Just got home - Norwegian Pearl - Boston to Bermuda

[jayseadee]

Since i got such valuable info from this forum, I thought I'd share our experience. 

 

Embarkation - we bussed from Cape Cod to South Station and grabbed a taxi to the terminal.  Our check-in time was noon, eDocs in hand.  The porter had our luggage on a cart before we paid the driver and showed us the way.  We were directed from line to line, got our keys and then ushered to a seat.  Shortly after, they started to board based on seat section.  We were onboard and enjoying lunch at the Garden Cafe before noon. No one asked our check-in time and no one asked for our eDocs. Waiting for our room, we tried to get our bearings on the ship and visited a couple of bars.  I think rooms were finally ready by 4pm.  It was a very smooth operation.  They are quite good at herding cats.

 

Dining - We loved the freestyle dining.  No set place, no set time, no eating with strangers.  Everything was delicious and we found the wait staff to be excellent.  Although, we moved around from place to place, some of the hosts and staff remembered our names.  Our favorite complimentary was Indigo.  If you sit in the rear on the left side, it's quieter.  Our specialty restaurant was Moderno.  It was excellent.  Breakfast was Garden Cafe on days that we wanted to get an early start; O'Sheehans for days when we didn't start so early.  We rarely ate lunch, but would have an afternoon "snack" at the Great Outdoors buffet.  Dinner was Indigo and Lotus Garden (twice each), Summer Palace, O'Sheehans and Moderno.   We ate between 5:30p and 7pm.  We only had to wait once at Lotus Garden and were given a voucher for a glass of bubbly.  

 

Bars - we hit them all at some point - Goals!  

 

Bermuda (we have visited Bermuda via plane many times)- Day 1 - Mini-bus to Horseshoe Bay and spent the day at the beach.

Day 2 - planned to go to St. George's, but woke up to pouring rain.  So, we took the ferry over to Hamilton for some shopping.  The rain subsided and it turned into a nice afternoon.

Day 3 - cool and cloudy, but we ventured over to St. George's.  Since it was the last day in port, we had only about 2 1/2 hours, so we skipped the beach and just strolled around town visiting a couple of museums and unfinished church (and more shopping).  

 

Immigration day - again, a good job of herding cattle.  We were off the ship and on a tender ~11:30am.

Bar Harbor - took a 2.5 hour trolley tour through Acadia National Park with Oli's Trolleys; booked it when we got ashore..  It was very informative.  Unfortunately, the fog rolled in as we hit the top of Cadillac Mountain. 

 

Shore excursions - We took the Rum Swizzle Catamaran sunset cruise (first night in BDA).  It was a lot of fun and they kept the Rum Swizzles on the light side, so no one was out of control.  They ended the night with "Sweet Caroline".

 

Sea days - the weather was wicked windy most of the sea days.  Sad to say, we never spent anytime at the pool.  We did wine tastings at LeBistro on both Sea Days.  One paired with Chocolate and one paired with Cheese - $22 each.

 

Entertainment - nothing exciting.  Julie Barr (a comedienne) a couple of nights and JP Parent (magician) a couple of nights.  A lot of games show type entertainment.  I know we missed some nights. There were other musical acts that played around the ship  Seaside Duo, Andy Gardell, Ricardo, Funky Roots

 

Weather - not the best.  Partly cloudy and cool-ish and half day of rain.  Still a great time!

 

Cabin - inside cabin on Deck 8.  Yes, it was tiny, but it worked.  Of course, since there were no windows, we never knew what kind of day we were waking up to.  So we turned on the TV to "The Bow" channel.  

 

Disembarking - Had breakfast at O'Sheehans and then waited in our cabin until our color was called.  We were off the ship at ~9:30, easily spotted our bags and cabs were ready and waiting.  Back on Cape just about noon.

 

Misc - the ship internet is terrible, except when using the app.  It was nice having the Daily Freestyle on the app and not have to carry around paper.  We did tip some, but did not feel that we had to.  

 

We would cruise on NCL again.  We would do this itinerary again.  Leaving from Boston was such a breeze.

 

 

 

 

[warb]

Great Report !!! Always enjoy reading about a Cruise to Bermuda. 

Thanks for doing it.

[tntcardz]

Thanks for the report.  I am going on this exact cruise this coming Friday the 16th.  Did you visit the casino at all? 

How was the night life?  

[PFK56]

My husband and I were on the same cruise, so I thought I would share our thoughts as a second opinion.

 

Embarkation - we deliberately arrived around 140 and it was almost a walk on. Quick stop at the desk to pick up keys, but no need for the edocs along the way.  As soon as we got onboard we went to the cabin to find it was ready for us.  

 

Dining - loved the freestyle dining and relaxed dress code as I wanted a very casual week and didn't bother to pack dresses and shoes for those dresses. We had one breakfast and one lunch at Summer Palace, 1 breakfast, 2 lunches, and 1 dinner at O'Sheehan's, one dinner at La Cucina, 4 dinners at Indigo (also our favorite), 1 dinner at Garden Cafe as well as breakfast 3 times. Our dinner times varied, sometimes as early as 530 or as late as 830, depending on our mood and the entertainment schedule. The food was somewhat of a miss for us and my husband had to send back his NY strip because it was so tough. He had another later in the week that was ok but not great. I would return to La Cucina just for the mushroom risotto and my husband really liked the osso buco. I also managed to get the 7 layer chocolate cake twice in Indigo - the server said it was just in Cagney's but asked the manager and he approved it. I could have gotten it on the room service menu, but I didn't want to pay the $10 fee just for a piece of cake!

 

Bars - we never made it to the mojito bar, skipped the Sky High bar because of heavy smoke, and never made it to Bliss Lounge. Spinnaker Lounge had the best Vodka Collins and Whiskey Sours, but Topsiders had the most fun bartenders.

 

Bermuda - we slept in on the first day and just took a walk around the dockside marketplace. We only booked one excursion, the reef fishing, and it was the morning of the very heavy rain. We still went out and I caught a grunt and a decent sized yellow snapper (another guest caught a large yellow snapper a great bonefish. The wind and rain continued, the anchor got hung up and took about 15 minutes to break free, so they just called it halfway through and headed back. We did get a free beer and that evening found out they credited back 50% because of the short time. It took 3 days to dry my Topsiders after that rain! We had planned to do the ferry the last morning but overslept and decided to just skip it.

 

Immigration Day  - another day of oversleeping (I have never slept so much on a cruise!) and were grabbing a late breakfast in the buffet when we heard the last call for going through customs.

 

Bar Harbor - Back to one of our favorite towns after a 2 year absence (we spent a week there last visit). We had a lobster roll and bowl of clam chowder at the Thirsty Whale, browsed the shops, and walked down the the Ivy Manor Inn to have a drink on the lawn and watch the fog roll over the mountain top. 

Unfortunately, on the way back my husband tripped on one of the shop raised threshold and injured his arm. We thought at first it was broken and there was quite a bit of blood. We were able to get a bag of ice from the restaurant and by the time we got back to the ship the swelling was down a lot. They did x-rays to be sure, then cleaned and dressed the would and gave us supplies to change the dressing in 24 hours. They even called us later that night to follow up on his condition.

 

Pools - hubby did the hot tub on the first sea day, but other than that we just relaxed on the padded, overside loungers and read on 2 days while the weather was accommodating. We would have loved to been out there more, but as stated it was very windy and pretty chilly on the last sea day.

 

Entertainment - we did not care for the cabaret performers and had no interest in the comedy or magic shows. We did several game shows, won 1 of the trivia contests, but mostly enjoyed listening to Funky Roots Band and watching people dance.

 

Cabin - We also had an inside cabin, deck 11 aft (very aft!). Since we don't spend a lot of awake time in the cabin it was fine. Since we only booked 2 months ago inventory was limited and we didn't realize we chose one of the cabins with an upper berth. The only problem with that was my husband kept bumping into the cold metal on his back when sidling up to get into bed. 

 

Disembarking - we chose to carry off our luggage and relaxed in the room until the 9am cutoff, then joined a quickly moving line to get off the ship. We walked across the street to the Dunkin to call an Uber where it was less noise and congestion.

 

Misc - I agee about the internet. I couldn't connect 99% of the time and ended up using 3 min out of 150 min included.  We spent 2 days in Boston before the trip and loved the city, so we might venture back another time but I don't think we would do this cruise again.

[jayseadee]

3 hours ago, tntcardz said:

Thanks for the report.  I am going on this exact cruise this coming Friday the 16th.  Did you visit the casino at all? 

How was the night life?  

 

We visited the casino bar (we had a goal to visit all the bars) for a drink and played the poker machine and lost $5.

Most of the time our night ended by 11pm.  There was always music or some game being played in most of the lounges and bar areas.  Funky Roots did a great "Throwback to 1969" in the Spinnaker lounge; we stayed for both shows.  Otherwise we hangout at the Atrium Bar or Magnums and listened to whomever was playing.  Never made it to the Spinnaker for the Dj dance party.  Did start many mornings in the Spinnaker lounge for the Morning Fun Fitness 🙂  Enjoy your cruise.  

[jayseadee]

10 minutes ago, PFK56 said:

 

 

10 minutes ago, PFK56 said:

Bar Harbor - Back to one of our favorite towns after a 2 year absence (we spent a week there last visit). We had a lobster roll and bowl of clam chowder at the Thirsty Whale, browsed the shops, and walked down the the Ivy Manor Inn to have a drink on the lawn and watch the fog roll over the mountain top. 

 

Unfortunately, on the way back my husband tripped on one of the shop raised threshold and injured his arm. We thought at first it was broken and there was quite a bit of blood. We were able to get a bag of ice from the restaurant and by the time we got back to the ship the swelling was down a lot. They did x-rays to be sure, then cleaned and dressed the would and gave us supplies to change the dressing in 24 hours. They even called us later that night to follow up on his condition.

 

 

Oh, I hope your husband is healing.  Bar Harbor is one of our favorite towns, as well.  We spent a week there last June, just about the same days as the cruise.  We recommended the Thirsty Whale to a few people that were interested in Clam Chowdah and Lobstah Rolls.  

[tntcardz]

On 6/10/2023 at 7:13 PM, jayseadee said:

 

We visited the casino bar (we had a goal to visit all the bars) for a drink and played the poker machine and lost $5.

Most of the time our night ended by 11pm.  There was always music or some game being played in most of the lounges and bar areas.  Funky Roots did a great "Throwback to 1969" in the Spinnaker lounge; we stayed for both shows.  Otherwise we hangout at the Atrium Bar or Magnums and listened to whomever was playing.  Never made it to the Spinnaker for the Dj dance party.  Did start many mornings in the Spinnaker lounge for the Morning Fun Fitness 🙂  Enjoy your cruise.  

Thanks for the info.  I am so looking forward to this cruise.

[DCGuy64]

On 6/9/2023 at 4:53 PM, jayseadee said:

Since i got such valuable info from this forum, I thought I'd share our experience. 

 

Embarkation - we bussed from Cape Cod to South Station and grabbed a taxi to the terminal.  Our check-in time was noon, eDocs in hand.  The porter had our luggage on a cart before we paid the driver and showed us the way.  We were directed from line to line, got our keys and then ushered to a seat.  Shortly after, they started to board based on seat section.  We were onboard and enjoying lunch at the Garden Cafe before noon. No one asked our check-in time and no one asked for our eDocs. Waiting for our room, we tried to get our bearings on the ship and visited a couple of bars.  I think rooms were finally ready by 4pm.  It was a very smooth operation.  They are quite good at herding cats.

 

Dining - We loved the freestyle dining.  No set place, no set time, no eating with strangers.  Everything was delicious and we found the wait staff to be excellent.  Although, we moved around from place to place, some of the hosts and staff remembered our names.  Our favorite complimentary was Indigo.  If you sit in the rear on the left side, it's quieter.  Our specialty restaurant was Moderno.  It was excellent.  Breakfast was Garden Cafe on days that we wanted to get an early start; O'Sheehans for days when we didn't start so early.  We rarely ate lunch, but would have an afternoon "snack" at the Great Outdoors buffet.  Dinner was Indigo and Lotus Garden (twice each), Summer Palace, O'Sheehans and Moderno.   We ate between 5:30p and 7pm.  We only had to wait once at Lotus Garden and were given a voucher for a glass of bubbly.  

 

Bars - we hit them all at some point - Goals!  

 

Bermuda (we have visited Bermuda via plane many times)- Day 1 - Mini-bus to Horseshoe Bay and spent the day at the beach.

Day 2 - planned to go to St. George's, but woke up to pouring rain.  So, we took the ferry over to Hamilton for some shopping.  The rain subsided and it turned into a nice afternoon.

Day 3 - cool and cloudy, but we ventured over to St. George's.  Since it was the last day in port, we had only about 2 1/2 hours, so we skipped the beach and just strolled around town visiting a couple of museums and unfinished church (and more shopping).  

 

Immigration day - again, a good job of herding cattle.  We were off the ship and on a tender ~11:30am.

Bar Harbor - took a 2.5 hour trolley tour through Acadia National Park with Oli's Trolleys; booked it when we got ashore..  It was very informative.  Unfortunately, the fog rolled in as we hit the top of Cadillac Mountain. 

 

Shore excursions - We took the Rum Swizzle Catamaran sunset cruise (first night in BDA).  It was a lot of fun and they kept the Rum Swizzles on the light side, so no one was out of control.  They ended the night with "Sweet Caroline".

 

Sea days - the weather was wicked windy most of the sea days.  Sad to say, we never spent anytime at the pool.  We did wine tastings at LeBistro on both Sea Days.  One paired with Chocolate and one paired with Cheese - $22 each.

 

Entertainment - nothing exciting.  Julie Barr (a comedienne) a couple of nights and JP Parent (magician) a couple of nights.  A lot of games show type entertainment.  I know we missed some nights. There were other musical acts that played around the ship  Seaside Duo, Andy Gardell, Ricardo, Funky Roots

 

Weather - not the best.  Partly cloudy and cool-ish and half day of rain.  Still a great time!

 

Cabin - inside cabin on Deck 8.  Yes, it was tiny, but it worked.  Of course, since there were no windows, we never knew what kind of day we were waking up to.  So we turned on the TV to "The Bow" channel.  

 

Disembarking - Had breakfast at O'Sheehans and then waited in our cabin until our color was called.  We were off the ship at ~9:30, easily spotted our bags and cabs were ready and waiting.  Back on Cape just about noon.

 

Misc - the ship internet is terrible, except when using the app.  It was nice having the Daily Freestyle on the app and not have to carry around paper.  We did tip some, but did not feel that we had to.  

 

We would cruise on NCL again.  We would do this itinerary again.  Leaving from Boston was such a breeze.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for a GREAT review, I'm so glad you had a good time on the Pearl.

[jayseadee]

One thing I forgot to mention.  I had inquired about beach towels before we left and was told that "yes" they are provided, but many said that nobody does close tracking of the returns.  At both the pool and the terminal, we were asked for our cabin number when we picked them up and also when we returned - and watched the attendant find it and check it off.  So, it may be different per ship, but towels were checked in and out on the Pearl.

[PFK56]

We were also scolded for asking for 2 extra towels for warmth on a windy day and were told it was 2 per cabin only.

[DCGuy64]

26 minutes ago, PFK56 said:

We were also scolded for asking for 2 extra towels for warmth on a windy day and were told it was 2 per cabin only.

They actually scolded you? Wow, that seems wrong. Or was it something like "I'm sorry, we are limited to 2 per cabin only"?