Norwegian Pearl Review
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My wife and I are around 40 and we decided to tack on an Alaska trip to our Pacific Northwest vacation. We have been on 3 cruises with Holland America Line (HAL) and found them to be excellent, although, we were looking forward to trying something different. Our relatives recommended Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) because of the Freestyle Dining program. The Norwegian Pearl offered a much cheaper room than the HAL Noordam and had favorable reviews, so we decided to give them a try. Overall, we wish we would have paid the extra money and traveled on the Noordam. Much of the commentary below is based on the comparisons of the two cruise lines.
While our cruise experience was so-so, our Alaska experience was excellent and memorable. The scenery and wildlife make Alaska a must see place for cruisers. Be prepared to bundle up (wool hat, gloves, rain jacket) because even though we had decent weather, there were times we wish we were better prepared.
Juneau: Took a shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier. There are numerous shuttles leaving at the cruise terminal for $6 each way and you can stay there as long as you want (rather than the $45 shore excursion which takes you to the fish hatchery as well, but only gives you 45 minutes at the glacier). We hiked to the waterfall to the right of the glacier where there were no crowds and a closer up view of things. The hike is tricky in one place where you have to climb over some fallen rocks, but people seemed to manage all right. Near the visitor center at the glacier was a creek that had Coho salmon running and there were a mother bear and two cubs catching the salmon. There is an elevated walkway to view the bears-not exactly like the zoo since the bears can get on the platform, but there was a ranger there to warn the tourists if they got too close. We also took the tram ride to the top of the mountain above Juneau (no need to get the shore excursion here either since the tram leaves from the cruise terminal area). The hike at the top of the mountain was very good with some awesome views of the surrounding mountains and the fjord at Juneau. Tram ride was $25 (?) but was worth it.