Norwegian Pearl Cruise Review

Alaska Cruise on the Norwegian Pearl

We recently went on a cruise to Alaska on the Norwegian Pearl. This was the first time we've sailed with NCL and it was a disappointment from beginning to end. This trip was to be our "babymoon" as we are expecting our second child in November. We brought along our 22 mo old daughter.

Before booking the cruise, NCL reps informed us that there would be "group sitting" available for our toddler at a fee of $5/hr for 3 hour increments. That would give us a break to enjoy a nice dinner or show and have our daughter be entertained and to play with other kids.

We booked the cruise and then heard from a friend that there was no childcare for under 2. We called NCL back and this time we were told that there was absolutely no childcare for kids under 2. After speaking with three different people for over an hour, they offered no solutions or compensation other than for us to cancel through insurance and re-book when our daughter turns two which we can't do as I'll be too far along to travel. Their attitude was "oh well." And that attitude continued for the rest of our journey.

Their food in the dining rooms is below par, compared to other cruise lines we've been on. We only tried one specialty restaurant because their service was so slow that I even had to go up and ask for some water. We often had difficulty finding a high chair even though we "reserved" one when booking our cruise.

We constantly ran into inconsistencies with their policies. One passenger took his 18 mo old son down the slide three times in a row. My husband then tried to take our daughter and was made to go back down the slippery, wet stairs as the crew member said that he could not allow my husband to go down the slide with a child. Even though juices are supposed to be included in the cruise, I was told that I would be charged for ordering an orange juice with dinner. We don't complain lightly but felt that other people (especially families) need to know that there are much better cruise lines out there. It was not worth the money to have "freestyle dining" considering all of the other hassles we had to deal with. Please do a lot of research before booking with NCL.