We just returned from our 1st cruise aboard NCL's Pearl. We had a trip to the Western Caribbean during the Dec x-mas holiday. Ship - we liked the ship layout - very easy to navigate, clean and we liked the design - good colors, nice art work and not over the top cheesy as we expected from some of the reviews...very pretty ship. One thing that did surprise me was lack of holiday decor since we spent Xmas on the ship..very limited decorating for the holidays- could have played this up more to be more fantastic and embrace the benefit but still ok.

Balcony Room - BA - Deck 10 - Mid Ship - decent size room, nice shower, enough room for 2 people to unpack and put away all clothes from 4 suitcases. Bed was terrible because it is 2 small beds put together to create 1 bed. Had to ask them to change the sheets on the 1st day so that was troubling but never had that problem after the 1st day. Nice size balcony and great to keep door open at night to hear the waves and watch sunrise in the am. Thrilled that we spent the extra $ to get a balcony- really worth it and would do it again.

Food - ok so we spent most of our discussions on food as frankly the free food (in my opinion) was terrible...except for the buffet - pretty good - the Indigo and Summer Palace menu's were bland and very limited. Summer Palace chicken dish actually tasted like chemicals - got us really sick...room is BEAUTIFUL but food was not edible in my opinion. Service ok. The rest you must pay an upcharge for- a little frustrating as we did have to pay for all meals beyond what we already paid for the cruise but after our Summer Palace experience I avoided those restaurants at all cost....make sure you make reservations every day for specialty restaurants as you will need them to get in... Read more