Norwegian Pearl Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We learned a lot from our first cruise (although there were others who had cruised before and felt the same as us about this one). The best analogy is: This cruise was as if traveling on a crowded bus, stopping at a shopping mall, return to the bus on time and for another 8 hours to arrive at another shopping mall. If you do not spend the extra money to attend additional excursions -- on a serious schedule (not a vacation) -- with CROWDS of people, you are only being delivered from one tourist trap to another. Very disappointing.

Overall this was a great cruise. We travelled as a family of 9 spanning 3 generations for a Christmas week vacation. NCL did a nice job meeting the vast majority of our needs. It’s fair to note that in the past year we have also sailed on Carnival twice and this review will compare experiences a bit. Embarkation: New Orleans port was a bit confusing and we drove around a bit trying to drop off our bags. Staterooms: We has obstructed view staterooms on deck 8. Location was fantastic and overall the room was very nice. Dining: We found the food to be great. We ate in 3 specialty restaurants with Le Bistro being our favorite. No one had a bad meal all week. Also, O’Sheans pub late night for wings and other snacks was a nice change from Carnival’s limited late night offerings. Entertainment: This is where I think Carnival does a better job. The evening shows on NCL were good, with the high point being the show with the Michael Jackson, Madona, and Elvis impersonators. But that was it. Activity around the pool was practically nonexistent and the music played there was downright depressing. Also, there was live music frequently in both the Atrium and at Magnums, but none of us thought it was very good. To be clear, none of this ruined our time but we definitely noticed it. Bar Service: On Carnival we all had the Cheers package and on NCL we all had the UDP. NCL wins this point. No signing for anything and you could get multiple drinks with 1 card which was a huge benefit cruising with a family of 9. Also we had a couple of great bartenders who always too great care of us. Seek out Wilmichael in Maltings or Chadney in O’Sheans and you won’t be sorry. Overall ship appearance: The recent refurb was successful. The Pearl is a beautiful ship that projects sophistication and elegance. Disembarkation: Best ever. We got in line to carry off our own bags at about 7:10. The line started moving on time at 7:30, and we were pulling out of the parking lot at 7:45. Extremely smooth. Overall this was an outstanding cruise with a few small details that could have been better and several other things that far exceeded our expectations. I would definitely sail NCL and the Pearl again.

Our first cruise with Norwegian. We had a great time on the Pearl. We enjoyed the shows a lot. The Pearl Showband was my favorite thing to see in the evening. They had several buffets and they were ok. We enjoyed our visit to Moderno Steakhouse it was perfect. We liked it so much we went twice. Overall great time and would cruise with Norwegian again.

Chadney in O’Sheehans is the man. Fantastic time on the Pearl, absolutely zero complaints, couldn’t think of one if I tried. Le Bistro is a must do , Moderno and Teppanyaki were not my favorites

The boat was nice, but we usually go through Carnival and the differences are hard to get used to on Norwegian. We had a good time on our cruise but the service could have been better.

My wife and I will travel with Norwegian again. We are already booked for November 2018, Boston -> San Juan. We will pay attention to excursions that involve tendering as this was the low point of this cruise.

Great ship, crew was friendly, food including the buffet was good, drinks were mixed well, ports were fun and our room was cleaned everyday, what a vacation!

This was my first cruise ever. I will definitely go on more cruises. I found Norwegian Cruise lines to be very comfortable and the crew and staff very friendly and helpful.

The Pearl was awesome! No complaints. Wish we could have enjoyed Spinnakers but it was being remodeled. Bet it’s Nice!! Loved the ship layout. Spa was amazing! No crowd. Food was abundant. Staff friendly & always busy. The hostess even knew our names after 3rd night! 9days was cool!

Compared to other cruise lines, this one was a disappointment. Even with only having to pay port fees, taxes, and gratuities, I felt like this wasn’t worth the money. I took advantage of a free alcohol package and wished I had chosen another option because the daily drink selections were not very good

Love cruises! Normally love Norwegian's Cruise ships. Pearl was a huge disappointment!!!! They are missing music on the ship! Fun music when you board and when we just walked off the ship after 9 days. They need to step it up for a fun atmosphere. The bands that play when you leave the ports were actually horrible. The pool area was full almost every day until the bands played. Very sad but almost comical to watch people get up and leave when the music starts. Simon the cruise director was upbeat and very fun. Just forgot to have fun upbeat music during the 9 days. The staff are amazing!

This was our first cruise on NCL, so we couldn’t help but compare our experience to others we’ve been on previously. The embarkation process was a complete CLUSTER. We arrived at the port for our scheduled 11:30am boarding time but didn’t actually board the ship until 2:45pm! Initially, we were told the massive lines all the way out the exterior doors and down the ramp were due to extra screening, but this proved to be false. Once we made it through the 2 hour wait in winding lines, we were split into 2 final zigzag lines - you know the kind... looks something like a maze. We couldn’t figure out why the other side was moving so quickly - only to realize after for standing still for nearly an hour - the “spotter” who‘s job was to send the next in line to the next available agent was apparently only manning the other side and every time an agent became free - even on our end - she sent the next in the other line to the open agent. URGH! Once we figured that out and everyone on our end began to let her know the error of her ways, we finally began moving again (no telling how much time that wasted of our vacation - thanks lady!) - but still she would send 2 on their end to 1 on our end. Once we arrived at the counter, my parents went to the one just next to ours. The guy that checked us in seemed to have it together and only took about 5 mins to check us in and provide our cards. My parents weren’t so lucky. They ended up with an agent “in training” and 30 more minutes later (not kidding!), they finally checked in! Forget the boarding pics at this point - all we wanted was a stiff drink! Once onboard, we were able to go straight to our rooms (it was 3:15pm afterall!) and drop our things just in time to be summoned out to muster drills. These went relatively well except as soon as they ended, we were on the 6th floor, there was no way to make the sail away party that was happening only moments later. Oh well! We were so exhausted and hungry by this point, we didn’t mind. We headed straight for the buffet. The buffet was pretty good most days, but I expected this to be better than other lines, or at least that’s what we were lead to believe. The burgers were good, but for me and my family, we will have to say the buffet was our least favorite of all ships and lines that we’ve sailed so far. NCL does not ration beach towels and seems to trust their passengers to get and return as many as they choose. This was definitely a nice plus. Having to keep up with towels on Carnival is no fun. RC and NCL definitely get points for this one. Nothing like having your beach towel snagged while you’re in the pool and then having to snag someone else’s so you don’t get charged for it. Not cool. The hot tubs were a joke. They only have 4 around the only 2 pools onboard and all 4 were continually packed full of 5-9 year olds. I mean jam packed too. The pool was apparently a little chilly so the kids made the hot tubs their pool. There was no adult-only area on this ship and we were never able to step foot in a hot tub (not that we wanted to after the kids were done with it). Late one night, we thought we’d get lucky and the kids would be gone to bed, so we ran out there only to find 2 of them closed and the other 2 were this time packed with teenagers (one of them our 16 year old!) We gave up on the hot tubs and went to join the thermal spa, which we were told was the only way to get an adult-only hot tub. This was pretty nice, but at $114/day for the two of us, didn’t prove to be worth it ultimately. Oh well, lesson learned. We will be sure to check for adult-only offerings on future cruises. O’Sheehan’s Pub was, by far, the best place to hang out on the ship for us and our teen daughter. We got to know the servers and bartenders and they took very good care of us. We could go to the pub almost any time of day and have an appetizer and drinks or have dinner if we wanted and it was a fun atmosphere with great views. The freestyle dining was a really cool option and we really enjoyed not having to dress up or be anywhere at any certain time except for the Specialty Dining options we chose. Pre-boarding reservations are strongly recommended for these, though. We saw quite a few disappointments due to booked specialty restaurants. Our favorite things about the UBP were 1) not being asked to sign a ticket and write in a tip every time we ordered a beverage; 2) not being limited to 15 drinks/day like Carnival; and 3) being able to order 2 drinks at one time using the same card. Least favorite were: The drinks the bartenders know are very limited and often only the handful they have in their printed beverage menus; and 2) the bartenders look at you crazy when you order something they don’t know how to make or they act like they don’t understand what you’ve said. There is a long list of favorite ship drinks we found online - but don’t bother. Not a single bartender knew how to make any drink we called from the list. We just stuck with what they knew how to make - Miami Vice, Mudslide, pina colodas, margaritas, etc. Our room steward, Rashon, was awesome. We never came back to our room after requesting service to find that it didn’t happen. She was amazing and we tipped her in cash every day to show our appreciation. She even set up the pull out sofa our 16 year old slept on during turn-down service at night and put it away in the mornings so we could access our balcony easier. She was very attentive and did an excellent job. The ship itself did move quite a bit more than other ships. We were told it’s due to the size of the ship. Not sure if that’s true or not but you will want to wear the Scop patches if this bothers you. The last night seemed to be the worst when even the patch didn’t quite do it for me, but it didn’t last very long and I survived without getting full blown MOTSK and having to turn in early. The debarkation was uneventful and quite smooth. NCL seemed to encourage self-carry debarking and even mentioned their union contracts do not permit staff to provide assistance with bags unless they’re left outside the evening prior for the traditional debarkation and luggage removal. We elected self-carry and were off the ship in a matter of minutes. The transportation is a bit of a debacle from NOLA, however and A+ Transportation is not recommended. Select another transport company and pay a few dollars more. A+ Transport is $5 per passenger but you get what you pay for and you will be waiting a long time. They are backed up for hours and will promise you the next car is coming for you to keep you waiting, but it never seems to come. We took a different service back afterwards and it was much better. We simply enjoyed the service and food options on other ships. Not sure we will cruise again on NCL. But now we know.

Overall, this was a great cruise. When we booked a Thanksgiving sailing, we knew it would be crowded and full of kids, and it was. As a childfree couple, we only found it grating a few times. (Don't shoot me, I'm just being honest). We liked the relaxing vibe of many of the ports, and we had a nice time.

The Norwegian Pearl and all of her crew are amazing! Just returned from a 7 day cruise to the Western Carribean, there is nothing bad I can say about our trip! From our room attendant I Putu, to our favorite bartender Matica , and our favorite waiter Santiago, everything was Devine!! Thank you all for making our cruise memorable.

Was a very relaxing experience. Adding a extra two days on a seven-day cruise was absolutely wonderful. Have Cruise these ports several times over the last 2 years so things were pretty much the same. the newest Port was that of Guatemala and we found it to be interesting. Used a local Shore Excursion service to take us to a port town 20 minutes away. We shopped a local market to experience the way that the locals live in Guatemala. found a new appreciation for the hardships that some people go through on a daily basis. Georgetown in the Caymans is just what it is. A day of shopping and walking around beautiful streets, enjoying beautiful scenery and experience fine food and drink. During our stay in Cozumel we enjoyed a wonderful day at mr. Sancho's truly the highlight of our nine-day cruise. Harvest Caye is exactly what Norwegian promised. It is a beautiful port with the relaxing Beach and a wonderful Margaritaville and pool. But as expected the pricing of the food and drink is on the expensive side. Wish they had made it all inclusive like their Bahama Port Great Stirrup Caye is Costa Maya Mexico was beautiful as it always is. Spend a relaxing day in the free pool and sipping on $15 buckets of beer. Perfect. It is a beautiful place just to walk around and experience the beauty of a resort Caribbean port. Spent the day in Roatan shop in the shops and walking outside of the port area and experiencing our interaction with the locals. Found them to be wonderful people. The Pearl is a a wonderful ship. The cabin Steward did a exceptional job. Kept the cabin neat and clean as well as fulfilling any request we made of him. Our biggest problem was that of the ship service staff. We found the deck Steward's to be very hit-or-miss. some went out of their way to see that you had everything you needed While others would walk an opposite direction just to avoid you. Quite disappointing. As I'm a firm believer in your cruise is what you make it all in all we experienced a wonderful cruise and had a great time.

Overall a good cruise, it is not one of the huge ships which has its advantages and its drawbacks. I do like the design of the pearl with the open dining in the aft of the ship. I would do this cruise again and probably will do similar ones, as New Orleans is the closest port to my house.

It was ok at best. Out of the six we have been on probably the lowest score. With that having been said we have been on some really GREAT cruises. I would recommend this cruise but it was not the best we have taken and also realize that I am trying to be very honest as people will read this and make decisions based upon what I write. Oh, we booked the inaugural sailing of the Norwegian Bliss from Southampton, England in April 2018 so we are sticking with them. It will be our fourth Norwegian sailing. I trust this was helpful.

Overall very enjoyable. I went to the Auction for Park West on the ship and bought 2 great pieces of Art. A original Popeye cell and a 420 out of 450 signed Rockwell.

Good value cruise. As I said above...it appears staffing has been cut on the Pearl as we were not waited on as much as in the past. Service in the restaurants seemed lacking a bit at times.

Accomplished goal to relax! Food was great, cabin was great & once we found the good bar servers, the drink package was great!. We had been to most of the ports before so we didn't get off the ship. I didn't feel safe going to Guatemala or Honduras so we didn't get off the ship.