Norwegian Pearl Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We've never been on a cruise before, so our family of 12 (ages ranged from my kids-15 to my parents-75) decided to take this cruise after a friends recommendation and we are very happy we did. The Pearl is lovely, clean and lively. Our room was clean & the bed was comfortable. There are activities every hour so you can stay as busy as you want to be or relax and do nothing. There are activites for the young kids and teens (my teens enjoyed meeting other teens for bowling, dinner, movies, etc.)  There are over 2,400 people the ship, yet we never felt crowded on deck or in the restaurants or in the Garden cafe or while eating at the Great Outdoors. Food was good or as expected when feeding so many, yet it was always fresh and well presented. Service was slow in the Crystal Palace and the Indigo restaurants, however, the Crew members are friendly, sharing a smile with their greeting and worked VERY HARD to help make the experience wonderful for everyone. Alaska is beautiful and we enjoyed our visit in every port the ship docked. I highly recommend this trip to Alaska for the young & young at heart.

When we walked on the ship we could tell they did not put much time into the ship. Instantly we noticed the windows which overlooked beautiful scenery was cloudy with water stains on them which may it very hard to see out of the windows and enjoy the scenery. NCL offers a itenirary system onboard the ship using thier wifi, but we noticed either events were missing or the times were completely off which was not good at all. In the main dinning hall they went from serve yourselves to you being served at each station, which caused getting food to be less enjoyable, and caused it to take a lot longer. They barely had any events in which you could go to that did not involve drinking, and if you went to dinner it seemed they did not care about you unless you ordered alchoholic drinks, showing that it took us two hours to get our food at caginys steakhouse on board. Thank you Norweigian for making my honneymoon cruise a disaster.

Alaska Cruise no crab legs :( Youth program wanted to set up my son and his cousin and the cousin turns 13 this month they would not put them in the same group so the boys did not want to do it.  Dining room experience it took approx 2 hours to eat supper.  Service in dining room was more personalized on our other cruise. Soda package not alot of options and none up by buffet.

I've been on half a dozen cruises, and this was the worst by far. 

-Guest Services staff were unfriendly and unhelpful.  We would ask them "what is the weather supposed to be for tomorrow" and they would either say "I don't know that" or "read your FreeStyle paper in your cabin."

-Tour excursions are likely not as advertised.  The cruise line made the kayaking tour in Juneau seem like people would be kayaking close to the Mendenhall Glacier, and in reality we could barely see it over the horizon.  Had I known how far we'd be, I would have done something different since, you know, the glacier is THE thing to see in Juneau.

-One day a room steward left our room door open and unlocked.  We came back to the room to find our door visibly open! 

-The food was a disappointment.  Nothing special, a few meals (like the salmon) were bad and had to be sent back.  Never served creme brulee, filet mignon, lobster, or ANY Alaskan food.  They served Norwegian salmon on a cruise to Alaska.

-Food service was extremely slow.  Dining room service was just a bit slow, but we sat down at the Blue Lagoon 24-hour restaurant at 2pm one day, and after 20 minutes with not even a glass of water we got up and left.  There was one waiter serving all 40+ tables!  Room service...one day we waiting an hour and a half for a couple sandwiches and a cup of soup. 

-The shows were lackluster - the choreography was terrible, the costumes were unflattering, and the dancers themselves were uncoordinated and rarely in sync. 

Every other Alaska cruise is much higher class than this one.  I will not be cruising NCL again.

It was nice but I thought staff should be more informed about what was going on many barely knew how to speak English and those I asked questions rarely seem to know anymore than I did. I had to wait for them to tell me answers like what was happening where. Also I thought there should be like a hair salon and place to get ones nails done as one likes to come back with a new look. I also thought there should be more normal kind of gift shops. so if u forgot something you could get it on board. I would have like a family friendly play or two.also needed some clocks as I don't wear a watch an Times changed an I missed some events.

Take the cruise if you love beautiful views,aquatic life, and a great staff of friendly people. I recommend you take the land trips offered by because they are locals who provide them. You don't need to do the whale watching because if you watch you'll see plenty from the ship ( I was told more and better from the ship) The shows were good also which is not always true on all cruises.

I would recommend the Norwegian cruise lines for anyone who is taking a cruise. I loved the whole expirence. I have taken other cruises but I have never been treated so well. I love that the crew ate with the guests. I loved that we were encouraged to sit and visit with the crew.

I loved the Washy, washy, happy, happy to help keep us all healthy. The ship was very clean I did not have one bad expirence. 

I liked the free style disembarking when we left off the cruise. I have been on other curises where we have had to wait in the bar for hours for our color to be called so we could leave. 

The side trips where great, I was traveling with a person who could not walk much so loved they put the amount of walking on the trips so we could plan the trips accoudingly. 

I would recommend the Alaskan cruise with Noregian to one and all. 

This was our first cruise and it wasn't long before we were referring to our ship as a "pirate ship" because of the inflated prices for every extra--laundry service was $27 for one load! Soft drinks were expensive, even with the "beverage package," and internet access unaffordable to everyone but the well-off.

Claustrophobia was a serious problem for some members of our small group, and when we asked to use the cabin we had paid for for a friend who at the last minute was unable to join us for this cruise we were told that the cabin had been placed back in inventory AND no refund would be issued.  This left us with a very sour taste in our mouths.

Entertainment options were very limited--except for the "Splash Academy" for children, which was excellent and was even free!  Our eight-year-old granddaughter spent every spare moment with this group and had a lot of fun with it.

The food was adequate, but the cafeteria-style Garden Restaurant was not very handicapped-friendly.  Most of the time, the tables designated for the disabled were occupied by people with no discernable disability who lingered at the tables near windows long after they had finished their meals.

The one bright spot was our cabin steward who was always friendly and eager to help us with every need.

We have never been so glad to get home from a vacation, and the only way I would cruise Norwegian again is if I were well-paid to do so.

Ok, I had a nice time (mostly) BUT they could improve! They only give 3 NO EXTRA CHARGE eating places! And 5 cost plus! Wow they tell you the cruise is includes your food but then charge everytime you want to do anything out of the cookie cutter. Plus one of the "no extra charge" resturant SUMMER PALACE was so bad (sevice terrible) that you were afraid to eat there because a meal could take hours to complete. Drinks were high, Drink package was way too high and hours of operation for cigar bar (sales) should be posted. And this"added fee" which you are required to pay, so how can it be added! of $12.00 per day per person is a crime. They need to pay their staff a wage and I'll tip my serveres what I feel is right based upon their level of serves. All in all, had a fair time (ALASKA was great) but would have been better had I not been charges "TO MUCH"

My husband and I travel extensively, including cruising. We found the scenery of Alaska great, but the ports of call were not worth visiting.  The ship was disappointing to say the least. While we upgraded to a mini suite we found it was no more than a veranda state room.  How disappointing. For example, "freestyle dining" made planning the evening difficult.  We did not like having different servers at every meal as we did not receive personal attention as we have had on other cruises. This is where I did not like the mandatory daily "tipping" since we would not have tipped well for the service we did not really receive. (However we did give extra money to our room steward for his personalized attention).On initial researching this ship, it was not clear that it was not really a smoke free environment.  Unfortunately, we could not use our balcony because there were smokers on either side of our balcony, nor could we go and enjoy a night at the casino.  The entertainment was very good , though 45 minutes is short. The quality of the food was average to to say the least , and the menu was not varied. Compared to other cruises this was the worst cruise we have ever had.  Our luggage was broken beyond repair and the customer service was unacceptable.  When we called about the luggage, we were on hold for over an hour on two separate occasions. There were more venues in which you had to pay a surcharge for....meaning, there really were only 2 restaurants that were "free" besides the buffet.  We could write a lot more , but the bottom line is we would not sail NCL again.  However, we have beautiful pictures of Alaska. 

Everything was perfect, except the entertainment left something to be desired.  What a cruise, everyone should take it. Our steward was wonderful, meals were great along with the watier, and the whole ship's experience was great. So many people, but at least the ship made it's expenses.  Thanks for seeing Glacier Bay and all the other ports that I have wanted to see for a  long time. How wonderful!!!

We waited a whole year for this cruise and when we finally got on the ship all we seen were unhappy faces. This was our 3rd cruise with Norwegian and probadly our last. The crew except for our cabin steward who always greeted us with a smile and the girl at the buffet spraying your hands everyone else was either rude or just plain acted like they had no desire in being on this ship. One of my charges was put on my newphew's bill so when he questioned it they not only gave him a copy of his bill but also of mine, never once asking for ID. They switched a charge from my brother in law's bill to mine again no ID. I never seen anything like this on a ship before and this was out 12th cruise no ID unheard of. So beware of your charges and privacy on your own because they are not going to. Like I said they just didn;t want to be there and really didn't care about the passengers . Thumbs down Norwegian.

We booked this cruise ship because it was advertised as having a water slide.  My kids were excited about having a waterslide to play on for 5 days.  When we boarded the ship we found no water slide!  You can imagine the disappointment for all of us!  We went to guest relations to inquire and this was their answer: "The water slide was 5 years old and was having some maintenance issues.  Also, it was in the way of the poolside band."  Sounds to me it took up room for the drunks that were shelling out $5 per beer and $10 per cocktail.  There were 2 pools, 1 of them was labeled adult only however there was no child or family only pool.  There was a small kiddie pool area for ages 1-3.  There was also a small splash area but the entire pool area, sun decks, and splash area were overun by springbreakers.  Nothing wrong w/ that, but when your family has no escape from that and your kids are playing in a splash area w/ cigarette butts and glass beer bottles everywhere it's not fun.  The only saving grace was the ship had an excellent kids club w/ awesome counsellors.  In addition to the above, the buffet was the best choice.  The sit down meals were aweful and the wait staff appeared to dislike their jobs as nobody ever cracked a smile.  We have cruised w/ Norwegian in the past and had a great experience, however, after this last cruise we will not sail w/ Norwegian again.

Water slide was removed with out ever informing us for our 8 and 10 year old! 

Loaded with drunk college kids falling all over the place having sex in pool- my kids were asked to get out of pool to accommodate thrm even got trampled by thrm. Kids were bored . If ncl is going to accommodate to the college spring breakers there are other players out there and we will definetly not bd sailing with them ever agsin. After making phone calls and emails and not getting any correspondence back we are severely dissappointed with norwegian. Definetly has gone down hill!!

Our first cruise, we liked it. The teen club was good, although at first we could not find the personnel involved and mistook the game room for the whole experience. Signage would have helped when we missed the personnel. I found 1 single 'aquaintance' activity; maybe 2 on consecutive days or 2 on the same day would get more people to come.

Tell people to budget for pictures!! Online purchasing passage, excursions +, were a pleasure to use. Also the baggage tags to print were great to have beforehand. Thanks for everything!

our main reason for booking with Norwegian this trip was because of the amenities for children. We read on the website that there was a 200 foot

slide, as well as a kids club called Splash Academy.  We were very disappointed to find the slide had been removed. We were further disappointed

to find there was not a  pool for the children. There was a splash area for toddlers, but nothing for children over 4 other then the family pool. I have looked on the website and it still says there is a slide!  It was very difficult to explain to children why there was no slide, since we had talked about it

for 3 months.  I must say the Splash Academy (kids inside play area) was great.

This was amazing. I'll keep it short.

The ship was superior on cleanliness and the staff were most hospitable. The Food was amazing I couldn't keep myself out of all the restaurants, especially the buffets. Room service rocked and the room attendant was the most friendly and professional guy I've met in a long time.

The ships activities were routine I expect but the energy amongst the crowd was great and the music groups were amongst the best I've seen in a long time.

Best vacation I've had by far. The staff on this cruise line is what sets the company apart from the rest.

My cruise was great!  The ship is beautiful and the entertainment for the Live Loud Festival was top notch, espescially Kris Allen!  I would highly recommend this ship to all, very clean, very accomadating!  Food was excellent!  My daughter also loved the kids club. The worst part of the cruise was when we had to leave!!  Keep it up NCL.  This was our first time cruising with you and we will cruise again.  Only recommendation for Live Loud is not to close the main pool.  Maybe locate the stage somewhere else.

We went on the Live Loud Festival at Seas- it was fun to get to hear a lot of different bands even though I am not a huge music buff. I would have liked maybe one magic show or comedian to break it up. The music was VERY good, however. Chris Allen was amazing and the dualing pianos- their talent- WOW'ed me. The biggest problem I saw was that there was no preparation for entertainment for bad weather. While we went to the private island and the day was not sunny- it also did not rain and everyone was on the beach- there was NO music, no lifegurads, all crew stayed pretty hidden. I realize they didnt want to risk their instruments and speakers getting wet in case of rain- but on other cruises they have always had some recorded music playing so it feels festive and you feel like you are at a beach party. It was dead silent and it made you wonder- will they have lunch, is there any activities goin on? Seriously, no rain and finally people got into the water and waves and lunch did happen. The ship -same thing- they covered up the big pool to be able to have a concert there and most of the time there was nothing happening for fear of rain. I would have loved to have had the pool with recorded music and the two extra jacuzzis they also covered.

  The food was wonderful and the rooms were great. Nicest ship yet out of the four major cruiselines we have been on. Def. a step up in finish out of the ship without the vegas fake bling feel. Loved the bowling alley. Loved having crepes prepared in front of you to order each evening, too. Also three omelet stations meant you didnt have to wait really too much for a made to order omelet. Dining rooms took a bit long to get your food out- it was two hours for dinner the two times we went- but the food was good.

  The rooms were great. There were two desk areas- one with a mirror in front of it and a plug so that one can be getting ready there while the other is in the shower- also the real tile in the bathroom and glass shower doors were so nice. We were in a middle cabin- cheapest. 

  Freeport was just ok and the market there was old and run down along with the restaurants. They need a big update/overhaul. Overall, I probably wouldnt do this cruise again even though I liked the ship the best- there is not enough to do in the ports- I would probably look for the Pearl when it headed to other ports.

BEST! The islands are amazing. Boarding/Disembarking was easy and stress free. Not crowded. Food was amazing. Elevators always crowded. Shows were 4-5 stars! Cruise felt too short