Thoughts on Norweigan Pearl, Apr 1 - 8

I thought I would do this review "a la Cruise Critic style", noting some hits, misses and some things that were in between.

Hits

• Ship refurb - since a visit to the Pearl less than a year ago, I noticed many public areas had new carpeting, new upholstery, new furniture, or all three.
  
• Captain - Captain Paul made announcements daily, and not just the typical longitude/latitude information.
  
• Washy washy singers - Two crew members at the midship entrance to the Garden Café played the guitar and sang every morning for breakfast and lunch. Cute touch and nice way to remind you to sanitize your hands.
  
• Garden Café - the variety here for all three meals was impressive. You'd be hard-pressed not to find something that piques your interest.
  
• Music onboard - for the most part, the musicians were great. Special props to the Caribbean band "Energy Plus" and the female lead singer. Wow, can she sing.
  
• Food - We found all meals in all venues to be very good. It's fun to have so many restaurants to choose from.
  
• Medical center - My traveling companion had to visit the infirmary and remain there for a few hours (she's ok) but the medical staff were excellent and very thorough.
  

In Between:

• Pearl Production Cast - While the "Legends in Concert" show was entertaining, their first show "Pure Variety" had zero production value and was nothing more than several dance numbers in lackluster costumes performed in front of a sparkly black curtain. There was no set. At all.
  
• Service - While there were a good number of very friendly crew members, there was an equal amount of crew who were grouchy, expressionless and overall just indifferent. Don't expect to get a hello from all crew that you pass or many instances of crew going above and beyond. There were many times I was seated in an uncrowded lounge and either waited 25 mins for a bar waiter or was just simply ignored. There wasn't a glowing feeling of happiness amongst the crew onboard.
  
• Beverage Package- A great thing to have and super convenient, but on the flip side, everyone must have had it. Expect a wait for drinks, especially by the pool on sea days. The beautiful Spinnaker forward lounge was not open until 7pm or after, which put extra pressure on the Atrium Bar and Magnums/Champagne Bar area for pre-dinner cocktails.
  
• Social media package - This worked fine for us, but those who have sailed on Carnival will find it much more expensive.
  

Misses:

• Mattresses - both of ours in the cabin were very saggy in the middle, causing discomfort. We heard several comments about this. Best to ask for egg crates. In our instance, one of our beds necessitated two.
  
• Photographers - They are everywhere. The pool deck, the lounges, the nightly events, the main dining rooms, the Steakhouse, the gangway, the Italian restaurant, the pier....
  
• This is not a new ship with all the entertainment bells and whistles, so those that have done the Celebrity Solstice-class, the larger Royal Caribbean ships and even the larger NCL ships might find the options limited and/or dated.
  
• Embarkation - could benefit from some additional volume/speakers as announcements were next to impossible to hear in a room of 1000+ people.
  

Overall, there was a lot to like on the Pearl, with some noticeable missteps, most noticeably the varying service levels . It's hard not to think of the heavy competition of more amenity-filled ships. While I wouldn't necessarily run back to this ship, it was a good, solid cruise and I'd probably consider one of the Breakaway class and above next. Those who are looking for a more traditional cruise experience and don't need the waterslides etc will be fine on the Pearl. We feel we got our monies worth and had an enjoyable week.

Thanks for reading! :)

Thanks for the review! Too bad to hear about the bed issues and the crowds at the bar. I plan on sleeping and drinking a lot on my upcoming cruise :)

Glad you had an enjoyable week all in all.

Thank-you for your report.

Thanks for the review. The Pearl is my favorite ship. I have to agree about the photographs, they can be a pain.

Awesome review! Thanks!

Great review, I can't wait for our January cruise.

We were on that same cruise and I must say I really enjoyed it. We danced every night and like you said, much love to energy plus. Avalon gets some love too because they kept the pool deck rockin. Dennis, the electric guitar player was super smooth in the atrium. We had a real good time on this cruise and can't wait til norweigan returns to New Orleans

I thought I would do this review "a la Cruise Critic style", noting some hits, misses and some things that were in between.

 

Hits

 

• Ship refurb - since a visit to the Pearl less than a year ago, I noticed many public areas had new carpeting, new upholstery, new furniture, or all three.
  
• Captain - Captain Paul made announcements daily, and not just the typical longitude/latitude information.
  
• Washy washy singers - Two crew members at the midship entrance to the Garden Café played the guitar and sang every morning for breakfast and lunch. Cute touch and nice way to remind you to sanitize your hands.
  
• Garden Café - the variety here for all three meals was impressive. You'd be hard-pressed not to find something that piques your interest.
  
• Music onboard - for the most part, the musicians were great. Special props to the Caribbean band "Energy Plus" and the female lead singer. Wow, can she sing.
  
• Food - We found all meals in all venues to be very good. It's fun to have so many restaurants to choose from.
  
• Medical center - My traveling companion had to visit the infirmary and remain there for a few hours (she's ok) but the medical staff were excellent and very thorough.
  

In Between:

• Pearl Production Cast - While the "Legends in Concert" show was entertaining, their first show "Pure Variety" had zero production value and was nothing more than several dance numbers in lackluster costumes performed in front of a sparkly black curtain. There was no set. At all.
  
• Service - While there were a good number of very friendly crew members, there was an equal amount of crew who were grouchy, expressionless and overall just indifferent. Don't expect to get a hello from all crew that you pass or many instances of crew going above and beyond. There were many times I was seated in an uncrowded lounge and either waited 25 mins for a bar waiter or was just simply ignored. There wasn't a glowing feeling of happiness amongst the crew onboard.
  
• Beverage Package- A great thing to have and super convenient, but on the flip side, everyone must have had it. Expect a wait for drinks, especially by the pool on sea days. The beautiful Spinnaker forward lounge was not open until 7pm or after, which put extra pressure on the Atrium Bar and Magnums/Champagne Bar area for pre-dinner cocktails.
  
• Social media package - This worked fine for us, but those who have sailed on Carnival will find it much more expensive.
  

Misses:

• Mattresses - both of ours in the cabin were very saggy in the middle, causing discomfort. We heard several comments about this. Best to ask for egg crates. In our instance, one of our beds necessitated two.
  
• Photographers - They are everywhere. The pool deck, the lounges, the nightly events, the main dining rooms, the Steakhouse, the gangway, the Italian restaurant, the pier....
  
• This is not a new ship with all the entertainment bells and whistles, so those that have done the Celebrity Solstice-class, the larger Royal Caribbean ships and even the larger NCL ships might find the options limited and/or dated.
  
• Embarkation - could benefit from some additional volume/speakers as announcements were next to impossible to hear in a room of 1000+ people.
  

Overall, there was a lot to like on the Pearl, with some noticeable missteps, most noticeably the varying service levels . It's hard not to think of the heavy competition of more amenity-filled ships. While I wouldn't necessarily run back to this ship, it was a good, solid cruise and I'd probably consider one of the Breakaway class and above next. Those who are looking for a more traditional cruise experience and don't need the waterslides etc will be fine on the Pearl. We feel we got our monies worth and had an enjoyable week.

 

 

Thanks for reading! :)

Thanks for the review, it should be very helpful for those cruising on her in the next year or so. Much of what you day is similar to our experience last November. We didn't find anything wrong with our mattress, we may have just been lucky. As for the service, I would agree it was hit and miss from time to time. Mostly it was good. As for the crowded bars, yes, they were a bit crowded. We never had to wait long for a drink though. We just picked the ones that were not as busy and their seemed to be plenty of servers in places like the atrium. Yes, the pool bar was the worst. And yes, the photographers were a pain in the you know what!!!!