A Small Ship Girl On The Pearl (Bermuda May 5th 2023 Sailing)

[mawvkysc]

A trip report with Dailies and some menus.  
 

A trip of firsts: First NCL cruise. First 7 day cruise. First non Florida cruise.  First tender port. 

Background: A couple with a number of short cruises under our belts, various lines. See my signature.  I’m early 50s husband is early 60s. Recently moved to FL to care for my parents. We took the cruise while my sis was in town with my parents. We were celebrating the sale of our home in SC and hubby’s retirement. We are generally budget cruisers. We took two cruises during the restart, both on larger ships for us. I consider this cruise post restart and a small ship. 
 

Cabin: We booked fairly close to sailing and got an obstructed OV handicapped accessible cabin on deck 8 8598.  This is the second cruise in a row with an obstructed accessible cabin. We do not need that type of cabin but it was what was available and I LOVED the location. I will post a link to my cabin review. 

 

[mawvkysc]

Here is the link to my cabin review 

 

[mawvkysc]

I grew up in New England and had been to Bar Harbor and Bermuda as 35-40 years ago. This itinerary was super exciting for me!

 

Precruise:  We flew in to Logan airport and a cousin picked us up. We spent two nights in Gloucester with him. Cruise morning we took the train into Boston North Station and then a taxi to the Black Falcon terminal. Seeing tulips and lilacs starting to bloom was a real treat for me. Dad used to work for the T  too so I snapped a few pics for him. 
 

[mawvkysc]

Embarkation: We arrived 15 minutes early for our 11:30 boarding time. It took about 45 minutes from arrival to stepping onboard. Not the fastest ever but not a problem either. 
 

Our muster station was the Summer Palace MDR, so that was our first stop. Super convenient as we were ready for lunch. It was so nice to avoid first day buffet madness.  We’ve never had that option before. Kudos to NCL. 

I chose the wedge salad, crustless quiche and tapioca pudding. The quiche’s texture was silky good, but it was a challenge to find the veggies. The tapioca was bizarre. It had the pearls, but no custard. There was a super thin cream instead, like watered down cool whip. This was a start to my disappointment with NCL food, especially dessert. Without a doubt we both found this to be our worst cruise as far as food   (And we’ve cruised MSC which we were quite satisfied)

 

 

Cabins were ready around 2:30 or 3:00. 

Edited May 15, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

Sailaway: We watched from the front of Spinnaker. Boston sailaway did not disappoint! The harbor islands are gorgeous! The planes heading to Logan flew right over us.
 

Bar lines were long during sailaway. I was afraid this was a harbinger for the whole cruise. It was not. Was bar service the quickest with lots of servers walking around,  no. It was reasonable though. Drink quality was very good. A 100% improvement over MSC. These are the only two times we had a drink package. 
 

Our remote for the tv didn’t work. It was promptly fixed  when reported. 
 

Dinner: Summer Palace.  Excellent service. 

 

Shrimp cake, quite good, meaty

Chicken picatta, disappointing, not lemony and dry

Lava cake, excellent this night and good another night 

 

Welcome Aboard Show: The comedian, Andrew Kennedy did a family friendly show. I really enjoyed it. A different comedian was scheduled for the following week. The theatre has great viewing from almost all seats. 
 

We often were sat by windows but lots of inner tables have good views too!
I love Chihully art! 
 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

[mawvkysc]

Day 2

SeaDay

 

O’Sheehan’s for breakfast. A solid breakfast but service was a little bit off. Hubby really like breakfast here. I preferred MDR or Great Outdoors as there is more variety and grapefruit in MDR. 
 

We explored the ship more. Walked the promenade. Took a look at the bridge viewing area. That was interesting. 
 

Lunch at the buffet. We weren’t overly impressed. I had heard how great the Indian food was but I found the dals to be very watered down. Indian lamb stew one morning was very tasty. I also heard the Asian soup station  was great but I disagree. I only saw cookies once when I went to afternoon snacks at Great Outdoors. Never during lunch hours.  We never ate dinner there but I did enjoy a crepe one night. I love thei complimentary hand scooped  ice-cream option! That’s a real treat on a cruise ship. I did enjoy a flan one night from the buffet. 
 

Nap time. The ship was rocking some. We love that and had looked forward to higher seas crossing over to Bermuda. It rocked us to sleep. It was nice not feeling like we had to fit everything in all at once. Being on a weeklong cruise I felt I could slow down.  
 

Many were on deck today (it was warm enough for many) so it was not overcrowded inside. The last sea day was cold and crowded. The Pearl lacks an adult solarium or aft adult deck/pool area. I really missed that. I’m not into the main pool festivities. 
 

The theater show Pure Variety was cancelled because of the waves. Sadly it was never rescheduled. On other cruises when a show was missed they managed to fit it in even as a matinee. 
 

Dinner was at Indigo tonight. Service was great again. We preferred the decor and views of Summer Palace though. We never had a wait for a table the whole trip. 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

I forgot to take a picture of the dinner menus tonight. 

French Onion soup was good.

Flounder was ok. Breading was a little too thick. 
Hubby didn’t like the beef option tonight. It was dry and gristly. 
I can’t remember dessert. 
 

We found the portions smaller than other cruise lines in the past. But this was our first post restart cruise. Maybe the others have whittled down the portions too. 
 

 

[mawvkysc]

[MSUjohn]

i would really like to do this as the jewel class is my favorite NCL class yet i have never been to the pearl.

 

i have never been to Maine either. 

[mawvkysc]

44 minutes ago, MSUjohn said:

i would really like to do this as the jewel class is my favorite NCL class yet i have never been to the pearl.

 

i have never been to Maine either. 

Maine was beautiful. Going through customs and then tendering to port cuts into your time there though. 

[jimsig]

8 hours ago, mawvkysc said:

I grew up in New England and had been to Bar Harbor and Bermuda as 35-40 years ago. This itinerary was super exciting for me!

 

Precruise:  We flew in to Logan airport and a cousin picked us up. We spent two nights in Gloucester with him. Cruise morning we took the train into Boston North Station and then a taxi to the Black Falcon terminal. Seeing tulips and lilacs starting to bloom was a real treat for me. Dad used to work for the T  too so I snapped a few pics for him. 
 

Did your dad work for the T itself or the commuter rail portion?

[mawvkysc]

20 minutes ago, jimsig said:

Did your dad work for the T itself or the commuter rail portion?

He worked for the commuter rail portion. The Lowell to North Station line.  When he retired Amtrak had the contract to run that route. He also worked for the company that had the contract before Amtrak. He worked with the heavy equipment department. 

[jimsig]

7 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

He worked for the commuter rail portion. The Lowell to North Station line.  When he retired Amtrak had the contract to run that route. He also worked for the company that had the contract before Amtrak. He worked with the heavy equipment department. 

I'm on the commuter rail as a conductor and work out of North Station and have been there since 94.  Chances are if he was on the track department I probably wouldn't know him, I knew a couple guys based out of BET though.  

[ChiefMateJRK]

Is there really no place to obtain a screwdriver before 8:00 am?  That's weird.

[mawvkysc]

50 minutes ago, jimsig said:

I'm on the commuter rail as a conductor and work out of North Station and have been there since 94.  Chances are if he was on the track department I probably wouldn't know him, I knew a couple guys based out of BET though.  

Dad worked out of Somerville. I’m not sure what BET means. His name is Pete Birrow. Retired in 2007

[mawvkysc]

49 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Is there really no place to obtain a screwdriver before 8:00 am?  That's weird.

Looks like the atrium bar opened at 7:30 am 

[mawvkysc]

Day 3

Bermuda 

Breakfast in the MDR then we sat out at The Great Outdoors. What a view!

Did I eat more breakfast? Yes!! 

 

We walked around the Dockyard to orient ourselves then met for our glass bottom boat tour. We booked this through the ship. With the $50 discount for one of us it came out slightly cheaper than booking independently. It was great and informative. $3 rum swizzles on the way back. That’s a deal! 

[mawvkysc]

After the tour we used the free internet at the visitor center for a bit.  We had the 150 free minutes but found this to be a little bit better. We mainly just checked emails on board so as to not use up our minutes. The free internet on MSC was better and unlimited. 
 

Then we took the ferry over to Hamilton. It was Sunday so most stores were closed. We enjoyed just walking around and visiting a few parks. There are lots of interesting sculptures around town. Queen Elizabeth Park was really nice. Queen Victoria Park was less interesting. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

Back to Summer Palace tonight. 
Pear Salad, good but not much pear

Whole Roasted Sirloin, very good 

S’mores brownie, a  bit dry

After dinner we saw Alex Yost in the theatre. A very good singer. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

[mawvkysc]

Day 4

Bermuda (Bank Holiday because of coronation)

 

We were worried that the reduced bus schedule would pose a problem but it didn’t. We really got around stunningly beautiful Bermuda today. 
 

We bought the one day transit pass. First we took the NCL ferry to St George. We walked around a bit using the self guided tour. This was found in the newspaper that they gave out on the ferry. There is a really helpful information desk on board. Then we walked (uphill) to Tobacco Bay. Stunning!  We had a drink and listened to a band briefly. A local couple let us sit at a table with them. They were super nice. Walked back to town and caught a bus to the caves 

 

We got in on the next tour to Crystal Cave. We enjoyed it as we like doing cave tours. Then we caught a bus back to Hamilton. The bus rides are scenic and the drivers are very helpful. They will call out your stop if you let them know ahead of time. From Hamilton we caught the bus that runs along the South Shore. 
 

We got off at Warwick Long Bay and walked the trails back to Horseshoe  Bay. This was fabulous. The weather was great for walking. Amazing views all along the way. Then we caught the bus back to the Dockyard. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

Summer Palace for dinner. 
Corn chowder, pretty good

Tomato salad, good

Pork loin, dry but ok

Trifle, awful! A jello parfait. Top part was not custard.   Hospital cafeteria food

Edited May 16, 2023 by mawvkysc

[mawvkysc]

We were too tired for much tonight. The main theatre had a movie showing. That was weird. We didn’t realize that Throwback 1969 was actually a smaller show in a different venue.  We watched a movie in the cabin. I did appreciate the newer movies on the tv.  A few I remember were the Whitney Houston movie, The Fablemans, The Friendly Fishermen, the new Black Panther movie and Blueback. 

[mawvkysc]

Day 5 

Beautiful Bermuda

We shopped for gifts around the dockyard. Not my favorite activity.
 

Once that was done we realized we had some time left.  There was one taxi driver by the ship and we decided to do a 2 hour West End tour. It was her very first tour as she was a new taxi driver.  We took a chance and are glad we did. She had taken over the taxi from her dad and was very knowledgeable. A few of the things we saw were some neighborhoods, Hayden Trust, Fort Scaur (great views), Somerset Bridge, Gibbs Lighthouse, Sea Glass Beach.  She didn’t stop at the beaches as we told her we already had done them. Her name was Juanea