Norweigan Pearl First Cruise, what should I know???

[drea85]

:eek: Going on my first cruise with parents and brother. Parents are 46 and 55, I'm 21 and brother 20. We are going on the Pearl on December 22, booked two rooms. What do I need to know. What kind of Dinner clothes should I bring, since it is freestyle dining, what does this mean exactly. We are taking a flight from Newark to Miami, what time should we get to the port for a 5pm departure? What do we need to get on the boat, ID wise? Do we need the passports???? Should we book our excursions now??? How much cash should we bring? What do we bring for money, Credit cards?, Travelers Checks?, I have no idea. Please help, I need to know the basics???:eek:

[Hollyspop]

Visit the NCL website. Most of your questions will be answered there. Come back here if you have more.

[dwrist]

:eek: Going on my first cruise with parents and brother. Parents are 46 and 55, I'm 21 and brother 20. We are going on the Pearl on December 22, booked two rooms. What do I need to know. What kind of Dinner clothes should I bring, since it is freestyle dining, what does this mean exactly. We are taking a flight from Newark to Miami, what time should we get to the port for a 5pm departure? What do we need to get on the boat, ID wise? Do we need the passports???? Should we book our excursions now??? How much cash should we bring? What do we bring for money, Credit cards?, Travelers Checks?, I have no idea. Please help, I need to know the basics???:eek:

 

You posted also on the roll call--I think they would be able to help you better than here. Here you will get many opinions whereas on the roll call they will be happy to help and you will also know people when you do cruise. Have fun and enjoy the planning. :)

[M&MCruisin]

Well there are much better qualified to answer this than me, but I will tell you my opinions.

 

Clothes: Freestyle is new to me too, so I cant answer that one. I did here a suggestion from someone on another board on packing light...she suggested a pair of black pants and a black skirt, then several tops to switch off. Nothing too fancy is needed for freestyle.

 

what time to arrive: well you can get on and have a great lunch and relax. The line gets real long in the afternoon and I know I have read that if you are not there at least 1 hour before departing, they CAN, refuse embarkment. I usually get to the boat around 11am. I can run all over the boat looking and taking pictures without alot of people around.

 

Passports are easier, but you can still use your birth certificate and drivers license. Caution: I didnt realize that my birth certificate was from the hospital. It MUST be from the department of vital records in the state you were born or its not authentic. I learned that the hard way.

 

I brought cash for the islands as not everyone takes credit cards but many do plus I hated keeping up with all the receipts. The rest I just used my credit card. I saw someone try to use travelers checks and had a problem, so I would skip those. I budgeted myself to xx $ per island and put separate envelopes with the money in it. Kept it in my safe in the room and took only that with me, which helped me keep my spending down.

 

You are going to have a fantastic time! ENJOY!

[mlbcruiser]

drea 85, I THINK you DO need a passport now to go to about any country outside of the U.S. beginning in 2007. I'm not sure which itinerary you are going on or your sailing date, but some of the countries (Barbados, I THINK) require it of U.S. citizens. And the U.S. wants us to have them to renter our country starting in 2007. Since you are cruising in 2006, you might not need one UNLESS you are going to Barbados. They began requiring a passport about a year or yr. and 1/2 ago. If in doubt, ask your travel agent and make SURE she/he checks on this! These rules are just starting - they were to start in Jan. '06 for Mexico and other places that you normally didn't need a passport for, I think, but got delayed until 2007. Call your travel agent.

 

Like someone else mentioned, go on your sailing date/ship roll call. (Do you know how to do that yet? The roll call list for various cruiselines is listed under "boards". You then click your line, then your ship, and search for any posts for your date. You can also try doing a search for your roll call date, however I have less luck doing it that way for some reason.)

 

RE: money. You won't/can't use it on the ship (except in the casino). They will issue you a card which is not only your room key but also is used to make any purchases onboard, and is your i.d. to get back on the ship from ports. All charges go onto the credit card you designate, but you can also go to the purser's desk the last day of the cruise to settle up in cash if you wish. No one can tell you how much to bring. It depends upon if you plan to spend a lot on souveniers, etc. Also, sometimes independent tour guides (many people use these instead of booking tours through their ship to save money or be in smaller groups) and street vendors, buses, cabs, etc., do not take credit cards. Travelers checks are good to bring along if you don't want to carry a lot of money w/you. You can cash them at the purser's desk to get cash to take ashore. (I did this a LOT on a cruise in Europe this past summer because I didn't want to carry lots of cash on the trip as we went over a wk. ahead of our cruise to tour on land on our own. I was able to get euros this way as well.) Debit cards can be used in most ports, but the machines aren't always as reliable depending upon where you are. Also, the charges can be high depending upon your card. (Bring 2 different credit cards and lock one in your safe incase you lose one. It's also a good idea to let your credit card company know that you will be out of the country - and where - and tell them to ALLOW charges to those cards from those places.)

 

It's best to arrive in your cruise departure city a day before your are to depart. This way if there is bad weather, flight delays, airline strikes or anything you stand a MUCH better chance of not missing your ship! This is especially true if you don't have cruise insurance. Sometimes you can't do that for some reason. If that is the case, I would recommend you take a very early flight and try to get to the port as soon as possible. No matter what the brochures or paperwork says, I've been on 21 cruises and they ALWAYS start boarding people earlier than they say they will. HOWEVER!!!! The big difference in the Pearl is that on some itineraries she gets into MIA at noon. Most all other ships arrive in port EARLY in the a.m. and depart around 4 or 5 p.m. Check to see if the Pearl will be in late or early the day you board. Also, NCL boasts that they let people stay in their cabins longer than most ships on debarkation day. So the wisest thing to do is watch for any Pearl reviews for sailings before your's and ask on this board when people are managing to board. (If your's is one of the first couple of sailings, this might not run the same each cruise at first.)

 

RE: dress. From what I have asked and read, this is a casual ship/line with the OPTION to dress up on formal night. Most people come to dinner (on most ships) in what is considered "smart casual". Like capris, a sundress, a skirt; for men khakis and a polo or "Hawaiian" shirt. T-shirts and jeans in a D.R. are supposed to be frowned upon. But sometimes I've seen people get away w/it. Jeans aren't so bad IF someone wears a nicer shirt or top. Tanks for men are OUT. So are shorts and workout clothing. But you always see people trying to push the envelope and break the rules. For formal nights, if you want to dress up, anything from a cocktail or prom/New Year's outfit will work to something you might wear to an afternoon wedding or even a nice skirt/top, tropcial pants outfit, or any type of formal wear will do. For men, this means a suit or even a tux. But on NCL, I have read about 30% of the people dress up for formal nights and the rest do not.

 

This will be the first totally freestyle cruise for me, so I'll let others more familiar w/how well this works on NCL answer that for you. Read the NCL site and you will get more info. on that. But here's what I do know: From what I gather you can eat in the main dining rooms at no extra charge. There are about 3 or 4 other specialty restaurants where you can eat and can even make a reservation, or just show up and take your chances. Then there are several more specialty restaurants where an extra charge ($15 or $20 pp???) is charged to your account if you eat in one of those. There will be screens located in heavily trafficed areas of the ship that will show the current wait time at various restaurants, etc., to help people decide which one to go to.

 

Hope some of this helps and have a wonderful time!

[F5Loar]

Shorts are allowed at breakfast and lunch in the main Dining Room. Since I've done Freestyle with NCL many times I can best describe it as eat where you want, when you want and in what you want(minus the few rescrictions of shorts at night,no Tanks,etc.) but pretty much just look nice as you would in any nice resturant you would go to on land and I don't mean McDonalds!

The problem with Freestyle can be the when you want and where you want.

You may choose to dine when the majority of others do and there could be a short up to 20 min. wait for a seat and this seems to rattle the senior cruisers. Same as in a land resturant. You can make reservations but to just walk in for a seat you may have to wait a few minutes. And the where you want to eat part could cost you extra if you choose one of those dining areas that has an up charge fee of usually $10 to $25 per person. Those that like the Freestyle are those that are active on the ship doing other things and don't want to be tied down to a certain time to eat each night however with freestyle you can choose to eat at the same time each night if you want so I don't get the problem others have with Freestyle over conventional time style. You picked a great ship for a first time cruise so don't worry about disappointment over the ship. The ship will deliever, it's what you make of your cruise experience as to how well you will enjoy it.

Remember there are 2 types of people in the world: Cruisers and non-cruisers.

You got to take that first cruise to find out which one you are!