I had never cruised before and heard so many great things about taking a cruise, especially how amazing the food was on board. My father recently passed and we decided to book a cruise to Alaska to take my mother who had not enjoyed a real vacation in over 30 years.

I will start with the "positive" experiences we had on the NCL Pearl. The ship was spotless, and our steward kept our room very well maintained. We were blessed with incredible weather during our trip which allowed for calm seas and provided breathtaking views of the Alaska coast, mountains, and best of all spotting the whales. In my opinion there is no better way to capture the Alaska experience than by cruising. The view at "Glacier Bay" was one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had.

Now for the "negative" experiences. First, the food on board the NCL Pearl was not what we expected, in fact it fell well below a cheap buffet. 80% of the meals I was served in the main dining rooms "Indigo" were served cold, and the portions were very small. The breakfast buffet was good, but the lunch and dinner buffet offerings were quite bad, and after the second day we never returned to the buffet for lunch or dinner. Another challenge we experienced was locating a table. The buffet's were always so busy that we had to first search for a table before visiting the buffet line. On two occasions our table was taken by rude passengers who decided to take our table while we were getting our food. This experience alone has me not wanting to book another cruise. Another thing we did not expect was how much we were "nickle and dimed" by NCL on board the ship. Just about every on board activity/entertainment required an additional fee, and drink prices at the bar were outragiously high. The average price of a basic cocktail was $11-$15 dollars! Read more