Great Relocation Cruise from Vancouver

Norwegian Pearl Cruise Review to U.S. - Pacific, Northwest

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 7

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Pearl

4 Night Pacific Coastal (Vancouver To Los Angeles)

Sail date: September 24, 2007

Ship: Norwegian Pearl

Cabin type: Suite

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 17 years ago

Review summary

We took a 4 day cruise from Vancouver to LA, stopping in San Francisco on Sept 24th. We have gone on a RCL 7 day cruise about 7 years ago on the "Mexican Riviera". We are in our late 40's and most of our winter vacations are in Mexico staying in 4 star-ish properties. We have never taken a repo cruise since it seemed like sailing down the coast would be boring, cold and likely rough water. This was a nice surprise since the weather was great and even when the wind was blowing the boat is designed so you can be out of the wind on the deck most of the time. The outside restaurant on the back of the ship is really nice and peaceful most of the time. Overall, the cruise was incredible value and exceeded our expectaitons. The ship seemed very smooth, even when the waves got fairly big one afternoon. The ship is very new, so everything is in new condtion. We booked a balcony, but got upgraded to a mini-suite on deck 11. The room was well designed and lots of space for 2 of us. If you had small kids it would also work very well. Meals - we ate most dinners in Indigo and they were quite good (other than the steak). Our best meal was at the French restaurant Le Bistro. I had the duck which was excellent. Lunch was best from the buffet - if it is too busy take it back to your room (you can also take it to the La Cucina next door since it is not open for lunch or dinner, so acts as extra seating...most people did not know that so much quieter). as mentioned we really enjoyed sitting out on the back deck to eat lunch/breakfast. The have the ususal things like art auctions, pictures, casino, bingo etc etc that we avoided. They don't push it so easy to ignore. The pool area was well designed and works really well if you are travelling with kids. We would go on this ship again....it would work very well in the Carribean in my opinion.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
The ususal level of cruise/all-inclusive food...maybe a bit better, but some meals were a bit on the boring side. Not a big deal though and you can always order something else. The staff were very nice and always eager to please...if you did not attack your food they tried to get you to order something else! Wine list is not too bad starting at about $24 bottle (Columbia Crest Merlot)...which is nice wine. On the 7 day cruise you can order a package of 6 bottles and get one free. If you don't finish a bottle they will hold onto it and you can get it delivered to any other bar/restaurant. You can also just walk around with it....we did that a couple of times (ordered in a bar and when dinner came around just walked in with it). This is a very casual boat!

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Great selection of things, but still the same old thing. It would be nice to have something really different. However...I think this is the same on all cruise ships these days...not a NCL problem.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Great new ship...lots of places to get lost if you want. Never noticed any smokers.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Our mini suite was great.

Ports of call

San Francisco, California

3 out of 5
WE just took a taxi downtown, but it is a big place and hard to figure out in one day. I would recommend taking a tour unless you really know the place. Going into the was really nice though on a clear sunny morning!!

Pros: Beautiful ship, very relaxing

Cons: Some meals were not great

Recommends Norwegian Pearl? Yes!

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