The Good, The Bad, and The Noro Smelly on the Pearl Review

[CrusinAgain]

This cruise was on the NCL Pearl on its 9 day Southern Caribbean cruise visiting Samana, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados, and St. Lucia debarking November 30th. This is the cruise where it had a Norovirus outbreak affecting 14% of the passengers and 2% of the crew.

Cruising background about us: This was a sister cruise and we are in our 50’s. We have taken 4 cruises since Dec. 2005, 1 on the Carnival Miracle, 2 on the Caribbean Princess and I have taken 1 on the Diamond Princess with my daughter while my sister went on the Carnival Legend with our Aunt. This was my first on NCL and my sister’s second on NCL. She had taken the Norway in its earlier days as well as the Carnival Holiday when it was close to new. I had taken the original Star Princess and the Carnival Destiny when they were both new.

Before the cruise: The Pearl had maintained 5 stars since its inauguration for the past year up until 5 days before we were to set sail. The November 16th cruisers who got off the ship on the Sunday before we left that Friday were more displeased with their cruise than pleased as expressed on this forum. I had never seen so many complaints before on the Pearl as with that voyage. I was so concerned that I had even posted my concerns onto this forum as to what was going on? Other posters, including some from the November 16th cruise tried to curb my concerns with various reasons, which sounded plausible to me so I left for my trip on the Pearl and wiped the slate clean, trying to forget what I read which was hard because there was quite a number that were seasoned cruisers on NCL and had cruised the Pearl before and their experience was entirely different the last time.

Embarkation Day: We had taken the Cruise Connection bus down to Miami from mid-state Florida and that was a sign of what was about to come on the trip of the Pearl. First the bus company called us to come 1 hour early at the pick-up point only to drop us off in Ft. Pierce for a connection to another bus that ended up coming 2 hours later. Cruise Connection is suppose to be a nice relaxing way to get down to your port while watching a movie, however the first bus driver did not put one on and they were almost done with the movie when we got on the 2nd bus. Then the bus driver went round and round the Port of Miami not knowing where the Pearl was. A few of us kept telling him but he seemed to only want to listen to the one passenger who sat near the driver who ended up taking us to all the other terminals where the other ships were at.

Embarkation went fast since we did not arrive until after 2:30 and there were no lines. What was different with Norwegian than Princess and Carnival was they took your picture for your sail and sign card at the desk that prepared your paperwork. After the paperwork is taken care of the processor lifts up a little round computer camera and takes a picture of you. The next stop was to pick up your cabin card key with the remaining stop of picture taking for the ones you buy. We were impressed that they continued to use what we had read about, the sanitization process of squirting everyone’s hands with the germbuster before entering the ship.

As we finally got onto the ship and on the Promenade deck, we saw the material on the floor of the deck was totally different than Carnival and Princess. Princess is more like a wooden material and I truly cannot remember the material of Carnival’s but it wasn’t like the Pearl that was light in color. We did not enter in the Atrium but through the doors at the front elevator. We were not given a deck we had to rely on our memories of our research of this ship on how to get to our room. We later found the deck layout cards near the Purser’s Desk in the Atrium.

The Cabin: Upon walking to our room, we noticed that the carpet was bright and the fishes were swimming towards us, which meant we were walking towards the rear of the ship. We saw germ busters at all the elevators, which was great. Our room was on Deck 9 and we had just upgraded to a balcony room approximately 10 days before at a wonderful price. We were so thankful we did after what developed in the days ahead.

Upon entering the room, the bathroom was to the left, immediately on the right behind the door was the cabinet of open shelves with a deep safe. I do not understand why the shelves had to be exposed as it really makes the room look tacky and you really do not want to put much on them that is of a personal nature.

Next to the shelves was the closet that was a double door that had a folding shelf if you wanted to hang shirts on one row and pants on the bottom row. The light was in the back of the closet. The hangers were theft proof and very hard to take off and get back on so luckily we brought enough of our own.

Next to the closet was the small refrigerator at eye-level that was full of drinks and no room for your own and a shelf above where we offloaded some items from the fridge. Below the fridge was a shelf where the glasses and ice bucket sat. Below that were 3 drawers. That really shocked us as on Carnival and Princess we always had room left over for our things but we were running out of room quickly since everything was in the open and the nightstand was an open teeny tiny 2 open shelf piece of furniture. The phone sat on the top shelf.

Next to the fridge, shelf, drawer combo was a vanity that had a mirror and desktop that held the 4-cup coffeemaker that was absolutely wonderful that they provided this completely stocked with coffee, crème, sugar and sugar substitutes. This had a round stool to sit on in front of it. Above the mirror was a shelf for the 15-inch flat screen TV. It did have jacks but they were on the back of the TV and the TV did not move so having a mirror to hold to see where to insert your cables helped as it wasn’t easy. There was another open shelf above the TV, however no storage here other than the shelf that held the TV.

The beds were next (it was queen and the steward made them into twins that evening) and then the 2 person hard sofa with a small rectangle table in front of it next to the balcony sliding door.

Across from the sofa was another vanity with mirror and a hair dryer. There was a small overhang and a moveable table underneath this with a lightweight chair.

Upon opening the bathroom door, the vanity sink was straight on at you with a shelf along the bottom and 3 shelves along the side of the mirror.

To the left of the vanity was the toilet that had a sliding door that would not budge for us but we found we wouldn’t want it to, as the toilet area was so small that there was just no room to maneuver.

The bathroom shower was the largest we have ever had and had a wood look with a detachable shower wand and 2 racks to store your shower items. There was also a liquid soap and shampoo dispenser that was kept full. We later found out upon taking a shower that the sink stuck out so far with the towel racks in the front of the sick, that we had to open the bathroom door some to have more room to get dressed.

The Cruise Begins: After exploring our cabin, we left to go get something to eat and to make reservations for dinner. We stood in a long line on deck 8 at Mambos after looking at the menus to make our reservations for the evening and got in at Mambos. That was the only night we got to eat at a specialty restaurant as we found out that you have to call early to get seats for that evening or book a day early. The lighted signs showing occupancy and availability around the ship simply did not work as we were running around per the signs and when we arrived at the restaurant there wasn’t anything available and there were only 2 of us.

There were no 2 for 1 early bird specials or late specials either as we had read so much about from other cruisers.

At the muster drill, some cabins were able to go the public areas of ships while others are held outside. We were outside staring in at the dining room of folks listening in comfort. This is strange since Princess has all the muster drill inside at various lounges and dining rooms and even the casino. They claim it is best to have it near restrooms and a place for drinks in case there was a ship emergency that did not require evacuation, everyone would be comfortable.

We went to Mambos Friday night at our designated time and were seated immediately. Each time you enter a restaurant you will use a germ buster. Mambo's was very good and we really wanted to eat there again but luck would not allow it.

The theater show was the Welcome Aboard theatrical show which was okay but we are not into that type of show, as we much prefer some type of comedy.

Our first evening in our cabin, we immediately noticed that the shower drain had problems, which we reported to our steward as it filled over our feet. This generally happened on our other voyages but it was always fixed immediately and we would not have to suffer with standing in dirty water. This proved to be a big problem thru-out the remainder of the cruise as maintenance claimed that was no problem and the purser’s office management claimed that was no problem so we had to deal with water standing covering our feet up to our ankles or get out of the shower and let it drain and get back in. Its strange how after we got back and I asked a question on the forum about other’s experiences with the showers and only 1 person had a problem between 3 ships, The Pearl, The Jewel, and the Dawn with the drain, so clearly ours had a problem that either couldn’t be fixed or they refused to fix it. We were surprised with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries after talking with a management lady about our problem that she could not solve.

When we returned to our cabin after dinner and the show, the Freestyle Dailies were there for the next day’s events and on Princess we would rush and plan out our day. However, we were sitting there just staring at it thinking well we must have missed it as we saw nothing that appealed to us as we are into watching Game Show style activities or attending a free demonstration of some sorts. Here is an example of what Saturday; our first Sea day was like just so you can see for yourself if there is anything for you to do besides sits at the pool:

Morning:

Early Morning Stretch

Aerobics in Motion

Tennis Play and Sport Court

Country Line Dance Class

Pathway to Yoga (fee)

Library open

Spin to Win Free Pull for CAS members

Rock Climb wall (weather permitting)

Morning Trivia

Men’s Dart Challenge

Chinese Medicine

Shore Excursion Presentation

Arts and Crafts

Bowling Alley

Home-Style Sushi Demonstration

Seminar Secrets to a Flat Stomach

Golf Putting Challenge

Emerald and Tanzanite Presentation

Giant Jackpot Bingo

Smoothie Tasting ($15)

Afternoon:

Seminar: Puffy Eyes

Caribbean Vibes

Diamond and Gem Seminar

Lawn Bowling Challenge

Exclusive Art Auction Preview

Slot and Blackjack Tournaments

Wine Tasting ($15)

Mr. Sexy Legs

A Grand Tour of the Solar System Lecture

Rock Climbing Wall (weather permitting)

Library

Hot to get a Bright and Confident Smile

Merengue Dance Class

Nintendo Wii big screen (from 3:15- 5:30)

Port and Shopping Presentation

Detox for Weight Loss

Group Cycling (fee applies)

Margarita Tasting ($15)

Star Seeker Guest Talent Show Registration

Bling Bling Bingo

Fun Trivia

We’re all made of Stardust Lecture

Pilates (fee applies)

Friends of Bill W.

Sailing Solo and Singles Mix

Spin to Win Free Pull for CAS members

Professional Portraiture

Peter James – Jazz

Trio los Hernadez – Easy Listening

Evening:

Doug Frankhauser – the man with the guitar

Comedy Showtime – The Second City

Pearl Showband

Friends of Dorothy meet

The Not so Newly Wed Game

Shelley O’Brien – Vocal Enchantment

Tribute to Glen Miller

Comedy Showtime – The Second City

Pearl Jazz Jam with Peter James and Company

DJ Patrick plays your requests

New Years Eve Party

Ladies Night 2 for 1 drinks casino 11 p.m. – 1 a.m.

Paradise Lotto Drawing

Shadow Dancers

Double Bonus on our Slots

After carefully reading the activities several times, the only thing we saw during the day that was of any interest to us was the trivia and the port talks. In the evening was the comedy show. Second City so we planned our dinner the next day to be early to make the first showing. We could not believe the lack of game style activities during the day, as Princess would keep you so busy between the movie theater with new releases before hitting the stores and the game-style of activities that you sometimes had to run to get to the next one on time. Princess, showed movies in the theater 2-3 times daily as well as the room. We do not get a chance to go to the movies so it is nice to catch up on the movies and vegetate, however, the Pearl only had movies in the room and only a few and of course the ones we wanted to see kept playing at a meal time, during the night or during port time.

Regarding the TV programming: Channel 21 - onboard information; Channel 22 - ; Channel 23 - Navigational Information; Channel 24 - Bow Cam/Announcements; Channel 25 – CNN; Channel 26 - TNT; Channel 28 - Cartoon Network; Channel 29 - New Releases; Channel 30 - Feature Movies; Channel 31 - Turner Classic Movies; Channel 32 - Destinations and Shopping; Channel 33 - Shore Excursions; Channel 34 - Activities; Channel 35 - Safety Information; Channel 36 - Fox News and Channel 37 - Music Videos.

Here are the new release movies that were showing on the TV in our room:

The Bourne Ultimatum, Arctic Tale, The Invisible, Stardust, No Reservations, High School Musical 2, Hot Rod. These would show every day at different times but of course the ones we wanted to see would always be playing during port or during a mealtime or during the night.

We ate all of our breakfast meals in the buffet where they had lots of choices to choose from. I mostly ate waffles, as they were a big hit with most of the passengers getting them.

They had 1 cappuccino/espresso/latte machine and that was located at the very back of the buffet right before you go outside to the Great Outdoors. If you walk past the kids area for meals, then you just past it. Unfortunately, we only had 1 specialty coffee since it was so far back it was inconvenient to try to get that with your breakfast.

The cruise critic meeting was held on Saturday at 10:30 at LeBistro in which the cruise line went out of their way to make it pleasant with coffee and water. The hotel director, the cruise director, which was Simon, and another officer showed up. We never saw this before on Princess or Carnival and really liked they appeared to care. They also offered us free bowling and a drink that we would get an invite to for the end of the week along with an invitation to see the Garden Villas. We thought this was very nice of them to go out of their way for the cruise critic members.

After the meeting, I then signed up for an Internet plan after understanding from the prior day that the embarkation day special with 10 extra minutes and the coupon I had for 15 extra minutes, so I ended up using my coupon for the extra 15 minutes. The plan was 100 minutes for $55.00 plus $3.95 for set-up fees even though you set it yourself, but whatever.

The fitness center was very nice and set up like the Princess ships with the machines overlooking the ocean at the top of the ship. The treadmills and elliptical's had tv's and you can get the headsets from the SPA for the week for no charge if you did not bring yours.

Tonight which was Saturday, we ate at the Summer Palace which was the dress up or not night and instead of the usual Lobster offered on a Formal type night, a platter called Seafood Extravaganza was offered which consisted of a piece of a lobster (about 2 bites), a shrimp, some type of fish, a couple scallops over pasta. My sister got the Beef Wellington and that was a melt in your mouth dish. I wished I had gotten that, as I truly did not like my Seafood platter. She had Crème Brule for dessert and again that was excellent. I must say that even though it was dress up or not night there were a good number of cruisers dressing up, so we did wear our nicer outfits for this night. The photographers are in the atrium every night for those who want to dress up, but Saturday night was the main night most folks dressed formal.

Also, I do need to say that there are a wide variety of people on NCL and no one should feel out of place since the age range is something for everyone and so is the nationality diversity. I did notice that people cared about their looks and no one dressed sloppy for dinner. I was very impressed with the morale standards of the cruisers.

We went to the show of The Second City and they were very good however after the show once again we had nothing to do except go to the casino or go back to the room. So we played some in the Casino and then went right to our cabin.

Sunday was our day at Samana, our only tender port, and we stayed on the ship as we had already read unless you had an excursion that there wasn’t much to do. Instead, we took advantage of the special they had on bowling which were 2 for 1 bowling and we played 3 games. The ship was tilted some to the left so our balls would constantly immediately go to the left, so we had to learn the technique of getting the ball to go towards the middle and to the right. It was fun. Bowling is $5 a person so instead of $30, we paid $15.

After bowling, we sat on our balcony that faced Samana and played dominoes.

Later, we found out that from others that the stores closed early in Samana and that there was nothing around the tender pier to shop at. I have no idea why NCL has this port offered when they are not ready for a cruise ship. I have been to other new ports such as Belize and Costa Maya but they were both ready for the ships with shopping at the port.

Tonight we ate at Indigo's. We noticed that the menu selections were very limited and we are having a hard time trying to find something we like and that is the opposite of Princess cruises where we had a hard time deciding which scrumptious item to get We did not go to the show since it was another theatrical show called Sea Legs.

Monday was Tortola. We did not have any excursions planned so we got off the ship at a leisurely pace and checked out Road Town. There were tent vendors close to the ship and we quickly looked there but continued to walk to town where we found little bungalows that offered different things. We bought some trinkets and stopped again at the tents and bought some things that had lower pricing there and went back to the ship. The people at Tortola were very nice and not pushy.

We ate at the buffet on Monday night and after dinner we attended the Magical Showtime Show with Richard Burr. He was okay but after seeing the one on Princess, he could not compete. And I must say that one needs to get to the theater at least 20 minutes before show time to get a good seat. The seats are hard to get into as everyone must stand when someone wants in or out. Air vents are on the back of the seat in front of you. We always tried to grab the stools in the back of theater since they were more comfortable.

Tuesday was Antigua. While we were getting ready for the day, I had decided to call restaurant reservations to see if we could eat at Mambo’s but for once on the entire cruise, an announcement came on the loudspeaker in our room where I had to hang up with the gal since I could not hear her. It was announced that the ship was at Code Red for Norovirus and that the CDC had been reported to. We were informed that we would be served at the buffet and everything would be handed to us. We were informed if we were to become ill to go to the clinic. When we arrived at the buffet, it was breakfast as usual with everyone serving his or her selves like the crew had not heard we were on Code Red.

After breakfast, we left the ship for Antigua. Antigua is a very colorful town and offered a good assortment of shops near the pier as well as kings casino. We shopped the shops and strolled thru the casino seeing they had the old slot machines.

We then went back on the ship where the buffet finally knew they were on Code Red and they were serving everything and handing plates, silverware, putting the food on, and handing the drinks. However, the cleaning staff for the tables only swiped the table with their cloth throwing the debris onto the floor after they removed the dirty dishes. You would think they would have a good solution bottle of germ buster and be trained to clean the table thoroughly.

Tonight was the night of the Murder Mystery dinner that we had signed up for. We met at Bar City at 5:15 (no jeans allowed) and had to group ourselves into groups of 6. We were then divided up and ½ of us went to Indigo’s and the other half went to Summer Palace. We were handed instructions along with name stickers and your group took a name not knowing what the character was suppose to be or do. You also chose someone to the keeper of the materials to be handed out at certain times. Once again we had a hard time trying to come of with something that sounded good on the menu including appetizer and entrée. At the dinner, you were given your script to read and figure out when you were suppose to say what. After dinner everyone was to meet back at 8:30 to be told who the murderer was. However, I became ill and went to bed. So my sister went and got the info.

 

Wednesday was Barbados and luckily I was feeling better. We had to take a tram to the terminal building and Barbados is also a facility for folks like on the Carnival Destiny to embark and debark. It was a nice air-conditioned indoor mall of shops.

After we shopped at the terminal we took a taxi to downtown. Downtown was about 10-15 minutes away but it was too warm of a day to walk it and most of the cruisers were taking taxis. Barbados is the watch capitol of the region and we were hunting for a watch for me as mine broke on Monday. We tried to look at one shop but the owner was quickly locking up saying that an earthquake of 7.0 just hit at Martinique and Barbados was on alert for after shocks and they were told to get outside of the buildings. However, we felt nothing and no one was really leaving the buildings, however it did have quite a downpour of rain so we had to find a building to wait it out in which luckily we found a nice 2-story department store, which we had not seen on any of our port stops. We did notice Barbados was a very busy town of hustle and bustle.

After seeing that we would not find a watch within my price range we went back to the terminal. We found some trinkets that we missed before at the terminal and then took a tram back to the ship.

I do want to mention that every day, we went to deck 4 to leave the ship and passed by all the cabins from mid ship onward. I felt so sorry for those folks as it must have been so noisy all day for them with the comings and goings of everyone leaving and coming back. Also the medical center was on Deck 4, so Deck 4 would definitely be scratched off my list should I ever try NCL again.

Tonight we ate at the buffet again. I do want to mention that they were serving ice crème from lunchtime thru dinnertime and they had non-stop customers. The ice crème was very good and was the hard type and not soft.

 

Tonight’s show was Sharkbait, however we did not go as it was a juggling act and we have been disappointed with those in the past.

We did gamble some and then went back to the cabin. There is simply nothing to do at night after the show except to go dancing, or sit and drink and listen to music or go to the casino. On one of the Princess ships, we found an enjoyable piano entertainer that would be so entertaining we would watch his show every night and he has developed quite a fan club where people will schedule their cruises around his schedule. On Carnival, there are many good piano entertainers, so we were surprised not to find any on the Pearl that played the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, or even 80’s style music.

I do want to mention that the public rest rooms on this ship were not sparkling clean as they are on the Princess and Carnival ships. On Princess and Carnival they are constantly cleaning the bathrooms and ensuring the counters are kept free of water, the soap is full, and the toilets are free of other contaminants. On the Pearl, we did not see the bathrooms nice and clean yet they would be marked as someone had just maintained it. This was reported on our comment card along with other cleaning problems such as the buffet tables.

Early Thursday morning at 4 a.m., I was awoken with bad nausea and I ran to the bathroom and was so very sick both vomiting and diarrhea. Naturally on all ships we had been on, I had to get this sick on the one with the tight toilet that did not leave much room to maneuver.

Today was St. Lucia. This was the main port I had wanted to see. I had been waiting to see this port for several years and I was going to miss it. I kept hearing sirens. My sister later told me there was a funeral procession where it appeared to be a police officer by the way the motorcycle officers were going around the hearse.

This illness continued to get worse before better where it became uncontrollable and I knew I had come down with the Norovirus however there was no way I could leave the room and go to the clinic as I would never make it without doing one or the other and my strength had left me as I was so weak, I could not even drink any water without my sister holding me up and putting it at my mouth. I went thru chills….so cold….so very cold even with two duvets on me. We knew that with me being sick that she was quarantined also but she was so busy trying to clean up after me that she didn’t have time to go anywhere. Luckily we upgraded to the balcony room as she could at least open the door to air out the room and go outside to get fresh air. The Norovirus has a smell like no other. Room Service would deliver but they would always forget 1 or more things like silverware or your ice tea. It would always take at least an hour to get and I understand they were very busy serving all the sick people because I knew for the ship to go to Code Red and to be reportable to the CDC that at least 10 percent of the passengers were ill. My sister did notify the steward but I have no idea what happened, as it was a blur to me. All I remember is the bathroom and chills.

The next day I was able to go to the clinic where it took 2 hours before I was seen. There was a line of people with the Norovirus that overflowed out of the door of the clinic. Unfortunately, the ship had only enough medicines for 50 people. I have no idea why only 50 people could be treated when medicines are small and can be stored easily. 50 people does not even come close to taking care of an outbreak, as there were over 300 passengers ill on our ship. While I was waiting in the clinic, I heard how badly this Norovirus was on the ship and that we had already evacuated people at Barbados and Antigua. I’m not sure about Tortola. I also heard the ship was stopping outside of San Juan to evacuate 2 more and pick up more medicines. While in the clinic, the ship did drop anchor for a couple of hours. When I finally saw the doctor, I got 5 Imodium’s and 4-5 anti-nausea pills, I believe it said Reglan. I was promised more after the pickup of more medicines, however, apparently I was forgotten about and you could never get thru to the clinic. I was told both my sister and I were quarantined for 24 hours and the main goal is to have no evidence of the virus before we got to Miami or we would have to go to a hotel in Miami as the CDC will not release us to go by air, bus, or car.

Well seriously, if you have the virus you don’t care if you are quarantined, however my sister did not have it and had we not had that balcony room, she would have gone nuts. I hope I have stressed how important that balcony room became as we had booked a cabin on deck 5 which was just an ocean view cabin.

So after 24 hours was up it has now been, 60 hours since I first got ill at 4 in the morning and it was now Saturday at 4 in the afternoon and we are due to arrive in Miami at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. I called and called the clinic and no one answered and no one answered at the front desk. So I went downstairs like I had seen others do when I was sick and told them it had been 24 hours. They ask when it last happened and as long as it was 24 hours I was free. It was now 4:30 pm and our cruisecritic bowling was at 4 pm and I didn’t feel like lifting a heavy ball or socializing anyway. What a shame. However, all the shops closed at 4 for inventory with the exception of Columbian Emeralds. I could not believe the day before we get back to port that the shops would close so early. I am finally sprung and the shops are closed, there is no way I was going to eat much for dinner so we went to Pursers desk and stood in line for our bill to make sure all was okay – like there was nothing else to do anyway. Once we got our bill, the lady was telling us that we better spend the credit before midnight, as it was nonrefundable. We had no idea that we were given $100 each credit for being quarantined. So we immediately went to the one shop opened and bought a watch I had been eyeing there.

After that, I had a light dinner, did a little gambling and we returned to the cabin for our last night. We had to have our luggage out by 1 a.m.

Debarkation Day: All of the reviews that we had read prior to our cruise from other reviewers stated that you could stay on the ship and in your room to chill until it was your turn to go but that is not what our directions said. It said to be off the ship by 9:15 a.m., which was worse than Princess and Carnival. We had really looked forward to not feeling rushed off the ship but we should have known better. The buffet closed at 9 a.m. I understand they had to get people off to disinfect from the Norovirus but it appeared the information sheet was a standard sheet they used with the first departures starting at 7:30 a.m.

So luckily they called us shortly after we left our room and this was the first time that we did not have that sad feeling that we normally had of having to leave the ship. We actually felt glad to leave and felt sorry for the ones who were continuing on, as the smell of the Norovirus was strong as we walked down the hall and saw the stewards even removing beds from rooms. The smell of bleach had started to take over the smell of the Norovirus but I never want to smell that smell again. We did not get to take the tour of the Garden Villas since it was cancelled due to sanitation of the ship.

The line for customs was huge and took about an hour to get thru it. When we finally get to the big warehouse where the luggage is at, mine was nowhere to be found. We immediately went on the hunt looking at each color place and mine was gone. We finally found a NCL representative that would take our information as some would keep passing us off to someone else and we had a bus full of people waiting for us outside, which was Cruise Connection. We filled out the form and the gal said my luggage was there somewhere and we said we had already looked everywhere there and what if someone took it and she said they always bring it back because they want theirs. Really? Ummmmm….guess she was wrong.

Also about that Norovirus, both of us were vigilant about washing our hands and using our germ wipes in our hand bags and squirting the bottles of germbusters on our hands and not putting our hands in our mouths and using our knuckle for the elevator button and using the germ buster outside of the elevator again and even after going thru the buffet line and yet I still got it but my sister did not. Now when you think about it, the only thing different we did was eat different foods, so I highly suspect that the Norovirus was on the food either by the lady that was rumored to have come on the cruise feeling ill and quarantined by the doctor but she had left her cabin to go to the buffet and by that time it had done its deed or by a crew member who handled the food. This is my analysis of how I got it knowing what I did and didn’t do. The ship itself cannot be blamed for the Norovirus as they try to combat it from coming onto the ship in the first place by constantly having the germbusters at the door of the ship and all around.

So, the pros for NCL is being able to wear casual clothes; although most of the cruisers did dress up at night and I did not see any sloppiness; the freedom to choose when to eat (however NCL needs to work on this reservation system and sign availability); the coffeepot in the cabins, the large showers; and the free self-serve laundry mats.

The cons would be: no one being able to solve our slow shower drain problem; not being able to get into a restaurant when the signage said availability; the shops closing at 4 p.m. the day before arriving back in port; the lack of cleanliness by the public restrooms crew and the lack of cleanliness by the buffet table cleaners; the losing of my luggage and the lack of representatives to help in the luggage terminal; the room service taking forever and always forgetting something and the biggest con to us would be the lack of daytime and evening game style activities and piano entertainers.

If NCL is all you know then you do not know the difference between the cruiselines, therefore I would expect you to be happy, as it is only the cruisers that have experienced the other lines that can see the differences between the cruise lines.

I do know that a cruise director can make or break the activities for a cruise and Simon was definitely not a cruise director that we would want to sail with again. My understanding that a Julie V. who was on the Jewel about the same time we were on the Pearl really was the type of CD we were looking for as a poster wrote down on the forum all the many game style activities that Julie organized which we did not have. I hope if we were to cruise NCL again that it would only because of Julie from what we read.

Happy cruising to all of you and hope that I helped someone in some small way.

[weary traveler]

I am so sorry you were infected by that damned virus.. you're right about NCL taking all the precautions they can to combat it, but it comes down to the passengers who have to exercise caution and consideration to their fellow passengers when handling food and using facilities. My last cruise (out of 21) was the first time i got sick, but i think it might have been due to the A/C in the cabin which couldnt be regulated as it lasted almost a month after the cruise) bottom line, you sounded like you did your best to not let it ruin your vacation. I'm actually thinking of trying the 5 and 9 day back to back on the Jewel or Pearl or Gem and you've given me something to think about regarding the "dullness" of some of the visited ports. Thanks for a concise and fair review of your trip. I enjoyed the information and ached for your misfortune.

 

Weary Traveler

[Seago2]

Oh MAN! I'm so sorry you got so sick!

 

Hopefully someone will post here what we should bring in case we get sick and room service takes two hours, or the infirmary... how did you wait in line with 50 people the day after you had been delirious? I would have been sleeping in the hallway.

 

Gatorade, Immodium- what's Reglan? Is it prescription?

 

Sorry again.

[janiceah]

What a good and thorough review. I am so sorry you got sick. I can't imagine anything ruining my vacation that I looked forward to for months or years more than getting sick or ending up in a hospital somewhere.

My husband and I really aren't into doing alot of ship activities so I think we'll enjoy the Pearl. Give me a book and a chair somewhere (on ship, a beach,etc) and I'll be happy. (and my headphones). Good for you for turning in comment cards about teh cleanliness of bathrooms and such and your drain issue. Those things needs to be taken care of.

Hopefully the 2.0 will help upgrade alot of these things along with the food. It's important that people (like you) turn in comments on the ship and not just complain about them once they are back. That doesn't help anyone.

Thanks for your review!

[CrusinAgain]

Oh MAN! I'm so sorry you got so sick!

 

Hopefully someone will post here what we should bring in case we get sick and room service takes two hours, or the infirmary... how did you wait in line with 50 people the day after you had been delirious? I would have been sleeping in the hallway.

 

Gatorade, Immodium- what's Reglan? Is it prescription?

 

Sorry again.

 

Thank you.....and yes Gatorade, Immodium (or prescription strength from doctor) and Reglan is a prescription but there are others your doctor could give you.

 

And yes, most of the people waiting in line at the clinic were nodding off with their heads in their laps or on the floor with barf bags. I kept saying to myself that there was no way I could have made it the day before so having that medicine would have really helped getting thru the first day of it.

[halos]

I too am sorry you got sick :( I do want to thank you for your excellent review.

[dfishner]

First off want to say how sorry I am that you were so ill, especially when you on vacation. I just want to thank you for your upfront and candid review. Like you sister I was on the Norway which was a long time ago and was looking at NCL for a possible cruise in the future. I felt I was on the cruise with you from every detail you described. I know each of us have our own experiences with vacations and two different people can be on the same vacation and have different experiences. Your review was objective, to the point of what you liked and disliked I wish more reviews were like the one you wrote..

[electricron]

Thanks for the balanced review.

 

Sorry you got sick, I'm happy your sister didn't get sick.

[arenee]

I'm sorry you were sick, I can't imagine being that sick in a small cabin for that long. I want to thank you for a very balanced review. You did a very nice job of noting both the good and the bad. Very well done.

[Cosmopolitan]

Thank you.....and yes Gatorade, Immodium (or prescription strength from doctor) and Reglan is a prescription but there are others your doctor could give you.

 

And yes, most of the people waiting in line at the clinic were nodding off with their heads in their laps or on the floor with barf bags. I kept saying to myself that there was no way I could have made it the day before so having that medicine would have really helped getting thru the first day of it.

 

 

Noro was on our last cruise on the Dawn.

Thankfully we did not have it on the ship...but one day after we returned...I had it.

 

Gatorade and Immodium were the best. Someone once posted here that "you wish you would die but you are hoping you do not" it really is true.

I have never felt so miserable.

I have been through many surgeries but have never been so miserable.

Believe me...we sanitized our hands constantly during our cruise...never ate at the buffet...but we caught it.

 

I recovered and DH got it and I got it back. Much worse than the flu.

 

I recently read that NY had an outbreak of the norovirus and now the UK has the same problem.

 

We cannot fault the cruise ships as anyone from any country/state..travelling via air or ship may be carrying the Noro-virus...my daughter (a teacher) may be correct taking "airborne" everyday during the school sessions.

 

CruisinAgain..thank you for the informative review and advice.

[greatdanemom]

I'm so sorry to hear about your illness! What a terrible way to spend your cruise. I guess you were really lucky to have your sister there to care for you.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review. You gave us a lot of helpful information about the Pearl and also what to pack in case of Noro. I hope all of your future cruises are healthy ones no matter which line you cruise on.

 

Take care,

Cheryl