First, some background information. I received a "great last-minute deal" offer from an online TA in late November for a 5-Day Western Caribbean sailing on the brand new Norwegian Pearl. The offer was too good to refuse, so I recruited by brother as my traveling companion, and booked it. We had paid for a Category N guarantee...by the time the confirmation came back, NCL had upgraded us to a Category JJ on Deck 9. Day One - Embarkation Miami We flew into Miami on the morning of the flight. Our sailing was scheduled for 8pm and we were advised that boarding would not begin until sometime between 1 and 2pm. To pass the time, we caught a cab from the Airport to Bayside to shop and have lunch. As is our practice when traveling, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (add another pin to the collection) where we could sit at look at the Pearl from the windows of the restaurant. There were a total of 6 ships at the Port of Miami that day...and that lead to the first "issue" on this trip. With 6 ships full of passengers having debarked, the traffic leaving the cruise terminal was extremely backed up. Because of this, cabbies were refusing to take us from Bayside to the cruise terminal...they felt the short ride (i.e. low fare) wasn't worth what they would lose being stuck in the exiting traffic jam. It took some doing (and a little bribe), and we finally caught a cab and were on our way. We arrived at the pier a little after 1pm, passed the luggage to the port workers and went inside to get in line to check in. Surprisingly, there really wasn't much of a line...it seems that they actually got boarding started around 11, so it had really thinned out by this time. We completed check in, got our key cards, posed for the embarkation picture, and were off to the ship! Cabins were ready, so we were able to drop off our carry-ons and start to explore our home for the next five days. The Pearl is a beautiful ship. The pictures online really do not do her justice. This ship has to be seen in person. Once we were done with the brief "tour", we returned to the room to get ready for the muster drill. We met our room stewards, Johnson and Susanna outside our room. They were extremely polite and friendly. (And remained that way throughout the cruise). Our muster station was the Indigo Main Dining Room. I didn't know this at the time, but this was the only time I would be here this entire cruise. After the muster drill, we headed for the top decks. With 6 ships (2 each from Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean) in port, there was plenty to see. Since we were scheduled to leave last, we could sit out and watch each of the other 5 ships pull away from the pier and head out to sea. For dinner, we booked a table in Le' Bistro. The service, atmosphere, and the food were fantastic. By the time we finished, the Pearl had left the pier and was well underway. We completely missed sail away! No matter, good food...good company. Since we missed that party, we decided to head up to Spinnakers to see what was going on there. This place was PACKED! It looked like the whole ship had the same idea. You could barely move. As it turned out, that was a good thing. For the rest of the cruise, there seemed to be two different crowds. The 20s and early 30s crowd spent their evenings in Bliss, while the late 30s and up crowd spent their evenings in Spinnakers...and the crowds were never bad again. Day Two - At Sea One thing to understand...my brother is a "sleep in" person, while I am not. So, not wanting to waste a minute of my vacation, I had set my alarm to go off about 15 minutes before sunrise. I got up, threw on some shorts and sneakers and got to watch the sunrise from the jogging track. What a beautiful sight! After walking a few laps (yes walking...this is vacation) I headed down to the Great Outdoors to enjoy a leisurely breakfast. This is a great way to start your day. Time for the first "LOL" of the cruise. When I returned to the cabin, there was my brother, sitting on the end of his bed with a look of half anger and half confusion on his face. The anger came from the fact that when he woke up, he didn't see me in bed and assumed that I was in the bathroom getting ready...and he "needed" to use it. The confusion was a result of me walking into the room and the ensuing realization that I was, in fact, not in the bathroom and that it had been vacant the whole time! After I was able to shower and dress, it was off to Le Bistro for the Meet & Greet. There was probably about 25 people from the roll call in attendance. Additionally, Captain Trond Kildal, Hotel Director Klaus Lugmaier, Asst Hotel Director Prem Kainikkara, Cruise Director Clint Wells, Food & Beverage Director Sean Wurmhoeringer, and a few others came on behalf of the ship's staff. They were all very gracious, taking the time to introduce themselves and answer any questions that we had. Dinner was at Teppanyaki. It was very enjoyable. We were able to meet some interesting and fun people during dinner. The food was well prepared and the "show" was enjoyable. Second "issue" of the cruise: (Note that this was the only real issue. The others were very minor and not any big deal at all.) We had two shore excursions booked for Cozumel; parasailing in the morning, and time on a party boat in the afternoon. When we were getting things ready for the next day, I noticed that someone had changed the scheduled times of our excursions, which would not normally an issue, but you can't parasail if you've been drinking all morning...so this new schedule would not work out. I went to reception to get this changed back. They said the change was done because the morning parasailing had been cancelled and this was the only way we could do both. I explained that you couldn't parasail if you had been drinking first, so we were only going to be doing one excursion anyway. That being the case, I would rather parasail in the afternoon than "party" first thing in the morning. We were told that the excursions could not be changed since it was past 6pm on the day before the excursion and the shore excursion desk was closed for the night. This went back and forth for a while with no progress. Finally, they told me to just see the shore excursion people the next day as they would be available on the beach where everyone met for their excursions. This wasn't going to work. Then I ran into Klaus. I had given up for the evening and was headed back to the room when I ran into Klaus in the hallway. Recognizing me from the Meet & Greet he stopped and asked how my cruise had been going, was I having a good time, did I need anything, etc. So I told him what was going on with the excursions. I'll never forget his reaction. He was genuinely appalled at the customer service I had received. And he fixed it....fast. He delivered the type of service that makes you a customer for life. I learned two things: 1) Check over all of the details on your booked excursions immediately upon boarding...don't wait, and 2) Go to the Meet & Greet to get to know the crewmembers in attendance. When they ask how things are, they aren't just making small talk...they really want to know and they do care. Day Three - Cozumel, Mexico Our day in Cozumel started out with some unexpected entertainment. We pulled in and tied up to the pier. It took about 45 minutes to get everything done so that passengers could disembark. This was just at the time when the Coral Princess was scheduled to dock next to us. For safety reasons, we were told we could not disembark until the Coral Princess was tied up. So the morning entertainment was watching our new neighbor dock. It must have been their first time at this dock, though, as they couldn't get off of the ship. They had one gangway to use and where the gangway would attach to the ship stood a big light pole on the pier! It took a bunch of confused dock workers about a half hour to figure out what to do! Once we finally got off the ship, we walked into town for more of our practice...lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (and another pin for the collection) followed by some souvenir shopping in town. We got back in time to be picked up for our parasailing excursion. This was a lot of fun. There was a total of eight of us that signed up. Three pairs (tandem) and my brother and I went up separately. It was a great time, and the tour provider did a wonderful job. When we returned to the ship, we found treats in our room "Courtesy of the Hotel Director". A really nice touch. We spent the remainder of the day in the spa enjoying the steam room and sauna. Dinner was in the Main Dining Room. This would turn out to be the worst meal of the cruise. The food was OK, but there really wasn't anything on the menu that I liked that night. Additionally, I think my stomach wasn't real happy about bobbing around in the parasailing boat all afternoon. After dinner, we went to the Stardust to catch the 2nd City Show. It was very entertaining. Day Four - Belize City, Belize Belize was a tender port. We had booked the Lost Canopy Zip Line Tour with the ship. After a short tender ride, we met up with our group, were loaded on a bus, and were on our way. Our adventure started with a guided tour of the town and outlying countryside, followed by a looooooooong stretch on a pothole-filled dirt road to the zip line site. Afterwards, they took us for a barbeque lunch. All-in-all a really fun day. If you go, don't forget your bug spray. We had some time to browse through the many shops at the pier before returning to the ship on one of the last tenders. We had reservations at Mambo's, so we went to the room to shower and change for dinner. While we were gone, more treats had been delivered to the cabin... "Compliments of the Concierge - Ruth". What a pleasant surprise. Mambo's was fantastic. In every restaurant (except once in the MDR) I was able to find at least 2 or 3 items that I liked to choose from. Not here. I liked EVERYTHING. I should say that I LOVE Mexican food. I could eat it everyday. If I would have known about this menu earlier in the cruise, I would have eaten here every day. After dinner, we went to the Stardust to see Jean Ann Ryan's Garden of the Geisha show. It was also fantastic. Interesting to see them doing acrobatics on a moving ship. Day Five - At Sea Our last full day onboard. Surprisingly enough, the last four days had gone by pretty slow. Time to enjoy and absorb everything. Not today. This day went flying by like a speeding train. I think it was the knowledge that we were on our way back home. We finally got to spend some time on the Pearl's rock climbing wall. We had met some friends on the zip line tour so they joined us for some climbing time. It was a lot of fun. Dinner for our last evening was to be in Cagney's...courtesy of Klaus. (Thank you). Great service, great food, and to top it off, the Asst Maitre D', Joey Lepasana was fantastic. I had no idea what I wanted to eat, and he made some great recommendations. After dinner, we went down to catch the early show in the Stardust. Tonight's show was the Comedy Magic of Bob and Sarah Trunell, followed by the crew show. It was excellent. Afterwards, I had planned to stop in the shops. I wanted to get an NCL Pearl "Inaugural Season" souvenir. Third "issue" of the cruise...I couldn't get a souvenir. All of the shops had closed for the night (and the remainder of the cruise) at 6pm...for inventory. Unbelievable! I didn't want to ruin my last night over this, so I just moved on. It just seemed silly to close stores when you had customers ready to spend money. I guess you have to pick your battles. Day Six - Disembarkation Miami We were scheduled to dock at 8am in Miami. I wanted to get up so that I could watch the ship come in, turn around in the basin, and then dock at the pier. Wasn't meant to be. I woke up at 7am. We were already tied to the pier in Miami. Nothing to do but have breakfast and get ready to leave. We had a nice leisurely breakfast in the Great Outdoors. If the weather is nice, you can't beat this place for breakfast. Disembarking was very easy. We had left our luggage out the night before, so we just grabbed our carry-ons and walked off. We were easily able to find our luggage on the pier and customs was a snap. I don't think the whole think took more than 15 minutes. Plenty of cabs were available for the quick trip to Miami Airport for the flight home. Summary This cruise was the first time I had been on a ship in 20 years. "Traditional" cruising never appealed to me. Now that I've tried freestyle, I know I'll be back. A lot of places refer to you as their "customer", NCL staffers kept referring to us as "guests". Now I see why. That is how they treat you.