My wife and I cruised on the NCL Pearl to Alaska out of Seattle on May 30th, 2010. We had high hopes for this cruise, but we both quickly learned that you should not expect much out of NCL. The food at the non-cover charge restaurants like the Buffet, Indigo, and Summer Palace was fair to average at best. I have had much better food on other cruise lines. Also, the service was fair at best. I think the "Freestyle" concept just leads to mediocre service and food. The servers know that they will get the same tips regardless. I also believe that they intentially make the food to be edible, but not very good so that you will pay the $ 15 - $ 25 per person cover charges to eat at the other restaurants. We also had a very bad experiece with a Salmon Fishing shore excursion in Ketchikan. We then had an even more disappointing experience with the shore excursions desk on the Pearl. Overall, our BA leval balcony cabin on Floor 10 was OK. The shower was better than most cruise ship showers and the bed was comfortable. However, other things like food quality, food taste, service, and onboard activities are extremely lacking on the NCL Pearl.