Norwegian Pearl Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was our first cruise and we loved it! We were blown away by the size of the ship, the friendliness of the crew and the quality of the food, stateroom and entertainment.

This is my second time on the Norwegian Pearl. We were on the maiden voyage, then again a year later. The ship is fantastic. The people that wait on you are friendly and efficient. The ship is clean, and I love how there is hand sanitizer everywhere. The room stewards were very attentive.

The ship is beautiful. It is pretty easy to navigate, there are signs everywhere. And if you do need help finding something, the staff is very friendly and helpful with everything.

One of Norwegian's newest ships and it is gorgeous. Very friendly and helpful staff all around. You hardly felt a wave on the ocean the ride was so smooth. To combat noro-virus, they had hand-sanitizing stations everywhere, and I mean everywhere, which is a little bit of a put off, and I didn't like the freestyle dining. While the food was okay I think that because of the various dining rooms they couldn't focus on the "wow" factor in the main dining rooms. The 2 "specialty" restaurants which were "free" were hard to get reservations at (and they didn't tell you you should make reservations") and the other 5, you had to pay surcharges ranging from $10 to $20 per person to eat at them, which was not addressed. Beautiful pool/deck area which quickly filled up during our "at sea" days making it hard to find lounge chairs; but the sun was shining and the smooth ride made a good time by all.

The Norweigan Pearl is a clean, beautiful ship. We had a stateroom with a balcony that added significantly to our enjoyment. Most areas of interest were easily accessible both by stairs and elevators.

Ship it self was very nice and new. Our room was large w/a balcony.

The Pearl was a very nice new ship. I thought that since it was a Christmas Cruise the ship would of been decorated a little more.

This was our first 'sea' vacation ever and our experience was truly 'magical'. We enjoyed every minute on the ship. The staff was very polite, courteous and pleasant. We enjoyed swimming, relaxing in the hot tub or sitting out on the deck and listening to the enchanting Caribbean music. The range of choices for the food was excellent. Everyone in the family from young to old found many dishes they liked for every meal! My son was specially thrilled with the unlimited icecream! The game arcade also deserves a mention here - there were plenty of games and very addictive too! Our son went there 2 times every day! The ship was maintained in sparkling condition. Our linens in the cabin were replaced daily and the beds were made very neatly. The theatre shows every evening were very unique and special. The Christmas show, the magic show and the Second City show are just a few to name. The rock climbing wall also became a favorite spot for both the adult and the kids! Early morning walks/jogs on the jogging trail were so refreshing and peaceful. On the whole, the experience was just magical. The five days just flew by magically :-). We will always cherish our memories on the ship and definitely recommend it to anybody on the market for a cruise!

We had an extended family vacation on the NCL Pearl - it was wonderful. Definitely recommend balcony cabins! We had 4 in a row and opened the doors between them to have an extended lanai. Beds were comfortable and the cabins quiet. Lots to do on board, both for adults and kids. Our oldest LOVED the waterslide and our youngest had fun too. Food was great and what a huge variety! Really appreciated being able to feed the kids, drop them off at kids club and have dinner with just the husband! Wish there were more at sea days than the rush of shore days.

We had a great time but felt crowded a good bit of the time. The exception being the Star Bar. It was hard to find but worth the effort. The crew was wonderful--unfailingly polite and helpful. It was a good itinerary to go an overview of the Caribbean. My grandson loved the bowling alley while his granddad found it a challenge to bowl on a moving ship--both had lots of fun trying.

Cheerful, helpful staff. For three of our nine dinners at the main dining room we were given a beeper: once it did not work and we waited forty minutes. Food there was inconsistent: some great, a lot with minimal taste, only one dish was actually bad, "lump crab meat" was fake. Three theater programs were great (a magician, an impressionist/singer, an improv group) , three were really boring. Not enough programs on the last sea day. Freestyle cruising sounds good but you can't eat when you want because too many other people want to eat then too (only large parties can reserve the main dining room). You can't eat where you want because reservations there are already taken.

~1/3 of the top level of the ship is privatized for penthouse-passengers, another 1/3 is used for Spa and Thermal facilities, if you do no want to pay $250/trip you do not have access to these areas too that leaves you and the rest ~2500 passengers 1/3 of the ships top level for 2 pools, 4 whirlpools and one kiddy pool. Poor menu for diner, no filet mignon, no lobsters, and even plain stakes are not available every night, so expect cover charge $20-25/person/day if you want to eat something nice. In buffet expect long lines for everything, including water and coffee. It is hard to reserve table for 2 in regular restaurant, it is hard to reserve table in any free specialty restaurants, especially in Italian La Cuchina you have to call at 7:00 in the morning, and if you are lucky to get through, you may get table for next day. Bowling is $5/person/game. Sauna and steam room is $24/person/day or $140/person/trip or $250/couple/trip. You HAVE to sanitize your hands with stinky isopropyl alcohol at every step, even if you just washed them with the soap. Shows are average.

ABOUT US: This is our seventh cruise. We have previously booked with Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Carnival. FREESTYLE DINING: This ship has 10 real restaurants (Garden Cafe (buffet), Indigo/Summer Palace (same menu), Lotus Garden, Sushi Bar, Teppanyaki Room, Le Bistro, Cagney Steakhouse, La Cucina, Mambos, and Blue Lagoon). This sounded great to us, however WHAT A MISTAKE! -Reservations: You have to make reservations for every restaurant besides the Garden Cafe and Indigo/Summer Palace or you will never get in. You can only make a reservation for the day you call and the following day, however with 2700 passengers you better wake up before 8am to make your reservations the day before, or you will be out of luck. This process is more work than it's worth and takes away the whole idea of freestyle dining (pick where and when you want to eat) because you have to plan the day before and we never got the desired time we wanted. -Extra Fees: Realistically theres only 5 restaurants to choose from (Garden Caf, Indigo/Summer Palace, La Cucina, Mambos, Blue Lagoon) because the others charge between $10 to $20 per person! We heard that Cagneys Steakhouse was worth the extra charge ($80 in total for us), but as we read the menu, the good stuff was another $10 charge per person! We could have had a better meal back home if we spent this much and because this is a cruise, it should have been inclusive. -Food/Service: The food quality and selection was the worst weve experienced on any cruise! Typically, dinner is what we look forward to the most; however it was the opposite on this cruise. The menu at the main dining rooms (Indigo/Summer Palace) consisted of pork chops and turkey! The bread was cold and the same each night. Because it is freestyle dining you dont have an assigned server and tip is automatic, we received no personal attention, unlike past cruises. The servers were assigned too many tables, which made service agonizingly slow. I could go on and tell you some of our stories of just waiting 20 minutes for our server and finally had to get up and ask a bar server to find out server and she was unable to and ended up taking care of us. Speaking about bar servers, theyre everywhere and have nothing to do because drinks are so overpriced. This is the first cruise we didnt purchase drinks regularly. If you want decent quality food and service, you have to go to one of the restaurants that charge. OVERALL: This cruise was designed to maximize profits. There were no ice carvings, no midnight buffets, nothing at all. Princess had the Champagne Fountain, Carnival had the midnight Buffets Royal Caribbean had the ice carvings, and Norwegian hadnothing! Sauna and Steam Room normally free cost $20 per person/per day! At the end of the cruise we asked some servers if other people complained and they were quite honestthe answer was YES! Some justification for the poor service is that Norwegian has the longest contract than any other cruise line (10 months, 7 days a week, 10 hours a day, thats borderline slave labor lol), its no wonder service is poor, one server told us many burn out before the end of their contract. This cruise makes Carnival seem like Radisson Seven Seas! The only people that we talked to who were satisfied with the cruise were first time cruisers, but we didnt meet a single experienced cruiser who thought anything good about Norwegian.

Unless your idea of a good time is fighting your way trying to balance a plate and a hot cup of coffee through crowds of people all trying to do the same thing (breakfast and lunch), or waiting in line for over an hour for a table at dinner, take our advice - don't cruise with NCL!! Their much-advertised Freestyle Dining' - eat what you want, when you want - maybe be a good idea in theory, but not in practice. We just got back from a 9 day southern Caribbean cruise on the Pearl and found the whole dining experience a nightmare - and we were certainly not alone in that. Though there are 12 restaurants on the ship, only 5 of those don't have an extra charge, and the no-extra-charge ones don't take reservations, so you have to turn up and hope for the best. Our longest wait was 1 hr 50 mins between leaving our cabin and finally sitting down to eat - and 20 minutes of that was waiting in line just to put our name down and get a beeper. When we arrived at the Summer Palace restaurant on the second night, the line stretched halfway down the ship, with old people with walking frames who couldn't stand for long, tired hungry kids running around screaming, and the rest who were just very unhappy passengers. We filmed this and will be sending a clip to NCL to show just how well their system works. Not. Even in the 'extra-charge' restaurants you can only make reservations between 10-5 one day in advance, so unless you called first thing, we found they were either fully booked already or you could only get at table at 5.30 or 10.00pm. We're not 'early-bird' diners and thought we might have a better chance eating at 7.30 or 8, but sadly not. Often when we eventually did get into a restaurant, there were many empty tables, so clearly there was a staff problem somewhere. We own a restaurant, so we know very well how quickly a table can be cleared and re-set. We complained - along with most of the rest of the passengers I think - but couldn't get a straight answer as to why there were so many problems, and the Restaurant Manager was not a happy man, having to deal with so many complaints. Added to this, there had apparently been outbreaks of the Norwalk virus on 2 previous cruises, so for the first few days you had to be served your food in the Garden Cafe (buffet-style restaurant) which meant long lines and even more chaos. NCL are to be commended on their efforts to keep everyone healthy, and I believe they succeeded, but they needed more servers at the stations to keep things moving. Our food was always cold by the time we got it and found a place to sit. On the plus side, the staff were mostly surprisingly pleasant and helpful, given the problems they were clearly working under, and the food - once we got it - was usually OK, though wouldn't say great. Because trying to get a meal in a timely manner ended up something akin to planning a military operation, we can't say we had a relaxing and restful time - which is what cruising should be all about. So thanks NCL, but that was our first and last time 'freestyling'.

CONSTANT EFFORT TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF THE UNAWARE. EXTRA CHARGES FOR RESTAURANTS THEN EXTRA CHARGES FOR SOME MENU ITEMS. NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE RESERVATIONS AT RESTAURANTS. TOO MANY PEOPLE IN TOO LITTLE SPACE

The ship was very nice. We enjoyed playing WII on the 20 foot screen TV. The freestyle dining was not good at all. You had to get up at 7 am to get a dining reservation. If you went straight to the dining room their was a hour to a hour and a half wait time. The buffet food was good. The shows were excellent. We have cruised 10 times and these were the best shows yet.

The ship was very clean. They took more precautions than any ship I have been on. The freestyle is great and so is the food. The crew were very friendly. Excursions were great. A couple ob bad points. 1. Thought it cost under ten bucks a day to park but after driving 12 hrs to get there found it was 20 bucks a day. I was sure that is not what it said but could be wrong?? 2. Forget about any benifits for repeat travellers on the Norwegean line. Stand in long lines like everyone else. Discount book is only if you buy a lot then get 1 free. Think everyone gets that... 3. Seemed a little unorganized on initial boarding and leaving boat. 4. Room did not get made up til afternoon. 5. Entertainment was mediocre.

We took the a five day Caribbian West cruise with Novigian Pearl from Dec 9 to 14. It was the first time we take a cruise and it was a wonderful experience. The equipment and services were excellent. The food and activitie were well prepared. The room we stayed and restaurants are very clean. We like the variety of the food served. I acctually like everything during the cruise. We definitely will come back.

The ship is beautiful and because it was built recently it has stabilizers which helped tremendously in our 15 foot waves from "OLGA"

Very nice cruise. Had a lot of good ports. I enjoyed it and would like to do it again (if they change the entertainment). Overall it was worth it. A lot of pros and only a few cons. I do feel you get the impression that you are being nickeled and dimed to death. Simon the cruise director was more like a salesman then a entertainment director. Even when you go into the speciality restaurants and pay the cover fee, there is another fee on top of that for different foods. So you can get hit twice.