Norwegian Pearl Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,402 reviews

21 day repositioning cruise through the Panama Canal

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Norwegian Pearl
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RLloyd66
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Apr 2018
Cabin: Balcony

I have taken cruises before and I have cruised on several different cruise lines. This was my first repositioning cruise and I hope to answer some of the questions I had about this type of cruise. We chose this trip because of the departure port and the itinerary.

New Orleans Embarkation: We live a few hours from New Orleans and took the train down the day before. Our assigned check-in time was 10:30 AM. The cruise terminal was busy but the NCL staff were efficient during checking in. We had a few minutes wait before embarkation began and the seating area filled. We were assigned groups for boarding and this made the flow onto the ship very easy. The staterooms were not ready yet so we went to the main dining room, Summer Palace, for a relaxing three course lunch. This is a helpful tip for those who don’t like the crowded buffet lines on the first day. Usually the main dining room is open on the first day for a limited time but most people go to the buffet. During our meal the announcement was made that the staterooms were ready. We checked out the room and explored some of the ship. Our luggage arrived before sail away.

Packing and attire: Packing for a 25 day trip can be a challenge. The Pearl does not have self-serve washing machines/dryers but does offer a laundry service. Given the length of the cruise they did offer a discounted rate at certain times and Latitude members also got a discount. A friend used the service and was satisfied with the results. The attire on the ship was mostly casual with a few people dressing up a little more for dinner. There were a few who wore a cocktail dress, evening attire, or suit but they were definitely the minority. There was only one official “night on the town”- Norwegian’s version of a formal night but people would occasionally dress for a special occasion, specialty dining or just because they could. This was one question I had about the 21 day cruise. I had expected at least one dress-up night a week but we only had one for the entire cruise.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BB

Cabin: Three people in the room. Our cabin was a balcony room toward the back of the ship. We loved the location. We were between two elevator/staircases; one leading to the food areas and the other leading to the main public spaces. The room is well represented in the pictures for the ship. We had two twin beds and then the couch was made out into a third bed. There was very little floor space left after this. The first and second bed had a small space and night stand between them, the second and third bed had no space between them, and the third bed was against the wall/sliding glass door. The balcony could be accessed from a small space at the foot of the third bed. We learned that only one person could move around at a time. This made for some funny moments but we kept our humor about being pieces of a puzzle and made it work. The décor is pleasant and the room is bright with the curtains open. We found lots of places for storage. There were storage shelves and drawers in the small hallway, and we each had a shelf in the bathroom. We are all fans of travel cubes now. We left our clothing in the cubes and it was easy to locate items without digging through everything. We took advantage of tips from other cruisers and brought two shoe organizers (the one with clear pockets comes in handy for odds and ends). We had one on the bathroom door and one on the closet. This kept shoes up out of the way but accessible and we used the extra slots for night wear, sunscreen, flashlight, hairbrushes, etc. We also brought metal hooks to use on the walls. Another helpful tip we learned. This was extremely handy for hanging the daily events schedule, hats, lightweight bags, purses and even binoculars and cameras. One on the bathroom wall held a bath sponge. I used hooks to hang a small travel bag over my bed that held a light, Kindle, journal, etc. Our space was tight but being prepared helped to keep us organized.

Port Reviews

Harvest Caye

I was fortunate to be on the inaugural ship to this private island and looked forward to seeing how the landscape is maturing. It’s a beautiful location for those who want to lay around the pool or find a chair beach side. There are plenty of places to hang out. Getting off the ship here was a little chaotic. We had booked a wildlife boat tour and were in the first group to get off the ship. Many people were trying to get off early (wanting the best locations if I had to guess) so we moved with a crowd all the way to the excursion area. It would have been nice if the staff had taken those with early excursions off the ship before opening the flood gate of people.

We had a very pleasant boat tour which included spotting manatees and a few other wildlife. We rode into the mangroves and learned about the ecology of the area. After our tour we had a cold beverage at one of the restaurants, toured the butterfly house and looked at the birds. We had booked parasailing for the afternoon but received a notice the evening before that it had been cancelled due to mechanical issues. It was a pleasant walk back to the ship because the crowds had dispersed.

Puerto Quetzal (Antigua)

: Another excursion change received the night before our port. Our planned excursion by train, bus and boat had been cancelled. They had refunded our tour then booked us onto the boat tour. The reason again was mechanical issues. We were also rebooked to a tour time later than the original one we chose. Given that this was for wildlife viewing I would much rather have had the earlier time. The tour was good with a bus ride through the countryside where our guide told us about the country, its people and its landscape. Our driver stopped to show us items of interest like cashews growing on trees and iguanas sunning. The facilities before the bus trip were new and functional. We loaded onto a boat and headed out onto the river. Our guide and the boat captain immediately started spotting wildlife. We saw many birds including wood storks, several types of herons, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, king fishers, rosette spoonbills and song birds. We also saw several crocodiles both in and out of the water including the 15 foot long Osama Bin Laudon and Lady GaGa. Black and green iguanas were spotted near the water’s edge and Jesus Christ Lizards sunned on low branches. We took a side trip into the mangroves and all the way to the mouth of the river where it meets the Pacific Ocean. This trip definitely offers many opportunities to see wildlife.

Acapulco

The arrival into the harbor of Acapulco is very impressive. It is a beautiful port and they were certainly trying to make it appear welcome and safe. There was definitely a visible security presence with armed military on the pier as well as police. The US state department had issued a level 4 “Do not Travel” alert for this city so we chose to stay onboard the ship. I question NCL’s decision to port where there are so many safety concerns and I was surprised that many of my fellow passengers were not even aware that safety is a concern in this area. NCL did not acknowledge or address the safety issues while other cruise lines have stopped going to this port. Fellow passengers said they enjoyed the cliff divers and many noted a high level of police presence in the tourist areas. We would have liked to visit the port but did not think it worth the risk.

Los Angeles

: This port was a different experience for a lot of reasons. We arrived at midnight. Given that this is the largest US shipping port it would have been wonderful to see the arrival in the daytime. There are shipping containers and cranes for as far as the eye can see. At 2:00 AM I was awakened (on the 10th floor mind you) by the men yelling who were bunkering down below. Bunkering is the transfer of gas/oil onto the ship. Why could this not be done during the day as not to disturb passengers? This was our first entry back into a US port and therefore we all, including crew, had to go through customs. Many people simply got off the ship, waited and then got back on board. The NCL port is actually in San Pedro which is a long way from the city of Los Angeles. We opted not to do an excursion here because the few offered were either transfers or bus tours. We had hoped to do the trolley of San Pedro but were told it wasn’t running by one of the employees working in the terminal. We discovered when we returned that it was indeed working. The terminal staff should be better informed. We took a taxi to Long Beach ($35.00) and walked around there. We saw the waterfront and the Queen Mary. Early in the day there was not much happening. By the time we decided to visit the Aquarium there were numerous school buses present so we did a little shopping and returned to the ship. Not a very exciting port stop.

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