Sailed on Pearl December 7th. We flew to Miami on Saturday the 6th and took a taxi to our hotel room at the Intercontinental. Very nice upscale hotel. Got a great deal at Double Click dot com. Super nice room, and the friendliest most helpful people I have ever encountered. Guess you get what you pay for! We bought some wine to take on board at a store just around the corner. Walked to Bayside Market place for dinner and some shopping. It is a really nice place to spend the evening and was a great start to the trip. A lot of places to eat and shop with bands playing, people dancing, playgrounds for the kids, etc.

We got up Sunday morning, grabbed a bite at Starbucks and caught a taxi for the short ride to the cruise ship terminals at 11:00 am. What a mad house! Taxis, cars, buses, everywhere picking people up and dropping people off. But our driver dropped us in front of the Norwegian terminal, we handed our luggage to a porter, and were inside at 11:30. After a short processing time, we were on the ship at 12:15 and having lunch in Indigo at 12:45.

We toured the ship to get our bearings, went to our room at 2pm but no luggage yet. Ordered the Anniversary package and was expecting Sparkling wine and chocolate strawberries in the room but it wasn't there. The room had a great balcony. Very quiet location for the seven days. Conveniently located mid ship and a little more stable when the ship is rolling. A tremendous amount of storage. The bathroom was great and surprisingly roomy. The robes in the room are a nice touch although they removed them our last night on board. Must have thought we really liked them. We had dinner at Cagney's to take advantage of a 2 for 1 coupon. I had surf and turf (additional $10), DW had prime rib. Food was excellent but service was less than expected but I think it was just our waiter. The table beside us ordered surf and turf and they cut the lobster meat from the tail for her - I struggled with mine. Ordered Bananas Foster for desert and got no fire at the table. Found out later in Le Bistro that they don't do fire at table side anymore for safety reasons but the waiter at Cagney's never told me that. Read more