Norwegian Cruise Line

MV Norwegian Pearl

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Operator: Norwegian Cruise Line
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 2006/ 2006
Length / Tonnage: 956 / 93,000
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 1,120 / 2,240
Officers / Crew: Norwegian / International
Operating Area: Caribbean / Alaska

Norwegian Pearl – a few steps forward, at least one back.

All cruise ships looks the same, they are for olds dears who like regimented activities and mediocre food, just so long as its somewhere warm. Such are the thoughts of cruising of my workmates who must wonder at my holiday choices.

Having just stepped off NCL's latest, Norwegian Pearl, I can say for sure that they do not look the same and that this ship in particular is not for the old dears market. NCL began painting the outsides of ships with gaudy but fun pictures several years ago. Looking at the outside, one would be forgiven for expecting a gaudy nightmare on the inside too but what one really gets is a quirky, colourful but well planned (generally) ship which puts one in the holiday mood. Norwegian Pearl is the latest incarnation of that thinking and style.

The great maritime city, and utterly enormous port, of Rotterdam was the starting point for my latest chance to sample the NCL product. Towering over Rotterdams slightly shabby, thoroughly shambolic, cruise terminal, the Pearl was a splash of light and colour on an otherwise dull November day. Inside the cruise terminal was a lacklustre exhibition from the major lines and a dreadful band were ruining some tunes. I suppose it was mean to be festive but it didn't really work on me. Still they made a nice effort on departure, even if overall rather limited.

Now to the passenger accommodation itself. Starting outside and up top at the forward end are some sun decks, including the highest, the small and secluded 'freestyle' sun deck. At the after end the highest point it the rock-climbing wall, a feature begun by Royal Caribbean and spreading across the waves it seems.

Slightly aft of this is a stadium with views over the basketball. Tennis nets on the deck below. The highest deck, 15 has a private sundeck for the Garden Villas, where NCL provide some of the largest and most sumptuous accommodation afloat.

On deck 13 the main passenger spaces begin in earnest with some sports facilities aft, moving forward to the Star Bar and Cagneys Steakhouse. The steakhouse and bar are decorated to remind you what you are eating with bull horm lamps and cowhide chairs. This space forms ¾ of a circle with the remainder being the star bar. This bar looks forward over the pool, although it is not the highest space (a la Royal Caribbean Viking Crown lounges) since the Garden Villas are above.

Forward on this deck is the Sky High bar, outdoors and overlooking the swimming pool. This is followed inside by the wedding chapel and the large Spinnaker lounge. This bright and quirky space has a huge bar and plenty of different types of seats, including snail shell shaped stools, perch seats, small table and chairs, sofas and turquoise velvet bed seats. The décor is vaguely nautical and the overall effect is as if one is in a remake of Finding Nemo.

The designers have however made that one perpetual boo boo of putting the stage forward, where there should simply be windows to enjoy the view. One thing about this space, and indeed most others on the ship, is the relative underfurnished feel. Furniture is not crammed in here and there are large bits of unused space, adding to the sense of uncrowdedness. Although the ship was not full on this sailing, carrying 1780, overall it felt like less than half that number.

Deck 12 begins with the spa forwards, with a huge number of treatment rooms. There is also a spa shop so that you can purchase any ridiculously overpriced 'treatment maintenance essentials' that you felt you were lacking. Unusually for a modern ship the Gym is offset to Port, rather than given pride of place directly facing forward over the bridge. This means that the spa clients occupy just half a dozen loungers across the entire forward with of the ship.

Starboard, forward on Deck 12 are the very well stocked library, card and games rooms. Then one enters the open deck and the Tahitian Pool area, only at the end of November it didn't feel particularly Tahitian. At one end of the pool area is Topsiders Bar and Grill for snacks, including freshly cooked burgers.

Moving aft is the Garden Café – the main lido buffet restaurant, seating around 400. This also leads to 'The Great Outdoors' which replicates much of the lido but with outdoor seating and servery. This is an area where lessons were learned form the Jewel and the counter layout is much improved. Aft on the portside is La Cucina Italian restaurant.

Decks 9-11 feature cabins as does mostly deck * with the exception of the upper part of the aft atrium. This houses the Blue Lagoon Coffee Shop and Mambo's Latin/ Tapas restaurant. Here NCL have continued Jewels taste in interesting carpet with the dance steps carpet in the latin restaurant and coffee bean carpet in the Blue lagoon. It is also here that the ships largest, in my opinion, design mistake is made. They have moved the atrium staircase to enable the installation of a 2 deck high video wall. This totally dominates the otherwise lovely space, which on the lower level includes the Java Café (where you actually can't get a cup of coffee), the Purser's desk and perfume shop. Wherever you are here, your eye is drawn to the flickering but silent monstrosity at one end. To make matters worse, there is actually a stage in front of the screen where a 3 piece band play lovely atrium music against the backdrop of CNN and ESPN. Lets hope NCL see sense and switch it off and draw a giant curtain across the thing.

The lower deck of the atrium, deck 7, is also boat deck. A wide and spacious boat deck wraps around the ship and inboard, the grafitti décor is added, but themed against what you might find inside, there are camers outside the photostore etc.

Deck 7 is where one finds the headline grabbing feature of this ship, the Bliss Ultra Lounge. This contains 2 twin bowlines alleys ($5 a game) and nightclub style immensely quirky furniture. On my cruise this principally attracted hip 20/30 somethings out for a good evening and is perhaps indicative of NCLs grab for the younger market – remove everything that is fusty and old fashioned about cruising. The lounge has every kind of furniture imaginable, including private, slightly raised VIP areas, which can be curtained off if desired. There are four-poster beds in burgundy velvet, regal throne like chairs and even a few normal bar stools. The lounge became a nightclub in the evenings with the cruise line staple music selection for a disco (Kylie, Madonna, 60s classics etc). Bizarrely the video monitors in this lounge were constantly playing a different artist than the speakers. Bliss Ultra is right aft and forward, beyond the stairwell are the Art Gallery and Internet Café to port, and the photo gallery to starboard. In the photo gallery a rather unusual arrangement of viewing shelves has been set up which requires a key to open an purchase a photo. This was abandoned after about an hour into the sailing and the plexiglass doors simply swung with the ship's motion.

Carrying on forward we again pass through the atrium and enter the Lotus Garden restaurant area. There is a Tepanyaki Room, Sushi bar, Asian restaurant and Shabu Shabu tables. The carpet and even the piped music changes as one enters this area.

Further forward is the Trade Routes area shopping complex. Somewhat larger than many cruise ships, there is a logo store, very large jewellers and largeish general store. At the very forward end one finds the very large Stardust theatre, who'se layout has been improve since Norwegian Jewel by relocating the lighting man from the middle of the auditorium.

The theatre is furnished in dark green velvet tones and stretches through 3 decks. The lower entrance on Deck 6 heads aft to the large Casino – just as gaudy as on every other ship – followed by the lower level of the forward atrium. Here you can find the Corona Cigar room, Le Bistro French restaurant, Bar City (3 bars one space – Magnums Champagne and Wine Bar, Maltings Beer and Whisty Bar and Sharkers Martini and Corktail bar. In each the décor changes, but the overall effect is rather pleasant. Aft of this is the Indigo restaurant. This restaurant and the Summer Palace restaurant (right aft) are separated by the kitchen. They both serve the same, daily changing menu, unlike most of the other restaurants where the menu is fixed. Indigo is a bright but cost space with American retro chic kind of advertising adorning the walls. The main restaurant, the high-ceilinged Summer Palace is inspired by the Tsar's Palace and is effectively the same as that on Norwegian Jewel but in green rather than blue.

Freestyle Dining is the order of the day on Norwegian Jewel and in total there are 13 restaurants. Some (Sushi, Steakhouse, Le Bistro French, Lotus Garden and Tepanyaki room) are available at a supplement ($10 or $20 per person). The idea is that you eat what you fancy, in whichever restaurant you fancy with whomsoever takes your fancy. At dinner time, the Maitre D's set up station at the entrances and you can either wait (they give you a buzzer which goes off when ready) or if you are better planned, you may have reserved earlier in the day. Tables are available in everything from 2s upwards. Several of the restaurants have areas that can be screened off for VIP groups. Throughout the ship are TV screens advising on waiting times and availability. There are uncomfirmed reports that NCL are to take Freestyle dining a step further in future with the ability to pre-reserve your dinner arrangements for entire cruises when completing the online booking formalities. Freestyle is however utterly unsuitable for singles because you would almost always end up dining alone.

NCL have often been criticised for poor food but I have never experienced anything short of very good. Le Bistro French dining was excellent and the Summer Palace main restaurant had absolutely superb quality food, including a Beef Wellington which was sufficiently tender to cut with just a fork.

I checked in to be given a pleasant cabin upgrade surprise and boarded to find our newly assigned balcony 8548, forward port-side deck 8. Deck 8 feels like a bit of a labrynth due to the need for cabin corridors to skirt around the lifeboat arrangements and they abruptly halt at the upper level of the Crystal Atrium.

The cabin itself – well aren't they pretty much of a muchness until one reaches grandiose suites? The 'innovative' thing about this was that it was designed with a better bathroom arrangement than usual. The bathroom was a single sink in the centre, with a shower cubicle right and a toilet cubicle, separated by a frosted glass sliding door, off to the left. Makes using the bathroom in pairs easier I suppose.

How about the service – well overall NCL staff are much like those on other cruise lines, friendly, attentive but overstretched. The 400 seat Spinnaker only had 3 or 4 people on duty when the action was in full swing. In the restaurant NCL have abolished Wine Waiters and now a member of bar staff pops over to see if you want a drink, but your waiter is also your wine waiter. As a consequence he or she simply has too much to do and service inevitably suffers. I really feel for those staff slogging their guts out but still tasked beyond what reasonable people would be able to do.

Entertainment on NCL is also freestyle, you can bop in bliss, Jive at Java or see stars in Stardust. On this, the maiden cruise of the Pearl, NCL were debuting the new show Tubez. To describe Tubez I must ask the reader to use their imagination. Imagine as a child you were taken to the circus, and you liked the acts except those with animals. And then you turn into a rebellious teenager, complete with drugs, and friends your parents don't approve of. Now imagine that you are given the stage of a brand new cruise ship to use for a show. The end result is Tubez. A set made of grafitti, water pipes, stakeboard park ramps and a cast dressed as rebellious teenagers/ muggers (well if you can forget the extra years…), with lead 'vocals' by a Snoop Dog lookalike. I say vocals, it was more chants really. And despite some seriously laboured attempts to get the audience to join in, there was nothing. Sure we cheered when the BMX rider – 'all the way from Las Vegas' didn't fall off, indeed we gasped at the elastic rope acrobatics of the tight-torsoed acrobat, but the overall effect was hopelessly 'street'.

In tune perhaps with the intended clients of 'Bliss Ultra' but a long way from anything most of the passengers appreciated. Overheard in the bars later – ' I looked in but I could tell from the music it wasn't my kind of thing' – I couldn't put it better myself. NCL describe Tubez as such 'The visual elements of Tubez represent slick 'pop art' meets the contemporary world of 'hip hop' and the stunning set has been designed by the mastermind behind the sets for hit US television programmes American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.' – enough said.

Up in the 'finding nemo' Spinnaker lounge things were much better with a 60s party in full swing. Before anyone wonders, no I wasn't old enough to remember the 60's but these guys were just more talented.

30s upwards, a relaxed holiday crowd with a lot of NCL and other cruise regulars. Generally very friendly and nice, but freestyle means you don't get to know people too well.

On January 5, 2007, Norwegian Pearl begins its five and nine-day Western and Southern Caribbean schedule. Ports of call on the five-day Western Caribbean itinerary include stops in Cozumel, Mexico and Belize City, Belize. The nine-day Southern Caribbean route includes calls in Roseau, Dominica; Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia; St. John's, Antigua and Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

The ship then repositions to Seattle, where she sails a seven-day Alaska Inside Passage itinerary with calls in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, Alaska; Glacier Bay; and Victoria, British Columbia. In the fall of 2007 through the spring of 2008, Norwegian Pearl resumes her alternating five and nine-day Western and Southern Caribbean sailings with a change in itineraries: on the five-day, Georgetown, Grand Cayman replaces Belize City, Belize; and on the nine-day, Samana, Dominican Republic replaces Roseau, Dominica.

Sailing from Rotterdam to Southampton the Pearl encountered the best of what the English Channel could chuck at her and the weather gradually deteriorated from a force 5 at Rotterdam to a Force 10 off Brighton. But that didn't really bother this giant and it was still perfectly possible to walk around or lie in bed. She ploughed on through the night, maintaining a high speed of over 20 knots until heading past the Nab tower into Southampton for the end of this short maiden cruise. Overall the Norwegian Pearl is another step forward in the bright and fun NCL ships, taking the freestyle concept just ever so slightly forward but with the accent clearly on attracting a much younger crowd.