them to get there and they said only about 20-25 minutes…so off we went. Again, beautiful! We saw the time was only 4:35, so we thought we could catch the 5:00 bus back so we did a very fast paced walk back. (Last bus leaves at 6:00…they come every ½ hour). 1 hour there was perfect for us.

 

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When we got back to town, as I said the Mt. Roberts Tram was right there. We debated as to whether or not to go up, because it started sprinkling very lightly, on and off…Actually, I debated, DH was all for it. I just wasn’t sure what the view would be. Fortunately, when you go in the office area they have a TV monitor with a live view from the top of the Mountain. It looked clear enough to go up. It cost $26, ($24 with a military discount). It only took about 2 minutes to get to the top. It was a beautiful view from up there. We tried to go on a few trails, but they were closed off ½ way through….due to dangerous conditions…I assume because there was still a lot of snow on them. We were back down by 6:00-6:30.

 

 

 

 

 

We headed over to the Red Dog Saloon, which was just down the street. (We spotted it, when we were on the Mendenhall bus). Had some Alaskan draft beer. Pretty good! We hung around there for about ½ hr. Then went into a few of the souvenir shops and back on the ship by 7:30pm-8:00pm.

 

 

 

 

Again the photos are not cooperating with me...sorry..keep trying to change it back to the right size and its not accepting it.

 

 

Went to Summer Palace for dinner. I had the Lobster and grouper and DH had the London Strip. Both very good. Buffet for dessert. Back on our balcony by 9:30 and we were planning on going to the Not-So- Newlywed game at 10:15, but we got to lazy and decided not to go.

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The ship was in port when we got up around 6:00am. It was raining lightly this morning.

We had a schedule tour with NCL for the White Pass Railway and we were to meet at the end of the pier at 8:00am. We had breakfast at 7:00. Headed out by 7:40…didn’t know if it was going to be another cattle call in the stairway. Luckily it was easy to get off. It was still raining lightly, but the train was right there at the front of the ship. (If you did not get your tickets through NCL, you had to go into town…which was only about another 5-10 minute walk.) The train left by 8:30. Best views are on the left, but no worries if you are doing the round trip, we traded seats with the people on the right, when the train was ready to come back down. We are told this before we start heading up. It was a really nice train ride and we had some great views even though it was rainy at the beginning, but stopped midway.

 

 

 

[LouCap]

Keep posting, this is interesting!

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We got back around 11:45am. By now, the sun was trying to poke out and it turned out to be a great day. We went back on the ship to have lunch and back off after lunch and walked around. DH had seen a walking trail from the train, so we went off looking for it…couldn’t find it, so we went into the visitor center and a local recommended that we do the “lakeside” trail instead…..so glad we did. Here are some photos from the end of the trail.

If you would like to do this trail, it is a quick 20 minute walk. The first street you get to when you get off the ship you go left. (There’s a sign that says Whitehorse, pointing in that direction) Follow the road like you are going to the airport. The road curves. You will see a metal bridge off to the right. Cross the bridge and follow signs to Yakutania Point. At the end is rocky, but the views are beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

After that we went shopping in town, then back on board by 3:30pm.

 

 

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We went out on our balcony and relaxed with some wine. The sun was so warm that I went and got my shorts on, although when the sun went behind a cloud, it felt a lot cooler. The temps were about 72 on our balcony. (Although it felt a lot cooler when we were coming back on board, like in the lower 60’s). We both fell asleep on our loungers for a little bit. We went to Summer Palace for dinner around 5:30, so we can be done by 7:00 for the show tonight. I had the Short Ribs and DH had the Pork Loin, again, both very good. Up to Buffet for dessert. Tonight’s show was The Acton Comedy of Charlie Peacock (juggler). It was very good and funny. After the show we walked around a bit and back to our balcony to watch the sail away at 8:45pm. On our way out to sea we spotted a seal jumping in and out of the water, having a good ol’ time. He was fun to watch with our binoculars.

 

 

Just before setting sail we went to the front of the ship to snap the sun setting on Skagway.

 

 

This was sailing away from Skagway.

 

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We were up around 6:30. DH went to the gym and we were at Breakfast around 8:00. We headed to the top deck in front of the ship. It was VERY cold and windy up there, probably in the upper 40’s. I wish I had put my long johns on, but didn’t want to leave our spot, because it was getting crowded up there. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t so windy. We got a great spot. We entered Glacier Bay around 8:30am. The Rangers were already on board and making announcements over the PA system.

 

 

It was announced that there was a brown bear off on the left hand side near a whale carcass. We did see it with our binoculars, but he was running off. We got to Marjorie Glacier around 9:15-9:30. We did see some calving, so that was cool. The views were spectacular. Then the ship turned around and we headed back to our room around 10:00-10:15.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got some hot chocolate from the buffet. Then it was announced we were heading into John Hopkins Glacier. So this time I put on my thermals and we headed out up to the top again. Turns out it had really warmed up, so now I was hot. Go figure!! They had a BBQ on the pool deck, grilling steak strips and BBQ Chicken…yum and of course burgers, sausages etc. at Topsiders. Were we hungry….no of course not…but it was lunchtime, right? After lunch, I got out of my thermals and I went and did my mile walk on Deck 7. (See I did try and walk off some of that unnecessary eating!)

At 1:00 they were having a Ranger talk so we went to the Stardust Lounge for it. Basically he talked about an adventure his kayaking in Alaska. So it really wasn’t what I was expecting. It ended by 1:30. So off to our balcony we went until 2:45. DH was going to do the Margarita tasting at 3:00 in Mambos. I wanted to do it as well, but they had the mojito tasting at 4:00 and I wanted a spot at the bar for that one. So I went with DH and got a couple of sips of his margaritas. Both tastings were 5 tastes for $15. I guess Anthony, the bartender at Mambos, was feeling generous that day because they ended up doing 6. They were Classic, Strawberry, Raspberry, Melon, Coconut and something Blue. I didn’t get to taste the last 3 because I headed down to the Maltings bar at 3:50, for the Mojito tasting. I can’t remember all of the flavors but it was Classic, Lemon, Strawberry, Fountain of Youth (made with cucumbers). All pretty good. After that we headed to the Casino to make a donation. Yep, I think this was the first time in the casino. Looked at pictures…. (We did this everyday, as we walked by it) Did not purchase any throughout the cruise. The ones we liked were 8x10 and I didn’t want them that big. I really think they need to get another system with the pics….like scanning our room cards every time they take a pic, and then be able to view them on a monitor where they are grouped together and be able to order what we want and size we want. (I did suggest this on a survey). Anyway, after looking at pics we went to dinner in the buffet. Then after dinner we went to Mambos for a couple Margaritas (They were only about $6 each.) Great price for a Margarita. Then to the Spinnaker Lounge for the second David Naster show at 8:15pm. He was funny but not as funny as his first show, but it was because the show was more based on laughter as a coping mechanism but it was still good. My husband just had to have the farting toy David was using throughout his 2 shows. So needless to say I had to hear him play with that for the rest of the night! After the show, we headed down to the Stardust Theater to see Second City. Very funny. After the show, we went to the buffet for a little snack, then off to bed.

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Here's one more, sailing away....it only let me post 6 photos at a time.

 

 

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We arrived in port around 6:00am. Went to breakfast and was on the pier by 7:30am. We didn’t have a scheduled tour for this port.

 

 

We had a walking tour map and away we went. It’s a cute little town and we were probably done with the walking tour within an hour. Although we could have missed a spot or 2 and not realized it.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ms belp]

Next time fly Southwest Airlines. AA and Delta are horrible. You will get to your destination on time if not earlier. :)

[NEcruisers????]

Next time fly Southwest Airlines. AA and Delta are horrible. You will get to your destination on time if not earlier. :)

 

:)We also love SW!! Very accomodating!

[elsplace2]

These dogs were originally in the back of a pick up..and the owner saw us snapping a photo of them...so he told us to wait and we can get a better shot of them at the window.....look how cute they are!

 

 

 

We shopped around in the souvenir stores.

 

 

 

Then we had some clam chowder at a little shack next to the visitor center. (Alaska Surf) I think was the name. According to their sign it’s suppose to be Frommer’s Best Clam chowder. It was delicious. $5 for a cup (Styrofoam cup about 12-14oz). We sat on a bench and enjoyed the view and people watched. We went back on the ship around 11:30.

 

 

DH went to the gym and I walked 1 mile on deck 7, then we went to lunch at Summers Palace. I had the fish and chips, it was really good. DH had the Philly Cheese Steak…it was OK.

We went to the Epic and Cruise rewards talk then back to our room for a little nap. Beer tasting was at 4:00, which we woke up just in the nic of time for it. (Cell phones went forward an hour, but we were still on Alaska time, so needless to say our alarm didn’t go off, although we should have used the alarm clock instead of our cells) 5 European beer tastes for $15. I’m not much of a beer drinker with the exception of Light beers. So I just had sips of his, some were actually pretty good. After that we made a donation to the Casino. Then can you believe it, it was time to eat again!! We went to Indigo this time, for the first time….we tried before, but because it’s so much smaller, it was always busier. We both had the Prime Rib and it was very good. Up to the buffet for dessert. Then we went to Mambos for some Margaritas and off to the Spinnaker Lounge for 2nd City Improv show. (Geisha show was on tonight, we went to see what it was like, for about 15 min. But because we wanted to see 2nd City, we didn’t stay. Geisha looked OK, costumes looked nice, but it really wasn’t our cup of tea.) After the Improv show we went into the Bliss Lounge (first time this week) and watched a little of “So you want to be a Rock star” This is Karaoke, although you sing with a live band. After that we went to the Choco-holic buffet. It was PACKED! I never saw the buffet that busy! There was quite an assortment of chocolate goodies…we got a few of them…then off to bed.

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We got a late start today….we didn’t realize the time went ahead 1 hour. So we went to breakfast around 9:00am (we still thought it was 8:00am). Luckily they had announced the time change because we wanted to go to the Stardust lounge at 9:30 for the Pearl Talk and the disembarkation talk at 10:30. The Pearl talk was very interesting. They had photos of the Pearl being built and behind the scenes photos and the disembarkation talk was informative. After that DH went to the gym and I went to Deck 7. Another beautiful day, but cool, around 55, although it was a bit foggy. The views were mostly on the Port side, until we got closer to Victoria. The seas were a little rougher today, but we didn’t think they were too bad.

After lunch we went to the casino for a bit, then back to our room to pack…boooo! Packing?? That means our cruise is almost over. We went to the Staff Talent show that afternoon and it was very good. There weren’t many performances, but they were talented. They were serving 2 for 1 rum punches for only $4.95. We weren’t planning on drinking this day, but how can your resist that price. They were yummy, but not surprisingly, not much rum. We pulled into Victoria around 6:00.

 

 

 

 

We disembarked around 6:15 and again the stairway was packed, but not as bad as Juneau. We got off the ship around 6:40pm. It was still cool and windy out, maybe around 55. We headed to the Inner Harbor, and the quickest way to do this is when you get off the ship, go right at the street, then cross the street at Oswego Rd. That road will take you right to the Inner Harbor. It was a very nice area and very busy…we stopped and watched some street entertainers, then went into the Empress Hotel to check it out. There was some sort of event going on, where people were dressed in Victorian costumes. Very authentic looking.

 

 

 

 

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From there we went into the downtown area, which again was very packed, probably due to 3 ships being in port. The stores were all so busy, as well. It was getting colder out, so we decided to head back….by this time it was around 9:00pm.

 

 

 

 

 

We were back on the ship by 9:30. We had a light dinner at the Blue Lagoon. Wanton soup sounded good and chicken wings….boy was the wanton soup spicy…talk about clearing your sinuses…..both our eyes started to water, runny noses and coughing. Couldn’t finish it, because we were making spectacles of ourselves every time we ate a spoonful. We were back on our balcony by 10:00pm and was able to see the city from our balcony. We can see the Empress Hotel and Parliament building lit up, which bummed me out because I wanted to get photos of them up close and forgot. DH said “We are not getting off this ship so you can get a picture.” If it wasn’t so cold….I probably would have talked him into it! We had time!