We went on the NCL Pearl - Eastern Caribbean from October 31 - November 7, 2010. I'll try to give a fairly detailed review as I enjoyed reading all reviews - especially the detailed ones - prior to our cruise. For those that just want a basic recap - we enjoyed the ship, the crew was great and we both put on a few extra pounds which indicates we also enjoyed the food. It wasn't an absolutely perfect cruise, but no vacation ever is and all the positives more than made up for any minor negatives.

About us - we are a couple in our mid-30s. Cruise vacations seem to be perfect for us. My husband loves the heat and the sun. I slather on SPF60 sunscreen and would turn into a tomato fairly quickly if I sat in the sun. I prefer cooler weather but a cruise is perfect as I can do my own thing on the ship while my husband lounges in the sun and we have the perfect balance of together time at shows, meals and activities. This was our second cruise. Our first - last year - was on the Carnival Dream leaving from the New York port. As we had sailed with Carnival before and enjoyed the cruise, they were initially the ones I had planned to book our second cruise with. However, checking the pricing for the time we wanted to go, NCL was a better deal. After further researching NCL, I felt it would be a perfect fit for us and what a vacation really should be to us. We are not interested in dressing up on our vacation but do enjoy dining in the main dining room each night. We've been together 7 years and dressed up about 4 times - once for our own wedding, once for someone else's wedding and twice last year on Carnival. In that sense, I knew NCL would be perfect for us - no requirement to dress up but the option is there for those that enjoy getting all decked out. As well, traditional cruise dining is not for us. When we booked with Carnival we were waitlisted for anytime dining and fortunately it was assigned to us. As much as we like interacting with other people, we enjoy alone time at dinner and being able to have dinner for just the two of us could possibly make or break a cruise for us. Again NCL seemed like the perfect cruise line for us - and on those two points, we were not at all disappointed. Freestyle is our style!

We arrived in Miami on the Friday prior to the cruise so had a couple days to relax and see Miami prior to the cruise. A taxi from the airport to our hotel cost $26.75 plus tip. The taxi driver wasn't the best first impression to us - as he pulled out of his spot at the airport he almost hit another vehicle (who had the right of way) and he began shaking his fist and swearing. He said he knew where the hotel was but made a wrong turn. He ended up at a location where he would have had to go back and around to get us on the same side as our hotel (and cost us extra fare) so my husband said we would walk a block to the hotel. Read more