BACK from the Pearl

[tommy]

Just back Sunday we stayed 2 days after the sailing.We drove in from Ft Lauderdale we also stayed 2 days at the Yankee Clipper.The drive only took us 35 minutes so we got there earlier than we wanted.Parked at port parking 20 dollars a day cash or travelers checks only.We carried our own luggage,the porters seemed rude when we told them.One did tell us its usually 5 bucks a bag.It was less than a 5 minute walk to terminal.Doors opened at 11:00 to embark great start we were in,until someone pulled a fire alarm we were back out on the street until 11:30,it was a false alarm.After that we went right to our room,11:40 in our room.We were told luggage would arrive by 1:00.We meet Carlos the butler.He told us we could go right to Cagney's for lunch and he would make sure our luggage was in room when we got back.I should have started by saying we did an upsell to Deluxe Owners Suite.We ate at Cagney's and when we got back there was our luggage.The buffet was very chaotic.We had dinner at Garden Café it was average and thats being kind.The show was Shark bait it was entertaining had a good time,than went to casino stayed till 12:30.

Monday,ordered breakfast for 7am 2 minutes to 7 they called and at 7 sharpe breakfast was there.We could see pool from our balcony people were already staking out chairs by 7:15 all chairs by pool saved as of 8:00 only 2 actual people down there,it was a day at sea pool VERY packed in we had a great day on our balcony[i will get to the room at the end for anyone interested in suites]We had lunch on balcony and dinner at Mambos,service slow food good I think we had something called popo its kind of likeshiskabob.Show was sea legs it was average at best.Back to casino played texas holdem till midnight.

Tuesday Cozumel,We canceled Fury excursion the desk told us we would be charged so we were going to go until Carlos asked us what we had planned for the day,He said he would take care of canceling for us And he did.We walked around Coz,shopped a little and went back on ship to try the pool,stayed by pool an hour we went back to our balcony we used our hot tub as a pool dont use heat it worked out good. Dinning we had breakfast and dinner at Cagney's Breakfast steak was excellent,eggs a little cool,dinner I had 16oz T-Bone was a little disappointed Debbie had 1.5 oz lobster was excellent,with 1 drink each the charge was 80 dollars xtra charge for lobster tip not included.We were in and out in less than 2 hours.

The show was 2nd city was a little lame the ad living was the same bits we have seen at 2nd city in Chicago.

Wednesday breakfast at buffet everything was a little cold,had dinner at buffet also Debbie couldnt find anything she likjed maybe Lobster spoiled her.The show was the dancers again we didnt even stay till the end.

Thursday at sea we stayed on balcony.Beautiful day.

Friday,disembark Express started at 6:45 we did vip disembark 7:45 Carlos walked everyon e to thier luggage it was great.

Will continue with final observations an suite later on,we had a great time if we wouldnt have upselled I dont know how it would have been.Got to go will continue later. TOM

[coffeebean]

Your cruise sounds a bit mediocre. DH and I cruised on the Pearl about a year ago and we were blown away by the ship, the crew, the food, especially the Garden cafe action stations and the entertainment. What has happened in the past year to make this ship so average???

 

DH and I have been on 21 cruises on several mass marketed lines including Carnival, HAL, Celebrity, Princess and RCCL. To date, the Pearl is one of our favorite ships with such good memories. We have done several Voyager class ships on RCCL and the Pearl still blew us away as far as her beauty.

 

What happened???

[Nano]

Coffeebean,

I was glad to see your post about the Pearl. We've decided to give her a try next month after first cruising with Disney followed by 4 cruises in a row with RCI (Mariner 3x and Sovereign). We've always had a great time on our cruises, and I'm a bit nervous about trying a new line. Glad to hear you liked the Pearl so much.

[tommy]

The Ship,is beautiful,clean and the crew was friendly

The Food,I have been on 20 cruises and would say the quality and selection was disappointing'the specialty restaurants were better but extra charges of 70 and 80 dollars with out tip thats for 2 and with 1 drink each I dont know if they were worth it.

[tommy]

Other questions that were asked before we left and answers were not always clear.

Shows,We found them to be a little weak in comparison to other cruises,after the first night they were not crowded.

Formal nights,optional about half the people dressed

Casino,one of the better ones IMO,Very friendly and wasnt as smoky as most.

Crew,Very friendly,seemed to be short handed but did the best they could

Pool VERY crowded a lot of chair hogs

Drinks Exspensive

Topless deck,Yes it happened to be directly across from our balcony;Not that Ilooked but it seemed the girls were mostly ship entertainers and the males were mixed,by the way bottoms were optional also.

Embarkment,smooth we were there early on ship around 11:45.

Disembarkment,we were off early so cant really say but it was a snap for us.

Any other questions Ican answer feel free to ask

TOM

[IScubaSlo]

We also just returned from the Pearl 5 day cruise on Jan. 11th.

 

The ship is fantastic..............very clean and beautiful.

 

We took our two daughters and spouses who are in their late 20's and they had a wonderful time. There is plenty to do on the ship.

 

The service was also excellent. Never had problems waiting in line for dinner at the main dining rooms. We like to eat at 6:30 and there were never any long lines. It is difficult to get resevations at the specialty restaurants, you either had to eat early or really late......We ate at Cagneys and the meal was excellent.

 

There were always bar people walking the decks and asking if you wanted drinks and they were very polite and you never felt pushed to buy drinks.

 

We almost didnt pick NCL Pearl because of the terrible cruise we had on the Pride of America in Hawaii last year...........but I'm glad I took the chance and went.......we were very happy with this cruise. Theres a big difference with the international crew than the American crew that were on the POA.

The international crew is EXCELLENT...............which makes a BIG BIG difference......

[tommy]

We also just returned from the Pearl 5 day cruise on Jan. 11th.

 

The ship is fantastic..............very clean and beautiful.

 

We took our two daughters and spouses who are in their late 20's and they had a wonderful time. There is plenty to do on the ship.

 

The service was also excellent. Never had problems waiting in line for dinner at the main dining rooms. We like to eat at 6:30 and there were never any long lines. It is difficult to get resevations at the specialty restaurants, you either had to eat early or really late......We ate at Cagneys and the meal was excellent.

 

There were always bar people walking the decks and asking if you wanted drinks and they were very polite and you never felt pushed to buy drinks.

 

We almost didnt pick NCL Pearl because of the terrible cruise we had on the Pride of America in Hawaii last year...........but I'm glad I took the chance and went.......we were very happy with this cruise. Theres a big difference with the international crew than the American crew that were on the POA.

The international crew is EXCELLENT...............which makes a BIG BIG difference......

I agree the crew was excellent,and ship clean and beautiful,did you go to any shows?

[coffeebean]

Tommy...

We were on the Pearl when she was only a couple of months old. Back then, the show girls were all at least 6 feet tall. The dancers consisted mostly of the tall girls and a couple of guys. The production shows were among the best DH and I have seen.

 

We have found that NCL generally has specialty acts included in their production shows with the singers and dancers. Much like RCCL's ice shows always have a featured act, NCL does the same thing with their production shows. The Dawn had featured Latin dancers in the production show. In fact they conducted dance classes during the week. We have also seen arial acts in NCL production shows. Another specialty act that comes to mind are the male and female team who are a Cabaret act and are absolutely awesome. Folks loved them!!!

 

I'll be cruising on the Gem end of March. Hopefully most of Freestyle 2.0 will be in place and DH and I will be blown away by NCL, once again.

[tommy]

Tommy...

We were on the Pearl when she was only a couple of months old. Back then, the show girls were all at least 6 feet tall. The dancers consisted mostly of the tall girls and a couple of guys. The production shows were among the best DH and I have seen.

 

We have found that NCL generally has specialty acts included in their production shows with the singers and dancers. Much like RCCL's ice shows always have a featured act, NCL does the same thing with their production shows. The Dawn had featured Latin dancers in the production show. In fact they conducted dance classes during the week. We have also seen arial acts in NCL production shows. Another specialty act that comes to mind are the male and female team who are a Cabaret act and are absolutely awesome. Folks loved them!!!

Hope your not disapointed.I thouget the shows on the Pearl were the weakest I have seen on any of the pasat cruises I have been on.I was feeling sorry for the magician he was so bad and the jean ann ryan co. had to be thier 2nd string,2nd city did so called ad lives they were the same bits I seen before and not that funny anyway.

[Jana]

Tommy,

 

I'm really confused about $80 before tip at Cagney's. Are you sure? Your meal would have been $20, Debbie's $25, that would mean $35 for drinks. They do add I think 15% for drinks, but still, that would mean that your one drink was like $16 each? Did you have wine too?

 

Jana

[amjdcm]

Just back Sunday we stayed 2 days after the sailing.We drove in from Ft Lauderdale we also stayed 2 days at the Yankee Clipper.The drive only took us 35 minutes so we got there earlier than we wanted.Parked at port parking 20 dollars a day cash or travelers checks only.We carried our own luggage,the porters seemed rude when we told them.One did tell us its usually 5 bucks a bag.It was less than a 5 minute walk to terminal.Doors opened at 11:00 to embark great start we were in,until someone pulled a fire alarm we were back out on the street until 11:30,it was a false alarm.After that we went right to our room,11:40 in our room.We were told luggage would arrive by 1:00.We meet Carlos the butler.He told us we could go right to Cagney's for lunch and he would make sure our luggage was in room when we got back.I should have started by saying we did an upsell to Deluxe Owners Suite.We ate at Cagney's and when we got back there was our luggage.The buffet was very chaotic.We had dinner at Garden Café it was average and thats being kind.The show was Shark bait it was entertaining had a good time,than went to casino stayed till 12:30.

Monday,ordered breakfast for 7am 2 minutes to 7 they called and at 7 sharpe breakfast was there.We could see pool from our balcony people were already staking out chairs by 7:15 all chairs by pool saved as of 8:00 only 2 actual people down there,it was a day at sea pool VERY packed in we had a great day on our balcony[i will get to the room at the end for anyone interested in suites]We had lunch on balcony and dinner at Mambos,service slow food good I think we had something called popo its kind of likeshiskabob.Show was sea legs it was average at best.Back to casino played texas holdem till midnight.

Tuesday Cozumel,We canceled Fury excursion the desk told us we would be charged so we were going to go until Carlos asked us what we had planned for the day,He said he would take care of canceling for us And he did.We walked around Coz,shopped a little and went back on ship to try the pool,stayed by pool an hour we went back to our balcony we used our hot tub as a pool dont use heat it worked out good. Dinning we had breakfast and dinner at Cagney's Breakfast steak was excellent,eggs a little cool,dinner I had 16oz T-Bone was a little disappointed Debbie had 1.5 oz lobster was excellent,with 1 drink each the charge was 80 dollars xtra charge for lobster tip not included.We were in and out in less than 2 hours.

The show was 2nd city was a little lame the ad living was the same bits we have seen at 2nd city in Chicago.

Wednesday breakfast at buffet everything was a little cold,had dinner at buffet also Debbie couldnt find anything she likjed maybe Lobster spoiled her.The show was the dancers again we didnt even stay till the end.

Thursday at sea we stayed on balcony.Beautiful day.

Friday,disembark Express started at 6:45 we did vip disembark 7:45 Carlos walked everyon e to thier luggage it was great.

Will continue with final observations an suite later on,we had a great time if we wouldnt have upselled I dont know how it would have been.Got to go will continue later. TOM

isn't Carlos great! I think that NCl has a fantastic person working for them. He is one person who knows how to do his job and loves doing it. It shows in the manner in which he performed his duties. He made our experience on the Pearl last December a wonderful vacation. All of the ships service personnel could learn from this gentleman.

[NoPiratesPlease]

I'm guessing you were in 15000, or 15500, way up high to have the views you did.

 

We were in 14000 over Xmas/New Years and while we found the food to be excellent, we were not thrilled with the Pearl, preferring the Dawn/Star and the Jewel to the it.

 

BTW, the hot tubs in 15000/15500 are RIGHT over the Garden Villa outdoor tables, so eating at them when the tubs are being used is impossible. Also, wet towels blow from up there down to the GV--luckily none landed in our hot tub (Yech!). Considering what they charge for the Garden Villas, it's pretty outrageous.

 

The early morning lounge-hoarding at the pool is an old NCL problem that's fleet-wide. NCL doesn't enforce their own rules, therefore they tolerate it.

[tommy]

Tommy,

 

I'm really confused about $80 before tip at Cagney's. Are you sure? Your meal would have been $20, Debbie's $25, that would mean $35 for drinks. They do add I think 15% for drinks, but still, that would mean that your one drink was like $16 each? Did you have wine too?

 

Jana

Lets see mine was 20 Debs was 30 we had 2 beers and 1 coke.Debbie telling me it was 74 dollars.

[coffeebean]

Tommy...

We were on the Pearl when she was only a couple of months old. Back then, the show girls were all at least 6 feet tall. The dancers consisted mostly of the tall girls and a couple of guys. The production shows were among the best DH and I have seen.

 

We have found that NCL generally has specialty acts included in their production shows with the singers and dancers. Much like RCCL's ice shows always have a featured act, NCL does the same thing with their production shows. The Dawn had featured Latin dancers in the production show. In fact they conducted dance classes during the week. We have also seen arial acts in NCL production shows. Another specialty act that comes to mind are the male and female team who are a Cabaret act and are absolutely awesome. Folks loved them!!!

Hope your not disapointed.I thouget the shows on the Pearl were the weakest I have seen on any of the pasat cruises I have been on.I was feeling sorry for the magician he was so bad and the jean ann ryan co. had to be thier 2nd string,2nd city did so called ad lives they were the same bits I seen before and not that funny anyway.

 

DH and I are going on the Gem end of March. Hopefully the first string of entertainers are on their newest ship.

[tommy]

I'm guessing you were in 15000, or 15500, way up high to have the views you did.

 

We were in 14000 over Xmas/New Years and while we found the food to be excellent, we were not thrilled with the Pearl, preferring the Dawn/Star and the Jewel to the it.

 

BTW, the hot tubs in 15000/15500 are RIGHT over the Garden Villa outdoor tables, so eating at them when the tubs are being used is impossible. Also, wet towels blow from up there down to the GV--luckily none landed in our hot tub (Yech!). Considering what they charge for the Garden Villas, it's pretty outrageous.

 

The early morning lounge-hoarding at the pool is an old NCL problem that's fleet-wide. NCL doesn't enforce their own rules, therefore they tolerate it.

We were in 15500 the view was outstanding from inside room and balcony.We were carful with towels pretty sure we didnt lose any,Hot Tub we used a lot usally didnt use heat we used it like a cooling pool.There is no doubt our balcony takes a lot of the privatcy away from GVS.But sure gave a lot to our suite balcony and room with the private starway to our room.We loved it.

[insidecabin]

Lets see mine was 20 Debs was 30 we had 2 beers and 1 coke.Debbie telling me it was 74 dollars.

 

I don't think you should count stuff you would have paid for anyway wherever you had dinner.

 

$20pp + $10 for the lobster, $50 thats what it cost over a normal dinner.

 

The most expensive beer is the fosters oil can at what $7.50 including tip and a coke $1.50 + tip say $17 tops, there is another $7 missing on your bill somewhere, sure you didn't have 3 beers or some bottled water?

[tommy]

I don't think you should count stuff you would have paid for anyway wherever you had dinner.

 

$20pp + $10 for the lobster, $50 thats what it cost over a normal dinner.

 

The most expensive beer is the fosters oil can at what $7.50 including tip and a coke $1.50 + tip say $17 tops, there is another $7 missing on your bill somewhere, sure you didn't have 3 beers or some bottled water?[/quo

OK I am looking at the bill Cagneys charge 54.03 15 dollars service charge total 69.03.2nd time 54.03 We both had the Porterhouse 20 dollars service charge total 74.03.Now that I actually look at the bill Idont know why the 1st service charge was 15 not 10.