Just OFF the PEARL- ASK

[wack001]

Finished a 14 day panama canal crossing on the PEARL, ask your questions about the ship?

GREAT staff perhaps the best of any cruise I have taken.

[Tanless]

Finished a 14 day panama canal crossing on the PEARL, ask your questions about the ship?

GREAT staff perhaps the best of any cruise I have taken.

 

Glad she (and you) made it through Ok. Any mechanical problems or is she good to go for her Caribbean season?

[tropic16]

ready for Sunday's cruise on her! anything new or different to report?

[wack001]

Glad she (and you) made it through Ok. Any mechanical problems or is she good to go for her Caribbean season?

 

All was fine, very nice ship with a lot to offer, great staff.

[Sherry84]

Very good to know, we're sailing the Pearl in a week, yay!:)

[Obi1]

Good to know that she is in great shape! We will be sailing her in 3 weeks!

 

Do you have the info as far as Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director, etc.?

 

Any dailies or spa menu?

 

How was the service in Indigo vs. Tsar's? Blue Lagoon?

 

Thanks in advance!

[sonntags]

Good to know that she is in great shape! We will be sailing her in 3 weeks!

 

Do you have the info as far as Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director, etc.?

 

Any dailies or spa menu?

 

How was the service in Indigo vs. Tsar's? Blue Lagoon?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

I'd like the answers to these, too! We are going in the pearl in Jan !

 

Thanks

[nikimouse]

where was the white hot party held? Which night was it on? Cant wait to sail on the pearl next march! Thanks for posting

[deb63]

Is Sharkbait still on board? We are on the Pearl next month, and my family is really hoping to see them perform again.

 

Thanks!!

[RNPJN]

I'd like the answers to these, too! We are going in the pearl in Jan !

 

Thanks

 

Good to know that she is in great shape! We will be sailing her in 3 weeks!

 

Do you have the info as far as Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director, etc.?

 

Any dailies or spa menu?

 

How was the service in Indigo vs. Tsar's? Blue Lagoon?

 

Thanks in advance!

Service was great in both Summer Palace and Indigo Julie was CD Rune Meyer was Captain and Stephen Burnham was the HD Dailies were different as this was a 2 week repo

[SailawayKC]

How was Julie as CD?

[CruisinMaterial]

Did you go to the disco? If so, how was the DJ? :D

[wack001]

Good to know that she is in great shape! We will be sailing her in 3 weeks!

 

Do you have the info as far as Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director, etc.?

 

Any dailies or spa menu?

 

How was the service in Indigo vs. Tsar's? Blue Lagoon?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Captain, sorry can not recall his name but funny when I was on the SUN in 2000 when freestyle 1.0 was launched, he was was the 2nd in command and we sort of recognized each other. Very cool.

 

Hotel director was "Stephen", new person from Australia, very quite person but was visible. no issues.

 

Cruise director was "Julie", this was my third cruise in a row with NCL that she was CD, she is great and her staff is SUPERB!

 

I ate all my meals except for three in MDR, I rotated between Indigo and Summer palace(no Tsars), I will say that food was average.. only weak area, more in my review which I will write.

 

Blue Lagoon.... BEST kept secret on NCL ships, wonderful.

 

ask anything else.

 

cruisinbob

[gerryl12]

Just got off the Pearl a few weeks ago.

 

THE CD "Julie" is a real class act, very professional.

 

Food in the Indigo and Summer Palace was ok but not great for cruise ship standards.

 

Sharkbait is still on board and from what they say will be forever.

 

In general the ship is being kept in good condition.

[Obi1]

Thanks Everyone! This will be our 3rd cruise on the Pearl and I knew she wouldn't let us down!

 

OOPS about Tsar's vs. Summer Palace - I knew that - just been reading too many threads here, lol! :o

 

We LOVE Blue Lagoon! Oddly enough, we thought the food was better on the Dawn than the Pearl, so we will be able to see if the Pearl can redeem herself in 3 weeks. :) Not that the Blue Lagoon was bad on the Pearl, but it was really, really good on the Dawn. I couldn't enough of the grilled chicken sandwiches! :eek:

[wack001]

Thanks Everyone! This will be our 3rd cruise on the Pearl and I knew she wouldn't let us down!

 

OOPS about Tsar's vs. Summer Palace - I knew that - just been reading too many threads here, lol! :o

 

We LOVE Blue Lagoon! Oddly enough, we thought the food was better on the Dawn than the Pearl, so we will be able to see if the Pearl can redeem herself in 3 weeks. :) Not that the Blue Lagoon was bad on the Pearl, but it was really, really good on the Dawn. I couldn't enough of the grilled chicken sandwiches! :eek:

 

The food on the Pearl was so so eventhough the Buffet(I do not like eating at buffets) was the BEST of any ship I have sailed. Ship does need a tad of a facelift.

 

cruisinbob

[mtwingcpa]

I was on the Pearl three weeks ago for its Pacific Coast repo. This was my first cruise in almost two years.

 

I agree with others that the food was down a notch. I never saw anything on the dinner menus that looked especially good, so I ate most dinners in the buffet. And speaking of the buffet, the variety of available items seemed to have declined.

 

I did have one breakfast and two lunches in the MDR, and the food and service were both good.

 

Speaking of service, I never saw a bar waiter working the tables in the Great Outdoors area, and in the main buffet tables often went uncleaned due to lack of available staff. These issues were in sharp contrast to my last cruise on the Pearl two years ago.

 

And I'd guess that all of the 2.0 enhancements have been repealed/rolled back by now. :-(

 

I'm not saying this cruise was horrible...far from it! But in my opinion the evidence of cost cutting was readily apparent.

 

One other note: I overheard that Captain Lars (longtime captain of the Pearl and Star) has apparently asked to be reassigned to the Spirit and has no plans to return to the Pearl.

[wack001]

I was on the Pearl three weeks ago for its Pacific Coast repo. This was my first cruise in almost two years.

 

I agree with others that the food was down a notch. I never saw anything on the dinner menus that looked especially good, so I ate most dinners in the buffet. And speaking of the buffet, the variety of available items seemed to have declined.

 

I did have one breakfast and two lunches in the MDR, and the food and service were both good.

 

Speaking of service, I never saw a bar waiter working the tables in the Great Outdoors area, and in the main buffet tables often went uncleaned due to lack of available staff. These issues were in sharp contrast to my last cruise on the Pearl two years ago.

 

And I'd guess that all of the 2.0 enhancements have been repealed/rolled back by now. :-(

 

I'm not saying this cruise was horrible...far from it! But in my opinion the evidence of cost cutting was readily apparent.

 

One other note: I overheard that Captain Lars (longtime captain of the Pearl and Star) has apparently asked to be reassigned to the Spirit and has no plans to return to the Pearl.

 

Hi;

Sorry for the poor experience in contrast I thought the service on my entire cruise was impeccable, everywhere folks wanted to help, or cleaning etc.

I thought that was one of the strongest points of my entire trip.

 

http://www.cruisinbob.com

[ESMBDS]

Cruising next Sunday on the Pearl - do they do the Quest show?

[CruisinMaterial]

Cruising next Sunday on the Pearl - do they do the Quest show?

 

All NCL ships with 7 day cruises have a QUEST game show. :)

[sonntags]

All NCL ships with 7 day cruises have a QUEST game show. :)

 

 

 

What is the quest game show?? :)

[OceanDreaming2]

All NCL ships with 7 day cruises have a QUEST game show. :)

 

Not necessarily. We were just the Sun for 24 days and Quest wasn't on the schedule.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Just got off the TWO NIGHT sailing yesterday -- to help the ship get back in the 7 night routine.

 

They managed to squeeze in a lot into those two short nights!

 

where was the white hot party held? Which night was it on? Cant wait to sail on the pearl next march! Thanks for posting

 

Open deck - right near the pool... night #1. Cheryl went up there to watch with a friend, but I stayed in the casino to make a donation.

 

Is Sharkbait still on board? We are on the Pearl next month, and my family is really hoping to see them perform again.

 

Thanks!!

 

There were there -- though we skipped that in favor or MORE casino donations!

 

Cruising next Sunday on the Pearl - do they do the Quest show?

 

It was at 11:30 on the second (and LAST) night... again, I could be found elsewhere on the ship! ;)

 

:D

 

Tom

[wack001]

What is the quest game show?? :)

 

An adult theme game where adults are grouped into teams and asked to display certain items, kind of fun, a little riskee and can be crazy with people trying to be other teams. I like to watch vice play...

 

NCL does a very nice job with coming up with new and fun game, like dancing with the staff contest, much like dancing with the stars.

 

http://www.cruisinbob.com

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

BTW - if you are a big fan of Prime Rib, don't waste your time ordering it at Cagney's !!

 

I have ordered it THREE times at Cagney's (Sky, Epic, and now Pearl). NONE of them were good.

 

Sky: It was brought to the table broiled/grilled. It was a STEAK, but I was told "no, this is Prime Rib"... :rolleyes:

 

Epic: At least this time is was cut from a roast, though it was uncharacteristically tough (I order them Rare to M-Rare).

 

Pearl: It looked GREAT. A nice large cut, with just enough FAT for flavor! It was also tender (two +'s thus far). The downside was that it had some type of "off" odor. I could not really pin it down, but something was odoriferous in Denmark. After the first bite I noted a somewhat fishy taste. It may have been something in the seasoning, as it was not as obvious when I was eating bites from the inside portion. Each time I tried an outer bite (usually my favorite thanks to fat/seasoning), it was still evident. Cheryl's Ribeye, which she ordered M-Well came FULLY M-Rare -- bright red middle. One of my first jobs was a broiler chef, and after cooking tens of thousands of steaks, I have a pretty good feel for what is "correct". Nobody came by after we received our meals to ask if everything was "OK". Each of us ate perhaps 20% of our entree.

 

Additionally, it would be nice if they learned what REAL horseradish was!!

 

I had already made reservations for 5 specialty restaurants for our return to the Epic next month. At this point, I am going to cancel our Cagney's reservation, in favor of something else. We had a very good meal at Le Bistro on the Pearl, and will probably opt for that on the Epic in place of Cagney's.

 

I will add that the Steakhouses on Carnival ships are, all in all, our favorite specialty venue -- and that includes NCL as well as Celebrity offerings. There you get PRIME aged steaks. Granted, they don't offer prime rib... but on our last Carnival sailing we dined there every night, and they were kind enough to bring up GREAT cuts of prime rib for me to enjoy there on the two nights they had it in the MDR. I suspect that they have NEVER had that request! I did learn, even with Carnival, that it we want strong horseradish that we need to bring our own. It is on our packing list, and I have brought it along on our last ~10 Carnival cruises! :D

 

 

Tom