Please tell me about the Pearl, esp. kids club

[carenyllie]

I am considering a 5 day cruise for my family in Oct/Nov. I like the looks of the Pearl but am curious about some things. I have 10, 7, and 2 year old. Is this a good ship for them. We last went on RC's Enchantment and they LOVED it. They are scared to try a new line! That's my biggest concern, the kids club. It's hard to find reviews on it. Please let me know your experiences.

 

Also, the rooms. I read a lot that they are small. Anyone know the actual sizes? I find RCCL's to be adequate.

 

Thanks for the help!

[ACruise4us]

I am considering a 5 day cruise for my family in Oct/Nov. I like the looks of the Pearl but am curious about some things. I have 10, 7, and 2 year old. Is this a good ship for them. We last went on RC's Enchantment and they LOVED it. They are scared to try a new line! That's my biggest concern, the kids club. It's hard to find reviews on it. Please let me know your experiences.

 

Also, the rooms. I read a lot that they are small. Anyone know the actual sizes? I find RCCL's to be adequate.

 

Have not gone on the Pearl yet. We go in Aug. However have gone on NCL (the wind) 6 months ago. My kids at that time were 9 and 4 and they loved the kids club. They made pizza, played games and put on a little show for us. It was over Christmas so they even went up on stage with captain Lars (loved him!!) for everyone on board. I have also heard that the Pearl has nice things for kids as well. I have seen some reviews on the board for this. May be do a search on kids club with NCL. Hope this helped some.

[Kuffam]

DD loved kids club when we were on POA a couple years ago. :) She even like it better than Disney. That might have been because we were off season and there wasn't as many kids (5-15 in all), whereas on Disney she was on of 30 kids (and that was just 5-7 yo's).

[ute_fan]

My kids are grown, so I've never tried the kids club. We did eat with some of our roll-call friends on the Jewel last November. They were laughing about their kids and the kids club. It was their first cruise, and they were very worried that the kids wouldn't like it. Instead, they found that they were being requested by the kids to plan any family activities around the kids club. The comment they made was basically "we thought we'd have a lot of time to relax with the kids at the pool. Instead, they're so concerned about getting back for this function or that activity at the kids club that we've hardly ever seen them except when we're all on an excursion." It sounded like they were having a WONDERFUL time.

 

There's a link floating around here somewhere that will let you get the exact size and amenities of each cabin, but I've temporarily misplaced it. If you can't find it with a search, I can help you find the size of the cabin if you want to list the cabin category and deck that you're thinking of.

[electricron]

My kids are grown, so I've never tried the kids club. We did eat with some of our roll-call friends on the Jewel last November. They were laughing about their kids and the kids club. It was their first cruise, and they were very worried that the kids wouldn't like it. Instead, they found that they were being requested by the kids to plan any family activities around the kids club. The comment they made was basically "we thought we'd have a lot of time to relax with the kids at the pool. Instead, they're so concerned about getting back for this function or that activity at the kids club that we've hardly ever seen them except when we're all on an excursion." It sounded like they were having a WONDERFUL time.

 

There's a link floating around here somewhere that will let you get the exact size and amenities of each cabin, but I've temporarily misplaced it. If you can't find it with a search, I can help you find the size of the cabin if you want to list the cabin category and deck that you're thinking of.

 

Is this it?

 

http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/Main/shipsncl.php

 

Select your ship, type in the cabin number, press submit.

[ute_fan]

That one will do nicely. I've actually got my bookmark set directly to the old seaweb site -- but it doesn't make sense to go into a long explanation of how to change the ship name, category, cabin #, etc. when that other one is available.

[idjaffe]

We were on the Pearl last XMASS....with two 5 year olds.

 

This was our 3rd cruise with the kids - 1 w/RCCL, 1 w/Carnival, 1 w/NCL.

 

Kids club - was fine on the Pearl....not as many activities as on Carnival, and a little "closed in", but my kids liked the playground climbing thing. They also loved the rock wall. All in all, the kids clubs are basicly the same from ship to ship.....

 

Pool - this pool setup was the best of all the ships we have been on. The slide ends right at the pool, and the whirlpools are in the same area. Our kids are excellent swimmers, so this let them go from slide, to pool to whirlpool and back without direct parent supervision (we watched them closely, but from our chase chair...) a HUGE advantage.

 

Rooms - MUCH smaller than the other ships. We had 4 to an outside cabin (no balcony), and it was TIGHT. Liveable, but tight. If this is a concern, try to upgrade, or go with Carnival which are much bigger. We hated the stateroom compared to others...

 

Freestyle - liked that we could eat with the kids at 6:30 - late enough to enjoy the ports, but early enough that they were wake.

 

In the end, we personaly like Carnival more...However, not so much that we would not sail on NCL again....in fact we are booked on the Jewel for XMASS this year. Why? - Overall Price, Ports, Scheduale worked out the best for us.....

 

Hope this helped.

 

I

[MszKitty]

Although I haven't personally sailed on the Pearl... (or any NCL ship for that matter, but I'm going on the Pearl in Sept for a one night Cruise To Nowhere)....but I just recently took a tour of the Pearl and I thought the Kids area looked great. I have pictures if you would like me to email them to you.

[9illi9an]

We have three boys, ages 11, 6 and 3, and we took a 5-day trip on the Pearl in February. The boys all LOVED it. They still talk about it to this day, and the Kid's Club was the highlight of their trip.

 

Because of the age ranges, each of our boys was placed in a separate group, so they all had different experiences; and yet they all enjoyed it equally. They played a lot of games, took some field trips around the ship, did some art projects, watched movies, etc.. The staff couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating, and the kids all really enjoyed hanging out with them and the other kids in their groups.

 

This was the first cruise we've ever taken with the kids, so I really can't compare it to other cruise lines. But I would say that I wouldn't worry about your kids not having a good time. I just don't think that's possible!

 

As for the rooms, they are a bit small, but no smaller than I've seen on any other cruise line. The only time we were ever in our rooms was to sleep, and the size of the room was just fine for that. I stayed in a room with the two older boys, and there was plenty of room for all three of us (and we had one of the inside cabins on the 5th floor.)