NCL Pearl Cruise to Alaska out of Seattle July 22-29, 2018 Things I wish I knew befor

NCL Pearl Cruise to Alaska out of Seattle July 22-29, 2018

I'm going to write this in note form just to convey the substance; things I would have liked to have known before booking.

BRIEF SUMMARY: overall great cruise, good itinerary, friendly but seemingly "overworked" staff, food ranged from very good to terrible, horrible on-ship messenger app. I'll echo the common sentiment: "this is a reasonable price cruise for people who want to casually do their own thing on their own schedule"; which means you'd rather be left alone than frequently being bugged "is everything ok?"

CRUISE EXPERIENCE:

- 1999 7d RCL to West Caribbean

- 2010 7d RCL Mariner to Mexican Riviera

- 2012 7d DisneyCL Wonder to Mexican Riviera

- 2015 7d DisneyCL Fantasy to East Caribbean

- 2018 7d NCL to Alaska (out of Seattle to Juneau)

NCL CHECK IN

- Seattle Pier 66 was incredibly easy to get to from our downtown Seattle hotel. We Uber'd there but could have walked our luggage there if we were willing

- check in was easy and uneventful, and similar to all the other cruise experiences

- we got our first glimpse of what I would come to conclude is the "NCL staff spread too thin"; the baggage handlers seemed very stressed out and were bickering with each other. It was behavior that is usually kept behind the scenes with most companies but was strangely right in front of us.

- No fanfare for entering the ship, just an embarkation picture

NCL PEARL (SHIP) AND CABIN

- This ship was clean and well maintained so we had no complaints.

- our 4 person large window cabin was about the same size as the RCL rooms, but slightly smaller than the DCL; no complaints

- king bed, with 1 wall fold down bed and 1 trundle bed

- bathroom: 1 sink with separate sliding glass door toilet and shower areas

NCL APP

- the NCL Pearl is still using the old iConcierge app which is terrible.

- the messenger was ABYSMAL and nearly useless; you had to keep checking the app because it wouldn't stay connected or alert you with the phone locked; and on top of that it would constantly lose connection to the on-ship server, so messages would take 10+ minutes or fail completely to send. Our communication felt like snail mail... but it was better than nothing. We were told that it was due to poor satellite reception in Alaska... NCL needs to fix this because the messenger system should be fully contained within the ship.

- The "schedule" showed less than 50% of actual things on the schedule; so we ignored the app and used just the paper schedules

- the app had no ship information so we couldn't use it to navigate the ship

- the restaurant/amenities information was just a paragraph description, so was useless for finding the location, making reservations, etc.

NCL PEARL DINING

- deck12 Garden Cafe buffet ranged from very good to poor; but since there were always good choices, we could make discerning choices for a great experience. Some items were every day, and some (like salmon sushi) only appeared on 1 day. The average over all available dishes felt lower than NCL and definitely lower than DCL, but since you could always find good stuff, we were happy.

- deck7 O'sheehans was 24/7 with a pub style menu: fish n chips, reuben sandwich, etc. These ranged from good to excellent. If you were hungry, this was a great stop

- deck6 Lotus Garden "asian food" - we stuck to the complementary "chinese style" food. As ethnic-asian, this was TERRIBLE but I'm biased. This was a very popular location for the other cruisers. This location also had an alacarte sushi bar, but we did not try it.

- deck6 Summer Palace (the "normal" dining room) ranged from poor to very good; although the "average" over all the dishes was a little lower than NCL and DCL. We could find dishes that were good, but sometimes it took multiple choices. The most disappointing was Prime Rib night... which tasted like the meat was brined so severely that if felt like eating ham. Still, we went here often. Meals would take a LONG time... dinner sometime took over 2 hours and we missed some of the entertainment because it took so long to bring the food out between courses

- (extra $) Cagney's steak house was good to very good; but somehow felt like the level of quality you would expect in the main dining room

- (extra $) Le Bistro french cuisine; my rack of lamb was excellent but my wife's seafood puff was just ok. Again for a pay extra $ restaurant, we would have thought the seafood puff would have been better. The appetizer's and soups were very good.

- Overall, we were very slightly disappointed with the food; but we were still happy because we could strategically find choices that were good.

NCL PEARL ACTIVITIES

- Alaska was "warm" (low 70's) but only 2 afternoons that were warm enough to lay out and swim on the pool deck (as expected). 5 jacuzzi's meant there was room if you wanted.

- nice basketball and climbing wall; the kids utilized. Often too windy/chilly to use because Alaska

- There was always something going on, (ie Deal or No Deal) so we never got bored. But NCL noticeably has less going on that DCL; so decide for yourself which way you prefer.

NCL PORTS/EXCURSIONS

- Juneau: we did the Mendenhall Glacier raft float; which was fun and a great experience. You really get to experience the nature and cold water of Alaska without getting miserably cold/wet. We would have liked to get closer to the glacier though.

- Skagway: musher dog camp; real sled dogs pull you on a wheeled cart (because no snow). This was fun, but short. Then you get to hear a presentation on dog sledding. Then a very short time to pet the puppies. Expensive for the time you get, but partially due to the 20+ min bus transportation required to get to the site

- Ketchikan: really short stay: (6am to 1:30pm)

- lumberjack show was entertaining like a Universal Studios show; fun for the family and see some lumberjack skills

- Saxman Village was educational; this seemed like a "church cultural performance" with the village (amateur) doing the speaking, dancing, etc; which we realized made it more authentic (as far as we could tell). This is not Las Vegas... it's like stepping onto a reservation... with 2 year old toddler, 80 year old grandma, and young mother with her baby in a baby bjorn while they dance the traditional dance.

- Victoria: (really short stay and too late; 6pm to 12 midnight)

- only available tours were "night tours". We went to the Butchart gardens but it got dark within an hour of arriving there. Included a nice fireworks display, but we would rather have experienced Victoria during the day

NCL SHOWS

- entertaining; but to be honest about 1 step above amateur. Not complaining.

NCL STAFF

- I kept feeling like the staff, while trying very hard with good attitudes, was just spread too thin

- the result is that they always felt stressed out, didn't have the energy to be more attentive (as it would seem to stress them out when you had a request), caused our room attendant to forget to stock the room with enough towels/toilet paper/etc, crabby porters

- Food often took a long time... were the waiters/kitchen spread too thin?

WEATHER

- we got incredibly lucky: sunny, low 70's at all ports; wore shorts and tshirt and carried a light jacket. Sometimes needed long pants for things like Glacier Bay or at sea when it got windy.

CLOTHING

- no formal wear (whew!)

- shorts and tshirt base

- layers to warm up: light jacket, fleece, jog pants, jeans, travel pants

- we never needed the knit cap or gloves, but on less warm forecasts you probably want them

- we had rain ponchos but never needed them

- take advantage of laundry to decrease luggage load

THE SNAFFU

- We used the luggage transfer from port to airlines... and 1 of 5 of our bags was lost. 2 days later we learned the bag was still at the port but luckily now found they contacted us and are FedEx'ing the bag to us. The other 10+ bags of our full party had no problems.

NCL Pearl Cruise to Alaska out of Seattle July 22-29, 2018

 

I'm going to write this in note form just to convey the substance; things I would have liked to have known before booking.

 

BRIEF SUMMARY: overall great cruise, good itinerary, friendly but seemingly "overworked" staff, food ranged from very good to terrible, horrible on-ship messenger app. I'll echo the common sentiment: "this is a reasonable price cruise for people who want to casually do their own thing on their own schedule"; which means you'd rather be left alone than frequently being bugged "is everything ok?"

 

CRUISE EXPERIENCE:

- 1999 7d RCL to West Caribbean

- 2010 7d RCL Mariner to Mexican Riviera

- 2012 7d DisneyCL Wonder to Mexican Riviera

- 2015 7d DisneyCL Fantasy to East Caribbean

- 2018 7d NCL to Alaska (out of Seattle to Juneau)

 

NCL CHECK IN

- Seattle Pier 66 was incredibly easy to get to from our downtown Seattle hotel. We Uber'd there but could have walked our luggage there if we were willing

- check in was easy and uneventful, and similar to all the other cruise experiences

- we got our first glimpse of what I would come to conclude is the "NCL staff spread too thin"; the baggage handlers seemed very stressed out and were bickering with each other. It was behavior that is usually kept behind the scenes with most companies but was strangely right in front of us.

- No fanfare for entering the ship, just an embarkation picture

 

NCL PEARL (SHIP) AND CABIN

- This ship was clean and well maintained so we had no complaints.

- our 4 person large window cabin was about the same size as the RCL rooms, but slightly smaller than the DCL; no complaints

- king bed, with 1 wall fold down bed and 1 trundle bed

- bathroom: 1 sink with separate sliding glass door toilet and shower areas

 

NCL APP

- the NCL Pearl is still using the old iConcierge app which is terrible.

- the messenger was ABYSMAL and nearly useless; you had to keep checking the app because it wouldn't stay connected or alert you with the phone locked; and on top of that it would constantly lose connection to the on-ship server, so messages would take 10+ minutes or fail completely to send. Our communication felt like snail mail... but it was better than nothing. We were told that it was due to poor satellite reception in Alaska... NCL needs to fix this because the messenger system should be fully contained within the ship.

- The "schedule" showed less than 50% of actual things on the schedule; so we ignored the app and used just the paper schedules

- the app had no ship information so we couldn't use it to navigate the ship

- the restaurant/amenities information was just a paragraph description, so was useless for finding the location, making reservations, etc.

 

NCL PEARL DINING

- deck12 Garden Cafe buffet ranged from very good to poor; but since there were always good choices, we could make discerning choices for a great experience. Some items were every day, and some (like salmon sushi) only appeared on 1 day. The average over all available dishes felt lower than NCL and definitely lower than DCL, but since you could always find good stuff, we were happy.

- deck7 O'sheehans was 24/7 with a pub style menu: fish n chips, reuben sandwich, etc. These ranged from good to excellent. If you were hungry, this was a great stop

- deck6 Lotus Garden "asian food" - we stuck to the complementary "chinese style" food. As ethnic-asian, this was TERRIBLE but I'm biased. This was a very popular location for the other cruisers. This location also had an alacarte sushi bar, but we did not try it.

- deck6 Summer Palace (the "normal" dining room) ranged from poor to very good; although the "average" over all the dishes was a little lower than NCL and DCL. We could find dishes that were good, but sometimes it took multiple choices. The most disappointing was Prime Rib night... which tasted like the meat was brined so severely that if felt like eating ham. Still, we went here often. Meals would take a LONG time... dinner sometime took over 2 hours and we missed some of the entertainment because it took so long to bring the food out between courses

- (extra $) Cagney's steak house was good to very good; but somehow felt like the level of quality you would expect in the main dining room

- (extra $) Le Bistro french cuisine; my rack of lamb was excellent but my wife's seafood puff was just ok. Again for a pay extra $ restaurant, we would have thought the seafood puff would have been better. The appetizer's and soups were very good.

- Overall, we were very slightly disappointed with the food; but we were still happy because we could strategically find choices that were good.

 

NCL PEARL ACTIVITIES

- Alaska was "warm" (low 70's) but only 2 afternoons that were warm enough to lay out and swim on the pool deck (as expected). 5 jacuzzi's meant there was room if you wanted.

- nice basketball and climbing wall; the kids utilized. Often too windy/chilly to use because Alaska

- There was always something going on, (ie Deal or No Deal) so we never got bored. But NCL noticeably has less going on that DCL; so decide for yourself which way you prefer.

 

NCL PORTS/EXCURSIONS

- Juneau: we did the Mendenhall Glacier raft float; which was fun and a great experience. You really get to experience the nature and cold water of Alaska without getting miserably cold/wet. We would have liked to get closer to the glacier though.

- Skagway: musher dog camp; real sled dogs pull you on a wheeled cart (because no snow). This was fun, but short. Then you get to hear a presentation on dog sledding. Then a very short time to pet the puppies. Expensive for the time you get, but partially due to the 20+ min bus transportation required to get to the site

- Ketchikan: really short stay: (6am to 1:30pm)

- lumberjack show was entertaining like a Universal Studios show; fun for the family and see some lumberjack skills

- Saxman Village was educational; this seemed like a "church cultural performance" with the village (amateur) doing the speaking, dancing, etc; which we realized made it more authentic (as far as we could tell). This is not Las Vegas... it's like stepping onto a reservation... with 2 year old toddler, 80 year old grandma, and young mother with her baby in a baby bjorn while they dance the traditional dance.

- Victoria: (really short stay and too late; 6pm to 12 midnight)

- only available tours were "night tours". We went to the Butchart gardens but it got dark within an hour of arriving there. Included a nice fireworks display, but we would rather have experienced Victoria during the day

 

NCL SHOWS

- entertaining; but to be honest about 1 step above amateur. Not complaining.

 

NCL STAFF

- I kept feeling like the staff, while trying very hard with good attitudes, was just spread too thin

- the result is that they always felt stressed out, didn't have the energy to be more attentive (as it would seem to stress them out when you had a request), caused our room attendant to forget to stock the room with enough towels/toilet paper/etc, crabby porters

- Food often took a long time... were the waiters/kitchen spread too thin?

 

WEATHER

- we got incredibly lucky: sunny, low 70's at all ports; wore shorts and tshirt and carried a light jacket. Sometimes needed long pants for things like Glacier Bay or at sea when it got windy.

 

CLOTHING

- no formal wear (whew!)

- shorts and tshirt base

- layers to warm up: light jacket, fleece, jog pants, jeans, travel pants

- we never needed the knit cap or gloves, but on less warm forecasts you probably want them

- we had rain ponchos but never needed them

- take advantage of laundry to decrease luggage load

 

THE SNAFFU

- We used the luggage transfer from port to airlines... and 1 of 5 of our bags was lost. 2 days later we learned the bag was still at the port but luckily now found they contacted us and are FedEx'ing the bag to us. The other 10+ bags of our full party had no problems.

Thanks for the review.

I forgot about the kids club:

NCL KIDS CLUB

- Disappointing. We did not expect DisneyCL level kids club of course, but something more like RCL's. Instead, kids club were empty rooms (literally) where the (poor) staff ran organized relay games... and that's it. If the kid didn't want to participate, they sat, bored, on the side of the room. The staff would try to include them, but there's only so much they can do.

- Teen club (13 and up) was different. They had freedom to hang out in the teen area with video games/airhockey/videos etc. Of course does not compare with DCL, and my kids were too young when we went on RCL.

we got our first glimpse of what I would come to conclude is the "NCL staff spread too thin"; the baggage handlers seemed very stressed out and were bickering with each other. It was behavior that is usually kept behind the scenes with most companies but was strangely right in front of us.

The baggage handlers are not NCL employees; they are employed by the Port Authority.

Meals would take a LONG time... dinner sometime took over 2 hours and we missed some of the entertainment because it took so long to bring the food out between courses

This is very peculiar if there were only 2 of you; we have never had that problem on any NCL ship. We dine about 5.45 and my wife is usually one of the first into the theatre for the show,

we got our first glimpse of what I would come to conclude is the "NCL staff spread too thin"; the baggage handlers seemed very stressed out and were bickering with each other. It was behavior that is usually kept behind the scenes with most companies but was strangely right in front of us.

The baggage handlers are not NCL employees; they are employed by the Port Authority.

Ok I stand corrected then on the port baggage handlers.

There was no bickering on ship.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Meals would take a LONG time... dinner sometime took over 2 hours and we missed some of the entertainment because it took so long to bring the food out between courses

This is very peculiar if there were only 2 of you; we have never had that problem on any NCL ship. We dine about 5.45 and my wife is usually one of the first into the theatre for the show,

Actually our party ranged from 8-14 but was usually split to two tables (sometimes by different waiters). Our other cruises had this many people but the food came more efficiently

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You referenced NCL and DCL a couple times.. Did you mean RCL and DCL?

thanks for taking the time to review your cruise. You did try to be objective and give a good cross opinion of your experience. I really only have a slight problem with your review: With every single positive you added "but" leaving the opinion nothing was really right and 2-you kept comparing with Disney Cruise. That is like comparing Ford Focus with a BMW. This certainly was not a fair comparison

as for less than fast service in the MDR, I will have to agree with you on that. We did have good service on our Dawn cruise in May, but have had less than quick service when with more than a couple of people.

We have rarely had overall bad service or crew that has appeared to be overworked. I am sure from time to time the forget to bring fresh towels, leave one thing undone, but overall we have always had exceptionally good cabin stewards and service overall.

Kids camp: I don't think I have ever heard anyone not pretty much raving about it.

The Chinese restaurant: couldn't agree with you more. We always eat there our first night on the ship,but why I don't know, except it is among the free dining options and never too crowded.