Since this cruise only goes once a year (then reverses in the fall) I won't go into too much detail about the Ports of Call.Embarkation:  It was quite easy, we probably showed up at the busiest time 12:30 but were on the ship within the hour, pretty well undamaged.  We'd read some threads about luggage being diverted to the wrong ships, or not getting on board so we made special tags that let anyone and everyone know we were on the Pearl....they weren't needed....it was pretty obvious where to stop to load your luggage for each ship.  We had no questions.On board we weren't allowed into our rooms even to drop luggage, which was kindof a hassle, then it was too late to eat in the Summer Garden so the buffet was the only option.I must say that the Garden Cafe (buffet) was the biggest disappointment.  There were never seats or tables available, and the food wasn't very good; and I don't think there was much variety in the stations compared to other NCL ships in the past.  Now if that's the biggest complaint you can get the idea the rest of the cruise was AWESOME.  Meet and Greet was great I think we had over 35 people show up and it was fun to see them throughout the cruise....hey there Kewl Guy......the crew and staff were very available and so pleasant to be around.  Our rooms stewards Levy and Garfield did an awesome job...Jennifer in Cagney's restaurant was the best waitress we've ever had......and then there's Clarence the Chocolate Cowboy.....really everyone we met we so pleasant and enjoyable.We ate at specialty restaurants all except 2 nights, the murder mystery dinner (which was fun) and the turf and more turf night.....I believe it is worth the extra money to eat in the specialty restaurants...and there were plenty of 2 for 1 dinner nights in certain restaurants, but you had to look really hard to find them in the daily's.  The Blue Lagoon became our meeting point for port days, they do a nice breakfast there and not the mad rush at the buffet.....Spa pass - yes it is worth it - I wished I'd used it more but it was definitely a nice diversion from other public places.We enjoyed all of the Martini, Mojito, Whisky, Wine tasting........Entertainment was very good, I didn't enjoy the 1st night, but forgot already what it was, everything else was enjoyable and enough different to keep us happy for 2 weeks.The Canal.....wow...you must experience it to know how awesome that day is....we have pictures on http://www.photobucket.com/  login pearlpanama2009 ....the woman that boarded the ship with the pilots early in the morning was so knowledgable and enjoyable to listen to....we had a place on the front and back of the ship as well as side balcony's both port and starboard to watch from....not to mention the spa, restaurants, etc that were available all day.The ports aren't that great, I don't think they are visited too often during the year.  Cartegena, you can't go wrong with Lee Miles, Claudia was very knowledgable and a good guide...it was hot....There are much prettier areas of Costa Rica but too far to get too, though.....Guatemala was great, and we loved our trip with GUS, boy does he love his country....Hautoco, Mexico was very undeveloped and we didn't get to go on our resort day (I'm sure we'd have liked it much better).  We were not able to go to Acapulco or Cabo San Lucas (Swine Flu scare), and I think these 2 ports would have probably been the best.  We did however port in San Diego and that is a very nice city with lots to do....Disembarkation was pretty easy, there were no real problems and we had a great cruise, would highly recommend NCL to anyone and the Panama Canal should be on everyones 'bucket' list.One thing we have found with NCL, is that rules don't always apply....like the room service menu for breakfast is very limited...but we found if we just wrote in that we wanted eggs, etc they were delivered....Enjoy you cruise