This is a hard one to review because of various circumstances. Let me start by saying, we have sailed on one other NCL cruise prior to this one. The previous ship we sailed on was the Epic. That ship was beautiful and up to date. My only complaint on that ship was the stateroom bathroom. That was the only positive on this ship, there was actually a designated bathroom. By designated bathroom I mean an actual room that has a shower, toilet and sink. The Epic does not have this, on one side there is a toilet and then shower is on the other side of the entry way, with a sink next to the closet.

The staterooms: Anyway, back to the Pearl, the staterooms were ok, nothing to write home about. We had a balcony and it was a standard balcony room. Also, the TV was not interactive. You couldn't make dinner reservations, check your onboard account or book shore excursions from it, as you could on the Epic.

The food: The cruise prior to us had an gastrointestinal outbreak, which we were informed of prior to boarding. So every restaurant entrance had an employee with antibacterial spray. The down side to this was that the buffet was not self serve. You had to be served by a staff member. I felt as though there was not enough staff to serve the customers. There was 1 staff member (if that) at each station. So by the time you got served and sat down, the food was cold. The food in the buffet was underwhelming at best. Very little variety and not the greatest tasting. The specialty restaurants were great for the most part. We ate at all the restaurants (we had the dining package free when we booked). The exception to this was Moderno. HORRIBLE!! We were brought raw (and I mean raw) meat twice, which happened to be their special. The service was slow and the rest of the meal was not as good as it was on the Epic. The only thing we enjoyed were the fried bananas. Read more