Norwegian Pearl Review

Beautiful Pearl!

Review for Alaska Cruise on Norwegian Pearl
User Avatar
Pigmoon
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

Rating by category

Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation
Service
Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: Jun 2009
Cabin: Mid-Ship Mini-Suite with Balcony

A fantastic trip on the Pearl to Alaska.  It surpassed all the reviews we read beforehand and easily exceeded our expectations in every way.  Now on to the basics.My wife and I are 40 yr olds from Oklahoma City, traveling with my parents (65) and their friends (68).  It was our 4th cruise, first with NCL (1 each on Carnival, RCCI, and Princess), and 3rd or 4th for my parents and friends.  We booked this cruise based on Seattle port and Glacier Bay.  We all stayed in mini-suites on the starboard side, all three rooms side by side.  We arrived in Seattle the day prior, staying at Fairmont Olympic hotel downtown (special for $180 a night).  My parents stayed at Inn at Harbor Steps.  Both hotels were great, large rooms, and easy walking distance to many restaurants and Pike's Market.  Embarkation:  We arose late on Sunday, had an in-room breakfast, and then ordered a taxi to the ship.  We left the room at 1135 and were being handed champagne on-board at 1210.  Embarkation was a breeze!  Bags were dropped off on a conveyor belt at one end of the terminal and then employees directed everyone to the other end of the terminal for the check-in line.  After the first sales pitches (Alaskan ball caps and binoculars), we checked in, got room cards, and headed off for pictures.  At no time did the line ever stop moving - it was awesome!  Once on board, we sipped our champagne in the Atrium, a beautiful two-story room with two restaurants overlooking the Atrium floor.  The Nintendo Wii games were already underway on the 2-story screen and bar sales were already brisk.  We purchased a wine package for the trip, splitting the 6-bottle package with our friends.  You get 6 slips of paper with the names of the bottle on each one.  When you want to redeem it, just hand the slip to any wine steward/bartender.  We ended up drinking our 3 bottles over 3 different nights in the restaurants - it was a nice deal with 20% off.  Many thanks to Cruise Critic reviewers who had mentioned that the Summer Palace was open for lunch on Embarkation Day.  NCL does their best to shepherd everyone to the Garden Cafe (the buffet) but we made it down to the Summer Palace and enjoyed a great lunch with about 50 other people total - very small crowd.  The SP is truly gorgeous with a wide staircase entryway with Russian decor from the time of Tsar Nicholas.  It has huge bay windows looking out the back of the ship - which came in handy later as whales were sighted and all the diners left their tables to look and point out the windows.  The ceiling are very high with chandeliers all around.  It was a great way to start our dining experience on the ship.Stateroom: Rooms were open at 2 PM so we went and checked out our minisuites.  They were fabulous - we had never had higher than an oceanview before and now we will never be able to do anything without a balcony!  Beds were very comfortable, lots of cabinet space (we had 2 empty drawers after unpacking 4 luggage bags), coffee maker, hair dryer, TV (small but who cares?), sitting sofa, coffee table, and minibar with beer/soda/water/spirits.  The bathrooms have bathtubs (which we liked but never ended up using), separated toilet (glass door allows some privacy from sink/shower area), and generally good space.  The only negative was that our next door neighbor on one side apparently owned stock in a tobacco company and spent virtually the entire cruise standing on his balcony smoking.  Naturally, while under way, the smoke drifted back to our balcony and made standing outside for too long an unpleasant experience.  We would check to see if he was outside and if not, then make use of the balcony for those times.  Ship:  The ship itself is absolutely beautiful all the way throughout.  Aside from the Atrium, the two main lounges, Bliss and Spinnaker, both offer incredibly unique and equally stunning decor.  Bliss has giant lounging beds throughout, with dark red Asian curtains and draperies, and dragon statues on the bar.  This lounge hosted most of the trivia events during the day and dance events like the Shadow Dancers and the Toga Party at night.  Spinnaker, at the front of the ship, is light where Bliss is dark.  It has funky, hip furniture with doughnut chairs and oddly shaped sofas, and windows all around allowing great viewing off the front and sides of the ship.  Spinnaker hosted bingo sessions, some dance bands, and the nightly activity between the 7:15 and 9:15 theater shows.  Bar City is another public area with beer bar, martini bar, champagne bar, all closely situated.  We spent only a little time here as it never felt very inviting - we did most of our drinking in the two lounges.  The art auction and piano player also used this space and it seemed it was  constantly being re-arranged for the next event - I think this made it seem more like a hotel conference room than a warm place to hang out and it seemed like they got more drive-by customers rather than people actually seeking out that area for its own sake.  I will say that the piano player (Don Alexander) was excellent but I never saw a big crowd and there were never big sing-alongs like I've seen in other ship.  I would think that a separate piano lounge/bar would work better.  Also, on the art auctions, we don't buy but we like to watch (and also get free champagne).  I thought the crowds for the art auction were very small - and NCL only gave out a single glass of champagne (and only if you registered for the art auction).  On Princess, I recall huge crowds and unlimited champagne - but since we only did these things once or twice, I may not be qualified to make judgments on the true entertainment experience.Overall, the ship is a masterful design, laid out well, and with wonderful use of colors, wall art, and decoration.  Spa:  Have to mention this as we bought the weekly pass and also got massages and a facial (my wife did, not me).  This spa is easily one of the highlights on this ship, and maybe any ship.  The location (at the front of the ship, directly below Spinnaker), allows the use of windows to see out and makes the spa feel huge and expansive, rather than the closed/private feeling that many spas create.  I sat in a sauna looking out the huge windows and watched the ship drive up to Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay while sweating out toxins from the day prior!  The heated stone chairs are wonderful and I saw several people sleeping on the cushioned loungers facing out the front windows.  But, our favorite was the thalassotherapy pool - I don't know what that word means unless it means soothing jets massing tired muscles while laying on your back.  Spent 4 days in the spa and it was well worth it.  A serene, comforting environment.Dining:  I've already mentioned Summer Palace.  The other free main restaurant is Indigo.  We ate there one night - it has a more low-key decor and I thought it was fairly unremarkable but certainly nice.  The food in the main restaurants was exactly what we expected - good food, good service, good experience - there were high's and low's but generally everything was excellent.  We did the lobster on Monday night and it was very nice.  We did eat in two specialty restaurants - Le Bistro, the French restaurant, and Cagney's, the steakhouse.  To be honest, I wouldn't do Le Bistro again - nothing bad, it was fine food and service, but for the specialty restaurants I expected more of an "experience".  Le Bistro just seemed to be another main dining room with a slightly different menu - but others had vastly different opinions and we heard travelers raving about it.  Cagney's was that "experience" - it seemed exactly like a very up-scale steakhouse and I liked the menu choices a lot better than Le Bistro (on reflection, the menu alone probably explains completely why I preferred Cagney's).  I would easily do Cagney's on a return voyage.  We also ate at Blue Lagoon for lunch one day - this restaurant overlooks the Atrium and has windows looking out the side.  The menu there was bar food-like, wings, chicken tenders, chips/dip, etc.  It was tasty.  This was the only strange service experience that we encountered.  We ordered an appetizer of spinach/artichoke dip and two entrees.  The waiter hurriedly told us that appetizers were no different than entrees and that they would all come out together regardless.  They did.  However, later, the table next to us ordered an appetizer and the same waiter said nothing to them - they got their appetizer first and meals later.  Not a big deal, just kind of strange.  Other than that, dining room service was exceptional in all cases, especially Le Bistro and Cagney's.  The wait staff was very funny, engaging, and attentive.  Kudos to NCL on their training process.  On the reservation process, NCL's reservation screens located around the ship were very helpful, telling you which restaurants were full and which ones were empty.  In my estimation, the two free dining rooms, Summer Palace and Indigo, always showed red (full) pretty shortly after opening and stayed that way until about 8:30.  However, you could easily get a pager that worked anywhere on the ship and they would call you when your table was ready.  We waited 45 minutes one night but the time passed quickly as we wandered the ship, had a drink, and watched music.  Really great system.  The specialty restaurants never seemed to fill up to the red, but sometimes crossed into yellow.  I got the impression that walking in was just as easy as reserving in most cases.  In all, a great dining experience aboard the Pearl.  Entertainment:  This area is extremely subjective.  First, the singing/dancing shows.  There were only 2 shows - Sea Legs: a Showgirl Revue, and Garden of the Geisha.  NCL mixed in 2 gymnasts/acrobats with the normal singing/dancing and it fit together very well.  Kudos to NCL for doing some things that seemed to differ from the standard performance show on a cruise ship.  I personally think the singers are greatly underutilized - the male and female leads sang one song each on Opening Night, then sang for Sea Legs, and that was it.  Geisha was almost completely a dance show, which is not my personal cup of tea but again, it was nice to see something different.  As for comedy, the main comedian was Bill Hildebrand but he is apparently gone now as we saw him at the airport in Seattle getting tickets.  Mildly funny, but not hilarious.  The Second City performers were a great hit - NCL has a contract with Second City and supposedly the new Epic ship has a theater specifically built for them.  They did one main show, and 2 smaller shows in the Spinnaker.  As with most improv, they were hilariously funny at times and then there were 1 or 2 big misses on the skits.  In general, I thought they were an incredible addition to the normal stable of shows and events.  But, the highlight of the entertainment has to be Sharkbait.  They put on the most energetic, frenetic, laugh-out-loud funny show of the week.  They did a great job of audience involvement, very fast-paced, and great talent as well.  They did a few Q&A's at Spinnaker during the week and also hosted the Quest, the late-night game show.  One final note:  the crew talent show at the end of the week is very very good - well worth budgeting some time in the afternoon to see the same people waiting your table or cleaning your room as they sing, dance, and perform.  Service:  I thought the service throughout the ship was some of the best we have ever experienced.  Friendly, smiling, helpful, eager to make the cruise enjoyable. Example: one time I saw a kid with 2 chocolate milk cartons in the Garden cafe so I went looking for the milk carton section (I love choc milk).  I couldn't find it so I asked one of the Cafe employees.  They walked around the entire cafe, grabbed another employee to help, finally flagged down a manager - 3 employees huddled trying to figure out where the chocolate milk was.  The manager ran to the kitchen and rummaged through the frigs until he found it and with a big wide smile carried it out to me.  I didn't mean to create that trouble and they certainly could have said that they don't normally set out the cartons (the milk is in silver pitchers).  But this kind of customer service was apparent in every task and made the cruise that much more pleasant.  Ports:  In Juneau, we did the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching Tour.  Excellent choice!  Spent about 1 hour at the Glacier, taking pictures and roaming the Visitors Center.  It was an excellent intro to Glacier Bay day seeing and hearing the details of glaciers.  On the Whale Watching tour, they promise you $100 back if you don't see a whale.  We blew that in the first 30 minutes.  We ended up seeing 12 whales, mostly pairs of moms with calves, and seeing at least 2 of the beautiful tail-in-the-air dives that you see on the videos.  We saw many bald eagles, several sea lions on a buoy, and 1 porpoise.  It was my personal highlight tour of the week.  In Skagway, we did the Best of Skagway, which includes the White Pass Railroad tour, lunch at a Gold Rush camp, and a tour of the Red Onion saloon and brothel(former brothel).   The ride on the train is awe-inspiring and was my Dad's favorite part.  Beautiful scenery, waterfalls, trestle bridges, deep canyons - you name it.  I could have done without the Gold Rush camp as it seemed more like a money-making scheme with some salmon and chicken for lunch.  Don't miss the train tour though.  In Ketchikan, we didn't do an excursion, just shoppped.  It's very easy to walk around everywhere and they have an Alaskan Discovery Center which is nice for the educational experience.  Ketchikan had a great feel to it, very small-town Alaskan, kind of like Northern Exposure, if you remember that TV show.  At Victoria, we did the Gardens and City tour.  Another trip well worth it - made a photo stop downtown for Parliament and the Empress Hotel, and spent about 1.5 hours at the Gardens themselves.  Finally, Glacier Bay.  It's a great day because it's all day - you can choose to sit and watch scenery for a while, then you can go do other ship things like the Spa, or Bingo, or Trivia, or whatever you want!  Then go back and watch scenery some more.  We spent about 2 hours total at the actual glaciers, turning in position to give equal time to both sides of the ship.  The rest of the day was wildlife-watching and travel through the bay.  Disembarkation:  Again, best ever experienced.  We had a 1:00 PM flight at Sea-Tac but decided not to do the self-baggage walk-off from 8-9 AM.  NCL allows you to pick up your own colored luggage tags for whatever time you want to get off the ship.  We chose Pink, a 9:10 departure.  I stood on the balcony and watched the self walk-off people - the line never backed up, moved smoothly and rapidly.  At 9 AM, they had already called for Pink to depart so we walked out of our room at 9AM sharp, walked out the gangway, picked up our bags, and by 9:45 we were being dropped off at Sea-Tac.  Unbelievable - I wish other cruise lines could make it this simple!Bottom Line - Top-notch all the way down the line.  The Pearl is beautiful, the crew is well-trained and friendly, the food is good-to-great, and the itinerary is perfect.  For a first-timer on NCL, it was an experience that will definitely bring me back again.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Mini-Suite with Balcony

Cabin MA

Minisuite, mid-ship, great well-sized balcony, close to elevators and stairs (but not too close), directly below pool area, not noisy on Alaska trip but could be on Caribbean.  Would easily book same room again.

previous reviewnext review

Find a Norwegian Pearl Cruise from $419

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.