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18 hours ago, buffet24 said:

Here is a picture of Boston that I took on DEC 29, 2022...😉

Starting with Northend on the left side... work your way through Downtown/Boston Common in the center all the way to the Seaport to the right...  Winthrop and Logan airport at the top and then Prudential at the bottom of this picture... 😁

 

Love this!

17 hours ago, mawvkysc said:

Can’t wait to hear about your last day. If you remember what time the last tender headed back to the ship? 

I believe it was around 5 pm

We went to Hamilton on Tuesday. The ferry was full because Prima was also in port so we jumped on a bus and then took a taxi back to the ship. 

12 minutes ago, Denise T said:

Thank you for the review and the wonderful pictures. This brought back memories as the Pearl has a special place in my heart. She was my very first cruise ship for my very first cruise to Canada/New England for the first time. Lots of firsts. We sailed out of Boston. I remember looking out the window of the hotel we stayed in the night before and the excitement of seeing her docked. I loved every minute of being on board. She was the right size of ship for me. 

Same! We are not mega ship people at all. For us Pearl size ships are perfect!

Wednesday at sea was very cold and windy. We had some rough seas at dinner time and throughout the evening. 
We were chosen to participate in the “Perfect Couple” game which was hilarious and so much fun. 

We spent a lot of time in Spinnaker listening to Funky Roots. Those guys are very talented!

Thursday’s seas were a lot calmer but still very chilly on deck. Lots of diehards on deck trying to get a tan before going home! 😎

Entertainment-

We loved the Legends show in Stardust. Diane Gordon (Tina Turner) was on our Pearl cruise in 2022 also. She has a fantastic voice! 
Michael Jackson and Elvis impersonators were also very good as were the Pearl singers and dancers. Beautiful costumes and cool lighting made the show even better. 
 

We’re surprised they didn’t have the singers and dancers come out on the first night for a preview of what’s to come during the week. 
 

We enjoyed both of Sonia’s shows in the theater.  (She did two different shows)
 

We couldn’t attend the adult comedy show because Splash Academy was closed. 
 

Pure variety was good but the mics weren’t loud enough. 
 

Dining

Summer Palace

We dined here 4 evenings and 2 afternoons for lunch. Service was quick and efficient and we enjoyed everything we ordered. There was always beef, chicken, pork and seafood offered along with pasta dishes and a vegetarian choice. Desserts were excellent!

Teppanyaki

So much fun. We had a great chef who had us all singing with him while he cooked. The food was excellent here as well 

La Cucina and Lotus Garden

Both very good.
Overall we enjoyed every meal we ate. Food was served hot and in a very timely manner.
 

The buffet was also very good. Even though the ship was sold out we were always able to find a table and the staff was very quick to clear tables when people were finished.
 

We never felt like Pearl is understaffed. We didn’t have to wait in line for a drink, bar service at all of the lounges and on deck  was great. Love that they’re still offering table service at all of the lounges we went to and by the pool. 

The crew seems very happy. We didn’t encounter one crew member that didn’t greet us with a smile! 
 

Our room attendant converted the bed back to a sofa for us each day and came back in the evening to open it back to a bed.
 

I was surprised at this because we had heard they will only come once a day.

We compensated him with a nice tip and I had made an Easter basket for him as well. He was so touched by the basket he almost made me cry with his kind words of thanks. He was awesome! 
 

Overall we had a great cruise! I’m surprised by the negative comments on our roll call on another site. 
I’m also surprised by how little people research a ship/cruise before booking it. 
I guess I’m in the minority but I spend hours comparing cruise lines/ships/itineraries etc. 
We ran into a lot of folks who didn’t know that Pearl doesn’t have the big production shows or that there isn’t a water slide and go kart track 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you for following along! If I missed answering any questions please let me know and I’ll check back and try to answer them. 
😊

On 4/12/2023 at 9:11 AM, cruisernut88 said:

Thanks for the great review. Our family will be doing this cruise at the end of June. We are very concerned about Splash Academy not being available while in Bermuda. We have specialty restaurant reservations for the 6 adults but did not include the 5 children because they wanted to go to Splash Academy. I contacted NCL to inquire about this policy for the upcoming summer months and was told that Splash Academy is currently back to its full schedule and the hours are posted in the daily planner. I then told him that photos of the daily planner are currently being posted on cruise critic and Splash Academy is clearly not open while the ship is docked in Bermuda, to which I received no reply. Hopefully we can get a more definitive answer from NCL before I try to add 5 children to our dinner reservations.

 

 

 

Splash Academy was probably the one disappointment on this cruise. 
There were a lot of kids on our cruise and they didn’t have a great plan for the teens in Entourage or the 9-12 yr olds. 
The young teens on our sailing didn’t have much to do. The pools were closed on Wednesday because of rough seas and rumors of dirty diapers (not sure how much truth there was to that but they did drain the main pool) 

The younger kids appeared to have craft activities but our grandson’s age group (9 yr olds) either watched a movie or played video games. 
 

They were at capacity many times which is expected on a sold out ship. 
 

In speaking to the director of the program this is their new schedule on Pearl and they have no plans to open during the 3 port days in Bermuda. 
 

Bermuda isn’t much of a night life island so the ship was pretty active and full in the evenings. So picture 400 kids with little to do for 3 nights. Many would run around the ship’s corridors and press every button in the elevators. 🤦🏻‍♀️. 
Pearl isn’t a great ship for kids to begin with so many on our roll call were very unhappy. 
 

Is it normal for Norwegian to close Splash Academy while in port? We’ve only cruised on Pearl. 

Good morning everyone! We’re in our car on the way home. 
Sorry I was unable to post since leaving Bermuda. For some reason I couldn’t get this site to load. 
I will answer all of your questions and post about our last couple of days on board later today. Thanks for following!

30 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

This is a great review. 
 

I’m curious if Sonia is doing the same show or a different set of music? There doesn’t seem to have been many production shows. 

Thank you! 
I will let you know about Sonia. She’s a great entertainer we’re looking forward to her second show. 

Tomorrow’s freestyle 

My husband took this pano shot 

7 hours ago, insidecabin said:

Going back years I have read reports of the demographic issues especially on the long TA cruises between Europe and South America not just MSC.

 

Only had one major experience when a group of judges from South America were on a ship with families, the sense of entitlement reflected their status back home. 

 

I think there is a critical mass when people go native,  generally people are well behaved,  but a soon as the "group" gets big enough things start to go off as they can dominate spaces.

Sometimes it is CC groups with organized events.

I have seen a solo group dominate the martini bar on a celebrity ship all cruise, 

 

Another time was a shorter cruise out of Miami where there were lots of organized groups, meetings etc daytime, that became drinkers after "work", sort of spring break with grown ups.

 

 

 

Sounds exactly like our experience in January on Divina. 
A massive group who didn’t care how their abhorrent behavior impacted those not in their group. 
It wasn’t a chartered ship but it felt like it. 

We were blessed with a beautiful day despite all of the weather forecasts we were seeing. So lucky! It was breezy but sunny all day! 
Love seeing Prima parked right behind us! Pearl looks longer but Prima is like a skyscraper it’s very tall! 
I think she will be our next NCL cruise, she’s quite magnificent!

@mking8288so happy your family was able to dock this morning!

Today’s Freestyle

1 hour ago, insidecabin said:

I think they have different targets depending where they are sailing.

 

Take Virtuosa

 

UK bookings come with service included and the drinks promotion is premium Extra at reasonable rate on many cruises.

 

For UK passenger the primary target market is no fly(mainly P&O), families(free kids), solos(20% extra).

 

winter Northern Europe 7n round trips.

Been very successful 2 winters(no one else does it in for the UK), attracting lots of cruisers with competitive prices and higher new to cruising rates than any other line they claimed 50% last year uk long term average was 30%.

 

For the Germans on the same route I suspect it is Aida that do similar cruises in the winter.

 

Virtuosa in the summer with £ on board no added gratuities and primarily single embarkation port.

P&O main target with any of the others that do Norway, canaries and the med inc. US lines that come to the UK. 

Agree about the different targets depending on region. Here in the states I consider their competition to be RCCL, NCL, HAL, Princess and Carnival. They’re all comparable in price and ships. 

I did a live review go read it. 

Thank you @Markanddonna and @Morgsmom I appreciate your support. 
 

For those saying it’s not a fair comparison who do you consider MSC’s competition?

Good morning!
The sun is shining YAY it’s still very windy!

We will get to a beach today we’re used to cold water at RI beaches. 😎

Last night the show in the theater featured the Pearl singers and dancers. The mics on the girl’s weren’t loud enough. I hope they work that out because they can sing! It was a good show. 
 

Tonight they’re having an adult comedian however they’re keeping Splash Academy closed while in port so since a lot of us are traveling with kids I can’t imagine it will be well attended. They should have saved this for tomorrow night while we’re at sea. 
We saw him earlier in the cruise on the first night and he was pretty good. 
 

Teppanyaki dinner was fantastic last evening. We had a great chef and the food was delicious! Highly recommend this!

Will post more later!
 

13 hours ago, DandytheCop said:

Thanks for this review, traveling in July in a club balcony room 11548. Any possible way you can post a few room pictures. That way I can show DW what it could look like. 

Thanks

You’ll love the club balcony. The shower is huge. It comes with bathrobes also.
Here’s a few pics…we are in 11118

The sofa is near the balcony door I didn’t get a pic of that before they opened it to a bed. 

57 minutes ago, mvh said:

So you're say 3500 people were horrible? I am not sure they are the issue.  Sounds like someone thinks they are a much higher class than the rest of the ship, or just hates Europeans.

I’m saying they had no manners. Zero. 
 

I’ve been cruising for 40 yrs. and never had that kind of experience.
They made the party crowd on Carnival look like rookies. 

I have been on these boards for many years and have always given an honest review.

I have no reason to embellish or exaggerate anything and I don’t. 

So please don’t put words in my mouth. I don’t hate Europeans, all 4 of my grandparents were from Europe so nice try but you’re very wrong. 

Have a good night!

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

I am aboard the Meraviglia right now and have not experienced anything that you mentioned in your post about your experience in January. Maybe they have improved things since then? Bar service has been fantastic. Literally just now, my husband and I were about to sit at a table at the Edge bar and after we pulled out our chairs, before we even put our butts in them, there was a server asking what we wanted to drink. No bad luck with other passengers either. We have had several great conversations with fellow cruisers already and this is only our first full day onboard.

Our gripe was never with the ship or the crew.  The crew was being run ragged on our cruise and some immediately following it.
Our problem was with the 3500 or so horrible passengers. I don’t know where they came from but I hope I never see them again. 
 

I’m in the minority when I say I’m happy MSC has raised their all in pricing. I hope that cuts down on the people who cannot handle their alcohol. 
 

@morpheusoftheseaNCL is back to the e-muster drills. It started with our sailing. 
 

3 hours ago, mvh said:

Also, pick something with comparable prices. This is a ridiculous comparison. NCL is personally my favorite line, however I would not go on MSC's board while on an NCL Cruise to bash MSC either. You get what you pay for.

Not bashing. Comparing. Full ship to full ship completely different vibe.
These passengers have manners passengers in January did not.

It’s as simple as that.

MSC with their very low pricing was attracting a party crowd over the holidays. 

Now that they’re in the US market I hope they raise their rates to match their competition. They have a great product they don’t need to give it away at KMart prices. (Just dated myself)

6 hours ago, mmbcater said:

There is a huge difference here of 2500+ people. Its not apple to apples. Its also not a fair comparison as to make up of the make up of the guest nationalities, NCL is mostly domestic customers, while MSC has a 65% foreign make up. If you want to do a fair comparison please pick the same size ship with similar guest make up...

 

 

Have a great sail on NCL the Pearl is a great ship!  

Size is relative. Divina is 50,000 tons larger than Pearl so a full Pearl is like a full Divina. 
Have cruised out of Port Canaveral, Rome and Miami all on Divina. Miami was the worst. Loved our first 2 MSC cruises. 
 

@mking8288I hope Prima can dock tomorrow it’s crazy rough right now and the wind gusts make it hard to stand sometimes. 
 

5 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Yum!! Thank you for sharing. I definitely missed the included Asian restaurant on Joy a few weeks ago. It's always a must eat on Getaway! I'm hoping wherever we go next has this place you went to as there are a few different dishes, plus I'd love to supplement the meal with a sushi roll (or four). How can you stop eating sushi? 

 

So, anyway, thanks for the photos! Is that your grandson actually enjoying fresh fish? Kudos to you/his parents on getting him to be such an adventurous eater at his age. 

Yes that’s Evan enjoying his raw salmon! He pretty much eats everything even escargot lol 

He’s very easy to travel with for sure!

Because of the weather we took a taxi to the Aquarium/zoo. It was about $50 each way but totally worth it. We love conversing with the drivers it’s like our own private tour. 
 

We’ve been to Bermuda a lot but this was our first time going to the aquarium. 
We really enjoyed it. Lots of beautiful fish and the zoo area was fun too! 
I can’t believe they only charge $10 for adults and $5 for children over 5. Thanks to @bluesea777for suggesting it!

Tonight we’re eating at Tappanyaki for the first time!

We can’t say enough good things about the crew on Pearl.  Even Senior Officers greet us with a smile and don’t make you feel like you’re not important enough to have a conversation with.  

Yesterday the crew member at the entrance to the buffet was singing “I want to wash your haaannnddss” to the tune of I wanna hold your hand lol it was great!

Some pictures from the aquarium/zoo 

Good morning!

We are having very strong winds here today. Captain just announced the NCL ferry will not operate. 
The wind gusts are so strong we are feeling movement in our room on deck 11.  Surf is crashing against the pier. 
 

The local forecast calls for a brighter afternoon 🤞

Have a great day everyone!

Today’s Freestyle 

Forgot to mention something they didn’t do last year.
If you arrive at the MDR or Lotus Garden for dinner and you have to wait for a table they give you a beeper and a voucher for a glass of sparking wine or soda while you wait. Thought that was a nice touch. 
The wait times were short. Under 15min tonight and last night. 

We had dinner at Lotus Garden this evening. 
Everything was very good and served nice and hot. (Sorry about the shadows on the menu pics.)

It’s pouring right now but all in all we lucked out with the weather today. 

Some Easter things at the buffet tonight