Norwegian Pearl Alaska 5/18/14 -5/25/14 Review with pictures

[Jzx1103]

Hello all, My family went on an Alaska cruise on the Norwegian Pearl last week 5/18-5/25. The party includes myself, my wife, my mom and dad, and my 11 month old son which we didn't expect what kind of challenges he'll bring. :D This is my 5th cruise overall and 1st with Norwegian. My wife and I have been on Carnival 3 times, and Princess once, but we are not loyal to any particular cruise line, just whatever deal and itinerary we find that fits. Overall it was a very good trip. There were good and bad but mostly good. Below is a comprehensive review with pictures. This is the first time I've done this so bare with me for being slow or if I make any mistakes.

 

 

We arrived in Seattle very late on sat 5/17 and checked into the Doubletree Hotel in Seatac approximately midnight. I didnt get a lick of sleep between my son crying at night and the excitement, anyways I was up by 6am. We called a taxi at 9:30 am to take us to pier 66 downtown. We were actually there too early at 10am to check our luggage as the previous weeks passengers havn't fully debarked yet. But a nice employee there took all of our luggage and said she will take care of it. And we left our luggage and headed for downtown and pike place market.

 

Super fresh seafood at Pike Place Market

 

Here is my 11 month old very happy to be in Pike Place Market

 

Beautiful Norwegian Pearl from the waterfront park

[lynninsc]

Can't wait to read the rest of your review! Hope you had a great time!

[Jzx1103]

We decided to head for the ship around 1 p.m. and the lines was quite long by then. I guess thats what we get for wanting to visit downtown Seattle. After quickly locating our staterooms, we headed up to deck 12 for the buffett. I thought the food was on par taste wise with other cruise lines at the buffett but there was not as much dessert selections in the buffett as my previous cruises.

 

Views of downtown Seattle from Deck 13

 

Me and the little guy at the buffett, no pictures of the food unfortunately since we ate it all too fast. This is also the first time my son started eating food other than baby food. He loved the meatloaf at the buffett as well as the blue lagoon restaurant.

[Jzx1103]

We loved the muster drill since it lasted only 5 minutes. :D we were then on our way to Alaska. spent majority of the sailing of puget sound on deck 13 and the Spinnaker Lounge, one of my favorite places on the ship in all the cruises I've been on.

 

Not too many people on top deck after sailaway, it was windy and just rained not too long ago.

 

Views from Deck 13

 

My son enjoying the views from the Spinnaker lounge :)

[JohnCoMo]

Great pictures! Can't wait to read the rest of your review. I am departing on the Pearl this Sunday so your review is probably the last one I'll see before boarding.

[Jzx1103]

We almost missed dinner the first evening in the MDR, my son fell asleep around dinner time and still did not wake up by 9pm. My wife told the rest of us to go to dinner at the Indigo MDR so we do not miss it and she stayed behind in the room with my son. I thought the food in the MDR tasted very good, most dishes were better or at least on par with other cruise lines. However, there was not as much selection choices compared to other lines which I expected since there's so many specialty paid restaurants on Norwegian ships. I figured if they give you all kinds of choices there would be no point in people paying for specialty restaurants. Unfortunately we did not get to take any pictures of the MDR food on the first night since we forgot the camera.

 

After dinner, I went back to the room and my son was still asleep and my wife has not had dinner. My parents then took over watching babysitting my son while I took my wife to get something to eat at the Blue Lagoon, a 24 hour restaurant with comfort food on deck 8. My wife thought it was great to have a 24 hour place with things like buffalo wings, chicken tenders, and burgers. The buffalo wings were really really good. We actually came back to the blue lagoon late at night a few times during this cruise.

 

 

Day 2: Sea Day!!!

We woke up early at 7 am because of course my son(who now runs our lives) decided to wake up. In my previous cruises I usually sleep till 9:30 or 10am on sea days. We headed for the buffett and again my son ate things he's never had before, like bread, and sausage, as well as some bananas.

 

Here's a nice lady bringing my son bread

 

And my son stuffed with food :)

[Jzx1103]

After breakfast, we spent lots of time in the atrium and the spinnaker lounge playing with my son. Other passengers would often come up and start playing with him. I'm glad my son likes strangers as he smiles more when other people gives him attention. I have to say, having a baby on board to play with sure had time pass by quickly during sea days. Saves me from spending all day at the casino losing money :D

 

Playing on the sofa in the atrium, one of his favorite places.

 

Another passenger playing with my son (met some really friendly people on this trip)

 

The atrium area on deck 7

[abcmom123]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time and posting so many pictures. Your son is adorable! We'll be on the Pearl in July and can't wait.

[Jzx1103]

Spent the remainder of the day just hanging out around the ship, favorite places were the Spinnaker Lounge, Atrium, and Bliss Ultra Lounge. All 3 places had nice sofas and giant comfortable beds. Went to the casino while my son took a nap with grandparents.

 

We ate dinner on day 2 in the Summer Palace MDR and got a really nice table by the window all the way in the side corner which was very private. Tonight was Lobster night and I love lobster. I will also say that out of the Lobsters I had on Carnival, Princess, and Norwegian, this was my favorite. One complaint I do have with Norwegian is that service does seem to be much slower than carnival and princess. This was pretty much consistent during every meal we had that wasn't at the buffet regardless who the waiter/waitress was. The servers also seem much more relaxed and laid back compared to the servers on other cruise lines who seem to pace themselves much faster. On a few occassions during the cruise I noticed that the wait staff sees that I have no water in my glass or that we were ready to order, but they went and began to joke around with other members of the wait staff for 2 to 3 minutes before coming back to our table to get whatever we needed.

 

Side room of the Summer Place Dining Room

 

prosciutto appetizer

 

My DS enjoying his fruit plate

 

Woo Hoo Lobster!!!:D

[Jzx1103]

Day 3: Juneau

 

Woke up at 7:30 am today since my little guy decided to let us sleep 30 extra minutes. went to the MDR for breakfast. This was the only time on the cruise we ate breakfast somewhere other than the buffet, mainly because we realized we can get mostly the same food much quicker at the buffet. But this smoke salmon with bagel did look real appetizing, and you can only get these really fresh looking red smoke salmons in the MDR. (see below)

 

 

 

Afterwards we still had roughly 4 hours to kill before we arrived at Jeuno AK. so we decided to take a trip to the bridge viewing room on deck 11. I did not even know this place existed until another passenger told me in the elevator. I do not recall Carnival or Princess ships letting you see the bridge unless you book some kind of on ship tour.

 

Model of the Norwegian Pearl in the bridge viewing room.

 

Pictures of the bridge.

 

At almost exactly 2:00pm local time, we arrived at Juneau and had to wait for Norwegian Jewel to leave before we docked!

 

 

Ok I'm going to take a break here and continue with this tomorrow night. It's taking a lot longer than I thought. Goodnight :)

[Johnny Bananas]

Great pictures! Enjoying your review so far. Your son is adorable!

[Susie51]

Thank you for posting your great pics. I like your writing style. Looking forward to more.

[sprint180]

going in july. Soaking up all the info I can.

[Oakman58]

Great report and pictures. I'm looking forward to reading more from you. Thanks for sharing.

[ckmantan]

We are leaving in a couple of days. My parents, my husband, and my daughter (21 months) are all going. Thanks for your review and look forward to more!

[BritChickBN1]

Loving your review. Your photos are beautiful. Cute baby too!

[Italy52]

Enjoying the photo journey of your cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

If I might ask, what type of camera/lens did you use --- your pictures are great!

[Jzx1103]

Enjoying the photo journey of your cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

If I might ask, what type of camera/lens did you use --- your pictures are great!

 

My dad took all the pictures with his camera, I think its a Nikon D-60.

[Jzx1103]

Okay, continuing on with the review.

 

Juneau was the only day during our trip where we got a significant amounts of rain. But we still had fun since rain in Alaska are typically more like showers and are not that heavy. We took a short 5 minute complimentary shuttle from where the Pearl docked to the downtown area. Then we immediately hopped onto another shuttle to the mendenhall glacier, tickets were $20 roundtrip per person.

The shuttle to the Glacier was pretty much packed and lots of people had to stand during the 25 minute bus ride. However the shuttle ride back was fairly empty with enough seats on the bus for everyone.

 

View of the Mendenhall Glacier not far from the shuttle drop off point

 

View from the top of the visitor center (admission is $3 per person) but we had the annual national park pass so it was free.

 

Inside the visitor center, my son enjoying the bear rug

 

Nugget falls, approximately 45 minute hike roundtrip from visitor center. Definitely worth the hike in my opinion

 

Closest we got to the Mendenhall Glacier, near Nugget falls.

[Jzx1103]

After returning to downtown Juneau, we had originally planned to take the tram up Mount Roberts but saw lots of cloud cover so we decided to skip it. Instead we headed toward downtown and saw Tracy's King Crab Shack. I had some people recommend that we should try this place. We just ordered a sampler with

1 King crab leg, 4 crab cakes, and a crab bisque. Everything was delicious and the crab meat was the best I've had.

 

Pic of Tracy's Crab Shack in front of Radiance of the Seas. this is literally a shack so don't expect fancy tables and seats, just good food :D

 

My son wanting a piece of the King Crab from grandma, but he can't have any haha.

 

Me working for the Deadliest Catch crew. :D

[Jzx1103]

For the remainder of our stay we decided to just stroll the downtown area, the rain has also died down quite a bit. Downtown Juneau is pretty much meant for cruise tourists I guess, since all I see are gift shops, Jewelry shops, and restaurants.

 

My son wanting to touch any animal statue placed in front of various stores.

 

The famous Red Dog Saloon (I told my mom it's a brothel and she asked me why are we going in there then :D)

 

More shots of downtown Juneau

 

Goodbye to Juneau!

[Jzx1103]

Day 4: Skagway

 

The Pearl arrived really early this morning at 7am. we got up and had an early breakfast at the buffet, then proceeded to take some pictures from the ship. Skagway is my kind of place, very scenic and quiet little town with snowy peaks surrounding it (until the cruise tourists arrive that is).

 

Views from top of the ship while docked in Skagway

 

 

Pics taken soon after getting off the ship.

[Jzx1103]

My family walked around town for approximately an hour while I headed straight for AVIS car rental to wait in line for almost an hour to pick up the car I had reserved for this day. Apparently lots of people had the same idea to rent a car and drive the Klondike Highway instead of taking the train. I do highly recommend doing this especially if the cost of the train excursion is above your budget or something you're uncomfortable with paying. The drive to Yukon was absolutely stunning. We drove to Emerald Lake just past Carcross as our end point. The cost of car rental was $109 including taxes, we got a full size car which ended up being a fully loaded Toyota Camry with a sunroof. comfortable enough for 4 adults and a baby.

 

The top two pictures were taken while driving along Dyea rd, a side road recommended by Murray's guide before driving out of Skagway.

 

We were lucky enough to catch the train across the mountain while driving the south Klondike hwy

 

Views shortly before going up on White Pass

 

On top of White Pass, it's still literally all white.

 

My son enjoying seeing snow for the first time in his life.

[Jzx1103]

We've finally reached Yukon after approximately 2.5 hours of driving and passed many scenic areas. There were lots of mountain goats in this area, however we couldn't get any pictures since they were way up on the mountains and can only be seen with binoculars.

 

The welcome to Yukon sign (this is where we saw the mountain goats)

 

I forgot what this place is called but I thought it was very scenic, the lake in the background is still mostly frozen.

 

Carcross Desert (worlds smallest desert)

 

Emerald Lake

 

The town of Carcross (had some nice Halibut fish tacos here)

 

The welcome to Alaska sign on our way back, near White Pass (it actually started snowing here)

 

We returned to Skagway around 5:30 pm and walked around town until 7 p.m., then boarded the ship and headed to dinner. I recommend trying to get a window view during dinner on the night ship departs Skagway, it's very scenic looking out the window while enjoying your dinner. the ship leaves at 8pm but it doesnt really get dark till 10pm. even later during June and July.

Edited May 31, 2014 by Jzx1103

[Jzx1103]

Day 5: Glacier Bay

 

I've had people recommend to me to wake up during sunrise on this day at 4:30am. I just cannot do that cause I need my sleep :D Anyways we woke up around 7:30 am again and by this time the park ranger had already boarded the ship and begin announcing on the intercom. In fact it's what woke me up. This is

the big scenic cruising day and we got absolutely beautiful weather, Sunny and in the low 60's throughout the day. We enjoyed a slow breakfast at the buffet outdoors on deck 12 aft, waiting for our arrival to the Margerie Glacier.

 

Pics taken during breakfast inside Glacier Bay NP