Cruise Reviews

I went on the Thanksgiving cruise on the Pearl, with my son, his wife and three grandkids.
It was overall a good cruise. The ship is beautiful and well layed out. The entertainment
was very good with entertainment nightly in the theatre. The cruise director, Julie, and her
staff were outstanding. We had good weather, although a bit windy at times. Even with
the high seas at times the cruise was a smooth ride. The ports were enjoyable, especially
the rafting on the White River in Ocho Rios and the Talum excursion in Mexico.
Now on the down side. The Freestyle Dining was not very good. The service in the dining
room was much to be desired. at times it was horrible. I must say, however that on the last
evening we had the best waiter and assistant. I thought I was back in a conventional
dining room experience. Placed the napkin, immediately served water and asked if we
would like any thing from the bar or ice tea. In just a few minutes he returned to take our
order. Bread was brought and the soup and salad were served. The Entree arrived in a
timely period and after that the order was taken for dessert and coffeee. It felt so good to
be served as a guest in the dining room. They both worked as a team. If they still had
individual tipping they would have been tipped well. Has something been lost in this Freestyle
Dining and the automatic tipping?
As for the food not very impressive. We even tried the Jappenese experience one night. The
chef was not very entertaining. when trying to flip an egg into his hat, he missed three time
and they splattered on the floor. The food there was tasteless. For $25 we were very disappointed.
One good dining experience, however, is that we were invited to have our Breakfast and Lunch in
Cagney's Dining Room. There we had excellent breakfast and excellent service. This is the way
it should be. We did not eat lunch there, because we were always out and about at that time.
The other down thing and this has nothing to do with NCL, is disembarking was the worst I had
ever gone through. Immigration and customs was so slow. It took like two hours, so I had to go
directly to the airport in order to catch my flight.
Would I go again? Yes.