NCL Pearl review for families with children

I don't see very many reviews from couples traveling with families, so I thought I would share my review from a parent's point of view for my recent trip on the Pearl. We are a family of 4, but were traveling with my parents, brothers, and extended family for my parents' 40th anniversary.

We got into Seattle a day early and got so lucky with really amazing weather. We walked down to the Space Needle and went up to see the sights from the top. I didn't realize that there is a really cute carousel and a handful of little carnival rides and things for the kids at the bottom of the needle. The kids were very excited about the carousel, probably more than the space needle. After the space needle, we took a cab to the fish market. Didn't do too much walking around because it was so crowded. We had lunch and then went to the aquarium which was a lot of fun, especially the seals and sea lions. Dinner near our hotel after vigil Mass and then off to bed.

DAY 1 - Departure Day

We got to the pier around noon and check-in was in progress. Got on the ship and headed straight for lunch. Even though I knew from the board the dining room was open, multiple crew from the ship said we had to go to the buffet. It worked out fine. We had amazing weather and so ate outside by the pool.

Went straight to the open-house for the Kids club. My daughters are 6 & 8 and my niece is 3, so while we did the paperwork, they played in the jungle-gym and had a BLAST! Since we were traveling with a big group, we signed up everyone as being able to check the kids in and out and the staff said we could include as many people as we wanted. I was immediately impressed with the kids club crew - they answered all our questions, were very welcoming to the kids, etc.

By then we could get in our rooms, so we did some unpacking. First a few lessons on balcony safety. I didn't realize the entire balcony up to the handrail was glass plated, so thank goodness there was no chance of a kid getting a head stuck in a rail or tossing things overboard. But of course the first thing they wanted to do was climb up on the chairs and look overboard. NOOOO!

Muster drill was boring, finally dinner. The kids get typical restaurant kids menus that have games and coloring but no crayons; luckily I had some with me so they could draw and do their puzzles. Most MDR meals took at least 90 minutes, so we usually let them bring games or toys. They liked eating all the bread. :) We found out right away how accommodating the staff were. My niece is a fruit freak and they would usually bring her a bowl of strawberries or grapes if we asked. They usually wanted any orders from the kids menu right away as those orders took a little longer - I guess they are sent from room service or some alternate kitchen? We never had to wait for their meals, actually theirs usually beat ours.

We took too long at dinner to see the show and the kids were tired by that point, so we went on to the room for bed. We had an adjoining room with my brother & his family so that only one person had to stay with the sleeping children and the rest could go to the casino, see shows, etc, but we were so tired we just wanted to sleep!

When we got back to the room, the bunk had been pulled down from the ceiling, which thrilled the kids but not me because there was basically NO guard rail. I totally freaked out. There was a raised handle in the middle of the bed, but that was it. My kids have never slept on a bunk before and I definitely was not comfortable on a rocking/moving ship to let someone sleep up there. Luckily they share a bed at home and are used to it, so sharing the couch bed was fine. It is not a great bed, though. I thought it was pretty hard and uncomfortable. Good thing we wore them out so completely each day they didn't know any better but to go right to sleep.

Day 2 - Sea Day

Started the day by letting the kids play on the bunk, then telling our stewards not to take it down any more. They left the sofa bed open all day because they weren't sure if our kids still napped, which was so nice of them, but in hindsight I wish I had asked to have it put up because it left us with no walking space near the balcony. Being in a cruise stateroom is never spacious, but with 2 kids and all their dolls and toys, it was really tight!

After taking the kids to the buffet for breakfast, we headed to the kids club for free play. I thought they would just go in and play in the jungle gym, but the staff actually had games set up, legos, and more. My kids were thrilled, my niece was hesitant, but the staff immediately coaxed her in. We picked the kids up after free play and went to the roll call Meet & Greet.

After lunch with the grandparents, we took the kids back to the kids club for the Unbirthday Party. They loved it! They decorated cupcakes and had a decoration contest, then had to eat their cupcakes without using their hands and had a prize for messiest face and cleanest face. They played some sort of pass the gift game where they had to unwrap layers & layers of paper. Then had lots of loud music and dancing - their favorite was the chicken dance, all set to new lyrics that my kids now love to sing: "I don't wanna be a chicken, I don't wanna be a duck, wanna shake my butt." Cue hysterical laughter. I did the blackjack tournament while they were in kids club and had so much fun, though I had terrible cards.

That night after dinner we all went to the show - "Oh What a Night". Both my girls have seen Broadway shows so they enjoy theater and singing. Both really enjoyed the show, especially when the lead singer jumped off the stage for Grease and when they all sung "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". They howled with laughter.

I think this was the night my husband & I went to see the comedian, Rod Long (I think that was his name?) He was okay, but not great. But the game before his show - Majority Rules, was SO much fun. We got there just a couple minutes late, so they had already started, but it was totally hilarious to watch. There were a lot of teams playing with older children and teenagers and the whole family enjoyed. It was mostly family friendly, maybe a couple of adult questions like "What's the best pick-up line" or something like that, but nothing R rated.

Day 3 - Juneau

We surprised the kids with room service, ordering rolls & muffins (and LITERALLY room service sent us 2 dinner rolls with 2 muffins) and as a treat Hot Chocolate! The kids were so excited to eat breakfast in bed, though I'm sure our room steward was not so thrilled. Room service calls before coming to the room and they don't necessarily deliver according to your requested time. We requested for 7:45 and they were there at 7:15. And this was the first morning the kids had actually slept in! Oh well.

We had a real breakfast in the dining room - so much better than the buffet. Let me talk about the buffet for a minute. It is a parent's worst nightmare. First of all, there are 100 things to eat in there, so my kids always wanted to walk up and down for awhile before deciding. The buffet on our cruise was always jam packed and crazy busy. My husband and I would split up, each with one kid, get the kid's food and our food. But there are NO TRAYS available. I even asked if I could have a tray and I was told no - no trays for anyone. This is a big mistake for families because with all the people there I was constantly worried about dropping two plates of food. Then my husband & I would have to find seating. Ha. There was never any seating on this cruise inside. You would walk around for 5-10 minutes all while your food is getting cold. Then after sitting down, I would have to get back up to get the drinks which were now a couple of minutes away. I think dining buffet with kids is a real hassle!

It wasn't until the 3rd day that we discovered the kids buffet all the way at the back of the dining area. It had lots of small chairs - but unless you wanted to sit in the small chairs too it was sort of a waste. They were really only for toddlers. The last day of the cruise I realized that they also had mac & cheese on the kids buffet - it's not on the kids menu in the MDR but now we knew we could get it for the kids and they were so happy. It wasn't Kraft either, it was real mac with real sauce. Very tasty! You can even order it in the MDRs.

We decided to all get together to play Free Card Bingo in the morning. What a disaster. My kids love to play bingo, so we thought it would be fun. But they started really late, then the free game wasn't until the 3rd game of course. My mom ended up buying a package so the kids could play, but they called the numbers about one every 1-2 minutes. My kids were bored silly, the payouts were pathetic, and the 11:00 game went until after 1:15 for FOUR games of Bingo. I do NOT recommend.

Getting off the boat in Juneau is a mess of people everywhere. I guess if you waited 90 minutes you would be fine, but we had a whale watching trip, so we had to face the throngs of people who had no problems shoving little children out of the way to get out the door faster. Keep your kids close - the mobs of people move fast!

In Juneau we went on the whale watching trip with orca enterprises. We had a very smooth ride, the kids totally enjoyed seeing bald eagles, sea lions, seals, at least 10 orca, and 3 humpback whales. The captain stopped the boat right next to one of the humpbacks and watched it surface over and over for about 15-20 minutes. The kids liked the humpbacks the best because they liked when the tails surfaced. The captain gave each of them a little whale watching pin or magnet. The snacks on the boat were only so-so: a box of Ritz crackers, a jar of peanut butter, a little smoked salmon and a few cheese cubes with Capri-sun juice drinks. But the kids enjoyed.

We did some great souvenir shopping in Juneau and then went back to the ship where it was bedtime for the kids! Wish we could have had more time in Juneau.

DAY 4 - Skagway

The ship docked early, so there wasn't such a rush of people all getting off the ship at once. Well, maybe there was, but not when we got off at 9:30. We had a private bus tour with Frontier Enterprises scheduled to take us into the Canadian Yukon up to Emerald Lake. It was a fantastic tour overall. The mini-bus was very comfortable for our party of 10 and our driver (Carly) fit right in with my crazy family. She was great. We stopped all along the way for pictures and to look around, she made sure we stopped at all the bathrooms just in case the kids needed them, and found places where the kids could run around.

We did stop in Caribou Crossing for lunch had good expectations from reading the boards but came away pretty disappointed.

The meal was edible, definitely not great, the people serving were very put out when we asked for white meat for the kids and reluctantly let us have some of the secret stash that had been set aside. The sides weren't good though and even the donuts didn't seem to be done enough. They have really nice seating areas, though, and the weather was so beautiful we ate outside.

My kids had anticipated meeting the sled dogs all trip. The puppies were all asleep under a cart... that's fine - they're puppies. The 3 or 4 older "sled dogs" that were tied up weren't too interested in us or our treats, all except the golden retriever - he loved my daughter. So she thought that was fun. The actual huskies just barked nasty at her.

The museum was an okay walk-through, but in hindsight I just wouldn't have paid money for any of it. Thank goodness we didn't prepay to "pan for gold" - hahaha. I think it was $17 a person to dig in a big black trough? No thanks.

We LOVED Emerald Lake and had gorgeous weather the whole day. Even our driver was surprised at how nice it was. We had mirror effect reflections of the mountains on some of the lakes, the winds were so still that day. It was the trip highlight for me.

We went back and did some shopping in Skagway. Skagway has some of the exact same stores with the exact same merchandise as Juneau, so we didn't get very much.

Dinner on the boat and then to the Sharkbait juggling show which was really great. My kids loved every minute. The two jugglers are former Ringling Brothers clowns and they put on a fun, lively show. I highly recommend it for any age. Even my 3 year old niece enjoyed it.

DAY 5 - Glacier Bay

Wow - what a wake-up this morning to the views in Glacier Bay. The rangers were already narrating by the time we got up. I thought we would get to the glacier around lunchtime. I was really mistaken! You get to the main glacier around 9 a.m. and stay for one hour. Since we had a balcony, we just stayed in our room and watched in awe. The kids were so excited to hear the "white thunder" and see some calving. Plus they liked all the little birds swimming in the water. We went up on deck around 9:45 and met the ranger. The kids liked asking her questions about her job.

At 10, it was back to kids club for Operation Egg Drop. From the time I read the kids the schedule, my oldest daughter had talked about nothing but this event. She was so egg-cited. ;) Even though parents aren't allowed in the kids club, I asked if we could peek around the corner to watch the egg drop and they said that would be find. We later found out the kids were put into teams and then played games to earn points to "buy" their egg-drop materials. The teams made up names and posters for themselves, then built their egg drop contraptions which were dropped from the top of the jungle gym. My kids' team actually had their egg survive the drop! It was pretty cool.

We went for a quick lunch, then back to Kids Club for the ranger talk. This talk was very popular and the line was out the door for check in. My one complaint about check in is that they should really have more staff checking in for popular events. They have to find the bracelets out of 50 of the same color, check room key cards, etc and it just takes so much time per parent. The ranger gave a great talk and my kids learned a lot about glaciers, plus earned their Junior Ranger badges. Hooray.

We checked the kids out, then back in for Family Pizza making, which was pretty good. MUCH better than the pizza at the buffet which, to my daughter's horror, was really very bad pizza. We saw almost no one eat this pizza, ever! That's how bad it was.

The casino comped us for dinner at Cagney's Steakhouse, so we enjoyed a great meal there, but the total time for that meal was 2 hours! Thank God the kids had brought a bunch of toys and they were really well behaved. My youngest ordered off the kids menu, but my oldest daughter had the Rotisserie chicken and they brought her half a chicken so we had enough to share around the table. It was delicious! After dinner we got some family pictures done and I will say that our photographer was awesome with the kids. I wish I had gotten his name, but he took some really adorable pictures.

That night my husband went to bed early, so I saw the Second city show with my brother. It was hilarious but I would call it PG-13. My kids wouldn't have enjoyed 90% of the show and a couple skits were a little racy.

Day 6 - Ketchikan

Another early port day, which reduces the rush of people off the ship. My husband & daughter had a kayak trip scheduled, and my dad & I were going to take the other two girls walking around Ketchikan. Unfortunately the winds were very high with an approaching storm, so the kayak trip got canceled within the first 20 minutes of paddling. It turned out to be a blessing, because the company we booked with used 3 person kayaks, and my daughter had to go in the middle, which meant she constantly had a face full of sea spray. They also basically tied you into the kayak with this spray gear to keep you dry, which was great, except my husband said it made him very nervous because my daughter couldn't undo the ties to the spray gear so if the kayak had turned over, he would have had to release himself and then try to release her. It just made him not feel very safe.

They met us walking down the main street in Ketchikan. We did a little shopping and then planned to go to the park I read about on these boards so the kids could play. Well, either I went to the wrong park or I misremembered what I had read, because it was quite a long walk to get to the park and the park was just a green park with trees and picnic tables, no play equipment or anything. So now the kids are mad at me and we are pretty far from the boat with 3 tired kids. When my youngest daughter kicked her shoe into the little creek there, we knew it was time to call a cab and get back on the boat. All in all, I felt like Ketchikan was not very impressive as a port. We had done a lumberjack show before and weren't interested and the flight planes to Misty Fjords were just too darn expensive. That didn't leave us with many choices.

We got back on the ship and told the kids we could order room service. WHOO HOO! ROOM SERVICE! They were so excited. We got huge portions of macaroni and cheese (up until later, we thought this was the only way to get mac & cheese, my youngest's favorite food) and cookies. They were in heaven.

The cab driver warned us that a big storm was coming and to take our motion sickness medications and he was right. We headed into some really nasty winds that caused a lot of rocking on the boat. The kids couldn't take dramamine, but my sister in law's pediatrician said to give them Benadryl because it had a similar medicine to motion sickness medicines. I was afraid it would make my kids sleepy, so we had had them wearing sea bands all week. Now they were put to the test! All afternoon and evening the boat really rocked.

No matter, we had a quick dinner in the MDR (and found out that if you ask for a quick dinner, they will do it FAST - like well under an hour!) and then went to see Garden of the Geisha. It was a little cheesy in parts, but my girls loved the acrobatics. It was just so cool all the things the two main dancers could do.

Then we went to have showers before the chocolate buffet. But we made a fatal mistake - we took the seaband off my 8 year old to shower (later found out she could have kept it on!) and within 15 minutes she was throwing up. After we got the sea band back on her, she was fine, but we didn't want to let her out of the room. I went up to say goodnight to the family and when I saw the crowds going to the buffet, I thought I would stop in and get something for the next day. WOW! That buffet was incredible. Chocolates filled the buffet from end to end, mostly repeating in sections, but the chocolate covered strawberries were the big draw and I found a chocolate cake to die for. I filled up 3 little plates as full as I could and headed back to the room. The kids were still up and my daughter was feeling fine, so we decided to let them go ahead and eat. Yum yum yum. And my daughter was so much happier after chocolate, she had been looking forward to that all week, it was their one night they got to stay up late.

Day 6 - Victoria

We spent a lazy day on the ship, playing Yahtzee in the game room, visiting with family. The kids went to the Kids club for games, where they learned their new favorite game: "Grandma's Undie's." I won't even try to explain, it's something so dumb only 6 and 8 year olds appreciate it. We saw the Sharkbait/Oh What a Night combo show and again really enjoyed it. We had an early dinner, then went into Victoria.

Victoria. What a snoozefest! We weren't about to pay $200+ to see the gardens, so there was nothing to do but walk around. Victoria is a cute town, but I didn't feel like shopping just to shop, didn't need any Canadian souvenirs, and there was just nothing to do that engaged the kids. We wasted $30 to get into town on the shuttle, walked down to the flea market, saw some street performers, went to the big capitol building to let the kids run around on the grass, then went back to the ship. Did some packing and cleaning and went to bed.

Day 7 - Seattle Disembark

We woke up, finished packing, and I sent my husband to get our rental car while the kids & I went to get breakfast in the buffet. By the time we were done we thought it wouldn't be so busy to get off the ship - it was nearly 9:30 at this point, but it was totally jam packed and it took us almost 45 minutes to disembark. Last year when we cruised on Carnival, by 9:30 we just walked off the ship. So I can't understand why this one took so long, but it was a total pain. Oh well, it was a fantastic cruise and despite a couple of underwhelming ports, buffet madness and that stupid Bingo game, it was an amazing trip and our family had a great time. I thought overall the NCL freestyle experience was good, we definitely liked not having a scheduled dinner time and I'm not a fan of spending all my mealtimes with strangers, so that was really nice. The ship was beautiful, enjoyed the decor so much more than last year's Carnival ship, and we had a very hard working and nice crew working around the clock to make it a great vacation. Hope that helps some families planning an Alaskan cruise!

DAY 4 - Skagway

 

The ship docked early, so there wasn't such a rush of people all getting off the ship at once. Well, maybe there was, but not when we got off at 9:30. We had a private bus tour with Frontier Enterprises scheduled to take us into the Canadian Yukon up to Emerald Lake. It was a fantastic tour overall. The mini-bus was very comfortable for our party of 10 and our driver (Carly) fit right in with my crazy family. She was great. We stopped all along the way for pictures and to look around, she made sure we stopped at all the bathrooms just in case the kids needed them, and found places where the kids could run around.

 

We did stop in Caribou Crossing for lunch had good expectations from reading the boards but came away pretty disappointed.

 

The meal was edible, definitely not great, the people serving were very put out when we asked for white meat for the kids and reluctantly let us have some of the secret stash that had been set aside. The sides weren't good though and even the donuts didn't seem to be done enough. They have really nice seating areas, though, and the weather was so beautiful we ate outside.

 

My kids had anticipated meeting the sled dogs all trip. The puppies were all asleep under a cart... that's fine - they're puppies. The 3 or 4 older "sled dogs" that were tied up weren't too interested in us or our treats, all except the golden retriever - he loved my daughter. So she thought that was fun. The actual huskies just barked nasty at her.

 

The museum was an okay walk-through, but in hindsight I just wouldn't have paid money for any of it. Thank goodness we didn't prepay to "pan for gold" - hahaha. I think it was $17 a person to dig in a big black trough? No thanks.

 

We LOVED Emerald Lake and had gorgeous weather the whole day. Even our driver was surprised at how nice it was. We had mirror effect reflections of the mountains on some of the lakes, the winds were so still that day. It was the trip highlight for me.

 

We went back and did some shopping in Skagway. Skagway has some of the exact same stores with the exact same merchandise as Juneau, so we didn't get very much.

 

Dinner on the boat and then to the Sharkbait juggling show which was really great. My kids loved every minute. The two jugglers are former Ringling Brothers clowns and they put on a fun, lively show. I highly recommend it for any age. Even my 3 year old niece enjoyed it.

 

 

DAY 5 - Glacier Bay

 

Wow - what a wake-up this morning to the views in Glacier Bay. The rangers were already narrating by the time we got up. I thought we would get to the glacier around lunchtime. I was really mistaken! You get to the main glacier around 9 a.m. and stay for one hour. Since we had a balcony, we just stayed in our room and watched in awe. The kids were so excited to hear the "white thunder" and see some calving. Plus they liked all the little birds swimming in the water. We went up on deck around 9:45 and met the ranger. The kids liked asking her questions about her job.

 

At 10, it was back to kids club for Operation Egg Drop. From the time I read the kids the schedule, my oldest daughter had talked about nothing but this event. She was so egg-cited. ;) Even though parents aren't allowed in the kids club, I asked if we could peek around the corner to watch the egg drop and they said that would be find. We later found out the kids were put into teams and then played games to earn points to "buy" their egg-drop materials. The teams made up names and posters for themselves, then built their egg drop contraptions which were dropped from the top of the jungle gym. My kids' team actually had their egg survive the drop! It was pretty cool.

 

We went for a quick lunch, then back to Kids Club for the ranger talk. This talk was very popular and the line was out the door for check in. My one complaint about check in is that they should really have more staff checking in for popular events. They have to find the bracelets out of 50 of the same color, check room key cards, etc and it just takes so much time per parent. The ranger gave a great talk and my kids learned a lot about glaciers, plus earned their Junior Ranger badges. Hooray.

 

We checked the kids out, then back in for Family Pizza making, which was pretty good. MUCH better than the pizza at the buffet which, to my daughter's horror, was really very bad pizza. We saw almost no one eat this pizza, ever! That's how bad it was.

 

The casino comped us for dinner at Cagney's Steakhouse, so we enjoyed a great meal there, but the total time for that meal was 2 hours! Thank God the kids had brought a bunch of toys and they were really well behaved. My youngest ordered off the kids menu, but my oldest daughter had the Rotisserie chicken and they brought her half a chicken so we had enough to share around the table. It was delicious! After dinner we got some family pictures done and I will say that our photographer was awesome with the kids. I wish I had gotten his name, but he took some really adorable pictures.

 

That night my husband went to bed early, so I saw the Second city show with my brother. It was hilarious but I would call it PG-13. My kids wouldn't have enjoyed 90% of the show and a couple skits were a little racy.

 

 

Day 6 - Ketchikan

 

Another early port day, which reduces the rush of people off the ship. My husband & daughter had a kayak trip scheduled, and my dad & I were going to take the other two girls walking around Ketchikan. Unfortunately the winds were very high with an approaching storm, so the kayak trip got canceled within the first 20 minutes of paddling. It turned out to be a blessing, because the company we booked with used 3 person kayaks, and my daughter had to go in the middle, which meant she constantly had a face full of sea spray. They also basically tied you into the kayak with this spray gear to keep you dry, which was great, except my husband said it made him very nervous because my daughter couldn't undo the ties to the spray gear so if the kayak had turned over, he would have had to release himself and then try to release her. It just made him not feel very safe.

 

They met us walking down the main street in Ketchikan. We did a little shopping and then planned to go to the park I read about on these boards so the kids could play. Well, either I went to the wrong park or I misremembered what I had read, because it was quite a long walk to get to the park and the park was just a green park with trees and picnic tables, no play equipment or anything. So now the kids are mad at me and we are pretty far from the boat with 3 tired kids. When my youngest daughter kicked her shoe into the little creek there, we knew it was time to call a cab and get back on the boat. All in all, I felt like Ketchikan was not very impressive as a port. We had done a lumberjack show before and weren't interested and the flight planes to Misty Fjords were just too darn expensive. That didn't leave us with many choices.

 

We got back on the ship and told the kids we could order room service. WHOO HOO! ROOM SERVICE! They were so excited. We got huge portions of macaroni and cheese (up until later, we thought this was the only way to get mac & cheese, my youngest's favorite food) and cookies. They were in heaven.

 

The cab driver warned us that a big storm was coming and to take our motion sickness medications and he was right. We headed into some really nasty winds that caused a lot of rocking on the boat. The kids couldn't take dramamine, but my sister in law's pediatrician said to give them Benadryl because it had a similar medicine to motion sickness medicines. I was afraid it would make my kids sleepy, so we had had them wearing sea bands all week. Now they were put to the test! All afternoon and evening the boat really rocked.

 

No matter, we had a quick dinner in the MDR (and found out that if you ask for a quick dinner, they will do it FAST - like well under an hour!) and then went to see Garden of the Geisha. It was a little cheesy in parts, but my girls loved the acrobatics. It was just so cool all the things the two main dancers could do.

 

Then we went to have showers before the chocolate buffet. But we made a fatal mistake - we took the seaband off my 8 year old to shower (later found out she could have kept it on!) and within 15 minutes she was throwing up. After we got the sea band back on her, she was fine, but we didn't want to let her out of the room. I went up to say goodnight to the family and when I saw the crowds going to the buffet, I thought I would stop in and get something for the next day. WOW! That buffet was incredible. Chocolates filled the buffet from end to end, mostly repeating in sections, but the chocolate covered strawberries were the big draw and I found a chocolate cake to die for. I filled up 3 little plates as full as I could and headed back to the room. The kids were still up and my daughter was feeling fine, so we decided to let them go ahead and eat. Yum yum yum. And my daughter was so much happier after chocolate, she had been looking forward to that all week, it was their one night they got to stay up late.

 

 

Day 6 - Victoria

 

We spent a lazy day on the ship, playing Yahtzee in the game room, visiting with family. The kids went to the Kids club for games, where they learned their new favorite game: "Grandma's Undie's." I won't even try to explain, it's something so dumb only 6 and 8 year olds appreciate it. We saw the Sharkbait/Oh What a Night combo show and again really enjoyed it. We had an early dinner, then went into Victoria.

 

Victoria. What a snoozefest! We weren't about to pay $200+ to see the gardens, so there was nothing to do but walk around. Victoria is a cute town, but I didn't feel like shopping just to shop, didn't need any Canadian souvenirs, and there was just nothing to do that engaged the kids. We wasted $30 to get into town on the shuttle, walked down to the flea market, saw some street performers, went to the big capitol building to let the kids run around on the grass, then went back to the ship. Did some packing and cleaning and went to bed.

 

 

Day 7 - Seattle Disembark

 

We woke up, finished packing, and I sent my husband to get our rental car while the kids & I went to get breakfast in the buffet. By the time we were done we thought it wouldn't be so busy to get off the ship - it was nearly 9:30 at this point, but it was totally jam packed and it took us almost 45 minutes to disembark. Last year when we cruised on Carnival, by 9:30 we just walked off the ship. So I can't understand why this one took so long, but it was a total pain. Oh well, it was a fantastic cruise and despite a couple of underwhelming ports, buffet madness and that stupid Bingo game, it was an amazing trip and our family had a great time. I thought overall the NCL freestyle experience was good, we definitely liked not having a scheduled dinner time and I'm not a fan of spending all my mealtimes with strangers, so that was really nice. The ship was beautiful, enjoyed the decor so much more than last year's Carnival ship, and we had a very hard working and nice crew working around the clock to make it a great vacation. Hope that helps some families planning an Alaskan cruise!

We just got back from a Western Caribbean out of N.O. on the Spirit. Our kids also LOVED the kids club. The same games and activities as you mentioned - Gramma's Undies was my favorite too!! NCL seem to have the kid's club down to a science!! We had many people say that this was one of the best they've experienced out of all the cruise lines. Thanks for sharing.

editing.

I didn't realize when I posted that this post was from a year ago. I guess I should have clicked as 2011 Alaska cruises haven't started yet.

OP if you happen back here - thank you so much for sharing about the kids club. I really loved reading how well your children liked them. I'm hoping mine will too.