I take one trip a year so I was looking forward to my first ever cruise after hearing friends saying cruising is fun. In my opinion, it was anything but fun with the exception of one night where we danced and tried to make the best of it. first off, we got to Miami and spent the day there prior to getting on the Pearl. I booked this trip because I wanted to see Honduras and Belize. As soon as we got on the boat, we were advised that we would not be going to Honduras as one of the Norwegian staff was murdered 4 days ago. I was disappointed but understood, however, they decided to bring us to Costa Maya, Mexico instead which I had no desire to visit. It was an okay port. took an excursion to a beach which had a lot of seaweed and not that nice. the Pearl should have offered it's guests something to make up for this but nothing... the second stop was Belize City, what a waste. took about 2 hours to get off the boat to take a tender boat because of rough waters so we basically lost 2 hours of our time waiting and waiting. you'd think they would find a way to keep guests entertained. finally we get to Belize City, Old Belize. nothing to see here but starving dogs on the streets, port wasn't nice. not sure why Norwegian chooses to stop here. unless you are doing an excursion, don't bother getting off the ship. you can't bargain in the shops either. everyone sells basically the same stuff and all at the same prices. the price on the tag is what you will pay. we took an excursion to a place called Cucumber Beach...this is not a beach folks, it's more of a park with a man made beach, pool like area. we left after an hour. third stop was Cozumel, the port was fun. we took a private excursion to Playa Del Carmen, which was a beautiful beach. spent three hours there. last stop was the Florida Keys, fun little place with lots of shops, if you feel like shopping on holiday.

Now about the Pearl, food and staff....

the Buffet: Nightmare every time we went to eat. we tried to go at different times but it was always the same story. too many people. took about 20 minutes to find a table everyday, every meal. Read more