Really enjoyed my first trip with Norwegian on the Pearl. We had great weather on our Alaska voyage! The freestyle dining was wonderful and a nice departure from the likes of Carnival, MSC, and Royal Caribbean (who I have cruised with in the past). I really loved the Great Outdoors Cafe for breakfast at the aft of the ship. It was so nice to enjoy a hot breakfast and watch the mountains go by. Room was very clean and our stateroom attendant Mark was excellent. We did have one issue when our balcony door came off the track but maintenance remedied in a reasonable timeframe. I enjoyed the Indigo dining room on most nights and thought it fit our style more than the other dining venue. Evening entertainment was average with only a few truly WOW factor moments. I felt that Royal Caribbean had the best main theatre entertainment of any cruise line I have tried. Carnival is also strong in this area, not so much for their main theatre entertainment, but the amount of activities and venues that go well into the night are really nice. NCL was a bit scaled back in this area but it was adequate and entertaining enough to enjoy.

I really enjoyed the token game in the Casino. We must have won five bottles of champaign from this addicting little game! Didn't have too much luck on the slots and I though the casino was EXTREMELY smokey and I am usually not easily disturbed by this.

Drinks seemed to be about the same price as Royal Caribbean and more than Carnival or MSC's wonderful drink voucher program. A margarita or Smirnoff and cranberry was $10 on average with the service charge. Top shelf could get expensive real quick. Read more