My Pearl Alaska review 5/24 to 5/30

[home-mom]

Let me start by saying we had a fabulous trip!!! We were a group of myself, husband, 2 kids (14, 6), and my parents. We had two mid ship mini suites booked, but 2 weeks before sailing we upgraded to two 2 bedroom suites and then one week out for no extra charge we upgraded again for two 2 bedroom suites in the Haven. (A new experience for us.) We had direct flights from Texas to Seattle on Alaska airlines. We have always flown Southwest, but we loved Alaska and will chose them first if we fly again.

 

We landed in Seattle @ 9:30 pm, got our bags, found our shuttle, and were taken to the Hilton SeaTac across from the airport. It was a nice hotel, but at that time of night it felt like after midnight to us so we just went to bed. We had pastries from the lobby bar in the morning. I had booked a pre-cruise package from the hotel that included a shuttle to the pier. It was $141 pre tax for each room/transfers. The shuttle was suppose to be there at 10:20 am and was running late, it arrived about 11:45. The ride to Pier 66 took @ 20 minutes .

 

 

We dropped off our checked bags with no wait. We went to the Haven check-in area in front of the terminal and checked in with no wait. We then had to wait about 5 minutes for an escort to lead us into the terminal.

 

 

We were taken into security where we got to go to the front of the line and then escorted through the terminal and upstairs to the Haven lobby. They were already calling general boarding on the ship. We checked right in and the concierge Elvina introduced herself and our butler Seka. Seka then led us straight onto the ship. We did feel really rushed and had no time to sit and enjoy the small lounge area or refreshments. This didn't really bother us as we were all ready to get on the ship.

 

Seka (who was great by the way, but was going on leave at the end of our cruise) led us to our rooms where we dropped of our carry-ons and then went straight to Cagney's for a wonderful lunch. They announced the rooms were ready during lunch so we headed up there to check out the Haven.

 

The rest of the afternoon consisted of the kids swimming, going to the muster drill, enjoying sail away from our balcony, and having dinner at Cagney's.

 

We met our room steward Antonio. He did a good job, but wasn't memorable like our past attendants. I did have to ask for shampoo/conditioner twice. I thought he would have notice that I had thrown away the empty bottles and had none remaining on the counter, but it was easy enough to call and ask for more. No towel animal the first night (the kids were the only ones offended here). We did get one in our room the remaining nights. (On our last cruise the kids also received an animal each night in there room as well as ours). We also received no chocolates like last cruise. Again this only offended the kids. We had enough sweets through out the week with the cookies in the Haven and daily butler treats and dessert at any meal.

 

We were really spoiled by the Haven and hardly left that area the whole cruise. We had one breakfast and one lunch in our room, the rest of those we had in Moderno. We had the free dining option, so we ate all our dinners in the specialty restaurants. We attended to two shows, two origami classes, one bead making class, the Latitudes party, the Captain's party, and toured the bridge . Other than those times we didn't leave the Haven.

[NewEnglandNANA]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise!

 

We were on the week before and despite the virus problem we also enjoyed ourselves although we weren't in the Haven LOL!

 

Love the pictures!

[home-mom]

We had suite 14006.

 

Entry way

 

Second bedroom

 

Living room

 

Master bedroom

 

Master bathroom

[home-mom]

Here's some from the Haven and sundeck.

 

 

 

 

 

[NewEnglandNANA]

I can see why you hardly ever left the Haven. NICE!

[home-mom]

Monday - At sea

 

Our sea day was pretty uneventful. We went to an origami class in the morning, husband went to the jewelry store raffle and won a bottle of champagne, the kids swam, we went to the Latitudes party in the Spinnaker Lounge, went to the Captain's party in the Bliss Lounge that evening, followed by dinner at Moderno.

[home-mom]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise!

 

We were on the week before and despite the virus problem we also enjoyed ourselves although we weren't in the Haven LOL!

 

Love the pictures!

 

We thankfully didn't have any problems with noro! And we were spoiled by the Haven, I wish I could afford it all the time!

[home-mom]

Tuesday - Juneau

 

We spent the morning on the Haven sundeck looking for wildlife. We were the only ones on deck. (The only time other people were up there with us was on Glacier Bay day and then it was only 2 or 3 couples for a few minutes.) We saw multiple humpback whales, a pod of orca, and lots of sea lions.

 

Here's a humpback from the deck.

 

 

We moved to our balcony after lunch and saw a whale breach right next to the ship! Of course we had 5 cameras amongst us and no one got a photo of it.

 

We arrived in Juneau where someone was flying a drone over the Pearl and it looked like it landed back on the Jewel. Not sure though, I keep checking you tube to see if someone posts a video as it flew right by our balcony and we waved to it!

 

I had booked a private whale watching tour with Harv & Marv for the six of us. We had Elvina escort us off the ship the moment they allowed and we found our guide, were led to us bus, had to wait about 10 minutes for another group to join us and then we drove to the harbor.

 

Saw my first bald eagle there.

 

Captain Liz was great, she led us to our boat and off we went. There was a boat that was feeding a group of eagles and we stopped to watch that a moment and enjoyed the eagles soaring over our heads.

 

 

We went to where a mom & baby whale had been spotted and I got my first of 2 whale tail photos there. We saw quite a few backs, but only 2 tails.

 

 

We saw some sea lions that came rather close to the boat.

 

 

We waited a little too long trying to see a whale show its tail and thus had to return to the harbor without going to the buoy that has the sea lions all over it. We were a little disappointed by this, but my youngest reminded us we had seen a few in the water that day and the buoy didn't matter. We made it back to the dock, boarded a bus, and were taken to Mendenhall Glacier for 15 minutes.

 

 

We returned to the ship instead of stopping in town. It had been our plan to shop and/or ride the Mt. Roberts tramway, but it was overcast and we thought we might have a limited view, plus my youngest wanted dinner. It felt like 10pm Texas time to her. We had dinner at La Cucina, our favorite after Cagney's.

[home-mom]

Wednesday - Skagway

 

This is the morning we had breakfast in our room and then had Elvina escort us off the ship to meet our excursion at 7:30. I booked the Bennett Scenic Journey through Chilkoot Charters. It was amazing and the pitcures don't do it justice! It was a little overcast and cloudy in the morning, but that didn't stop us from seeing the view. We met our bus right at the dock and it took us to another dock to grab a different bus that took us to the Jewel to pick up more people and then on to the train. It wasn't crowded though, I think there were 22 of us. We boarded the train and enjoyed the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped in Fraser to let people off the train and continued on to Lake Bennett. We stopped here for little over an hour to enjoy a great lunch and walk around.

 

 

 

We then continued on to Carcross.

 

 

We had a few minutes here to walk around or shop. We then met our bus driver and took the bus back to Skagway. I'll put it in a different post as it's only allowing me 6 pictures per post.

[home-mom]

We drove to Carcross Desert, where we pulled over, but didn't get out.

 

 

We went onto Emerald Lake where we were allowed out for pictures.

 

 

We got out at the Yukon sign.

 

 

We stopped when we saw a bear on the side of the road.

 

 

We got out at the Alaska sign.

 

 

We got out at the William Moore bridge and again at Pitchfork falls.

 

 

 

We could've gotten off the bus in town to shop like my parents, by the kids wanted to eat. So, we went back to the ship, had a snack, dropped off the backpack, and walked back into town to shop and sightsee. The walk took less than 5 minutes. It was very easy. We shopped, returned to the ship, and had dinner at Le Bistro.

[home-mom]

Thursday - Glacier Bay

 

We had great weather on this day. It was cool in the morning and nice in the afternoon. We were able to take off our jackets by then. We spent most of this day on the Haven sundeck (port side). When the captain would turn the ship we would walk down to our balcony (starboard side) to keep watching. We did see Margerie calve 3 times.

 

Reid

 

Margerie

 

Grand Pacific

 

Johns Hopkins

 

Lamplugh

 

The captain had opened the bow until 2. We went down there at 1 after we were done seeing the glaciers and the bow was empty.

 

 

We had dinner at Cagney's and watched the Cirque Journey show. The kids loved it.

[jrmama496]

Really enjoying your review and the beautiful pictures! Any chance you could post the Dailies?

Edited June 10, 2015 by jrmama496

[home-mom]

Friday - Ketchikan

 

I did not book an excursion this day. We wanted to shop and sightsee. We could've gotten of the ship at 6:30, but were told the shops didn't open until 8 so we enjoyed breakfast before heading out. We had Elvina escort us off after breakfast and enjoyed shopping in town and walking to Creek Street. We found it very easy to walk around here.

 

Ketchikan

 

Creek Street

 

I loved sitting on the balcony here. I could've watched the float planes all day.

 

And the bald eagles. We saw soooooo many here.

 

We went to Teppanyaki for dinner and loved it. We went to the theater to see swing which we enjoyed.

[NancyL2]

Thanks for the amazing review and pictures!

What camera are you using?

[home-mom]

Thanks for the amazing review and pictures!

What camera are you using?

 

Canon Powershot SX700 HS

[wimsikl]

Best photo review I've seen. Thank you soooooo much!

[home-mom]

Saturday - Victoria

 

After breakfast we were lucky enough to have a tour of the bridge. The kids really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Afterwards we had to go to the photo studio (my mother won a drawing that included a 30 minute photo shoot and 5 free digital photos from the shoot.) We did the shoot on Glacier Bay day morning on deck with the glaciers as our back drop. They did a great job and it was hard to pick just 5. They reserved a time for us to view the photos and had them set up as a slideshow complete with music. It was a very nice presentation.

 

Next we went to the other photo department to pick out a photo package. We went with the 20 photos for $199 and split it between 10 photos for me and 10 for my mom. That came out a little better since 10 photos are $129.

 

We ate at La Cucina for dinner, it was fabulous again. They gave the all clear to leave the ship during dinner, but we had no excursion planned and decided to stay on the boat and get packed for leaving the next day.

 

Victoria

 

I went to pick up our picture package at 10 pm as instructed. I actually waited until 10:15, they were not ready. She said give them 5 minutes.

While waiting, I went to the front desk for a copy of our charges. There was a gift shop charge that was not ours and I had them remove it. I wasn't surprised by this. We made 2 purchases in the gift shop and both times they just asked for our room number, they didn't actually scan our card. I think there is a lot of room for human error doing it that way.

 

Anyway, I went back at 10:30pm to check on the pictures, at 10:50 I finally got to the front of the line and they were ready, but the memory key was checked and 1 picture was missing. I was told they would send it down and add it and wait at the side for 5 minutes. It came back correct at 11:15.

[home-mom]

Sunday - Seattle

 

We were in no hurry to leave the ship this morning as we had booked rooms at The Edgewater Hotel next to the pier so we could visit Seattle for the day.

We had called the hotel as soon as we had cell service and told them we would be coming in on the Pearl and we would gladly take whichever of our 2 room types was ready first.

 

 

 

We had breakfast at Cagney's and had Elvina escort us to the front of the line to leave at 9:30. We breezed right through customs, grabbed our bags, and walked to the hotel. We had to wait about 15 minutes in the lobby for my parents room to be ready.

 

Lobby

 

We dropped everyone's luggage off in my parent's room and caught the free hotel shuttle to the aquarium. We thought it was a little over priced, but we had a fun visit anyway. We walked to the next pier to see the Seattle Wheel.

 

 

We had lunch at the Crab Pot on that pier. It was just okay. The burgers and fish/chips were good. They crab was so-so and the corn and potatoes with them were still raw.

 

We split up here and my parents walked across the street to visit the Public Market. They really enjoyed it. We however took a leisurely stroll back to the Pearl. We stopped to take pictures of the Pearl and went into a little deli/store to grab some snacks and sodas for later. We walked to the hotel and were able to check into our room which we loved!!!

 

City Family Suite

 

We went down to the lobby at 3:45 to watch the Pearl sail away :( without us. We had a great view.

 

Our room was fantastic and when my parents got back to the hotel they were able to hang out in our room with us since it was so large. We ordered Dominos Pizza, which they delivered right to our room.

 

The hotel was fantastic. We loved the location and free shuttle. We would highly recommend it.

[home-mom]

Monday - returning home

 

I booked a private car service to take us back to SeaTac. It Seattle Airport Express for $60 pre tax etc. for the 6 of us in a suburban. I booked it for 8 am and the driver called at 7:45 to say he was there. It was a quick ride to the airport.

 

We had a wonderful trip and fantastic weather. We had a little drizzle on our Skagway morning and a little when we left Seattle, other than that it was nice and mostly sunny everywhere.

 

I took a lot of pictures and can post more if there is anything in particular someone wants to see.

[home-mom]

Double post. Sorry

Edited June 11, 2015 by home-mom

[jrmama496]

Any chance you could post the Dailies?

[home-mom]

 

 

 

[home-mom]

 

 

 

[jrmama496]

OMG! Thank you so much for that! Now I can really get excited because it will seem so much more real!!

[mousecrazy]

Thank you for the taking the time to review and share your experience and photos of your amazing Alaska experience! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

 

You mentioned you upgraded...did you initiate this or did you receive an upgrade offer? Just curious...

 

Thanks again!