More than a few cruises under my belt and am trying ncl now

[jean87510]

Back in the fall my husband sent me an email with the booking for the April 7 to 18th Pearl repositioning from Tampa to NYC. We were booked in an inside cabin with air and 4 specialty restaurants included. I've been on carnival, celebrity, and rccl. I was excited to try a new ship.

Ncl is different precruise. We couldn't book the thermal suite until February. We made our dining reservations then. It was no problem but just not something I'm used to.

The flights were given to us in February. We were ok with flight down but our flight back was so ridiculous that we are just renting a car to drive home.

Embarkation was a disaster. 2 scanners for that amount of people is ridiculous. 

Once we got on we explored. Now one thing I've been told is that ncl food is not good. On the pearl it's pretty damn good and this is day 2. Buffet was nice yesterday and this am. Sheehan's for lunch and the lotus was delicious for dinner last night. My room is nice.and clean. 

I did get soda package which is Pepsi products. We went to the gym last night and today. Decent size. Separate room for classes. 

Sat in thermal spa yesterday and today. Very nice. Theres a separate area for men and women for the sauna with a whirlpool there also.

We had a giant turnout for the meet and mingle. All the officers and captain were there. I dont ever remember that on the summit or any rccl.ships.

So far I really like the crew and ship. I'm really happy we chose this cruise.

 

[Sauer-kraut]

Glad to hear you are enjoying your Norwegian experience so far.  As to the scanners at the port, that is not NCL's fault that would be an issue for the Port Authority

[jean87510]

23 minutes ago, Sauer-kraut said:

Glad to hear you are enjoying your Norwegian experience so far.  As to the scanners at the port, that is not NCL's fault that would be an issue for the Port Authority

Yes I'm aware of that. That port is always bad for me. I always roll my eyes when I see Tampa.

[newmexicoNita]

14 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Back in the fall my husband sent me an email with the booking for the April 7 to 18th Pearl repositioning from Tampa to NYC. We were booked in an inside cabin with air and 4 specialty restaurants included. I've been on carnival, celebrity, and rccl. I was excited to try a new ship.

Ncl is different precruise. We couldn't book the thermal suite until February. We made our dining reservations then. It was no problem but just not something I'm used to.

The flights were given to us in February. We were ok with flight down but our flight back was so ridiculous that we are just renting a car to drive home.

Embarkation was a disaster. 2 scanners for that amount of people is ridiculous. 

Once we got on we explored. Now one thing I've been told is that ncl food is not good. On the pearl it's pretty damn good and this is day 2. Buffet was nice yesterday and this am. Sheehan's for lunch and the lotus was delicious for dinner last night. My room is nice.and clean. 

I did get soda package which is Pepsi products. We went to the gym last night and today. Decent size. Separate room for classes. 

Sat in thermal spa yesterday and today. Very nice. Theres a separate area for men and women for the sauna with a whirlpool there also.

We had a giant turnout for the meet and mingle. All the officers and captain were there. I dont ever remember that on the summit or any rccl.ships.

So far I really like the crew and ship. I'm really happy we chose this cruise.

 

and I hope you continue enjoying your cruise. Keep us updated. As for the food, we happen to think the food, for the most part is above some lines. I never understood why people say or some  say, the food is not good. It is improved over the past  5 years. Of course we all know food is very subjective. You are right, most of the other lines do not do as good a job with M&G as NCL does, or in our opinion they do not 

[fsa1155]

Glad you are having a great time.  Enjoy.  We liked the food on NCL however, we thought that Carnival had a better selection of items on their buffet than NCL did.  It was still good though.  

[jean87510]

Day 3 - arrived in grand cayman this am around 830 am. I was pretty impressed with ncl approach to tenders. We were told if we were on a non ship excursion to go to the bliss lounge around 8am to get our tickets. We walked in around 830am with no line and got our tender tickets. We waited for our tender # to be called. We walked onto tender (no one checked our ticket) and were off to the island. When I did this in January on the vision of the seas, it was a giant cluster of confusion. Ncl is definitely way ahead on this. There were separate tenders for the excursions and for self explore.

We decided to take the public bus to spotts beach. We walked into town, got on the green bus line and were off. About 20 minutes later we got to spotts. We only stayed for an hour to swim with the turtles and some rays. We knew they were more likely to be out in the am. We then waited for the bus to take us back to town.

We got into Georgetown, stopped for a couple of sodas and razors for me at the pharmacy, then walked up to eden rock. I've been here before and love the snorkeling. We rented a locker for $15, (you get $10 back when you return key) and we snorkeled for about an hour. 

We have never been to Smith cove so rather than grab a taxi, we decided to walk from eden. It's about 1.2 miles. We saw a few people doing it. We swam there for about 20 minutes then headed back to eden. We snorkeled for a little while longer then we headed to the best gelato at gelato and co. We've had gelato here before. It is terrific.

Tender was very organized with hot towels and drinks (water) before you got back on tender. Right now I'm relaxing in the thermal area. Just a wonderful day.

We did try moderno last night which was excellent. Service was knowledgeable.and prompt. 

I will mention that if you dont have a drink plan, your refrigerator is locked and the TV channels actually have BBC, fox, MSNBC, and 2 movie channels. Not bad!

Edited April 9, 2019 by jean87510

[2bc cruisers]

No refrigerator?  That doesn't sound normal.  We are NCL inside room cruisers, there should be a fridge loaded with beverages.  We've always moved, stacked the bevs. to make room for our waters.  Hmmm.  Maybe Ask your room steward, of course, I'm assuming you haven't already.  Have a wonderful cruise.  I love the Pearl!  

[jean87510]

13 minutes ago, 2bc cruisers said:

No refrigerator?  That doesn't sound normal.  We are NCL inside room cruisers, there should be a fridge loaded with beverages.  We've always moved, stacked the bevs. to make room for our waters.  Hmmm.  Maybe Ask your room steward, of course, I'm assuming you haven't already.  Have a wonderful cruise.  I love the Pearl!  

Refrigerator is locked at present since we dont have a drink package. 

[pbenjamin]

What would the drink package have to do with the refrigerator?  The items in the refrigerator aren't included in the drink package.

[newmexicoNita]

just a couple comments: 1-I am surprised about he fridge. We always use it for storing extra something we bring back from dinner etc, but we also always have the drink package. Maybe the locking is a new thing: too bad. That seems ridiculous : 

 

As for selection of items on the buffet, as someone said the selection on Carnival was better, I think it depends on the ship. We have always found the selection on NCL very good until our last cruise. We were on the Dawn and the selection wasn't great. Luckily we are not buffet fans, so we did just fine.

[Oakman58]

12 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Refrigerator is locked at present since we dont have a drink package. 

 

I'd bet the room steward probably forgot to unlock it when you left port.  I would ask the room steward to unlock the fridge.  As pbenjamin said, the beverages in the fridge are not included in the beverage package so if you consume them you have to pay for them.  We always have the room steward empty the fridge and use it to store food.

[jean87510]

It's not a big deal about refrigerator since we dont need it for anything. I was merely commenting that it was locked and that I attributed it to being we didn't have the drink package. I actually have the soda package. I wasn't sure if you get a cup at all. None was in cabin on arrival and I haven't had one offered. However, I haven't had a problem getting soda everywhere and even have been given 2 at one time twice yesterday. 

[myjillian]

Have the steward unlock your frig...ask him to take the things out and now you can put that extra jello that you will enjoy while watching a movie LOL

[jean87510]

Finally found my first negative if you can call it that. No cookies.😉 definitely a deal breaker. But they have my special k and banana chips so I'll forgive them. This is day 4 and bar service still really nice about the soda even putting lemon in for me with a smile.  We went to the lotus restaurant last night which was mobbed. Food still pretty good and service was fast. We went up to buffet after dinner to see if we could find anything sweet which was when I discovered the pretzel rolls and had a pistachio ice cream cone.  We normally dont like MDR because of the non intimate seating and slow service so you wont see a review on that. Today is a GTL day (gym, tan and lolling about the thermal suite - no laundry - being that I am from south Jersey I thought I'd throw a Jersey shore reference in). 

Edited April 10, 2019 by jean87510

[VirginiaIsForCruisers]

27 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Finally found my first negative if you can call it that. No cookies.😉 definitely a deal breaker. But they have my special k and banana chips so I'll forgive them.

On the Jade (sister ship to the Pearl), there are usually cookies on the afternoon buffet at the Great Outdoors. I usually have a few Ziploc bags with me, so I put a few in a bag for a late night snack.

[Mike_DeA]

The steward just forgot to unlock your fridge.  As stated above, nothing in there is included in the UPB.  I usually just store some bottled water in there.  Some people put the ice bucket in to keep the ice frozen longer.

 

As for cookies, it seems like NCL has limited the offerings in the past year or so.  I was on the Escape last week and didn't see them in the buffet all week.  And I'm a chocolate chip cookie fiend.....

[jean87510]

Thx everyone about the frig. I didn't mind that it was locked. I'll have to check out the outdoors buffet to find cookies. We have teppanuri tonight and looking forward to it!  Afterwards I'll do a sweep of all complimentary food places to find some pies and cookies. I ran 5 miles on treadmill this am so I can cheat tonight.

Edited April 10, 2019 by jean87510

[jean87510]

One other note regarding gym. And I would only do this if gym is not crowded. Treadmills and ellipticals go past 60 minutes. I have downloaded Netflix shows to watch while on elliptical and lost track of time on Monday. I was on for 85 minutes. I covered the timer and was very into this program. I happened to look at my watch and said OMG.  And once again, please dont do this if the gym is mobbed. 

[dexddd]

58 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Thx everyone about the frig. I didn't mind that it was locked. I'll have to check out the outdoors buffet to find cookies. We have teppanuri tonight and looking forward to it!  Afterwards I'll do a sweep of all complimentary food places to find some pies and cookies. I ran 5 miles on treadmill this am so I can cheat tonight.

The fruit for dessert is usually pretty good at Teppanyaki.

[mjkacmom]

The Great Outdoors is a great spot to find desserts and snacks all day, plus a great spot to enjoy the sea. The buffet should have a crepe station every night, Nutella and banana, delicious.

[jean87510]

Spent a long day in Aruba yesterday. We rented a car and basically drove all over the island. Snorkeled at boca catalina which I highly recommended and arashni beach which I dont for snorkeling but do for the outdoor showers and food. We visited Phillip's animal garden and a natural pool (not the big pool) and ended up riding horses. Ate at the buffet last night and just collapsed in bed. Now getting off in bonaire.