Norwegian Pearl Review

Alaska was awesome but the entertainment on board ship tanked!

Review for Alaska Cruise on Norwegian Pearl
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shields503
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jul 2016
Cabin: Oceanview Picture Window

This is my third time travelling to Alaska but my first time traveling on Norwegian. I have to say I found the ship to be very limited as compared to other cruise lines. If you like to eat, this is a good ship. There are a number of restaurants available but most cost extra. The buffet was fair and the food in it was okay. Breakfast was done well but lunch and dinner seemed to have the same things over and over, not much variety. The main dining rooms, both Indigo and The Summer Palace, were nicely decorated.

However, the food tended to be dry and tasteless more often than not. I'm diabetic and cannot eat carbs and sugar so the menu options for me were limited. Most ships have a sugar free option for dessert but this ship only had "no sugar added" options instead. Unfortunately I can't eat them because the sugar content is still too high for my diet. I ended up eating a lot of fruit instead which isn't a bad thing. I would have liked to have seen a "coffee shop" out in the main part of the ship that served free coffee, tea and small desserts like cakes and cookies. All the other ships I've been on had one and it was always a highlight to visit it and have a mid-afternoon sip of tea and a cookie (sugar free). I missed that on this ship. One of the other cruise lines even had afternoon tea each from 3-4pm and I loved those.

My husband and I had to send back our dinners three separate times because we couldn't eat them. They offered to replace them but after waiting so long for the original meal, we just said no thanks and went to the buffet instead. The lunch and dinner options were not as well done as other cruises I've been on. Usually on formal nights you can expect at least one lobster dinner but there were none offered on this cruise. The service was exceptional however.

Cabin Review

Oceanview Picture Window

Cabin OC

Cabin was okay. The main room was spacious enough to move around in without bumping into furniture. The bathroom was sectioned off into three areas, shower, sink and toilet. The toilet area was so tiny that you have to enter into the area sideways and sink down onto the commode. Every time I got up off the toilet the wall in front of me was only a few inches away from my face. It felt very claustrophobic. I'm a larger person and the bathroom was difficult for me to navigate around in. Closet space was very limited. Good number of drawers however. Beds were okay and the room temperature easy to control.

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