Norwegian Pearl Boston to Canada Cruise 10/14/22 to 10/21/22 Review - Long

[CTCruisers]

Norwegian Pearl Canada cruise from Boston 10/14/22-10/21/22

 

This cruise sailed from Boston with port stops in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island and to Sydney and Halifax in Nova Scotia before returning to the U.S. with stops in Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine.

 

This was out 30th cruise overall and the 19th with NCL with whom we were platinum latitudes members before this cruise. We reached the Sapphire status with this cruise. We have sailed on Carnival 10 times (platinum as well) and Royal Caribbean once.

 

We had booked this cruise several years ago and it was rescheduled twice due to the pandemic. This was our first vacation since the start of the pandemic.

 

We had chosen this cruise as an opportunity to sail on the Norwegian Pearl. We really enjoy the size and layout of the Jewel class ships and while we have sailed on the Jewel, Jade, and Gem several times, this was to be our first cruise on the Pearl.

 

We had been to all of the ports of call on this cruise several times, so we had not planned on taking any excursions this time.
Our package when we booked this cruise included 2 free dinners in a specialty restaurant, the Adult Beverage Package, and prepaid service charges. As Platinum members, we also had 2 addition free dinners at a specialty restaurant and 30 minutes of free internet usage.

 

DAY 1 – Friday 10/14/22 - Boston
The cruise had a Friday departure from Boston at 4:00 pm.  We live in Connecticut and decided to drive up the night before and stay at a hotel near Boston. On Friday morning, we had a short 30 minute drive into Boston and the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal. Normally, we have used the Marine Park covered garage when we park by the Boston cruise terminal. It is only 2 blocks away from the terminal. But when we pulled into the garage, we were asked if we were cruisers and they said that we had to use a cruise parking lot and not their garage. They pointed us towards a parking lot on Terminal Avenue which was confusing as there was no signage that the lot was for cruise parking. After circling the block I stopped and asked an attendant at an entrance to the lot if it was in fact for cruise parking. She said yes and asked for a credit card for the $175 charge for a 7 day stay.

 

We had used the e-check in prior to coming to Boston. We had a slot for going into the terminal between 11:00 am and 11:30 am. We walked into the terminal shortly after 11:00 am to find it full of passengers waiting to be processed. After going through security, we went to the short line for Platinum, Sapphire, and Diamond Latitudes members. There a line for Haven and Suites passengers and one for people needed assistance to get on board. It took about 15 minutes before we were called up to get our key cards. After we received our cards, they announced that passengers could start to board the ship. We were in line to board for about 20 minutes. We noticed several Haven passengers being ushered past our lines.

 

Initially, we were told that cabins were not available and that we could go to public areas as well as some dining areas. We headed up to the Garden Café buffet area after which we heard that all cabins were ready just around noon. We had a quick drink before heading down to our cabin to drop off our carry-on bag. Our cabin was number 10067. This was an inside cabin halfway between midship and forward.

 

After dropping off the bag, we went to explore the ship and take photos of the various areas on board the Pearl. The Pearl was launched in 2006, but was refurbished in 2017. Everything still looked new and fresh compared to other Jewel class ships we had sailed on.

 

This was the first time we had sailed having a Beverage package. We are beer drinkers and prefer cold beers and in previous cruises in the past we would buy buckets of beer to make sure we have cold brews. We were pleasantly surprised that when we ordered beers they were cold. They would let us order 2 beers at a time on my one card and never asked for a second card. There didn’t seem to be a limit as to how many drinks you could order on the cruise.

 

By mid-afternoon the Captain made an announcement that due to local sea traffic, we would not sail away from Boston until 7:00 pm. We ended up at the Sky High Bar & Grill which overlooked the Tahitian Pool area below which is one of favorite spots on the Jewel class ships. Luckily, most people honored the non-smoking section of the area and stayed on the starboard side of the bar area which allowed smoking. At 4:00 pm, they had a band called the Funky Roots playing by the pool for the “sail-away party” even though the sail-away was delayed. They had a fair amount of passengers joining in on the dancing along with cruise director staff.

 

We went back to our cabin to find that both of our checked-in pieces of luggage were by our cabin. So we quickly unpacked before heading up to the Garden Café buffet for dinner.

 

The evening’s one show in the Stardust Theater was the “Welcome Aboard” show which had Ralph, the cruise director welcoming us and introducing a few acts that we would see in future shows on our cruise. This included a comedian, a magician, and an aerialist duo.

 

We ended the evening up in the Spinnaker lounge listening to a solo guitarist named Cameron and then a quartet called the Funky Roots.
It was good first day on the ship, but later on in the evening the seas were fairly rough as we headed into the open ocean and we had a rocky night.

 

DAY 2 – Saturday 10/15/22 – Day at Sea
The ocean was still a bit rough for the day. We slept in before heading up to the Garden Café for breakfast after which we went to the Spinnaker for General Knowledge Trivia.

 

We spent the rest of the morning exploring the ship and attended the Latitudes Exclusive Party which was only open to Latitudes member that were Platinum or higher (but no one was checking). They had the show band playing jazz hits while offering complimentary drinks and introducing staff members of the hotel part of the ship. There was no sign of the captain or his staff. The lounge was totally filled with passengers. I will comment on the party at the end of my review regarding Latitudes.

 

After the party, we decided to take advantage of the indoor pool in the spa area as we had always enjoyed on previous cruises years ago on Jewel class ships. But when we arrived, we were told that the pool is only available to VIP passengers?! Disappointed and confused, we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon attending other trivia-like games down in the Maltings bar area. It was time to relax.

 

For dinner, we went back to the Garden Café.

 

The main entertainment in the Stardust Theater this evening was a magician named Titou. We are not fans of magic acts, so we went to the Crystal Atrium to listen to the Seaside Duo before going up to the Spinnaker lounge to watch the “Not So Newlywed game” which was very entertaining. We listened to the Funky Roots for the rest of the evening while staying at the Spinnaker.

 

DAY 3 – Sunday 10/16/22 – Charlottetown, PEI
We were not scheduled to arrive in Charlottetown until noon, so we had relaxing morning attending trivia in the Spinnaker before going up for breakfast.
It was slightly overcast with temps in the low 60’s F.

 

After the ship arrived, we waited a short time before walking off the ship and going a few blocks to visit St. Dunstan’s Cathedral Basilica which is an impressive building with its English Gothic architecture. We then walked back to the ship passing through a local mall/market.

 

We relaxed in the Magnum’s bar area playing trivia games for the rest of the afternoon. Sail away was 7:00 pm.
The main entertainment in the Stardust Theater was a production show called “Pure Variety”.

 

We had dinner in the French specialty restaurant called “Le Bistro”. We have always enjoyed meals at this restaurant on other NCL ships. This meal was disappointing with the service provided and the meals themselves that didn’t seem up to par with what we had before. We had planned to go to this same restaurant with a reservation for Wednesday evening, but I changed it to a reservation at Cagney’s Steakhouse instead.

 

After dinner, we went to the Spinnaker to watch and participate in the “Wheel of Ill Will” gameshow. It was a fun game where they had 4 colored buzzers on poles about six feet apart. This first part of the game had general trivia questions with 4 possible answers and you had to choose the color of the answer you thought was correct. It was timed and I was able to answer every question up until the time ran out.  The next round was based on totally random actions where I just bombed out hitting my own color each time. It was fun to play the game though.

 

We headed up the Stardust to watch the “Pure Variety” production show which had four lead singers along with about a dozen dancers. They performed several songs with multiple costume changes. There was no real scenery, just a black background. Overall, it was a good show.

 

We headed our evening in the Spinnaker attending the “Awesome 80’s” party led by a DJ. It was fun time with the cruise director staff joining us on dance floor.

 

Day 4 – Monday 10/17/22 – Sydney, NS
We arrived in Sydney by 9:00 am with a planned departure time of 5:00 pm.

 

It was overcast with temps in the low 60’s F.

 

In the morning, we went to the general knowledge trivia in Magnums before heading up to the Garden Café for breakfast. Once the rush of passengers was over, we went ashore to walk through the shops on the pier and to check out the world’s largest fiddle which is right next to the cruise terminal building. The fiddle is over 55 feet tall and is impressive. They also had a piper playing a few tunes while we were there.

 

We went back on board for lunch in the buffet and then to trivia games at the Magnums bar area for the afternoon.

 

The main entertainment in the Stardust Theater for this evening was a comedian named Kelly Terranova.

 

We started our evening with dinner at the Italian specialty restaurant called La Cucina. The meal started off great with our appetizer courses coming quickly that were very good. Then, we were waiting for over 30 minutes for our main courses. During that time we observed other tables complaining the length of time waiting for their meals. When our plates finally arrived, my fish dish looked like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for over an hour as everything was dried out and stuck to each other. The fish was super dry and did not taste very good. My wife’s veal was very tough and difficult to cut. We called a waiter for our check as we did not want to eat either of our meals and wanted to leave. The manager came over to see what was wrong and we showed him what we were presented and he agreed that they were not up to par. He offered to replace them, but we did not want to wait another hour for a dinner, so we left.

 

We went up to the Stardust to watch the comedy show and Kelly was terrific. He was very funny and clever without having to resort to profanities to get a laugh.

 

We ended the evening watching the “Speed Trivia” game and then listen to the Funky Roots play One-Hit wonders.

 

DAY 5 – Tuesday 10/18/22 – Halifax, NS
Arrival was at 8:30 AM with a planned departure of 5:00 pm.

 

It was a sunny day with temps in the mid 60’s F.

 

We had been to Halifax many times and had done all of the sights over the various times we were in port including renting a car to visit Peggy’s cove, visiting the Citadel, going to the Alexander Keith’s Brewery tour, and taking a city and harbor tour on a duck boat.

 

We went to general trivia in Magnums before heading up for breakfast this morning. We decided to walk off the ship and walk the half mile or so to St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica for their 12:15 pm daily mass. This cathedral has a more plain looking appearance than others. After the service, we walked backed to the ship stopping at a few shops and at the nearby Garrison Brewery for a local beer.

 

We spent the afternoon relaxing with games at Magnums and then chilling out up in the Spinnaker watching the sail-away. While there, we watched the 4 production show singers rehearse for their evening show scheduled in the Spinnaker.

 

The main entertainment in the Stardust Theater was a 7:00 pm show with the magician Titou and a 9:00 pm show with the comedian Kelly Terranova.

 

We had an early dinner at the Steakhouse specialty restaurant called Cagney’s. My wife enjoys steaks while I usually have seafood. She ordered a porterhouse steak with appetizers while I ordered a seafood medley dish with my appetizers. The service was impeccable and timely. My wife’s steak was perfectly cooked and looked delicious. My seafood was great as well. We passed on dessert as we were full. It was a terrific experience and we complimented the manager as we left, especially after our meals at Le Bistro and La Cucina.

 

We went up to the Spinnaker Lounge to watch the “Broadway Cabaret” show which had the 4 singers from the production show performing tunes from Broadway and West End show. They were very entertaining.

 

We rushed down to the Stardust Theater to watch Kelly Terranova perform a different comedy show than from the previous evening’s performances. Again, he was very good.

 

We ended up the evening back up at the Spinnaker Lounge for the “50’s & 60’s Sock Hop” with the Funky Roots and the Cruise Director team.

 

DAY 6 – Wednesday 10/19/22 – Portland, ME
Scheduled arrival was 11:00 am and sail away was 8:00 pm.

 

It was a cold and windy day in Portland with temps in the mid 50’s but it felt colder.

 

Since this was our first port stop after leaving Canada, they required that all passengers go through immigration control by presenting yourself with your documents. This happened shortly after arriving in Portland.

 

Before this we did go to the general trivia in Spinnakers and then had breakfast.

 

We have been to Portland several times, so we just stayed on board. We went down to Magnums for trivia games and to watch an English Premier Football game with my favorite team Liverpool winning their match over West Ham.

 

The main entertainment in the Stardust Theater was the aerialist duo with a show called “Duo Quintessance”.

 

We had dinner at Cagney’s and again it was a terrific meal. I even order my first steak in over 20 years. It was a ribeye and it was delicious. We wife had a filet mignon that was perfect for her as well. The service was terrific. We did order desserts that we brought back to our cabin for a late night snack. The manager stopped by our table several times to see if everything was okay. The wine steward called us by our names when he saw us for the second evening. (He also works in the garden café during the day time and called out to us when he saw us there a few days later)

 

We then went up to Spinnakers to watch “The Perfect Couples” gameshow which was funny.
After that, we went to the Stardust Theater to watch the aerialist show which was better than we expected. We were glad we went to it.

 

We ended our evening at the Bliss lounge listening to the show band playing jazz tunes.

 

DAY 7 – Thursday, 10/20/22 – Bar Harbor
We were scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am and leave at 4:30 pm.

 

It was another windy day with temps in the mid 50’s.

 

Bar Harbor does not have piers to accommodate large cruise ships, so tender service was needed to go ashore. You had to go to the Bliss Lounge to get tender tickets if you wanted to go ashore initially.

 

We had been to Bar Harbor before so we were in no rush to take a tender. We did the same routine of trivia and then breakfast in the morning.  We relaxed in the Spinnaker where we heard the announcements that tender tickets would not be needed as the rush was over.

 

We went down to get on a tender for the short 15 minute ride to shore. We visited a few shops in the few blocks around the docks. We then returned to the ship for lunch and then attend a few trivia games in the Spinnaker lounge as we watched the sail away. Since it was our last night on the ship, we returned to our cabin to pack our luggage before heading out for dinner.

 

The main entertainment in the Stardust Theater was a production show called “Legends in Concert”. They had the production show singers, dancers, and band back up impersonators of Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Elvis.

 

For dinner, we went to the Indigo Main Dining Room where we were immediately seated and had a meal that only took only an hour for all of the courses. My wife had a steak and I had a salmon dish. We thought our meals were very good and the service was terrific.

 

We then went up to the Spinnaker lounge for the “Battle of the Sexes” game which was very funny and entertaining.

 

Next, we went down to the Stardust to watch the impersonators show. Of the three performers, the one playing Elvis was clearly the best singer and performer.

 

The Madonna and Michael Jackson were not strong singers and seemed only focused on looking the part. But, overall it was an entertaining show.

 

We ended up the evening in the Spinnaker for the Farewell Dance Party with the DJ and the Cruise Director Team. We made sure to put out our luggage before 11:00 pm for the stewards to pick up and bring down to the holding area. We kept a carry-on for items needed in the morning.

 

DAY 8 – Friday, 10/21/22 – Boston.
I had set my alarm for 6:00 am and when I went up to the Garden Café to get mugs of tea, I saw that we were already docked at the Boston cruise terminal.
As Latitudes members, we had requested Yellow luggage tags which was to be the first color called to disembark after the self-assist passengers were called.

 

We went up for breakfast at 7:00am.  Shortly after that, they announced that passengers that wanted to use the self-assist option could start to head down to deck 7 aft to disembark. We then returned to our cabin to prepare to disembark. They called out that the passengers with yellow tags could disembark around 7:30 am. We picked up our luggage and walked to our car, driving away at 8:10 am. The whole process was very smooth. We had a 2 hour drive back home to Connecticut.

 

Overview:
Latitudes Membership – It was obvious with the huge turnout at the Latitudes Exclusive party that many passengers on board were frequent cruisers and boy have the times changed. While years ago, latitudes parties included all levels of membership. Then, they would have a separate party for those that were Platinum or higher. In the past, the parties would include meeting the Captain of the ship and his staff along with prizes being handed out with one prize being a free 7 day cruise. Now, it has been watered down to just a welcome back message from the cruise next team and an introduction of hotel management team with no prizes offered. It is obvious that any special treatment of passengers is geared towards Haven and Suites passengers only. I felt that they just take Latitudes members for granted.

 

Dining – Other than our negative experiences at Le Bistro and La Cucina mentioned, we thought that the dining offerings were very good to excellent. This included the Garden Café buffet and Main dining Room along with Cagney’s.

 

Staff – It appeared that all members of the ship’s crew were going out of their way to be pleasant and welcoming while on board. Everyone was very friendly.

 

Cruise director staff – While Ralph, the cruise director and his assistant were only seen at a few events, the rest of their team were very active on board. They were friendly and made the various games and events on board fun and entertaining. A shout out to Jo Jo and Patricia who were terrific. Serdar and Alvaro did a good job as well.

 

Entertainment – The Pearl is the NCL ship that is “rented out” for private cruises sponsored by music acts such as Kiss, Mötley Crüe, and some country artists. Because of this, they do not have a full production shows like other cruise ships.

 

The Stardust Theater shows and acts were entertaining though with the comedian, Kelly Terranova as the standout.

 

For music, the Pearl offered a variety of solo performers and groups.

 

We enjoyed the Funky Roots who played as a trio and sometimes as a quartet when they had a singer. They were terrific musicians.

 

The show band was a septet of very talented musicians playing trumpet, saxophone, trombone, keys, drums, guitar, and bass.

 

The Seaside Duo was a husband and wife team that played along with pre-recorded music. The singer had a strong powerful voice. They were very entertaining.

 

Cameron was a solo act on guitar. He was very clever in recording layers of sounds before every song with percussive beats, tambourine, guitar chords, etc. to give his sound a fuller tone. He did this before most tunes that he played which got old real quick. I think he should just pre-record these layers instead of re-doing them before every tune to let us hear more music.

 

There was another solo act with Valentyna which we did not see on the cruise.

 

Beverage package - Even though it was obvious that a lot of passengers had the beverage package, we did not notice anyone overindulging.

 

Overall, we enjoyed our cruise. The weather was terrific compared to the forecasts I had read just prior to our sailing.

 

We were at first apprehensive since it was our first one since the start of the pandemic. It turned out to be a pleasant experience returning to the sea which we plan to do again and again.

 

[mking8288]

Thank you for sharing a nice, short & concise report, friends of ours are taking Amtrak up to Beantown next week to embark on the Pearl, then head southeast toward Bermuda.  They'll probably find this report informative & useful.  How was your Inside cabin ?  Any idea as to how full the ship was on your sailing ... fairly sure it wasn't close to full capacity ?  Did you skip checking out comfort food at "The Local" a/k/a "O'Sheehan's" (Blue Lagoon) in the old days ?  

[CTCruisers]

15 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Thank you for sharing a nice, short & concise report, friends of ours are taking Amtrak up to Beantown next week to embark on the Pearl, then head southeast toward Bermuda.  They'll probably find this report informative & useful.  How was your Inside cabin ?  Any idea as to how full the ship was on your sailing ... fairly sure it wasn't close to full capacity ?  Did you skip checking out comfort food at "The Local" a/k/a "O'Sheehan's" (Blue Lagoon) in the old days ?  

We asked about how many passengers were on board and were told 2,000 out of a possible 2,500.

 

We always book inside cabins as we prefer darkness while sleeping and we are never in the room other than to sleep or change clothes. It is a comfortable size at 141 sq ft. They added lighting for inside the closets and the safe. The vanity mirror lights up as well.

 

I only used O'Sheehans for a beer stop and to watch English Football matches on their TV's. The place seemed busy everyday with diners.

[disneynan]

Thanks for this great report. I’m on that sailing next August. Did anyone dress the part for the 80’s or 60’s parties at Spinnakers?