Norwegian Pearl Review
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Norwegian Pearl weighs in around 93,000 tons and holds around 2,300 passengers. That is on the small side compared to the mega ships coming out that range from 150,000 to 225,000 tons. We prefer the smaller ships, though we have not been on the larger ship to compare, mainly because we cannot imagine sailing with double the amount of people.
Our first impression of the Pearl was that even at 93,000 tons that it was too big. We got over it by the end of the week. Pearl is just the right size and with bars and restaurants spread across the ship, you never had to go far to find something to eat or drink.
Dining: We split our breakfasts between Great Outdoors (deck 12 aft) and Garden Café - lovingly dubbed "Denny's" by us (deck 12 aft starboard.) On the Sky and the Sun we had only eaten at Great Outdoors but between traveling with my in-laws and the weather being a bit rough we opted indoors a few days – when we could find seating. That is the thing that always keeps us away from Garden Café - it is crowded. All the time. Great Outdoors has a smaller buffet than what is offered at the Garden Café but there is still an omelet station and in addition to a basic selection of foods. Then again, it is easy enough to get your food inside and then walk out with it. The food was always good in both places. Garden Café is definitely the place to get desserts but you have to get there before 9:30pm. Great Outdoors has a good selection of late night munchie foods: wings, nachos, empanadas. And the cookies are hard to resist.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Mini-Suite with Balcony
We opted for a mini-suite this cruise. It is very similar to the balcony room in size but there a few notable differences. 1. The balcony is about 1 ½ feet deeper. May not sound like much but it is easier to walk around each other. 2. The bathroom. On our last cruise the comedian kidded about soaping up the walls and spinning in the shower because it was so small. With the tub shower combo there was much more room. And the toilet had a sliding door for “privacy”, though it was frosted glass. 3. Curtain between bed and living space. We loved this. We like to sleep in total darkness and this way we didn’t get light under the sliding door in the morning and we didn’t see the bright light the was on the thermostat. The "sofa" was very hard and I am glad we didn't have to sleep on it! Other notes on the bathroom: Water pressure was good. Shampoo and shower gel were in dispensers in the shower and liquid soap was by the sink. Our cabin steward Patrick was friendly and always accommodated the few requests we had. We loved the location. It was easy to get to the forward or midship stairs/elevators .