Just back from the Pearl

[MrsLeo]

Well we just got off the ship this morning. I thought it was a very beautiful ship and without a doubt the most friendly crew I have ever encountered. We had an AF mini suite and it was perfect for our family of four. Our room stewards did a fine job, and I am thrilled to report that we recieved many of the suite perks, including daily fruit, a free bottle of water, concierge service (which really was great) Embarcation and disembarcation went very smoothly. No problems getting on or off, which I think is a first for us in 7 cruises. We almost always have a problem with one or the other. But it was very streamlined and organized.

Food service across the board was excellent. We tried many of the speciality restaurants Le Bistro, Cagneys, Lotus Garden, Teppenyaki, and the main dining room for dinner. I only had the chance to have lunch and breakfast in Summer Palace once this cruise which is normally what I do to avoid the insanity of the cattle call people refer to as buffet dining. However, I found a welcome respite from the sea of humanity at "The Great Outdoors" on the back of the ship. It was hardly ever crowded and the view is marvelous. I found the food to be decent and I always found something I liked. The one day we were able to have lunch in Summer Palace we were treated to a terrific show. Our ship was being followed by a pod of dolphins and the beautiful arched windows provided a perfect view of the action as the leapt into air.

The pools were freshwater, and I thought they were wonderful. We enjoyed the waterslide and they provided floaties for the little ones to use in the pool, which was a welcome remedy to help little ones who couldn't quite keep their heads above water in the 5 foot deep pool. The hot tubs were a perfect temperature.

Teppanyaki was a treat for us, on this cruise. The quality of beef they offer on NCL has remained consistently good since we sailed onthe Sun in March.

Of course there are always a few flys in the ointment, and we did have a few minor irritations. The few things that really bugged me on this cruise was the kid's club hours on port days and to a degree on sea days as well. Generally the kid's club's are open from 9am-12, 2pm-5pm, 7pm-10pm. But on this ship they shortened the afternoon session to 2-3pm, This is not a huge deal but it was annoying never the less, since our kids like to sleep in and then go to the kid's club in the afternoon. I never was able to find the time to go to the thermal suite because of the weird afternoon hours.

 

The thing that was a bigger deal is that it is obvious camp workers I had to deal with didn't want to be bothered with working on port days and made it as difficult as possible to engage their services as possible. First of all realize NCL is the only mainstream line I know of that charges an hourly rate for the kid's club on port days. They require that you sign up for the service the day before. The staff also makes it clear when you try to sign upfor the service, that you will basically be interupting their social plans. My opinion is that if they really want to call this freestyle cruising, they should have a dedicated staff on hand for port days and work around our schedule. After all we are paying an hourly rate for this service. I have never had any issues with the Kid's Club's on our previous cruises, but they really did not want to work.

 

I still strongly dislike the reservation policy, but it was much easier this time due to the concierge service. Otherwise I would be very frustrated. The only reason we were able to dine at as many speciality restaurants was due to the concierge. I loved this perk, and it made me happy that I made a good decision upgrading to the mini suite.

The only poor food service we received was in Blue Lagoon at 11:30 on the day we were in Grand Cayman, the wait staff was less than friendly, we were the only ones there, with only one other couple and many of the tables were dirty, there was a row of at least 4 stands holding large round trays still full of dirty breakfast dishes. The food took a long time to come and we were definitely unwelcome.

I strongly disliked the onboard Cruise Consultant and his assistant. They were like snake oil salesmen. They promise you the world and send you on your way knowing once you leave the ship they don't have to deliver anything they promise. Basically I signed up for a program called cruise rewards. You give them $250 and they give you a $100 onboard credit. Then $250 is deposited in your Latitudes account and that allows you to book any cruise, any stateroom except Villas for the $250/stateroom (not per person) I wanted to book a Transatlantic cruise for November 2008 on the Jade and was hoping to book prior to the end of this month to avoid the fuel surcharge. I asked if that was possible, and was told, oh yes! No problem, sign this paper and we'll post payment tonight and you can book this with NCL or your TA immediately. No problem!!! So while we were in Grand Cayman, due to issues with the Kid's Club I was on board longer than I had planned to be and got enough of a wifi signal to use my IP phone and call NCL who informed me the guy on board was wrong and it would take 30 days for it to hit my account. I went back to him and he didn't get back with me until last night and he told me to call a guy at the NCL 800# and he would help me. Well I called him today and he said he wasn't going to help me because he knows I will use a TA and after he booked it I would just move the res. over to her. I said, so, people do that all the time, and NCL will profit from the booking either way? He basically was pretty rude and arrogant, so I told him to get his supervisor, and he then came back and and said he spoke to her and she instructed him to make the booking. So I now have the booking, we'll see what happens next with this mess. I like this program and it is a great deal, I just don't like dealing with individuals who don't care enough about their customer's to represent their product honestly. It cheapens the promotion. If he simply said no you won't see the credit hit for 30 days, I still would have bought it, but I would have felt better about the experience.

The only other less than stellar event that transpired was when I was awoken at 1:00 A.M. because about 20 crew members were out playing basketball in the middle of the night, above my cabin. I couldn't figure out what was making such a racket and went up to check it out and there they were shootin hoops in the wee hours of the morning.

 

So in a nutshell it was a great cruise. Well we just got off the ship this morning. I thought it was a very beautiful ship and without a doubt the most friendly crew I have ever encountered. We had an AF mini suite and it was perfect for our family of four. Our room stewards did a fine job, and I am thrilled to report that we recieved many of the suite perks, including daily fruit, a free bottle of water, concierge service (which really was great) Embarcation and disembarcation went very smoothly. No problems getting on or off, which I think is a first for us in 7 cruises. We almost always have a problem with one or the other. But it was very streamlined and organized.

Food service across the board was excellent. We tried many of the speciality restaurants Le Bistro, Cagneys, Lotus Garden, Teppenyaki, and the main dining room for dinner. I only had the chance to have lunch and breakfast in Summer Palace once this cruise which is normally what I do to avoid the insanity of the cattle call people refer to as buffet dining. However, I found a welcome respite from the sea of humanity at "The Great Outdoors" on the back of the ship. It was hardly ever crowded and the view is marvelous. I found the food to be decent and I always found something I liked. The one day we were able to have lunch in Summer Palace we were treated to a terrific show. Our ship was being followed by a pod of dolphins and the beautiful arched windows provided a perfect view of the action as the leapt into air.

The pools were freshwater, and I thought they were wonderful. We enjoyed the waterslide and they provided floaties for the little ones to use in the pool, which was a welcome remedy to help little ones who couldn't quite keep their heads above water in the 5 foot deep pool. The hot tubs were a perfect temperature.

Teppanyaki was a treat for us, on this cruise. The quality of beef they offer on NCL has remained consistently good since we sailed onthe Sun in March.

Of course there are always a few flys in the ointment, and we did have a few minor irritations. The few things that really bugged me on this cruise was the kid's club hours on port days and to a degree on sea days as well. Generally the kid's club's are open from 9am-12, 2pm-5pm, 7pm-10pm. But on this ship they shortened the afternoon session to 2-3pm, This is not a huge deal but it was annoying never the less, since our kids like to sleep in and then go to the kid's club in the afternoon. I never was able to find the time to go to the thermal suite because of the weird afternoon hours.

The thing that was a bigger deal is that it is obvious camp workers I had to deal with didn't want to be bothered with working on port days and made it as difficult as possible to engage their services as possible. First of all realize NCL is the only mainstream line I know of that charges an hourly rate for the kid's club on port days. They require that you sign up for the service the day before. The staff also makes it clear when you try to sign upfor the service, that you will basically be interupting their social plans. My opinion is that if they really want to call this freestyle cruising, they should have a dedicated staff on hand for port days and work around our schedule. After all we are paying an hourly rate for this service.

I still strongly dislike the reservation policy, but it was much easier this time due to the concierge service. Otherwise I would be very frustrated. The only reason we were able to dine at as many speciality restaurants was due to the concierge. I loved this perk, and it made me happy that I made a good decision upgrading to the mini suite.

The only poor food service we received was in Blue Lagoon at 11:30 on the day we were in Grand Cayman, the wait staff was less than friendly, we were the only ones there, with only one other couple and many of the tables were dirty, there was a row of at least 4 stands holding large round trays still full of dirty breakfast dishes. The food took a long time to come and we were definitely unwelcome.

I strongly disliked the onboard Cruise Consultant and his assistant. They were like snake oil salesmen. They promise you the world and send you on your way knowing once you leave the ship they don't have to deliver anything they promise. Basically I signed up for a program called cruise rewards. You give them $250 and they give you a $100 onboard credit. Then $250 is deposited in your Latitudes account and that allows you to book any cruise, any stateroom except Villas for the $250/stateroom (not per person) I wanted to book a Transatlantic cruise for November 2008 on the Jade and was hoping to book prior to the end of this month to avoid the fuel surcharge. I asked if that was possible, and was told, oh yes! No problem, sign this paper and we'll post payment tonight and you can book this with NCL or your TA immediately. No problem!!! So while we were in Grand Cayman, due to issues with the Kid's Club I was on board longer than I had planned to be and got enough of a wifi signal to use my IP phone and call NCL who informed me the guy on board was wrong and it would take 30 days for it to hit my account. I went back to him and he didn't get back with me until last night and he told me to call a guy at the NCL 800# and he would help me. Well I called him today and he said he wasn't going to help me because he knows I will use a TA and after he booked it I would just move the res over to her. I said, so, people do that all the time, and NCL will profit from the booking either way? He basically was pretty rude and arrogant, so I told him to get his supervisor, and he then came back and and said he spoke to her and she instructed him to make the booking. So I now have the booking, we'll see what happens next with this mess. I like this program and it is a great deal, I just don't like dealing with individuals who don't care enough to represent their product honestly. It cheapens the promotion. If he simply said no you won;t see the credit hit for 30 days, I still would have bought it, but I would have felt better about the experience.

The only other less than stellar event that transpired was when I was awoken at 1:00 A.M. because about 20 members were out playing basketball in the middle of the night, above my cabin. I couldn't figure out what was making such a racket and went up to check it out and there they were shootin hoops in the wee hours of the morning.

 

So in a nutshell it was a great cruise. We got to tour the Garden Villa's and Owner's Suite this morning and OMG you wouldn't believe them. Wow is all I can say!! The high points far outshined the low points. This class of ship is really stunning and has something for just about everyone. I really did enjoy it, in spite of the hiccups that are bound to find you on land or at sea.

[tommy]

Did you happen o notice if they had a texasdoldem table in the casino?

[Liner]

Thanks for the great review. I'll be sailing on her -- Nov. 2008!!

[Jana]

That was a GREAT review, thank you!

 

I had a similar experience in Blue Lagoon. I like the old style better, I think, more of a "fast food joint."

 

I'm not too surprised about the onboard Cruise Consultant, but the attitude of the PCP really surprises me. If he had been smart, he would have dripped honey so you never felt the need to go to a travel agent, you would have felt pampered and taken care of by him. He won't last long.

 

Jana

[fsupharm77]

DW and myself were on the Pearl with Mrsleo as well. We also had a minisuite and loved it. To answer tommy's question, yes they do have a texas table. They run daily 1 table tournaments for $60, plus on both sea days they had a $60 multi table tourney, with rebuys (which by chance on the last sea day I happened to have won !!!)

 

Mrsleo, I didn't realize that we were able to use the concierge. We never tried. We didn't have any problems though getting a table for each night (granted it was just for 2 though). First thing we did upon boarding was stop by Mambo's and book dinner for the first 2 nights. Ate at Tepanyakki's and La Cucina the first 2 nights. We were able to book Le Bistro for Wednesday night immediately as wel l since we did the Romance Package.

 

This was our first time with NCL and I was very impressed and look forward to going with them again.

[MrsLeo]

FSU on the phone was a button for the Concierge. It was amazing to me because we'd call #0500, the regular reservation line and they would always tell us they couldn't accomodate the time we requested, so then we'd hang up and call the Concierge and she'd take our request, then call us a few moments later and it was fine. It does make a difference, but with the kids, we didn't have the flexibility of eating that late and were usually trying to schedule dinner during peak times.

[swtpnk]

Thank you for such a nice review... we, dh and I, will be on the pearl in 6 weeks and cant wait... so far we have, about 35 others in our little CC group from the roll call... its gonna be an awesome cruise i can tell..

 

one question from me.. What night is the captains dinner??

 

we are on the 9 night southern caribbean cruise... room 11156. mini suite also. do all mini suites have the concierge?? we had a mini suite in alaska also, and we had use of the concierge then too. and the friut. it was just soooo nice!!! we were surprised with getting the service.

 

thank you, swt

[MrsLeo]

I don't know about the Captain's Dinner, to be honest we were trying to get as many different dining experiences packed into our 5 day cruise as possible lol. I don't think I ever even saw the Captain once, but I did see his picture and he looked quite young. Oh speaking of which, go to the very front of the ship on the 11th floor on the opposite side of the ship of your cabin and there is a bridge viewing area I wasn't even aware of until the end of the cruise.

 

Just press the button for the Concierge marked on the phone and they will answer.

[Cosmopolitan]

one question from me.. What night is the captains dinner??thank you, swt

 

Do you mean the "formal or not" evening? That is usually the first FULL day at sea.

The Captain's cocktail party (by invitation) is usually on the same evening.

[wxtrix]

a quick message, with a full review to come later--

 

--IIRC, no concierge service for mini suites beginning 1/1/08.

 

--we were on this cruise too, never used the concierge (we were in a mini-suite too) and got every reservation we wanted (Cagney's, La Cuchina, Lotus Garden (for lunch), and Mambos's.

 

--we got the future cruise certificate and found the cruise consultant to be surprisingly honest: we wanted to book the Pearl for a back-to-back next November for our honeymoon and he confessed that he could not give us the best rate for that cruise as he didn't have access to the good rates.

 

more in a few day, but suffice it to say we had a great time on the Pearl. :D

[Cosmopolitan]

Of course there are always a few flys in the ointment, and we did have a few minor irritations. The few things that really bugged me on this cruise was the kid's club hours on port days and to a degree on sea days as well. Generally the kid's club's are open from 9am-12, 2pm-5pm, 7pm-10pm. But on this ship they shortened the afternoon session to 2-3pm, This is not a huge deal but it was annoying never the less, since our kids like to sleep in and then go to the kid's club in the afternoon. I never was able to find the time to go to the thermal suite because of the weird afternoon hours.

 

The thing that was a bigger deal is that it is obvious camp workers I had to deal with didn't want to be bothered with working on port days and made it as difficult as possible to engage their services as possible. First of all realize NCL is the only mainstream line I know of that charges an hourly rate for the kid's club on port days. They require that you sign up for the service the day before. The staff also makes it clear when you try to sign upfor the service, that you will basically be interupting their social plans. My opinion is that if they really want to call this freestyle cruising, they should have a dedicated staff on hand for port days and work around our schedule. After all we are paying an hourly rate for this service. I have never had any issues with the Kid's Club's on our previous cruises, but they really did not want to work.

 

We ONLY vacationed where our kids would enjoy it (mostly Disney) when they were young;)

 

WHY would you take a family vacation and expect others to care for your kids:confused: A vacation is time for the "familY" Children are part or your family!

 

A thermal suite when your kids are young:eek:

[mrleo33]

Cos,

"We ONLY vacationed where our kids would enjoy it (mostly Disney) when they were young;)

 

WHY would you take a family vacation and expect others to care for your kids:confused: A vacation is time for the "familY" Children are part or your family!

 

A thermal suite when your kids are young:eek:"

 

Not sure whether you are serious or what, but I home school my children, in addition to running our two businesses. Just an FYI I am 44 years old, We take 2-3 cruises a year, in addition to other "vacations" we partake in. Part of the reason we cruise is because the kids enjoy it so much. Part of that is being able to participate in the kid's club.

I could probably teach you a thing or two about family time.

I give it all to my family and do not deserve a lecture. So if I want to spend a couple of hours in the thermal suite, I should feel guilty?

 

Not happening!

[Skimo]

We ONLY vacationed where our kids would enjoy it (mostly Disney) when they were young;)

 

WHY would you take a family vacation and expect others to care for your kids:confused: A vacation is time for the "familY" Children are part or your family!

 

A thermal suite when your kids are young:eek:

 

 

I'm pretty shocked by your outburst! What business is if of yours to question another's methods of rearing their children?! God knows what you'd have to say about my parents who sent me and my brother to boarding school at the ages of 11! As they say in my part of the world, wind your neck in! :)

[sharonax3]

just curious...what is a thermal suite?

[fsupharm77]

What the heck!!! We usually take the kids as well and on every cruise we have taken the kids and the kids crews have been wonderful. I would be dissapointed too if it wasn't up to my expectations.

Cosmo, I find a cruise to be a wonderful family vacation. There is something for everyone to do seperately and things to enjoy together. Where else can I enjoy time with my family and then seperate from them and get a massage/have a drink/go to the casino? I can't wait to book my next ncl cruise and bring the kids along.

[CruisenGoddess]

We were on this cruise as well in the Orchid Suite (CV). Our experience was somewhat different. Our butler, Erlindo was very accomodating. The suite was wonderful and to my dismay the lighted vanity mirror was not working. This was important to me as I needed the extra help to see applying my makeup as I accidently left my mirror at the pre-cruise hotel. Erlindo immediately called for service - service never showed up. I even told the Hotel Director and he said he would get on it immediately - no one ever showed up, told Erlindo again that it wasn't fixed and so the whole cruise no one came to fix it. Would have been nice to have this feature working.

 

Al the conceirge was friendly but his follow-thru was lacking. He only did one out of three things he said he would do, actually he volunteered to do. They were not minor things, and it didn't spoil our cruise. VIP service was very nice but disembarkation wasn't very VIP. Granted they had us go to deck 7 and we had a separate area to wait in, but once the ship got cleared they opened both sides VIP & general area's (at the same time) and it became a mess with people racing to get through.

 

We really wanted to see the GV but never got a notice as to when and where to meet, so we didn't get to see it - drats!

 

We joined in the Murder Mystery dinner and that was a blast!

 

I agree about the cruise consultant - he never delivered our reward cert and we had to hunt him down to get it. Definately not customer oriented.

 

The Pearl is a beautiful ship and we enjoyed our trip and definately will go again.

[bluesea777]

Kids Clubs .... well, well, well, on our last cruise on Spirit our son was 12 1/2 years and the age ranges for older kid clubs were 10-12 and 13+. Our son went to the 10-12 once and disliked it - he felt too old. Our request for him to join the 13+ club was declined.

 

So in the end son tagged with us around the ship and really enjoyed playing Bingo with us. He had a few moments to himself playing in the arcade, on the baskbetball court and he met some friends that way. He always had meals with us.

 

Come next cruise we'll see if he'll have fun in the 13+ club.

[DaytonGirl]

We ONLY vacationed where our kids would enjoy it (mostly Disney) when they were young;)

 

WHY would you take a family vacation and expect others to care for your kids:confused: A vacation is time for the "familY" Children are part or your family!

 

A thermal suite when your kids are young:eek:

 

I wish I could say what I really think of this but I would probably be thrown off the boards.

[JoeCanadian]

Recent Pearl cruisers: Thanks for posting your reviews! Do you remember the names of your Cruise Director, assistant Cruise Director or Hotel Director?

[Kstofflet]

First of all, great review. I too sailed the Pearl. We had an Owner's Suite (10004) which was absolutely stunning. All of the crew was extremely friendly and accomodating. For dinner, we ate at Summer Palace (Once), La Cuchina (Once), Indigo (Once), Mambo's (once) and Teppenyaki (Once). For lunch we ate at Cagney's (twice), Blue Laggon (once), and then Margaritaville (Cozumel) and Hard Rock Cafe (Grand Cayman). For breakfast we ate at Cagney's (once), summer palace (twice), and the cattle call (once).

 

One of the perk's of the Owner's Suites is the ability to eat privately at Cagneys for Breakfast and Lunch. I noticed that the lunch menu was exactly the same as Summer Palace. The only time it was different was for breakfast. I have to agree with the review of the Blue Lagoon. The food was marginal at best. I also felt like the service in La Cuchina was VERY slow. So slow we almost left. It took 2 hours to complete the meal. All other restaurants (with the exception of Teppenyaki) took less than an hour. Teppenyaki was our favorite. The food was wonderful and the quality of the Filet Mignon was fantastic. I too wished the Kid's Krew was opened later in the afternoons. We had our 3 year old son with us who basically tagged along everywhere we went. He loved the pool area and also loved the big yellow slide. We were able to borrow DVD's out of the ships DVD collection so he was able to enjoy a different movie each night in the bedroom while we watched a new release in the livng room. We went up to the courtyard area on multiple occasions and it was beautiful, but a ghost town. We never saw another person up there.

[MrsLeo]

Thanks for the reinforcement folks! I sometimes why people think its OK to make assumptions and judgments about people they don't even know. Obviously the condescending remarks are not deserved nor are they welcome.

 

I still feel the crew was the best I have ever encountered. Regardless of the few annoyances. I cannot write off the whole experience dueto a few dimwits.

 

CruisenGoddess, I am so sorry that you had some disappointments. I really wanted to make it up to see your CV but alas we ran out of time.

 

I think part of the reason we have issues getting reservations is that we generally request reservations at peak times around 7-7:30. That time is most convenient for us.

 

JoeCA Our CD was Simon Murray, Hotel Director was Michael from Norway. I have his cardand will try to post his full name later. I think his assistant's name was Julien.

[r2mach1]

Thanks for the great review!

 

We are seriously considering both the Jewel and the Pearl in '09. A little disappointed about the Kids Crew :(

[fsupharm77]

I wish I could say what I really think of this but I would probably be thrown off the boards.

 

AMEN!!!

[MrsLeo]

r2mach, I think that in '09 there will be an entirely different crew in place by then and who knows, perhaps NCL will listen to their customers and make the kid's clubs more user friendly, like their competitors RCCL and Carnival.

That is one thing I have to admit about our October Carnival Cruise was that the Kid's Club was fantastic and offerred a broader array of services than I have seen to date on a cruise (free of charge, except for late night sitting). I would like to think this is an area where it would benefit NCL greatly to expand their services. They are really missing the boat. D/H and I would have played more bingo, played a little more in the casino, we would have used the thermal spa, we would have more time to shop in their onboard stores. Basically they are missing out on revenues that the other lines have cashed in on. The piddly amount of $5 per hour ($8 for two) they make babysiiting kids on port days pales in comparison to the amount of money the parents will spend on board if they are given a few hours of freedom when it is convenient for them. Allow us a little sponteneity and let us drop our kids off at a time when it is convenient for us.

 

Also, I am sure you've guessed by now that I am not one to suffer in silence. I did bring our issues with the kid's club to the attention of the hotel director's office and I was assured our problems were dealt with appropriately and they did send us some beautiful chocolate covered strawberries as a gesture of goodwill which we did appreciate. If you don't tell them there are problems, they cannot address the issues.

 

I also wonder if the kid's club's hours aren't expanded on a longer itinerary. We have a 14 day cruise booked on the Spirit in March and I will report back if things were better on that ship or not. We've cruise the Spirit before and I don't recall having any problems, but then again it was while back and I've slept since then.

[Cosmopolitan]

Cos,

"

 

Not sure whether you are serious or what, but I home school my children, in addition to running our two businesses. Just an FYI I am 44 years old, We take 2-3 cruises a year, in addition to other "vacations" we partake in. Part of the reason we cruise is because the kids enjoy it so much. Part of that is being able to participate in the kid's club.

I could probably teach you a thing or two about family time.

I give it all to my family and do not deserve a lecture. So if I want to spend a couple of hours in the thermal suite, I should feel guilty?

 

Not happening!

 

I doubt it....family time is "family time" on or off the ship;)

 

I would NEVER leave my children on a ship while I wandered off for a day. What if there was an emergency:confused:

 

It wasn't a lecture it was a point since it seemed to be your MAJOR complaint.