First I'd like to mention that I find most of the Harrahs offers for "complimentary" or "free" cruises very deceptive. They should advertise them as discounted cruises, but I don't think paying half price is FREE! For this cruise we paid $900 for two people for a balcony cabin plus tips, which is just about half what we would have paid for the same cruise through Travelocity. For some cruises the discounts are steeper, but they are still discounts. NCL certificates for most cruises with balconies run $300 per person plus tips and up. Single people are the ones who get the best discounts, because with a certificate they pay for only one person, but buying direct would mean they have to pay for two people even if traveling alone.
If you do want to go on an NCL cruise, you can't do any better than the Pearl cruise from Seattle to the Inside Passage of Alaska. The scenery is spectacular for the entire voyage. If you have good weather, as we did, you an see the snow covered mountains and lovely waterways, with little rain. Rain is to be expected, but lately Alaska has had unusually dry weather, so we lucked out with little rain. We also saw some wildlife from the ship -- orca and humpback whales, seals, and porpoises.
The ship is well designed, and unlike newer ships like the Breakaway and Epic, handicapped people will have no difficulty using wheelchairs or scooters in the hallways. There is a beautiful lounge in the bow of the ship which is a great place to view the scenery any day. There was also a lot of very good entertainment onboard, and some was even during the day on sea days, giving repeat ship goers more to do. They have a couple of wildlife/Alaska lectures, and rangers get onboard the ship when it's inside Glacier Bay to answer questions and give commentary on the bay and all the glaciers you pass. The good design of the ship also meant there was a deck that ran all the way around the ship for walkers (unlike newer NCL vessels that left out this feature).
The main "Broadway style" shows include very good Four Seasons tribute "Oh What a Night" and a Broadway show revue. I was impressed by some of the other entertainers onboard, which included 3 different pianists (one a comedian), a duo of singers, a excellent juggler/comedian, a small band with singers, and more. The second city troupe is also onboard for some improv shows, but since I've been on several NCL vessels I'm getting very tired of them.
Some of the drawbacks with the Pearl are those that seem endemic to all the NCL line. The food quality in the main dining room is definitely declining, which sends more people to the specialty restaurants whose prices are increasing. We did have a great meal at Cagney's steakhouse, but it bothers me to have to pay $30 per person more for a good meal. The Pearl at least tried a little in the food department by having a Alaska bake night in the buffet with Alaskan specialties and a chocolate buffet (10 pm though, a bit late to eat the goodies). We noticed that the steaks in the main dining room are no longer Black Angus, and they were bad. Even the salmon seemed poorer in quality than when we took the same voyage on the same ship several years ago. The buffet was average quality, best at breakfast (which thank goodness still has the fantastic pecan buns). The sit down lunch had the same menu every day, with some items not that great (our advice, order several things, something will be good). We liked the food in the 24 hour (free) Blue Lagoon Cafe, but service was slow at times (one friend complained about it). Service in the sit down restaurants also was very slow, even if you asked for faster service. It was so glacial one night in the Indigo (free main dining room), I complained to the matre de who gave everyone at our table a free drink, and cleaned off plates herself.
Another drawback, NCL has too many "seminars" which are just excuses to sell you stuff -- diamond seminars to sell diamonds, skin care to sell facials and products, foot seminars to sell arch supports. They need more shows and lectures onboard. Tv is limited to only 5-10 channels. Two are movie channels, but you never or rarely see a schedule of what movies will be shown when. They do show some movies on the giant screen, but seating is limited. Some of the game shows like "the not so newlywed" game are also shown again on tv, and they should do more of that. Don't buy cards for Deal or No Deal show. I finally got to see what this was, and it turns out that unless u are chosen to go onstage, you are probably going to end up with $0 winnings for your $20 card. I didn't realize how this was done and bought three cards ($60), and ended up winning $3! I complained to the person who ran this because her explanation was very poor, and she was super nice, and sent me a bottle of wine (value $12).... But really this is even worse than bingo! (though maybe somewhat entertaining to watch if you aren't playing).
Like the Breakaway, it does pay to complain if you have complaints, and you probably will! The best bet is to try to complain to senior management, don't just toss a suggestion into the box. Complain immediately, and maybe more than once, and you might get a bottle of wine, strawberries sent to your room, or discount. Be nice, but be adamant. And send those letters to NCL after the cruise (for whatever good it might do).
Also, unlike the Breakaway, where I FROZE because the ship was kept too cold, I merely was very COLD in the Pearl. Why are they keeping these ships so cold! From now on if I travel on NCL, I will bring three layers to wear inside, just in case! (even in August in the Caribbean)
The stewards were good, keeping the room clean, and sometimes surprising us with those towel animals. The ship ran smoothly, with a good stabilizer and no seasickness problems. The cruise director was not very good, with old jokes, and I actually wondered how this guy got the job.
The casino is smaller than on Breakaway or Epic, which actually is good news, because it is kept to one room by itself, so smokers don't pollute huge areas. Pay tables just as bad as on other ships, and who knows if those continually shuffled blackjack decks were actually gaffed from the start because u never see the cards spread out. I played anyway (addicted), and ran up about 5000 points on the NCL's bad player system. This put me at the second level HOT, but the host wouldn't give me the free dinner for two, saying I only get it on the voyage AFTER I turned Hot! But I ended up playing so much they did offer me a dinner for four people with wine. They also offered me a stingy $160 in comps, which I argued about, because I'd received over $200 on the Breakaway with less play and less losses. So they bumped it up to a still stingy $200.
We have been to Alaska several times before, so have done a lot of sightseeing in the ports. This time in Skagway we took an excursion offered online by Frontier for a Yukon Adventure to Carcross and saved over $30 per person from a similar shore excursion offered by the ship. It was great, and I recommend it highly over any White Horse train excursion or other Skagway tour. The scenery was great, the tour guide full of interesting stories, and at Carcross you visit a very interesting place with a decent lunch, sled dog camp, and interesting museum with stuffed animals and a live petting zoo.
In Juneau we took the ship offered Whale Quest and Orca Point Lodge and had some great views of the glaciers from the boat as well as close encounters with humpback whales -- $190 per person. While the salmon bake at the lodge was only so so, one advantage of this tour over some of the cheaper priced whale watching tours was that the boat was smaller, and we got quite close to humpbacks almost as big as the boat. They circled us while we circled them, very good tour. In Ketchikan the tour to do is Flightseeing, but I'd done that before, so we walked (actually I was in my scooter and the town is scooter friendly) around the town and went to see the salmon ladder and recreated red light district (now quaint shops and restaurants) by the creek that runs through town. Unlike on other trips where there was not a salmon to be seen, on this trip (aug 25) the salmon were spawning and jumping and gathering...and dying on rocks.... Fascinating! In beautiful Victoria BC, the ship docks quite late (6 pm), but there is time to see the wonderful Buchart Gardens on your trip. I'd been there before though, so I took an interesting tour of the city. Actually you could walk to the center of town, about a 30 minute walk though. We even saw deer who wander the streets of Victoria.
I recommend the Glacier Bay itinerary to Alaska over the Sawyer Glacier, and the NCL Pearl over the Star. If you really want to see Alaska though, the best trip is to go all the way North to Seward and then take a land tour to Fairbanks and Denali.
My next NCL cruise -- Dec. 1 from New Orleans to the Caribbean....combining it with my 7 star yearly trip so the airfare is free. If anyone else will be on this voyage, email me and let's meet.
