Just off NCL Pearl 5/24-5/31 Courtyard Villa A3 AMAZING!!

[kdzkatz]

This is just a quick post to let you know we had an AMAZING time on our Alaska cruise onboard the Pearl. I have many photos and will do my best to answer any questions you have. I want to type out my entire review right now but I need to digest this past week as there is so much to rave about! It is our first "suite" experience and it will be difficult to do anything different from here on out. I feel all passengers (with realistic expectations) are treated like royalty....but this is a whole other level of being spoiled starting from the very beginning. I am kind of rambling on this right now as we have only been home a few hours but I know how anxious I was to read new reviews and I'm sure there are many like me when it comes to that. I have the names of all the suites AB and above and will be posting them within my review. If you ever have the opportunity to have Karan as your consierge, consider yourself blessed!!! It is difficult to put into words how wonderful he is. Any reasonable request (and some that aren't even in the realm of reasonable) consider it done when you ask him. He puts everyone he deals with on a pedestal and makes you feel very special. It was an honor to have him as our consierge and I will definately do my best to have him as our consierge on our next cruise. A major highlight of this cruise happened in Glacier Bay. At the Margerie glacier there was a very unusual pillar at the front of the glacier. Everyone was talking about how amazing it would be to witness it calving into the bay.....guess what....about 45 minutes into our viewing of the glacier (we were there 1 hour so it was towards our time there) it collapsed like a builiding being demolished and crashed into the bay. I was fortunate enough to have my digital slr ready and I have a beautiful sequence of pics showing this event. I will be posting them soon. Even the national park rangers that were on our ship were in awe! If you will be cruising alaska on the Pearl this summer ask them about the calving on this cruise. This was a perfect vacation for the 5 of us that will never be forgotten (thanks in part to the 1700 pics we took...lol). I will be working on a review and trying to get is posted, even if I do in in a few parts, as soon as I can. One thing I do wonder about not trying to sound negative here but I did hear a woman complaining about not liking the food and I wonder what does she and others that complain about the food normally eat?? There were a few things we didn't care for but that was just our palette not the quality of food. There were many food choices and it boggles my mind that they couldn't find something they liked. I think I will have to start another thread asking the people that complaing about the food what they normally eat. I would think they must have a 5 star chef come and cook for them every meal but I'm guessing it's more like fast food and they is what they think all food should taste like....I don't know. Anyways, as you can tell I am in my post cruise delirium and babbling away. I will stop...for now. :D

[tahoeca]

Can't wait to hear about your review. We will be on the Pearl the July 19th sailing in AB 11506. Do you know the name of the suite? We can't wait to go. Our 9 year old son will be going as well and he's excited about this cruise. This will be our first time on NCL. We have sailed Carnival four times. Did you use the Kids Club? What excursions did you do at the ports? Hopefully we will get Karan as our butler. Thanks.:)l

[Spoiled Suite Brats]

I have the names of all the suites AB and above and will be posting them within my review. If you ever have the opportunity to have Karan as your consierge, consider yourself blessed!!! It is difficult to put into words how wonderful he is. Any reasonable request (and some that aren't even in the realm of reasonable) consider it done when you ask him. He puts everyone he deals with on a pedestal and makes you feel very special. It was an honor to have him as our consierge and I will definately do my best to have him as our consierge on our next cruise. :D

 

Names of suites? Does each suite have a name other than the room number? This is the first time I have seen this mentioned here. DH and I took our first cruise this year and were in an AE stern suite. We just booked a A3 for ourselves, mom and sister for next January. We will be in 14012 I have read some information about the A3s but any information you have would be appreciated. We have an idea how wonderful this will be but I don't believe DM and DS don't really quite get how special it is. Of course mom just found out about it yesterday when the family came over to celebrate her birthday we told her that we were taking her on this cruise.

 

I actually hope quite truthfully that Erika will return to the Pearl when we are on as we just so enjoyed having her as our concierge. She was fairly new as a concierge but she did a wonderful job... so much so that we nicknamed her Saint Erika the wonderful. She just was so nice and loved her job so much that it showed. Although if she isn't there I have heard a lot of great things about Karan.

 

Glad you had a wonderful trip. We hope to see Alaska within the next year or so.

[McDebbie]

Keep babbling! Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise, can't wait to go this August.

[bjrunner]

Thanks for posting so quickly after your trip. We are leaving on 6/14/09 and I'm in the midst of coming up with a packing list. Remember how much fun that was? Can you think of things you forgot or brought and didn't need? We're staying in a Courtyard Villa suite 14008. Which suite were you in? Really looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading the rest of your review. As far as food, we're not too picky either - just grateful I don't have to shop and cook! So glad to hear you had a wonderful experience in Glacier Bay! :D

[kdzkatz]

Can't wait to hear about your review. We will be on the Pearl the July 19th sailing in AB 11506. Do you know the name of the suite? We can't wait to go. Our 9 year old son will be going as well and he's excited about this cruise. This will be our first time on NCL. We have sailed Carnival four times. Did you use the Kids Club? What excursions did you do at the ports? Hopefully we will get Karan as our butler. Thanks.:)l

 

 

RUBY! I added a pic of your door plaque. We did not use the kids club as the youngest person in our party was 18 but we did see several little kids to teens going to and from the kids club and they all appeared to be having fun. We did Orca enterprises in Juneau with Captain Larry and Dyea Dave in Skagway. We enjoyed both thoroughly and highly recommend both. They are both private tours that you book outside of the cruise ship. With the Pearls itenerary we had plenty of time to do these excursions and had hours to still spend in town.

[kdzkatz]

Thanks for posting so quickly after your trip. We are leaving on 6/14/09 and I'm in the midst of coming up with a packing list. Remember how much fun that was? Can you think of things you forgot or brought and didn't need? We're staying in a Courtyard Villa suite 14008. Which suite were you in? Really looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading the rest of your review. As far as food, we're not too picky either - just grateful I don't have to shop and cook! So glad to hear you had a wonderful experience in Glacier Bay! :D

 

We actually packed pretty good this time. I didn't use either of my cold gear under armour shirts but that was about it. We had the one week of more typical Alaska weather so far. I just checked the outlook for this week and it is supposed to be 82 and sunny in juneau tomorrow!! Our cruise went so smoothly though that the less than perfect weather was not a factor. It was still beautiful and the calving we witnessed in Glacier Bay would have been worth it raining the whole time I think. I can always find warm weather somewhere but to witness that was probably once in a lifetime. I will be working on getting the pics of it calving onine soon.

 

Drum roll please....the name of your Courtyard Suite is...........

 

HIBISCUS! Karan will be your consierge and you are so fortunate! He is so available and willing to help anyway he can. We didn't use our butler much but he was very available and the courtyard butler kept the courtyard spotless and every morning I would go out for a couple pieces of pineapple and a cup of coffee. Our room steward was extremely nice and very accomodating. His name is Randolph but I think you have a different steward on the starboard side. We were in 14512, the Jasimine suite.

[kdzkatz]

Names of suites? Does each suite have a name other than the room number? This is the first time I have seen this mentioned here. DH and I took our first cruise this year and were in an AE stern suite. We just booked a A3 for ourselves, mom and sister for next January. We will be in 14012 I have read some information about the A3s but any information you have would be appreciated. We have an idea how wonderful this will be but I don't believe DM and DS don't really quite get how special it is. Of course mom just found out about it yesterday when the family came over to celebrate her birthday we told her that we were taking her on this cruise.

 

I actually hope quite truthfully that Erika will return to the Pearl when we are on as we just so enjoyed having her as our concierge. She was fairly new as a concierge but she did a wonderful job... so much so that we nicknamed her Saint Erika the wonderful. She just was so nice and loved her job so much that it showed. Although if she isn't there I have heard a lot of great things about Karan.

 

Glad you had a wonderful trip. We hope to see Alaska within the next year or so.

 

 

I know that the AB's and above have names but I'm not sure about the AE's, AD's and AC's. I will be posting pics of all the room plaques of the AB's and above from the Pearl soon. The name of your Courtyard Suite is................

BOUGAINVILLEA!

I think you will have Karan as your consierge and I am confident that you won't be disappointed. He is GREAT! I also did a very quick video tour of the courtyard and our A3 right before we left. I will be posting them on youtube very soon.

[kdzkatz]

That is the title of my webshots album showing all the suite plaques I took pics of. I'm not sure how to attach it on here yet.

[suz1607]

Karan is fantastic -- the best we have ever had!

[runnerandme]

I have been in Hibiscus on Gem. Bouganvillea on Pearl. My daughter was in Bird of Paradise. I think I should join a flower of the year club and try them all...lol On Pearl- Randy was our butler. Charlie was the courtyard butler..Such wonderful service. My husband brought along a Beach Boys Christmas CD and Charlie played in it the courtyard for him. My granddaughter Karley and grandson Shawn were very spoiled by Charlie and Randy. Randy is very special. Be sure to eat a cheeseburger in the courtyard they are great. Oh and pineapple boats too. Karley still talks about them and wants to go back and get more gummy bears.

 

It truly is an amazing experience.

 

Connie

[luv that cruise]

what is the name of our 6/28 suite?? I am going by memory and pretty sure this is our cabin #. (thought i would add that disclaimer as not to send another cruiser into panic in case i am wrong!) thanks

[noreddye]

I am glad you have a wonderful (and pampered) vacation.

 

How did you like the courtyard? Any pro's or con's?

[kdzkatz]

what is the name of our 6/28 suite?? I am going by memory and pretty sure this is our cabin #. (thought i would add that disclaimer as not to send another cruiser into panic in case i am wrong!) thanks

 

PASSION FLOWER! I tried to search for my album on webshots by it's title and it didn't come up. I am trying to get it linked on here still. Have a great time on your cruise!!!

[kdzkatz]

We felt there were nothing but pros for our situation. It really is like a cruise within a cruise when you have court yard access. If you are with a larger group and the majority does not have court yard access then I can see that being a definate con. We never saw more than 10 people in there at a time, usually less than 3 if anyone. There is great separation in the court yard so several groups can use it and not even notice there are others there. I'm sure there are cruises where people can get rowdy or loud but our cruise was not one of them. We would go out at our leisure in the morning and get a cup of coffee and some fresh fruit and/or a pastry. After a long day in port we would come back and soak in the hottub. It seemed to get used a decent amount but everyones schedule made it so we didn't notice anyone waiting to use it. We saw and took naps out there on the balinese loungers. If you like to get away from the larger amounts of people you get on the main decks and feel like you are on a private cruise, then the court yard is for you. If you want to go out and rub elbows and whoop it up, you may want to save the money for more social things. We loved it!

[kdzkatz]

I would be posting more info about our great cruise except that just a few hours after we got back I went into cruise withdrawls whose symptoms are identical to a bad cold...lol. I have been coughing away and not been feeling well (but I am soooo glad this happened after the cruise and not during). I will try to post more info and pics as I feel better as I'm sure you cruisers whose lucky day is quickly approaching would like as much info as possible. Until you start seeing more review info from me, please feel free to ask questions and I will answer them as promptly as possible.

[judyf]

kdzkatz first I hope you feel better real soon, my GF Elaine started to get a cold yesterday too.

 

I just posted a run down of our experience on the Pearl and then as I'm catching up on posts I see you posted too. Funny thing is we both posted about the calving, wasn't that so great. I could not believe it happened at that very moment when we were where we were. Wow that's a mouth full lot's of w's :rolleyes:

 

We were on Orca's too, our capt was Scotty (I think) and our guide was Tony who was great!!!! We saw so many whales jumping out of the water, they just put on a show for us. I would think we were out at about the same time.

 

I agree about the food, some, well many things I didn't like but it's that I don't eat that stuff, not due to it wasn't good. I'm picky and I don't eat much meat but I always found more then enough to eat that I liked, I gained 5 pounds, :eek: now we're back to healthy eating. :D

 

 

Edit, I just checked and I lost my thread, argh, it took me a while to type it. Will have to start over. I know what I did wrong. I hit preview by mistake and then hit back space to start reading the posts as I thought it posted. :(

 

I can't wait to read your review and compare it to our experience and to see your pictures. I'm uploading them now and hope to have them on webshots in a day or so.

 

I maybe can help with webshots, open the album and look to the right, there's an area that says link to this album, highlight the "post in a form" and copy then paste in a thread. Works for me, if I can do it anybody can :p

[kdzkatz]

kdzkatz first I hope you feel better real soon, my GF Elaine started to get a cold yesterday too.

 

I just posted a run down of our experience on the Pearl and then as I'm catching up on posts I see you posted too. Funny thing is we both posted about the calving, wasn't that so great. I could not believe it happened at that very moment when we were where we were. Wow that's a mouth full lot's of w's :rolleyes:

 

We were on Orca's too, our capt was Scotty (I think) and our guide was Tony who was great!!!! We saw so many whales jumping out of the water, they just put on a show for us. I would think we were out at about the same time.

 

I agree about the food, some, well many things I didn't like but it's that I don't eat that stuff, not due to it wasn't good. I'm picky and I don't eat much meat but I always found more then enough to eat that I liked, I gained 5 pounds, :eek: now we're back to healthy eating. :D

 

 

Edit, I just checked and I lost my thread, argh, it took me a while to type it. Will have to start over. I know what I did wrong. I hit preview by mistake and then hit back space to start reading the posts as I thought it posted. :(

 

I can't wait to read your review and compare it to our experience and to see your pictures. I'm uploading them now and hope to have them on webshots in a day or so.

 

I maybe can help with webshots, open the album and look to the right, there's an area that says link to this album, highlight the "post in a form" and copy then paste in a thread. Works for me, if I can do it anybody can :p

 

 

I'm hoping this will send everyone to my webshots album that shows the room plaques on the Pearl. The link is http://travel.webshots.com/album/572764694IMvlno?vhost=travel I will open a new thread if this works so everyone lucky enough to get an AB or above on the Pearl can see what their room name is.

 

We had Captain Larry on Orca enterprises and it was great watching the pod of orcas. I know our weather wasn't as great as the two weeks prior and this weeks crazy warm weather but we have something none of them got....the calving. I'm pretty confident they all saw some calving but not like we witnessed. That part that stuck out like a building on top of the glacier was so unusual to begin with. Then, to be the lucky souls to be able to watch it come down.....WOW! The poor diamond princess went in after us and never knew what they missed. I'm hoping I feel better soon as I don't like being under the weather :(. I am anxious to start posting my review.

[Antny]

I just posted a run down of our experience on the Pearl and then as I'm catching up on posts I see you posted too. Funny thing is we both posted about the calving, wasn't that so great. I could not believe it happened at that very moment when we were where we were. Wow that's a mouth full lot's of w's :rolleyes:

 

I actually learned something interesting from the guide on our kayak tour in Ketchican. Apparently the cruise ship captains have learned that if they gun their engines a bit as they're rotating the ship, the water flow and vibration caused by the engines are just enough to cause a few calving occurrences.

 

I'm not sure if I entirely buy that explanation, but it may explain why all of the spectacular calvings occurred after the ship turned.

[judyf]

I actually learned something interesting from the guide on our kayak tour in Ketchican. Apparently the cruise ship captains have learned that if they gun their engines a bit as they're rotating the ship, the water flow and vibration caused by the engines are just enough to cause a few calving occurrences.

 

I'm not sure if I entirely buy that explanation, but it may explain why all of the spectacular calvings occurred after the ship turned.

 

Yes, that makes sense. As it wasn't long after the ship turned that it came down.

[judyf]

I'm hoping this will send everyone to my webshots album that shows the room plaques on the Pearl. The link is http://travel.webshots.com/album/572764694IMvlno?vhost=travel I will open a new thread if this works so everyone lucky enough to get an AB or above on the Pearl can see what their room name is.

 

We had Captain Larry on Orca enterprises and it was great watching the pod of orcas. I know our weather wasn't as great as the two weeks prior and this weeks crazy warm weather but we have something none of them got....the calving. I'm pretty confident they all saw some calving but not like we witnessed. That part that stuck out like a building on top of the glacier was so unusual to begin with. Then, to be the lucky souls to be able to watch it come down.....WOW! The poor diamond princess went in after us and never knew what they missed. I'm hoping I feel better soon as I don't like being under the weather :(. I am anxious to start posting my review.

 

 

The link worked. :D

[familyof4cruising]

We felt there were nothing but pros for our situation. It really is like a cruise within a cruise when you have court yard access. If you are with a larger group and the majority does not have court yard access then I can see that being a definate con. We never saw more than 10 people in there at a time, usually less than 3 if anyone. There is great separation in the court yard so several groups can use it and not even notice there are others there. I'm sure there are cruises where people can get rowdy or loud but our cruise was not one of them. We would go out at our leisure in the morning and get a cup of coffee and some fresh fruit and/or a pastry. After a long day in port we would come back and soak in the hottub. It seemed to get used a decent amount but everyones schedule made it so we didn't notice anyone waiting to use it. We saw and took naps out there on the balinese loungers. If you like to get away from the larger amounts of people you get on the main decks and feel like you are on a private cruise, then the court yard is for you. If you want to go out and rub elbows and whoop it up, you may want to save the money for more social things. We loved it!

 

I felt the same way about the courtyard. Our experience was very similar to yours. We never thought we would love the separation so much. I like to people watch, BUT I never missed it.

[rjm11]

Thank you for such a nice review... I just booked an A3 villa today for next summer! I'm very excited; it will be my first NCL cruise, and from everything I read I think the flexibility of NCL will be perfect for my family (including a 4 and 3 yo). We are thinking of bringing a 5th person... an older cousin for a sort of "nanny" to allow for some alone adult time, and I was wondering if the sofas in the "living room" portion of the suite have been changed to sleepers? I heard rumor of this, but the pictures on the website still show something with wooden arms that no one could sleep on.

 

If you get a chance to respond, I would really appreciate it. Apparently we will be in PASSION FLOWER (now doesn't that just scream family vacation???) :)

[4 cruisers]

Thank you for such a nice review... I just booked an A3 villa today for next summer! I'm very excited; it will be my first NCL cruise, and from everything I read I think the flexibility of NCL will be perfect for my family (including a 4 and 3 yo). We are thinking of bringing a 5th person... an older cousin for a sort of "nanny" to allow for some alone adult time, and I was wondering if the sofas in the "living room" portion of the suite have been changed to sleepers? I heard rumor of this, but the pictures on the website still show something with wooden arms that no one could sleep on.

 

If you get a chance to respond, I would really appreciate it. Apparently we will be in PASSION FLOWER (now doesn't that just scream family vacation???) :)

 

We've had an A3 on the Pearl and I honestly think it is our favorite catagory even when we are just the two of us!!!!!! Just an amazing room! I have read that you can request a roll away. I also have read that the sofa converts to a bed...but I didn't check. It doesn't seem likely, but I could be wrong!!!!!:o If I were the cousin, I'd still be happy sharing a room with your little ones!!!!! Have a wonderful trip!!!!!!!!!!!:cool:

[kdzkatz]

Thank you for such a nice review... I just booked an A3 villa today for next summer! I'm very excited; it will be my first NCL cruise, and from everything I read I think the flexibility of NCL will be perfect for my family (including a 4 and 3 yo). We are thinking of bringing a 5th person... an older cousin for a sort of "nanny" to allow for some alone adult time, and I was wondering if the sofas in the "living room" portion of the suite have been changed to sleepers? I heard rumor of this, but the pictures on the website still show something with wooden arms that no one could sleep on.

 

If you get a chance to respond, I would really appreciate it. Apparently we will be in PASSION FLOWER (now doesn't that just scream family vacation???) :)

 

Yes they have converted the sofas to sleeper sofas. Congratulations on getting an A3! If you want lots of people you can go to the main decks. If you want peach and quiet and relaxation, go to the court yard. It's a great place to go to in the morning to get your coffee and a little snack before breakfast. The A3's are also very close and convenient to Cagney's and the Garden Cafe. I'm just not sure what catagory to get for the next cruise as the A3 truly spoiled us. :D