Unless there is some fantastic deal, It is unlikely that I'll cruise NCL again given my overall experience with the ship.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
It took over an 1.5 hours to originally board the ship and I was part of a special group that was provided preferential boarding. Customs was very quick, but the delays were caused by NCL staff. Additionally, cruisers with special needs kept being pushed to the front with no waiting times rather than creating a special line. Embarkation to the excursions was excellent and without any delay by Customs or NCL reentering the ship.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Quite disappointed. Pre-cooked food (bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage) that should have been hot was luke warm at best or in some cases cold. Items intended to be cold, such as milk was warm. In comparison to Carnival, daily selection was very limited. The bar lines exceeded 20 people waiting to get drinks at any particular time as NCL mainly had 1 young lady servicing the main deck who made great attempts to avoid all cruisers. There was 1 gentlemen, Rodrigo I believe that was excellent, but because he worked other jobs on the ship, he only served a short portion of time. The bartender(s) failed miserably at mixing of drinks. Not sure if the bartenders were training, but even a simple Margarita tasted nothing like one.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I mainly sat out by the pools or spiritually enjoying the sea, but I did enjoy walking the track. I did many excursions; but NCL did a good job having activities available both in port and during sea days. For a 5 day cruise, I only saw the Cruise Director twice unlike Carnival where the Cruise Director truly made an attempt to intermingle with guests.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The Peal had Avalon do live music which did an excellent job playing music for all age groups. I greatly enjoyed listening to them. There was a DJ on occasion, but there was very little DJ music and mainly piped in. Both the magic show and comedian was great.
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
The rooms were clean. my TV was promptly fixed (for late in the evenings) and the phone worked 50% of the time; but I would give 5 starts to the room staff. Room Service was prompt and excellent. I liked being able to just submit an excursion form to a box and the tickets were promptly delivered to my room that evening. My low score is mainly based on the service (or lack thereof) provided during sea days as I was always out and about the ship.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
I did enjoy the layout/design and it was easy to remember. The common areas including restrooms were kept very clean and well-maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
I was on a very short twin bed (I'm 5'10") and ankles/feet below were hanging off the back of a very hard mattress. As this was my first cruise with NCL, I'm not sure if this is common or if I was on a child's bed, but nonetheless, was quite uncomfortable. Staff did fix the TV timely (late in the evening); however, the phone did not always work. Staff kept my room and rest room very clean, plenty of towels, soap, etc. The cabin itself had plenty of storage space for a 5 day cruise.
Ship tip
Based on other reviews I had read prior to my cruise, I was quite disappointed in comparison to my experience with Carnival. It does appear that The Pearl periodically does get lower scores during distinct periods of time, which makes me question whether NCL uses it periodically for training and I just happened to pick the cruise NCL was training. As you typically select a cruise months if not a year advance, not sure that you can avoid this.
I was only in New Orleans less than 48 hours before the cruise. I toured Cemeteries number 1 (Haunted History) and 3 (through NCL) which were excellent. Took a walking tour of ghost stories which was great and I toured the bayou, which was also a wonderful experience. I also toured the city including prior Katrina history. Although I did walk the French Quarter, it was a great first experience, although I don't know that I would go back to experience that again. There are quite a few historical sites and museums that I couldn't get to, so I plan on returning. I highly recommend.
Just loved Cozumel! The turquoise waters that are so clear, you can see the bottom of the ocean and the people for so very nice. I visited the Mayan Ruins and a tour of Cozumel through NCL and it was a great experience.
As with Cozumel, just beautiful waters. However, I found Costa Maya very commercialized at the port and they definitely charged higher prices to NCL Cruisers versus what we told on the ship that we would get discounts. I would avoid buying anything in port. The Mayan ruins were excellent and well preserved. However, I didn't find the tour guide as knowledgeable as the one provided in Cozumel. Also, once you get outside of the port, I found the roadsides in Costa Maya to be quite dirty. There is trash all over the roadways in the city. Once you get out of Costa Maya, it's not as predominate but I was surprised that as a tourist attraction, it wasn't kept cleaner.
Quite easy and efficient during ports. However, I paid for an NCL Excursion that ended at the airport (which was excellent). As part of the price, we were to be provided preferential disembarkation to meet the travel bus before 9 a.m. NCL staff actually argued between themselves when we were trying to disembark as there was another group that "needs help" where we were stopped and that was allowed to go in front of us and delayed our disembarkation.
We were on the pearl in July. The cruise director at that time was jasper and it was his last cruise on the pearl. He was awesome and knew mine and my friends name by the end of the cruise and was always saying hi to us at trivia. But that and the free beverage package were about the only nice things about ncl. Oh and we did like that they gave prizes for participating in trivia and such. But we won't ever cruise with them again. We're sticking with royal carribean.
We were on this same cruise and the Cruise Director was everywhere! We saw him numerous times. The person we seldom saw was our room steward. We didn't even know his name. We had no issues with the bar staff and our drinks were made satisfactorily. Our room was comfortable although the chairs on the balcony were quite worn and in need of replacement. We seldom ate at the buffet, but when we did, the food was fine... Not gourmet, but fine. We had a very relaxing time on The Pearl and look forward to sailing with NCL in the future.
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