Mini Review Of My 4/29-5/6 Pearl Cruise

[NLH Arizona]

Here is my mini review of my cruise that ended today. I had a great time!

 

The Good

Cabin - eventhough small, there was plent of storage space.

Cabin Steward - he was wonderful. I enjoyed the towel animals.

The Casino - I did very well; loved that Banana King slot. The staff was excellent, they knew your name after the first night. Thanks to them for the goodies and dinner.

Teppanyaki Restaurant - food and service were excellent, plus it was a lot of fun.

Cagney's - food and service were both very good.

Crew - everyone was very attentive and greeted you as you passed by.

Children - the children on board were all very well behaved.

Passengers - 99% of the passengers were great and I had a great time meeting the new people....especially my gambling buddies.

Smoking - glad the people in the balconies next to mine didn't smoke - yeah!

 

The Not So Good

CC m&g - didn't get an invitation to the m&g. I knew it was the first sea day, looked around but never found it.

Lotus Garden Restaurant - did care for the food there, but the service was very good.

Buffet - the food was at best luke warm; with the exception of the create your own pasta, which was fantastic.

Front Desk - the fronk desk personnel seemed overwhelmed at times.

The Casino - the smoke in the casino got pretty bad.

 

The Bad

There were a few very, very rude passengers. The young man that berated his wife all during lunch, doing it loud enough for others to hear - what a jerk. The woman on the scooter who tried her best to run everyone over. People cutting in line. The young woman who screeched and screamed in the casino (must have been looking for attention). The worse was the woman at breakfast who caughed up a lung and spit it into to her cup (did I mention this was at breakfast with many people around) and the man at the buffet who ran his hands over the bread (didn't eat bread in the buffet after that) touching every piece...yuk and double yuk to these two.

 

All in all, I had a great time.

[teacher_md]

Thanks for the review! Just off the Pearl last month and enjoyed it. We didn't have so many irritating passengers on our cruise. I guess I should consider myself lucky! If you ever go on Epic, try the Lotus Garden. It was much better than what the Pearl offered.

-aj

[Planmaam]

"...The Not So Good

CC m&g - didn't get an invitation to the m&g. I knew it was the first sea day, looked around but never found it...."

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise, but just wanted to chime in about the M & G. You never get invitations, you just have to follow your roll call board to find out the time & place, then show up. So sorry you missed it, but don't want anyone else reading this to expect to receive an invitation once boarding; it's a CC thing, not up to NCL to invite you, they are nice enough to "host" it.

[NLH Arizona]

"...The Not So Good

CC m&g - didn't get an invitation to the m&g. I knew it was the first sea day' date=' looked around but never found it...."

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise, but just wanted to chime in about the M & G. You never get invitations, you just have to follow your roll call board to find out the time & place, then show up. So sorry you missed it, but don't want anyone else reading this to expect to receive an invitation once boarding; it's a CC thing, not up to NCL to invite you, they are nice enough to "host" it.[/quote']

Sorry, but the only other CC m&g I've attended was on my last cruise on Crystal and we did get invites in our room, so I thought that was how it worked. Anyway, I would have missed the post about where it was, because I was already in Los Angeles and didn't have access to my computer.

[Planmaam]

No, I'm sorry that happened to you; wish you could have attended, they are always so much fun to finally put faces to those you have been "talking" to for months before the cruise.

 

Hopefully it won't happen to you again, and hope you can cruise again soon.

[LaCal]

Thanks for the Review....Were on the Pearl Next Sunday....

 

How was the Casino Staff?.....Were in there alot....:D

 

You mentioned the Banana King Slots......Howd you do?

 

Any other Cool Slot Machines?....

 

Did you play any table games?

 

Thanks again, Lacal

[NLH Arizona]

Thanks for the Review....Were on the Pearl Next Sunday....

 

How was the Casino Staff?.....Were in there alot....:D

 

You mentioned the Banana King Slots......Howd you do?

 

Any other Cool Slot Machines?....

 

Did you play any table games?

 

Thanks again, Lacal

I don't play any table games.

 

The casino staff was fantastic. They took really good care of me....even to the point of asking if I had dinner or if I wanted any drinks.

 

The Banana King slots were so much fun (all but one had a free spin bonus,all had a random Banana King bonus and a major and minor jackpot. I probably won a few thousand on it, but put a lot back, because it was so much fun and met some others playing and we had a ball. There is a sheriff one (if you are at the Banana King slot, go to your left and you will see it) and I did really well, had it up to $2,200. There was also a penguin one (on the other side of the Banana King slots) that was a lot of fun. A lot had major and minor jackpots. I was able to take some extra money home...it will help pay for my next cruise. Lot of folks were winning jackpots! Wishing you good luck on your cruise!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for posting a review of your cruise. Glad you had a good time.

[LaCal]

I don't play any table games.

 

The casino staff was fantastic. They took really good care of me....even to the point of asking if I had dinner or if I wanted any drinks.

 

The Banana King slots were so much fun (all but one had a free spin bonus,all had a random Banana King bonus and a major and minor jackpot. I probably won a few thousand on it, but put a lot back, because it was so much fun and met some others playing and we had a ball. There is a sheriff one (if you are at the Banana King slot, go to your left and you will see it) and I did really well, had it up to $2,200. There was also a penguin one (on the other side of the Banana King slots) that was a lot of fun. A lot had major and minor jackpots. I was able to take some extra money home...it will help pay for my next cruise. Lot of folks were winning jackpots! Wishing you good luck on your cruise!

 

Thanks, We'll Try it for sure.....:D

[NW Pacific]

Also just off this cruise! Thought the Pearl has been well taken care of, we sailed 4 yrs ago on the Pearl to Alaska.

We are Platinum members so have sailed NCL previously, service was very good, staff friendly, food adequate.

We took the NCL airport transfer to Vancouver airport, don't know if this is usual or not, but left the Ship at 9:20am, we were in line for the bus for over an hour, on bus for 45 minutes, arrived at airport 90 minutes before flight, made it to the gate 10 minutes before departure. We had at 1:30pm flight, just barely made it!

[Kaphis]

Just came off the cruise as well. Will write a full review later but I was pretty disappointed with this cruise.

 

We cruised on the Jewel this time last year out of New York to Carribean and had a blast. I had recommend cruising and NCL in particular to everyone since. But we left this cruise without even putting down a deposit.

 

We should have done the speciality dining options because the MDR was uninspired and the buffet left very little to be desired. We are not snobby with our food but we got to try different things on the jewel and the pearl was pretty much meat meat meat pasta soup.

 

The well rehearsed shows for the production cast and o what a night was great but their 2nd shows were clearly not as well rehearsed. Second city and comedian was good though. No question that this is one of the best entertain ment ships in the fleet.

 

Had issues with our balcony through out the trip including a balcony door that popped open and slammed itself against the frame on the 5th night of the cruise. When I bought it up with guest services, they blame it on me not notifying them right away. We also found sand in our sheets after room make up.

 

Very disappointed in NCL. The trip wasn't ruined, we enjoyed what we could but the food makes too big a difference for us to ignore. The speciality restaurants can be amazing but I wouldn't be cruising if I were to pay additional for food every night. :(