I had the opportunity to attend a conference aboard the Norwegian Pearl for her 5 day Western Caribbean sailing from Miami to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. The ships alternates a 5 night Sunday to Friday sailing with a 9 night Southern Caribbean sailing. This new ship had just arrived from a repositioning cruise from Alaska to Miami, and this was the first sailing for Pearl from Miami. They were assigned a former Carnival terminal, the most seaward of the berths at the Port of Miami. Perhaps because it was the first sailing, the embarkation lines were long, extending out the door and down the steps by 2pm.

The cabin, a category BA, 10058 midships starboard side, was ready and spotless. The balcony has two chairs and a small table, but no reclining chairs. The room has a stocked refrigerator, a coffee maker, flat screen TV, and the new beds with duvets. The bathroom was just as large as in the minisuites, with a toilet with a sliding door separating it from the washroom, and the shower, with its own sliding door. The room steward, whom I saw only three times the whole cruise, kept the cabin spotless.

With Freestyle dining, there are 10 dining venues, including two main restaurants, the Summer Palace and the smaller Indigo. I ate in the Summer Palace twice and once in Indigo. In addition, they have four specialty restaurants that require reservations, three of which have a service charge: Cagney's Steakhouse, Lotus Garden Asian Restaurant and Teppanyaki, and Le Bistro French restaurant. There is also an Italian Trattoria, where I ate one night, which has no service charge but does require reservations. The Lotus Garden and Teppanyaki seemed to be the ones fully booked every night. I did enjoy the Lotus Garden one night. It is wise to pick the ones you want to reserve as soon as you get aboard and book them that afternoon, or you may be eating very early or very late. They serve from 5:30pm till 10:30pm. The Garden Buffet is spacious, many food stations so you don't have to stand in long lines. There were three different eggs to order/omelet stations, for example. There is no charge for ice cream, and it wasn't just soft serve ice cream. Many people don't realize that there is also a food station at the rear of the buffet that is outside on the deck. Mango's served Mexican food and the Blue Lagoon was more of a short order fast, food place, with table seating. I tried both of those for snacks, including nachos in the Mexican restaurant. Read more