Live on Norwegian Pearl May 27th

[Betsynh]

Another fun fact! We anchor in Bar Harbor tomorrow and Customs boards the ship to check all of us back in the country. We’re supposed to go in groups based on our assembly station. We are C2… BUT… we booked the NCL Nature Cruise departing at 1:05pm and anyone departing before 1:30pm gets to go in the first group. Once you leave ship, you can’t come back until Customs is done, so we are planning to layer up (it’s only 60-ish now) and bring everything for our excursion when we check in to hopefully avoid long tender lines! Stay tuned!

[Betsynh]

Tonight was the Glow Party—bring white or neon to wear. Although we danced every other night of the cruise, it was waayyyy too crowded and felt like potential super-spreader event so we watched for a bit and ditched at 11pm.  Great energy though. Cruise staff were awesome!

[Valchie]

Enjoying your review.  And your writing style.  Thanks for posting. We sail Pearl in early July and looking forward to it except very stressed over the proctored covid test.  I just feel like I'll  mess something up.  Ugh.   Enjoy. 

[The_Honeymooners]

Betsy, thanks so much for this review thread.  My family and I will be on the boat the beginning of July and this has proved very informative.  How have the gluten free options been (we have one in our party that's celiac)?

[Betsynh]

8 hours ago, Valchie said:

Enjoying your review.  And your writing style.  Thanks for posting. We sail Pearl in early July and looking forward to it except very stressed over the proctored covid test.  I just feel like I'll  mess something up.  Ugh.   Enjoy. 

We used the eMed proctored tests for this trip and a previous one. It was actually pretty simple—and I’m a “nervous Nellie”.  We even brought home tests with us on the ship but haven’t had symptoms to warrant testing. 

[Betsynh]

8 hours ago, The_Honeymooners said:

Betsy, thanks so much for this review thread.  My family and I will be on the boat the beginning of July and this has proved very informative.  How have the gluten free options been (we have one in our party that's celiac)?

The food has been great and I was able to choose more than just the items with the GF symbol. Last night had GF pasta which wasn’t listed. Didn’t try the pizza yet but it’s an option. Analiza is amazing and makes sure that everything is 1000% perfect. I brought Gluten Cutter but haven’t needed it. We’ve eaten in the Summer Palace for breakfast each day (preordered) and had GF French toast —the thick puffy kind! Aldo omelets etc. They bring GF toast with every dinner when hubbby gets the bread basket. I’ve been super impressed. At Tepppanyaki they used GF soy sauce for the whole group of 8 so no fear there. They just left the seaweed off my salad. People seemed knowledgeable overall but I’m not celiac. We’ve been pleased to the point we did the CruiseNext deposit for Hawaii in the future!!

[1025cruise]

12 hours ago, Betsynh said:

Another fun fact! We anchor in Bar Harbor tomorrow and Customs boards the ship to check all of us back in the country. We’re supposed to go in groups based on our assembly station. We are C2… BUT… we booked the NCL Nature Cruise departing at 1:05pm and anyone departing before 1:30pm gets to go in the first group. Once you leave ship, you can’t come back until Customs is done, so we are planning to layer up (it’s only 60-ish now) and bring everything for our excursion when we check in to hopefully avoid long tender lines! Stay tuned!

The great news on this is that when you debark tomorrow (I know, boo hiss) you pretty much walk off, get your luggage, and have a good day.

[putchky]

1 hour ago, Betsynh said:

We used the eMed proctored tests for this trip and a previous one. It was actually pretty simple—and I’m a “nervous Nellie”.  We even brought home tests with us on the ship but haven’t had symptoms to warrant testing. 

We use the Stop the Spread site in Lawrence, MA  for our October 2021 cruise. There is no cost for the test.  I did a test run yesterday and had the results in my portal this am at 7 am today.  If you go to COVID-19 test search results | Mass.gov they list the sites in Mass.

[Valchie]

5 hours ago, putchky said:

We use the Stop the Spread site in Lawrence, MA  for our October 2021 cruise. There is no cost for the test.  I did a test run yesterday and had the results in my portal this am at 7 am today.  If you go to COVID-19 test search results | Mass.gov they list the sites in Mass.

That's great to know, Putchky.  I will definitely consider that.  Thank you for this information.

[1025cruise]

With the going gas prices, it would cost me more to go to Lawrence than to just to the proctored test.

[Betsynh]

20 hours ago, The_Honeymooners said:

Betsy, thanks so much for this review thread.  My family and I will be on the boat the beginning of July and this has proved very informative.  How have the gluten free options been (we have one in our party that's celiac)?

In Bar Harbor today one of the restaurants Geddy’s (pronounced Jeddy’s) advertised GF on their outdoor chalkboard. Everything fried they offered was all GF. I had calamari and it was soooo good. Hubby had a fish sandwich. They’re on Main Street just a couple shops up from the water. 

[The_Honeymooners]

3 hours ago, Betsynh said:

In Bar Harbor today one of the restaurants Geddy’s (pronounced Jeddy’s) advertised GF on their outdoor chalkboard. Everything fried they offered was all GF. I had calamari and it was soooo good. Hubby had a fish sandwich. They’re on Main Street just a couple shops up from the water. 

That is awesome, thanks for the tip! So glad you enjoyed your trip, and once again thank you for all the info.

[Betsynh]

Here’s a few pics from the trip! Our Teppanyaki chef was a blast. Ate at Cagney’s tonight for our second “free” dinner perk. Delish! I’m too cheap to book them if we had to pay… but had a great meal in both places!

[Betsynh]

7 hours ago, The_Honeymooners said:

That is awesome, thanks for the tip! So glad you enjoyed your trip, and once again thank you for all the info.

I’m a raving chocoholic, so if your celiac loved one is, too, the chef will make GF lava cake. I had it at least three times. Warm and yummy. Had to take a pic for you. 

[Betsynh]

The cabins have beautiful mirrors with lighting in the frame… however the “on” button was bugging hubby at night due to its brightness. He tried to cover it with some post-it’s… lol. If you like darkness, plan ahead! 

[Betsynh]

Thoughts on “free” drink package…

 

We don’t really drink and aren’t gamblers (yes, we’re totally boring…) so I did the math on drink package gratuities vs buying drinks separately on our shipboard account. We decided to keep the package and attempted to maximize its use. We had soda with many meals (Pepsi products) and wine with dinner. My favorite was a generic Baileys on the rocks at night. The real Baileys would be an up charge but the waiter hooked us up with the off brand. We heavily tipped the waiter that brought us nonstop water during our epic nights dancing! It wasn’t his fault we weren’t drinking alcohol. Tried the Frose and Frozen Sangria! Yum! 

[Betsynh]

Self-assist debarkation started at 8:08. Grateful to be chilling and not rushing for a flight!

 

No lines at Guest Services! Wow! Other than gratuities and the CruiseNext deposit our only ship charges were from our bowling adventure. We tried to buy scratch tickets last night but we’re not yet in International Waters when the mood struck. 

[Betsynh]

Bar Harbor was lovely— our first visit! Very LGBTQ-friendly from a rainbow crosswalk to being invited to roll up our purchase to the next dollar to support MaineEquality (which we did). 
 

We took the NCL Nature Cruise which was a mix of ship passengers and local tourists. Despite the sun, it was cold! Layer up. Ignorantly, I picked the front row of the boat for the best view (I’m short). Instead, we served as the windbreak for everyone else. Lol. Great tour—saw seals (zoom on lighthouse pic) a couple of eagles and some beautiful shoreline. 
 

Plenty of great spots in town for tacky tourist photos, too. We’re also lugging home lots of special fun things from Bermuda and Bar Harbor — I scored a gorgeous Bermuda-blue cashmere sweater for half price! No one there wants winter weight clothes now. Thank you! 
 

If anything else comes to mind I’ll add it. Please know that I’d do this trip again in a heartbeat. Ship was great, staff were wonderful, destinations a blast and the weather was perfect all week. We totally lucked out. 
 

Safe travels!! 
Betsy

[DorothyB]

Thank you so much for posting this!  I will be embarking in a week.

[Buford T Justiice]

thank you for posting.

[Betsynh]

3 hours ago, DorothyB said:

Thank you so much for posting this!  I will be embarking in a week.

You’re going to have so much fun! We are pretty laid back (I’m not going to complain about a worn carpet like some do) but also pretty “judgey” if something is really poor quality or badly organized.
 

There’s literally NOTHING I’d complain about this entire trip. The closest thing was the Customs experience—no need to wait in the champagne bar like we did while the Haven and Suite guests were escorted through… because as soon as they opened Group 1 floodgates, people just arriving jumped right in line ahead of people waiting 30+ minutes. Didn’t feel fair but not really able to control that either. My best tip— if you’re still waiting for the tenders to start service, linger a little on deck 6 after customs. They were directing everyone back up to the atrium on deck 7 to wait and then travel down to deck 4. We saw a couple lingering near the stairwell and wound up on the first tender. 
 

My only negative was the jerky passenger screaming nasty expletives at his girlfriend/wife a couple doors down. The second time, I yelled from our balcony “this is a family ship, please!”  He slammed the slider and went back inside. I thought about calling Security but didn’t know which cabin they were in.  I really did fear for her safety. Alcohol and anger just don’t mix.  
 

Our luggage color (blue) was called right around 9:30am, the parking shuttle was right where they said it would be, and we made it back home to pick up the dogs by 11am. Hoping you all make great memories on your cruise, too!

[aloha_DC]

On this trip (I think) in two weeks, thank you so much for sharing! So glad you had such a great trip!

[latebloomer56]

On 5/30/2022 at 11:39 AM, Betsynh said:

We’re at Clearwater Beach on an excursion right now and someone said the water is about 74. Not sure but it felt good. Not quite Caribbean, but we’re in a sheltered area near St George so no waves and pretty deserted. 

Thanks

[latebloomer56]

On 5/30/2022 at 10:58 AM, Broons77 said:

 

We were there last week and the water was cool but not like on the North Shore or Outer Cape. 

 

 

Here you go @umpisoccer

(or anyone else curious...)

1240600426_FreestyleDaily.pdf 39.71 MB · 57 downloads

Thanks

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

What a lovely cruise review!  I am so glad you had a wonderful trip and were kind enough to share!  We are on her in August, so this really makes me want to get back on a ship!  (We didn't purchase the drink package, but I will spend lots of time in the casino at the craps table!)