This review is part NCL, part Pearl and part Alaska. Let me start by saying we all had a nice time and the scenery was beautiful. Our group consisted of myself DD (46), DGM (86), DD (9), DD (7) and DD (6).

The reason for my funky title is to ensure all who cruise in Alaska set proper expectations. I would imagine these specific thoughts would apply to any cruise line, not just NCL. By "a cruise that happened to take place in Alaska" means the majority of your time will be on the ship and you will be surrounded by standard cruising shtick. Before this trip I had no idea that there would be a Diamond's International in Ketchikan or that "all" the ships come to Alaska during the summer and that's where the "best" shopping deals are found. At least that what our Shopping Expert said...yes, I laughed. Before this cruise, I thought it would be a more immersive experience into Alaska. For example, I was very excited to go to Glacier Bay and we arrived "into" Glacier Bay at 6:00am. However, we didn't get to the glaciers until about 10:00am. If I remember correctly, the ship made approximately two 360 turns and we left. We spent the next few hours sailing down Glacier Bay and officially exited about 3:00pm. Our total time seeing glaciers was about 1-2 hours.

A second example was our excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls. This excursion was scheduled to two hours. If you want to experience the glacier and falls close up (something I highly, highly recommend) you need to walk 2 miles round trip. If you walk at a good pace and spend about 15-20 minutes at the foot of the falls and glacier this takes about 1.5 hours. So, we didn't really have any time to see the Visitors Center. However, those 15-20 minutes at the foot of the falls and glacier were wonderful and something I will never forget. Read more