NCL Pearl Mediterranean Cruise Review - Nov 2024
NCL Pearl - November 1-11, 2024
We booked this 10-night cruise a year before with our 20% off future cruise credit from missed ports in Iceland/Greenland for its awesome itinerary. All the ports were new to both of us, and we had two nights before and after the cruise planned to see Florence and Rome. I had been to Florence and Rome 25 years ago, and they were new to Travis. We had a port everyday, which we worried about being tiring, but we could always stay onboard or not stay on shore long.
Embarkation
We boarded in Trieste, Italy and disembarked in Civitavecchia, Italy. Our embarkation was quick and easy since we had a late boarding time -- 3pm, after the rush. The Italian police were at the entrance to the terminal. We do not normally see that. They very carefully (aka slowly and suspiciously) inspected our passports and pre-check-in cruise line boarding passes and then let us continue. Next, a NCL rep confirmed our boarding passes and let us to go followed by another NCL rep that checked our boarding passes and sent us to the Latitudes priority line. Both of these were really quick. Then, two people checked us in separately, scanned our passport, did not retake our pre-check-in picture, and gave us keycards and paper on going to/finding our muster station. Finally, security, and we were onboard.
Buffet
After our late boarding, I discovered the lemon sorbet in the buffet after some not as exciting chocolate ice cream. They had the lemon sorbet everyday (while other selections were changed out), and later, I discovered that they also reopened the ice cream station for dinner after closing for the 3pm snacks, which are back in the Great Outdoors buffet area. It is really nice to have included ice cream (both soft serve and normal ice cream), sorbet, and the wonderful crepe station at night. We like the Great Outdoors, normally less crowded and great views. Only one day while in port, it was so windy that we headed inside with our plates and felt bad for the waiters -- they were having to chase down food and napkins. I'm not a huge buffet fan, but I found myself liking it more than the MDR and O'Sheehans at times on this cruise. Though I still shy away from buffet lines and working so hard for food, so try to find something with less of a line. We did not find the outside grill open much, either due to weather or all port days. Some standouts: Lemon sorbet, of course; Asian beef (dinner); and S'mores brownie. Breakfast hash browns (always my favorite) and muesli are no longer available in the MDR, buffet, or O'Sheehan's. The buffet cookies were hard without much taste. They are normally so good. I hope they were hard because Italians like hard cookies (we saw these in the grocery store) and not because NCL is discouraging people from eating them (I have also seen people get plates full of cookies). I was excited to find a Yorkshire pudding on the buffet one day; I enjoyed it since I never found one on P&O UK.
MDR
We did not go to the MDR as much on this cruise -- we did O'Sheehan's the first night, three specialty dining restaurants, the Asian restaurant, and the buffet one night (due to nothing looking good on the MDR menu to me). I missed the only night that I saw flourless lava cake on the menu; this is my favorite and is normally on the menu almost nightly. I found the menus much less exciting than on our previous NCL cruises. There were only two nightly dessert choices that changed, plus nightly choice of a cheese plate or daily ice cream/sorbet. One night we did not order dessert because I knew by then that I could get the lemon sorbet in the buffet. Maybe the MDR is more costly for them, so they want to discourage people from going there. We only went to aft MDR; the more casual MDR midship is more crowded (tables closer together) and lower ceilings, making it louder. It also opened later. We like the dresser and more elegant aft MDR. Though it got dark so early on our cruise that we could not see the nice views regardless of where we were seated. We eat early and got a table for two quickly. Service was good. Some standouts: Pork pot stickers, Fried mozzarella sticks, Chimichurri sirloin, Smoked salmon with bagel and cream cheese for breakfast (the bagel was thinner/less bready, so worked well to eat with the salmon on top).
Our dinner with the officers was in the MDR where one officer previously worked in the restaurant, so we got lots of attention and very good service. The dinner with the officers (a Sapphire perk) was nice; we got to learn about their home countries, families, career paths while working on a cruise ship, and some other ship comparisons. We ate with the Asst Mgrs of Guest Services and of Shore Excursions. After they left, we also had a nice chat with others at our table about travel and computer tech jobs.
Specialty Dining
The specialty restaurants -- we went to Cagney's (steakhouse), Le Bistro (French), and La Cucina (Italian) -- were all very delicious, great service, and way too much food. Except the salmon in La Cucina that I got that I was disappointed in. I had a very good one in the MDR on P&O, so I had high hopes for a specialty restaurant. The two Latitudes status meals, one with wine, is a very good perk. We also had one "free at sea" meal; just one meal for a 10 night cruise was surprising. Maybe this changes with "more at sea".
Putting the Asian restaurant and O'Sheehan's in the specialty section. Lotus Garden is still complimentary but required reservations. I guess this is good because there have been lines before it opened on previous ships. However, they will start charging for it on Jan 1, 2025 (noted in our Freestyle Daily), so it will not be complimentary anymore. The fried pork pot stickers were very good. I tried the orange peel beef again; it was really good on the Spirit and then disappointing on the Jade. I was hoping it would redeem itself; I was still disappointed. Our awesome waiter brought me more fried pot stickers.
O'Sheehan's is normally my favorite (well, not over Cagney's and Le Bistro -- a different class), but I was less impressed this time. This is better for Travis because he prefers the buffet with more selection and gets tired of me dragging him to O'Sheehan's. I was not impressed with the nachos this time. I tried the sweet chili wings (I normally get buffalo, but getting older, I cannot handle the spice as well); they had a good favor but no crispy skin. Travis liked the Lechon Asado with Cuban roasted pork, plantains, black beans, and rice. They had a good breakfast sandwich. Their serving approach is tough for us. They bring food out when it is ready. Travis always got his food first, and I'm the slow eater. You also get starters and mains at the same time, so you are trying to each both before they get cold. I guess that this is more efficient, so they can be faster.
Escargot and filet at Le Bistro.
Ship
I like the layout of the Jewel class ships. We love to walk the full promenade and did many times. Great Outdoors is a great viewing area and less crowded buffet area. Travis got a book at the still existing library. The 270 degree front view in the Observation Lounge great and a nice place to sit and read. The bridge viewing room is also cool to see.
Travis got the stomach bug after Corfu. I first thought food poisoning since I did not get it, but others noted on the FB page after the cruise that it was on the ship. He had a rough night, and we skipped traveling to Olympia. Luckily, he was doing better to do the Wines Around the World tasting and Le Bistro still. I was surprised that we did not have washy-washy when getting back on the ship from the first few ports, when we have always had it at every port on all other cruises. They added washy-washy after this port.
Cabin - room: 9049 - Inside, deck 9
We were in a good location; deck 9 was 3 decks below the buffet and 2 decks above the main atrium and promenade deck. We were between the forward and mid ship stairs, closer to the forward. The room was quiet, no noise issues. However, walking from the forward stairs, it was smelly in the hall on multiple days. Luckily, no smells in our room.
The last dry dock of the room made it more pleasing looking. The update made the storage worse though. There were shelves under the TV that I was always afraid that walking by would knock stuff off. On the TV, there looked like there could have been storage added around it but there was none. Also on the TV, it was the normal NCL programming with many cruise ship channels, 2 movie channels, one sitcom/kid's show channel, and new channels. No on demand movies or shows. There were only two drawers total, in one of the closets. The closets were nice with the lights coming on with motion detection. But more drawers were needed; they are so nice for things not falling off or out of them with ship movement, some privacy for your stuff, or to just not have to look at messy stuff on shelves. I liked the 2 drawers that we each had in our nightstands on P&O -- perfect for socks, underwear, pjs, and gym clothes.
Though not a Jewel class shower (full bathroom wall shower), it still had a shower door instead of curtain and roomy. The toilet was at a weird angle that made using it a little uncomfortable. The vanity mirror looked nice, but did not light one's face well, with two lights down each side -- lights all around, like in the room, or above lighting would have worked better. The bathroom door inside had some dirty brown spots and along the bottom, yuck. If they would not come clean, at least paint over them.
The room mirror had a lit up circle where you turn it on; this was lit up at night and also reflected off the mirror across from it. Nice for walking to the bathroom at night, but bring an eye mask if you don't want to see the bright glow while trying to fall sleeping.
Our room steward did a great job keeping us with ice and extra towels. I was surprised that it was 2 or 3pm before he got to our room some days though. NCL has a very high daily service charge now and only one cleaning per day. He was busy; they need fewer rooms to cover.
Also, for Latitudes status, NCL, without telling us, cut the laundry perk from a laundry bag per member to a laundry bag per stateroom. Not knowing, we did not plan well, and of course disappointed in the uncommunicated cutback.
Entertainment
This was a port intensive cruise with a port everyday, so we did not participate in as much entertainment as normal. We did not get off on the last port, Livorno, so did more trivia this day, where the cruise director staff was aweseome. We went to only one show, the acrobats. They were entertaining; however, light on the acrobatics. They did the cool acrobatics only in the final scene. I watched the Not so Newlywed show on the TV since we did not stay out late enough to see it live. We went to Battle of the Sexes, which was fun.
Latitudes status perk: Wines Around the World wine tasting was nice. They gave us a booklet this time to take notes about the wines and what meat they noted each was good with.
Disembarkation
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