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08/20/2007 12:28:56 AM · #1 |
I finally got around to adding a bunch of photos from our big vacation this summer -- woo!
During the last two weeks of July, we drove from Pittsburgh to Seattle, and took a cruise to Alaska on the Norwegian Pearl. On the way to Seattle, we stopped at the Badlands, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone.
During the trip, I took over 1,600 shots... and thankfully I didn't attempt to post them all here :)
I uploaded a ton of shots here.
For those who don't want to fish through those, here are a few of my favorites:
                 
Of course, comments are welcome and appreciated. |
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08/20/2007 12:34:13 AM · #2 |
| Nice shots Alan. I only wish you had let me know when you were in Alaska. I'd have loved to meet at the cruise |
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08/20/2007 12:34:31 AM · #3 |
Great shots Alan. Looks like you had a good trip.
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08/20/2007 12:42:59 AM · #4 |
I would have enjoyed meeting you... but Anchorage wasn't one of our stops :( Maybe next time!
Originally posted by ShutterPug:
Nice shots Alan. I only wish you had let me know when you were in Alaska. I'd have loved to meet at the cruise |
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08/20/2007 12:46:01 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by alanfreed:
I would have enjoyed meeting you... but Anchorage wasn't one of our stops :( Maybe next time!
Originally posted by ShutterPug:
Nice shots Alan. I only wish you had let me know when you were in Alaska. I'd have loved to meet at the cruise |
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Well, I drive all over the place. I'll be driving to Denali on the 27th, and to Homer in September. Never hesitate to let me know where you're at. If I'm not working at the hospital or running with EMS that day I'd be apt to show up. |
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08/20/2007 12:51:57 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by ShutterPug:
Well, I drive all over the place. I'll be driving to Denali on the 27th, and to Homer in September. Never hesitate to let me know where you're at. If I'm not working at the hospital or running with EMS that day I'd be apt to show up. |
Well, the closest we came to your area was Skagway, which, according to Microsoft Streets & Trips, is an 800-mile drive (man, Alaska is a big state!)... so I would guess that would have still been a bit ambitious for a quick DPC meet & greet :) In any case, I'll be sure to give you ample notice if we ever get back to that neck of the woods again! |
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08/20/2007 10:21:54 AM · #7 |
| A shameless bump for the morning crowd ;) |
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08/20/2007 10:25:52 AM · #8 |
Nice shots Alan! Would love to visit those areas myself some day!
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08/20/2007 11:32:01 AM · #9 |
Very nice shots Alan.
What did you think of the cruise? I've been on a few too many cruises and I don't care for them because of the strict itinerary that I have to adhere too. However, a friend of mine told me that for the first time visiting Alaska that a cruise is the perfect way to travel.
Now that you have taken an Alaskan cruise, what do you think about it for a first time visitor and did you like Norwegian Cruise Lines? |
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08/20/2007 11:50:34 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by yakatme:
What did you think of the cruise? |
This will be a rather long post, but the best way to answer that question is to simply post the review that I posted on the CruiseCritic.com web site. If you're familiar with that site, people often give reviews of their trips afterwards, and I tossed in my .02 when we got home as well:
BACKGROUND
Weâre from Pittsburgh, PA, and this was the fifth cruise for my wife and me. And for the first time, we brought along our 8-year-old daughter. Each of our other cruises were on Royal Caribbean, so Iâll mention a couple pros/cons of Norwegian that we discovered along the way on this trip.
We drove from Pittsburgh to Seattle, and took in some other great sights along the way, like Yellowstone, the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. Itâs not that we hate flying⦠we just had enough time to make the trip and wanted to show our daughter the amazing sights of the West, and we were able to do so for a little less than what it would have cost to fly.
EMBARKATION
Smooth as silk! We pulled into the Seattle parking garage (2,975 miles after leaving home), fully expecting that weâd have to drag all of our luggage at least through the garage and across the street to Terminal 66. But we were very pleasantly surprised to be met by cruise valet people, who whisked our bags away right from the car for us. Sweet.
Once we got into the building shortly after 11:00 a.m., we checked in, and were given a number (11, if memory serves), and they began calling numbers to allow people to board. We were on the ship in no time, which was great. The cruises weâve done out of Miami always seemed to be a herd-like experience on Royal Caribbean⦠although we had a similarly easy experience boarding one of their ships in San Diego a few years ago.
The ship left port an hour or so late due to some sort of luggage issue, and we cruised a different path than they had originally planned due to weather â but we still made it to our first stop as scheduled.
THE SHIP
Itâs always great to cruise on a very new ship. Since Pearl is less than a year old, it was in pristine condition and the colors were bright and cheerful. I will admit that I wasnât quite as blown away with this ship as Iâve been with many of the Royal Caribbean ones. Pearl seems to be built around numerous restaurants â most of the main public areas are within an arms length of one restaurant or another.
What I really missed on Pearl was an âOh Wowâ sort of spot on the ship. On the Royal Caribbean ships, they pretty much all seem to have really big, open atrium areas with glass elevators that overlook several floors. There was no real spot like that on Pearl that made you kinda gasp in awe like what weâve seen on the RC ships. But itâs still a darn fine ship.
Considering we were traveling with an 8-year-old, we were very happy to find that the pools were very well heated for this itinerary! There was an adults-only pool (and Jacuzzis) and a second pool with a very nice water slide. The pools were so well heated that we were able to enjoy them every day of the cruise, even while we were in quite chilly weather at Glacier Bay!
We enjoyed the food on the cruise â my wife will vouch for the fact that on just about an hourly basis my favorite phrase was, âOh look! Itâs time for a snack!â Here are a couple thoughts on a few places where we ate:
The Blue Lagoon: We grabbed a quick bite here as one of our first meals on the ship. They have a selection of âcomfort foodâ on the menu, and I had Buffalo wings. Iâve always had the theory that the further away you get from Buffalo, NY, the worse the wings are⦠and I must admit that we were pretty far away from Buffalo⦠so my expectations were pretty much on the money. I think there were only four wings to begin with, and they werenât particularly crispy. But they did come with bleu cheese, which is at least a sign they knew *something* about wings.
We went to Mambos (Mexican) the first night of the trip. I honestly donât remember too much about the meal, other than we liked it. It was one of the free restaurants.
We paid the extra to go to Teppanyaki one night. Thankfully we planned well enough ahead to get one of the few tables there. I think that they were only able to accommodate something like 36 people at each seating, so you really need to plan ahead to get a table there. The Japanese chefs were entertaining, and worked together well. Their schtick was very similar to what weâve seen at our local Japanese steak house. The portions were generous (I had to be removed from the restaurant via forklift), and we definitely enjoyed it.
Summer Palace is one of the main dining rooms. We ate there at least two nights, and found it to be very enjoyable. One night we were seated in the very back of the room where thereâs a large window overlooking the back of the ship. Youâre literally sitting over the engines and have an awesome view of the shipâs wake from here. As we were eating, a whale jumped out of the water less than 100 feet from the ship â what an awesome sight! And it kept doing it as we got further and further away from it.
La Cucina (Italian) was another of the free choices of restaurants. The setting was very charming, and well decorated. We really enjoyed the atmosphere here.
Cagneyâs: Our favorite meal of the trip. We enjoyed a couple oâ big honkinâ steaks, and had especially friendly waiters. This was another restaurant that had a cover charge, but we felt it was well worth it.
Garden Café: Iâll speak more about the garden café in the next section about the Freestyle experience. The food was always good here with a fine variety. But it wasnât without its problems, as youâll shortly readâ¦
FREESTYLE CRUISING
I was a little leery about the concept of Freestyle Cruising going into it, and it more or less turned out to be what I was expecting. I can see how the no-set-schedule experience is appealing to some people, but I have to admit that I wasnât a huge fan of it for several reasons.
First, it seemed like the Freestyle dining actually involved much MORE thinking than I cared to do on vacation. The commercials imply that thereâs no need to bring a watch along, but thatâs pretty far from the truth. We always had to be thinking about the next dayâs itinerary, and making reservations that wouldnât conflict with the time we were spending at port, or interfere with shows we wanted to see.
As a result, we missed a couple of the main shows (which we would never normally miss on a cruise). On Royal Caribbean, you were assigned a time to eat (an early dinner or a later dinner), and those times corresponded with their show times so we always knew that we were going to be able to make it to the shows on time.
I know that many people are weirded out by the idea of being assigned to sit at a table with complete strangers, but I definitely missed that aspect of cruising this time. We have always enjoyed sitting with the same people all week and sharing our experiences with them, and getting to really know them and our wait staff. On our previous cruises, they always did a good job of seating us with people who were similar in age, etc., so we generally always hit it off with whoever we sat with. In fact, we still exchange Christmas cards with some people weâve met this way.
Unless you hit it off with another couple elsewhere on the ship, you simply sit with your family as you would at a regular restaurant. And after spending nearly 3,000 miles in the car together already, we were pretty much ready to meet someone new to talk to
I know that some of Royal Caribbeanâs dinner theme nights were kind of on the cheesy side, but I missed that, too. RC would have some sort of singing or bartender tricks, etc., during the meals since everyone was eating at the same pace⦠but there was none of that on Norwegian. The meals werenât âproductionsâ like they are on RC.
Our main problem with the Freestyle concept was that some areas became super crowded with people trying to eat at the same time, particularly at breakfast. Every morning we found ourselves off to a really frustrated start because the Garden Café was so extremely jammed with people that we couldnât find a seat, not to mention that there were just people EVERYWHERE up there. Most mornings, weâd wind up taking our food back to our room to eat it because there simply werenât any seats. And by the time we finally ate it, it was cold.
This problem is really the result of the placement of the Italian restaurant on Deck 12. Half of the back end of the ship was the Garden Café, and the other side was the Italian restaurant. They really should have devoted that entire area to the Garden Café to free up enough space to adequately seat everyone who is herding to the food at prime hours up there. We were also frustrated by the fact that there seemed to be plenty of people who were just sitting around up there, not eating, but taking up space that could have been used by someone with a plate of food.
PORTS
Juneau: It was a very nice place to visit. We visited the Mendenhall Glacier, which I thought was fantastic to see. I also took a guided photography tour, which took us to a few places we otherwise wouldnât have seen. It was also really fun to watch the salmon that were coming in. They were huge!
Skagway: Definitely our favorite stop. It was tremendously interesting to learn tidbits about life in this small town. For example, we learned that when women become pregnant, by their 9th month, they have to move to Juneau BY LAW! Skagway only has a tiny medical building where a doctor and dentist visit on a monthly basis. As a native of Punxsutawney, PA (yes, the Groundhog Day place), I always thought that *I* grew up in a small town⦠these people REALLY live in a rural spot!
We did the White Pass train ride and the gold dredging, both of which were fascinating and fun. Our tour guide was also fantastic for these events.
Glacier Bay: Amazing! I spent most of the day on the top deck of the ship. I was very thankful that I bought a jacket to add to my layers of t-shirt/sweatshirt. It was plenty chilly up there! I did have the chance to see some calving, which was really remarkable. I saw one big chunk fall off soon after we arrived at one of the glaciers, and smaller pieces fell from it a few other times. It was nice to have the national parks lady on the PA system, adding tidbits of information as we were cruising.
Ketchikan: Another really neat little town. We enjoyed the lumberjack show, and I just enjoyed taking a walk through the little streets and the Creek Street area. Lots of good photo opportunities!
Victoria: We didnât really research this stop at all ahead of time, but I took a very nice hike (several miles, actually) and found it to be quite a beautiful place! I think I heard the word âquaintâ many times as people were talking about it en route back to Seattle. The harbor area was very⦠well⦠quaint, with a bit of an art show/sale taking place while I was there.
CONCLUSIONS
All in all, it was an awesome trip. The round-trip from Seattle was a perfect itinerary for us, particularly since we had driven cross-country and would have had to fly back to Seattle had we taken a different approach.
The scenery was just fantastic, and we found the entire staff of the ship to be extremely helpful and friendly. I canât think of a single instance where anyone working on the ship was anything less than super!
My wife and I both kind of agreed that the Freestyle experience wasnât really for us, although again, thatâs really just a personal preference. Iâm sure there are plenty of people who greatly appreciate what this type of philosophy has to offer. Weâll most likely go back to Royal Caribbean the next time, though.
Again, we absolutely loved the trip, and we pretty much had to pry our daughterâs hands from the ship to get her to leave (did I mention that she absolutely LOVED the Kidsâ Aqua Club? Well, Iâm mentioning it now!). The shipâs crew was certainly among the best weâve experienced to date. |
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