Norwegian Pearl - Haven Deluxe Owner's Suite - Full Review

This is my review of a 5-day cruise on the Norwegian Pearl, in the most incredible cruise ship suite we've ever stayed in... and this was our 39th cruise, so we've had the opportunity to stay in a few nice suites over the years!

Mostly, we cruise more frugally than this... but 2016 was quite lucrative for me, so we decided to splurge and stay in this amazing suite. What really attracted us to this particular suite was the fact that it had a huge balcony with a private Jacuzzi that we didn't have to share with anyone. We spent a LOT of time in it!

I'm Jim Zimmerlin (everyone calls me Jim Zim) and I always cruise with my wife, Kellyn. (Pronunciation tip: it rhymes with Helen.) We're from Grover Beach, California... a little beach town on the California coast about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. We've been cruising since 1996... and have now taken 39 cruises on five of the major cruise lines. This was our fourth with Norwegian Cruise Line. All together, we've spent 267 days at sea on cruise ships... but the best 5 were in the Deluxe Owner's Suite within The Haven on Norwegian Pearl!

Watched your video, can't wait for the full review since we are cruising in the haven on the pearl this December!

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For me to convey what was so special about our cruise on the Norwegian Pearl, I have to start with the amazing cabin we stayed in. It was pricey as heck... about $1600 per night... but in the end, Kellyn and I both agreed that it was totally worth it. And because this was only a five day cruise, it wasn't quite as expensive as it would have been if we had done a longer cruise. Also, because we were in one of the most expensive suites on the ship, it was pretty much all-inclusive... all the booze, Internet service, and specialty dining was included. So, at the end of the cruise, we basically had a $0 balance on our tab. On most cruises, there's a pretty good whammy at the end when you are hit with all the incidental charges. This time... none.

We loved this suite so much that we spent almost all of our time there. Even though the ship stopped in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Key West, Florida... we never left the ship at all. We had every comfort we wanted right there in our suite... and a butler to bring us food! We did have a few meals in the specialty restaurants onboard, and even a couple in the Pearl's very nice buffet restaurant... but most of the five days was simply spent inside our luxurious little cocoon.

Our favorite part of the suite was the private Jacuzzi outside on the large balcony. Having a Jacuzzi of our own, that we didn't have to share with anyone, was the highlight of our cruise!

In case you're wondering why I was wearing a t-shirt in the Jacuzzi... it was so I could spend hours in it without worrying about getting a sunburn on my shoulders. Wearing a t-shirt seems to work better at preventing sunburn than the use of "waterproof" sunblock.

To give you an idea of how large the balcony was, here's a shot I took while standing on the steps of the Jacuzzi and looking back towards the door that leads from the balcony in to the suite:

Compare the size of that balcony to the ones attached to a normal balcony cabin on a cruise ship. It's huge! Notice that in addition to the two loungers with the comfy cushions, there is also a daybed large enough for two to snuggle on. The table is a great place for anything from a snack to a full meal. Covered with a table cloth, it's a pretty great place to eat a meal... and you sure can't beat the view!

Here's a photo from the opposite direction of the last one, to give you another view of the daybed, the loungers, and the Jacuzzi...

 

 

At night, you can light up the Jacuzzi and the patio, or leave those lights off. Your choice.

 

One of the things that surprised me about this cruise in the Deluxe Owner's Suite was how much I enjoyed having a butler. Everyone staying in The Haven has a butler... and I've stayed in The Haven on two other NCL ships... but I never really asked much of the butlers on those two previous cruises. I simply don't think of myself as a guy who needs the help of a butler. I'm quite capable of getting things done for myself. But on this cruise, I came to really appreciate the services of our butler, a very special guy by the name of Caesar Lanic...

At least I think his first name is spelled Caesar! That's how it's spelled on his name badge. But he also gave me his business card, and it's spelled Ceasar on that. Isn't that odd? A letter from the Concierge referred to him as Caesar, though... so that's two sources that spelled it that way and only one source that spelled it the other way. So, unless I hear otherwise from a definitive source, I'm going to refer to him as Caesar for the rest of this review. And I do have a few things to tell you, later, about Caesar... like how he made Kellyn's day, and how he came to my rescue on another day! Anyway, after experiencing the service of a great butler on the Norwegian Pearl, I now consider myself as someone who appreciates the help of a butler! And at the end of the cruise, I tipped him more than I've ever tipped anyone in my entire life. He was that good.

At the beginning of the cruise, still considering myself a don't-need-a-butler kind of guy at that point, I didn't ask Caesar for much... and I told him flat-out that I wasn't going to ask him for much. He seemed genuinely disappointed... and it didn't seem like he was disappointed because he thought he wouldn't get a good tip if I never needed anything... it seemed like he was genuinely disappointed because he likes to do special things for people. I made a mental note of the disappointment on his face when I told him we wouldn't need much from him. And the next day, when I thought of a simple thing he could do for me, I noted that he seemed genuinely pleased. So, after that, I loosened up a bit... and let Caesar know anytime I thought of something we needed. And he seemed to genuinely like taking care of us.

On the very first day, he brought some kind of pastry appetizer thingy to us... and I had to have him take it away, because Kellyn has some serious food allergies and has to eat both gluten free and dairy free. But he wrote in his notebook about Kellyn's special dietary requirement, and after that he was very careful to only bring items for Kellyn that were both gluten free and dairy free. In fact, in that previous picture, he's bringing us a surprise lunch of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches made with gluten-free toast. We hadn't asked him to bring us lunch, he just did. I think he may have picked up on the fact that we ate lunch at noon the first couple of days, but on this particular day it was after 1 PM and we hadn't left the cabin yet. (We were enjoying the Jacuzzi too much to leave the room!) So, he showed up with lunch... and it was delicious.

Later in the cruise, we couldn't bear the thought of leaving our perfect little suite for dinner one night, so I arranged for Caesar to bring a steak for me and a big salad for Kellyn. He placed a white tablecloth over the dining table in our suite, and we enjoyed a perfect dinner without ever leaving our little cocoon. (And without ever having to dress up to go out.) So, yeah, this was the cruise where I learned how to let a butler pamper me!

The Deluxe Owner's Suite has a very nice bathroom... so large that I couldn't get the whole thing in to one photo, even using a wide angle lens. What you see in this next picture is about half of the bathroom.

Notice the TV above the bathtub... a nice touch. Another nice touch is a telephone within reach of the toilet. Not that I would be thinking of calling someone while doing my business... but where it actually came in handy was when one of the staff called me to confirm something, and Kellyn was on the balcony at the time, and I was in the bathroom. It also came in handy during a bit of a crisis... more about that in just a minute!

The next photo shows a little dressing and makeup area, which sits between the bedroom and the bathroom. There is a "pocket door" that can be slid closed to provide some privacy to the dressing room and bathroom.

A funny thing happened to me in the dressing room one day! I entered the dressing room to change out of a swim suit, and slid the door closed behind me for privacy... just in case the butler, the Jacuzzi tech (who we shall refer to simply as "pool guy" for the rest of this review) or the cabin steward dropped by. They do that from time to time... so be sure to use the Do Not Disturb sign and lock the front door if you don't want any of the staff to enter the suite at all.

In sliding the dressing room door closed behind me, I managed to use a little too much force and a totally freaky one-in-a-million thing happened. The door shut with such force that the little lock in the door managed to rotate and lock itself closed. It did it in such a way that it was impossible for me to unlock! I tried and tried, to no avail. I had accidentally locked myself inside my own dressing room! As luck would have it, I had brought a screwdriver set with me... and I had stored it inside the dressing room! So, I used one of my screwdrivers to dis-assemble the door lock... but as BAD LUCK would have it, I still couldn't force the lock open!

Unable to MacGyver my way out of my little predicament, I was forced to reach out for help. You'd think that since I was locked in the dressing room and bathroom, I'd have a hard time summoning help. (Kellyn was out on the balcony in the Jacuzzi, and there was no way she would ever hear me even if I yelled for help.) Luckily, there's a cool little feature of the Deluxe Owner's Suite bathroom: a phone next to the toilet, and Caesar the butler on speed dial. So, I called Caesar and explained my predicament... with a lot of laughing to let him know I wasn't mad, I was embarrassed at having to get help for such a freaky occurrence. He must have been nearby, because he came to my rescue in a flash... but even Caesar couldn't get the dressing room door lock to budge. So, he called maintenance... and they showed up pretty darned quickly, too. Eventually, they got me out, and Caesar and I had a pretty good laugh about it.

But wait... that's not the end of the story! Unbelievably, just a few hours later, I managed to get myself locked outside on the balcony, and unable to get in. Sounds too impossibly unlikely to be true... but it was. I was out on the balcony, and the pool guy came by with some maintenance people to address an issue with the heating and cooling system in the bathroom. So, after pool guy came out on the balcony to fill me in that the maintenance guys would be in our bathroom for a little while, he entered the suite from the balcony and slid the glass door closed behind him. Somehow, much as I had done earlier with the dressing room door, he managed to slide the glass door closed in just such a way that it engaged the lock. So, Kellyn and I were on the balcony and the door was locked... making it impossible for us to get back inside the suite. How's that for an unbelievably incredible coincidence? Luckily, pool guy was still inside the suite when I tried the balcony door and realized it was locked. But for just a brief second or two, I didn't know that he was right there inside the suite... due to the mirrored window in the sliding door. So, for a second or two, I thought I was going to have to call for help for the second time that day! But first I tried just knocking on the door, and pool guy was pretty quick to open it up for me. And no, he hadn't heard the story of the first incident yet, so he didn't do it as a joke. It was just the strangest of coincidences.

Speaking of pool guy... one more little story:

Cruise ship staff are quite often from the Philippines... and they never seem to know the proper way to address a guest. If I were staying in a hotel in the United States, with an American staff, they'd address me as Mr. Zimmerlin, or possibly as "sir". In a casual setting, they might even call me by my first name... James, if they are reading it off some paperwork, or Jim if they have heard me use my own name... such as if I called on the phone and said "this is Jim Zimmerlin in room 104". A Filipino staff member on a cruise ship, however, doesn't seem to get that. I guess it's just not the way they do it in the Philippines. No matter what cruise ship I'm on, a Filipino staff member will almost always refer to me as "Sir James". Now that sounds real awkward and odd to me, as that is simply not the way we address people in the USA... but I've just gotten used to it after 39 cruises. But Kellyn and I had a good laugh when the pool guy, after he had gotten to know me just a bit after a day or two, started referring to me as "Sir Jimmy"! No one had ever addressed me like that before... and I'm pretty sure he was just trying to be whimsical and a bit of a smart-Alec. It made me smile, and Kellyn and I had a good laugh over it. I even suggested that during some future passionate moment, Kellyn might want to shout out "Sir Jimmy!" at the climax of her passion... just for a good laugh! She didn't think that was funny, though. But I did!

Above the bed in our suite was a piece of artwork I found interesting. Our son is fascinated with Thailand, and even went there on vacation one time. He has a tendency to give us elephant-related gifts at special occasions. So, I was amused to look carefully at the artwork over the bed and to notice several elephants.

The next photo shows gives you a good view of how the suite is laid out. Let's start on the left side, where you see the bed and that big piece of artwork above it. To the right of that is the pocket door which separates the bedroom from the dressing room and bathroom. (I slid that door closed VERY gently after "the incident".)

On the right side of the previous photo, you can see the entryway to the suite. That door takes you out to the stairway which leads down to the rest of The Haven, and to the elevators and staircase if you want to leave The Haven. Notice to the left of the entryway that there's a bar, including a lot of glassware. Under the glassware , on the left, is a coffee maker. The insulated cooler to the right of the coffee maker is full of ice. The bar is stocked with Pepsi products of all types... and on the first day of the cruise, Caesar checked with me to find out what my drink preferences were. He made sure that the bar was stocked with plenty of our favorites. This includes liquor!

One of the perks of staying in the Deluxe Owner's Suite is that they will supply up to three bottles of the liquor of your choice. For some guests, I'm sure that ends up being three bottles of wine. In our case, we're not wine drinkers, so I asked for a bottle of Malibu Rum, a bottle of Vodka, and a bottle of Tequila. I figured that gave us lots of choices of mixed drinks we could choose from, depending on our mood during the week. And no, we did NOT finish three bottles of booze during our five day cruise! I wonder what they ended up doing with the leftovers?

Nice to see another review from you and that room looks incredible!

This next photo gives you a view of the suite as seen from the entryway.* I figure that if I show you the suite from enough different angles, it will help you get the full picture in your mind.* It's a pretty great suite!

Here's one last photo of the inside of the suite. This gives you a good view of the sitting area. Note the cute little towel animal on the right side of the photo! The beautiful fresh flowers were a nice touch, too.

The view out the big picture windows is pretty spectacular. You can watch all the activity that's going on at the pool deck, or see what's happening with the weather, and also get a very good view of how close we are to land and other ships. The windows are mirrored, so you can see out, but no one can see in... at least during the day. When it's dark outside, they can probably see in from outside... if you have a fair amount of lights on in the suite. But one button can fix that problem. I'll show you what I mean in a video, later in this review.

We spent hours just enjoying the comforts of our suite and watching the antics of the people who were partying a few floors below us on the pool deck. Here's a little video I captured one evening during a party out by the pool. Notice the guy over on the right side, and the amazing back flip he does about 4 seconds in to the video!

To fully understand the situation, let me explain that for quite a while now Norwegian Cruise Line has been running a promotion where people who book a cruise are offered their choice of one of the following four perks: an unlimited beverage package, including booze... an opportunity to eat at the specialty restaurants for free... free wireless Internet access... or a credit towards the cost of shore excursions. From what I could tell from watching the crowd out on the pool deck, an awful lot of people chose the free booze! It was most noticeable on the first sea day. People were REALLY having a good time out at the pool, if you know what I mean. It was pretty funny to watch.

Another thing that happened out at the pool deck one day was the "Ms Norwegian Pearl 2017" contest, and from our balcony I had a pretty nice vantage point...

The zoom lens on my camera makes that look a lot closer to our balcony than it really was!

 

 

 

Besides watching the people on the pool deck, we also had a spectacular view of the ocean.

Here's a time-lapse video of the view we had from our balcony the day the ship was docked in Key West:

 

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We also had a pretty great view from our balcony the day the ship was docked in Ocho Rios, Jamaica...

 

WOW! We will be in our first suite on the Pearl in a few weeks-10164. :) I am sure it will not be as grand as your experience but awesome nontheless! :) Did you eat in a sep. restaurant for breakfast and lunch?

The Deluxe Owner's Suites (there are two of them, right next door to each other... one on the port side of the ship, one on the starboard side) are located within The Haven... a special V.I.P. area of the ship that only about 60 passengers have access to. (There are typically around 2400 passengers on the Norwegian Pearl.) Most of The Haven is located on deck 14. To get there requires a special key card that only Haven passengers have. That key card will open the door that blocks the stairwell between decks 13 and 14. Or, insert your room keycard in the secret un-marked slot in the elevator, and if you're a Haven passenger, it will allow you to push the button for deck 14. If a non-Haven passenger tries pushing the 14 button, even if they try inserting their keycard first, it simply won't work.

The centerpiece of The Haven is The Haven Courtyard... a relaxing place with a warm swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a sauna, and lots of comfortable loungers and daybeds.

The Haven Courtyard is surrounded by 1 and 2-bedroom Haven suites. Because those suites are adjacent to The Haven Courtyard, it's almost as if the courtyard is their very own outdoor room. Here's the hallway the sits between The Haven Courtyard and most of The Haven Suites. You can see how quick and easy it would be to walk out of your suite and in to The Haven Courtyard... just like it was your own little retreat.

You can order breakfast or lunch from an attendant that is stationed in the courtyard area, and he'll get it for you and serve it to you at one of several tables within the courtyard. I don't think he's out there to serve you at dinner time, but I'm not 100% sure about that. There are also beverages available in the courtyard, and some nice snacks, too. On several occasions, I walked down to the courtyard and grabbed cookies or M&Ms to bring up to our suite.

Notice the sign that says "plain chocolate". That's a jar full of plain M&M's... and the sign is just letting folks know that these were not peanut M&M's, which had been in the jar most of the other days.

Just outside the courtyard is a little room where The Haven attendant and the stateroom stewards store things, prepare things, and collect used dishes. I laughed when I saw the door propped open one day, and I read the sign on the inside of the door.

Did you eat in a separate restaurant for breakfast and lunch?

Haven passengers can eat breakfast and lunch in Moderno... the Brazilian Steakhouse. Of course, at breakfast and lunch it has a "normal" menu... it does not act as a Brazilian steakhouse at those hours. Only Haven guests can get in to Moderno at breakfast and lunch time.

I had a really nice steak there for lunch one day. On other days, we either ate in the buffet, or had the butler bring food to us. More on that, a bit later in the review. Another option for Haven guests is to eat breakfast or lunch in The Haven Courtyard.

The Haven Courtyard is never crowded since only around 60 people have access to it... and at any one time, 60 people are always going in a dozen different directions. Even on a sea day, there's always plenty of space to relax within The Haven Courtyard.

The courtyard is protected by a big glass dome overhead... which can be opened up during perfect weather, closed during bad weather, or cracked open a little bit to keep it cool. It's a very comfortable place.

You might think that since the Deluxe Owner's Suite has its own large balcony and a private Jacuzzi, we would have no need for The Haven Courtyard. But the thing you don't realize is that there are times when the big balcony on the Deluxe Owner's Suite is basically unusable. For example, on a particularly windy day, or a rainy one. Something else that might not occur to you is that since the Deluxe Owner's Suite is located right next to the main pool area, it sometimes gets extremely noisy out there. On sea days, they often have a band playing out at the pool during the afternoon. Mornings were great on our balcony, but once the band started playing in the afternoon, we had to head to the serenity of The Haven Courtyard. And during two nights of our cruise, they had deck parties at night by the pool... and the band literally played past midnight... so you might want to bring some ear plugs if you're going to stay in any of the owner's suites (deluxe, or not) and you think you might want to go to bed while the big pool party is still going on outside.

In the next photo, if you look carefully at the back right, you can barely see the big Jacuzzi that's one of my favorite features of The Haven Courtyard. To the left of that, there's a barely-visible yellow floor sign warning of a wet floor there, and behind that yellow sign is a hallway which leads to male and female restrooms, male and female showers, and male and female saunas.

This next photo gives you a better look at the big Jacuzzi, plus a view of the that staircase leading up to The Haven Sundeck and (just to the left of the big hook) the hallway that leads to the restrooms, showers, towels, and saunas.

Regarding that stairway and the Haven Sundeck, one floor up... I somehow managed to not take a single still photo of The Haven Sundeck, but you can see it in the following video, which is a little introduction to what The Haven is all about. Be sure to turn your volume up before you start playing this video, as there is some narration which goes with the video.

If you'd like to watch the video in HD and/or full screen,

This photo of the big Jacuzzi in The Haven Courtyard does a better job of showing you how big it really is. Kellyn and I shared it one day with a very well behaved pair of teenage girls... and there would have been plenty of room for another couple, at least.

 

 

That big couch would be a great conversation spot for a family or a group who were all staying within The Haven. One word of caution, though, if you ever are part of a group of people having a conversation in The Haven: just keep in mind that it's supposed to be a quiet, relaxing place. So, be careful to keep your conversations soft (and censored) so that you don't bother other people in the courtyard. On a similar note, if you're staying in The Haven with your children, this is not the pool for them to play Marco Polo in. For anything but a quiet and relaxing time in the pool, children should be taken to one of the other pools on the ship. Yes, we get that you paid the big bucks to stay within The Haven, but that doesn't entitle you to infringe on other people who also did. None of this was ever a problem during any of the three cruises we've done within The Haven on NCL ships, but I have read a few horror stories here on Cruise Critic!

Thanks for sharing your review and photos.

I mentioned that it takes a special keycard to get inside The Haven. Once you've made it to deck 14, which is The Haven, the entrance to the two Deluxe Owner's Suites is a bit subtle. Near the elevators, there's a small sign for the Golden Pearl Suite and the Black Pearl Suite.

 

Just past that sign is a stairway...

 

Those stairs lead to the two Deluxe Owner's Suites, which take up all of deck 15. While climbing those stairs up to our amazing suite, I would always have Led Zeppelin lyrics running through my head... "and she's buying a stairway to heaven". The word "buying" seems ironic to me, as you do pay through the nose for the privilege to be in this suite... and that stairway certainly does take you to a place that looks an awful lot like my idea of heaven!

At the top of the stairs, you reach the doors to the two Deluxe Owner's Suites... 15500 on the port side of the ship, and 15000 on the starboard side.

If you research the Deluxe Owner's Suites on the Norwegian Cruise Line web site, you actually get a incorrect impression of the layout of these two suites. Here's the official NCL deck plan for the area of the two Owner's Suites...

If you were to believe that diagram exactly as it is, you'd be left with the incorrect impression that 15500 is quite a bit larger than 15000... because they include the stairway up to the 15th floor, and the landing at the top, as part of the green area of 15500. I have taken the liberty of creating a more accurate diagram...

As you can see, 15000 is actually a little bit larger than 15500, because of the way the entryway is layed out. It's an insignificant difference, though. Our neighbors in 15500 were very friendly, and we compared the two suites one day. The size and layout are basically the same, but there's a different interior decoration scheme between the two. I was glad we had booked 15000 as I preferred the way it had been decorated.

Be aware that the Norwegian Pearl is going in to dry dock for a few weeks in February of 2017, and I know they are planning on doing some improvements to the staterooms. Whether they will do anything to the Deluxe Owner's Suites... I don't know. I'll be looking forward to Googling "Norwegian Pearl Deluxe Owner's Suite" in mid-to-late 2017 to see if I can find any pictures or videos taken after the February dry dock... just to see if they did anything significant to the Deluxe Owner's Suites.

By the way, you may have noticed that I don't just call them Owner's Suites... I've specifically called them "Deluxe Owner's Suites". That's because there are "owner's suites" on deck 14 and there are "deluxe owner's suites" on deck 15... and they are two very different things. The owner's suites on deck 14 do not have a Jacuzzi out on the balcony, so that puts them in a completely different league from the Deluxe Owner's Suites on deck 15.

In this next photo, look at the top two floors of the building beyond the pool. Notice the mirrored windows on the top two floors. Behind those mirrored windows are the four most expensive suites on the ship.

On the top floor, deck 15, are the two Deluxe Owner's Suites. If you draw an imaginary line down the middle of the ship, suite 15000 (ours) is on the left side of the line, and suite 15500 (our neighbor in the other Deluxe Owner's Suite) is on the right side of the line. That's pretty cool that our suite spans basically half the width of the ship! Below us, on deck 14, also behind mirrored glass, are the two most expensive suites on the ship... the 3-bedroom Garden Villas. More about those, later.

Here's a closer look at what the other passengers see when they look up at our Deluxe Owner's Suite. Our balcony is there on the left side of the upper floor of that structure, and the mirrored windows of our living room and bedroom are there on the right side. From this angle, it's easy to see how our balcony offers such a great view. From our balcony, if we look forward, we see the pool deck... if we look off to the side, we see nothing but ocean and sky. And as you can see from this picture, it's especially beautiful at sunset.

Without a doubt, the single best thing about our cruise in the Deluxe Owner's Suite was having our own Jacuzzi that we didn't have to share with anyone. My wife is a bit of a germaphobe, so she absolutely LOVED that we weren't sitting in a Jacuzzi full of anyone else's germs. The water in the Jacuzzi is emptied and cleaned every night by "pool guy"... and he comes by every morning to fill it up again with fresh water. As far as I know, they don't add any chlorine or special chemicals to the water like they would have to do in a typical public pool, since the Jacuzzi is emptied every night and replaced with new fresh water every morning. My wife loved all of that, and I've never seen her spend so much time in a Jacuzzi. It was like heaven on earth, and you can see it in the very genuine smile on her face in the next photo.

Notice that the ship was docked in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in that particular photo. We never stepped foot off the ship during our entire cruise. We had everything we needed... there was no reason to go ashore. We've been to the Caribbean many times... so this cruise was not about the destination, for us. It was about spending time inside our own little cocoon of pleasure. In many ways, it was like having a second honeymoon after 35 years of marriage.

When the ship was at sea and moving along at 15 knots or so, it tended to be too windy to enjoy our Jacuzzi. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, at sea there was often a lot of noise from the band playing loudly at the pool deck just below and in front of our balcony. So, the prime time to enjoy the balcony was during port days when there was no wind, and nothing going on at the pool deck because most of the other passengers were ashore.

On this particular day, with the ship docked in Ocho Rios, it was so warm and peaceful in the Jacuzzi out on our balcony. We spent HOURS in it.

At one point, Kellyn leaned over to me and told me how great this all was... but added that there was just one thing needed to reach total perfection: chips and salsa. So, I wrapped myself in a towel and went inside to the telephone. With one button on the speed dialer, I was able to connect with our butler, Caesar, and ask him if he had access to some chips and salsa. Of course, he did... and a few minutes later he showed up and made Kellyn one very happy lady.

A little while later, as we were enjoying a good time in the Jacuzzi, eating our chips and salsa and drinking Malibu & Diet Pepsi, Kellyn told me that this was the best day of her entire life. Those words really meant a lot to me, as I knew that I had made it all happen. That's a moment I'm sure I'll never forget.

Notice in the previous picture that we had turned off the pump to the Jacuzzi, disabling the bubbles. There's a trick I'd like to pass along to any future residents of the Deluxe Owner's Suite. Just to the right of the stairs leading up to the Jacuzzi are three buttons. One turns the pump on, one turns the pump off, and one opens up a special valve that drains the Jacuzzi completely. When the pump is on, the bubbles are bubbling and the heater in the Jacuzzi maintains the water at a constant temperature... whatever temperature "pool guy" has set a secret hidden thermostat to. So, let's say he's set the thermostat to 100 degrees. As long as you leave the pump running, the water in the Jacuzzi stays at a constant temperature of 100 degrees.

There may be times when you don't want it that hot, though! For example, on a warm afternoon in the Caribbean, 100 degree Jacuzzi water may not feel relaxing at all. During the heat of the day, you might want it much cooler, but during the mornings or evenings you might love it that warm. They don't want you fiddling around with the secret controls at the back panel of the Jacuzzi... and you don't really need to. Anytime you want the water to start cooling down... just turn off the pump. With the pump not running, no additional heat is added to the water. Over time, it eventually cools down. If it cools down too much, just turn the pump on again until the water reaches the temperature you like. If you run the pump continually and the water just never gets as hot as you would like it to... mention it to pool guy and he can turn the secret thermostat up for you.

I'm just about done talking about the fabulous Deluxe Owner's Suite and all the fun we had in it... especially that big balcony and our own private Jacuzzi... but before I move on to tell you about some other parts of the Norwegian Pearl, I want to offer you a summary of what was so great about the Deluxe Owner's Suite... in the form of the following video. Be sure to turn your volume up before you start playing this video, as there is some narration which goes with the video.

If you'd like to watch the video in HD or in Full Screen mode,

I mentioned in the video that we were in one of the four most expensive suites on the ship. I can tell you for sure that this does not go un-noticed by some of the staff. All Haven passengers are treated like V.I.P.'s, but it was interesting to see how they really went out of their way to give us special treatment since we were in the Deluxe Owner's Suite. For example, one day I called the Concierge to see if she could change some dinner reservations we had made. I guess I called at a bad time, because she didn't answer the phone, and it went to voice mail. I didn't feel like leaving a voice mail, so I didn't. About five minutes later, the Concierge was at our front door. And when I told her about my need to change the dinner reservation, there wasn't a moment's hesitation... she said it would be done. There was no checking with the restaurant to see if there was a table available. It simply would be done... no ifs or buts. It was a very refreshing level of service, and we really appreciated it.

The Mandara Spa is located on deck 12, at the front of the ship. Deck 12 is the pool deck, so that makes it pretty easy for anyone to find the spa. Within the spa is a delightful cruise ship feature known as the Thermal Suite. It's not free to use... you have to either buy a day pass, or a pass for the entire cruise. I'm not sure, but I think if you buy any kind of service in the spa (such as a massage) you might also get access to the thermal suite before or after your treatment, too.

I've been talking a lot so far about The Haven... so I just want to make it clear that the Mandara Spa has nothing to do with The Haven. Being a guest within The Haven does not get you free access to the Thermal Suite, or the spa.

The centerpiece of the Thermal Suite is this very warm hydrotherapy pool...

You can lie down and relax on those horizontal metal racks on the right side of the picture, or stand up under those high-pressure jets in the center for a poor-man's shoulder massage, or stand over on the left side near that circular thingy. I have no idea what the purpose of the circular thingy is. I just leaned against it while enjoying the warm water of the hydrotherapy pool.

There's a very nice Jacuzzi located next to the hydrotherapy pool. It's pretty much identical to the Jacuzzi in The Haven Courtyard. If you're a guest in The Haven, there's not a whole lot of reason to buy Spa access.

As I mentioned, the spa is located at the very front of the ship, just above the navigational bridge. There are big picture windows that look forward and have a spectacular view during the day. A row of loungers, with thick, comfortable cushions, are next to the big picture windows. It's a great place to relax, with a beautiful view... and protected from any wind or weather. In addition to the individual loungers, there are also a couple of day beds that are big enough for two people to share. You can also barely see in this photo that there are some green tile loungers. Those tiles are heated... so when you lie on them, the heat radiates up in to your back. It's very relaxing, especially after you've just gotten out of the Jacuzzi or the hydrotherapy pool.

Those last three pictures were taken in the co-ed section of the thermal suite, but there are also men's and women's sections on either side of the co-ed section. In each gender-specific area, there is a warm Jacuzzi bath, a cold plunge pool, showers, lockers, and loungers where you can relax without people of the opposite gender being around.

The layout of the Thermal Suite is on the Norwegian Pearl is quite a bit different than the layout I've seen on newer NCL ships such as the Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Getaway. The Pearl has a much nicer, larger sauna. Two saunas, actually. One on the men's side, and one on the women's side. They have incredible views forward and off to the sides.

Since these saunas are gender specific, not co-ed, you might be wondering if people in the sauna wear a swim suit or not. I don't know for sure... I tried to visit very early in the morning in order to get these pictures when no one would be there to be bothered by a guy with a camera. But I suspect from the fact that the saunas are not co-ed, that you are probably free to use the sauna in the nude if you'd like to. That's just my guess, though. I didn't ask about that.

Haven passengers can eat breakfast and lunch in Moderno... the Brazilian Steakhouse. Of course, at breakfast and lunch it has a "normal" menu... it does not act as a Brazilian steakhouse at those hours. Only Haven guests can get in to Moderno at breakfast and lunch time.

 

I had a really nice steak there for lunch one day. On other days, we either ate in the buffet, or had the butler bring food to us. More on that, a bit later in the review. Another option for Haven guests is to eat breakfast or lunch in The Haven Courtyard.

Hmmm..our PCC told us all suite guests eat in Moderno for breakfast and lunch but only OS guests can dine in the Haven area. :confused:

This is the main atrium area, in the center of the ship. You can see O'Sheehan's restaurant up on the 8th floor and a classical music performance going on down below on the 7th floor. Out of view of the photo is the guest services desk, and the shore excursion desk, on deck 7.

Here's something I've never seen on any other cruise ship. It's a viewing area where you can look in to the navigational bridge. That's so cool, and so educational. You'll find this on deck 11, forward, port side only. If you sail on the Pearl with kids, you've GOT to bring them here.

Here's something I've never seen on any other cruise line besides NCL. It's a bowling alley. There are actually two of these... one on the port side and one on the starboard side... for a total of four lanes. This is located in the Bliss night club, deck 7, aft. As much as Royal Caribbean is in to adding unusual features like rock climbing walls and ice skating rinks to their ships, you'd think that they would be the ones with a bowling alley. But no, it's Norwegian.

Another thing that caught my eye in the Bliss night club is this little room with a "party bed". Imagine a group of teenagers on a cruise with their parents. The parents go to bed at 10 PM... and this is where you'll find the teenagers until 2 or 3 in the morning. That's my theory, at least. I'm not really a night club kind of guy. My visit here was strictly for some quick photos, early in the evening.

This is the Stardust Theater on decks 5/6/7. The balcony seating is kind of cool, but the best sight lines are in that huge center section which covers all three decks. However, during one performance I saw in here, the sound was SO BAD that members of the audience were shouting "can't hear!" to the sound techs. Other performances were fine though. Most of the shows were hosted by the Cruise Director, J.C. Sanchez... who I have to say is one of the worst Cruise Directors I've ever seen. The guy just totally grates me the wrong way. He's was our Cruise Director on Norwegian Getaway, too. I have no idea what NCL management sees in this guy. I have seen so many great Cruise Directors over the years... this guy is not in their league.

This is the Promenade Deck on deck 7. It's an outdoor area that wraps all the way around the ship 360 degrees. It's great for a stroll, or for those of you without access to The Haven, it's a great place to find a quiet spot for relaxing, reading a book, or just watching the view. Usually one side of the ship will be sunny and the other will be shaded... so pick whichever suits you.

Hmmm..our PCC told us all suite guests eat in Moderno for breakfast and lunch but only OS guests can dine in the Haven area. :confused:

I think your PCC has it wrong. I'm 95% sure that any Haven guest can sit at the tables in The Haven Courtyard and order breakfast or lunch from the attendant stationed there. He runs down to the restaurant and gets it for you, and serves it to you at your table in The Haven Courtyard.

Of course, another option is asking your butler to deliver your meal to your cabin.

These little displays are next to all the elevators and really help you figure out how to get to where you want to go!

It's really easy on a cruise ship to get confused about which way leads to the front of the ship and which way leads to the back. NCL has a simple little system for helping you keep from getting turned around and confused when you're in the hallway leading to your cabin. The carpet has schools of fish stitched in to it, and if you walk in the direction that the fish are heading, you'll be walking towards the front of the ship.

It's too bad that they only use this system in the hallways outside of the cabins. They should really use this system on all the carpets throughout the ship. Speaking of carpeting, ever since my first Norwegian cruise back in 2008, I've noticed that NCL seems to have this attraction to loud carpeting. Not loud in terms of volume, but loud in terms of being graphically flashy... trending towards gaudy. Not subtle and dignified... but like they want the carpet to scream "have fun, people"! It's the opposite strategy of a great cruise ship I was on recently... the Viking Star. Those Viking guys know how to do interior decoration with a refined sense of class. With the Norwegian Pearl set to get refurbished in dry dock in February of 2017, I wonder if they will tone down some of the carpeting and go for something more subtle. It will be interesting to see.

There are two swimming pools on deck 12, near the center of the ship. This is the one we had a really good view of from our suite, as it was the closest to us. There are two Jacuzzis alongside this swimming pool, although you can only see one in this picture.

This is the other swimming pool on deck 12. This one was the furthest from our suite. You can see two more Jacuzzis here, for a total of four in this area. Note the bandstand to the left. The band faces directly towards our suite, so it can get loud in our suite and on our balcony when they played. That was the biggest negative of our suite... especially when the band played well past midnight on some nights! As this photo was taken at sunset, you can see the crowd had started to thin... and there were some empty loungers. From about 9 or 10 AM onward, on a sea day, this place is packed. The chair hogging starts early, and NCL doesn't do anything to stop it. But these are problems we don't have in The Haven!

In this next photo, taken from our balcony, you can see both pools together, as well as the bandstand. Note the additional loungers up on the 13th floor, since trying to get one on deck 12 is frustrating, most of the time. Oh, by the way, isn't that cool that there's a 13th floor?!? Superstition is so stupid... on ships that go right from deck 12 to deck 14 it really makes me wonder why the management gives in to a superstition from centuries ago. Aren't we all a little smarter than that now? So, bravo to NCL for having a deck 13.

Now let's play a game. I want you to very carefully compare the previous picture with the next picture, and see if you can see what's different... besides the fact that the ship was at sea in the first photo, and was docked in Key West in the second photo. Same ship, photographed from the same spot a couple of days apart. Big difference. See it? I'll explain what was going on, in just a moment.

OK... here's the explanation of those two very different photos of deck 12, as seen from our balcony, a few days apart.

It turns out that for the cruise after ours, the ship had been chartered for some kind of group cruise involving some kind of rock concert. They needed a VERY big stage for the concert. On the very last day of our cruise, with the ship docked in Key West and most of the passengers ashore, the crew embarked on a huge project to transform deck 12 for the concert that would begin the next day, after we all went home and a new group of passengers got onboard. The first step in building the big stage for the concert was to cover up the pool that was closest to our suite. It was a HUGE deal, as the covered-up pool needed to be strong enough to support a huge stage that would be built on top of it beginning the morning we all disembarked.

So, beginning very early in the morning on the day the ship was in Key West, they emptied all the water out of the pool, and started installing a big system of metal supports inside the pool, enough to carry a big load on top. After the metal supporting structure was built inside the pool, a plywood top was added, and that was covered with green carpeting. This process took hours, and was completed by the time most of the passengers came back from their day in Key West. We stayed onboard, in order to enjoy our balcony and Jacuzzi under perfect weather conditions, and watched the whole transformation from beginning to end. It was fascinating. My big regret is that I did not realize at first what was happening. If I had known what they were doing, I would have started a time-lapse video to show the whole process... which played out over about an 8 hour period of time. What you see is the final result for that day. I have to assume those people in the loungers on the green carpet section knew that there had been a pool there the day before. I wonder what they thought was going on!

The next day was disembarkation day for us, so while we were all packing our suitcases and walking off the ship, the crew used a huge crane to load the pieces of a huge stage that would be built there on deck 12 that morning. I suspect by the time the ship sailed away later that afternoon, it was pretty much done... and there was probably a heck of a noisy concert that night. Pity the poor folks in the four most expensive suites on that cruise! They will be right next to the stage.

One more thing about Key West, before we move on to other things...

The way the itinerary for this cruise was set up, we would be in Jamaica on day 3 of the cruise, Key West on day 5, and then back to the port of Miami for disembarkation on the next day. What's interesting about that is that Key West is in the USA. So, after visiting Jamaica, we would be entering the USA in Key West, the day before actually disembarking the boat in Miami. Normally, one would go through customs at the time of disembarkation in Miami. But because we had arrived in the USA the day before, in Key West, customs officials came on the ship that morning, and we all did the customs process (including the form, and showing a passport) there in Key West... a full day before arriving at the Port Of Miami. That's the first time that's ever happened to us on a cruise. Thinking back to the two previous times we visited Key West on a cruise, it was always on Day 2 of the cruise, not on the day before disembarkation. So, that was an interesting new process for us.

This is an area at the back of the ship, known as "the great outdoors". At least that's what NCL calls it. I think most passengers just call it the outdoor seating area of the buffet, at the back of the ship. On warm days, it was a very nice spot to eat a meal. Because it's at the back of the ship, it's wind protected. And most of the seating is shaded, which is great on a nice day in the Caribbean.

Even though we were staying in the Deluxe Owner's Suite within The Haven, we actually ended up having a couple of meals at the buffet. Our fellow Haven passengers might be shocked by that, as there are so many other dining options available to Haven passengers... including a special restaurant for breakfast and lunch that non-Haven passengers don't have access to... dining in The Haven Courtyard... or having the butler bring meals directly to your suite. But we really like buffet-style dining, so we didn't care what anyone would think... we ate in the buffet a couple of times.

For Kellyn, who has to eat gluten-free and dairy-free, buffet style dining works well because she can see exactly what the food is before putting it on her plate. Sometimes you can't tell from a menu what you're going to get, and asking the waiter can be hit or miss. The menu says chicken. OK. Is the chicken breaded? Is there a sauce on it? What's in the sauce? What's served on the plate with it? It get's very complicated to order from a menu when you're dealing with a special diet. In the buffet, she can look right at something and see what it is. Grilled salmon with nothing on it. Perfect! Throw on some veggies and a salad, and she's in heaven. The buffet works great for Kellyn.

It works great for me, too. Here's the problem I have with restaurants... especially cruise ship restaurants that cater to suite passengers. Some fancy-schmancy gourmet dinner... served over three hours in small portions, 15 minutes apart, by some waiter with a thick accent I can't understand. Food that is art. But not much food! Or, my pet peeve... a big-ass steak and a tiny portion of mashed potatoes to go along with it. And I have to dress up for it!

No, I hate that kind of meal. The buffet works a lot better for me. If I try something I like, I can go back and get a lot more of it. And I don't waste anything, because I only take what I want, not what comes standard along with the item I ordered from a waiter. On top of that, the food in the Norwegian Pearl buffet was REALLY GOOD! I had a chicken burrito there one day that knocked my socks off. And at breakfast, they make omelets to order. I could definitely see myself doing some other cruise on the Norwegian Pearl some time, not in The Haven, and eating all my meals in the buffet.

But the Norwegian Pearl does also have some nice specialty restaurants. We had an awesome steak dinner in Cagney's on the first night of the cruise. You'll find menus to all the specialty restaurants towards the bottom of this review, under the headline of "DOWNLOADS".

Here's Kellyn's reaction at Moderno, the Brazilian steakhouse, when they brought out a tasty little selection...

If you like Asian food, you'll be quite happy on the Norwegian Pearl. There are all sorts of Asian food options available, including a sushi bar, a sake bar, the Lotus Garden restaurant, and Teppanyaki... a restaurant not unlike the Benihana chain of restaurants, where they cook everything right in front of you on an iron griddle... and make a performance out of it.

There was a very unusual barbecue lunch served out at the pool deck one day. They grilled several whole hogs. If you look carefully at the next photo, you'll see that I really mean they grilled the WHOLE hog!

 

Here's another view...

 

 

And if that wasn't cool enough or weird enough for you, one of the servers at the hog BBQ was dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard Of Oz, Chinese-style...

 

 

I think if this girl started a YouTube channel, she could get some followers...

but she'd have to always dress like this when she talked to the camera.

I've mentioned a couple of times already that the Deluxe Owner's Suite is "one of the four most expensive suites on the ship". Perhaps that made you wonder what the most expensive suites are. As impressive as the two Deluxe Owner's Suites are, they're not the most impressive (or most expensive) suites on the ship. Allow me to introduce you to The Haven 3-Bedroom Garden Villa. There are two of them onboard.

Before I show you some pictures of this incredible 3-bedroom suite, I have to explain that I only had time to visit The Haven 3-Bedroom Garden Villa for a few minutes just before disembarkation. The people who had been staying in it had vacated a few minutes before we were scheduled to head off the ship, so I had only a very few minutes to snap a few photos. And because the occupants had literally just left a few minutes before I started to shoot pictures, the stateroom steward was only able to do a minimal cleanup (such as making the beds) before I started taking photos. So, you'll see in the photos that it looks a little less than perfectly staged for these photos. And I had no time to get perfect lighting or any of that. So, these photos aren't great, but hopefully you'll be able to see past that and see how cool The Haven 3-Bedroom Garden Villa is!

To understand the beauty of The Haven 3-Bedroom Garden Villa, you have to understand that the target customer is a large family. Let's say it's me and my wife in the master bedroom, my sister and her husband in the second bedroom, and my other sister in the third bedroom. Plus, maybe a niece or nephew or grandkid on a couch or a portable bed.

The focal point of The Haven 3-Bedroom Garden Villa is an outdoor courtyard with a big ocean view. The living room, dining room, and all three bedrooms wrap around this outdoor courtyard... so it literally is the centerpiece! It features a large outdoor Jacuzzi... much larger than the one on the balcony of the Deluxe Owner's Suite.

We were docked in Miami at the time I shot this photo. So, where you see shipping containers and cranes in the background... imagine a beautiful ocean view when the ship is at sea! Notice that the the Jacuzzi sits under a palapa-style structure to shade it from the sun. This is what the Jacuzzi on our Deluxe Owner's Suite balcony really needed! Then I wouldn't have had to wear a t-shirt in to the Jacuzzi to protect from sunburn. The central courtyard of the 3-bedroom garden villa also has a table for outdoor dining. I really see this 3-bedroom villa as almost a self-contained facility that I would rarely leave. Lunch and breakfast... I'd have the butler bring it and serve it at the table in the outdoor courtyard. Dinner... inside, in the formal dining room. No need to leave!

The indoor dining and bar area

 

 

 

 

 

Next to the dining area is a huge living room with a grand piano, and spectacular views out the big picture windows...

I'm setting a personal goal. Somehow, someday, I will cruise in the Haven 3-bedroom Garden Villa. Maybe with my siblings, maybe with some friends... I don't know. But that looks like the ultimate in cruising to me. Who's with me on this? Better yet, who can only fill two bedrooms and needs Jim & Kellyn to come along and fill the third?