Norwegian Pearl Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Enjoyed cruise with another couple.  Everything was good except onboard illness of other passengers.  The way NCL handled the situation was commendable.  They implemented procedures that appeared to stop the spread of the illness.

Awesome cruise!!! The buffets onboard were out of this world!! The WHOLE staff made you really feel welcome from the time you were boarding until you disembarked!!! Very friendly staff!! We cruised to Alaska 3 years ago on Royal Caribbean, & after this cruise, we will never go with Royal Caribbean again!! The only thing which really was outrageous was NCL's beverage packages, which were EXTREMELY OVERPRICED!!! The shore excursions were fabulous!!

The itinerary of the this cruise was very good.  The food was just so so and the service could be improved immensely.  It seems that NCL has cut back on food and service as we took an NCL cruise two years ago where the food and service were excellent.

I've been on 7 cruises and never rocked like this. food was avg. pool good, services excellent. asked for a handicapped cabin but did not get. me personally, I will return to RCL.

My husband and I are in our late 40's and we thoroughly enjoyed this cruise. The boat is in top shape for its age and the room and serving staff were so great we will have to get used to the new normal at restaurants etc. on land. The food was our favorite thing and we are a bit snobby about food.   We like to eat new and differently prepared food and we were not disappointed.   The first sea day we were happy to see lobster pasta in the buffet!  The lobster pieces were nearly golf ball sized along with large shrimp, mussels in shell and jumbo scallops.  Wow was it delicious.  I mentioned I eat low carb so the server gave me practically all seafood and no pasta.

Examples: Smoked duck on greens, crab cakes, raw beef carpaccio salad, veggie tempura, battered calamari with aoli, sashimi appetizer with sauce, prime rib was served in two different free restaurants on different nights, a tender and flavorful strip steak was on the everyday menu as well as a very nice lasagna my husband enjoyed. We ate in one specialty restaurant the Brazilian steakhouse and it was fabulous. The freestyle dining was perfect for us and we did not wait for a table for 2 more than a minute at any time. 

We loved the shows and felt they were of a very high caliber overall. Especially the singers and dancers. They were top notch.  I have seen Reba McIntyre do Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway and enjoyed the Norwegian Pearls song and dance shows even more. The had a crew and staff talent show that was really nice as well. Some unexpected talent like the washy washy singing guitar guy at the buffet sang One in a Million like a boss!  Embarking and disembarking was fine. Going on was a bit of a wait, but we were at prime time so we were not surprised. We tendered at Tortolla which brought us there late, but the fault did not lie with the boat, it was the shore holding things up.  All the other ports were great and the staff really welcome you back on board in a fun way singing and dancing. We were able to get on a very last minute ship sponsored excursion (only 30 minutes before!) on the island tour by train in Antigua. It was great and the drinks were stiff and without extra charge. A Pina Colada is highly recommended as is being on the open upper part of the train.

We got a free excursion through and chose the sail and snorkel to St. Johns.  The boat was nice, the crew were super fun and very accommodating wanting everyone to have a good time. They served a yummy Italian lunch in the middle of the excursion with free rum drinks like Nooners and Painkillers, beer, soft drinks, etc. The other guests seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did.  I would do this cruise again in a minute and plan to cruise again with Norwegian. 

We enjoyed the Pearl, the staff, the perfect weather, the islands.  The ship is not too large or too small.  I picked this itinerary because it was Monday through Thursday, 10 days, but not really Spring break crowd.  Had other ships in port in St. Thomas, otherwise Pearl was the only one.

        Bathroom was designed by the Village Idiot.

        Even though the size of the bathroom was large enough the toilet

         was positioned so that you had to sit side saddle to avoid hurting

         your knees on the wall.

         Had previously sailed on the Pearl and had an outside cabin.

         No problem at that time. This time I had an inside cabin. Travel agent

         said he upgraded my reservation. Did the original cabin have a toilet

         that flushed?

          Outside of the ridiculous location of the toilet the cruise was fine.

We made the mistake of booking a Guaranteed Ocean View, Category OX cabin, what we got was the bottom of the ship, all the way in front of the ship, with a small porthole.  The cabin itself was comfortable, but it was noisy at night when we wanted to sleep. I did all the complaining I could, to no avail, they just sent us a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries.  When I complained again, the person at the front desk said, "well we sent you a bottle of wine".  I looked at him anagrily and told him "what am I suppose to do get drunk so I can sleep, and walked away.  By the 3rd night I had it, and called at 2 AM but got no answer.  I called again at 3 AM and finally someone took my call.  They sent someone to the cabin and he agreed that it was noisy.  They offered us an inside cabin on the 9th deck which we declined because of claustophia isssues; that's why we book ocean view   I will never book Guarantee OV again. 

Most cruiselines permit one bottle of wine per person to be brought on board free of charge. Apparently Norwegian no longer permits this  without a fee. Based on the size of the confiscation line we were not the only ones to realize this. Also, our cabin steward was the worst we have ever had in our extensive cruise history. The cruise was great as was the food and most of the ships crew. Norwegian has stopped the lobster night unless you pay for one of the upscale restaurants. This is blasphemy in our books, what no lobster??? Just more of the nickel and dime stuff that seems to be creeping into the cruise scene.  $3.00 for a bottle of water I can get at Costco for 10 cents is excessive in my books. 

  great time, enjoyed the ship,staff and itinerary   we tried the UDP or ultimate dinning package and found it a good value and great food, we did 3 beach tours to break up the same  old tour of the towns and found them relaxing and will do again

I really needed a break and wanted a cruise so that I could just relax and not make decisions about anything.  The Pearl was WONDERFUL!  The embarkation and disembarkation were seamless; the staff was courteous, helpful and accommodating, and the food was excellent. I enjoyed the spa services and the Haven and it rejuvenated me. My only regret was the huge single supplement that I paid for the weekend.  I love cruising and would more often if the single rates were lower.  Sometimes I can't get friends available at the same time that I can cruise and its difficult.  Still, it was a great weekend and I look forward to sailing the Pearl again in the fall.

Booking the cruise thru BJ's was confusing. We had to keep calling back and forth between Norwegian and BJ's to book the cruise and flight and we had no choice on flight times. Because there was not enough time between connecting flights we missed our flight in Atlanta and our cruise ship in Miami.

The best Delta Airlines could do was fly us to Key West the next day, so we missed a full day of our cruise. 

Compared to other cruises we have been on , Norwegian was disorganized and the food was below our expectations. We will not be using BJ's travel service again because we we're not happy with the experience.

The Norwegian Pearl was the perfect size ship for me - not too many people or a ship so large it would be difficult to get around or find a place to just sit and relax. As you walked through the open ship areas, there were different kinds of bars with a diverse group of music provided. We met some very nice people who were also very happy with the cruise. There was never over-crowding or long waits in dining areas as long as you made reservations in advance. The service personnel were just wonderful - attentive and engaging. I have a nut allergy and they were very accommodating to the situation. 

The room was good size for 2 of us and kept very clean each day. Clean towels were always provided.

There could be some improvement in the boarding process. It was a very long line and wait to board. If the weather were hotter or even rainy, some people could be in trouble, especially seniors. They did have personnel serving water while we were in line.

Overall, a good experience; a relaxing and fun time!

Loved the ship food was great I live in Tennessee wish Norweigan sailed from closer port hope to sail with them next cruise much better than carnival, as I have cruised 12 times with them

The cruise was very enjoyable. Probably the thing I liked best was the design of the bathroom. It made very good use of limited space. Many of the staff were great but many were also less attentive. The most surprising problem was that many staff had little idea what was going on anywhere else on the ship. They could not direct us to things like the art auction or other events. It seemed that many of the signs on the walls directing us to locations were out of date. I assumed that it was because some locations had changed their names. The food was pretty good. Seemed to get better as the days went on.

These are relatively minor problems but other cruise lines seemed to be a bit better. More training would go a long way to improving the staff problems.

Bathroom nice and spacious except the toilet is situated so that there is no room for any adult, no matter their size, to sit anyway but sideways for lack of room for their legs.

The food was average most night's.

Beautiful ship! 

It was the first time that I took a 10 days cruise. It use to be 7 or 8 days. This one was different, because of the length, the many places I visited (5), the service received on board. they were very professional and courteous. I'll use Norwegian again for sure.

The five islands visited were wonderful with St. Kitts being the best. Not to say the others were not good, they were, but we enjoyed St. Kitts the best of all. The people were friendly on all the islands & we had good tour guides on all.                                                                                                                              As for the ship itself everything was good. The entertainment was great, as was the staff & the food. All -in-all it was a very enjoyable cruise. Would like to take again sometime.

The norwegian Pearl look good in paper, tobogan, rock climbing and Bowling... mmmm Lets see, the Tobogan does not exist, the Rock wall was closed, the Bowling was 7 dollars a person per game, really?  The Port of France (Martinique) was the WORST port ever that we had before even worst than Grand Turk, lol. People really dont want tourists there, hard to buy things if you dont have Euros and they were very rude. The cruise was median age 60+ and we are people in the middle 40s. So, as you see not too much fun, the first 3 days this cruise was a Ghost Cruise, lol, everything in the pool deck was out and no one around. Coming from the Norwegian Sun and Star we expected more fun like those cruises, nah...  Norwegian dont have the Lobster night anymore, no more Fillet Mignon anymore and some nice dishes are now regular dishes and even Carnival is now having better food.

Ports like Antigua, nice port, we did a excursion in a taxi, around the city, also over the beach and was a nice experience for 24.00 a person, 5 hrs.

Tortola, was ok but not our preference and St Kitts is a nice place for Beach time and Diving.

St Thomas is a nice island too.

Norwegian Pearl is not my favorite Ship, so far being in 6 different ships i will put them in number 5 just before the Carnival Sensation. I normally learn the ships really fast and this one was complicated. The food in the Indigo room was like being with Mechanic Robots, people dont talk, even the Servers, Summer Palace was better but you will not have a fun experience where everyone laugh, talk and enjoy, I have the serious dinners at work, why I do want to have that in vacation time? I think is because the people were 60+ and everyone was looking at us like weird people (having fun)lol.

I did have better cruise experience in the Norwegian Sun ( A Major BLAST!!!!) and the STAR.

If you are under 50 years old, just book another cruise because this ship will be a dissapointed experience for you. The Jacuzzis were HOT hot all the time, except the last 2 days, people were seating outside them just with their legs inside.

The Shows were ok., the Comedian is ok, he use the people to do his comedies, wich is ok but seems like there is no material there.

The Cast was ok, not really good singers, they did try.  The what a night show was good. But we see the same show in the Norwegian Sun, Exactly the same.

The ship was very well maintained and clean. 

Pro - Entertainment was really good for a local production team on a smaller NCL ship. The comedian was very good!  All the productions, especially the Christmas production was very well done.

Pro- Food was top notch.  Went to four specialty restaurants and all were good.  The dinner service in the summer palace was excellent and one of the best cuts of prime rib I ever had.

Con - The seats in the Stardust theater are showing their age.  Many of the seats were bent and had a downwards angle making you feel like you are sliding off.

Overall - Excellent cruise and Great Ports!