I enjoyed the Pearl. She was clean, had a great crew, good entertainment, nice parties and a good itinerary.
You can see the dining room and specialty restaurant menus at the link below. You can also see snapshots of some of our favorite menu items. http://travel.webshots.com/album/575146656cMDGlS
Dining- the service in either the Summer Palace, Indigo or any of the other "free" dining venues was very good. This is taking into account that the MDRs are generally busier than the specialty restaurants. The MDRs had food ranging from good to excellent. My personal favorite in the MDRs was the rack of Lamb. My only dissapointment was a "Siamese salad" that was ordered during out first lunch on board at the Summer Palace - lacking on taste and protein - with very little meat on a bed of noodles. After that initial experience, I enjoyed things like the sirloin steak, churassco (skirt steak) and lobster on 2 nights. The meats were tender and flavorful, as was the seafood. The Summer Palace is nicely decorated and very pleasant. The Indigo was a little less formal but with the same food. I think we would have been happy if we had limited our visits to only the MDRs.
Balcony cabin 9544 was comfortable and adequate