This is my 7th cruise overall, and 3rd with NCL. I havn't cruised with NCL since 2005 until my sailing on the Pearl. Somethings really improved since my last sailing with them, and some totally missed the mark. The best improvement was the overall friendliness of the staff. The previous cruises I've done with NCL the staff was a bit unfriendly. This cruise, they were all very nice...greeting you in public areas. The thing that has reallly gone downhill is the food, especially in the main dining rooms. We only ate there 2 times, the first day was OK...the second time it was so bad that we actually got up and left the dining room. I ordered French Onion soup, which was terrible salty, and spagetti with meat sauce with was totally flavorless. Having said that, the breakfast buffet was pretty good and the specialty restaurants (which you pay extra for) were good. Especially the Teppanyaki (sp?). The cabin was nice. We stayed in a mini-suite, 11508. It was booked through an on-line agent. It was a nice sized room with a bathtub. The balcony was great. Having said that, stay away from deck 11, forward on the port side (where our room was). It is directly below the gym, and was sooooooo noisey at all hours. Our housekeeper was less than impressive as well. There was 1 day our room wasn't services, and most days he would come around once. Other ships they come around at least twice a day. The ship itself was less than impressive. It was clean, but not all that pretty...which the other ships I have been on have been. The itinarary was nice....but we did have 1 port cancelled due to poor weather. If you want to do Alaska, don't wait until September to go. It rained every day but one, and the seas were so rough that we couldn't get to Victoria. All-in-all, we had an enjoyable vacation, but the Pearl wasn't impressive. It will probably be another 6 years before we attempt another NCL cruise.