NCL Pearl out of Bermuda this year, have the shows changed, who is the Cruise Director, please share.

[JCMass.]

For those who have done the Bermuda cruise out of Boston this year on the Pearl anything you can share with us ?   There isn't much information about the Pearl this year and we leave in a couple of weeks.  I have read that some NCL ships have not had production shows, terrible comedy, etc.  Do they still do the cabaret show with just the singers, we always enjoy it.  Have they started up the events for those with Lattitude points such as the ship tour and the wine tasting ?   We have done this cruise before and really enjoyed everything, are they exaggerating ?   Who is the Cruise Director, Hotel Manager, and Captain ?  Next week seems to be sold out, I expect the ship will be very full. 

 

 Also we are doing the  same cruise in late August with family members, in fact it is the last of the year to Bermuda, we are hoping there will not be hundreds and hundreds children that time of year.  Anything you want to share ?   

[mawvkysc]

@styles27 live trip report didn’t seem super promising as to the theater entertainment. Did you read that?

[JCMass.]

On 4/24/2023 at 6:06 PM, mawvkysc said:

@styles27 live trip report didn’t seem super promising as to the theater entertainment. Did you read that?

Thanks I just took a look, I wonder what happened to the production shows ?   I did not see the cabaret night in the Spinaker Lounge like last year either.  Very little information about the Pearl so far this year, we will have a great time just the same, but I was hoping someone would answer.  

[JCMass.]

Just one week from tonight we will be on our way to Bermuda.  There will be no Meet and Greet there are just too few of us here.  Time to pack. 

[LadyBerard]

My husband and I are also on the 8/18 Pearl with four of our friends.  I, too, am hoping there are not a ton of kids on board.  

[latebloomer56]

Just off the Pearl nothing impressed us. We did stay through Legends, just ok but the crowd had a good time. Probably why we stayed it was a good energy. Really missed production shows what we saw would never have paid extra for or asked for a refund if we did. Miss the crew talent show, but had some at the buffet washy, washy 😁. Everybody did their best but NCL obviously hasn't invested much in this part of the cruise experience.

Cruise director, thought she yelled a lot was very loud, but most people loved her and her staff.

You will enjoy your cruise the crew we had were wonderful. Yes there were little errors in orders, food not great but attitude of crew was the best. 

[JCMass.]

1 hour ago, latebloomer56 said:

Just off the Pearl nothing impressed us. We did stay through Legends, just ok but the crowd had a good time. Probably why we stayed it was a good energy. Really missed production shows what we saw would never have paid extra for or asked for a refund if we did. Miss the crew talent show, but had some at the buffet washy, washy 😁. Everybody did their best but NCL obviously hasn't invested much in this part of the cruise experience.

Cruise director, thought she yelled a lot was very loud, but most people loved her and her staff.

You will enjoy your cruise the crew we had were wonderful. Yes there were little errors in orders, food not great but attitude of crew was the best. 

Thanks for the information.  We have done this cruise over and over this time of year.  We will enjoy ourselves, and Bermuda is beautiful this time of year.  I am hoping these changes will not be permanent, like less production shows, and giving the stewards so many cabins they can only come once a day. 

[JCMass.]

1 hour ago, LadyBerard said:

My husband and I are also on the 8/18 Pearl with four of our friends.  I, too, am hoping there are not a ton of kids on board.  

That is the week we are cruising too, with some extended family members who have never been on a cruise.  We are looking forward to seeing it through their eyes.  With schools opening the next week, their should be fewer kids than during the summer.  

[latebloomer56]

2 hours ago, JCMass. said:

Thanks for the information.  We have done this cruise over and over this time of year.  We will enjoy ourselves, and Bermuda is beautiful this time of year.  I am hoping these changes will not be permanent, like less production shows, and giving the stewards so many cabins they can only come once a day. 

We had pretty good weather, just some rain Tuesday afternoon. Only have been there one other time in the spring generally go in the fall.

[Barb Nahoumi]

The staff who attended one Meet and Greet that we were at, mentioned that they do read comments made on Cruise Critic, so that they will know how the passengers feel about cruising issues.

 

I hope that they will realize that we want better entertainment, and will reinstate the production shows.  We were on the Pearl last year, and the shows did leave something to be desired.  However, everything else was very good.  

[AKR2011]

OP,  please post an update when you return. I'm on a B2B in August- last Bermuda and first Canada/New England. Entertainment has always been great on NCL, so I'm hoping that things improve. I've been reading too many mediocre reports lately. Very disappointing. 

[styles27]

We overall enjoyed our cruise on Pearl 04/07/2023 but the entertainment was pretty much the same that we saw last year on the same cruise. 

 

Legends was the “big” show of the week with one difference from last year they added Elvis and took away Madonna. 

 

The “welcome aboard” show was a comedian in Stardust the first night and he reappeared later in the cruise with an adult comedy show that those of us traveling with children couldn’t attend because Splash Academy was closed while in Bermuda. 
 

Two other nights they had a great entertaining female vocalist as the main show in Stardust.
 

Pearl singers and dancers performed a pure variety show one evening and then were part of the Legends show another evening. 
 

One night they showed a movie as the main show in the theater. 
 

It is my understanding that Pearl class ships don’t ever have the large production shows (someone will correct me if I’m wrong). 
 

We personally liked the cruise director. She was energetic and funny and we actually got to know her because she was at a lot of the events we went to. Her name is Carol. 
 

We never saw the captain. 
 

The hotel manager was awesome. He came to our CC meet and mingle which was very well attended in Bliss Lounge on the first sea day.

NCL had a nice spread set up for us and the senior officers in attendance spoke and answered questions from some of us willing to ask. Later throughout the cruise the hotel manager remembered us and spoke to us each time we ran into him. Mike (but German spelling) from Germany was his name. Great guy. 
 

All senior officers were very visible and approachable throughout our sailing and they did seem to recognize us from being part of the CC meet & mingle group. 
 

We live in RI and cruise to Bermuda regularly from Boston. We cruise for Bermuda not the ship. 
Many on our roll call expressed disappointment as their expectations were not met. They felt the ship was too small, not enough to do for the children, and lacking production shows. 
 

I’m always surprised at how little research some folks do before booking a ship.
 

We had quite a few first time cruisers on our sailing who were scared off and said they won’t cruise again because the seas were very rough. 
 

To us they were Bermuda cruise “normal seas” but I would never recommend a Bermuda cruise to a first time cruiser because the seas are usually a lot higher than a cruise in the Bahamas or Caribbean. 

We were in a Club balcony with our 9 yr old grandson and our room steward closed the sofa bed each day and returned while we were at dinner to open it again. We didn’t ask him to do this he just did it. He was great and we made sure to compensate him for all of the extras that he did for us. 
 

One thing that stood out to us was the crew seemed genuinely happy.  
 

Edited April 30, 2023 by styles27

[mjkacmom]

On 4/29/2023 at 8:23 AM, JCMass. said:

That is the week we are cruising too, with some extended family members who have never been on a cruise.  We are looking forward to seeing it through their eyes.  With schools opening the next week, their should be fewer kids than during the summer.  

I’m not familiar with the MA school schedules, NJ and NY go back after Labor Day, I thought the whole NE was on a similar schedule.

[styles27]

37 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’m not familiar with the MA school schedules, NJ and NY go back after Labor Day, I thought the whole NE was on a similar schedule.

RI goes back Sept 5.

MA goes back Aug 30 

 

 

 

[JCMass.]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

We overall enjoyed our cruise on Pearl 04/07/2023 but the entertainment was pretty much the same that we saw last year on the same cruise. 

 

Legends was the “big” show of the week with one difference from last year they added Elvis and took away Madonna. 

 

The “welcome aboard” show was a comedian in Stardust the first night and he reappeared later in the cruise with an adult comedy show that those of us traveling with children couldn’t attend because Splash Academy was closed while in Bermuda. 
 

Two other nights they had a great entertaining female vocalist as the main show in Stardust.
 

Pearl singers and dancers performed a pure variety show one evening and then were part of the Legends show another evening. 
 

One night they showed a movie as the main show in the theater. 
 

It is my understanding that Pearl class ships don’t ever have the large production shows (someone will correct me if I’m wrong). 
 

We personally liked the cruise director. She was energetic and funny and we actually got to know her because she was at a lot of the events we went to. Her name is Carol. 
 

We never saw the captain. 
 

The hotel manager was awesome. He came to our CC meet and mingle which was very well attended in Bliss Lounge on the first sea day.

NCL had a nice spread set up for us and the senior officers in attendance spoke and answered questions from some of us willing to ask. Later throughout the cruise the hotel manager remembered us and spoke to us each time we ran into him. Mike (but German spelling) from Germany was his name. Great guy. 
 

All senior officers were very visible and approachable throughout our sailing and they did seem to recognize us from being part of the CC meet & mingle group. 
 

We live in RI and cruise to Bermuda regularly from Boston. We cruise for Bermuda not the ship. 
Many on our roll call expressed disappointment as their expectations were not met. They felt the ship was too small, not enough to do for the children, and lacking production shows. 
 

I’m always surprised at how little research some folks do before booking a ship.
 

We had quite a few first time cruisers on our sailing who were scared off and said they won’t cruise again because the seas were very rough. 
 

To us they were Bermuda cruise “normal seas” but I would never recommend a Bermuda cruise to a first time cruiser because the seas are usually a lot higher than a cruise in the Bahamas or Caribbean. 

We were in a Club balcony with our 9 yr old grandson and our room steward closed the sofa bed each day and returned while we were at dinner to open it again. We didn’t ask him to do this he just did it. He was great and we made sure to compensate him for all of the extras that he did for us. 
 

One thing that stood out to us was the crew seemed genuinely happy.  
 

Thank you for this, information has been scare this year.  We also take this cruise each year in late April early May and do it for the ship and for Bermuda.  This year we are doing it twice, again in August with family. 

 

  The shows sound the same we saw last year like Legends, but there was also a 60's musical show in the Spinnaker Lounge that was really fun and another cabaret night with the singers performing together but also solo and duets of Broadway.  I am not sure what they mean by "big production shows"  all of this was great to us ! 

 

We have not been able to get more than a handful of people for a Meet and Greet in May and then in August.  I have organized them in the past with around 25-50 people.  I am not sure why other than there may be lots of first time cruisers who have not discovered Cruise Critic.  

 

We love the size of the ship, it is just right, and the crew is fabulous each year.   We often see the same crew year after year.  They say they really like this cruise and can leave the ship for a bit of time since we are docked for a few days. 

 

We just took a look at the Dockyard webcam and the bridge cam on the Pearl, they seem to be waiting for a couple of hours, my husband tells me they are just docking.  We usually start docking around 10am, so today we took a look and notice you could see Bermuda from the bridge cam but they didn't move till now.  It is our turn next Sunday. 

 

[styles27]

1 hour ago, JCMass. said:

Thank you for this, information has been scare this year.  We also take this cruise each year in late April early May and do it for the ship and for Bermuda.  This year we are doing it twice, again in August with family. 

 

  The shows sound the same we saw last year like Legends, but there was also a 60's musical show in the Spinnaker Lounge that was really fun and another cabaret night with the singers performing together but also solo and duets of Broadway.  I am not sure what they mean by "big production shows"  all of this was great to us ! 

 

We have not been able to get more than a handful of people for a Meet and Greet in May and then in August.  I have organized them in the past with around 25-50 people.  I am not sure why other than there may be lots of first time cruisers who have not discovered Cruise Critic.  

 

We love the size of the ship, it is just right, and the crew is fabulous each year.   We often see the same crew year after year.  They say they really like this cruise and can leave the ship for a bit of time since we are docked for a few days. 

 

We just took a look at the Dockyard webcam and the bridge cam on the Pearl, they seem to be waiting for a couple of hours, my husband tells me they are just docking.  We usually start docking around 10am, so today we took a look and notice you could see Bermuda from the bridge cam but they didn't move till now.  It is our turn next Sunday. 

 

Yes last year we arrived in Bermuda at 10:30 am Bermuda time but this year they’re arriving a couple of hours later…not sure why. 

 

We spent a lot of evenings in the Spinnaker lounge. Funky Roots band was really good (they were on last year along with Seaside Duo) and we enjoyed the game shows in Spinnaker. 
We were one of 3 couples picked for The Perfect Couple game show.

All I can say about that is we’re glad our grandson was in Splash Academy that night. 🤦🏻‍♀️😎

If you want to laugh don’t miss it! I can tell you that none of it is staged. We placed our names in a box and were randomly chosen    
 

Sometimes I wonder if those things are prearranged but this one was not. lol 

 

We love the size of Pearl and even though we sailed completely sold out sans one room with a few hundred + kids it never felt overwhelming. 

For those of us that sail on this cruise every year it would be nice to see different entertainment but it’s not a deal breaker for us.
For us being 45 min from ship to our house is priceless. 

 

[styles27]

Forgot to comment on this. We

were able to get a good number of cruisers on our sailing to join Cruise Critic. 
I can’t tell you how many of them had never heard of it but were asking “what is a cruise critic meet and mingle?”
 

I do have one small criticism of CC. I know they don’t want us to post about other social media sites, however they do have a page and post regularly on this one other platform I’m referring to and if it would help get new members here I think relaxing that rule a bit would be very useful. 

 

[Barb Nahoumi]

In the past, they always had a farewell, show in which the Officers and Staff came up on the stage to say  goodbye to us.  Did they do that?  Last year they didn't when we were onboard in late May.

 

Maybe that was a precovid thing that was discontinued and not yet resumed.  Who is the Captain on the Pearl? 

[OrangeCatRamblers]

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

RI goes back Sept 5.

MA goes back Aug 30 

 

 

 

 

But Boston goes back after Labor Day. 

[JCMass.]

2 hours ago, Barb Nahoumi said:

In the past, they always had a farewell, show in which the Officers and Staff came up on the stage to say  goodbye to us.  Did they do that?  Last year they didn't when we were onboard in late May.

 

Maybe that was a precovid thing that was discontinued and not yet resumed.  Who is the Captain on the Pearl? 

I was wondering the same thing, the farewell show was always special with the officers and crew.  

[AKR2011]

35 minutes ago, JCMass. said:

I was wondering the same thing, the farewell show was always special with the officers and crew.  

This! Is it back yet, does anyone know? I miss it so much.

[styles27]

16 minutes ago, AKR2011 said:

This! Is it back yet, does anyone know? I miss it so much.

No farewell show on our sailing. The final night was Legends. 
 

Here’s the daily program from day 7

[styles27]

@Barb Nahoumi
List of officers on this program but no mention of the Captain.
 

I honestly couldn’t tell you who he is or if we even had a captain. lol (just kidding I know there had to be one) 😊 

Edited April 30, 2023 by styles27

[mawvkysc]

Just off the ship.
 

First night was a comedian that was family friendly and they introduced the officers related to hotel/food and beverage. It was good! (There will be a different Comedian this coming week) 

 

2nd night. Pure Variety production show. It was canceled due to rough seas. Would’ve been nice if the made it up as a matinee on our  second sea day or during night 4

 

3rd night. A guest singer. The show band is very good. I enjoyed this show. I’m sure the guest acts change. Something besides just singing would be nice. See below. 
 

4th night A movie. What?? It was Marry Me a somewhat newer movie

 

5th night The same guest singer. A different show, but we didn’t attend. 
 

6th night. Same comedian but a PG13 and later an R show. We didn’t attend. 
 

7th night Legends in Concert production show. Again the band was great. Like someone mentioned above it was a “good” show mainly because of the crowds energy. I have to say the choreography was better than my last MSC cruise. 
 

Around the ship was mainly singers.

 

The piano player Ricardo was an enjoyable pianist but not a great singer. Wish they just had him play music. It would’ve been relaxing and a change from the other singing. 
 

Seaside Duo has an energetic female singer. 
 

There was a guitar player who sang. Wish he did more acoustic than electric. 
 

Funky Roots was more of a Caribbean sound band. 

 

A few times they had a horns duo. They seemed nervous and uncomfortable with the music. Maybe they were filling in. They are part of the show band 
 

We found all of the singers hard to hear when they were talking between the songs. The mics kind of muffled their voices. 

Overall it was underwhelming, and it was almost all singing. More variety would’ve been nice. I expected a smaller ship would offer less, but there is room for improvement. 

 

 

 

[mawvkysc]

On 4/30/2023 at 4:23 PM, styles27 said:

@Barb Nahoumi
List of officers on this program but no mention of the Captain.
 

I honestly couldn’t tell you who he is or if we even had a captain. lol (just kidding I know there had to be one) 😊 

It did feel like we were captianless. I heard another officer once give a noon time ship log announcement.