We went on the Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl, March 15 - 22, 2009. This was our second cruise; the first was with Holland America aboard the MS Westerdam. We had a great time but were a bit disappointed comparatively speaking. We found the food on NCL to be way under the level of HAL. NCL really promotes Freestyle Cruising and all of its benefits. We felt that the main beneficiary of freestyle was the cruise line. The food choices in the included or free venues on the ship are somewhat limited. Our ship had the Summer Palace, which is what most ships would consider their main dining room. Indigo, which serves exactly the same menu in a different location, The Garden Cafe, which is the standard buffet with all the choices that most ships have and finally Blue Lagoon, which serves 24 hours and has a semi limited "comfort food" menu. What we found was that if we didn't like what was on the menu for dinner in the two main restaurants and we didn't feel like doing the buffet thing we were very limited without going "freestyle". To get access to the better selection and service of the freestyle restaurants you must pay an additional charge ranging from $10 to $30 per person, plus the bill at the end of the night comes with a spot for a gratuity. We ate at Cagney's one night, which is their steak house. Another cruise critic member had raved about the filet being better that Ruth Kris. We did not find it to be anything special at all. The meal was nicely presented and the service was the best we had on the ship the entire week, but when all was said and done this meal cost an additional $50. NCL promotes your ability to when you want, where you want. We found that wait times were long if you didn't make a reservation so we got in the habit of making dinner reservations to avoid that. The many other features that NCL promotes as part of Freestyle cruising are really no different than many other cruise lines that offer multiple options for events activities and entertainment.

We booked and ocean view stateroom which was nice. The bed was very comfortable and the amenities were adequate. We did not like the scent of the soaps and shampoo that they provided and were glad that we brought our own. The first day when we arrived in our stateroom, the beds had not been put together. I looked for the cabin steward in the hall but he was not around. I called housekeeping and asked to have them put together. Later that afternoon when we returned our steward caught us in the hallway and gave us a chewing out about calling housekeeping. He said that he was going to get in trouble because of it. I explained that I did not know how to find him and that my intent was not to get him in trouble. I felt it was very rude the way he handled the situation. When we entered the cabin the beds had been pushed together. From the amount of dust and dirt on the carpet where they had been sitting, I would guess that these beds had not been pushed together in quite some time. I was surprised that they did not take the time to quickly vacuum! I again checked out in the hall and he was nowhere to be seen, so I called again. That evening while we were out they came in and shampooed our carpet in the entire cabin, which I am sure they thought would earn them high marks for going above and beyond but, NO. We had to deal with slightly damp carpet under foot for two days. The service from our steward was just really lacking. He would take towels and not replace them sometimes. One day we arrived late from a day ashore and had to change a leave quickly to make it to our dinner reservation. We left a plastic shopping bag on the floor with our beach towels (the ones provided) in it. When we returned from dinner, he had been in to service our room and had taken the towels out of the bag and replaced them. The problem was that my wife had left her swim suit inside her towel. We had to have him search through all the beach towels in his cart to find her suit. I we hadn't come back her suit would have been gone. We did not tip our steward at the end of the cruise.

The overall friendliness of the crew was really not there as far as we were concerned. We felt like most of the crew (not all) were just there doing a job that they really did not enjoy very much. Read more