I really wanted to be able to give this cruise a great review. After a disastrous cruise on Carnival (due to kids running around like unsupervised crack addicted idiots), but unfortunately I am unable to. Let me start by saying the majority of the people working on board apparently wish they weren't, or at least that is how it seemed with their lack of customer service. I do wish to spotlight one individual though, Randy Caraig in the O'Sheehan's Restaurant. His customer service was above and beyond EVERYTIME we were in there, which is where we ate most of our meals. He should most definitely be teaching the others how to do it.

The ship had the usual cattle call buffet, with people acting like they were getting their last meal. It seems like there could be a better system that would give some order to this process. Thankfully, O'Sheehan's offered foods we enjoyed so we could skip the Obesity Shuffle.

The Staterooms were small, but comfortable, well, except the beds which feel like you are sleeping on a deck chair covered in foam. They were always kept clean though and that I can applaud. I think the cabin stewards have the hardest job on the boat and they took pride in their jobs. We stayed in cabin 8626, which is a far aft cabin. I did so because they are usually the most quiet cabins. This was not the case on the Pearl. We heard the droning of the engines the entire time we were in the room and had it not been for a white noise app on my tablet, we would have never gotten any sleep. I don't recommend an aft stateroom. Read more