My wife and I had a great time on the Norwegian Pearl. We had previously used NCL for our honeymoon, so we knew what to expect with Freestyle Cruising. It is the only way we will ever go. We more or less booked this last minute in early August.

I will start with embarkation. Because we had sailed with NCL before we able to move to a short line and we checked in, in a matter of minutes. We then went to have lunch at the Garden Cafe. Our room was ready in short order. We had a nice picture window ocean view room. The room was immaculate and more than met our needs.

Meals on the ship were more than adequate. We ate at the Summer Palace the first night and our steaks were cooked perfectly. We also ate three times in the Indigo Room and the meals were all enjoyable. We never had to wait for a table. We ate at two specialty restaurants. Mambos (Tex-Mex) and La Cucina. The meal at Mambo's was the best of the trip, our waiter was fantastic. We told him he looked like Yul Brynner and he said he heard that alot. La Cucina was the only disappointing meal in that the service was a bit slow. My only complaint about the food was finding a table for the breakfast buffet. It was like circling a parking lot looking for a space. The lunch buffet had a great variety of dishes including Indian food which I crave. We were impressed with the emphasis on cleanliness throughout the trip. Read more