We booked this 5 day cruise to celebrate my husband’s birthday as well as our friends birthday. The dates covered both & the ports were ones we had not before been to. Embarkation took only minutes, & then we had about a half hour wait in the holding area before boarding. For an older ship, the Pearl seems in good shape & appeared clean. Rooms were fine with plenty of storage for a 5 day cruise. The shower was one of the nicest I’ve seen. However the toilet is in a tiny space, with little leg room. Strangely there was also an ashtray above the toilet paper holder (though our room steward told us the ship refers to it as a soap holder...haha). Another quirky thing on the Pearl is the uncomfortable chairs (either too low or too deep) throughout the entire ship. Our room steward, Sheryl, always had a smile & chat with us. The other staff would acknowledge you if passing in the hallway, but often wouldn’t initiate a “hello” or “good morning”. We saw the Captain only once.....on the last day during the Battle of the Cake Masters. We did enjoy mojitos at the Sugarcane Bar twice. It was disappointing that it didn’t open until 5:30 though. Our major disappointment came from the food. It was mediocre at best. We only ate at the buffet for breakfast. The first morning 2 of us had the made to order omelettes with some fried potatoes. Both items left a nasty aftertaste ...due we think to the oil they used. From then on we opted for the warm hard boiled eggs. Lunches were usually in O’Sheehan’s...there were some hits (burgers & quesadilla) & misses (Rueben sandwich & chicken sandwich where the chicken breast was the size of a chicken nugget). We ate one meal in Indigo (low ceilings & felt very closed in) & 3 in Summer Palace which both have the same menu. This was our 11th cruise but the first time in memory that there was never shrimp cocktail or escargot on the MDR menu, or prime rib or lobster either. We always found something to eat, but none of us ever raved about our meal. On the night of my husbands birthday we did go to LeBistro & had a fabulous meal....at a cost of course! Their French Onion soup was amazing (whereas the same soup in the MDR’s was horrendous). On board, my husband bought the $129 spa package which allowed him the use of the sauna, steam room thelosatherapy pool. He visited the spa about 3 times a day & really enjoyed it. We attended a couple of shows in the Spinnaker lounge but never any in the Stardust theater. In Belize, we took the Spice Farm & Botanical Garden excursion that was very interesting. Harvest Caye looked nice, if you just want to lie in the sun all day. But any food or drink purchases here have to be paid out of pocket. Our friends appreciated the golf cart ride from the ship to the marina. Costa Maya seemed like a waste of a Port day. We disembarked at 7:30, taking our own luggage with us & walked right off of the ship. This was our 2nd NCL Cruise...the first being a cruise to Cuba. But going forward we will stick with Celebrity, where the food is definitely better & the crew is friendlier.