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The Pearl Lives Up To Its Name!!
My wife and I took the Pearl’s 14 day repositioning cruise (LA to Miami via the Panama Canal) that left Sept 26th. Most of my comments on food or service are based on more than my own experiences as I find one personal example may not be fair or representative of the entire cruise. Also, on a 14 day cruise with 2000 passengers and 1000+ crew, there will always be interactions that are less than perfect.
Embarkation - very easy for us but probably not typical. We got off the NCL Star in LA and headed several hundred feet away to board the NCL Pearl. We were in no hurry and it was a breeze. A helpful porter, a short walk and in no time we were ready to board the Pearl. I could hear my bucket of beer calling from the pier.
Layout - I’ve been on ships for two weeks before and not found every spot. The Pearl was no exception. On nice sea days, we were at the pool so didn’t do much exploring. That showed in the evening when we occasionally turned the wrong way looking for the casino, shops and theatre. The main dining rooms (Indigo and Summer Palace) were easy to find. The “show” area (Stardust) had lots of seating.
Rooms - fine for a two week long cruise; ample drawer and closet space. Our empty luggage stored under the bed.
Restaurants - we were traveling with another couple and ate most of our evening meals in the Indigo Room. We found the service very good when we had a “regular” server. We kept asking for Munmun’s section. When we ended up with a different team, things weren’t quite as good. The Blue Lagoon was not nearly as good the first week as other NCL Blue Lagoon’s. The service and food quality were poor but did improve after several people complained the first week. NOTE: one thing that impressed me about the Pearl was how well the senior managers dealt with complaints. You noticed the improvement - it was far more than “lip service”. And, they checked back to see if things were better!!
Shore Excursions - on all of the stops, we found private tours or taxis and did very well. In Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, we arranged (through the Cruise Critic’s roll call) a group private tour of Antigua, the old colonial city, through Eva of Turansa (www.turansa.com). It was GREAT!! $35pp and the smaller buses can get you to places the big buses cannot travel (same thing for the old part of Cartagena). One caution, in Puntarenas, 5 of us got a private tour in a van for $30pp (5 hours, English speaking guide). A group who came later to the same person/company got a quicker (2 hr) tour for $45 pp. So, be careful! Make sure your itinerary and price are firmly set before you start out. One special gem - in Acapulco, we took a taxi - roughly 30 minutes - to a beautiful beach (Pie de la Costa). Now the Pacific surf that morning made it dangerous to swim but we had the beach ALL to ourselves (several miles long) and got wet just standing near the shore.
The Three Stars - Okay, I’m Canadian and we’re used to awarding the “three stars” after hockey games so I’ve done that in some of my reviews. So here it goes:
The First Star - Hotel Director Denis Prguda and his management team. Denis made it clear at the Cruise Critics Meet + Greet that, if there were issues, tell him on the ship so he could try to fix it. And they did!! I know of no organization with a thousand employees where everyone is always perfect. But the way his team went about trying to improve or make right was noticeable and effective. Special thanks to Matthias (Assistant Hotel Director) and Jessica (Group Services Coordinator) for their extra efforts that demonstrated how good Denis’ TEAM was.
The Second Star - the group who looked after us in the Indigo Dining Room: Maitre’d’s Joseph and Malik, servers Munmun and Nouri!!! I like the concept of freestyle dining but miss the continuity of servers who “know” you, particularly on a longer cruise. We ran into this team at one of our first dinners. The customer service was so good that we asked for their section if there was an opening. It didn’t always happen but, when it did, the service was that much better. Malik stated to us that they were there to serve us and anything they could do to enhance our experience would be done. Well, they meant it. I’m sure they are not the only great team on the ship but they sure were great to us!
The Third Star - Captain Lars. This guy was informative, personable and much funnier than all the Second City (more on them later) combined. People stopped what they were doing when Captain Lars made his announcements. Sailing with him was a TREAT!!
Honourable Mention - Moises, the pool guy. His job included cleaning the pool deck and setting out the chairs (early, I might add). On the second last sea day, we were sailing through a Force 9 gale - too windy to put out the pool chairs in the open. Moises, respectfully and politely advised guests that the wind could carry a chair into another passenger. Despite the obvious hazard, a few guests tried to put chairs in unsafe areas and threatened to complain about Moises when he stopped them. He was cool “under fire”. Some of the passengers were not!
Shows - Here is where Cheryl and I part ways. Cheryl likes most of the shows that involve singing and dancing, regardless of how many times she’s seen it. I don’t. Given the number of repeat customers, I think NCL should offer “fresher” shows. For example, Kenny Byrd (ventriloquist) did virtually the SAME act we saw on another NCL ship over a year before. The juggling act kept dropping things. Also, we heard from other passengers that Second City was “bad”. Some left their “performance”. NCL really needs to improve in this area.
Disembarkation - well, its hard to comment other than our own experience which was good (ie. Quick). We were being picked up by a relative.
Tipping Practice - Here is where I have some issues. In a very few cases (ie. Blue Lagoon first week) the service was bad. In most cases (specifically going to Munmun’s section in the Indigo Room when we could) service was GREAT!! The “ automatic” service charge means someone else (who probably had a broader view than us) decides. However, we would rather see our $$ go to the great folks who made our experience better as opposed to a couple who didn’t try. I don’t know what the answer is. We paid the service fee and tipped extra this time.
OVERALL - Very Satisfied. We’ll be back!!!!
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