This trip to Alaska was a gift from my MIL (and FIL, but MIL is the ring leader). She loves to travel and occasionally takes the family on large trips, I'm certainly not complaining! Traveling were myself (28), DH (27), DD (13 months), MIL (52), FIL (53), SIL (23), BIL (18) and Grandmother (84). We traveled from Philadelphia and had an amazing time. Below is a simple outline review however I plan to post a "play by play" on the Norwegian board.

Hotel and Pork of Embarkation: Best Western Pioneer Square. This was a fabulous hotel, quaint, charming and a perfect location. We walked to the Space Needle, Pike's Market, as well as the dock. We flew direct into Seattle from Philadelphia and used Shuttle Express to travel to the airport. I now wish we had taken the light rail. It was an easy distance from our hotel, but we thought the stop was further. There would have been no waiting and it was a fraction of the cost. Good to know for the future.

Ship Information and Stateroom: The Pearl was lovely. Small enough to make it easy to walk from end to end and big enough to have plenty of venues and space for people to spread out. It was a lot less tacky in design than Carnival (though I find the tackiness endearing), though the carpeting was a bit retro (per SIL). We had inside staterooms due to budget and there was plenty of room for DH and I plus our 1 year old daughter and all her stuff (though I packed as light as I could). They are clever with storage space. Read more