My very first cruise was a 5 day repositioning from Vancouver to Los Angeles, with my sister who has been on several cruises. My impressions of the Norwegian Pearl:

It was bright and airy. Our room (with a balcony) was bright, and clean. I found it very comfortable; there was enough room to relax and the balcony was a real plus.

The food was pretty decent with only one exception: La Cucina, the specialty Italian restaurant. I had ordered a pork loin and it was a salty, tough piece of shoe leather. The accompanying gnocchi was pretty chewy too, and not in a good way. However, I felt I ate very well at the buffet and in the Indigo, Teppanyaki and the russian-themed restaurant. I realized I had to pick and choose; for example, the scrambled eggs were obviously reconstituted dried eggs (yech) BUT the omelettes were freshly made and very good. I really enjoyed the Indian dishes served each day in the buffet; they were very tasty. Read more