Allison & David's Babymoon: Norwegian Pearl 11/3/15

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

Looking down to the seating area by Le Bistro/Champagne Bar

Inside the Lotus Garden Asian Restaurant (complimentary):

Teppanyaki Restaurant (fee applies):

The Sushi bar which is priced a la carte:

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

This is a view later on in the cruise so you can see that it gets filled up:

I believe I got a photo of the menu for the Lotus Garden Restaurant. I will post it when I come across it.

 

Next up is the gift shops. There is very little Norwegian merchandise available surprisingly. The ship's model also didn't see to represent the Pearl or is perhaps what she use to look like? Also almost all of the port merchandise is of the Panama Canal (where the ship frequents). There were only just a couple Bahamas postcards.

 

I personally found it disappointing there weren't any Norwegian Pearl postcards. On Carnival I try to always get the postcard booklet which has several postcards grouped together (the ship and interior shots).

Each floor level/and the different stairwells have pretty photos between each level along with a description of the photo to the right.

 

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

Next up was the Stardust Theater. The decor wasn't over the top, but I really liked the design at the entrance. There is pretty embroidery on the walls.

 

 

This is a big theater with plenty of seating. There was plenty of seating for all the shows. The design was very good as there weren't as many obstructions (glass in front of you/columns) blocking the view as there are with the Carnival theaters.

 

However these seats were sooooo uncomfortable. When you sit down, you sink really low (not sure if this is the design or just because they are old seats). Plus there is no leg room for people to shimmy by you. Basically the same amount of leg room you get on an airline.

 

So when finding seats/if someone decides to leave before the end of the show (which happened on the first night to us)/or to get up to use the restroom, the people sitting have to stand up to let you by. On the backside of the chairs is a fold down drink holder.

 

On Carnival there is a table in front of you to place your drink and plenty of room to shimmy by. I'm sure it takes up more space with less seating, but a far better design.

 

To show you the difference, this is on the Carnival Valor:

 

 

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

The other entrance of the Stardust Theater has a hallway of Venetian mirrors.

The casino was up next. This casino felt more cramped to me. Not sure if it was because it was smaller or because of the slightly odd layout. We aren't gamblers, but did notice that casino appeared to be quite busy during the cruise.

The Champagne Bar... very cool with the bubbles on the front.

[hlb76]

Great review so far. We are trying NCL for the first time so great to read this

[ucfalli]

Great review so far. We are trying NCL for the first time so great to read this

 

Hope the review helps! As you will see there are a lot of similarities.... The differences I'll point out along the way.

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

Le Bistro is to the left (you'll see photos inside when we eat there), to the right is the Corona Cigar Club. To the right of the photo is a stage with a piano (which we never saw in use).

In this area are three different bars. Basically one long bar area that is renamed several times. Next to the Champagne bar is the Maltings Beer & Wiskey Bar and the Shaker's Martini & Cocktail Bar.

Large seating area nearby

Artwork nearby on the walls:

I will take this moment to discuss a difference on this cruise. Not sure if it's all of Norwegian ships or just this ship:

 

Only once on our last day were we even approached specifically by a waiter asking if we wanted to order a drink (besides in restaurants). This is highly positive thing for us. On Carnival you can't sit anywhere for more then 5 min without a waiter hounding you to order a drink. I don't know if this is because so many people that have the unlimited alcohol program that they are busy enough?

 

There was bar service before the shows but far fewer waiters (took us a little while to even spot one) and they simply looked for whoever was flagging them down.

 

Carnival has a much heavier selling approach with alcohol. I didn't see waiters walking around with trays of the "drink of the day" or anything like that.

 

Also something else I noticed different.....where were the frozen tropical drinks like strawberry daiquiris/pina coladas/etc? I only saw a a handful of people with frozen drinks. The cocktail menu's didn't even list them. On carnival there is quite a variety and you see people with them everywhere. I thought they were staples of Caribbean cruises.....

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

I only got one quick photo inside Indigo (the other main dinning room). We never ate in there and the doors were only open during dinner time.

The Splash Academy is right by the arcade (imagine that...). Let me just say, the kids sounded like they were having a great time inside the clubs. There were quite a few kids on this cruise and they very well behaved.... didn't see any running around, about to knock people down ..... ;-)

Hallway down to Entourage Teen Club

 

 

Never ventured inside the Mandarin Spa

 

 

Nearby the spa is a hallway with all the awards and commemorations for the Pearl.

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

View of O'Sheehan's (complimentary) which is directly above the atrium and surrounds it on both sides. A very open space and a bit peculiar of a set up since you have walk though the area/by people eating. There are no pool tables or darts in this area (I believe on some ships O'Sheehan's does). Will talk more about the food later when we eat there.

I believe we explored a couple more areas later on in the day/cruise. Since we were at O'Sheehan's we went back to the room briefly to rest. Very soon after we realized sail away was starting so we headed back up stairs quickly.

 

They had a very nice outdoor BBQ going on with awesome fruit carvings (which I am a total sucker for).

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

More fruit carvings!

 

 

 

 

Something Norwegian does right.....a live band during sail away! Carnival long ago got rid of the calypso band they use to have and have replaced them with horrible DJ's who only know how to get the party started by playing Cupid Shuffle (my personal opinion). The lead singer's voice honestly wasn't the strongest (hate to criticize since I can't sing) but regardless, having a live band was a major bonus.

Busy out by the pools:

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

We started out on the starboard side of the ship for sail away and then switched to the port side after the ship did a u turn to leave the port (wanted to stay with the better scenery). This was our first time leaving out of Miami so this was all new to us.

View looking down to the BBQ

 

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

More sail away:

 

Where the u turn is at:

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

Only a few yatch's....

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

Sail away continued:

A rainbow appeared while leaving Miami:

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

We then checked out the other few spots we hadn't seen yet on the ship. First up was the gym. The gym had great large windows and was kept very nice and cool. It felt smaller but had plenty of cardio equipment.

Next up was a feature that we greatly loved....the bridge viewing room. Of course nothing exciting was going on besides the officers sitting/standing around... but this was the first time we were able to view any ship's bridge. There were also a couple of cool screens inside in which you could check out the navigation of the ship. One is to the right in the photo below.

View of another stairwell level:

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

 

The library only had an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to check out/return a book. Times were listed in the Freestyle Daily. I personally thought this was a bit restrictive.

 

I was highly impressed with all the windows in the library. Sea views were much more apparent on the Pearl compared to other ships we had been on. Would be a great spot to catch on work (if you had to) since there were desks right in front of the windows.

We headed back to room to freshen up the evening and then headed up the buffet to check out what the buffet dinner was like. and grab a small snack.

 

This was our one night to "freestyle". We decided to eat at the Lotus Garden Restaurant. We figured that once you eat in one main dinning room....they were pretty much the same.

 

They had carrot soup out and I had to try it. David also grabbed a small snack of chicken flat bread. The carrot soup was delicious...I love soups and highly recommend it.

As you can see the crowds had disappeared since embarkation. Crowds were never a problem at dinner time that we saw.

We first went out to the Great Outdoors to watch the sunset, but it was very humid out. Instead we sat by a window at the Garden cafe and watched the sunset till dinner time.

 

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

Adios Miami!

We did pop back outside again to the Great Outdoors so we could get a couple better sunset photos. There were these really nice blue lights outside there. Unfortunately is was pretty cloudy.

Next up will the Lotus Garden Restaurant.

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

In the buffet area right before the Great Outdoors, is a kids zone with low tables. There is also a kid height buffet area in the back right that was never in use during the cruise. I don't know if it's cause of lack of use in the past or because of safety in general. The kids area is a good idea, but it didn't seem to have a lot of use. It mostly became an overflow area during embarkation day. Was kinda funny watching adults eating at the kid tables :D.

 

So tonight we decided to eat dinner at the Lotus Garden Restaurant (complimentary). We got there early around 5:30pm and were seated right away by window seat. The restaurant was pretty empty. Filled up by the time we were leaving.

David got the pot stickers (he enjoyed them) and I got the spring roll/egg drop soup. I could of sworn I took a photo of the current menu and now I can't find it..... If I do I will post it.

 

The egg drop soup's description... "Chinese Chicken and Corn Soup Thickened with Egg White". It wasn't bad.... it just tasted a bit odd because the corn I think. The spring roll was basically an egg roll without the meat (I'm use to spring rolls begin different). It was yummy. The sauce they give you to dip isn't traditional duck sauce, which I would of preferred.

 

 

[MrsPhoenix91]

Now this is what I am looking forward to: comparing Carnival's Spring Rolls to Norwegian's Spring Rolls. Both my husband and I nearly made a meal out of 'em...they are so good!!!!!!!

Edited November 22, 2015 by MrsPhoenix91
Correction :)

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued/Lotus Garden

11/03/15

I wasn't super hungry to begin with so I ended up just ordering the vegetarian fried rice as my main dish. David got a beef noodle dish. As you can see the portions aren't very large. If you're pretty hungry I would either make sure you order a few appetizers or a couple of main dishes to share. I thought both main dishes were honestly mediocre. Like my egg drop soup, the beef noodle dish had some unusual flavoring to it. This was the overall theme of our dinner at the Lotus Garden.

For desert, David got the chocolate cake (which had an odd orange flavor to it that David didn't care for) and I got the green tea ice cream that came with some yummy pastries. For someone who doesn't like tea flavored ANYTHING.....I really liked this desert. Best thing I had all meal. David agreed with me and sneaked nibbles in.

After dinner we walked around the promenade, which would become our favorite area to walk on the Pearl. Wide open space for the most part and also was decorated nicely on the outside with paintings. The paintings corresponded to what was inside the ship for the most part.

[ucfalli]

Now this is what I am looking forward to: comparing Carnival's Spring Rolls to Norwegian's Spring Rolls. Both my husband and I nearly made a meal out of 'em...they are so good!!!!!!!

 

Me personally...I preferred Carnival's spring rolls (which are more of what I think of as a spring roll) :D

[ucfalli]

Day: 1 Embarkation Continued

11/03/15

When it was time for the Welcome Aboard show we made our way the the Stardust Theater. We go to the Welcome aboard show on all our cruises. The "show" started out pretty cheesy with a horrible quality video of Norwegian employees singing and dancing to Pharrell's "Happy". When I think of a Welcome Aboard Show ....I don't think of a cruise infomercial.

 

The curtain had a pretty peacock on it:

 

Next up was the typical cruise director/officer introductions.

 

Lastly was the comedian Corey Kahaney. She was on for about 30 min, basically a full set.

 

Of all the comedians I have seen at seen at sea, I honestly enjoyed her on this cruise more then the various one's on Carnival. She ended up doing a couple more shows later on in the cruise and each time her material was completely new.

 

Carnival hypes up their comedians with the Punchliner Comedy Club. They do a good job of rotating the comedians (with 2 different comedians each night and rotating them out every few days).

 

I'm not saying we don't enjoy the Punchliner Comedy Club.... but a lot of the comedians don't hide it well that they hate doing a quick set for the welcome aboard show/when they are forced to do a family show/or just seem to not know how to be funny without cursing or only telling low brow jokes.

 

After the show was made a quick pit stop to get some water up at the Great Outdoors and we checked out the late snack buffet. There were a lot of interesting items that your don't normally see on a late night buffet. We were still full, but David was excited to finally see some cookies!

 

Norwegian doesn't seem to like cookies... They were never out for desert during lunch or dinner at the main buffet and we only saw them two nights at the Great Outdoors during the late snack time of 10-11pm. They weren't as good as the Carnival cookies which David is a big fan of :D.

 

Now this is where it comes back to earlier when I told you to remember about the towels in the bathroom......

 

 

Once back at the room I went take a shower and discovered that we did indeed only have one bath towel! :eek:

 

At this point I was cranky after a long day and a bit annoyed. I can't remember when the last time this has happened. There wasn't a direct extension for the room steward, so I called the main desk. Was non stop busy so I hung up and called the only other rational option..."room service". The girl who answered was very nice and told me she would call my room steward right away to bring us some towels.

I thought of just using a beach towel...but it became a matter of principle.... 2 people in state room=2 bath towels.

 

Luckily he was quickly there with the extra towels (within 5 min). Crisis with the cranky pregnant women averted ;)

 

Would this be our last towel incident....sadly no.

 

First day on the Pearl completed!

 

[muskyfins]

Wow.....just wow. This is a great review thread. Thanks for so much effort.

 

Don't keep us waiting......

[ucfalli]

Wow.....just wow. This is a great review thread. Thanks for so much effort.

 

Don't keep us waiting......

 

 

Thanks...been busy with Thanksgiving week and it's not much motivation when all you hear is crickets....:rolleyes:

 

so thanks for the motivation :D

[ucfalli]

Day: 2 Key West

11/04/15

Will start with the paperwork left the night before in the cabin for day two.

 

Norwegian also leaves a daily "Today Your Way". Which is basically a bunch of extras they are trying to sell you on. It was a bit confusing at times because some days the drink of the day would be listed in the Freestyle daily and other days in the Today Your Way.