We are both in our 60's and sailed for the second time this year on the Pearl, this time in a balcony cabin on the 10th Deck. Our previous cabin was an oceanview on the 8th Deck. I have sailed 16 times on various NCL ships and enjoy the benefits that come with Platinum status.

Embarkation at the Tampa pier was quite an ordeal this time. In January, we basically walked directly through security to the Platinum desk, got our keys and were onboard within about 15 minutes. This time we arrived at the pier as directed - boarding began at noon, the ship was scheduled to sail at 3 and our documents stated we needed to be on board 2 hours before departure. The line at noon was approximately 3 city blocks long. We used a parking service and were dropped off in the area relegated to parking shuttles across from the port area. There were no porters available to take our luggage. We were forced to drag our bags the 6 city blocks (3 to get to the end of the line and 3 more to get back to the port doorway) before a porter was close enough for us to run our bags over without losing our place in line. Another couple who had taken the same shuttle told us a porter came into the shuttle area just after we left it to get in line. It took us approximately one hour from the time we arrived until we were onboard. There was no Platinum advantage until we passed Security. Once in the building, there was only a minor wait. It was not a happy beginning.

Our cabin was 10566, very nice although somewhat small. The layout was more difficult to maneuver with 2 people than our outside cabin had been because of the location of the bed. It seemed the closet was smaller in the balcony cabin also. We had a small coffee maker that was not provided in the outside cabin. While this was great, there was very little counter top space for it, the phone, etc. Our cabin steward was very efficient. We rarely saw him except for a minute or two in the morning but our cabin was kept very clean. Read more