Live from the Pearl

[reporterjen]

We're back from the cruise. Let me tell you, it's rough going from 80 degrees to 22 in 24 hours!

 

And, of course, when I woke up this morning, it was a bummer not to have an in-room Lavazza espresso machine at the ready or chocolate-filled croissants within walking distance.

 

I guess that means we'll have to book our next cruise pronto (and take advantage of the the NCL rewards we lined up)!

 

I'll do a full, organized review and offer tips on sailing in a suite and sailing on the Pearl later. In the meantime, I just wanted to answer the question about the hotel manager. During our cruise, it was Denis Prguda (and that's the correct spelling of the first name, according to a letter we received).

 

Also, fwiw, the one espresso/cappuccino/latte machine in the buffet was fully operational on the day of our disembarkation. It had worked our first day of sailing, too, but was under repair otherwise.

 

Jen.

[Jamrenjer]

THanks, Jen! So was it a 5 day cruise?? I thought the Pearl was 7 days only now?? So overall you had a great time, right? THanks for all the updates!:)

[Jamrenjer]

Sorry, Jen! Please disregard my brain-freeze moment! I realize now that it was a week cruise! Not sure where my mind went! It has been a long Monday! All the best!

[YearlyCruiser]

I have been reading about the missing laundry rooms and was just curious if they had a special as they do on Carnival for a set price to do a bag of laundry.

Our cruise planner set me a list of prices per garment and 3.50 to wash a shirt is a tad high..

I guess I will be washing my clothes in the pools...:)

 

Thanks!

[reporterjen]

It was seven days, thank goodness. Frankly, as I sit here shivering, I'm thinking I could have handled several more days aboard the Pearl.

 

All in all, we had a great time. The itinerary was interesting, the people we met aboard and in port were friendly and our room was spacious. My biggest issue this time around was the growing sense -- escalating every time we sail, in fact -- of being nickel and dimed.

 

Food in the main restaurants also seemed to be a far lesser quality than I remember from just a few years ago on the Sun, making the specialty restaurants more of an imperative. And, unless I missed it -- despite lots of searching of our Freestyle Dailies -- there never was a half price night or opportunity for any of the specialty restaurants, something we have taken advantage of on our previous NCL cruises.

 

But those are minor quibbles. I'm still a big fan of NCL, and I still think cruising makes for a great, hassle-free vacation. I hope to get aboard another NCL ship soon. And, I'd love to revisit some of the ports from this trip.

 

I will elaborate in a review eventually. Still have to finish unpacking! :)

[reporterjen]

YearlyCruiser: Toward the end of our cruise, the ship promoted a laundry special, through which you could get a bag full of clothes laundered for about $20. There were some caveats in the fine print, mainly an exception for certain/fine clothing. On those items, according to the material we got, the full laundry price would still apply.

[momofmeg]

It was seven days, thank goodness. Frankly, as I sit here shivering, I'm thinking I could have handled several more days aboard the Pearl.

 

All in all, we had a great time. The itinerary was interesting, the people we met aboard and in port were friendly and our room was spacious. My biggest issue this time around was the growing sense -- escalating every time we sail, in fact -- of being nickel and dimed.

 

Food in the main restaurants also seemed to be a far lesser quality than I remember from just a few years ago on the Sun, making the specialty restaurants more of an imperative. And, unless I missed it -- despite lots of searching of our Freestyle Dailies -- there never was a half price night or opportunity for any of the specialty restaurants, something we have taken advantage of on our previous NCL cruises.

 

But those are minor quibbles. I'm still a big fan of NCL, and I still think cruising makes for a great, hassle-free vacation. I hope to get aboard another NCL ship soon. And, I'd love to revisit some of the ports from this trip.

 

I will elaborate in a review eventually. Still have to finish unpacking! :)

 

Jen, the italian, mexician and leBistro we could do for half price as long as our reservation was before 6:30 pm. We did the half price/ early dinner 3 times and even for Cagneys we used our half price coupon our TA sent us for embarkation day. But the ad would only be in the paper for the next day, it never said any day-but just for THAT NEXT day. Even though we could have booked 48 hrs. in advance we never booked more than 24, as we were waiting to see if they would run a special again before we would book.

 

The special did not apply to the Japanese or Cagneys. My guess is that on your cruise the specialty restaurants were being booked more- and so there was no need to have the specials.Our cruise had lots of large extended families who wanted to eat together every night. I am sure that cut down on people booking the specialty restaurants.

 

Well, as I said we took advantage, as we like eating earlier anyway, we usually pick early seating when we cruise on other lines. We had already planned to eat at Mombos, le Bistro and Cagney's. Only the Italian we had not planned. But with the savings on dinner, my hubby would always buy a glass of wine or a drink, so we still spent as much as we had planned.

[reporterjen]

MomofMeg: I agree with your analysis completely! :) My hunch has been that the half price offers, when publicized, are driven by demand (or, more specifically, a lack thereof). For a variety of reasons, including at least two nights where the menus in the main restaurants appeared to be a turnoff to a good number of folks, the specialty restaurants were probably busier than we've experienced before on NCL ships.

 

We all noted that the main restaurants were especially vacant several nights, which of course fits with that idea of folks flocking to the specialty joints.

 

FWIW, we really enjoyed our dinner at Teppanyaki. When I was torn over a dish that had lobster, scallops and calamari, but lacked the shrimp offered in other entrees, the server suggested shrimp could be included, too. That was a wonderful offer, and it worked out well for everyone at the table who ordered the same dish. Some of the seafood was really overcooked/tough, but I think that's very much a function of cooking certain proteins over high grill heat. And it didn't kill my interest in the dish -- or the entertainment provided by our chef.

 

Incidentally, my parents, who have only cruised Holland America before -- most recently this spring -- said the buffet food on NCL was a big step up from what they experienced on the Zuiderdam. The quality of the offerings and the presentation of the items on the buffet was better, they said. But they were generally not impressed with the offerings in the main restaurants, where they felt like the presentation was less impressive and the menu selection smaller than they experienced on the HAL ship. They absolutely loved their night in Cagney's, however, and this is from a couple that has enjoyed steaks in some of your finer chains (Smith and Wollensky, Palm, Shula's).

 

We should have tried booking a restaurant before 6:30 or inquiring if that would mean half the specialty charge (at least for some of the restaurants) as it has in the past. We'll have to remember to try next time.

[momofmeg]

MomofMeg: I agree with your analysis completely! :) My hunch has been that the half price offers, when publicized, are driven by demand (or, more specifically, a lack thereof). For a variety of reasons, including at least two nights where the menus in the main restaurants appeared to be a turnoff to a good number of folks, the specialty restaurants were probably busier than we've experienced before on NCL ships.

 

We all noted that the main restaurants were especially vacant several nights, which of course fits with that idea of folks flocking to the specialty joints.

 

FWIW, we really enjoyed our dinner at Teppanyaki. When I was torn over a dish that had lobster, scallops and calamari, but lacked the shrimp offered in other entrees, the server suggested shrimp could be included, too. That was a wonderful offer, and it worked out well for everyone at the table who ordered the same dish. Some of the seafood was really overcooked/tough, but I think that's very much a function of cooking certain proteins over high grill heat. And it didn't kill my interest in the dish -- or the entertainment provided by our chef.

 

Incidentally, my parents, who have only cruised Holland America before -- most recently this spring -- said the buffet food on NCL was a big step up from what they experienced on the Zuiderdam. The quality of the offerings and the presentation of the items on the buffet was better, they said. But they were generally not impressed with the offerings in the main restaurants, where they felt like the presentation was less impressive and the menu selection smaller than they experienced on the HAL ship. They absolutely loved their night in Cagney's, however, and this is from a couple that has enjoyed steaks in some of your finer chains (Smith and Wollensky, Palm, Shula's).

 

We should have tried booking a restaurant before 6:30 or inquiring if that would mean half the specialty charge (at least for some of the restaurants) as it has in the past. We'll have to remember to try next time.

 

I thought the buffet on the Westerdam was great in April-my biggest gripe with the Pearl was it was burgers, asian, and Pizza/Italian, plus salads and desserts. I am a big veggie person, I want a choice of cooked veggies. Also many want roast beef and ham offered on buffets.