Pearl vs. Jewel

We have never cruised before, and plan to take a 5-day Caribbean cruise in Feb. We are interested in Norwegian because we like the freestyle idea. The two ship options are the Jewel and the Pearl. Looks like Pearl is a bit newer, and has a climbing wall and bowling alley. Other than those things, how do they compare to each other? Is one any better than the other, really? We can save a little $$$ by going on Jewel, but I'm inclined to go with the newer ship-Pearl. Has anyone sailed on both who can help us decide?

Haven't sailed both yet, but did Jewel a few years back and will sail on Pearl in January. Looking at the ship layouts and services, they seem the same. The biggest differences appear to be the rock wall and the bowling alley. Fun, but not a decisive advantage imo.

The restaurants and menus are the same, the consolidated bars are the same, gym/spa, etc, all same.

I would choose between them on (1) price and (2) itinerary.

If you want to try freestyle, you can't go wrong with either, as they were purposeful built for it!

DW and I have been on both: Jewel - Jan '06, and Pearl - Feb '07. Both were awesome cruises. The Jewel was the newest ship in the NCL fleet at the time and the Pearl was the newest when we sailed on her. Both are great ships and you won't go wrong which ever you choose. I would have to give the Pearl a slight advantage due to Bowling, slightly better layout (IMHO), and overall fuzzy metrics. But, really, they are both great and nearly identical.

We've also sailed on both ships -- the Jewel a year ago on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary, and the Pearl to Alaska in May. I give a slight overall edge to the Pearl. The bowling alley is fun, while the rock climbing wall has no appeal to me but might to my daughter. Our main reason for preferring the Pearl may sound silly, but for us, the "edge" was generated by the seating on the Promenade deck. On the Jewel, the chairs on that deck were literally that -- chairs. On the Pearl, they had nice loungers out (complete with blankets since it was an Alaskan itinerary). We don't spend the money for a balcony, and I don't tolerate direct sunlight for long, so we spent a lot of time on both cruises sitting on the Promenade deck.

Having said that, there would have to be a pretty significant price difference to it to make any difference to us. With the alternating 5 and 9 day cruises that the two ships are doing, I'd go with the one that best met my scheduling needs.

The main difference between the two ship is that one has a rock climbing wall and a bowling alley. If you are someone that wants to make use of these and itinerary times etc. don't make a difference then go with the Pearl. As I knew I had no intention of using either, I went with the best price, itinerary, etc....

The Jewel doesn't have the nice comfy lounge "beds" like the Pearl. The Pearl is a bit bigger, but I didn't feel the Jewel was so huge when I was inside. If the Jewel is cheaper, then maybe you can go on her instead and get a better cabin.

The spa on the Pearl is much larger than the Jewel And the sauna has windows to look out The pool area also has bed/lounges as does the Spa The garden cafe also is setup different - better on the Pearl

WOW you guys are awesome. Aside from the bowling alley and the climbing wall, I didn't notice any of those differences!

Robin

It says that the Jewel has interactive ITV in rooms--allows receipt and sending of e-mail using the TV and a keyboard. Does the Pearl have this feature? Seems odd that it would not have been put in a newer ship.

I didn't notice interactive TV on either the Jewel or the Pearl -- maybe they added to the Jewel more recently?? I've kept saying that the solution to the reservation problem is for passengers to be able to do their restaurants requests from an interactive TV screen, and to display the restaurant availability on the TV. If they've really put the technology on the Jewel, I wonder if that feature will be added?

Hey All,

Looking to book a 9 day cruise before midnight tonight and was wondering if there were any other Jewel v. Pearl opinions out there.

Thanks,

Lee

We were deciding on between Pearl and Jewel to go on B2B cruises next March/April but booked on Pearl because of the dates! Jewel was slightly cheaper (a few dollars) but we did not want to finish the cruise on a Sunday to fly to arrive home late evening and return to work/school on the next morning. We opted to go on Pearl to finish on a Friday so we will have 2 days to recover.

Look at the start and end dates and flight fares, and then decide on which cruise/ship.

Another thing: most week long cruises arrive in and depart from Miami on Sat/Sun (esp the 2 RCCL mega ships Freedom and Liberty) ... we opted to start and finish our cruise on a Friday.