Pearl....2/1/09

[Suni99]

I was going to write a long review of our tip on the Pearl, but after reading a bit of the last few threads i have chose to just keep it real simple.

We had an AE penthouse 9170.

Embarkation: This was absolutely one of the best perks that comes with a suite IMO. Was quick easy and painless, felt a bit guilty walking by others that had been waiting in line for along time tho, but then realized we actually paid for this.

Suite: Was absolutely beautiful, the only thing I thought needed improvement was the balcony door curtains. The bed was awesome, was more comfortable than my own bed and we have a decent make matress. Tv was great, lazzara coffee machine worked well but scared the crap out of me when i tried to froth my milk. Bathroom was also perfect, I was a bit nervous that the bathtub would be to small, but it was not at all, in fact i took advantage and took a bath everyday it felt great.Plenty of storage space in the closets and the drawers. Balcony was beautiful we had a lounger, small table and a chair, had asked for the lounger to be removed and replaced with a regular chair(DH and I both preffered the chair) but we never got the request, so we took turns on the balcony, the lounger was just not comfy for either of us. Overall the room was perfect I loved everything about it, besides the curtains, and the food and ash that was always there in the morning, lol...the ash stained a pair of DH's white shorts one morning, so after that we knew to always check and put down a towel before sitting.

Stewards: they did a great job, never had any problem or complaint

Concierge: I made reservations with her only one time, then needed to change them to the following day, and that was done with no problems. I had a complaint reguarding the casino on day one, she called to discuss it with us, but somehow what was related to her was not the complaint at all so there was a communication problem with the reception desk. Overall she was very very friendly, but it did seem she was a bit overworked( I think some pax take complete advantage of the concierge which can cause some major overload), but anyhow other than the one reservation I made I never needed her assistance.

Butler: Was not thrilled with his services. The first day he escorted us to our room and then to cagneys for lunch. On day 2 we returned to our room after breakfast and I found my ONE bottle of complimentary Avian water missing. I saw him later that day and asked him about it and he said he threw it away b/c it was opened. Now I opened it the night before and poured out a glass of water but the botle was still 3/4 full and I intended on using the rest of the water throughtout the trip. I left the bottle next to the bed, so it wasnt in the garbage or next to any dirty dishes that would indicate to throw it away. Anyhow I asked if he would replace it for me since i was not done with it.....well he replaced it alright, right along with a 5.18$ receipt....huh? After I explained what he did and how i felt about it he still charged me, so I kept the receipt so I could discuss this with billing. Okay Okay some of you may say oh geez its just a bottle of water, im sorry if it sounds triviel but I was p'eed. I did ty and discuss it with reception , they took a note about it, but i never heard anything from anyone, so now remind you this is day 2 so i said to myself let it go until the end instead of staying upset about it, I had discussed it with him, reception, erika called but she was busy when i called back, so I let it go.

I requested the specialty menu for suites for room service from our butler on day 3 and he said he didnt have any....:confused: the one that was supposed to be in the binder was missing...now at this point I am feeling like I am having to ask twice for everything and its making things a litle less disireable.

will write more about MY experience a bit later, we just got home after our flight was cancelled yesterday (a nightmare)

if you have any questions I will do my best to answer....:)

 

[Suni99]

I did forget to mention that our Butler also threw our choco covered strawberries away on day 2 b/c he thought we didnt want them,Dh had tried one but we were to full to eat them,so we figured we would save them for the next day..I told our butler we were waiting to eat them the next day and he shrugged his shoulders....so i never got to try them.

 

Ship: The Pearl is a beautiful ship, very pretty colors,very clean and well kept( never once said she was a dirty girl except for my experiences in the casino)

 

Resturants: Cagneys was excellent for breakfast,lunch was ok for me but Dh enjoyed it. Buffet had a great selection, I especially liked their hard ice cream(green tea was yummyyyyy) it was buffet food, its just what you would expect ,,I found the food to be just fine in the buffet especially the bread(pretzel rolls were great!), choco crossaints. Room service had better lunch than breakfast imo, I stuck to the pizza and club sandwiches. I never got to try the PBnJ sandwiches I have heard so much about b/c they would not serve peanut butter due to the recall. Le Bistro was excellent could not ask for better food or service. We did get the honeymoon package that included the dinner for 2so when we arrived I had to give them the card that we had which was fine, but when we asked for our wine they seemed like they didnt know what we were talking about,she excused herself and then came back and offered us a choice of red or white.Now I know this package is popular so I didnt understand what the question was, it took about 10 minutes for them to "figure this out" which was odd,but the food was delicious anyhow. We didnt have time for our cake so she said she would have it delivered to our room b/c we had to hurry to get to a show,so i gave her our name and cabin number 2 times to make sure we had our cake for a treat but, when we returned to our room the cake was not there.

We never made it to any of the main dinning rooms, we had a few meals onshore so we just were never hungry enough for a sit down dinner and by the time we got our appetites up again the dinning rooms and buffet were closing so it was back to room service, or Blue lagoon. People here on CC are correct when they say the Blue lagoon has the best wings. Dh had them alot, I tried the fish and chips on day one and it was so good(while watching the superbowl) but when I tried it again, it was gross,lol strange how one day it was so good then a day later was aweful,maybe they used a different fish, so i went for the chicken tenders. The cheesecake was pretty darn good!nothing else stands out about the food ,overall it was just fine.

 

Shows: We loved Sharkbait, saw them twice and thought they were great! would have watched them everynight if we could have...Garden of the Geisha was very nice,thought it was a beautiful show overall , Bill Hilde..something( the comedian) was not funny IMO but he got a good applause so maybe it just wasnt my type of humor,I thought Sharkbait was much funnier.

 

wheeh...more later:)

 

 

 

 

 

[CanadianTwosome]

You know, that bottle of water could have been 50 cents, and it doesn't change the principle one bit. He took it upon himself to remove something of yours and it was his responsibility to replace it - and I think he should have replaced the strawberries as well!

 

My favourite thing at the Blue Lagoon was the spinach dip. I didn't try the fish and chips, but I do agree that their wings are delish. :) You didn't miss much by way of the cake, though, if the ones I received for my birthday was any indication - better to have had room for the cheesecake! :p

[theshireshihtzu]

Thanks for the Review! Do you have any pictures of your room?

[Suni99]

Casino: well i have already posted some information on my thoughts on the casino but in general iI thought it was dirty and not well kept at all, only time I got to buy a drink was when my DH left his Bj table came asked what i would like and he would go order it for me, he would also hunt down an ashtay.Now thisdmay seem pety to some, but to me this was a big part of my cruise, I love slot machines and planned on donating alot on this cruise. Day 2 in the casino same thing, no ashtays, dirty glasses that pax just plop down all over and never picked up by the wait staff, no drink orders being taken, cash cage staff never smiling, overall just not a fun place to be. I was very dissapointed and after 3 hours on day 2 off the same service I decided to cash out while I was ahead and call it a day. DH and myself discussed the service when we returned to our cabin, (he and a few of his friends had also had a really bad experience on a BJ table), and decided not to donate anymore, actually we were ahead so that was a positive, but i was discouraged bc this is what I wanted to do, but it was so bad that I could not justify being in there.

last day of our cruise we decided to try it one more time, was much cleaner, but still no service for a drink order....can someone please explain to me as to why everywhere on the ship they are up your whazzo for drink orders, but you can not get one in the casino unless you go to the bar an order it yourself? I just dont get it.

Okay so the last night we had reservations at Le Bisto and then we wanted to make the last sharkbait show.....in the daily it was posted that you had to redeem your accumulated points between 6-9 pm, so after dinner I went into the casino and asked if this could be done after the show also, which wasnt going to end until about 10:30 pm,,,,they said sure we can credit your onboard account as long as you have at least 25 points...So we go to the show, after we stop back at the casino cage and ask to redeem the points on my card towards our account...They said they would not do it because it was past 9pm ....I said wait I asked that girl and pointed to her....and she said I could do it after the show....NOPE!!! would not do it, turned their back on me and started counting their money....okay so iasked for the manager Len something, he came marching over and said NO go , go use your points in one of the stores...I said excuse me? i do not want anything in the stores,i explained to him that she, and i pointed to her, told me I could do this because it was really busy at the cage and I didnt want to miss the show and she even admitted she made a mistake, but he didnt care, he was rude and I actually thought he was mean( I had excatly 40 points and dh had 28, so we could have got a 68$ credit towards our onboard charges not alot , but enough) WOW anyway I left more upset at how he treated me and less upset that I couldnt utilize my points from game play, he had me in tears. So off we go needing to stop at the reception desk to still get this 5.18$ water charge taken care of....well when we got there the line was pretty deep .People were arguing back and forth, and back and forth , it was not a pretty sight, I was already upset and after 20 minutes maybe even 30 minutes I looked at the DH and we left. I have nothing good to say about the casino, the one place I looked forward to the most, which sucked for me. I did chat with others that said they have had better service on other NCL ships in the casino so I am hoping if we do cruise NCL again I will have better luck, with the service..

I would have to say over all the ship was nice, I just had some really bad experiences at the casino and reception desk. I also got food poisoning on day 3 or 4 cant remember, which put me down for a day and a half, I sleep for 24 hours straight. I really felt bad for my DH he stayed by my side(when i wasnt in the potty) I kept telling him to go do something but he wouldnt which was irritating bc when you fell like I did you want to be alone anyhow. Its frustrating b/c no mater how careful you are washing hands, purel etc...if you touch or are near the wrong place at the wrong time your doomed. Im just glad I had the room I had since i kept myself isolated.

I was also upset with the perks that you are suppposed to get with a suite. never got our daily treats, no cookies, no hor d'oeuvres, butler who could have cared less. Also never got our canapes that you were supposed to get with the romance package. Most of my complaints about the poor service are for things that we Up paid for. After several atempts at the beggining of the cruise to make our concierge aware that we were not getting the service we thought we should have(which wasnt much we just wanted basic service, i didnt expect to be teated like a queen) and they were not addressed I will admitt i gave up, I really think she had to much on her plate and I do not fault her at all I really believed she was trying her best, One concierge on a ship this size is not enough IMO.

In ending I did like our room and the cruise experience in general, I would defintely cruise again, would like to ty a different NCL ship b/c I do like freestyle alot. I know alot of people had a great experience and had nothing bad to say at all, i really do not think my expectations were to high, I just think I had some bad service issues reguarding my specific suite and certain areas on the ship.:)

[*Wink*]

Sunni ~ Thanks for your review. I really enjoyed it. The whole time I was reading it I thought, "was she in the twilight zone??" I gotta tell ya, I'd be really ticked at some of the treatment you received, even if I paid for a regular cabin.. I don't know how I'd be had I paid the money you guys put out. I'm sorry your trip had so many unpleasant experiences. Your attitude is excellent and I hope you won't give up on NCL.

[jhayman]

Suni -

 

Now that I see the full explanation of your casino experiences, I understand your frustration and empathize. Looks like you had some legit gripes now that you explain it. Sorry you had such a bad experience in the casino.

[cruzinaway]

Hi Suni - thanks for coming back to post your review. Sorry you had such a difficult time on your cruise. The illness, cancelled flight, poor service...kudos to you and your DH for keeping such a positive attitude!

 

I hope you have a better cruise experience next time around. Thanks again for sharing. Now get some rest - you sound worn out!

 

Happy cruising in the future.

[Suni99]

Hi Suni - thanks for coming back to post your review. Sorry you had such a difficult time on your cruise. The illness, cancelled flight, poor service...kudos to you and your DH for keeping such a positive attitude!

 

I hope you have a better cruise experience next time around. Thanks again for sharing. Now get some rest - you sound worn out!

 

Happy cruising in the future.

 

 

LOL, thank you, it has been an adventure thats for sure!! But I am determined ( and already looking thinking about the dawn for a 5 day but NCl does not offer many trips for 5 days so we might try another line only for that reason) to cruise and have a great time, dont get me wrong ...we had a good time but it wasnt great, and I want great!! LOL:). and your right I need to get some sleep which I am off to do shortly

[*Wink*]

Suni ~ Would you please email me?

 

awinkler00@yahoo.com

[Suni99]

Suni ~ Would you please email me?

 

awinkler00@yahoo.com

 

 

I sure will, so you will have my email and If you mail me this evening I will respond when I wake from the coma I hope I go in soon, lol...hugsss

[*Wink*]

I sure will, so you will have my email and If you mail me this evening I will respond when I wake from the coma I hope I go in soon, lol...hugsss

Deal.. get some rest!

 

>:D<

[CruisnGram]

had asked for the lounger to be removed and replaced with a regular chair(DH and I both preffered the chair) but we never got the request,

 

There's no reason why a simple request like that should't be honored. Was it your steward or the butler who didn't honor your request?

 

 

Butler: . On day 2 we returned to our room after breakfast and I found my ONE bottle of complimentary Avian water missing. I saw him later that day and asked him about it and he said he threw it away b/c it was opened. ....well he replaced it alright, right along with a 5.18$ receipt....huh?

The other poster was right. It's not the $5.18, it's the principal. He should never have thrown your water away in the first place and if he made a mistake, he could have fixed it by replacing it at no cost. This is totally uncalled for.

I requested the specialty menu for suites for room service from our butler on day 3 and he said he didnt have any....:confused: the one that was supposed to be in the binder was missing...now at this point I am feeling like I am having to ask twice for everything and its making things a litle less disireable.

 

I hope you didn't tip this guy at the end of the week. I'm sure you probably did but sometimes, the only way to get through to people is through their pocketbook.

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

CG

[CruisnGram]

I did forget to mention that our Butler also threw our choco covered strawberries away on day 2 b/c he thought we didnt want them,Dh had tried one but we were to full to eat them,so we figured we would save them for the next day..I told our butler we were waiting to eat them the next day and he shrugged his shoulders....so i never got to try them.

 

Again, this is something that he could have rectified. They give out chocolate covered strawberries all the time on NCL ships, so I'm sure there are tons of them he could have brought you as a replacement. Every time I've gotten them, the steward will leave them until we ask him to take them away. This guy sounds like he's really in the wrong business. Customer service doesn't sound like it's his specialty.

 

We didnt have time for our cake so she said she would have it delivered to our room b/c we had to hurry to get to a show,so i gave her our name and cabin number 2 times to make sure we had our cake for a treat but, when we returned to our room the cake was not there.

So you never got your cake? Again, I hope you called someone. Those cakes are like the strawberries....there's a ton of them on board and sending you one shouldn't have been a big deal. Had you had a decent butler, he could have taken care of that for you also.

 

 

Great review so far.

 

CG

[CruisnGram]

can someone please explain to me as to why everywhere on the ship they are up your whazzo for drink orders, but you can not get one in the casino unless you go to the bar an order it yourself? I just dont get it.

I don't get it either. Most times the casino waiters are always walking by to get our order. That's how they make their money.

.So we go to the show, after we stop back at the casino cage and ask to redeem the points on my card towards our account...They said they would not do it because it was past 9pm ....I said wait I asked that girl and pointed to her....and she said I could do it after the show....NOPE!!! would not do it, turned their back on me and started counting their money....okay so iasked for the manager Len something, he came marching over and said NO go , go use your points in one of the stores...I said excuse me? i do not want anything in the stores,i explained to him that she, and i pointed to her, told me I could do this because it was really busy at the cage and I didnt want to miss the show and she even admitted she made a mistake, but he didnt care, he was rude and I actually thought he was mean( I had excatly 40 points and dh had 28, so we could have got a 68$ credit towards our onboard charges not alot , but enough) WOW anyway I left more upset at how he treated me and less upset that I couldnt utilize my points from game play, he had me in tears.

Have you thought about calling Casino's at Sea to complain? I actually don't know if it will do any good or not but it's worth a try. I do know that they announce the times you can redeem points and also have it posted in the Daily. But here's the thing...and the difference between a great casino manager and a lousy one. On my recent 3 day Sky cruise, I went to redeem my points and when I walked up and handed them my card, the casino manager said "here you go Joyce, I've alredy done it for you" and handed me my receipt. Now that is service!

 

I also got food poisoning on day 3 or 4 cant remember, which put me down for a day and a half, I sleep for 24 hours straight. I really felt bad for my DH he stayed by my side(when i wasnt in the potty) I kept telling him to go do something but he wouldnt which was irritating bc when you fell like I did you want to be alone anyhow. Its frustrating b/c no mater how careful you are washing hands, purel etc...if you touch or are near the wrong place at the wrong time your doomed. Im just glad I had the room I had since i kept myself isolated.

I don't think that you had food poisoning, you had Noro. Very different then food poisoning. Food poisoning is caused by bad food, or improperly prepared food. Noro is a virus. Either way, it stinks.

I was also upset with the perks that you are suppposed to get with a suite. never got our daily treats, no cookies, no hor d'oeuvres, butler who could have cared less. Also never got our canapes that you were supposed to get with the romance package. Most of my complaints about the poor service are for things that we Up paid for.

All of this is uncalled for...no excuse. And a lot of it I think comes back to your lousy butler.

In ending I did like our room and the cruise experience in general, I would defintely cruise again, would like to ty a different NCL ship b/c I do like freestyle alot. I know alot of people had a great experience and had nothing bad to say at all, i really do not think my expectations were to high, I just think I had some bad service issues reguarding my specific suite and certain areas on the ship.:)

 

Honestly, I think you need to write a letter to NCL corporate headquarters. You have legitimate complaints that should be addressed. And frankly, I think they owe you something. Suite's are expensive as you well know and yes, the pretty room is part of the reason they are expensive, but anyone will tell you that it is the perks that make the suites special. And that certainly wasn't the case for you. I'd suggest you take your time and compose a very professional, courteous letter to NCl headquarters outlining all of the issues you had and let them know just how disappointed you were. They say they want customer feedback...so give it to them.

 

Sorry that you had so many issues. One or two can just be put aside but a whole bunch of them like this shouldn't be expected to be ignored. It sounds like you attempted to do the best you could and still enjoyed your trip. My hats off to you for that cause I would probably have blown a gasket after spending all that money on a vacation.

 

CG

[terrymtex01]

I have to say I personally did not find one issue you had petty.

 

As far as the casino, it seems the casino manager we had when we were on the Pearl is no longer there. The one we delt with was a lady. I have to admit I thought she was a B, but nothing like what you have descirbed. We had been told because we were guest of the casino that we would not have to go and cash in our points by standing in the line, that they would do that for us later in the evening and if we wanted to check with them and see what was credited we could. We went up to the casino desk around 11PM and they did that for us. So I have no doubt that, even though you were not casino guest, that you were told you could come later. I also have to say I think that while you should complain to someone about that, I don't know that anything will be done to compensate you for those points at this point. I do think you might be offered a nice discount on a future cruise and those points will be able to be transfered to your next cruise as long as when you first go to the casino you ask them to contact the casino on the Pearl to transfer the points. Maybe the new manager is the reason there were not very many servers in the casino. When we were on there, they fell over each other to get you a drink.

 

I'm glad you were happy with "our suite". I wondered if when you were in there you remember me telling you about it. I am APPAULED at the service you received from the butler. He should have replaced your water at no charge and she should have brought you more strawberries. I'm sorry, but the fruit and the snacks they bring to the suite are a biggie with us. That would have been a major issue for me.

 

A lot of times I hear that people met with the H.D. about issues they have had and I think.. "that poor H.D.".. having to listen to all of the petty BS described in the posting, however you should have, without any doubt, shared all of this with the H.D.

 

I am sorry you had so many issues, you know I was so hoping for you to have a great cruise. I do appreciate you keeping an open mind to NCL. I can assure you very few cruises with NCL will have those kinds of issues.

[flashdog_1]

I agree with everyone. Your issues were not petty, and they added up to not getting what you paid for.

 

Did you pinpoint what you might have eaten to make you sick? You said you ate ashore and never in the main dining rooms. I know when I have had food poisoning I can go over everything I ate and just the thought of the "demon" that did it will almost make me sick again. In high school I ate at the Army-Navy Club in Washington and was unable to eat veal cutlet for about 5 years, it so turned me off! Hope you've had no repercussions.

 

Again, thanks for sharing what happened to you. That's what cruise critic is for. We need to know this stuff.

[Suni99]

Thanks for the Review! Do you have any pictures of your room?

 

i will post some pics in a few days, I will have to figure it out tho, :D

[Suni99]

Honestly, I think you need to write a letter to NCL corporate headquarters. You have legitimate complaints that should be addressed. And frankly, I think they owe you something. Suite's are expensive as you well know and yes, the pretty room is part of the reason they are expensive, but anyone will tell you that it is the perks that make the suites special. And that certainly wasn't the case for you. I'd suggest you take your time and compose a very professional, courteous letter to NCl headquarters outlining all of the issues you had and let them know just how disappointed you were. They say they want customer feedback...so give it to them.

 

Sorry that you had so many issues. One or two can just be put aside but a whole bunch of them like this shouldn't be expected to be ignored. It sounds like you attempted to do the best you could and still enjoyed your trip. My hats off to you for that cause I would probably have blown a gasket after spending all that money on a vacation.

 

CG

 

 

Thank you Gram, I do intend on writing a letter to NCL, I also think im going to print out my review and send them a copy. I will have to research as to where I do send my letter bc i would also like to send a copy to whomever is in charge of the casino onland.

[flashdog_1]

i will post some pics in a few days, I will have to figure it out tho, :D

 

Someone on our rollcall posted how to do it. When you get the "reply to thread" screen do this:

 

When you are typing - look up in the gray area where all those symbols are. You click on the PAPERCLIP (to the right of the smiley face), then a box comes up and if you have pictures on your computer click on the browse button, find it and you will have to click open, then it goes back to the original box and you click on UPLOAD

__________________

[Suni99]

Someone on our rollcall posted how to do it. When you get the "reply to thread" screen do this:

 

When you are typing - look up in the gray area where all those symbols are. You click on the PAPERCLIP (to the right of the smiley face), then a box comes up and if you have pictures on your computer click on the browse button, find it and you will have to click open, then it goes back to the original box and you click on UPLOAD

__________________

Thank you, once I find the camera I will follow these directions:)

[coka]

Hi Suni99, I am so sorry about your experiences. I know you were looking very forward to a suite cruise adventure onboard the Pearl. Thank you for writing about your trip. I am lost for words. I had really hoped you would return with "great." I am with the other posters regarding what should not have been...

 

coka

[noyes66]

Hi

 

I too was on this cruise. And its funny - i experienced some of the same problems!

 

This was my 4th NCL cruise - 1st on the Pearl

for the 1st time in 9 cruises I was charged for something that wasnt mine

(i've read the stories about watching reciepts so I watch my bill all week)

and sure enough I was hit with a Mini Bar Charge for $7 and change

We didnt touch anything in the mini bar and were never left a reciept

Found the charge Tuesday - asked about it everyday

Sunday morning I did not recieve a copy of my bill

went to the desk and the charge was still there - after several people told me they would take care of it - i cant begin to tell you how many people I was passed of too. Sunday morning - instead of packing to get off ship - i had to wait in line to get this handled.

I left the ship still wondering if it wasnt going to be taken off ... just saw the charge on my CC today and it was handled. Still it was something I didnt want to be dealing with all week .

 

the staff on this ship was lacking overall.

 

Casino wait staff was HORRIBLE and slow. I play Pai Gow poker and High Stakes BlackJack only - we were treated to free drinks since we bet large - and even the dealers and pit bosses had trouble getting servers to the tables. The Dealers though were VERY Nice! Just wish the Cards were nice as well LOL

 

I plan on sending a letter to NCL as well. I refused to let all the negative ruin my vacation that week - we had a blast! I'll wait a couple weeks till work sets me off ... then I'll write the letter! LOL

[sjbdtz]

i will post some pics in a few days, I will have to figure it out tho, :D

 

Was Len the british Casino Manager? We had issues with him on the Jewel a few years back... had a meeting with him and the HD at the time.

 

Shortly thereafter got a call from land-based Casino Marketing in Miami, apologizing.

 

If he's the same guy, he's certainly got an attitude when he disagrees with you (regardless of what the issue is, it would seem).

[Suni99]

Was Len the british Casino Manager? We had issues with him on the Jewel a few years back... had a meeting with him and the HD at the time.

 

Shortly thereafter got a call from land-based Casino Marketing in Miami, apologizing.

 

If he's the same guy, he's certainly got an attitude when he disagrees with you (regardless of what the issue is, it would seem).

 

OMG yes, it was LEN, when I tried to talk to him about my complaint, he immediately got defensive towards me, like a full rage came over him, so I looed at his name tag and walked away, he had me in tears as I walked away