First Alaska Cruise
Norwegian Pearl Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
7 Night Alaska Glacier Bay (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 23, 2018
Ship: Norwegian Pearl
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 4539
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Enjoyed cruise overall, cruise director Vincent was energetic and enthusiastic which was infectious. Food was very good for the most part, but did get a couple mediocre meals in the MDR mainly because the fryer temperature was too low.. Yellow, soggy, oily calamari and fish and chips made for a terrible lunch at the Summer Palace. Housekeeping was on point and very responsive to requests. The biggest fly in the ointment though for us was poor communication. As noted before, we downloaded the iConcierge app as instructed on Norwegian's website for our ship. But once on board learned we needed a different app, "Cruise Norwegian" thankfully we were still able to download it without having to pay for internet access. Once installed, it didn't want to let us log in. The one fellow on embarkation day at the internet center was overwhelmed and seemed to lack knowledge, and was calling tech support for just about everyone.. We ended up figuring it out ourselves. First day massive crowds of people on deck 7 clinging to their Freestyle Dailies trying to figure out where to go. We wanted to go to the free liquor tasting at the "gift shop" per our freestyle daily. Signs onboard pointed to Duty Free Forward and Retail Stores Aft. Not one that I ever found ever called any shop a "Gift Shop" Unnecessary backtracking through crowds ensued. 3rd day, first port day, we are trying to get to our cabin on the 4th floor from the 7th floor shortly before arriving in port. Elevators would come to the 7th floor and then go right back up.. People getting restless. Finally found a crew member who told us we'd need to take the stairs. As one of my travel companions used a walker, this was a non-starter. Finally another crew member overrode the program and got us an elevator to our cabin. 4th day, 2nd port day, deck 4 is filled with people wandering around trying to figure out how to get off the ship. No announcements were made that we'd disembark on Deck 7. Same thing again in Victoria on Day 7 when it was back to deck 4. LED screen signage in elevators was out of date. Directing people to "Blue Lagoon" on deck 8 which no longer exists, or "South Pacific Spa" which is now called "Mandara Spa" I get that most people never bother to look at signs anyway, and will ask crew members a question answered by a sign right in front of them. But to frustrate those of us who are trying to figure things out on our own and end up flagging down a crew member for assistance anyway is putting more work on the crew than should be necessary.Embarkation
Ship experiences
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Ship tip
Ignore website's advice to download the "iConcierge" app, you need the "Cruise Norwegian" app.
Ports of call
Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska