November 7, Norwegian Pearl

Norwegian Pearl

November 7, 2010

So we did it. We had talked of possibly taking a cruise for the majority of our ten years together. We had heard the negatives. “Cruises are full of newlyweds and nearly deads”, we were told. We had also heard the positives. “You’ll love it”, “Cruises are so much fun” our friends told us. After flirting with the idea of cruising on and off for several years, and wanting to try a different vacation, we booked. When I say “we booked”, I mean I, after searching and searching….and searching through dozens upon dozens of cruise itineraries, and driving my wife insane with ship details, shore excursion choices, cruise line reviews and of course my own personal opinions, I booked us on the Norwegian Pearl.

I had heard of Norwegian Cruise Lines, but as far as I knew it was just some other cruise line. After all, Carnival and Royal Caribbean were the only two cruise lines in the world, right??? Well thanks to cruise review sites, most specifically, cruisecritic.com, I learned there were many cruise lines, and good ones too. Princess, Celebrity, Disney, Costa, MSC and more. With dozens of cruise lines and hundreds of itineraries, how was someone to choose? Well for me it was simple. Three days on a vacation? That’s a tease. Four days? Five? Not bad but when you look at your choices, it doesn’t offer many. We decided seven would be perfect for a first time. Obviously price was a factor, which eliminated the more…elaborate lines such as Oceana and Crystal. I wouldn’t call us low class, but we’re not congressmen either and realize we have a budget. Realizing I would be on the vessel for a week, I decided the most important factor was the boat itself. If it meant driving an extra few hours to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, that was fine with me. I picked the Pearl because according to my calculations it was getting 80% or more good ratings. It had many things to do on the boat including restaurants and bowling….BOWLING, on a cruise. That’s right, these aren’t the Golden Girls cruises, but more on that later.

The countdown began. 98 days. 98 days?!? How could I wait that long for vacation? As I learned, that wasn’t very long for most cruisers but for our first one, it seemed like an eternity.  We booked through NCL directly. The staff was helpful in booking, although I didn’t have many questions as I had done hours of research myself.  Once booked, we were able to go online, enter our passports and other pertinent information and book shore excursions. As far as shore excursions go, I would highly recommend researching as many as possible before booking. I am the kind of person who is always looking for the bigger better deal or BBD as some call it. It’s very easy to find an excursion, only to see others talking about a more fun and many times cheaper one. I will talk more about our specific excursions later on. In the months that led up to the cruise, NCL was helpful whenever called upon with questions about our cruise. We originally booked a balcony, but as prices fluctuated, paid a little extra for the not so mini and definitely not a suite, “mini suite”. We were in 11122, an easy number to remember on our first time.  As the embarkation date approached, we entered our documents, read message boards, packed our suitcases, read message boards, made arrangements for our animals and home, and did I mention read message boards? I can’t repeat it enough considering the valuable information I learned from the numerous boards out there. It continued once on the ship after meeting our roll call group from Cruise Critic. If you’ve never cruised, or have been so many times you could fill in for the cruise director, these boards will answer all your questions. From, “what do I pack” to “what amenities come with suites”, you can find answers for virtually anything.

After months of waiting, the week was here, we left Saturday morning, and after a smooth drive to Miami, and stopping for an always awesome Five Guys burger, we arrived at our hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard Miami Airport South. We are big Marriott fans, but this hotel definitely made us second guess that. We waited in line to be checked in by very non personable reception agents, only to find that we had been misinformed and the “stay and cruise” package did not include free parking for the week. So our options were to continue parking there for $7 a night and pay for a taxi back to get our vehicle, or just go to the pier ourselves and pay the $20 a day parking. We opted for the latter to have the convenience of going straight to our vehicle after the cruise. Our room was nice…clean and comfortable as we expect from Courtyard. The entire hotel was very contemporary as is common in the Courtyard brand, which we do enjoy. We ordered food from the restaurant downstairs. After waiting at the hostess station for 10 minutes, I went to the bar to finally ask someone to take my to-go order. We had a seating area in the room, so we ate there, so we could enjoy the football game on tv. Enjoy is a horrible word to use there because we did anything but enjoy the 41-20 thrashing the Gamecocks were handed by Arkansas that night. Oh well, can’t be to upset, because we’re going on a cruise tomorrow!

Sunday, November 7^th. Cruise day is finally here. Passports...check. Luggage…check. Excitement…check! We arrive at the pier and our greeted by our porter, a nice gentleman who quickly takes our bags and tells us where to park. The line outside the check-in is long, but we quickly realize how fast it moves. We get through security and up to the counter in less than 15 minutes. We are greeted, checked in and are on the boat in very little time. Our rooms are not ready yet so were pointed in the direction of the pool area. It’s very crowded, but we find a table at the Sky High Bar. We order drinks, have a burger and take in the atmosphere. It’s amazing how quickly people jump right into the cruise. It’s barely after noon, and the loungers, as well as the pools and hot tubs are already full of cruisers who want to squeeze every moment out of their vacation. I wonder if these are the people who wait until the last minute to disembark when the cruise is over.

On the pool deck they are taking reservations for specialty restaurants, so we sign up for sushi tonight and Cagney’s steakhouse tomorrow night. Are room is ready shortly, and our luggage is in our room before 5. Our room is 285 sq. ft. including balcony, a great size for two people for a week. Plenty of closet space, comfortable bed, a small sofa-like seat and coffee table. The tv was small, a 22” LCD with only a few channels. They had a few channels like ESPN and Fox News during the day and a movie or two at night. The bathroom was standard I learned, a tub with shower, good amount of storage space, and most importantly, clean. My wife unpacks our luggage and moves us into our floating home for the week. Having moved in, we go to try our first restaurant, one of ten on the Pearl. Being the sushi lovers we are, we eat at the Sushi Bar. There is a $10 per person charge for this restaurant, but for the amount of sushi we got, it was worth it. We did like we always do and ordered a variety of rolls to share, but what we didn’t know was they brought one of each item ordered for each of us! It was a massive amount of sushi. But they never gave us any weird looks or acted as though we were over some limit. Service was great and we could hear the piano from the deck below us. After dinner, we went to the first show on board in the Stardust Theater. It was big enough, so that even the late comers easily found seating. The show itself was just ok, I found myself wondering if some of the performers were some of the ones who didn’t make it on American Idol. Not the greatest talent, but still an entertaining show. This is also the first time we met Andy, the cruise director. He had a voice and personality that was hard to forget, and even if you did, you were reminded of it with announcements throughout the day. He definitely would help to make the cruise more enjoyable, which I guess is their primary purpose. So I’d give him 5 stars. After the show, we retired to the room with drinks and relax on our first night of vacation.

The days that followed were a mix of fun and entertainment. Monday was a sea day, and with a ship of 2400 people, it seemed as if there were only a few hundred on board. With the exception of the breakfast rush at the Garden Café, which was the complimentary buffet, there was never a line for anything. There were always deck chairs available around the pool and seating in any restaurant.  This also was very appreciated when we started to really understand what Norwegian’s “Freestyle” really meant. We are ones who change our mind and plans all too often. So by Monday, we already wanted to change our dinner reservations. No problem, just call the reservation number from your in room phone, and done. We ended up trying the Italian restaurant, La Cucuna. If you like Olive Garden, you’ll love it. Service was excellent and the food was delicious. However, if you are expecting a 5 star Italian dining experience, well you should be at a 5 star Italian restaurant. I’m always amazed at people who book cruises with price being a major, if not the biggest factor, and then complain that it wasn’t Gordan Ramsey cooking for them.

Of the restaurants, we also ate at Mambo’s which turned out to be a favorite place to eat. It was never busy, and they gave a complimentary margarita with your Mexican dish. What’s not to love. The Blue Lagoon is the complimentary “comfort food” restaurant. We didn’t learn about this one until Thursday, but I wish we had known earlier. Indigo is one of the two main dining rooms, Summer Palace being the other, and my lamb that night was one of my best meals on board. Again, it was not crowded, although we do tend to eat earlier than most. We never made it to Tepanyaki, Summer Palace, Le Bistro, Cagney’s or Lotus Garden, which are hibachi, another main dining room, French, steakhouse, and Asian perceptively. We enjoyed the first few places we tried so much, we never made it to many others.

The entertainment got much better the second night, because it was “Oh What A Night”: A Tribute to Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. Being 31, I had heard many of the songs, but didn’t really know who Franki Valli was. Now I confess to be a huge fan, and Pandora can verify that. The following night was just as good or even better, and I began to see what NCL is known for having some of the best entertainment in cruising. Sharkbait was a comedic juggling duo, or maybe it’s a juggling comedy duo? However you say it, they were amazing, and insanely funny. Both have spent many years as clowns in the Ringling Brothers circus and it shows. The week continued with another NCL Pearl cast show, which was again, ok. Thursday was definitely a great night for any fan of Saturday Night Live, like myself, because it was Second City. I had waited all week to see them, and they lived up to my expectations. The entire audience seemed to enjoy the show, as well as participate. Friday, we skipped, because we just didn’t want to see another NCL show, but Saturday was a great show because they had a Oh What A Night and Sharkbait together. Well, not on stage at the same time, although…. Would be hilarious, but I digress.

So what does everyone that comes to the Caribbean come for? The sun the sand, the water of course,in other words, the shore excursions. I had no idea what an excursion was, and much less what to do on one. So again, I consulted the Cruise Critic gods, I mean members. We ended up booking a “swimming with the dolphins” excursion in Roatan. It was slightly overpriced, but enjoyable. Neither felt like we spent enough time with the dolphins, although I can’t claim to be an expert on the appropriate amount of dolphin spending time. We were taken from there to Tabyana Beach. We had lunch and a drink, but we didn’t want to stay long, as it seemed like “just another beach like we have at home”. We decided not to leave the ship in Belize, which we later regretted, because we heard it was one of the best places for excursions. Thursday we arrived in Costa Maya where we were taken by air conditioned van to Maya Chan Resort. If you are looking for a nice private beach, this is your place. It was about a 30 minute trip to the resort. We were greeted by the staff upon arrival, and given a welcome drink and snack. It started to rain, very slightly, but they quickly offered a refund to anyone and a return trip, but everyone stayed. Besides, it was an open bar, so who wouldn’t stay? Hugo was the bartender, and this guy loved his job. I don’t think he would last long as a bartender in most bars as he was not stingy on the alcohol in each drink. He would make up drinks on the spot, but warning, stay away from the “jungle juice”. It’s a lot of jungle and not so much juice. We relaxed on the beach, the water was a little to unclear for scuba, but they had kayaks, and personal floats to relax in. Lunch was simply delicious and they arranged for a free cab ride anytime you wanted. Key West was a day we decided to just do a self guided tour and see the city. We visited the Truman White House, did some shopping and had lunch at The Conch Republic. The fish tacos were outstanding! Everything you would expect in Key West.

Our first cruise concluded on Sunday. We were sad to leave the Pearl, as I am sure any cruiser is with their ship. Disembarkation could not have been easier. We walked ourselves off the boat, so it was a matter of having breakfast, then grabbing our bags and walking out. The only line being a short one at US Customs. Everything considered, I would give the Pearl 4 ½ out of 5 stars. The people in our meet and greet group from Cruise Critic, being much more experienced cruisers than I, even commented several times that it was one of the nicest boats they had been on.  The only flaw was the Pearl production entertainment being a little cheesy. The entire crew treated us as if we were someone special throughout the trip. We could not ask for more from our first cruise. NCL made cruise lovers out of, and before we were off the ship, had put a deposit on our next cruise.