Norwegian Pearl Review

Great Ports of Call - NCL could follow Disney's lead on organization

Review for the Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Pearl
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Peanutmam
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Mar 2018
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

We selected this cruise because it had the ports of call we wanted and was leaving from New Orleans which was a convienant drive. We were traveling with our 11 and 14 year old boy and girl. We got a Balcony room with a bunk and a pull out. The room was a lot smaller than we expected and the bathroom extremely small. It was so small that my husband and son had to constantly go to the public area bathrooms to have room in the commode area. The pull out was too short for my son who is about 5'7. The beds were extremely uncomfortable. I must say that our previous cruise was with Disney so we are comparing this experience to our Disney Cruise Line experience. NCL could take some lessons. The disembarkation was extremely disorganized. My husband was ill with food poisoning from the fish at dinner Friday night. The medical clinic was helpful and gave us guidelines, etc from CDC. We were told we needed to get off the ship as early as possible and that someone could help us with the luggage since he could not handle his own. I was later told by ship that they could not touch our luggage and we could only get off at the 8:30 slot. Therefore a sick person who may or may not have been contagious was having to stand in line with many others for quite some time. I am pretty sure the CDC did not have this in mind as a way to keep something from passing to others if was something other than food poisoning. The Splash Academy and Entourage for the kids was great and they loved it. The food was mediocre and I expected more for the cost. We booked our excursions outside of the cruise. I highly recommend the Mayan Ruin tour with Native Choice in Costa Maya. We did not have time for the Mayan Experience which we would have loved to do but the ruin tour was excellent and very informative. It was worth walking to the office outside the gate and was cheaper. In Cozumel, I booked our dolphin experience directly to get the Ride and Swim and manatee package. We rented a Jeep and drove to the dolphin experience and around the island. It was a great time. Harvest Caye was nice but expensive. They don't take ship card because people in past had claimed they did not make the charges. They also only take cash and Visa/MC. This should have been told to us before getting off at Harvest Caye as we only had our Amex and were not able to purchase souvenirs or food/water etc. We could use our boat card for the activites like zip line etc. The zip line was great and safe and the paddle boards were great. Expensive but fun for the kids. They enjoyed the beach and everything was clean. I don't see us taking this cruise line again but if you want these ports of call and this is an option, I recommend upgrading to Haven Suites or at least getting connecting rooms if you have teens. The balcony room for 4 was just way too small. The bathroom was seriously almost to small for my 11 year old and she is not a big girl. My son who is 5'7 and husband who is 6'3 really had issue with the space in the bathroom (commode area). Our steward was great and kept things clean and was very helpful.

Cabin Review

Balcony

We had a midship close to aft balcony for 4 with a bunk and a pull out. Extremely small and we would upgrade to Haven Suite if we went on this line again. If not an option try for a two bedroom suite or connecting rooms. However the bathrooms were just way too small and we won't be doing this one again. Back to Disney CL.

Port Reviews

Roatan

This would have been great if we had not found out the night before that we were tendering and not docking at port. It cost us about 1 and half of our tour time. I would not have booked the tour had I known about the tender for that port. Roatan was beautiful and if able snorkeling is a must.

Harvest Caye

We did the zipline and paddle boards. The island does not take amex which was a disappointment as we weren't told prior to getting on island adn were not able to buy lunch, drinks or souveniers. Loss for the economy of the island.

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