After reading review after review of the Norwegian Pearl I thought it best to add my own spin. We sailed from Seattle on an Alaskan itinerary the first week of July of 2011. The weather was decent and the ports (other than being far to crowded) were adequate. We had a total of 8 people traveling on this trip with a total of 3 staterooms. My husband and I decided to go extravagant and book an owner's suite. The other two rooms were balcony staterooms. I guess my expectations were too extreme; either that or NCL does not recognize what "owner's suite" should entail. I spent nearly two hours on the phone with NCL reservations agents locking in the owner's suite as four of us needed to stay in that room and the reservation system would only let them book two. (Not to worry - the agent added my daughter and her friend to our other rooms and informed me once we got on the ship to notify our butler and he would make sure they had bedding and were transferred to our room.) Bedding for what? Boarding the ship was quite nice though not as personable as it should be. We had read and were told by the reservation agent about the perks that went along with the owner's suite. Trust me - they do not tell you about these on the ship. You have to figure them out for yourself. Rooms were not ready upon boarding so we were directed to a buffet (that was not open). We waited a couple of hours before our rooms were ready. One would think the wow factor would come into play when you open the door to the owner's suite and it probably would have if it weren't for the dust everywhere, the hair all over the bathroom, M&Ms all over the floor, booklets strewn about everywhere, etc. Don't get me wrong - the room is large and nice but it was far from clean. I'm talking around the world far. When we sat down on the sofa dust flew in the air. Not to mention the sofa was not a pullout so where was my daughter and her friend going to sleep? We notified our butler we needed bedding for my daughter and her friend as they had decided one of them would sleep on the couch and one on the lounge. He notified the housekeeper who was less than pleased she was going to have two additional guests to take care of. I have never in my life been treated as rudely as I was from our housekeeper. And yes, I did complain. To no avail. Come on NCL - replace a housekeeper when that happens as there is no going back. To keep this short - total lack of service, cleanliness (except for happy, happy, washy, washy), and value. Yes, they try to sell you everything, they overcharge for everything. Our cruise also included a large private group so the Indigo dining room was off limits. Because this group's beliefs did not allow men and women to socialize together they even had public areas roped off at times indicating men only or women only. Really? I respect others beliefs but this large of a group (probably 2/3 of our passengers) should have been mentioned when we made our reservation. So, we will never again book an owner's suite as the additional cost did not even begin to be worth the non-additional service we received. I also think the butler and concierge have far to many passengers to attend to. That might explain why we didn't even see our butler the last three days of our cruise. It takes more than a smile to provide great customer service. Pick up the slack NCL - we are your customers. And give me back my $12 per day "service charge" - you did not earn it.