Cruise Alaska on the Norwegian Pearl – Part 1, Prepping for the Cruise – Travel

My youngest son and I decided to go on an Alaska cruise together. We wanted to go for one week. I had heard fantastic reviews about Norwegian Cruise Lines and I had been in contact with a lady who works for Norwegian. She could help us set everything up. Her name is Lynn. She is great. She has kept in touch with me for years.

There are Choices to be Made

To Begin, my son and I decided which cruise we wanted to go on. The cruise we selected comprised of a specific ship departing from a port, stopping at different assigned ports (weather permitting), and continuing along only to return to the port of departure at the end of a week.

For our trip we chose the Norwegian Pearl departing on a Sunday from the city of Seattle, in Washington State in the USA.

I did some research and found out that one of the best times for the Alaska cruise is in September. In September you aren’t plagued by mosquitoes as much as in earlier months.

Also, if you choose a departure date close to the end of the cruise’s scheduled season, you may catch some great shopping discounts. Merchants don’t want to hold stock until the beginning of the next season.

Even though at this point, we hadn’t left for our cruise yet, I’m going to show you a few pictures from our trip so you can see some of what I’m talking about.

When you go cruising on Norwegian, you have lots of choices you need to make before you ever get on the ship.

You need to choose a room size and type (that is anything from a standard room without a window to a suite with a balcony). You need to decide where on the ship you want your room to be (high or low), (forward, midship or aft).

You need to selected a drinking package. The drinking package we selected allowed us to have all of the water, milk, juice, tea and soda we could drink. My son and I rarely drink anything stronger than what we selected. We decided if we wanted beer, wine or hard liquor, we would pay for those separately.

You need to decide if you will do any specialty dining or will you just eat at the all you can eat buffets.

The food variety and quality at the buffets is amazing.

We never had a disappointing meal.

Specialty dining is another package we decided to purchase through Norwegian. In addition to eating in the all you can eat buffets, four of the nights we would go to one of the many specialty restaurants that they have onboard.

One night we would eat in their Italian restaurant “La Cuchina”. Another night we would eat in their French restaurant “Le Bistro”. The final night we would eat in “Cagney’s steakhouse”.

One of the days would be totally at sea (they would not be stopping in a port that day). We decided to enjoy the Japanese restaurant “Teppanyaki” that night because the preparing and serving of that meal is an event (somewhat theatrical in itself).

You need to decide if you will go on an excursion at each port you go to (excursions can be purchased through Norwegian). You don’t have to go on any, or maybe you go on one or two. We went on five. We chose to go on the Mendenhall Glacier bus tour, we went Whale Watching, went for two Hours of Horseback Riding, went to a Lumberjack Show and rode in a Horse Drawn Cart around downtown Victoria in Canada.

You can take a chance and purchase an excursion when you get into each port. One problem with that is, if you book outside of the Norwegian arranged excursions, and something delays you getting back to port, and the ship has left, you have to find a way on your own to get back to the ship.

I know two people who in the past booked their excursion through Norwegian’s arranged excursions, but one of the ports could not be docked in due to bad weather. Norwegian refunded the price of the excursion for the guests. If they had booked outside of Norwegian, there is a very high likelihood that they would have lost the money for that excursion (no refund likely).

Comfort, Safety and Insurance

Part of our trip was insured. You can purchase trip insurance and some health insurance. Trip insurance is there in case something bad happens that causes you to miss your trip. Health insurance is also offered. You have to decide and pay for what if anything of these you want. They are offered when you choose your trip.

I am a stickler for comfort with safety (plus insurance), but at a price we could afford.

When it came to the cabin, we chose a cabin on a floor level that was just one above the deck where the life boats are. We selected a room that was close to a set of stairs, so in the event of an emergency, we had a better than average chance of getting to a lifeboat from our room.

We selected an inner room midship with no balcony or window (not even a porthole). It wasn’t a huge room, but frankly it was less expensive and we didn’t intend on spending much time in there, so we didn’t care.

Most of our day we were off ship or out and about doing things on the ship. We stayed up late, often watching a late night movie on a gigantic screen in the main lobby. We would be up until 2:00 AM go back to our cabin and go to sleep. We would get up early, clean up, get dressed for the day and be down for breakfast by 7:00 AM.

We chose a room that was in the middle of the ship because in the middle of the ship you feel less of the rolling of the ocean. If you did get seasick, this would be a place where you would feel as good as was possible on the ocean.

Neither of us had ever been on the ocean on a ship of this size. We didn’t know if we would get seasick, so we brought dimenhydrinate with us. Dimenhydrinate is actually an antihistamine. It is used to prevent and treat nausea, vomiting, and dizziness caused by motion sickness. It also helps to alleviate allergic symptoms like sneezing, watery eyes, a runny nose, rashes and itching. This medicine can make you drowsy though.

We were hoping we wouldn’t need it, but we figured better to have it with us and not pay an inflated price somewhere on our trip. We also brought other things as a just in case (a small box of bandages, a digital thermometer, loperamide, cough drops, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and such).

We didn’t need any of the meds we brought and never felt seasick, Thank God!

You Might Want to Get a Special Passport Holder

If your cruise ship is going to stop in another country, a passport is one of the most important things for you to bring. If you want to stop and look around in another country, you will need one.

Now you may also be required to show some proof of vaccination record before you are allowed to enter another country. Check with the cruise line well before your departure date, for your specific trip, and find out which documents (if any), are needed where you are going.

I found these great passport, credit card and Covid-19 vaccine record holders for foreign travel. I like (and bought), the pink one but at the time of this writing it comes in 35 different colors/patterns.

Luggage is Needed

My son and I each needed a large and a medium sized suitcase with wheels and telescoping handles. I also needed a shoulder bag (to hold my purse, our passport/credit card wallets, our itineraries and such). I would carry the shoulder bag on as if it were a purse. It would stay with me. My two suitcases and my son’s two suitcases would be checked.

Note; You really want to have luggage wheels that turn 360° because you will be in line outside and inside the port’s embarking and disembarking areas for a while, walking in lines that serpentine sometimes.

If you don’t already have decent luggage and need to buy a set, I’d suggest the following;

• Choose luggage that is TSA approved.
• The luggage you choose shouldn’t be common in color (not black, not navy or royal blue). Choose luggage with a color (or a pattern), that stands out. This will make it easy to distinguish from all of the other sets of luggage when you disembark at the end of the cruise. This will make it easier for you to find your luggage when it is going around on a suitcase conveyor system or when it is sitting in a group of other suitcases waiting to be retrieved.

Click on this link to see a colorful set of luggage. This set comes in 11 different colors to choose from. They have wheels that turn 360° (which you will be thankful to have when walking the serpentine path to check in on this Norwegian ship). They are expandable (important because you will very likely come home with more than you left with).

If you are someone who would rather have hard-sided set of luggage (that doesn’t expand), take a look at these pieces. They come in six different colors (choose wisely).

We Needed Luggage Tag Holders That Would Last

You can print the Norwegian luggage tags ahead of time for each of your pieces of luggage. We used luggage tag holders that would fit our “Norwegian pre-printed luggage tags”. Here are some luggage tag holders that work with printable Norwegian luggage tags.

Jackets Were Needed

Both my son and I bought heavy duty jackets. Because we didn’t know how cold it was going to get where we were going. We got jackets that could be broken down into lighter weight jackets.

Here is a woman’s winter jacket. The jacket is cited as being wind and waterproof. It has an inner jacket that can be worn by itself and an outer jacket that can be added for colder conditions. It comes in 11 great colors.

The same company as above makes a men’s winter jacket. It has an inner jacket that can be worn by itself and and outer jacker that can be added for colder conditions. It comes in 11 great colors.

Gloves Were Needed

We each brought a pair of gloves for cold weather. The gloves we purchased are no longer available. These gloves (women’s gloves and men’s gloves), should work well for the cold you may experience walking the outside decks of the Norwegian ship while it is circling Glacier Bay in Alaska. Additionally these gloves I found on Amazon allow you to use your touchscreen devices without removing your gloves (you will likely want to take pictures).

You will need to decide what kind of clothing and shoes to bring, based on those excursions and activities you expect to attend.

So Many People

So, 2394 passengers in line…. all with passports and luggage. How does Norwegian do it?
They do it with specific boarding times assigned to each passenger. That is how they are able to process that many people in just a few hours.

When you go, make sure you get there in time for your assigned boarding time.

Now, get a move on, it’s time to begin boarding!

Well, this post was all about planning, scheduling and prepping for the trip.

Now, go read the next post in this series titled;

“Cruise Alaska on the Norwegian Pearl – Part 2, Up Through Our First Two Excursions“.

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