Norwegian Pearl Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,401 reviews

Great destination, POOR CRUISE LINE!

Review for Alaska Cruise on Norwegian Pearl
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JimAbby
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Value for Money
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Additional details

Sail Date: Jul 2016
Cabin: Inside
Traveled with children

Trip to celebrate 30th wedding anniversary. While the destination was great, this ship had MANY shortcomings. Embarkation was relatively painless and received decent marks. Pretty much downhill from there. Bed linens were stained (food, I hope), wait staff was terrible and non-responsive, the food was incredibly average, there were *tons* of added on charges, literally *everything* involves a sales pitch, and the shore excursion we were sold in Ketchikan was nothing short of fraudulent for the price. There was a decent selection of food, and our cabin service was great when we used it. The bartenders (Shon & Alberto) were engaging, knowledgeable, and did the best that they could with a klunky NCL procedure that put all drink servers immediately into the weeds if there were more than 2 people at a time wanting a drink- be prepared to wait a very long time in line for your order! We tried a meal at the Indigo and one of our party was served BROKEN GLASS in his drink. He gave the chunk, and the drink, back to the waiter who made the standard apology. The waiter then brought out two more drinks BOTH of which were in cracked glasses! Our group made a polite, discrete complaint to management and got another standard apology. We also got curdled milk with our breakfast cereal one morning. Overall- since they're guaranteed their gratuity no matter what- service was slow, non-responsive, occasionally wrong, and downright poor. The shore excursion in Ketchikan booked through the ship was criminal. Billed as a "high activity requiring physical exertion" and a 'back country jeep and canoe safari through the rain forest', this was one of the most expensive and lame things we'd ever done (see my review on Trip Advisor). It was a couple of hundred yards paddle in a canoe that seats 26 people, a 5 minute 50 yard walk in the woods, a rushed cup of chowder, paddle back and climb into a jeep for a bone rattling 1 mile trip up a logging road, get out, take a picture (not that particularly scenic), and return. Almost $200/person and an absolute WASTE of money. DO NOT book through the cruise line! You are MUCH better off doing a bit of research on your own through TripAdvisor or the port City's Chamber of Commerce web site & booking it on your own. We did this in Skaway and were rewarded with one of the highlights of the trip (Beyond Skagway Tours). The work out facility had lousy hours if you wanted to get your workout in early and consisted only of several treadmills, a couple of steppers (not even step mills), and a few bicycles (one of which didn't work right). Pretty small and the line was out the door to try and get on any of the machines in the mornings. As I near retirement, we plan to do more cruising but we will be looking at lines other than Norwegian.

Cabin Review

Inside

Cabin IC

Got what we paid for, I guess. The stained bed linens were a definite turn off!!

Port Reviews

Seattle

Arrived early and toured Seattle on our own. This was not done as an excursion.

Glacier Bay

Absolute highlight of the trip. Glacier Bay was awesome. Captain spun the boat on a pivot for three revolutions so that everyone could get a good view.

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