My wife and I recently traveled on the Norwegian Pearl for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise. Our ports of call were Samana, St. thomas, Tortola, and their own private island in the Bahamas. The ports were all nice except for Samana, which was very beautiful from afar but impoverished and sad up close.
We arrived at the port early and embarkation was a breeze. We entered the line for our balcony stateroom and were on the ship within a half hour. Upon our walk up the ramp to the ship we were stopped for the first of many times to pose for a picture by the NCL Staff that we could purchase later on board for $20.00. This happened frequently aboard the ship and every time you exited the boat to go into port. By the end of the cruise, we were just walking outside the ropes and saying no thank you. We also received a complimentary juice or glass of champagne on our walk onto the boat.
Since our room wasn't ready, we were directed to the Garden Cafe for lunch. We had to walk past the pool area which was set up with all sorts of tables selling everything that was going on the ship. You could sign up and pay to enter the slot tournaments ($15.00 each), the Hold Em tournament ($100 each), buy casino chips ($10.00 purchased to receive $15.00 in promo chips), soda package for 1 for entire week ($50.31), bingo cards, cigarettes at a discount from there duty free shops, shore excursions, and jewelry.
Tiny toilet area, knnes hit the wall. Room kind of small. Perfect location right off the elevators