NCL Pearl Review- New Year’s Cruise 2018

[Aixia]

I recently got back from our wonderful trip on the Pearl, and I wanted to share my thoughts about the trip.

 

About us- My husband and I cruise fairly often, usually on NCL, but we’ve also been on MSC and enjoyed it. We’ve been on NCL’s Breakaway, Getaway, Escape, and Sky (twice), and MSC’s Divina. We look forward to trying both MSC Seaside and NCL Bliss, and also the big Royal ships. We wanted to try out Pearl since we had heard such great things about it and we wanted to try out both the Western Caribbean route and the New Orleans port. This particular cruise group was my husband and me, my sister and her family, and my father. My mother was originally supposed to come, but got sick before the trip and couldn’t make it. We all had balcony cabins on Deck 10.

 

New Orleans- I had never been to New Orleans before, though some of my family had. We decided to spend an extra day there to see the sights, so came in two days ahead of boarding to give ourselves a play day in the city to start. We experienced the aquarium, WWII museum, and the French Quarter. We had a phenomenal time. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, right near the port. The price was good, the happy hours/breakfasts were good, and the location was fantastic. My sister had some plumbing issues, and parking is pretty expensive, but those were the only real negatives. Boarding at the pier was super easy.

 

The Pearl- While the Pearl is lovely, we are definitely mega-ship people. I’ve heard so many times on this board how in love with the Jewel-class everyone is, and that’s one of the things that drew us to Pearl. But there’s just not enough going on for us. We like the bells and whistles. One thing we did like was how the ship never felt crowded, even though we knew it was completely sold out weeks before we sailed. We never had a wait to get into any restaurant, only short waits at bars, and great attention from the crew. That we really appreciated.

 

The spa- We had spa passes for my husband, my father, and me. The Escape’s spa is still our favorite, with the –Aways coming in second. Pearl was ok. There weren’t enough heated or regular loungers on the busy days. I know that’s a common complaint on the others too. The thalasso pool was great though. We did get massages as well, and those were lovely. I went to the spa every day, at least for a short time.

 

Splash Academy- My niece is 12, and was enrolled at Splash Academy. She’d done the same 10-12 age group on Escape. In every instance of the activities she participated in, she said she liked the Escape version better. My sister remarked repeatedly how much better the club on Escape was run. On more than one occasion, the groups were not where they said they were going to be at the time they said they’d be there, making pick-up or drop-off difficult/impossible. There were no notes left, no crew members stationed at the listed location, no notes sent to staterooms with changes, nothing. Unacceptable.

 

Food- I have food allergies and have to eat gluten-free, and need to pre-order my dinners every night when sailing on NCL. One nice change I discovered this cruise was that the menus all have at least one gluten-free item already listed on the regular menu. This came in very handy the night that I didn’t pre-order! Our waiter the night before was a bit scattered, and forgot to bring the next night’s menu, and I forgot to ask myself since I’d gotten so used to it just coming to me with dessert. No worries though, the next night was no problem at all. I was even pleasantly surprised when we asked at Lotus Garden (the included Chinese restaurant) if they could accommodate GF diets. They could, and I had a delicious meal there one night. There’s only fried rice, stir fry vegetables, and sweet and sour pork available, but if you’re good with all that (which I am), then it’s a great option. One thing that astounded me was that I must have been the only one who’d registered as GF on the ship. No matter which restaurant I went to, or which server I had, they all either recognized me, knew me already by name, or knew me by cabin number, as needing gluten-free food. I’m betting there was a list or a notification to them somewhere that I was onboard. Now that’s service! We ate primarily in Summer Palace. We tried Indigo once for dinner and the décor just wasn’t our thing, and they couldn’t accommodate all 6 of us at one table. So, we just went to Summer Palace every time after that.

 

Entertainment- I work in the entertainment industry, as does my husband, as does my father. We’re picky about entertainment. However, we largely enjoyed the entertainment onboard. The comedian was quite good, and we really liked the production singers, dancers, and band. The Legends concert was really weak though. The Michael Jackson impersonator was pretty good, but the other two were not. Oh, and for those fans of Fountains, it’s still there, and still funny. We had it at the end of the crew talent show on the last sea day, and it was held during the afternoon, not at night.

 

New Year’s Party- Since this was a New Year’s cruise, it was a little different on that night. We had sailed on New Year’s once before, on Sky. This year, as there was then, there was a special dinner menu in the MDR, free champagne toast at midnight, and a party going on in pretty much every venue. We went to O’Sheehans/Atrium to listen to the production band play instead of doing the pool deck party. We were quite happy with our choice. We had an early excursion the next morning, so we left a few minutes after midnight to go to bed. The vibe on New Year’s cruises is so fun!

 

Ports- We were on a somewhat different itinerary than usual, since ours was an 8-day cruise with 5 ports. We visited Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Roatan, Harvest Caye, and Costa Maya. I think the usual 7-day doesn’t do Grand Cayman. All of these ports were completely new to us, as we’ve stuck to Eastern Caribbean, Bermuda, and Bahamas cruises so far.

 

Excursions- We had chosen the shore excursion credit as one of our perks, so therefore took mostly ship excursions. I know many on this board aren’t fans of ship excursions, and I completely understand your point. For us, this particular perk made the most sense since we knew we wanted ship excursions due to the short times in port and totally new ports for us. We also get the Gold level discount on shore excursions, so the price was comparable to an independent tour once the discount and credit were factored in. For us, it was the right move. Your mileage may vary, and you need to do the math yourself. We also did one non-ship excursion, in Costa Maya. Remember that if you want the Latitudes discount for excursions, it’s not automatic, you have to go ask for it at the excursions desk.

 

Cozumel- We did the Three Reef Snorkel. Wonderful! The first two reef stops were our best, though they said usually the third is the best. We saw a ton of really cool fish, and our guide, Tavo, was wonderful. Highly recommend! I would not recommend this one for a newbie snorkeler though, it’s definitely something for after you’ve got a little experience. You have to jump off the boat to get into the water, so this one’s not for the weak swimmers or nervous swimmers. We had originally chosen a Mayan ruin excursion, but since our day in Cozumel was New Year’s Day, the park was closed and our excursion was cancelled a couple weeks before we sailed. It ended up just fine. I’m sure we’ll end up in Cozumel again sometime, so we can see their ruins then.

 

Grand Cayman- My husband and I did the bike tour, along with my brother-in-law. It didn’t really give a lot of description, but we had done a bike tour in St. Maarten and really liked it, so we figured this would be ok. This one was very different than that one, much less historical, but still fun. We biked about 7.5 miles total, and visited the Turtle Sanctuary, a gift shop for rum and rum cake tasting, and Hell, a site with cool rock formations. The three of us tended to stay at the front of the pack with our guide, but we ended up having to stop at one point since we lost the back of the group on the last leg. Oops! Guess we were going too fast. The bikes were in pretty rough shape and had some trouble staying in gear. It was an ok tour, perfectly adequate, and a good option for those who like biking. We did get to see a good chunk of the island, which was a definite plus. We hear the snorkeling is good here, so we’ll probably try that if we ever make it back.

 

Roatan- My husband came down with a nasty cold and skipped this one, so I went alone to the Jolly Roger Catamaran and Snorkel. What a fun day! I wish the snorkel guide would have told us the names of what we were seeing, but oh well. The snorkeling was only ok, we had seen more interesting things in Cozumel. However, the trip back from the reef was incredible. There was a pod of dolphins that started playing with our boat, jumping out near us, racing us, it was amazing. At one point, I think we had 7-8 hanging out with us, including one mama-baby pair. The captain said we were extremely lucky, that something like that happens only every 2-3 years.

 

Harvest Caye- We went on the Mayan Ruins and Spice Farm excursion, which takes up the entire day, so we really didn’t get to see much of Harvest Caye itself. However, the excursion was wonderful. The spice farm was really cool, and we all bought a bunch of spices to take home. We finally got to see our Mayan ruins too. There are no pyramids at this site, and a lot of it is reconstructed as opposed to seeing it as discovered, but it was still interesting. Our guides, Felix and Carlos, were wonderful. Maybe next time we’ll spend time at the actual Harvest Caye and see what they have to offer.

 

Costa Maya- We went to everyone’s favorite resort this day, Maya Chan! Seriously people, it lives up to all the hype. The food is delicious, and I could eat anything I wanted since it was all gluten free. They keep the drinks coming, and even bring them to you in the water! It was so nice to have a beach day to just soak up the sun and have a little break before heading back to the cold. Yes, the road there is ridiculously bad, so even though distance-wise it’s not far from the ship, the trip takes 30-40 minutes. Keep an eye out for iguanas along the road, we saw a bunch! They take very good care of you, and they make special note of when everyone has to be back and they make sure you don’t miss the ship. We’ll absolutely be back.

 

Overall- All things considered, we had a great time. We would have no problems sailing out of New Orleans again, or doing the Western Caribbean again. A truly wonderful cruise!

[ColeThornton]

Your sister had plumbing issues? Hope she saw a doctor about that. ;p

 

Good review, thanks for posting.

[Keith1010]

Fantastic review.

 

Very informative and very well organized.

 

Keith

[Aixia]

Your sister had plumbing issues? Hope she saw a doctor about that. ;p

 

Good review, thanks for posting.

 

Ha! Ok, to be more specific, my sister's hotel bathroom had plumbing issues. They had to come by twice to fix it. :D

[jdvmd]

Great review! Glad that NCL could accommodate your gluten-free needs and allergies.

[Karen1969]

Thanks so much for the details regarding eating GF. This is my first cruise after being diagnosed with auto-immune, so I’m a bit nervous. I’ve already communicated with NCL, so think all will be well. But it’s good to hear of your experience, particularly on the Pearl, which is the ship I will be on.

[Aixia]

Thanks so much for the details regarding eating GF. This is my first cruise after being diagnosed with auto-immune, so I’m a bit nervous. I’ve already communicated with NCL, so think all will be well. But it’s good to hear of your experience, particularly on the Pearl, which is the ship I will be on.

 

 

 

Karen, you’ll be in good hands. Since you’ve already contacted the Access Desk, all you need to do now is do the pre-order thing. I usually visit the MDR on embarkation day for lunch, and ask to meet with the maitre d’ to discuss the special needs. They’ll have you pre-order then for that night’s dinner, and probably the night after too. You can do lunches and breakfasts too. I usually do the buffet for those, but if you’re a newbie to the world of special diets, I wouldn’t recommend it. Cross contamination is rampant in buffets and you need to know your limits first. Each night at dinner, ask for the menu for the next night and they’ll take care of you. Oh, and don’t worry about ordering for one MDR or the other, it’s the same special needs galley, so your order is good for either one.

 

NCL does a great job with special diets. Lines where you retain the same waiter every night (like MSC) handle things differently, but both ways have their advantages. You have to do a tiny bit more legwork on NCL, but I’ve never had any issue at all.

 

Oh, and try the curries. Indian food is nearly always gluten free (minus the breads of course), and the head chef onboard is Indian. So yummy! The buffet has an awesome selection of them at lunch.

[Clarea]

Excellent review, thanks!

[newmexicoNita]

just the type of review I like, you covered everything but didn't go on and on. thanks. We took the same cruise in November. I agree with you on the entertainment and the legends show: we too thought the 2 acts were not worth our time but Michael Jackson was very good. We were exceptionally disappointed in Elvis.

 

For us, as we are older, the Jewel Class ships are our favorite, but I can understand younger cruisers preferring the mega ships.