Norwegian Pearl
by Howie Sasson
Western Caribbean
January 14, 2007
This cruise exceeded all of our expectations especially for NCL, as well as for any cruise line. The ship is more than beautiful both inside and out. Most everything is well laid out. (I didn't like continually having to go to the 7th floor to access a 6th floor restaurant.) Our cabin was better laid out, with much more storage, in comparison to others we've been on. Staff was generally very good.
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Food in general went from good to very excellent. There was a varied, aesthetically pleasing, tasty, and healthy menu that was served attentively. The Summer Palace restaurant is top notch. Free Style dining worked very well.
Shows were suprisingly excellent, of top professional quality. Although the ship is relatively large, there was no problem getting into restaurants or shows.
There was a wide range of passenger ages ranging from newborns to seniors. The activities were aimed mostly for the younger range of passengers - that's exactly what they had.
Embarkation and disembarkation went exceptionally smoothly.
My major complaint is their terrible unworkable web site. Never had to deal with such an unworkable, un-userfriendly, and frustrating web site. Couldn't find basic information, such as shore excursions, or book shore excursions on their site. They know it works fine for them but not for their customers, but do notbing about it. So we didn't go on shore excursions through the ship. Had a great time anyway.
