Norwegian Pearl March 4-11 Review

[irishayes]

I know I will have a lot of people blasting me for this review, but that's OK. I have a right to my opinion.

 

First let me say, some of my disappointment was our own fault--lesson learned, I will never cruise out of Miami on College Spring Break week again. Drunk college students pretty much ruled the ship--forget even trying to get close to the pools or hot tubs. All three of our family had to ask for earplugs at the front desk because of loud, drunk kids in the halls as late as 4 a.m.

 

The cruise started off on a bad note--we heard the announcement that our rooms were ready, so off we went to check it out. The room was ready, and I needed to use the restroom. Imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid and discovered a plugged up toilet, full to the rim with urine and feces. Immediately picked up the phone to call and complain. The head of housekeeping apologized and sent a bottle of wine. Our steward knocked on the door about an hour later and actually argued with me about what we had found. He insisted that he was the last one in our room and the toilet was clean when he left it. I'm not sure--was he accusing me of dirtying the toilet and then complaining? IMO, the arguing with me about what I had found was inexcusable.

 

One other major thing that happened was an excursion was misrepresented. It was the only excursion we booked through the cruise line. I wanted the dolphin swim/stingray excursion in Grand Cayman. I chose the ship's excursion because the description stated that the trip out to Stingray Sand Bar was on a catamaran. My husband and I are sailors--we owned a sailboat of our own until a few years ago. Well, we were loaded on a large people-mover boat. Sailing on a catamaran is a very different experience than a large boat holding 60 people. Maybe it wouldn't matter to many people. For us, it did, and it was one of the reasons we booked the cruise's excursion. When we got back, we went to see the Shore Excursion desk to discuss how the excursion differed from what the description said. Again, argued with. He argued that a catamaran doesn't necessarily indicate what we think of when we hear the word "catamaran." Then agreed to talk with the main office and change the description of the excursion. They did ultimately give us a 20 percent discount, but again, the arguing was inexcusable.

 

Food was fair. Thought that the teeny buffet outside in The Great Outdoors bar after a day in port was grossly inadequate for the huge crowds of people clamoring for food at the end of the day. Also the seating in the buffet area was inadequate for breakfast. Much difficulty finding a seat after getting our food. But again, maybe that is more because of Spring Break week and the ship being full to capacity.

 

Comparing it to our cruise on Celebrity last year, NCL falls far short of that experience, mainly because of customer service and food quality. It would be interesting to see if I would think that if I hadn't chosen Spring Break week to try out an NCL cruise. I don't think I would chance it again, though, and would stick with Celebrity from now on.

[jsteinberg]

I know I will have a lot of people blasting me for this review, but that's OK. I have a right to my opinion.

 

First let me say, some of my disappointment was our own fault--lesson learned, I will never cruise out of Miami on College Spring Break week again. Drunk college students pretty much ruled the ship--forget even trying to get close to the pools or hot tubs. All three of our family had to ask for earplugs at the front desk because of loud, drunk kids in the halls as late as 4 a.m.

 

The cruise started off on a bad note--we heard the announcement that our rooms were ready, so off we went to check it out. The room was ready, and I needed to use the restroom. Imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid and discovered a plugged up toilet, full to the rim with urine and feces. Immediately picked up the phone to call and complain. The head of housekeeping apologized and sent a bottle of wine. Our steward knocked on the door about an hour later and actually argued with me about what we had found. He insisted that he was the last one in our room and the toilet was clean when he left it. I'm not sure--was he accusing me of dirtying the toilet and then complaining? IMO, the arguing with me about what I had found was inexcusable.

 

One other major thing that happened was an excursion was misrepresented. It was the only excursion we booked through the cruise line. I wanted the dolphin swim/stingray excursion in Grand Cayman. I chose the ship's excursion because the description stated that the trip out to Stingray Sand Bar was on a catamaran. My husband and I are sailors--we owned a sailboat of our own until a few years ago. Well, we were loaded on a large people-mover boat. Sailing on a catamaran is a very different experience than a large boat holding 60 people. Maybe it wouldn't matter to many people. For us, it did, and it was one of the reasons we booked the cruise's excursion. When we got back, we went to see the Shore Excursion desk to discuss how the excursion differed from what the description said. Again, argued with. He argued that a catamaran doesn't necessarily indicate what we think of when we hear the word "catamaran." Then agreed to talk with the main office and change the description of the excursion. They did ultimately give us a 20 percent discount, but again, the arguing was inexcusable.

 

Food was fair. Thought that the teeny buffet outside in The Great Outdoors bar after a day in port was grossly inadequate for the huge crowds of people clamoring for food at the end of the day. Also the seating in the buffet area was inadequate for breakfast. Much difficulty finding a seat after getting our food. But again, maybe that is more because of Spring Break week and the ship being full to capacity.

 

Comparing it to our cruise on Celebrity last year, NCL falls far short of that experience, mainly because of customer service and food quality. It would be interesting to see if I would think that if I hadn't chosen Spring Break week to try out an NCL cruise. I don't think I would chance it again, though, and would stick with Celebrity from now on.

 

I think your points are valid...i am on the pearl this coming sunday and this is the only thing I am worried about...

[david_sobe]

Welcome Home and thanks for the review. I sure hope no one will "blast" you for your review. It was very honest. This board is full of similiar reviews this time of year. I will NEVER EVER book a cruise during the entire month of March!

I live in a spring break town and I hate this time of year. It seems to never end. Every weekend I tell myself "this is the peak weekend and next week will be better." But it is steady the entire month.

Those issues can definately impact your cruise experience.

 

The bathroom issue is a bit strange. I suppose why the cabin steward got angry with you was probably he got in big trouble for not cleaning the bathroom. Maybe he thought he did or something. But I am sure they wrote him up or something if they gave you a bottle of wine. Not the most welcoming sight for a cruise to say the least ;)

 

I just wonder in today's economy where the college kids get so much money for such luxury vacations. When I was in college (1992) I never could afford even a bus ticket to the Jersey shore from Pennyslvania. Go figure!

[Carnac767]

Thanks for the review and nobody should blast you for stating the truth. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, and from what we've experienced on NCL cruises, it seems totally out of character. Nevertheless, as that Marine Lieutenant Colonel once said, "it happens." That's unfortunate. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[WildcatRock]

Thanks for your review and no one should be blasting you as you had very valid issues. My DW and I LOVE the Pearl, but there's no way we'd ever sail on her during spring break..... no freaking way.

[2+3Cruisers]

Amazing the difference a week can make...We got off the Pearl on March 4th. Spring breakers were nowhere to be found!

[bakerintn]

I am assuming that the boat that took you out to the sting rays was a power cat....still a catamaran, but not the sailing experience that you expected.

 

You will see that most excursion sailing cats that take lots of people often run under power, even when sailing...sort of a "spoof sail". They need to do that to keep up to the schedule...

 

By the way, if you get a chance to go to St. Thomas, check out the On Deck sailing experience....http://www.ondeckoceanracing.com/stt/ ... they typically pit two boats of the same class against each other and everyone on the boats has a job during the mock race. We have sailed and raced for over 40 years, and still loved it.

[dirtgirl]

I posted a review of the Feb. 26th Pearl, and I, too, had toilet issues and got an attitude from some staff. No way will I flame you. I have never encountered that before on other lines, either. While we didn't have Spring Breakers, we had 'Popeye'. ;)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1589248

[irishayes]

I am assuming that the boat that took you out to the sting rays was a power cat....still a catamaran, but not the sailing experience that you expected.

 

No, it wasn't a cat at all. It was a single-hull people mover boat that they loaded us all into, mostly below deck. Completely misrepresented.

[Ewoodspark]

Reading the review, there are indications of March being busy with college students in a break week. Can somebody please advise as to when this particular week ends. We are due on the Pearl on 21st March.

[Demonyte]

Reading the review, there are indications of March being busy with college students in a break week. Can somebody please advise as to when this particular week ends. We are due on the Pearl on 21st March.

 

There are 1,3 million students on spring break on the week of March 19th and 500k on the week after that.

 

The whole month of march is the spring break "prime time".

 

All the numbers for this year:

http://studenttravel.about.com/od/springbrea1/f/when_spring_bre.htm

[ColinIllinois]

No blasting from me but that seemed more of a vent than a review of the whole cruise.

[Mutante]

No blasting from me as you are just speaking of what you went through. We were on the same cruise and although we did not have the same experiences, the DW and I commented to each other more than once that there would be some very unhappy cruisers on this cruise due to the spring break crowd. We saw plenty from our vantage point of the DOS balcony overlooking the pool deck. Personally, I thought the extra security that NCL brought on for the week (and the rest of spring break from what we were told) did an excellent job of controlling the "chaos". We knew full well going in that it was week one of spring break and were prepared for the worse. I am sure that our experience was entirely different being where we were on the ship and having full access to The Haven. I truly felt sorry for anyone that was trying to have a "normal" vacation by that pool.

[rjm11]

That's interesting about the spring breakers... we sailed last year on the Dawn March 10-19 and had no trouble at all with them... maybe because it was the 9 night itinerary? It was a Friday-Sunday cruise though, so even with a week off it would have been doable... but more expensive I suppose.

 

So there's a suggestion for those of you wanting to cruise in March, but avoid spring breakers.... go for the longer itineraries.

[irishayes]

i also wondered if it might have had something to do with leaving from Miami also. Last year our cruise left from San Juan. I wonder if that would have made a difference on the college kids.

 

Also wonder if my experience with poor customer service had to do with the crew's frustration dealing with all the college students.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[rjm11]

i also wondered if it might have had something to do with leaving from Miami also. Last year our cruise left from San Juan. I wonder if that would have made a difference on the college kids.

 

Also wonder if my experience with poor customer service had to do with the crew's frustration dealing with all the college students.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

 

I know I would be frustrated dealing with all the college kids! And I'm a college professor! Our cruise on the Dawn left out of Miami too... so I'm not sure that's it (and I've heard similar complaints from cruises leaving out of NO, and Tampa).... Maybe San Juan is more immune to that crowd though- next year we are thinking of a 7 night out of SJ, so it's good to hear that you didn't have the same experience there.

 

We loved the Pearl in Alaska last year... I'm sorry your experience wasn't as great.

[palmyrafan]

I am so sorry you had a bad time on the Pearl. She is our favorite ship and we have always had positive experiences while on her. That said, we have never sailed in the month of March because of Spring break. We avoid that like the plague.

 

I would hope that someday you give the Pearl and/or NCL another chance to make things right. NCL is our favorite cruise line because of all the good things they strive so hard to accomplish.

 

Regardless, I hope that your next vacation is more relaxing!

[ttnc4me]

Ohhhh noooo. We are going in two weeks because it's my kids' (elementary aged) spring break, but I never thought about colleges!

Demonyte, how did you find out 500k are out at that time?

*crosses fingers* maybe it's colleges from the NW out then.

[Demonyte]

There are 1,3 million students on spring break on the week of March 19th and 500k on the week after that.

 

The whole month of march is the spring break "prime time".

 

All the numbers for this year:

http://studenttravel.about.com/od/springbrea1/f/when_spring_bre.htm

 

Ohhhh noooo. We are going in two weeks because it's my kids' (elementary aged) spring break, but I never thought about colleges!

Demonyte, how did you find out 500k are out at that time?

*crosses fingers* maybe it's colleges from the NW out then.

 

The link is there in my first message. :)

 

March 26-30, 2012 -- 500,002 students

(CSU Pueblo, University of Colorado [uC Boulder], Idaho State University, OSU [Oregon State University], San Diego State, UC Berkely [California], U of Delaware, U of Missouri-Columbia, U of Oregon, West Virginia University)

[mitsugirly]

Hate to hear of your bad experiences. It sucks to hear some of the staff actually argued with you. I've always found (so far) the NCL staff to be awesome, happy, friendly and helpful.

 

We will be on the Pearl this sunday and we usually cruise in September when the crowds are low and kids are in school. I'm afraid of what we might run into as well since this will be our first cruise in March. :(

 

I will still make the best of it however. It's definitely better than being at home, work or school. :)

 

I would also love to hear anything positive that you might have encountered on the Pearl??? Did you like your rooms? Decor? Any of the MDR? Specialty restaurants? Go to the Casino? Any luck? Any places on the ship that are a "must see"? Although I appreciate anyone's review and like an honest opinion (good or bad), I always like to hear both...which yours did not really have. :confused:

[Starry Eyes]

We almost sailed on the Pearl with you last week, but due to air travel considerations, we instead took NCL Star from Tampa March 4-11. We had a diverse age range among the passengers, but there were quite a few spring break college kids. Definitely a younger tilt than usual... the hot tubs were packed. The ship was much louder than usual...not just on the pool deck, but also in passenger cabin hallways. We selected this week due to the teenage grandkid's spring break, but mostly college were on break this week (and for the rest of the month)...I had a good cruise, but will generally avoid 7 day or shorter cruises during the spring break months unless I have a compelling reason to cruise then.

[irishayes]

There were a few positives. Our server, Leah, in the Summer Palace MDR was wonderful. We had a good meal in Le Bistro. Had a few quiet moments in the Spinnaker Lounge before loud drunk kids came in and made it unpleasant.

 

Unfortunately we were comparing everything to our first cruise last year on Celebrity, and felt the good points still came up short.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk