NCL Pearl, March 2: The Good, the Better, and the Best!

[lola4795]

I've been avoiding writing a review of our 5 Day Western Caribbean Pearl cruise because Coka's is SO amazingly good, but here goes....

 

This was our first cruise ever so I don't have anything to compare it to, but we have traveled extensively, so we knew what we wanted in a vacation.

 

I'll just highlight a few categories instead of day by day:

 

Embarkment: We got to the cruise terminal at about noon. I was disappointed to see a long queue line to get to the counters, but the lined moved VERY quickly. So quickly that we never got the chance to dig our documents out of our bags before we got to the counter. NCL REALLY moves the check in process along quickly! I'm guessing we waited in line 3-5 minutes at the most. One problem we had was that many of the NCL employees at the terminal speak English as a second language. We missed a lot of our instructions as to where to go simply because we didn't understand what they were saying. With that said: we're bright enough to figure out on our own where to go, so there were no problems!

 

The Pearl: A beautiful ship! Everything was clean and very well maintained. The decor definitely borders on sensory overload, but we loved it. It took us about 1/2 a day to become oriented as to which way to head and what level to take. I'm sure that's pretty common! We found the elevators to be conveniently located and there were enough of them that waiting for more than 1 minute was rare.

 

Stateroom: We had an Oceanview cabin on Deck 5. Our family of 4 (Husband, kids age 8 & 11, and myself) shared one cabin. We found it to be more than sufficient. We put the lower 3 beds into a U shape as recommended on the CC boards. The top berth folded down. We had PLENTY of room. The cabins are as gorgeous as the rest of the ship. The storage was plentiful. The closet is roomy. There were 6 drawers in the cabin, plus about 5 large cubbies for storage. The bathroom design is amazing. The sink area is in the center of 3 sections. There are shelves galore for storing things. One of the 3 sections is for the toilet, the other is for the shower. They are all divided by frosted plexiglass dividers with doors. Very nice!

 

Service: Our family has been to Disney World on a couple of different vacations. We have always said that no one provides guest service like Disney. Nothing has ever come close.... until this cruise. We were so impressed with the friendliness of the staff and their willingness to accommodate any request that we had. Every crew member that we came in contact with always had a smile and a friendly greeting.

 

Food: Overall we found the food & restaurant service to be really good. We traveled with family, so we were a party of 10. We never, ever had to wait for a table at any restaurant. We did have reservations for Mambo. I was very disappointed that La Cucina was always booked with a waiting list. We even tried to get tables for just 2 of us, but whenever we called, they were full for the next 24 hours.

 

We ate at the following restaurants:

Garden Cafe: We ate here quite a bit. We found the food to be very tasty. There was a lot of variety and enough repetition that we could repeat our favorites. For breakfast we always got our food, then went to the rear of the ship and ate in the Great Outdoors. For lunch we usually stayed inside the GC. Service was always wonderful. They were quick to clear our used plates and there were never any lines for the food. At busy times the line to the ice cream was pretty slow. The area is only set up for 2 people to scoop ice cream. With 20 people waiting in line it sometimes took a while.

 

Summer Palace: We ate here twice and both times found it to be our least favorite restaurant. The service here just wasn't as good as the rest of the ship. They were always able to quickly accommodate our large party, so that was very nice. But, we just felt that the servers weren't trained as well here. The food was slower in coming and communication was tougher. We felt that they didn't check on us quite as often as they should. The 2nd time we went there was the last evening of the cruise. Our group split for supper that night, so there were only 4 of us. We got there at about 6:30 or 7pm, but felt like we were intruding. The restaurant wasn't very full, but the staff was not attentive. They were all running around stacking plates and moving tables like they were preparing for breakfast the next day. It was really noisy with their clinking silverware and plates. I'm not sure if it had something to do with it being the last evening of the cruise, or what. All that said, the food was still really good at Summer Palace!

 

Indigo: We also ate here 2 nights. The service at this restaurant was the best on the ship! The staff was very attentive and did special things for the children. The atmosphere was very quiet and relaxing. The tables are configured for privacy so that you can easily talk to the people you are dining with but not be overheard by others in the restaurant. Again, the food here was really good.

 

Mambo: Delicious food! Wow! This was the only restaurant where EVERYTHING on the menu looked great. I honestly had a hard time deciding what to order because it all looked so good. The service here was attentive, but our waiter wasn't the most helpful. When I asked him for a recommendation on his favorite dish, he just shrugged and said they were all good. Between our party of 10, I think we ordered every main dish on the menu. Everyone raved about what they had ordered. Not a bad dish in the bunch!

 

Room Service: We ordered in a couple of different times. Service was always friendly and quick. We found out after the cruise that our 2 kids and their cousins (ages 8-15) ordered room service while they were alone in the room. Their order.... 4 cookies! We wondered what the staff thought of that! The kids said the staff was really great about it.

 

Entertainmentl: We saw 2nd City and the magician. The younger kids liked the magician. The adults thought he was ok. 2nd City was really good, but the show was not appropriate for children at all. There was one scene where they imitated a blow-up doll. I couldn't believe they would show something like this when it was obvious that children would be present.

 

Pool: With kids, we spent a lot of time at the pool. A lot! The pool area was really, really crowded. If we were there past 3:30 we had to deal with lots of obnoxious drunken Spring Breakers. We did always manage to find a couple of lounge chairs in the sun. We rotated using these while the rest of us sat in the shade. In the long run, this probably saved us from burning. We were only in the kids pool. The 2" shallow entry to the pool is really nice. You can cool off by just sitting in this water watching the kids play. After the entry, the rest of the pool was way too deep to do anything in. Everyone in the pool had to hang onto the edge. No one could really play in the center of the pool. The kids didn't really complain though. They are all good swimmers so they could swim around a little. The water was also nice and warm.

 

Port Days: We didn't do any NCL excursions, so I can't comment on those. We were always at port early. Walking off the ship in Cozumel was a breeze. Tendering at Grand Cayman was also a fairly painless process. My only complaint was that it took longer than we would have liked, but that's the way it goes with tendering!

 

Debarkation: We chose the method (I don't remember the name) where you keep your bags with you and carry them off the ship. We didn't feel like sorting through our bags to put them in the hall on Thursday night and keeping out extra clothing for the morning. This worked well for us. I can certainly see the advantage to doing it the other way too. When we got off the ship it looked like it would be really easy to find your bags. Walking off the ship was pretty easy. We did wait in line at the gangway for about 20 minutes, but that was it.

 

All in all this cruise was just amazing. We were so impressed with NCL. 95% of what we encountered was nearly perfect. The Pearl is just beautiful and the staff, service and atmosphere is a delight!

[doodlefan]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

 

We sail the Pearl on May 4th to Alaska so have been reading all the reviews to have an idea of what to expect.

 

I expect to have a good time no matter what :D But it helps to hear that other people loved the Pearl too.

 

This is our first on NCL.

[newmexicoNita]

thanks for the review and the story about the kids and room service.

 

I am sorry you had poor service at Endless Summer, on the Star it was our favorite place to eat. Every ship and every sailing can be different.

 

Again thanks for posting.

 

Nita

[lola4795]

thanks for the review and the story about the kids and room service.

 

I am sorry you had poor service at Endless Summer, on the Star it was our favorite place to eat. Every ship and every sailing can be different.

 

Again thanks for posting.

 

Nita

 

Our experience at Summer Palace certainly wasn't a big deal. It was just our least favorite place to eat. With so many great choices something has to come in last place! :p

[slotaddict]

Thanks for the review. The Pearl has become our favorite ship. You mentioned the Summer Palace, we went there once for dinner, I don;t remember anything negative about it, except that I didn;t like the Beef Wellington, so the service must have been okay. However breakfast was another story, the service was terrible that day, but we had no where to be so it did not matter.

 

I too found the food in the GC good to very good, with alot of choices. Your review makes me want to jump back on her, we have not yet been to Alaska, so it will probably be the ship we choose.

[daisydu]

Lola,

Thanks for this review. We (husband & myself) were on the same sailing and loved the ship and everything else about this trip. We also like Indigo a bit more than Summer Palace because of its smaller size - however we found service good at both. Glad your family had a good vacation!:)

[coka]

Hey "Lola!" I was you for about 120 minutes on the cruise...lol. I enjoyed your review as it is fun to read other opinions. Keep in mind not everyone enjoys long-winded diary reviews. Your review was succint and helpful to others who need to-the-point important info!

Coka

[lola4795]

Hey "Lola!" I was you for about 120 minutes on the cruise...lol. I enjoyed your review as it is fun to read other opinions. Keep in mind not everyone enjoys long-winded diary reviews. Your review was succint and helpful to others who need to-the-point important info!

Coka

 

Aww Shucks, Thanks! :D

[snorklinbarb]

Hi Lola,

 

Thanks for putting up your review. I've enjoyed reading all the different perspectives from the various reviews posted. You had kids so that offered a whole new dimension to what was said before.

 

The new friends we meet just make the cruise that much better.

 

Glad to hear the crew on the Pearl is as fabulous as I remember from my 3x on her. Especially during spring break, when they're stretched to the gills, keeping a smile on and a nice greeting to the passengers is a real test. Nice to hear the Pearl crew passed that one with flying colors.:D