Norwegian Pearl Cruise Review by VegasMark

We all flew in the day before the cruise and stayed at the Miami Airport Regency Hotel. This hotel is best described as a place that maybe used to be a really nice hotel, but it has slid a bit. It isn’t the Ritz, but it is not a bad place to spend a night. I would not recommend this hotel for a week’s stay in Miami, but for our purposes it was perfect. They offer free shuttle service every 30 mins to/from the Miami Airport. They also offer free shuttle service to the Port of Miami. These services alone saved us about $50. The room was only $90 for 4 adults, and included a decent breakfast ordered off a menu as well as one free drink per person and one free appetizer per room. You can walk to either the Catch of the Day or the Latin Café for dinner.

Embarkation was a breeze, but after enjoying our first meal on the ship, we ran into our first problem. None of the key cards for our room worked, so I had to go down to the desk and stand in line for 20 mins and then spend another 10 mins discussing the problem with the staff. Meanwhile, my Dad stood in the hallway with our bags. Before I left to go down, two room stewards passed by and refused to assist us with the situation. Their best solution was that our room steward would return in half an hour. The woman at the desk initially refused to give me a replacement card for my brother, who was wandering the ship and whose card I did not have. She stated that since he had his card assigned to a different charge card than I did, I could not take possession of his card. I had to convince her that I was his brother, we had the same last name, were staying in the same room, and that I would not go on a wild spending spree with his card. She finally gave me the card. When I got back to the room, I discovered the major problem that would mar our entire trip. We booked a room for 4 adults, but there were only 2 beds on the floor, one off the wall, and a 3rd rollaway bed under one of the floor beds. Anyone who has cruised knows there is no extra floor space in a standard cabin. I’ve never seen a 4 berth room without 2 beds off the ceiling/wall. NCL, in their endless efforts to nickel and dime people don’t have the 4th bed on the wall either to save construction costs or to force groups to buy 2 cabins. When we complained to staff about this, they stated that we had a 4 berth room and that the ship was full. They then said if we wanted to upgrade to a mini-suite we could, but it would cost $600. So they did have the room, and instead of giving it to us due to us having an inadequate room, they wanted to make a profit off of us. Please understand that the only way to deploy this 4th bed was to put it in between the 2 floor beds, meaning that there would be no floor space except for the entry hall by the bathroom. This creates a huge safety hazard for anyone that needs to go to the bathroom at night or who even needs to get into bed after turndown. In an industry where safety is paramount, I can’t believe this is even allowed. If you have booked a 4 person cabin on this ship, I suggest you ensure there are 2 beds on the ceiling, or you will run into this same problem. We went all the way up to the Asst. Hotel Director and Hotel Director at the Meet and Greet to no avail. This experience ruined our first day, and left a bad taste in our mouths the entire week. $600 may not sound like a lot to some people, but it was roughly 40% of what we paid initially, and the room didn’t do much for us since, as I said, we don’t spend much time there anyway. Also, our original room was midship while the new one was all the way forward. When you have older parents, this does make a difference. As far as the actual room goes, a mini-suite is like a balcony with a small area with a sofa – not much bigger than a standard balcony. The room was not as clean as we would have liked, and our steward didn’t do some pretty obvious things like refill the soap dispensers, and leave enough towels.

We found the dining experience to be good, but not great. We discovered a great waiter named Abraham in the Indigo dining room who was superb. The food was ok, but lacked some of the higher end stuff that you will find in the pay dining rooms. Some of that is understandable, but some is not. For example, the “baby” shrimp cocktail is a disgrace. They are the size of your pinkie fingernail, and not even presentable. Every other line will offer a normal sized shrimp cocktail for free, but not NCL. We did eat at Cagney’s one night to the tune of $120 for food only ($25 pp plus $10 more pp since my brother and Dad split a porterhouse). I did not find the meal to be worthy of such a cost and I thought the menu was pretty boring there compared to the main dining rooms that offer a wide range of items. I love the cold fruit soups! I thought the food was largely good, just that they are scrimping more than other lines and forcing you to pay for what is included on other lines.

The ship itself is in pretty good shape and has some cool rooms. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the ship was used as best as it could be. I am an active guy, and I was very disappointed about the activities on the ship. There were several events that I showed up to along with a couple other people, but no staff was there. The golf putting consisted of a staff member with a putter and a ring. He would get a passenger and tell him to place the ball in a couple of places 5-10 feet from the ring in one of the lounges and take a few putts, then call the next participant. There was no competition and no prizes. I could do this in my living room if I wanted. If you are going to make this an organized activity, at least make it a competition with some sort of prize. I hated the fact that the balls in the sports court were locked up each night at 5pm. One afternoon we were playing a 4 on 4 basketball game and had the ball taken from us by staff. Why can’t they leave the balls out? There were no rooms below, what is the harm? Shuffleboard was stated to have hours of 8am – 8pm, but I went twice at 6pm and found the equipment locked up. Again, why is this so? If I’m free to whatever, why can’t I play basketball at 5:30 pm or play shuffleboard at 7pm? It is absurd and unacceptable. Also, the rock climbing wall is not run as well as Royal Caribbean’s. RCL uses 2-3 people working the ropes and another 2 people signing people in and issuing equipment. I climbed several times on a recent RCL cruise and hardly waited. NCL uses 2 people total – one works the ropes while another goes between working ropes and signing people in resulting in huge lines. They also didn’t spray shoes or helmet after use, which is pretty gross considering the amount of use by sweaty people.

Service was pretty good overall except for the issue with the room. The workers on this ship generally do a very good job for not that much pay, and they do it with a smile on their faces.

The entertainment was also good overall. Sharkbait is fantastic, and you should not miss any of their shows or events. I thought David Naster was one of the best comedians I’ve ever seen in person. Don’t miss the Liar’s Club or the Quest game show. The art collection on this ship was pretty good as well, but I’m still skeptical of Park West (google them). The major dance productions were a disappointment. The dancers did a good job with the pieces, but the shows themselves lacked any excitement. Julie the cruise director was nice, but didn’t really bring anything extra. She lacked the sense of humor that most cruise directors have (even if they are mostly pretty corny). She was just kind of there doing her job but not anything more.

The ports were also only ok. St. Thomas is the only “mainstream” port on this cruise. My brother and I went to Magen’s Bay Beach which is a great beach. You will pay $8 each way per person in a shared taxi plus $4 to get on the beach. Taxi fares are government regulated in St. Thomas, so don’t expect any deals. I greatly enjoyed Great Stirrup Cay, the private island. They have two volleyball courts there that I must have been on for 3 hours. The beach is pretty nice and there are a lot of fish. In typical NCL fashion, they require you to wear a life vest to snorkel at a cost of $6 to rent, even if you bring your own snorkel equipment. Just NCL’s way to say if you think you can get away with not paying extra, good luck. I’ve gone snorkeling plenty of times and never been told a vest was mandatory, especially on a protected beach 50 feet from shore. Tortola didn’t offer much unless you go to the Bath’s on nearby Virgin Gorda (I found a ferry service that charged $30 rt/pp, although I’m sure NCL would charge a lot more). My brother went to the beach here and said it was nice, but I didn’t want to go two days in a row. I think he said it was $6 each way for a taxi and free to get on the beach. There was a guy offering to take people on a tour of the island for $10pp (this was several hours after docking, and not many people were getting off the ship at this time). My Dad offered $20 for 3 of us. Instead of negotiating, the guy told my Dad to stick the $20 where the sun don’t shine. I guess the guy didn’t understand that he was either going to make $20 or nothing that day. His prerogative, but I was surprised at the guy’s attitude after we simply made a counteroffer to his offer. Samana was a poverty stricken port that didn’t seem to offer much. During the meet and greet, the Asst. Hotel Director even said “if you don’t sign up for a shore excursion, you will wonder why we stopped here”. Just another way NCL is trying to pull money out of people. Instead of going to more ports that have things going on that people can access on their own, NCL tends to have more that offer less unless you buy from NCL. You will find the best prices on mostly crappy souvenirs and cheap jewelry in Samana.

Disembarkation is pretty easy, especially when you carry off your own bags. We waited until just about the very end to get off, and it took us about 25-30 mins from the time we got off the ship to get to the curb.

Overall I will revert to my opening paragraph and say that we enjoyed being on a cruise, but for my money, I will stay away from NCL for the next several years at least and look to the lines that have done better – Carnival, Princess, Royal, and others that appeal more to me. I understand that cruise lines are running a business, but NCL does more to get money out of you than the other lines. Even their tips are higher – why does NCL think they deserve to get $12/day when all the other major lines only ask for $10/day. This is $56 more for a family of four for a week, and is undeserved. To sum up my review with a thought, my brother and I were on deck the second night when a brief storm hit us. We joked that the captain could have gone around the storm, but NCL would have charged extra for that.