Quick Review Jan 5-12 Pearl

[cacj]

In a word, fabulous!

 

From an easy embarkation to quick disembarkation, all the in between was terrific (with the exception of the lost jacket...see my other thread, lost and found.)

 

Our stateroom steward came early to introduce himself, and he was professional and very efficient. He took note of all requests and worked to keep our stateroom in tip top shape. He seemed a bit overworked on some days, but his demeanor was kind and professional.

 

We took advantage of the laundry service twice, and all items came back in good shape. We only submit items that can stand up to an industrial laundry and save all delicates to be washed at home. But socks and shirts, tees and polos are quite okay to send on thru.

 

We enjoyed the specialty restaurants: La Cucina the first night. Joy was our server and she lived up to her name...she was joyous and wanted to be sure that we enjoyed every morsel. My husband had the Osso buco, and she spotted that there was too much fat on his serving and went back to the kitchen and got him a much better portion, which he savored. I had the vegetarian lasagna, and it was very tasty, and just the right temperature.

 

Moderno: we don't enjoy the location of the restaurant. The music in the atrium is so loud that one cannot feel relaxed while eating. The salad buffet was good and the meats done to our liking, but after having tried this restaurant both on the Dawn and Pearl, we have decided to cross it off our list for next cruises.

 

Le Bistro: the venue is much better than the Dawn's Le Bistro. On the Dawn, the restaurant is tight, noisy, dark and cramped. Here, on the Pearl, the restaurant is bigger, and the atmosphere more romantic and the seating much more comfortable. We ate here twice. We enjoyed both the meal and the service. Rack of lamb was superb, and the filet of beef, quite generous and tasty.

 

We ate in the MDR, Summer Palace for most of our breakfasts and a couple of lunches. We ate at Indigo once. We prefer the Summer Palace. Indigo is dark, loud, and the food just didn't come to us as good as in the SP restaurant. When we ate dinner at the MDR we mostly enjoyed the salmon...we love salmon, and so cannot give opinions on other entrees. The salads, appetizers etc were all nicely plated and fresh.

 

The Garden Café is one of the best organized buffets on any NCL ship we have sailed. There are repeated stations of the foods, so that one can find any food you want without being in a long que. The desserts are set on one side away from the salad and main entrees. Easy for folks to sail in and grab any bite that they desire. All the foods were plentiful and hot or cold as expected. The seating area is upscale and very large.

 

The Great Outdoors is a wonderful place to enjoy a meal, sitting under the awning aft and seeing the, well, great outdoors!

 

There were many great activites to enjoy. We saw some of the shows, all full of energy and enthusiastic performers. Rick Starr was the comedian for part of the trip, and also they had a magician/comedian. My DH loves Starr, and we went to his show in the Spinnaker and although many of his jokes were familiar to us, we still laughed and enjoyed his performance.

 

We danced a lot. We love to dance. And the band, Future Perfect, was so wonderful. The lead singer, I wish I could remember her name...she was so talented.

 

Ports:

We enjoyed Great Stirrup Cay....they have made it so much better. We rented a clamshell for $20, and enjoyed its shade. The water was lovely, and the BBQ well served.

 

We did the Tiki Beach Break on Grand Cayman, and enjoyed the 3 hours there. We were fortunate that we had sunshine, as the poor folks who came in as we were leaving seemed to have a lot of rain come in with them.

 

We did not explore Jamaica or Cozumel, having been at these ports before. We enjoyed the ship, and relaxing.

 

We lost at the casino, we gained weight, we rejuvenated and we reconnected. For the whole cruise we found many people who were just plain fun.

 

We did not use the spa, even though we had every intention of doing so....it just didn't fit in with all the events.

 

Do see the crew talent show if you go....we always enjoy it. And the finale with the whole crew on the last night is always great!

 

We went to The Quest for the very first time....and while we laughed a bit, we have to say that it was definitely a one time only....once we have seen it, we won't need to do it again.

 

The CD was Archie, and Nacho was ACD. They were both terrific. Nacho is very fast on his feet, and well up to the task of some of the more interactive games (like the Quest).

 

If you have questions we will be happy to answer.

[pretykym]

Thank you for the great review! If you have any recent dailies I would appreciate seeing them.

[cacj]

I think ParrotGurl posted the dailies in this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1971117

[Cruiser Bruiser]

Thanks for your review, OP.

 

You are the very people Norwegian is trying to reach with their decision to move Moderno to the Deck 13 location currently occupied by Star Bar and Cagney's overflow. Don't give up on Moderno just yet as this change will be implemented fleet-wide! ;)

 

How was the pool deck now that the water slide has been permanently removed. Was it a dramatic difference? Cheers! :)

[cacj]

Thanks for your review, OP.

 

You are the very people Norwegian is trying to reach with their decision to move Moderno to the Deck 13 location currently occupied by Star Bar and Cagney's overflow. Don't give up on Moderno just yet as this change will be implemented fleet-wide! ;)

 

How was the pool deck now that the water slide has been permanently removed. Was it a dramatic difference? Cheers! :)

 

Well, as for Moderno, we will see where it is located on the ship before we try it again. We are not big meat eaters, and so it isn't really a loss for us to skip it. The salad buffet is very good, though.

 

As for the pool deck, it was a bit chaotic, with a bunch of scaffolding and stuff stuck under the top deck overhang (probably preparing for the Trace Adkins week)...and we never took notice of slide, as we are past the slide stage in life, and no grandkids with us. With the scaffolding stuff, all the excess chairs were pushed into other places, so the top deck became a bit overcrowded in feeling.