Norwegian Pearl Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,402 reviews

2 Night Weekend Cruise - Vancouver to Seattle

Review for Nowhere Cruise on Norwegian Pearl
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Lollipop's Mom
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: May 2009
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony
Traveled with children

We cruised for 2 nights from Vancouver - Seattle this past weekend.Overall it was a fun time, but I didn't fall in love with NCL. I have previously been on a 4 night Carnival Cruise (not a great cruise for a mom/daughter and didn't know at the time) and a 7 day Disney Cruise (best vacation of our lives!).I wanted to post a review of a weekend cruise, as I found it difficult to find info before we left on ours.It was myself and my daughter (13).The crowd seemed to be really mixed for ages. I would say the bulk was the 35-55 crowd. Lots of teens and a few kids, but not tons of kids that I noticed. Many groups of 6-8 women having a 'girls only' cruise as well.RoomWe were in balcony room 9610. I loved the balcony. The balcony chairs were comfy. I didn't like the layout of the room as much as I liked the layout on the Disney ship this past January.We had to juggle ourselves around everything. We had a queen bed (very comfortable), sofa (that pulls out), table with coffee maker and a nice hair dryer. Small flat screen tv. Decent amount of storage and also a safe. I found the bathroom hard to move in. It was really small. (even my size 4 daughter found it tight). Good water pressure in the shower.Public AreasNCL Pearl has some VERY cool public spaces. They have great funky furniture in their lounges. They have double bed type loungers (plush like laying on a mattress) by the pool. Their lounge chairs on the decks were very comfy. Many cushy ones to be found. The Bliss night club (but open to families during the day) had bowling lanes (hard to bowl at sea, but still fun - $5 a game per person - you can ask them to put the bumpers up if you want), slot machines and then all kinds of 'rooms' that felt private. Each room had amazing lounge chairs and even beds with tvs over top, so if you wanted, you could just lay down and watch the game above you. All of the furniture in the main lounges,etc.. was just so comfy and different. The spinnaker lounge (where they hold bingo, comedy shows,etc...) was set up beautifully and we spent quite a bit of time attending events there.The casino was fun. It was quite smokey one time, but other times not too bad.I did notice the 'cinema' is no longer a cinema, but a big room for the little kids with a big screen tv.FoodNCL outdid Disney with food. Much better.NCL's buffet is 4 times the size of Disney's and is running constantly with only a 2 hour break between 3-5pm. The sections I can recall were salads, bakery, pizza,carving station (usually 3 types of meat at any given time), asian (usually had sushi out), pasta (pick your pasta from 6 different types and pick your sauce and it was made on the spot for you), fruits, veggies, grill (hot dogs/hamburgers), soups, appetizers, cheeses, desserts , soft ice cream and also a hard ice cream/sundae station (hard ice cream had a server and you could get a cone or cup, with toppings like sprinkles, cookies, fruit, hot fudge sauce, etc....), and a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN that runs every night!As for restaurants they have 2 main dining rooms, one where you can go in jeans (no shorts) if you wish and one that is more dressed up. Both run the same menu each evening I believe. We didn't eat in them, as we were having a very relaxed weekend and didn't feel like doing the dining room thing. People said the food was great.There is also one restaurant we loved called Blue Lagoon. It was very informal and was all comfort food. Potato skins, mozz sticks, nachos, wings, hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken fingers, etc...etc... and the best dessert ever - hot fudge brownie sundae! This was the best one of those I have ever had! They also had several cover charge restaurants which we didn't bother with, but I hear were good.Breakfast we had at the buffet each morning. Decent breakfast with lots of options - hint - if the seating is too crowded, go over into the Italian restaurant - they let you sit in there.There were also 2 outdoor grill type areas.At times the buffet felt like a zoo - no where to sit, people shoving to get food, but once we found the other sitting area we were all set.One thing that was a little maddening was they cancelled room service for the 2 day cruise! I was looking for the menu and it was no where to be found. I called room service and they told me there was NO room service on the 2 day cruise. On the daily sheet it listed "room service - always open". I had to go the the main desk because my daughter's room key card didn't work, and asked about it. The girl said "Yes we have room service" and then made a call - turns out they removed the menus HOPING people wouldn't think to order it, but if we really wanted it, we could call for it. She said we could order easy and basic items.We did order some food and it took them 50 mins to deliver it and it was cold. Nice. I felt like it was a hint to not bother them. The guy came in, dumped the food on our bed and left. Didn't smile, didn't say anything. I had a tip ready for him in my hand, but he left too fast  - his loss.BeveragesI was nickled and dimed to death on beverages from NCL.The ONLY thing they offer is coffee, tea, hot chocolate, unsweetened iced tea, water and milk.They do have apple and orange juice in the mornings.I spent $18 on pop over 2 days - 8 cans of pop! I can't believe they didn't even have a 2nd option like a fruit punch, lemonade or orange tang type drink available.I was really angry that they would not sell the teen soda card on a 2 night cruise to me for my daughter. It should be available on all cruises.ShipWhile the Pearl was a gorgeous ship. Beautiful decor, but it was laid out really weird in some areas. We would get off the elevator on deck 13 and realize we couldn't go where we wanted. We would have to walk down to deck 12, over to another area of the ship, and back up to 13 to go to where we wanted. A restaurant would 'be in the way' or something. Odd layout. I was on for 2 full days and still felt lost at times.I love on DCL that I can walk from one end of the ship to the other on the same deck and not feel lost.On NCL I was constantly saying 'wait....where am I? which direction am I walking in?'. For some reason on DCL, I never felt lost or wondered which direction I was going.Also the atrium on NCL was very un-impressive. Only 2 decks high.The theater was HUGE and big enough to hold nearly all of guests at the same time. There were balconies and it was hard to see the stage from so far away.EntertainmentThe shows were so bad we got up and left part way through the first one.We had sailed a 4 night carnival paradise cruise and the entertainment was so bad - and I mean BAD. I had spoken to someone who works in the cruise industry and they said the bigger and newer and better the ship, the better the shows. She said that once we got on a big new ship, it would be amazing.So here we were on one of NCL's newest and biggest ships. It was terrible! We noticed many people getting up and leaving - we were not the only ones to feel this way obviously. So we followed.The 2nd night we went to the show again, because they were going on about this show being one of the best one at sea for NCL.It was not that great in my opinion. I think we have been spoiled by Disney's shows and nothing can compare now.We did catch the second city improv show (love improv) and it was great. They had a comedian. We went and got seats and 2 mins before the show they announced it was now an 18 & over show, so we left. I wish they had put this in the program so we didn't waste our time getting seats/drinks and waiting. The programming on this sailing was lacking. A couple of trivia type games (we attended and enjoyed) and bingo.I did get the impression that this was a short cruise and NCL wanted people to gamble & drink, and that is why they didn't do alot of programing. I would think/hope on a longer cruise there is more going on, so its hard to judge from this.They have a huge screen in the atrium that you can play wii on. Looked like fun, we didn't bother with it though. They were showing Slum Dog on it, but not until 3am!!! Also, the movie they showed in the big theater during the day was an odd choice - Madagascar 2 - and there were not tons of kids on board. Again, this was probably to keep people away from free activities and have them gamble and drink and spend money.They showed some good movies in the cabin, and we watched Bride Wars last night before going to sleep.Teen ClubWell let me put it this way......We walk in the first time, and there is NO ONE around. There is a family in there with 2 kids who were about 4-6 yrs playing around.We left.She went back 2 hours later. Same thing.Another hour later. Same thing.This continued. No one was around. The room consisted of 3 or 4 computers, some lounging chairs, a fooseball table, air hockey table and 3 bean bag chairs that had all their beans squished and were not able to be used. There was also a cool looking smoothie bar that was closed for the duration of the cruise from what we could tell.She gave up trying to go there on Friday.After breakfast on Saturday I went to the teen club with her. There was a counselor sitting at the smoothie bar, head down on her arms, having a nap. I had to wake her up. No, I am not joking.Me: "Hi, do you have any programming today?"Her: "Yes we do"Me: "What kind of programming?"Her: "A few things."Me: "Do you have a list?"Her: "oh yah...sure hang on"Pulls a paper out of her backpack and its printed on the proper 'teen club' cruise handout. I asked why we couldn't find this yesterday and she said "I don't know". So we look at it and my daughter finds a few things she wants to do.She goes back at 1pm for the first thing.No one has shown up. They didn't hand out the teen club programming to anyone, so all the teens had come and gone - checked it out, figured nothing was happening, and left.My daughter started to spread the word whenever she saw teens "There is a photo scavenger hunt at 3pm (or whenever it was, I can't remember)". There were tons of teens on this cruise.So my daughter shows up and there are about 10 teens with their cameras, wanting to do the hunt. The counselor was on the computer playing a game and cancelled the photo hunt. She didn't feel like doing it.That was it for the teen club now. She didn't bother to go back.I am hoping on a 7 day cruise it is much different. I think she got lazy because it was a 2 day (???).Service/StaffI was impressed with NCL staff. Friendly, smiling and helpful. They earned their tips!The only thing that was different from Disney is that on Disney they walk around the buffet with juice/coffee and refill for you so you don't have to get up to get another coffee. NCL does not do this (not a big deal).SpaI took a quick spa tour and it was beautiful. I didn't opt to buy the $20/day pass (or $30 for the 2 days) because my daughter had to be 16 to go in, and this was our mom/daughter cruise. I would have felt too guilty going off to enjoy this (she desperately wanted to use it!) and leaving her behind with nothing to do.On the last evening, at about 8:30pm I noticed it was empty when we walked by. Just for quicks I went to the desk and asked if they would allow my daughter and I in to use it for the last hour of the evening (it was open until 10pm and we would have to run back to our room to get changed, and I figured we would get an hour in there), and said she wasn't 16, but since it was empty, could I take her in. The answer was YES....but still a $20 fee EACH for an HOUR. I asked if she could cut me a deal and do 2 for 1 (I was willing to spend $20 for an hour of fun) and she said no, $40. Oh well it was worth a try - we opted just to go hot tubing on the main deck instead.Embark/DebarkWarning!!!!! If you are cruising from Vancouver on a repo cruise and there are 4 ships in Port - GO EARLY!!!! They couldn't handle the 11,000 passengers going through the terminal and our ship was late leaving. As of 3:30 pm there were still 900 ppl not on board! This was not the fault of NCL at all. I was so glad we got there at 10:45am. We stood in the front half of the line until noon when they opened customs, and we were on the ship by 12:45pm. Some people who arrived at 11:30am and later were not on the ship until nearly 3-4pm!!!Debark was easy. It took us about 20 mins from leaving the gangway to customs.Shuttle back to VancouverWe opted for the quickshuttle from Seattle to Vancouver. Turned out to be a good choice. It was scheduled to leave at 10:30am, so we didn't have to rush off the boat. The NCL transfer bus was leaving at about 9am, so those people had to rush off the boat in the morning.

The quick shuttle picked everyone up right outside the terminal. It was a bit of a crowded nightmare, but once we got on the bus, it ran direct to the border with no stops. We left at 10:10am and arrived at the first stop (Campbell River Store) at about 12:45pm. It would have been sooner, but there was a bad accident on the hiway and the road was closed for about 15 mins.We did not have to get off the bus at customs. They just had someone come on and check our passports. Very easy and great!OverallWould I cruise NCL again?Yes I would, if the price was right and the itinerary was right (port intensive trip). I would pack a suitcase with pop/water/juice to bring on.I couldn't do a 7 day on this ship without taking a good look at some recent dailies to make sure they do indeed add more activities that don't cost money. Also I would want to talk to parents of teens and see if the lack of stuff going on was because it was only a 2 day cruise.They offered a deal on board where I could put a $250 deposit down on another cruise (you don't choose the cruise at that time - you basically are buying a deposit to use when you get home). If you buy it, you get an immediate $100 OBC for the cruise you are on. I liked this idea. Also the deposit is fully transferable to another person. It is only refundable in the first 30 days. So I have 30 days to decide if I don't want it, and they will refund my money. It is good for 4 years.I did buy one, because my mom and dad plan to book an alaska cruise with NCL very soon, and my mom can buy this from me, and we got some OBC (I texted her while at sea and asked her if she wanted to go for it, and she said sure).We had a REALLY FUN time this weekend, but I felt there were many times I went "well what should we do?" and there was nothing much to do (it was too chilly to go relax by the pool for us) together as a mom/daughter. Maybe I would feel differently on a 7 day cruise?? I would do another short cruise for sure. We had fun even though I did point out a couple of negative things, but they were not negative enough to make me not want to do another one. We would just go in from the start knowing the beverage/room service/lack of teen club situation! I do feel that if NCL is going to cancel some services (room service, soda cards,etc..) that this should be on the BOOKING PAGE when you book so people are aware this will not be a full service cruise.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

Cabin BA

Great location towards aft of ship. Very quiet. Directly above the Blue Lagoon restaurant, but no noise ever heard. Easy access to buffet, but long walk to the front area of the ship (person with mobility problems could have a problem). Beds were comfy, room was clean and in good condition.

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