Review: Last Call for Alaska! Norwegian Pearl- Sept 22-29, 2013 (SEA-VAN) w/ Photos!

[rnargo]

In preparation for my recent trip to Alaska, I found so many helpful reviews on this website. In an attempt to "pay-it-forward," I have decided to attempt to do my own. My favorite reviews have definitely been the ones on the message board with photos, so that is my plan! I'm also going to post this on the Norwegian Cruise Line board, so feel free to find it at either location.

 

A little about me....

I am a 30-something, native Seattleite. Not too many of us exist! It seems that most people move to Seattle at some point. Up to this point I had only been on two one-night cruises from Vancouver to Seattle, both on Holland America. A couple of months ago I became interested in the idea of trying a 7 day Alaskan Cruise in September. I asked a friend of mine if she would be interested, she immediately said yes. Our girls' trip to Alaska was set for September 22nd! After some conversation we decided to splurge for a balcony cabin. I kept hearing on this board how amazing it was to have a balcony in Alaska. After booking the balcony, I noticed the prices kept dropping. A few weeks before our departure I called Costco Travel back. They were able to get Norwegian to upgrade us to a mini-suite and no additional charge. We loved our mini-suite! It was in a great location in the aft of the Pearl, under La Cucina restaurant. We found that we had very little foot traffic outside our door, and we were close to so many amenities on the vessel.

 

So I'm getting a little ahead of myself...

We got down to Pier 66 in Seattle around 10am. Checking in and boarding went very smoothly. As soon as were were dropped off, all of our luggage was taken away. We went inside, got in line, and went through security (it opened up roughly around 1030am or so.) After checking in on the second level and getting a boarding number, we were able to go back outside. We headed across the street and got some Starbucks. The rain started coming down at that point! The weather forecast for Seattle that day was for lots of rain and quite stormy. Seattle typically has very nice Septembers, so I was a bit disappointed in the weather forecast. However, true to our micro-climate ways, by the time the vessel departed, the sun was shining!

 

After our caffeine break, we headed back across the street. By this time they were boarding. As previously mentioned, I had never been on the Pearl before. She is beautiful! Luckily I knew someone who worked for Norwegian, so he was able to give us a tour. My friend and I were both impressed with the restaurants, bars, and other amenities onboard. On our tour we noticed that the buffet was already slammed with people grabbing lunch, while Summer Palace was a ghost town. There were employees just waiting for people to show up. After the tour, my friend and I headed back to Summer Palace for lunch. We both were happy with our selections. While having lunch it was announced that our rooms were ready. The captain also announced that due to an incoming storm we were going to head up the Inside Passage instead of heading out to the Pacific and heading up outside of Vancouver Island. Bonus! After hearing about how many people head up to Vancouver to cruise through the Inside Passage, we felt like we won the lottery!

 

After settling in to our stateroom, we walked around the ship. At this point the sun started to come out. A little after 4pm, it was time to sail!

 

 

 

 

 

[AryMay]

Looking forward to seeing more of your review! Thanks for taking the extra time to include your photos!

 

I am in the planning stages for an Alaskan cruise next summer and thinking we may fly into Seattle first and then head up to Vancouver. However my head is swimming from trying to figure out the logistics of doing this...hotels?, rental car or public transporation?, shuttle or train?, etc. I love to plan, but for some reason this is really boggling my mind! I feel like I am working a puzzle but can't get the pieces to fit yet. :confused:

[rnargo]

For the next 48 hours or so (we arrived in Juneau at 2pm on Tues) my friend and I relaxed and got to know the Pearl. We loved the Great Outdoors on the aft deck. We often would grab a meal out there, or even grab something from the main buffet and take it out there. It was rarely chilly out there as it is quite protected from the wind and weather.

 

While we still bought drinks around the ship, prior to cruise day I ordered bar set-up for our room. That was another thing I found out about on this forum. I ordered a bottle of Absolut. With your liquor you get 3 condiments and 3 mixers. We ordered 2 bottles of bloody mary mix, OJ, lemons, limes, and celery. I brought a small jar each of olives and pickled asparagus. I also brought a plastic bottle of Worcestershire sauce (also for Bloody Marys) and some small flavored cans of Perrier seltzer. We were set! In the morning we could wake up and have a bloody mary just the way we wanted it! In the evening I might have a Absolut with seltzer and lime. The bottles are expensive, but I figured it would come to about $3.00 per drink...cheaper than what you would find onboard.

 

Unfortunately, the majority of our Inside Passage cruise (eastern side of Vancouver Island) took place in the dark. I did wake up early the next morning and had the opportunity to see some of the scenery toward the northern tip of the island. It was certainly beautiful! After passing Vancouver Island we got a sample of what we had missed weather-wise as we transited an area open to the Pacific. This portion of the trip as well as the next night as we were heading into Alaska were the roughest part of the northbound trip. My friend started to not feel so good, so she put on a Scopalamine patch and took some generic Zofran. That helped her a lot.

 

After that rough patch we headed once again into protected waters. This area was gorgeous! Comparing the map on the TV (and the digital chart in the Bridge Viewing Room) to the map we had from the Alaska Cruise Handbook: A Mile by Mile Guide (great book!), we seemed to be heading up more narrower passages than most cruise ships. One area I believe the captain said was less than a 1/2 mile wide. We were enjoying eating a meal at the Great Outdoors when we transited that particular area. The day at sea was fun, but we were definitely looking forward to getting to Alaska!

 

After a night on rough seas, we once again woke up to calm waters...Alaskan waters! The beauty around us was spectacular. After breakfast, my friend and I came back to the room to get ready. I heard the PA come on. The captain announced we had Humpback whales on our port side! Lucky for us, our balcony was on the port side. :-) It was a gorgeous sight! I quickly got out my camera and telephoto lens and snapped some photos. Of course the one time I turn away, a Humpback breached! I got just the aftermath, as you'll see from the photos below. We were excited to see some whales...and we hadn't even gotten to our whale watching cruise in Juneau!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

I am in the planning stages for an Alaskan cruise next summer and thinking we may fly into Seattle first and then head up to Vancouver. However my head is swimming from trying to figure out the logistics of doing this...hotels?, rental car or public transporation?, shuttle or train?, etc. I love to plan, but for some reason this is really boggling my mind! I feel like I am working a puzzle but can't get the pieces to fit yet. :confused:

 

Yes, planning can get overwhelming! I was lucky because I was already in Seattle. Do you know how much extra time you will have around the cruise? If you can, see some of Seattle. There is so much to do in this city! My top suggestions are Chihuly Garden and Glass (go at sunset!), Locks Cruise, Pike Place Market, and one of our observation decks (Columbia Tower- tallest building in Seattle, $12.50pp or Space Needle- most well known, about $20pp).

 

Assuming you fly into SeaTac, I would still find a hotel in Downtown Seattle. The airport is some distance away. If you stay downtown, you are close to everything.

 

There are a few ways you could get to Vancouver. First is Amtrak. Note that only the first and last departures of the day are trains. Everything else is a bus. I have taken the train once and a bus once to Vancouver. The train was nice. I liked being able to just hang out in the dining car. You do make several stops along the way. No matter which mode of transportation you use, you will have to do some waiting around for customs. Taking the train you go through customs in Vancouver at the train station. Our car was the last to get through customs, so we spend some time waiting on the train. If you take a bus, you stop at customs at the border. You have to get all of your belongings off the bus and go through customs before re-boarding the bus. The two buses I have taken between Seattle and Vancouver are the Amtrak bus and the Boltbus. The Amtrak bus makes several stops. This trip I took the Boltbus from Vancouver back to Seattle. I would definitely do this over the Amtrak bus...plus it's a lot cheaper! I paid $19pp for the trip. They have wifi (though slow at times) and plug-ins. Even better, they only make one stop in Bellingham, WA. Of course your other option is to rent a car. I would probably do this if you had a lot of people or want to take side trips on your way up north, otherwise I think the train or Boltbus work great.

 

I have stayed in two hotels in Vancouver. I was really having a hard time finding one at a reasonable price this time because the hotels were really booking up this time. The 4* Hotel at Terminal City Club is a beautiful hotel. I would definitely stay there again. This time, however, it was a little bit more than my friend and I wanted to pay. We stayed at the 3+* Blue Horizon Hotel. It was great...and much more reasonably priced. I booked it because it had so many great reviews. It is right on Robson Street with tons of restaurants and shops. Also each room is a corner room and has a balcony. Also, if you stay there, pay the extra $10 or so to be on a higher floor. We had a great view of the bay!

 

Hope that helps! You will have a great time! :)

[rnargo]

Before continuing on with the day-to-day review, I thought I would talk about the food on the Pearl. My friend and I were pretty happy with it. Every morning for breakfast we would head up to the buffet. They have everything up there...eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, yogurts, potatoes, lox, pastries, and even Indian dishes. Every meal of the day you could find some great Indian options on the buffet cooked by Indian chefs. If you enjoy Indian food, definitely give them a try! I would say it rivals some of the best Indian restaurants here in Seattle. Also for a little extra fee you could get fresh squeezed juice, but unfortunately only until 10am. I think I would have enjoyed that in the afternoon as well. Once I tried the melon, carrot, and celery juice blend....it was very good. They extract the juice right there in front of you. They also have more traditional options such as grapefruit, orange, etc. For any meal, if you don't know what you want, the buffet is a great option.

 

We did go to a few specialty restaurants. The first night we went to Lotus Garden and had shabu shabu. I had not had shabu shabu since I was in Japan about 15 years ago or so. They did a pretty good job on the Pearl. Shabu shabu is a Japanese hot pot dish. It is a dish to experience. It takes a long time, so you don't want to go have it if you are in a hurry. They have a burner on specific shabu shabu tables. They place a large pot of broth on the the burner and dump a bunch of vegetables in it. They also then bring your choice of meat or tofu. We got the thinly sliced beef and chicken. For some reason they usually only use noodles on the Pearl, in Japan I don't remember having noodles...only rice. When I asked about the rice, the waiter said he'd would bring both, which worked fine. In shabu shabu, you cook your own meat (and noodles) in the broth. You then use the utensils they provide to take out the meat and vegetable from the broth, dip them in provided sauces, and then put it on your rice. It was very good. My friend, who had never had shabu shabu, also really enjoyed it.

 

One night we headed up to Cagney's Steakhouse. It was also quite good. I had the bison. My friend had the 5oz Filet Mignon. They were both cooked appropriately. We also enjoyed our salads. I had a wedge salad, while my friend had the arugula salad. By the end of our meal we were way too full to have dessert, so we had it sent to our room. The service by our waiter was very good, but it did take quite awhile for the hostess to come out to seat us initially.

 

The last specialty restaurant we went to was Le Bistro. I knew a few other passengers from work. One of them made a reservation for all of us at Le Bistro one night. I haven't really had the opportunity to eat much French food, so I really don't have very much to compare it to. We ordered several appetizers/starters for the table...including the cheese plate off of the dessert menu. When it came to the entrees, I think everyone liked what they got, but I think my friend ordered the best entree off the menu. She got the vegetarian option which looked like a tower of vegetables and cheese on top of a pastry. Several of us tried her dish and wish we had gotten the same. Her dish was so flavorful! I would definitely get that next time. I will say that the presentation at Le Bistro was amazing!!

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the food...

[rnargo]

Port: Juneau

 

With this being our first cruise, my friend and I decided to go ahead and book a couple of excursions through NCL instead of on our own. In Juneau we did the Whale Watch/ Mendenhall Glacier Combo. We both loved it! We just wish we had more time in Juneau. Eight hours with darkness quickly approaching is just not enough. On a positive note, it was a beautiful, sunny day in Juneau! We really lucked out!

 

Our excursion tickets had been delivered to our room on embarkation day, which made it very easy. We met in the Stardust Theater just before arriving in Juneau. After the ship had been cleared, we headed down to the 4th floor, through a crew only area, and out onto the dock. We found the buses that had been dedicated for our excursion. Several minutes later we were on the Gray Line bus.

 

Our bus driver was really nice. He gave us a bit of a tour as we headed toward Auke Bay, where the Allen Marine vessel was located. Once we arrived, we headed directly onto the boat and departed the dock. It was very quick and seamless! The Allen Marine boat was three decks. The third deck was only opened when we would stop to watch the whales. It certainly provided a great view! Turns out this was the very last cruise of the season.

 

We had a great whale watching experience that day! We saw so many Humpbacks. We had the opportunity to go to a few locations to get really great views of these whales. Also, the scenery was incredible! Toward the end of the cruise, it was obvious that the sun was starting to head lower in the sky pretty quickly. We headed back into the dock, boarded the bus, and departed for Mendenhall Glacier.

 

As many other reviewers have mentioned, when you go to Mendenhall as part of a tour group, you definitely leave wishing for more time. We had about an hour and 15 minutes to explore. My friend and I both agreed we would rather spend our time seeing the glacier instead of the visitor's center. While we headed up to visitor's center to get a great view, we pretty much bypassed the whole thing to get back out to the glacier. After taking some photographs from below the visitor's center, we walked down the nearby trail. We got to a fork in the road. If we go left, we go down the short Photo Point Trail. If we go right, we head down the trail toward the waterfall. We decided to head to Photo Point, as we knew we could do that easily in the time allowed. We got some great photographs from there. We then used the remaining time to walk down the waterfall trail for a few minutes before having to turn around and head back to the bus. It was definitely starting to get dark!

 

We got back on board the bus and headed into Juneau. The bus driver dropped anyone who wanted to off at the tram station, where you could get shuttles back to the ship. We decided to get off, walk through town, and grab a beer and a little food at the Red Dog Saloon. While the saloon is definitely meant for tourists, it is cute nonetheless! After finishing up, we walked back to the tram station, boarded a shuttle, and back to the Pearl we went.

 

We definitely considered it a successful, wonderful day in Juneau!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Juneau

 

More pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Loving your review.

Pictures are wonderful.

Looking forward to the rest.

[AryMay]

Yes, planning can get overwhelming! I was lucky because I was already in Seattle. Do you know how much extra time you will have around the cruise? If you can, see some of Seattle. There is so much to do in this city! My top suggestions are Chihuly Garden and Glass (go at sunset!), Locks Cruise, Pike Place Market, and one of our observation decks (Columbia Tower- tallest building in Seattle, $12.50pp or Space Needle- most well known, about $20pp).

 

Assuming you fly into SeaTac, I would still find a hotel in Downtown Seattle. The airport is some distance away. If you stay downtown, you are close to everything.

 

There are a few ways you could get to Vancouver. First is Amtrak. Note that only the first and last departures of the day are trains. Everything else is a bus. I have taken the train once and a bus once to Vancouver. The train was nice. I liked being able to just hang out in the dining car. You do make several stops along the way. No matter which mode of transportation you use, you will have to do some waiting around for customs. Taking the train you go through customs in Vancouver at the train station. Our car was the last to get through customs, so we spend some time waiting on the train. If you take a bus, you stop at customs at the border. You have to get all of your belongings off the bus and go through customs before re-boarding the bus. The two buses I have taken between Seattle and Vancouver are the Amtrak bus and the Boltbus. The Amtrak bus makes several stops. This trip I took the Boltbus from Vancouver back to Seattle. I would definitely do this over the Amtrak bus...plus it's a lot cheaper! I paid $19pp for the trip. They have wifi (though slow at times) and plug-ins. Even better, they only make one stop in Bellingham, WA. Of course your other option is to rent a car. I would probably do this if you had a lot of people or want to take side trips on your way up north, otherwise I think the train or Boltbus work great.

 

I have stayed in two hotels in Vancouver. I was really having a hard time finding one at a reasonable price this time because the hotels were really booking up this time. The 4* Hotel at Terminal City Club is a beautiful hotel. I would definitely stay there again. This time, however, it was a little bit more than my friend and I wanted to pay. We stayed at the 3+* Blue Horizon Hotel. It was great...and much more reasonably priced. I booked it because it had so many great reviews. It is right on Robson Street with tons of restaurants and shops. Also each room is a corner room and has a balcony. Also, if you stay there, pay the extra $10 or so to be on a higher floor. We had a great view of the bay!

 

Hope that helps! You will have a great time! :)

 

Thanks so much...I may track you down and ask even more questions as I continue my planning!! I was especially glad to learn about the Bolt Bus...sounds like that might be a good option.

 

I won't hijack your thread with anymore of my questions now...but I am looking forward to reading more about your trip. :)

[rnargo]

Sorry everybody! I just realized I erased the re-sized images in photobucket, which in turn erased all my images in my review. Oops! I going to recreate all my photos in the next few posts:

 

Day 1: Seattle Embarkation Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

British Columbia, Canada to Juneau, Alaska:

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Juneau

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Juneau (cont'd)

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Juneau (cont'd)

 

Since I had to re-post all of my photos anyway, I thought I would include six more that I had not posted the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Now that I have caught up on photos...

 

Port: Skagway

 

By far, our longest port stop was in Skagway. I believe we were there a little over 12 hours. We got to Skagway very early in the morning. I woke up briefly about 630am when we had just arrived. I stepped out on the balcony. It was beautiful! You could see the surrounding mountains and there were very few clouds (see first photo). I went back to bed for a couple more hours. When I woke up again and looked outside, suddenly the clouds were very low! The mountains were no longer visible. What a change! I had to show my friend the pictures I had taken on my camera earlier that morning for her to get an idea of what the area looked like.

 

After a late breakfast and getting ready for the day, we started to walk toward town. We didn't get too far. We decided to save the town of Skagway for after our train ride.

 

Our second NCL booked excursion was the 3+ hour round-trip train ride up to White Pass. We decided to take the early afternoon train. I'm so glad we did, because I don't think the views would have been nearly as spectacular due to those low clouds. The morning train probably would have gotten above the clouds at some point, but I think it happened much more quickly in the afternoon.

 

It's a beautiful old train. Per so many reviewers on this forum, we sat on the left side for the trip up. Another recommendation I have is to sit all the way up front in the train car. You have so much more leg room or room for your stuff. That extra space allowed me to be able to stand up and get some great pictures behind us from our seat. I also enjoyed spending some time outside between the train cars. My friend and I commented to each other that we had never been outside on a train going through a tunnel. That was pretty cool!

 

The views from the train were spectacular! Every time you think the view just couldn't get any better, it would. We were so happy we took the train. We both agreed it was worth every penny.

 

Like the whale watching cruise, this was the very last train ride of the year. The train crew have an initiation tradition. On your last train ride of your first season working, you have to take a dip in the very cold waters up at the summit. This time it was our tour guide's turn! It was obvious that the more experienced crew look forward to this tradition. Quite a few employees that were not working rode in an empty car in front of us...probably to witness this moment at the summit. Our tour guide did not just wade into the the frigid waters...he went for a swim! Brrrrrr! See photo below...

 

At the summit, the train benches are rotated to face the opposite direction and you switch seats with the passengers sitting across from you to allow equal opportunity for the best views.

 

Once we got back into Skagway, we headed for the Skagway Brewing Company. We went there at the suggestion of my friend who works with NCL. He told me we had to go there and get a Spruce Tip Ale. It is a beer that is brewed using Sitka Spruce tips. According to my friend, much of the town will go and harvest these spruce tips. This ale is so popular, I read they will often sell out. Thankfully, they still had some when we got there! It was very good. I think they said it is a blonde ale, which was just fine with me. I'm not really a fan of very hoppy beers. We also had some great food there as well.

 

After ducking in a few stores, we headed back to the Pearl. Another great day in Alaska!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Skagway (cont'd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

At Sea: Glacier Bay

 

What a magnificent, awe-inspiring place!

 

Even after a late night at the Norwegian White Hot Party, we did not want to miss a moment of Glacier Bay. My friend and I woke up about 7:00am. When I stepped out on our balcony, I saw an amazing sight. Clouds were doing things I had never seen before. It was literally like I had a painting in front of me. We were heading into the heart of Glacier Bay.

 

Cruising toward John Hopkins Glacier, we saw snow capped mountains, lone standing trees, waterfalls, icebergs, and other massive glaciers coming down from the mountains surrounding us. We were traveling on a huge cruise ship with more than 2,000 passengers, and yet there was an immense silence as we cruised through this glacier fed body of water. The sediment from these glaciers give the water a milky appearance. Sometimes it appeared turquoise, other times it appeared green. It certainly added to the magical appearance of the views in front of me.

 

We slowly, and quietly made our way up to the base of John Hopkins Glacier. The sun had decided to break through and shine on the icebergs that filled that portion of the bay. There were a few seals making their home in the area. Some sunning themselves on icebergs. Another harbor seal was swimming along looking up at us.

 

Once in awhile the silence was interrupted by a huge, thunderous boom. You could hear the glacier cracking. Several times we got to watch the calving process taking place, as ice would break off of the massive glacier and fall into the milky, green waters below. The ice breaking off ranged greatly in size, from small pieces to very large chunks. Every time the ice fell, you could hear a collective gasp from the passengers on board the Pearl.

 

After a couple of gradual spins, we slowly left John Hopkins Glacier behind. The icebergs continued to shine in the sun. Some of the mountain peaks that had be hiding in those magnificent clouds earlier in the day were now visible. For the rest of the day, we felt like we had been in some dream. Even now I cannot believe what I witnessed that day. It is one of the places in the world that has to be seen to be believed.

 

If you have the the opportunity to take an Alaskan Cruise with Glacier Bay on the itinerary, do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

At Sea: Glacier Bay (cont'd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

At Sea: Glacier Bay (cont'd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

At Sea: Glacier Bay (cont'd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Ketchikan

 

We arrived in Ketchikan early in the morning. Our luck with great weather ran out. It rained on and off throughout the day. Luckily the hard, steady rain decided to hold off until we pushed off the dock that afternoon.

 

After breakfast we headed ashore. We did not have any particular plans for the day. We decided to just to walk around and enjoy the town. Ketchikan ended up being my favorite of the three Alaskan towns.

 

We immediately headed for Creek Street. What a cute area! The creek was filled will salmon spawning. Also enjoying the salmon were several Harbor Seals. Talk about a buffet! Every so often you would see the salmon jumping out of the water trying to get out of the way, while the predator seal closed in on it. It made for quite the show.

 

There are some lovely shops that make their home in the Creek Street area. You can find things there that you don't see in all of the other tourist shops, including many handmade items. My traveling companion bought a beautiful, deep turquoise bottle dating back to the Gold Rush era. The shopkeeper told us that the owner goes to estate sales to find many of these bottles. What an unusual souvenir she has from our time in Alaska!

 

After Creek Street we headed to a few more souvenir shops. With it being the end of the season, there were definitely some good deals to be had. Another shop we went to was Ketchicandies. One of my friends from the ship talked a lot about this place. She had spend a month in Ketchikan several years ago and loved getting chocolate from this shop. What they are known for is chocolate covered Oreos. We definitely made a stop there! After purchasing some chocolate, we slowly made our way back to the Pearl. It was almost time to push off the dock.

 

Before leaving they announced on the PA that we were waiting for a couple of missing passengers. I never saw anyone running onto the ship. At our scheduled departure time of 130pm, we departed Ketchikan. About an hour or so after our departure, some passengers saw luggage being transferred to another boat that had pulled along side. They were theorizing that it might belong to the passengers that missed the boat. Has anyone else seen that happen? If that is indeed what happened, what a sad end to their vacation!

 

We started steaming southbound...out of Alaskan waters. It was so hard to leave such a beautiful place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnargo]

Port: Ketchikan (cont'd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful review.

Your pictures are fantastic!!