Review and Pictures from NCL Pearl May 23rd to 30th 2010

[InternetAgeTraveler]

I originally posted my review from last year on the NCL forum. But a lot of the content is more about the ports and excursions, so I felt I should put a copy here as well for those of you planning to sail Alaska this year.

 

I will answer any questions in this forum, but if you want to read the full review, click on this link.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1211981

 

The section below is an excerpt from the beginning of our adventure

 

Background

 

We were 3 couples traveling together, me and DW, my DB and his DW, and a family friend and her DH. We all were similar age (late 40’s to early 60’s) and similar interest and did a lot together, but also spent some time to ourselves. None of us were into the nightlife scene so you won’t find anything about that here. This was mine and DW’s second trip to Alaska, both on the Pearl.

 

Pre-cruise

 

We were booking on a budget and originally booked ocean view rooms as the price of a balcony was out of our price range. While this was our 2nd Alaska cruise, it was everyone else’s first (and perhaps only) Alaska cruise, we wanted to do Glacier Bay. Long story short, we ended up on the Pearl which was the same ship my DW and I sailed on our first trip. We booked late May to help keep it within a budget. We wanted to book a balcony, but budget was a concern and we figured it may be too cold to get much use of it. Fortunately, due to price drops and NCL promotions, we all eventually ended up in BA balconies on the deck 10 mid ship (to just aft of mid ship) for basically the same price as our original ocean view cabins. The last price drop was after we made our final payment but while we didn’t get a refund, we were able to upgrade to the BA Balcony. We worked with a well known cruise TA and they were very accommodating when changes were required. As a side note, several others on our roll call were able to take advantage of the price drops as well, including both NCL booked and most TA’s. One had done an internet booking and their TA never returned calls or emails and they were not able to take advantage of the last minute price drops.

 

Arrival

 

My DB lives in the Seattle area so we flew in on Friday to visit. We booked a rental with Dollar which we picked up at the airport and dropped at their downtown location. We booked rooms at the Seattle Westin on Saturday to allow us to do something around the Seattle area and have a leisurely trip to the pier on Sunday. This didn’t work out as we planned. First, the weather was a bit cold and rainy on both Saturday night and Sunday morning so we ended up going to a movie. Second, I left my camera at my DB’s house and he and I had to make a quick morning round trip to get it. The Westin was conveniently located and was one block from the monorail which takes you to the Seattle Center (and Space Needle). The round design of the Westin seemed to carry sound a bit more and one of the other rooms on our floor was pretty noisy but eventually we think someone from the hotel came to quiet them down. Our view was directly down to the port so we saw the Star docked there Saturday and the Pearl replace it on Sunday.

 

 

Our friends stayed at the 6th Avenue Inn just across the street and they were not very happy with the hotel, their view was of adult dance club across a parking lot.

 

Embarkation

 

We dropped our rental at the Dollar location which offered a shuttle to the cruise terminal. I was going to drop everyone and luggage off first at the pier and then go back, but since it was only a few blocks from the Westin, we decided to just go there. There was one other couple on the Oosterdam and four of us and luggage (our friends elected to take a taxi down) and we were on way. Even with the extra camera trip in the morning, dropping the car and the shuttle, we arrived right at noon. When we got to the pier, there were 2 options to drop off the bags, a line for “baggage drop” and the traditional porters that collected bags. There was a good sized line for the former so we gave our bags to the porters and were done quickly. We then went through the security line (15 minutes) and then up to check in (no lines at all), our first picture (a green screen they later overlay with the Pearl) and we were on the ship.

 

The weather started to improve for the afternoon so we had lunch by the pool. They had a BBQ going and we met our friends.

 

 

for the full story, see http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1211981

[Econom405]

Thank you for sharing this again, loved the pictures!!

[AussieKathy]

thanks for re-posting loved all the pictures!