My family's review of the Pearl - 1/16 - 1/23 - We loved it!

I just submitted the following to the Member Review area, but wanted to share it with you all, too.

It was a wonderful week on the Norwegian Pearl… We are a family of 4, DH and I are in our 40s, our children are ages 9 and 8. We have been loyal NCL customers for our last 3 cruises and enjoy the Freestyle concept for dining and casual dress.

This was our first trip on the Pearl and she did not disappoint us. We were dropped off at the port around 1 p.m. and had only a short wait in line to get our key cards and establish our account – we were on board by 1:20. The colors around the ship and in the cabin are bright and cheerful. The fish on the carpets swim forward, so that always helped us get our bearings as we learned our way around. We booked an aft BA balcony cabin and were very pleased with it. At first glance it seemed small, but while we were unpacking we easily managed to find a place for everything. Our cabin’s wardrobe area had a nice sized closet, 4 deep drawers, and about 5 or 6 “cubbies”. The room was set up with a double bed, a small sofa that pulled out, and a single bed that literally dropped from the ceiling – a very clever design that I haven’t seen before. Our empty suitcases were easily stored under the bed. The room also had a small fridge, a coffeemaker, a safe, a small flat screen TV (no DVD player) and a little table with a mirror and a good hairdryer (with a diffuser). The sheets/bedding were wonderfully soft and cozy. There were 2 robes in the closet. My kids enjoyed towel animals each night (except for the first night).

The bathroom is well designed, it is partitioned into 3 sections with a toilet area, sink area and shower area, with glass sliding doors separating them that allowed for a little privacy (well… for children anyhow!). There were multiple shelves in the bath both on the wall and under the sink for ample storage. The Elemis bath gel and shampoo were fine for us; although I wouldn’t ever purchase that particular product… it’s a little odd smelling!

All in all, we were very comfortable in our cabin, the temperature was easy to control, our balcony (aft) was spacious and we enjoyed the loungers, chairs and little table that were set up for us. It should be noted that when the sofa bed is pulled out and the other bed is dropped from the ceiling, it’s a bit of a wiggle to get out to the balcony as they block access to the balcony door (but you can do it if you have good knees and a good back – you just crawl over and through!). Also, as wonderful as the views and balcony were in the aft cabin, it does result in a LOT of walking. We didn’t mind much, but if you have lesser mobility, being that far aft may not be the best choice for you.

Around the ship, we particularly enjoyed the pool and hot tub area, the over-sized chess boards (8 or 10 feet square?) that are on deck 13, and the Card Room on deck 12 – it has nice tables and views. Aside from decks of cards, the Card Room had Rummikub, Candyland, Yahtzee, Chutes and Ladders, Clue, Monopoly, Uno and a few jigsaw puzzles. Next door in the library, we enjoyed the crossword and Sudoku puzzles, but the library smelled a bit musty this week, and in fact, they had fans blowing the first couple days to dry out some sort of water problem. The library has a shelf to take-a-book-leave-a-book, we always enjoy that – it’s like a pot luck dinner; you never know what you might find! We could not find any children’s books in the library, which was a little disappointing, but fortunately we had brought books from home for them. We also enjoyed a bit of time in the bridge observation room, that is located forward on deck 11. There is a wonderful model of the ship to view, various screens to decipher, a video on the building of the ship, and of course, a view of the bridge.

Since we were travelling with children, we opted for efficiency / speed for dining and enjoyed almost every meal at the Garden Café. This buffet area is well designed and there were lots of options at every meal for adults and children. Some of our favorite things were the pretzel breads, the fruit and the quesadillas. There was both soft serve and scooped ice cream available in cones or bowls at both lunch and dinner – yum!! We only ate one meal outside the buffet area – at Blue Lagoon where we enjoyed the spicy wings and fish-n-chips. We are not overly particular when it comes to food, and are easy to please – we enjoyed what we had and did not feel bad that we did not sample the main dining rooms or pay restaurants. We just went with what is easiest for our family.

Although we signed our children up for Kids Crew right after boarding on Saturday, we did not make use of it except for about 90 minutes one evening – my son attended because he was not interested in the show that night. Other than that, our children preferred to hang out with us, see the shows, play games, swim, read, play Wii, play chess, etc. I learned that there were 191 kids under the age of 18 on this ship this particular week – which I assume is a fairly low number.

On Sunday we attended the Cruise Critic meet-and-greet and enjoyed it very much – many thanks to Joyce (aka CruisinGram) for organizing it. Several of the ships officers attended and all were genuinely funny and charming. They were very earnest in asking for feedback and wanted a chance to correct anything that wasn’t right. I particularly enjoyed speaking with Stephen Knott, who is the Director of Food and Beverage – he was a hoot and was especially kind to my little girl, regaling her with funny facts about the quantities of ice cream and french fries eaten in a normal week on the Pearl and how those amounts change radically during the spring break season.

Some other notes about the cruise… We did change timezones… moving forward 1 hour to Atlantic Time on Sunday evening, and returning to Eastern Time Wednesday night. There were messages both on the bed at turndown and in the Freestyle Daily reminding us about the time change. On Thursday afternoon, the ship slowed to a near stop to allow for a medical evacuation via helicopter – a very sobering thought and although I never learned what exactly happened, it was certainly in our thoughts and we were hoping the best for the person evacuated.

We found the crew to be smiling, pleasant and helpful. I’m sure it helps that we were smiling, too, all week long – anytime we smiled at them, they always smiled back!! After all, we were on vacation, and enjoying delightfully warm weather, the ship and the beautiful ports.

About the ports…

In Samana, I had arranged a private tour in advance - horseback riding to the El Limon waterfalls. What a wonderful day this turned out to be! Yes, as others have reported, there was trash in the streets, and yes, Samana is devastatingly poor… but looking past that - it is also lush and beautiful. On our tour we stopped to enjoy views of the bay, we saw coffee and chocolate growing, and pineapple, grapefruit, and coconut trees. We walked through a typical Dominican home and met local children. It was quite an eye opener for my kids, who live such a sheltered life. We proceeded to our horses and had quite a ride up and down rugged, steep and muddy hills. Fortunately, each horse had a handler who walked along side. The handler also accompanied us along the last part of the trail, which has to be traversed on foot and is again, quite steep and rugged. It was so muddy and mucky (yuck!)… But, once we made it to the waterfalls, the mud was nearly forgotten. Wow – El Limon is beautiful, cool and refreshing. We swam and enjoyed the crashing water. After returning to our horses, and riding back to the ranch, we enjoyed a Dominican meal of rice, beans, chicken, pasta and fried yucca – everything I sampled was delicious. This tour is not for the faint of heart and is best for active, athletic folks, but I highly recommend it.

In Tortola, BVI, I had again made plans to do a private tour. We used a local ferry service to take us over to Virgin Gorda to The Baths. It was another “wow” day and a perfect choice for families with children. We enjoyed climbing through the rock structures and arriving at Devil’s Bay. The Baths are both scenic and fun and are great for a wide range of people – we saw toddlers and folks in their 70s and every age in between going through, and there are plenty of places to stop a moment and rest if needed. There are a few areas that were a little tight with my stuffed pack strapped to my back, but without the pack it would have been a breeze – just a little stooping here and there. There is one climb that is a little steep, but a rope is strung along it to help pull yourself along. We enjoyed time in the water at Devil’s Bay before heading back through the rocks to catch our taxi, and then ferry back to the ship.

In St. Thomas, USVI, we opted to go with the NCL Tour called “St. John Beach Escape”. It did not depart until 10:20, so we had time to walk over to the Havensight Mall to pick up a souvenir or two, which we deposited back in our cabin before leaving for St. John. We actually departed on the Island Girl ferry closer to 11:00… the ferry took 35-40 minutes to get to St. John, and we were then transported by open air taxis to Trunk Bay. Trunk Bay is magnificent – it is a picture perfect postcard. The sand was powdery, the waves gentle, the water is a pristine turquoise blue, and there are plenty of snorkeling options, too. There are very nice changing stations, and bathrooms and lockers are available, as well. The only problem with this tour is that you really don’t get enough time there – we had just less than 1.5 hours at Trunk Bay before it was time to turn around and head back to the ship – that just isn’t adequate time at a place that is so drop-dead gorgeous that you catch your breath at first sight of it.

On Friday, we stopped at the private island, Great Stirrup Cay. The water was lovely and the sand was soft, there were rental floats, snorkel equipment, etc., available. A nice BBQ lunch was also provided. I just wish I hadn’t been there with 2000 other people – it was crowded and a challenge to find chairs. If I was travelling without my kids (who LOVE the beach), I might just skip tendering into this island next time and stay and enjoy the ship – GSC is just too crowded for my tastes. We prefer a little more elbow room.

Saturday morning we chose the Easy Disembark option and carried our own luggage off. It was a breeze getting off the ship and through customs since we had so little to declare (we’re not shoppers) – in just 15 minutes we were done and I was calling for our ride from the port before 8:00 a.m.

So, you might ask… did anything go wrong??? Well…. Let’s see…. The scrambled eggs were runny a couple mornings… my son got a small cut on his toe from a piece of glass in the hot tub… yes, the tendering process was slow and tedious (which was not unexpected), and as I mentioned earlier, Great Stirrup Cay was far too crowded for my tastes. But - I think that’s it for the negatives and nothing happened that came close to ruining our cruise or our day. It was close to a perfect vacation for us… we were comfortable and well taken care of on the ship, our shore excursions were fun and varied, we met interesting and fun people, and we were blessed with great weather and good health for the whole trip. We were sad to leave the ship and are looking forward to cruising NCL again on our next cruise.

I'll be glad to try and answer any questions if I can!

Debbie

That's for the review we are next up on the Pearl (well after today's group leaves)

Debbie, This is a really nice and detailed review and very helpful to people that cruise with children. Did your kids enjoy the kids pool area on the ship? I have been trying to decide on the Pearl or the Jewel next since we travel with our grown kids and their children. Thanks for taking the time to post.

Great review, Debbie!!!

Debbie,

Thanks for such a positive review; we will be sailing the Pearl in April and can hardly wait. It was interesting hearing about your kids spending time with you. When our granddaughters first started cruising they were 10 and 14. They too, pretty much choose to hang out with us and were never bored. I am always surprised when parent say the kids couldn't find anything to do. I guess each family is different. I will say, the first cruise they went on, the 10 year did spend some time in the kids kamp and did have fun.

Again, I am glad you had such a good time. Interesting you found the buffet even acceptable for dinner.

Nita

Debbie, This is a really nice and detailed review and very helpful to people that cruise with children. Did your kids enjoy the kids pool area on the ship? I have been trying to decide on the Pearl or the Jewel next since we travel with our grown kids and their children. Thanks for taking the time to post.

We did indeed enjoy the pool and hot tubs. On deck 12, there are 2 larger pools. One is adults only. The other pool, the one with the slide is open for all. The curvy yellow slide, though, is a bit of a disappointment - it's not very slippery and the kids were having to scootch themselves along with their feet to keep moving or they would get stuck! The slide also does not empty into the pool, but instead, just ends flat, which is probably best for safety's sake.

We were with you the same week and I could not have written up the experience any better. While we did dine in the mainDR everynight we did go and see the buffet each night(mainly for me to grab one of those huge jumbo shrimp cocktails that you can not get in the mainDR). If you ate there everynight you did fine. It was our 2nd time on the Pearl and not much has changed. We missed the omlete stations in the buffet but you could order one in mainDR.

We did not miss the coming on bubbly or chocolates on the pillows.

We did the baths through the ships highlights tour and had plenty of time to snorkel at the baths and that was great. We did the Sea Blaster in St.Thomas for snorkeling and it too was great. Weather was really great our week. No disapointments on anything and pretty much a near perfect cruise week for us too. We enjoyed all the show and the Chocolate Buffet at night vs. mid afternoon. I did not like they have cut the formal night or dress up or not night as they call down to only one night. We like to dress up and see others dressed up but then it's a freestyle so I guess I should not expect it to be a Cunard experience.

Interesting you found the buffet even acceptable for dinner.

Nita

We did find the Garden Cafe to be more than acceptable. There were lots of options, some were staples that were always there (salads, pizza, pastas with red or white sauces, the breads, fruit, burgers, hot dogs, fries) and there were options that rotated. For example, there was a roast station - where over the course of the week I saw prime rib, regular roast beef, lamb shank, and I believe pork. In the Cafe, if you are feeling more adventurous, there was a different chilled soup each night, also there was sushi available, also Indian food - which my husband quite enjoyed. I think we enjoyed something different each night except for one night - I had the quesadillas a second time because I had enjoyed them so much the night before (and not because I couldn't have found something new).

It is by no means fancy :), but we aren't fancy people. I thought the food ranged anywhere from good to quite good.

Deb,

Couldnt agree with you more on your review. We just off the Pearl this morning and I already miss her. Once I get home and get settled will sit and write my review as well.

Nita my dh and I also found the buffet acceptable for dinner infact we ate there twice. Always more then enough variety for us

Debbie-

Thanks for your review. Sounds like you would be nice folks to cruise with!

Happy cruising.

Great to hear. We'll be boarding in about 6 weeks!

5 WEEKS FROM TODAY...

we'll be aboard the Pearl. ..

anyone else going 3/6-13? If so, c'mon over to the Roll Call and say hello.

Great review! Please post some pictures!

I really enjoyed your review. We also have 2 kids, they will be 12 and 11 when we sail next year, and they enjoy spending time with us on deck relaxing or playing. They did use the kids club on the Star and had fun too but were always happy to just hang with mom and dad. It really does make for some great family time, no tv, no computers, no video games competing all day long just hanging out. I am glad you guys had a great time. You sound like a pretty easy going family. And glad that the BA Aft cabin worked for you too. We have one of those booked for our cruise next year, can't wait!!

Hey Tiggerfan since you got off today can you tell me if they had the omlette/fried egg/fresh waffle stations open on the breakfast buffet?

On ours last week we didn't have those stations and was told it was because the egg supplier didn't show up in time our week.

Attached are a few of my pictures:

1) BA Cabin with the beds turned down (sofa out, and bed dropped from ceiling). Yup - it's crowded!!

2) Port of Samana

3) El Limon

4) Port of Tortola

5) The Baths at Virgin Gorda - nearing Devil's Bay

A few additional pictures:

1) Trunk Bay on St. John

2) St. John Harbor

3) The Pearl in St. Thomas

4) The Pearl in Great Stirrup Cay

We were so fortunate to have such wonderful weather all week! It really made for breathtaking views, which translate into gorgeous pictures. Even after 4 cruises, the color of the water near the islands still amazes me.

I really enjoyed your review. We also have 2 kids, they will be 12 and 11 when we sail next year, and they enjoy spending time with us on deck relaxing or playing. They did use the kids club on the Star and had fun too but were always happy to just hang with mom and dad. It really does make for some great family time, no tv, no computers, no video games competing all day long just hanging out. I am glad you guys had a great time. You sound like a pretty easy going family. And glad that the BA Aft cabin worked for you too. We have one of those booked for our cruise next year, can't wait!!

I'm glad you enjoyed the review and I hope that it's helpful to those cruising with children - there are LOTS of things to do with your kids on the Pearl. We consider cruising a great opportunity to spend time with our children in a stress-free environment. Yup - no TV, no internet, no video games (except for the Wii that was offered in the atrium once a day) for the week. While on the ship and not in port, we "concentrated" on swimming, and reading books and playing board games - we taught our children how to play chess on the big boards on deck 13 and they loved it! It won't be long before my 9 year old son is beating mom & dad at the game and my 8 year old daughter isn't far behind... :D They now wish we had a chess board that was 10'x10' somewhere at home... they think our (regular) board looks awfully small. :rolleyes:

Debbie

Thanks for the great review. We'll be on the Pearl with DS 11 and DD 17 for spring break, 3/27. Balcony room looks great. In an oceanview now and hoping to upsell to a BA. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Hey Tiggerfan since you got off today can you tell me if they had the omlette/fried egg/fresh waffle stations open on the breakfast buffet?

On ours last week we didn't have those stations and was told it was because the egg supplier didn't show up in time our week.

Yes they were available during our sailing and yes it is true the egg delivery never showed up at the port for your sailing

Thats good to know but I still missed my 2 over easy eggs each morning. Glad to know it was not part of the cut back problem which seems to be on-going with a lot of the cruise lines.

When I saw that photo of the BA with beds down and out it made me glad to have booked the mini suite for 4. We had way more room even if the girls did have to sleep on the same huge sofa bed.

There is room to walk around the bed when out and get to the balcony. The reason I mention that is others here have said the mini-suites are no bigger then a BA and much more crowded with 4 in them with the only advantage being a bigger bathroom. It's way more than just a huge bathroom and IMO if you can get it for only a few hundred more it's worth it.

Thank you for a wonderful review. We are cruising on the Gem on March 13 with our two children, 11 and 8, and it was nice to read a review with children! I also really appreciate your photo of the balcony room with the beds all done up because I wasn't really clear before now how the cabin would sleep 4. Finally, thanks for including that the hair dryer has a diffuser - I am hoping the Gem has basically the same amenities (since they are in the same class of ships). Thought I'd be doing without for the week!

Were there robes in your room, and if yes, how many?

Thank you for a wonderful review. We are cruising on the Gem on March 13 with our two children, 11 and 8, and it was nice to read a review with children! I also really appreciate your photo of the balcony room with the beds all done up because I wasn't really clear before now how the cabin would sleep 4. Finally, thanks for including that the hair dryer has a diffuser - I am hoping the Gem has basically the same amenities (since they are in the same class of ships). Thought I'd be doing without for the week!

 

Were there robes in your room, and if yes, how many?

I almost booked the mini for the extra square footage, but then it turned out that one of the BAs on the stern was available - so I jumped at it. Our balcony was huge compared to the BAs on the sides. It was probably 80-90 square feet, so our total "living area" inside and outside amounted to more space than a mini. We loved that balcony space - it was divine!!

For your question on the robes - we had two adult-sized robes in the wardrobe.

We were on the Pearl the week prior to you (1/9-16) and had a very similar experience with the exception of Samana. The weather was rather foul the day we arrived and our tours got cancelled due to the rain. Without tours, there is NOTHING to do in Samana in the area around the docks. But, being a "glass is half full" kinda guy, the wife and I opted to get massages in the Pearl's Spa, which was a brilliant alternative.

Also, I gotta agree regarding GSC...way too crowded, too few chairs. The funny thing is that the island is far larger than the tiny beachfront they have developed, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

Also, I gotta agree regarding GSC...way too crowded, too few chairs. The funny thing is that the island is far larger than the tiny beachfront they have developed, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

You will see continued developments on GSC including expansion of the beach area as well as the addition of other activites.