The Pearl Mist is an accident waiting to happen. The average age passenger is somewhere north of 75 and many of them use walkers, canes and wheelchairs. The current lifeboat procedure calls for passengers to "muster" in the dining room on the first deck then proceed to the fourth deck to actually board their lifeboats. If you make the general assumption that a real "abandon ship" drill would include, listing, smoke or loss of electricity, I would guess that 80% of the passengers would not make it to the lifeboats. Most shockingly, the Captain of the Pearl Mist admitted that the current lifeboat procedure did not take into account the advanced age of most passengers and that he had notified the corporate office TWICE and they refused to make any changes.

That's the tip of the iceberg...The food is simply average in both quality and presentation and does not resemble the photographs in the brochure which I am sure were prepared somewhere beside the Pearl Mist. Most items came directly from a can or freezer, the butter is served in portion packs and the napkins are paper. The dining room decor is early 1950's and apparently the same as other ACL ships.

If this cruise did not cost the same as Oceania, I could accept lesser quality, but not for the same price! Read more