Norwegian Pearl Review
Rating by category
Additional details
The Alaskan itinerary was a bucket list cruise. We were very pleased with the experience and would definitely recommend doing an Alaskan cruise to anyone interested. However, we would not recommend the trip be done on the Pearl. We have no complaints about the staff or food, but the ship itself had problems, primarily because of its age and design.
The ship was at full capacity which created seating issues in the small Garden Café. LaCucina restaurant was open during the day for additional seating from the Garden Café overflow, but even at that, finding a seat (shared table included) was difficult.
Almost all the lockers in the thermal spa did not function properly in both the men’s and women’s sides. The whirlpool in the women’s side did not work 50% of the time. Yes, the spa issues were reported. There was no satisfactory resolution within our week trip.
Cabin Review
We had a mid-ship balcony on Deck 9, BA category and were very disappointed with the size of the room, especially the bathroom. The shower was fine, but the toilet area, with a privacy door, and sink vanity area were small to the point that it was difficult to turn around completely. We are both a little on the heavy side, but not excessively so. We could stand to lose 30-40 lbs. like many Americans. That being said, we are pretty "average" in size. The toilet had a sliding privacy door and it was extremely difficult to walk face first into the stall and then attempt to turn around to sit on the commode. We learned very quickly that we had to slide in backwards. The vanity area around the sink was minimal as was any type of shelving/storage in the bathroom. You could not step out of the shower and then shimmy around to towel dry because the space was so small. I would dry off in the shower stall and my cabin mate primarily used the showers in the spa. The bathroom must have been modified at some point because there was a soap tray attached to the wall in the toilet stall. In 10+ cruises on NCL ships I had never had a bathroom area so tiny.
The cabin itself was also small. I have had an angled inside cabin that was larger than this balcony room. It was difficult to get by the bed to the balcony because the foot of the bed was so close to the wall and a little shelf jutted out. We had to lean forward a little and scooch by so our hips or behind didn't knock anything off the shelf. We were not expecting this at all with a BA category.
Port Reviews
Seattle
We explored Seattle on our own and hit the tourists highlights: Space needle, Pike's Market, etc. We were surprised at how expensive teh reataurants were.... on par with NYC!
Juneau
We didn't do an excursion. We just walked around port and shopped. Being from the east coast we had been on several whale watches at home and didn't feel the expense of a whale watch excursion was worth it for us.
Ketchikan
The most populated and commercial of all the Alaska ports
Victoria
A beautiful city!