After years of trying, I finally convinced my wife to go on a cruise to Alaska as opposed to the Caribbean, Mexico or Europe. Alaska was beautiful. NCL was not. We are very frequent cruisers and have sailed on numerous lines and ships. Thanks to the perk of an unlimited drink package, we ended up on the Norwegian Pearl. The best thing I can say about NCL is that the embarkation process was fast and efficient. The crew (for the most part) was disenchanted and acted like they clearly didn't want to be there. The service was slow, aloof and at times rude. One strong crew member (from the bar staff) indicated that it had been this way since new management took over and that he hears many complaints from the guests.

The food, unless you go to the specialty restaurants, was sub-par at best. It was easy to tell that the majority of the ingredients were lower quality. Most other ships have one or two decent nights (where they serve a good steak or lobster), but not Norwegian. They served low quality, cheap food in all but the "premium" restaurants. One guest, during a Q&A, asked the head chef when Lobster Night was and he said that they had served lobster in a pasta on the buffet last night. Nice dodge, Chef. The premium restaurant that we booked, Cagney's, actually had good steak and lobster. Of course if you wanted both it was $10 for a 2nd entree. After you already pay $30 each on top of the cruise fare, this seemed a bit exorbitant. Not to mention, I have never seen this in the 20+ cruises that I have taken. FYI, I began cruising before these "specialty" restaurants came into existence when food quality was a large reason for going on a cruise and have watch quality decline across the board on the major carriers since. However, not to this level.

Communication was inconsistent when it was received and questions to the staff were met with disdain and the "it's not my job, go see xyz" line. After the Deal or No Deal game, people with winning cards (for a free pull tab card) were told to collect them at Bliss Lounge (on the other end of the boat) while they were open. After walking over there, we found they didn't open till 7 (about 6 hours later while we were in port). If you won on the pull tab, you were sent to the Casino because only they can deal with cash. Since we were in port, they didn't open till midnight and this was the last night of the cruise. Also, we were provided with customs forms for Canada. I filled them out. Not once were we ever asked for them when going to Vancouver, and we were never told why to complete them. They just showed up. When we purchased bottles of liquor, we were told to pick them up at the store on the 2nd to last day even though the information that came with them said they would be delivered to the stateroom (like every other cruise I have been on). The list could go on and on, but hopefully, I've made my point. Read more