Embarkation: My husband and I had an absolutely wonderful cruise on the Norwegian Pearl, 9 night, Southern Caribbean itinerary April 13-22. We were blessed with beautiful weather all week. We did a lot of research on CC ahead of time and thank all the CCer's for their excellent advice which really enhances the cruising experience. This was our 9th cruise.

We flew into Miami the morning of the cruise and took a cab for $24 to the pier arriving about noon and getting our first in person view of the magnificent Pearl. There was a small line at the Latitudes check-in and no wait at the regular check-in so we chose that. Within 5 minutes we were finished there and on to security and a short line to pick up our room cards before boarding the ship. Our cabin was ready so we headed to Deck 5 to view our oceanview stateroom, 5066. The cabin was very nice and slightly larger than the inside cabin we had on POH last year. There was plenty of storage with 6 large drawers, at least 7 shelves and a good size closet. I brought extra metal hangers from home to utilize all that space. The closet light is in the back of the closet. The bathroom is roomy and we love the glass shower door, the soap/shampoo dispenser and the temperature controlled faucet. The oceanview window is nice and large with a wide sill that you can actually perch in to look out. Just keep in mind that after one day at sea the window does have some salt spray coating that impairs the view slightly. The cabin had a phone, flat screen TV, safe, hairdryer, coffeepot, and refrigerator (stocked, but we didn't purchase any of those items). Bring your own alarm clock. We just love those fluffy comforters on the bed. We were quickly greeted by our room steward, Archibald who was just terrific all week long. We saw him numerous times every day and received some fun towel animals and chocolate from him at night. We were happy to be able to leave him an additional tip in our cabin at the end of the week. Don't forget to turn the dial outside your room for: make up room, do not disturb, or nightly turn down. Remember that the fish on the carpet swim towards the front of the ship. We were pleased to see the self-service laundry room was just a couple of rooms down from us, which offers free washers & dryers with detergent for purchase, along with 2 ironing boards which was convenient for me. Just ask your room steward where to find the nearest laundry room. We also had a variety of mail awaiting us: the Freestyle Daily, our pre-booked shore excursion tickets, an invite to the Latitudes Cocktail Party along with our Latitude pins. We left our carry-ons and headed up to the Garden Cafe for a buffet lunch. We really like the new action stations and found the food very fresh and tasty with a good variety all week. I took some time to use a highlighter marker on my Daily for the things that interest me and we were off to explore the ship. Having been on the POH last year, it seemed very familiar to us and it was fun to check out the differences. We're not gamblers, but we checked out the large, colorful casino. The Bliss nightclub is a fun sight to behold: it looks like a sultan's den with appropriately gaudy furniture. This is where the lanes of bowling are located, two on each side. Later in the week we did enjoy a game of bowling, $5pp including shoe rental but bring socks. The Library was impressive with the selection of new books available. The Crystal Atrium has an enormous screen which is used for various things including games of Wii, which is really fun to watch. There is also a gorgeous Chihuly glass sculpture and a neat model of the Pearl. The entire ship is still sparkling new, tastefully decorated and colorful. Some rooms more eclectic than others, but a nice balance. We also really enjoyed checking out all the stairway landing art murals. Some really good photo ops there, the kids will really like the animal art. By now our luggage was already in our room and it was time for the lifeboat drill and sailaway party out of beautiful Miami past Star Island. We enjoyed the Flex band music poolside, but did miss them not having any real steel drums for calypso music on a Caribbean Cruise. We had a terrific Cruise Critic Roll Call this sailing. We attended a pre-arranged Meet & Greet for our first Sea Day in LeBistro hosted by NCL in which we met the Cruise Director, Simon and several staff members who were very eager to please and passed out their cards. It was great fun to meet the other CCer's and share experiences throughout the week. I highly recommend joining in a roll call for your cruise. The Latitudes (past NCL guests) Cocktail Party was also the first sea day at 1:30pm where we enjoyed complimentary drinks, music, prize drawings and a visit from the Captain and some of his staff.

Restaurants: Overall, we thought the food and service was great. We made our next evening dinner reservations, usually for two at 7AM each morning at Mambos (this line got longer each day as the cruise progressed and I had to leave a post-it note each day to remind us to go stand in line). With reservations, we never had to wait more than 5 minutes to be seated and we ate anywhere from 6:15 to 7:30PM, with most meals lasting 60-75 minutes. This is our second cruise with Freestyle and we are hooked. We would have a difficult time now returning to traditional dining. We didn't eat at LeBistro or any of the Asian restaurants so I can't comment on those except to say they always seemed to be doing a good business as we passed by. Read more