Live from NCL Pearl Boston to Bermuda 04/15/2022

[styles27]

26 minutes ago, Longstockingpippi1 said:

What has been your favorite entertainment so far? Nothing stands out for me 🤔🤔

We enjoyed the production show the second night, that was the standout for us.
We went to The Bee Gees tribute in Bliss Lounge last night and they sang a Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers song which was funny. The female singer had a great voice though.
We haven’t done much of the night life because of having our grandson with us. We’re exhausted by 10 🙈

[styles27]

2 hours ago, Tyskie said:

Thank you for sharing your experiences on the Pearl - one of the few ships we have yet to sail. 

 

We will be on her this July - with our grandchildren (teenagers) and their parents.

 

Thanks too for the heads up re parking - will check out your roll call for the parking link.  Do you have any idea when the construction will be done or do you think it's an ongoing project?

 

Happy sailing home, so glad you have had good weather!

You’re very welcome! 
The construction looks ongoing to us. 

It’s gotten very windy here this afternoon hoping the seas are good to us. 
 

 

Isn’t the other NCL ship supposed to get to Bermuda today? 

[Tyskie]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

Isn’t the other NCL ship supposed to get to Bermuda today? 

 

 NCL Joy is still in the Caribbean I think the first cruise to Bermuda is towards the end of April.  Normally the cruise from NYC gets to BA on Wednesday - but things are so different with them adding Norfolk (NYC) and Bar Harbor (Boston) to the itinerary so 🤷‍♀️

 

 

[bluesea777]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

You’re very welcome! 
The construction looks ongoing to us. 

It’s gotten very windy here this afternoon hoping the seas are good to us. 
 

 

Isn’t the other NCL ship supposed to get to Bermuda today? 

 

Getaway arrives tomorrow morning until Friday afternoon. No other ships.

 

Edit: Getaway skipped Norfolk as she left NYC rather late on Sunday.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by bluesea777

[bluesea777]

Adios Pearl, safe sails back to Boston …. 
 

 

 

See you back here on Sunday. 

P.S. love your report - glad you all enjoyed Bermuda!

 

 

[Artcricket]

After reading a different thread about taxes on drinks before you get into International waters - do you know if taxes are added while in port in Bermuda. I just got off the phone with NCL land concierge and she told me no. 

[styles27]

Thanks everyone! I was confused because someone had posted a pic of two ships in Bermuda together last week. 
 

Have enjoyed taking you all along with us! Will check back later!❤️

Edited April 19, 2022 by styles27

[styles27]

1 minute ago, Artcricket said:

After reading a different thread about taxes on drinks before you get into International waters - do you know if taxes are added while in port in Bermuda. I just got off the phone with NCL land concierge and she told me no. 

I just had a mudslide in O’Sheehans this afternoon while in port and didn’t see a tax added. 

[Artcricket]

Thank you. Do you know about before you sail out of Boston? We will be in 3 bed garden villa and wondered if the adults kids ordered drinks with lunch if tax is added. I guess I’m assuming (not the best idea) that you can order drinks with meals and they are covered with the drink package. 

[bluesea777]

53 minutes ago, styles27 said:

Thanks everyone! I was confused because someone had posted a pic of two ships in Bermuda together last week. 
 

Have enjoyed taking you all along with us! Will check back later!❤️

 

That was moi .... 

 

Pearl & Gem - twin sisters - last week …. Gem was here for only one day ...

 

 

A rare occurrence and sight. 
 

Pearl comes to Bermuda every Sun-Tues this summer. 
 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by bluesea777

[DaisyGoldberg]

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

We enjoyed the production show the second night, that was the standout for us.
We went to The Bee Gees tribute in Bliss Lounge last night and they sang a Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers song which was funny. 

Assume this was Islands in the Stream -- the Bee Gees wrote it!

[1025cruise]

Yes, taxes are charged on drinks while in Boston.

[DonJuan77]

Thanks for the review Styles! We’re leaving this Friday and can’t wait! I think I saw you guys are going to Bar Harbor before returning. Do you have to go through customs before getting off?

[cruiserbear55]

1 hour ago, DonJuan77 said:

Thanks for the review Styles! We’re leaving this Friday and can’t wait! I think I saw you guys are going to Bar Harbor before returning. Do you have to go through customs before getting off?

  

   Was on the Boston-Bermuda -Brrr Harbor ( because it was cooold!) back to Beantown cruise the week of 4/8-4/15. Everyone had to go through customs in Maine. They set it up that you started at Indigo on deck 6, walked through Le Bistro, and exited at the Corona Cigar Lounge, Maltings and Magnums area.

   They grouped people together by their emergency assembly stations. So many stations to group 1, so many to group 2, etc.

   Here's where it got interesting, or ridiculous, as the case may be. They shut down the mid elevators. You can only access deck 6 from Indigo -forward on the mid or forward elevators. So let's say you were in a mini-suite on deck 11 aft. And let's also surmise that you use a walker,scooter, crutches, wheelchair, or are otherwise mobility impaired.

   In order to get to Indigo, you now had to traverse the entire ship to the forward elevators, then walk back half the ship to go through customs. People were NOT happy!! Not much thought seemed to have been put into this operation.

   IMHO, it would be much easier to use the Bliss Lounge on deck 7 for the customs check. There is much more room to snake people through Bliss, and not have the bottlenecks that we had.

   All you needed was your passport and ship/cabin card. They never asked about purchases. Paperwork said that aspect of disembarkation would happen in Boston, but it never did.

[1025cruise]

Yes, you will go through immigration in Bar Harbor. Customs is done in Boston. The paperwork has been stopped for some time. Anything bought on the ships is automatically recorded. I would guess that Customs had an arrangement with security to grab people as they were disembarking if there was a need. 

I went through immigration towards the end (I was in the spa and didn't hear any announcements) and there was a rep from the port agent and an Immigrations official walking through, I think discussing if there were a better way to do this. Remember, this was the first time this season. 

[dadiva18]

Thank you for these updates! My family and I will be on June 3rd and we can't wait!

 

My burning question is about karaoke on board.

On our past cruises, it seemed that the selection of songs did not change through the years on multiple ships. I'm wondering if they took some time during the pandemic to update their karaoke library? How recent are the songs?

 

We're a karaoke family, so inquiring minds would like to know.

 

Have fun on the way home! 🙂

[styles27]

23 hours ago, dadiva18 said:

Thank you for these updates! My family and I will be on June 3rd and we can't wait!

 

My burning question is about karaoke on board.

On our past cruises, it seemed that the selection of songs did not change through the years on multiple ships. I'm wondering if they took some time during the pandemic to update their karaoke library? How recent are the songs?

 

We're a karaoke family, so inquiring minds would like to know.

 

Have fun on the way home! 🙂

We’re weekly karaoke people too. Went to the Bliss lounge a couple of times to try to participate and both times it was young kids and teens singing. We didn’t stay around long enough to see if any adults sang. 
 

We’re just arriving in Bar Harbor and awaiting our group to be called for the immigration process. 
Very sunny but cold on our balcony. 

[styles27]

Daily from day 6 

 

[styles27]

Day 7

[KateQ22003]

Do they no longer have a band playing at the pool on sea days? I can't see it on the dailies, but maybe because it is so early in the season? I really enjoy live entertainment at the pool, and hope it's not a DJ.

[styles27]

Last evening they did a tribute to the legends show. It was really good the singer who sang Tina Turner was excellent!

Michael Jackson performer had the look and moves down and once in a while he sounded like MJ😉

 

The Madonna singer was also pretty good but Tina and MJ stole the show Iin our opinion. 
 

Tonight they’re having an aerial acrobatic  show in the Stardust. 
 

We feel fortunate to be having any shows since we know they’ve been suspended for a while. (Cruise director said this is the first cruise for the performers)

The ride up to Maine was pretty rough. They had motion sickness bags hanging on the banisters/stairs. Thankfully we didn’t need them. lol

 

It was extremely windy out on deck 12 yesterday. They drained the pool down a good 2’ for the brave souls who wanted to swim.
Hot tubs were packed.

We decided to enjoy our balcony most of the day. 
 

This morning unvaccinated children had to have an antigen test between 7-9:30. So if you’re traveling with kids that fall in that category just be prepared for that. 
 

[styles27]

1 minute ago, KateQ22003 said:

Do they no longer have a band playing at the pool on sea days? I can't see it on the dailies, but maybe because it is so early in the season? I really enjoy live entertainment at the pool, and hope it's not a DJ.

They had a duo perform a few times but very brief sets.
 

[KateQ22003]

Just now, styles27 said:

They had a duo perform a few times but very brief sets.
 

Thank you for the quick reply! This is very disappointing to me; I love tropical music by the pool!

[styles27]

On 4/19/2022 at 5:20 PM, DaisyGoldberg said:

Assume this was Islands in the Stream -- the Bee Gees wrote it!

It was! Great catch we didn’t think of that. 

[styles27]

1 minute ago, KateQ22003 said:

Thank you for the quick reply! This is very disappointing to me; I love tropical music by the pool!

Agree. Hopefully as the weeks go on they’ll have more live entertainment at the pool.