styles27

16 minutes ago, AKR2011 said:

This! Is it back yet, does anyone know? I miss it so much.

No farewell show on our sailing. The final night was Legends. 
 

Here’s the daily program from day 7

Forgot to comment on this. We

were able to get a good number of cruisers on our sailing to join Cruise Critic. 
I can’t tell you how many of them had never heard of it but were asking “what is a cruise critic meet and mingle?”
 

I do have one small criticism of CC. I know they don’t want us to post about other social media sites, however they do have a page and post regularly on this one other platform I’m referring to and if it would help get new members here I think relaxing that rule a bit would be very useful. 

 

1 hour ago, JCMass. said:

Thank you for this, information has been scare this year.  We also take this cruise each year in late April early May and do it for the ship and for Bermuda.  This year we are doing it twice, again in August with family. 

 

  The shows sound the same we saw last year like Legends, but there was also a 60's musical show in the Spinnaker Lounge that was really fun and another cabaret night with the singers performing together but also solo and duets of Broadway.  I am not sure what they mean by "big production shows"  all of this was great to us ! 

 

We have not been able to get more than a handful of people for a Meet and Greet in May and then in August.  I have organized them in the past with around 25-50 people.  I am not sure why other than there may be lots of first time cruisers who have not discovered Cruise Critic.  

 

We love the size of the ship, it is just right, and the crew is fabulous each year.   We often see the same crew year after year.  They say they really like this cruise and can leave the ship for a bit of time since we are docked for a few days. 

 

We just took a look at the Dockyard webcam and the bridge cam on the Pearl, they seem to be waiting for a couple of hours, my husband tells me they are just docking.  We usually start docking around 10am, so today we took a look and notice you could see Bermuda from the bridge cam but they didn't move till now.  It is our turn next Sunday. 

 

Yes last year we arrived in Bermuda at 10:30 am Bermuda time but this year they’re arriving a couple of hours later…not sure why. 

We spent a lot of evenings in the Spinnaker lounge. Funky Roots band was really good (they were on last year along with Seaside Duo) and we enjoyed the game shows in Spinnaker. 
We were one of 3 couples picked for The Perfect Couple game show.

All I can say about that is we’re glad our grandson was in Splash Academy that night. 🤦🏻‍♀️😎

If you want to laugh don’t miss it! I can tell you that none of it is staged. We placed our names in a box and were randomly chosen    
 

Sometimes I wonder if those things are prearranged but this one was not. lol 

We love the size of Pearl and even though we sailed completely sold out sans one room with a few hundred + kids it never felt overwhelming. 

For those of us that sail on this cruise every year it would be nice to see different entertainment but it’s not a deal breaker for us.
For us being 45 min from ship to our house is priceless. 

37 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’m not familiar with the MA school schedules, NJ and NY go back after Labor Day, I thought the whole NE was on a similar schedule.

RI goes back Sept 5.

MA goes back Aug 30 

We overall enjoyed our cruise on Pearl 04/07/2023 but the entertainment was pretty much the same that we saw last year on the same cruise. 

Legends was the “big” show of the week with one difference from last year they added Elvis and took away Madonna. 

The “welcome aboard” show was a comedian in Stardust the first night and he reappeared later in the cruise with an adult comedy show that those of us traveling with children couldn’t attend because Splash Academy was closed while in Bermuda. 
 

Two other nights they had a great entertaining female vocalist as the main show in Stardust.
 

Pearl singers and dancers performed a pure variety show one evening and then were part of the Legends show another evening. 
 

One night they showed a movie as the main show in the theater. 
 

It is my understanding that Pearl class ships don’t ever have the large production shows (someone will correct me if I’m wrong). 
 

We personally liked the cruise director. She was energetic and funny and we actually got to know her because she was at a lot of the events we went to. Her name is Carol. 
 

We never saw the captain. 
 

The hotel manager was awesome. He came to our CC meet and mingle which was very well attended in Bliss Lounge on the first sea day.

NCL had a nice spread set up for us and the senior officers in attendance spoke and answered questions from some of us willing to ask. Later throughout the cruise the hotel manager remembered us and spoke to us each time we ran into him. Mike (but German spelling) from Germany was his name. Great guy. 
 

All senior officers were very visible and approachable throughout our sailing and they did seem to recognize us from being part of the CC meet & mingle group. 
 

We live in RI and cruise to Bermuda regularly from Boston. We cruise for Bermuda not the ship. 
Many on our roll call expressed disappointment as their expectations were not met. They felt the ship was too small, not enough to do for the children, and lacking production shows. 
 

I’m always surprised at how little research some folks do before booking a ship.
 

We had quite a few first time cruisers on our sailing who were scared off and said they won’t cruise again because the seas were very rough. 
 

To us they were Bermuda cruise “normal seas” but I would never recommend a Bermuda cruise to a first time cruiser because the seas are usually a lot higher than a cruise in the Bahamas or Caribbean. 

We were in a Club balcony with our 9 yr old grandson and our room steward closed the sofa bed each day and returned while we were at dinner to open it again. We didn’t ask him to do this he just did it. He was great and we made sure to compensate him for all of the extras that he did for us. 
 

One thing that stood out to us was the crew seemed genuinely happy.  
 

25 minutes ago, julig22 said:

I cruise for the itinerary, not the perks.  Absolutely choose NCL because it isn't all-inclusive.  If I'm not using it, I don't want to pay for it.

Completely agree. 

On 4/26/2023 at 4:50 PM, corman-cruise said:

This is our first time on Norwegian. The encore is a beautiful ship but after sailing on Royal Carribean, celebrity, princess, oceana this cruise line is all about Nickle and diming you on everything. 

You get perks, wifi, free gratuities, specialized dinning, even purchased 2 additional days, got charged gratitude fee on top of the free perks and extra dinners. 

Upgraded to a premium alcohol package because my wife wanted better bottled water, yip you pay a gratuity charge on that. 

It seems like the service on board has decreased, nobody walking around the buffet offering orange juice, coffee or pastries. 

No big show productions, but the musicians are amazing. 

To me, it seems like we are getting less and paying alot. 

Not sure that I will ever sail with them again. 

So far, 7 out 10

Considering the base fare hasn’t changed much over the years they need to make up the cost somewhere. 
Personally I’m a big fan of usage fees. We don’t want or need a drink package, we pay as we go and prefer it that way. 
If you want an “all inclusive cruise line” without those add on fees be prepared to pay triple or more of what your NCL or even RCCL cruise costs.  

On 4/23/2023 at 7:54 AM, OrangeCatRamblers said:

I'm happy to report back that we had a wonderful time and everyone coexisted peacefully. 

 

For those of you that "knew" it wouldn't be a big deal, pat yourselves on the back, you somehow saw through a very slick pr campaign promoting bamboo and twerking in a way that I couldn't see through!

 

Perhaps you also reached out to the organizers attempting to clarify salient issues (primarily: will the promoted pool party events be taking place, and will other outdoor parties be taking place at times when teens are traversing the ship doing their own activities) and you received information from them that I did not. Well, we all tried to get information from all possible channels, I just wasn't as successful in "knowing" that what was promoted as an on-ship musical festival wasn't going to be a big deal. 

 

I'd like to live & learn, so please feel free to dm me at any time telling me how I was unable to get the info that you had. Sharing information makes everyone prepare for a better time! 

 

The Prima is amazing! Best ship we've been on after gem getaway breakaway. 

I was one who tried to get Info from them on the other social media site and they ignored every one of the questions I asked on their ads. 
Some CC’ers can brush it off as “you were worried for nothing” but I guarantee you some of them will be on here posting the same concerns if they find out their cruise has a large group/charter that could impact their vacation. 
Those of us with empathy completely understand your concern prior to cruising.

So happy for you that it worked out in your favor!

I don’t understand. Were you told you couldn’t leave the YC area before 8a.m?

I was only in YC one time but can’t remember…are the ship wide announcements concerning the ship being cleared not heard in the YC area?
 

5 hours ago, lawman294 said:

NCL is not customer friendly! I just received my flight reservations for a cruise from Rome. We booked air and hotel through NCL for an early 3 day stay. I just received my flights this morning and we won't land in Rome until 535 PM losing a whole day. I called as soon as I received the air. They told me could not be modified because it has to be 75 days out which was 5 days ago, but I just received the notice this morning 70 days out. If I were sailing the same day They would get me to Rome at an early time!. I even offered to pay they said no!!! The air rep I spoke with agreed with me that it is not right! It falls within their parameter's that the flight arrive by 535 and hotel by 7. There is no way you can clear customs and get to the hotel by 7. NCL is losing a customer as of today. I can't even cancel without losing too much money and I looked to book my own air, but NCL will not refund all of my money so they got me. I will make the best of it but they have lost a loyal customer and I will never sail with them again, and I will encourage all of my friends and family not to sail with them!!!!! Not a happy person right now

Simple way to avoid this is to book your own air. 
I would never allow any cruise line to have control of my air arrangements. Especially going to Europe. I don’t care how much money it supposedly saves me. Not worth the stress that you’re now experiencing.
Money isn’t as important as my sanity. 
I think it’s unfair to judge a cruise line by the experience you’re having with your flights. Their on board experience is why we cruise with them. I don’t expect them to make my flight arrangements. I understand you’re upset but there are so many similar stories to yours concerning NCL booked flights that have taught me to never use them for that. 

I know how concerned you were before your cruise about the Soca group but it sounds like it was a non issue.
So happy to hear that you had a great cruise!

We were lucky to see Prima in Bermuda a couple of weeks ago while on Pearl and we both decided our next NCL cruise will be on her! 
 

Did you see the Soca group at all?

The chocolate lava cake in the MDR was our favorite last week on Pearl!

38 minutes ago, Scurrent said:

I was on the Gem in February of 2023 and made my specialty dining reservations prior to leaving with no problem. However, when I tried to book dining reservations in the Main Dining room beforehand, I could not.  When we got on the boat, people had dining reservations set up in the Main Dining room.  I called NCL and was advised that there are no reservations for the main dining room.  I am now unsure who to believe.

 

How did these people get reservations for the main dining room, and how do I do so for our upcoming cruise on the NCL Spirit?

 

Much thanx - Steve

Just off Pearl on Friday. I was able to make reservations for the MDR before our cruise on the NCL app and I had the email confirmation and I took a screenshot just to be sure.
 

 Once on board the ship when the App changed to the on board status my MDR reservations did not show up. My specialty dining reservations did. 

I went to guest services and was told they don’t accept reservations for the MDR. I showed her the email confirmation and screen shots and she was speechless lol 

There was nothing she could do. She kept repeating to me that they don’t take reservations for the MSR despite me having proof that I made them.
Others in line with me were there for the same reason.

Even though the ship was sold out we only had to wait maybe 10 min a couple of times to get a table.
They gave us a beeper and a voucher for a glass of sparkling wine or soda each time we had a wait. 

59 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

Did you need the internet package for the 9.95 per phone? We always lock them up when we board but our oldest asked about walkie talkies for him and our grandson they use when camping. This sounds better.

No internet needed to use the message feature in the NCL app. 

You put the phones in airplane mode and use the Pearl internet that is designed to work with the app. 
I’ve heard some complaints about the message feature but we didn’t have one problem with it.

It really was a great thing to have so we could communicate with each other when he was at Splash Academy. 
He also felt very grown up having the cell phone for the week since he doesn’t actually have one in “real life” lol

So stressful for him. I’m glad he was able to make it in time!

Forgot to mention

We ordered a plate of steamed vegetables to share each night in the main dining room.  
The servers were very accommodating and always asked if the sides that came with the entree were to our liking or if we wanted something else. 

5 hours ago, macor said:

Styles27 - it was so thoughtful of you to bring an Easter Basket for your cabin attendant.  We will be cruising NCL for the first time in September.  I would like to bring something for our attendant as well.  Is there only 1 person that takes care of the cabin?  We usually cruise Oceania and there are usually 2 people that care for the cabin.  Granted one is the primary, but both do the big cleaning each morning.  Any suggestions for items the staff enjoy would be appreciated.  Thanks for sharing about your cruise.  It has been helpful as well as enjoyable.  

Thank you! We had 1 cabin attendant and he was a joy! He always had a smile on his face and he learned our names and greeted us by name every day! For the Easter basket I filled it with the usual Easter candy and included an extra cash tip for the week. We also hid some cruise ducks which he was very interested in because he has 2 small children back home, so we gave him some Easter ducks for his kids. 

1 hour ago, RenieRaider said:

Thank you Styles27  I enjoyed every one of your posts. The photos were great.  Your Grandson sounds like a joy to be with. He is blessed to have you.

Did you try that Deal or No Deal game? What was the cost, I could not see it on the daily.

Glad they still have Bingo., some lines have dropped it.

Regarding the Ship Tour, was that crazy crowded or was there more than one person taking perople around?

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your vacation to share your Norwegian Pearl experience. Be well and smooth sailings.  

Thank you so much! 
We did not play Deal or No Deal. We did play Bingo once it was $49 for 3 cards/3 games. We had fun but didn’t win lol

We didn’t do the behind the scenes ship tour this time, sorry I can’t comment on that. 
 

1 hour ago, FuninWB said:

We're going on this cruise May 12, our 15th trip to Bermuda on NCL.  I read somewhere that NCL is changing the  main dining room menus so that they no longer rotate. Was that true for the Pearl on your trip? Thank you for your wonderful review. 

We thought the MDR had very good choices. 
On the left of the menu they have “Classic entrees” that are available every night and they don’t change.

They included NY Strip, Rotisserie Chicken, Pork Loin, Shrimp Alfredo over Fettuccini and Flounder. 
The right side of the menu had different entrees every night and they weren’t repeated the 4 times we dined there. 
There were at least 10 entree choices between the two sides of the menu each night. 
 

14 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

An 8 nite YIN on MSC Mera cost less than a 7 nite guarantee "no frills" balcony on NCL, both out of NYC, for the same week this month.   

 

Thanks to CC I've read about weeks when the Haven was overrun by groups of unruly kids with minimal (if any) adult supervision.  And, weeks when "obvious groups" in the gereral population made it unpleasant for others.

 

It's the luck of the draw....you never know who else is going to be onboard. If security, or someone, can't control "pushing and shoving" I'd be spending my money elsewhere.

Completely agree it’s the luck of the draw.

Over 40 cruises under our belts and we never had the experience we had on Divina in January.
 

Had it been a 3-4 day cruise we probably would have chalked it up to the “booze cruise” type sailing but we did 10 days and 4 days back to back. The 10 day was the problem. 

All things considered we’ve had great luck. 
 

This cruise on Pearl had great passengers especially considering it was cold and windy going to and coming back from Bermuda we were inside a lot yet zero problems.
Pearl didn’t seem to be understaffed which makes a huge difference also. 

Unfortunately still reading some of the same complaints about Divina on other social media sites. I think they need a change of management. I feel so bad for the crew on that ship. 

47 minutes ago, salzdt said:

Where is the best parking?  We will be cruising to Canada in September. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dot and Fred Salzberg

We used the ParkWhiz app and parked in the lot right next to the ship. It was a very easy in and out lot and a very short walk to the terminal. It was $185 for the week and I reserved and paid for it a few weeks before our cruise. 
 

1 hour ago, NYcruzzer said:

Welcome home. I felt the same way about the Haven on NCL. Was in Haven on Gem and Breakaway. Felt like we had to spend more time in Haven areas to get our "moneys worth" On my first MSC cruise on Mera this May I purposely chose a room in "gen-pop" . This way I can spend more time covering all the areas of the ship

When you compare YC vs Premium lines you aren't putiing NCL in the premium cruiseline catagory are you ? To me they are no better then Royal or dare I say Carnival

Definitely don’t consider them to be a premium line I should have said higher priced than MSC.
 

To me NCL and MSC aren’t that far apart yet NCL is more expensive. (At least for us it was in comparison to our last MSC cruise)

20 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

I wouldn't limit yourself to not sailing an entire cruise line because of the other guests you experienced onboard. Like I said, I am in the Meraviglia right now and so far, my only complaint about another passenger is one lady who put her bare foot up on a chair in the Edge lounge. I think it really is dependent on the itinerary. I have sailed on Celebrity on a 4 day out of Miami and it definitely had more of a "booze cruise" feel to it. None of these cruise lines are screening their passengers for manners before allowing them to board. You can run into rude passengers on a cruise line.

We definitely will cruise MSC again but only in YC if we’re leaving from Miami and never during a holiday again. 

 

53 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

We did a couple of covid return cruises on Getaway they were low capacity helped overcome the restrictions at the time 

 

Giving NCL Star a go next month and started looking at one of the new Costa ships, a UK vlogger did a review and they look good.

 

Need to get my head round HAL and their price model.

 

We’ve found a great travel agency that gives a very generous OBC and pays the service charge so that helps with the higher priced cruise lines. 
 

You really do get what you pay for. We realize that now. 

We enjoy the MSC product and ships but after our experience in January we won’t cruise outside of the YC with them in the future. 
 

The issue I have with that is we limit ourselves to a small area on a huge ship. We may as well pay for a more premium cruise line where we can enjoy the entire ship. 
 

6 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

Thanks. I was referring to the Bar Harbor tender. Is that the one you were referring to?

Oh sorry about that! I thought you meant the NCL ferry to St George. 
We didn’t go to Bar Harbor this cruise. I believe they don’t begin going there until late April/early May. 

2 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

Thank you for your great review!

 

I'm really sorry to hear that Splash Academy didn't have much for the older kids. We are taking our 7 year granddaughter on the Escape in May and hope to be able to use Splash Academy. She cruised with us on NCL Dawn when she was 3 years old and loved Splash Academy although there were very few kids on that cruise.

 

The hours at Splash Academy seem to be the new ones they are using on all of the NCL ships.  SA was not open when in port on the Gem in March. Before Covid, SA had a consistent schedule and it was open when in port.  It is really unfortunate that they have adopted these new hours as I do think this will turn families away from NCL. I am also hearing they don't have adequate staffing in SA on the bigger ships as some reviewers have reported that they had to be in line about 30 minutes before SA opened to get in or they were turned away and did not get to use SA if they didn't go early. 

 

Do you plan to cruise again on NCL? We do have some MSC YC cruises booked later this year and next year but do still love NCL and will cruise on NCL several times this year. I really appreciated your live review on Divina before we cruised on it in January. 🙂

Do you have any tips about cruising with a grandkid? We did get our granddaughter some specialty meals and the soda package. She will definitely get to enjoy Teppanyaki with us and I do know she could order from the kids menu at other specialty restaurants but she is pretty adventurous about trying new food.

That is wonderful to read that your cabin steward did open and close the sofa bed each day. It sounds like you had a great time and enjoyed making memories with your cute grandson.

Thank you! I’m happy to hear that my reviews have been helpful. I really do enjoy doing them! 
 

We will definitely cruise with NCL again, we had a great time!

I think we’ll book Prima and take our grandson again. He’s only cruised on Pearl so he was pretty excited when he saw Prima in port. 

People were lined up ahead of time for SA on our cruise too. The line went all the way to the entrance of the buffet. We were turned away a few times because it was at capacity. 
SA on Pearl isn’t very large. I’m wondering if anything will be done during the dry dock to expand it. 
I think the sports court on deck 13 is a waste of space and isn’t utilized much. It would make a great area for kids and teens. 
 

Evan is definitely an adventurous eater so he ate off the adult menu at every meal. The servers got a kick out of him!
He was able to eat the entire meal at Teppanyaki…I couldn’t even finish mine!
I don’t know where he puts it, he’s so thin but he also never stops moving and kept us going the entire week!  
 

We love taking him with us and he’s also a big help as we allowed him to go to the Great Escape to grab snacks etc. 

One tip for cruising with kids that helped us a lot is we brought one of our old iPhones with us and downloaded the NCL app on it. We paid the $9.95 per phone so we could message each other. It worked out great as he could message us if he wanted us to pick him up at SA or if he wanted to negotiate a later pick up time. (More often that was the case lol) 

I highly recommend that if you have an old phone that you no longer use. 

Finished our cruise yesterday.
 

We can cruise on a sold out ship with 400 kids during school vacation and have a very positive experience without having to book The Haven or Yacht Club. 

Very apparent that this ship is not understaffed. 
 

Our faith in cruising is restored. 
 

This was our second NCL cruise,  we are not loyal to any one cruise company.

We cruise with all of them. 
 

HAL next.