Norwegian Pearl Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The food was good at the main dining rooms, also at the buffet and the grille at poolside and on the back deck.  The entertainment was very good.  The available tours, etc off ship were very good except Butchart Gardens at night.  I have been to Butchart Gardens in the daytime and it is beautiful.  It looses most of its beauty at night, not enough lighting.

norwegian Pearl staff was friendly and helpful.

Overall experience was good...but there are areas that can improve! Guest room drinking water is expensive....$5.00 + a bottle. Most passengers are older people and they need drinking water at night to take medication. Reservations agent promised to have a cake delivered to our State room upon arrival on board to make it a surprise to my wife as we are celebrating our 40th year wedding anniversary! But there was no cake.....false promise! Some crew members can be mean to passengers at times....depends on their mood of the day! Guest room carpets have stain in most places....needs steam cleaning....

Ship kept impeccably clean.  Very friendly and helpful crew.  Perhaps not the same high quality of food that we experienced on the Jewel last year.  That might have been because of the huge price increase for the meats and the purchasing agent had less of a budget.

Generally speaking, the trip was good and fun.  We had nice food, interesting shows, clean cabins, and lots of good memories.  However, the shore excursion experiences were not good.  In Juneau, we spent big money to see the dogs, but it turned out to be a pretty boring event.  It is not worth the money, far from "be reasonable". 

The crew on the ship were tired.  You can tell that they were struggling and they could hardly give you any more smiling faces.

Anyway, it is a good trip though a lot of improvements are expected.

Some Indian people said there not verity Indian dishes. Other services are very good.

Also we like evening programs. we may take this cruise again sometime in future.

The only complaints were the Anniversary package: the roses were not in the room upon boarding, the canapes were delivered a day early and in the middle of the day, and disembarking process: there was no explanation sheet left in the state room nor an announcement with regards to luggage placement or coding for pickup of luggage for disembarking the ship. However, the state room steward, food service staff, and entertainment were great. We have great memories thanks to the overall service and friendly staff.

The Alaskan cruise as a whole is something that needs to be experienced especially by nature lovers.  The destinations have their fascinating history and the scenery is just spectacular.  Some of the excursions are pricy, but there are some that are reasonable and provide an excellent experience.  There's also a lot of jewelry shopping  at each port for those who are into bling and the deals are highlighted by the crew. As for the Norwegian Pearl, the accommodations were reasonable (we had an inside cabin) for our family of 4, the food and selections were very good and the specialty restaurants were excellent.  Definitely check out the Steakhouse, Tepanyaki, and French specialty restaurants.  The crew was very friendly and accommodating.  My family totally enjoyed it.

My husband and I booked this cruise as a celebration of our 35th wedding anniversary. We had never been in a cruise before and weren't sure what to expect, but had heard good things about it and so decided to take a chance. We were not disappointed. We had the time of our lives! The officers, crew, and staff of the Norwegian Pearl went out of their way to make this a memorable experience for us. The itinerary, the dining, and the entertainment were wonderful. We especially appreciated the freestyle dining which allowed us to eat whenever and wherever we wanted to, and to choose whether we wanted to dress up or go casual. We chose to book a stateroom with a balcony, and this would be my recommendation to anyone, especially for the Alaska cruise. We were able to take full advantage of scenic viewing, even seeing humpback whales (spouting and diving) from our balcony! We will definitely book with Norwegian again as they met all of our needs and most of our wants.

Excellent all the way around.  Just what you'd expect in a nice cruise experience.  We had a great time, the better half and I.  The crew was attentive.  Good excursions.  We had great weather, which isn't always the case up there I hear.  If you like scenery, it's arguably the best.  The one thing we would do differently is book our own flight   A NCL thing they like to include I guess.  We like the idea of free style dining.  They like to take your picture.  Lots of Indian food at the buffet.

We enjoyed the trip.  The staff was excellent and the ship very nice.  The entertainment was good.  The food was good but didn't meet expectations or a previous cruise.

This was my first cruise so I have nothing to compare it to, but we loved the cruise and found it very relaxing. (something we needed)  The food was usually very good with only a couple of exceptions.  My son has dust allergy and had a problem with dust in the cabin (curtains, mostly) but our cabin attendant did something to clean them.  This really should be done more regularly since I know many people who are similarly affected.  As a whole we enjoyed our time on the Norwegian Pearl and if we ever decide to book another cruise would definitely consider Norwegian first.  Thank you for a wonderful trip and the memories we made on the ship and excursions!

The guest service of Norwegian pearl is the worst in the world.  I have never had such kind of bad experience in my life before I took this cruise. The crews of this ship are mostly from Philippine and India. Firstly, the guest service people from Philippine didn't train well and they are very racist. They keep lie to customer. If you are unlucky to get a noisy stateroom, you are bad luck if you are an Asian as they will not willing to help you to change a stateroom.  However, if you are a Caucasian, you may have chance to get a room or upgraded.

The room what we were assigned was on 11 deck which is under a restaurant. The room is small, dark, and dusty with a lot of mirrors (which is considered attracting ghost in Chinese culture). I can find the used bottles and trash under the bed.  Obviously, this room didn’t assign to the customer for a long time.  The engine noise was just on the side of our ears. On first couple of days, all of us were very sick because my daughter and I were sea sick and my husband caught a cold. I requested to change a different room with guest service every day and spoke to 4 to 5 front desk staffs in two days.  Every time I had to repeat my story again and again as they didn’t want to read the messages from computer. What I got from them each time was this message: waiting for response from manager. They just constantly told you they were fully booked and would pass messages to manager. However, you would never get response from the manager. Actually, the information I got from check in lady on Seattle port was that this cruise was not full.  

On the third nights at 2 am when I woke up again by engine noises， I burst out and called front desk saying that I could not stand the noise any more. The staff in front desk agreed to give me a room to sleep for the rest of night. When I went to one of the room offered to me on 5th deck, the noise in this room is even larger.  I called the lady again and told her the noise is worse, and request to the 8th deck which she offered to me half hour ago. She agreed and said she would send sb to bring me to the room. However, one minutes later, she told me the room is taken by sb already. My god, I was the only person wake up to request room changes at midnight at 2 O’clock. I didn’t see anybody was doing the same thing like me. How comes the room is taken? Obviously, she lied to me and didn’t want to help me anymore.  She told me she would send message to supervisor and asked me check back again in the morning 7:00 am with her supervisor I had to return the room key and back to my original stateroom at 3 am.

I waited until 7:00 O’clock to visit front desk again. Finally an Indian supervisor agreed to give me an interior room on 10th floor. This is the fourth day on cruise already. When I went to pick up key for room changes, a fat guy started to ask the same question again after I told him I come to pick up the key.  My husband was very upset when he saw this: “you’d better act now as my wife deal the issue with you guys for the last 4 days….”  This man went quickly to crab the key to me without ask anything anymore.  He also apologized for the delay. I astonished and told me husband:” it looks like only a tough guy can survive in this world. You should be the one to deal with them instead of me.”  I may not get the key if my husband was not there.

After we changed the room, the bar light didn’t work.  The small bed was not ready as well. I called front desk many times for repairing and waited whole afternoon in the room.  The phone either nobody picked up or front desk told me she would send people right way to fix them. However, I waited whole afternoon and nobody came.   After I constantly called more than 10 times, a room attendance finally came two to make up the bed.  The electrician came at night when we call front desk again in the evening.   The electrician told me that I left message to front desk to allow him come by 9 pm.  I was surprised as I was waiting in room whole afternoon and never left such as message. Why these guest service people like to lie all the time?

We were bad treated not just for room changes. My old mother was travelling with me. On the second day she was using her unfamiliar English inquiring with a guest service staff Therza S.  This staff was very impatient. She knitted her brows starring at my mother and constantly shook her shoulders and head.  I was speaking with another front desk staff on the left side at that time. When I saw this I went to my mother and asked what she needs to help.  She told me she was trying to ask where childcare centre is.  My mum said:” Another American lady can understand my English, why she cannot understand my English.”  I told her don’t ask help from her again as she is not patient at all. I notice in next few days that this staff named Therza S. hardly had any smiles on face but with her harshness attitude.  Therza also lied to me many times.  On August 15th night, I lost my black fur jacket in theater and reported to front desk. Therza was the one who filled the lost form for me on August 16th. I went back front desk 3 times to check if anybody got my jacket.  Every time Therza told me she didn’t see it. On August 16th evening, I decided ask one more time to see if my jacket was found or not. I called the front desk instead of showing up there.  A staff told me somebody returned my jacket one day before which is August 15th evening. I was so happy but also so confused: If sb returned my jacket on August 15th night, why Therza told me she didn’t find my jacket on August 16th after she checked 3 times?  Did she lie to me? Why she pretended not see my jacket?

The crews were very racist.  They treat Caucasian very friendly, however, they have different attitude when they treat non-Caucasian.  For example, they have no smiles when they speak to none-Caucasian.  What made us very upset was the second day when I was having sea sick. I didn’t eat breakfast so my husband decided to bring me to one of the restaurant called Summer Palace for lunch. One Caucasian was front of us and we waited 15 minutes for the service lady finished deal with him. I stood on the side with huge headache and pain on stomach. My husband was on the second of the place of the line. We were the only Asian on the line. When it was our turn, this staff from Philippine named Christine Paris passed my husband and inquired third Caucasian lady on the line without even looking at my husband and me. My husband was so angry: “what is wrong with your eye? I am standing right in front of you and you are asking next person?”  All the people were laughed at that staff. She finally noticed her improper behavior and apologized to us. However, this racist behavior made us loss the appetites.  We told the story to the guest services and never get any feedback from manager.

I am not the only one who was complaining the service. An old Caucasian lady also told me her story about the room changes. She told me she cried on the first day and luckily she got a room upgrade on the second day. The guest services also offered chocolate strawberry, wines and one free restaurant meal to her for apology.  What we got was get a interior room on 4th day and received a plate of chocolate strawberry for apology after my husband berated the staff for the bad services.

Overall, I think Norwegian cruise line is not very suitable for Asian to go as they are more welcome Caucasians.  The crews are racist and not friendly to Asian. 

The food on the Pearl was excellent as were the people who worked for Norwegian. But I have to say this cruise had more than 500 children on it and they ran up and down the halls day and night.  The The weather did not  cooperate.  The fog completely surrounded the ship on two of our sailing days making it impossible to see the scenery along the way. Also the television set in our cabin was a 13". Didn't matter too much though.  Reception was awful.  Until now, Norwegian was my favorite ship line. We will be more careful to choose cruises when children are in school and the weather is better. 

We had a great time on the Norwegian Pearl cruise to Alaska.

From the food to the kids program everything was excellent.Various entertainment and activities.

The staff was friendly and knowledgeable .The only thing I would like to see is heated pool.It was too cold to use it.

The balcony room was great for viewing glaciers in Glacier Bay.  Enjoyed the staff and special dance parties (white hot night, 70's night and western line dancing).  The excursions were great.  Saw many whales from the Spinnaker lounge as we were sailing. 

While the NCL cruise line may not be considered a luxury experience bay those rating cruise ships, I can say without hesitation that this cruise exceeded our expectations in so may ways. First of all was the very warm, friendly and very accommodating crew. Even though there were 1900 people on the ship, we felt like we were important and that the crew wanted to know us and insure we had a good time. This was a highly personal experience, even down to the entertainers who were involved in many ship activities and enjoyed talking with the guests. 

     About the entertainment as a whole, it was varied and excellent - A top-notch comedian who we went to see three times;  a clever and personable ventriloquist who used audience members as his "dummies;"  a look-alike and sound-alike Frankie Valle group who sang all the classic old songs; and dancers who were highly professional. The activities were amazingly fun as well, from  a ""Dancing with the Pearl Stars" competition to circus workshops to many trivia games. Also, the bowling alley and soccer games on the Sports Deck kept kids entertained for hours. 

     Finally, the food. As a former New Yorker, we have very high standards, and most of the 17 restaurants on the ship were exceptional. The buffets in the Garden Cafe were unbelievable with the choices available. And the quality was superb. 

    Only ONE downside to the ship - the specialty restaurants were horrible!  We paid an extra stipend for three of them, and not one compared to the restaurants included with the cruise fare.  Save your money and skip these!  

    Overall, this was a great week!  I can't say enough good things about The Pearl!

Our travel agent Lori, was very helpful and professional. Everything was done fast and efficient.  The biggest disappointment is Price Line policy with hotel coupons. You have very limited time to use it, because booking in hotel for four of us was not easy, after all, you lost it. Even call travel agent of this company is a huge problem, you need to have confirmation number, our recommendation do not work with Price Line. As per cruise, we can recommend everybody: you have to see Alaska. And once again. Thank you Lori.

Entertainment was outstanding and the cruise staff were warm and friendly.  This was a family vacation for 11 of us and we would have preferred to dinner together each day. Although this would have been possible, it required reservations at least one day in advance.  This cruise unlike others we've taken allows for the guests to eat wherever and whenever they want so there was no set dining each day.  On previous cruises we developed quite a report with our dinner serving staff and this was an enjoyable relationship.  Since we ate on this cruise in different places each evening we were not able to develop this relationship.                 Happy sailing!

Absolutely beautiful cruise.  We had great weather and lovely scenes.  The cruise line could have given us a heads up on a few items.  

We we went for the scenery, and outside of not seeing a lot of wildlife, it was beautiful.  The ocean and the mountains and sunsets where definitively extraordinary.  The boat was very nice and always very clean. There was some very good entertainment, and watching people bowl on a moving ship was worth the small surcharge.  The people, to include the roaming officers, where always friendly, helpful, and seemed to enjoy their jobs. They treated us fantastically, especially our Stewart Pablo.  You are very lucky to have him on your hall.

While there were definite ways to make our trip much better, and if not for the Victoria tour issue, I would have given our trip five stars.  For future sailors, please know these few things and have a smooth trip like ours, and you will happy-happy-happy!

The things to make our cruise better:

We got into Ketchikan very early.  We did one of the wildlife land tours as soon as we got off the boat.  Some of the exhibits were not even open and you had to peer through the windows. The cost was the same but the experience was vastly different than later tours.  The lumberjack show was awesome.

We got into Victoria around 6 pm.  There was only one whale watching tour offered at that time and it was the one offered through the boat.  While in all previous ports you could get off the boat and look around and decide what to do and still buy tickets from the cruise line or from a local, here that was not the case.  We were deeply disappointed that Norwegian didn't say that due to our late arrival, there is only one tour that is not the gardens available upon our arrival, and you MUST sign up on the boat.  There was nothing to do here except the gardens and the very beautiful museum if you didn't get a tour ticket on the ship.  Had we known we would have gotten the ticket on the ship before departure.  We had only seen a few whales in the distance, and this was the last shot.  It almost ruined our entire trip.

The food was ok.  The buffets actually turned out to be better than most of the specialty options as long as you didn't mind eating the same selections several days.  The Lotus was good.  The Brazilian steak house was ok but not worth an extra charge.  Make sure you make reservations in open restaurants or you will wait.

We traveled with a group of 14 in celebration of parents anniversary, don't expect any discounts based on this large number.  For many, to include my family of four, it was our first cruise.  It was an expensive trip, with extra opportunities to spend money everywhere.  However, it was worth going for us.  These items are to hopefully make it perfect for someone else like us, hope it helps!  

ENJOY YOUR CRUISE!

Wonderful cruise, almost perfect weather, great food, great service and new friends. .

Fun entertainment enjoyable ports to visit with lots of shops and restaurants.  Many diverse activities to please most everyone.