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NCL Pearl is Perfect...!!!


FundyGirl

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We just got off the Pearl a few hours ago. She is a beautiful ship, with a fantastic crew and very conscientous officers & staff.

 

The food was excellent. We ate in most of the specialty restaurants with our favorite being Cagneys, following very closely by the Lotus Garden & Teppenyaki. Mambos and La Cucina were also very good. We never made it to the Summer Palace because we preferred the atmosphere in Indigo. The computerized reservation system works very well, much much better than what we had experienced on our last two cruises on the Dawn. They are also very good at accomodating larger groups.

 

The entertainment was very good withl lots to do for everyone. We enjoyed Shark Bait, Jeff Trachta, and South Beach Rave.

 

Captain Lars, Hotel Director Michael, F&B Director Dennis and all the other officers were very visible, friendly and accomodating. The attitude of the crew is definitely a reflection of their wonderful management style.

 

Our Cruise Critic group was treated to a great Meet & Greet, along with bowling passes and a tour of the Courtyard Villa. The ships officers are well aware of CC and very happy to ensure we had a fantastic cruise.

 

I'd be happy to answer questions, if I can.

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We just got off the Pearl a few hours ago. She is a beautiful ship, with a fantastic crew and very conscientous officers & staff.

 

The food was excellent. We ate in most of the specialty restaurants with our favorite being Cagneys, following very closely by the Lotus Garden & Teppenyaki. Mambos and La Cucina were also very good. We never made it to the Summer Palace because we preferred the atmosphere in Indigo. The computerized reservation system works very well, much much better than what we had experienced on our last two cruises on the Dawn. They are also very good at accomodating larger groups.

 

The entertainment was very good withl lots to do for everyone. We enjoyed Shark Bait, Jeff Trachta, and South Beach Rave.

 

Captain Lars, Hotel Director Michael, F&B Director Dennis and all the other officers were very visible, friendly and accomodating. The attitude of the crew is definitely a reflection of their wonderful management style.

 

Our Cruise Critic group was treated to a great Meet & Greet, along with bowling passes and a tour of the Courtyard Villa. The ships officers are well aware of CC and very happy to ensure we had a fantastic cruise.

 

I'd be happy to answer questions, if I can.

 

Hi, thanks for posting. Glad you had a wonderful time.Whom do you contact to set up the Meet & Greet? Do you need a minimum number of participants?

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Hi, thanks for posting. Glad you had a wonderful time.Whom do you contact to set up the Meet & Greet? Do you need a minimum number of participants?

You contact the ship's coordinator at shipcoordinatorpearl@NCL.com. Tell her that you want to set up a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and how many will attend. It's best to have a good idea of how many people will attend, first. She will give you a time and place for the meeting.

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I'm glad you had a great time, we enjoyed the Pearl too! I was surprised to see that Jeff Trachta was still onboard, they said he was leaving for Las Vegas when we were onboard last month. Perhaps we misunderstood. He is a great entertainer.:)

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We're on her for May 11 (our second cruise on the Pearl). Was she "freestyle part duex" yet? What were the specialty restaurant charges?

 

Cagneys $20

Teppenyaki $20

Lotus Garden $10

Mambos Free

La Cucina Free

 

Not sure about Le Bistro...did not eat there this time.

 

The Blue Lagoon is actually much nice than on the Dawn.

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The Blue Lagoon is actually much nice than on the Dawn.

 

WOW! Now I'm really excited about the Pearl! When my DH and I were on the Dawn we practically lived at the Blue Lagoon, especially after partying until 2 at spinnakers.

 

You all really lucked out with your meet and greet. I guess it all depends on your ship coordinator. I did set up a meet and greet on the dawn a few years ago and they had cookies and coffe and a couple of ship officers showed up. It was nice, but we didn't get any tours... We had about 20 people... Our group had really gotten close before the cruise and had a great time together. We set up a Yahoo group before the cruise just for our sailing. We posted the excursions we were all doing and all the tips we found on these boards. It was great because we got to do some excursions with each other as well as the meet and greet. We also posted some pictures of ourselves so we were able to spot each other even before the meet and greet... Just some ideas for those of you thinking of setting one up.

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We're also just off the Pearl and we were quite disappointed in the service. This was our first experience on NCL and I'm not anxious to repeat it. I'd go on NCL again, but it definitely would not be my first choice.

 

I finally complained about our lack of service for our rooms and then things improved, but I didn't think I should have needed to do that to get service. We often didn't have enough towels and we always had to hunt someone down for pool towels. Typically, our rooms weren't made up for over 4 hours after we left and turned the sign. I would have talked to our steward directly, but I never was sure who it was.

 

We found the food and restaurant service really lacking. We took to taking bets as to how much of our order would come out right. Cagney's was one of the better meals. Our meal at Mambos was one of the worst, but Blue Lagoon was absolutely awful. Our best service was probably the night we ate at La Cucina. However, we thought the buffet was one of the best we'd experienced (6 previous cruises before us). I love the idea of the restaurant boards and they do help, although they are far from accurate and the system needs some work. We found that most of the time if you walked up to a restaurant with some space available, you were seated instantly even though the boards indicated something else. And we found the opposite in terms of large groups. We were a group of 8 and it seemed to totally fluster everyone. We took to eating in 2 groups of 4 because otherwise it was a disaster.

 

My kids enjoyed the shows they saw with Kids Club and Kids Club was pretty good. We only went to 1/2 of one and left because we just weren't enjoying it. Bowling was fun once they figured out how to get the computers to work and the bumpers up. The rock wall was a hit and the pools were fun although way over chlorinated and everyone is sporting rashes from them now.

 

The ship itself is beautiful and we enjoyed our ports and overall had a great time. In the past I got off the ship feeling like royalty and it is hard to come home. This time we had fun, but I never felt pampered.

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All,

We ate in most of the restaurants - one poor service experience at Cagney's but a second evening there was wonderful! Food was good to excellent everywhere including the Garden Court (main buffet).

 

Cleaning and servicing of our cabin could not have been better - 10568. Always taken care of immediately after we left the room.

 

It was good to see all the officers walking around the ship and speaking with the passengers.

 

Restaurant, bar and all other service personnel were pleasant, responsive and almost always understandable. Great group of people.

 

Dance shows - ok but not great.

Sharkbait - fun.

 

We turned in early (10-11pm) most nights so don't know about late night ship activities.

 

Space around the pool was impossible (filled by 8am) but that was not important to us - we were fine with the sun decks on 14 (bow of ship) and 15(yes!).

 

This was our first cruise and loved it. Thanks for the warm greetings I received at the CC meet and greet on Saturday morning.

 

Nor

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My DW and I got off the Pearl on Sunday, and we both agree that this was the best yet of our 15 cruises. The service was great, the food the best we've had in a while, the ship beautiful, and the itinerary great. Its almost impossible to remeber anything negative about the trip, except perhaps having to leave!:eek:

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Fundygirl, I am glad you had a great time! Did a lot of cruisecritics show up for the meet and greet?

Coka

 

Hi Coka,

 

I'll respond to that one since I co-organized it with my DH. Half of the CC group showed up to the M&G, about 40 people. The room was buzzing. :) Because we were on the Pearl for 14 days (B2B), we experienced 2 M&G's. Janine did a wonderful job of greeting us each time, and she hosted us for bowling and the Courtyard Villa tour. Michael the Hotel Director, Denis the Food & Beverage Manager and Simon the Cruise Director showed up to both M&G's and were highly entertaining. Jorge Martinho, Restaurant Manager showed up to our last one. He is the man to know! ;) I called on him a few times and he didn't disappoint. I couldn't thank Jorge enough for everything he did for me & our group.

Simon was also very accommodating and met our requests.

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What is a DH and DM and other codes? Is there a chart?

I don't know of a chart, but it took me a while-I think:D to figure it out...

dh-dear husband?

dm-dear mother?

dw-dear wife?

dc-dear cousin?, etc. etc. etc.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, someone.

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I don't know of a chart, but it took me a while-I think:D to figure it out...

dh-dear husband?

dm-dear mother?

dw-dear wife?

dc-dear cousin?, etc. etc. etc.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, someone.

 

Try this!!!!

http://www.questgems.com/chat_acrochart_ad.html

 

Darcy

 

PS. I'll add my 2 cents on this cruise soon. It truly was great, mostly because of the people we met and reaquainted with and because of the crew on the Pearl - from top down, top notch!

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