Bob's Review of NCL Pearl

Bob's review on Cruise Critic:

My wife and I went on the five day NCL Pearl cruise Jan 20 - 25th, overall, it was a beautiful ship with lots to do. We had kind of a rough year heading into the cruise so we were REALLY looking forward to getting away....we ran into a few issues however, some were handled very well, others not so much.

PRE PRE CRUISE (1/18)

Since it was only a 5 day cruise we decided to make sure we got on the ship as refreshed as possible. We were scheduled fo a 7:40 flight on 1/19 out of Albany, NY and we live an hour away. Granted our original flight was scheduled for a 6:50 AM departure until Delta changed the itinerary a couple of months before hand (kind of funny how if I wanted to change the itinerary they would whack me with re-booking fees, but they can change it whenever they want!!!)

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Albany NY for $52. I'm still confused on the whole advertising other website thing here on CC so lets just say Denny Crane got us a great deal. A very nice hotel with a shuttle right to the airport, we left our car at the hotel. Everyone was very helpful. We had dinner at the Olive Garden (everyone insists on getting us Gift Cards to restaurants we have to travel an hour or more to get to for Christmas...it was nice to get an opportunity to use one). Overall an A+ to the Hilton Garden Inn.

PRE CRUISE (1/19...aka the day from HELL!)

We arrive at the airport at 6:20 AM after a quick shuttle from the hotel. We check in at the airport and are told that our 11:55 flight from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale had been cancelled, but "it's no big deal, you're rebooked on the 2:25 flight, so grab a bite to eat in Atlanta and you'll be in Ft. Lauderdale by 4." OK...4pm, not a huge deal we can still relax for a bit, we may have to push back our reservations at Tiramasu (an outstanding italian restaurant at the Lincoln Mall in Miami Beach, the whole reason we booked a hotel on Miami Beach was to go to this restauarant) but we can still make it. As we waited for our flight in Albany I called Delta reservations to see if there was a way to get an earlier flight to Ft. Lauderdale or even to Miami, but after being told how important my call was and listening to horrible music for 20 minutes I hung up cause we had to get on the plane. I'll see what we can do in Atlanta.

As we push back from the gate the captain says there's a little rain in Atlanta, nothing to worry about.

We get to Atlanta and the rain had changed to snow. It wasn't much though, we'll grab a bite to eat and be off to Ft. Lauderdale in no time. I look at the big board to see what our options might be and I'm greeted with a sea of red "CANCELLED" notices on the big board. But I do see two flights to Miami and an earlier flight to Ft. Lauderdale, so I talk to the ticket guy behind the counter, and he says, "oh, the other flights are booked up, but they'll probably all get cancelled anyway because of the snow." You see, they don't get much snow in Atlanta, so snow removal equipment is pretty much non existent. He goes on to tell us that it's all supposed to freeze overnight so getting out tomorrow might be a problem too. It's about 11:15 AM at this point and renting a car for a 10 hour drive suddenly looks like and excellent idea.

There's a Miami flight at 12:15, so we try to get stand-by on that flight, we get to the counter and our told we'd have to go back to ticketing to try and get on the flight because it was a different destination. While in the long line to try to go standby on this flight we stood next to another couple whose cruise left THAT DAY. Their earlier flight got cancelled and getting on this flight was their only hope of making the cruise. I don't know how they made out, but I felt horrible for them and was glad we were flying in the day before.

We go back to a different ticket counter and after waiting in line we are told that we'd be better off sticking to what we have because we would be 61st on the stand-by list, and she was pretty sure our flight would go out on time.

So it looked like we'd make it to Tiramasu after all to re-live some memories, not before we re-lived some memories at the Sam Adams restaurant in Atlanta, where we had dinner that last time we got delayed there for a few hours.

So after ending up 44th on the Stand-by list for the 1:30 flight to Ft. Lauderdale (I figured an hour trying to go stand-by would be moderately more entertaining then sitting at the gate for two and a half hours we go down to our gate, only to find out the gate was changed and we had to walk all the way down the other end of the terminal, where our flight was scheduled to leave on time. I talked to the guy at the counter to be sure we were set on this flight and he said yes. I asked him if this flight was 100% a go and he said 100% this flight would leave. Excellent, we'd be in Ft. Lauderdale by 4:30 at the hotel by 5:30, showered, shaved and ready to go by 7 to enjoy our night.

Then we hear an announcement, "We're getting ready to board you for you flight to Ft. Lauderdale...(at this point everyone in the gate area broke into a riotous applause)...unfortunately the flight your flight attendent's were on got delayed a bit, but their on their was from a different terminal and they'll be here in a bit." Fifteen minutes later they arrived and we were about ready to go. Then another announcement....

"All right, whose ready to go to Ft. Lauderdale (annother riotous applause). All right, we're set to begin boarding, but the captain has informed me that there is a line for de-icing and it looks like we'll be on the runway for about 2 1/2 hours before take off (a collective groan from the passengers at the gate), but then after that we're off to Ft. Lauderdale. Sorry for the inconvenience."

OK, OK...that sucks but at least we're getting out, we'll be at the hotel by 8 and at the restauarant by 10 then back to the hotel for sleep and begin the cruise tomorrow...not a huge deal.

After we get on the plane the captain, not once, not twice, but three times says "it appears that things are moving more smoothly then anticipated so we'll be our of here sooner then expected." They put on a movie for us and even decided that they'd give us free earphones for our inconvenience (YAY, I just saved myself $2 bucks, things are starting to go my way!)

So we sit and we sit and we sit and we sit, the movie ends...a new one begins, that's when I look at my clock and realize it's 5:30...we've been on this plane for 3 hours now and haven't heard a thing from mister "things are moving quicker then expected." Finally he comes on and says "it's moving slower then expected" (WELL NO $*^%) but we're next in line for de-icing and we'll be first for take off.

We de-ice and now it's 6:15 and we're informed that we're now number 2 for take off (didn't he just say there was no one in front of us). We finally take off at 6:45pm...we had been sitting on that plane for 4 hours and 20 minutes for a 90 minute flight. People were yelling at the flight attendants, it was a horrible scene. While we were waiting I went back and talked with the flight attendants for a bit amidst the other screaming passengers. The flight attendents were upset too...they wanted to get home, it had been a long day for them too, and this wasn't their fault.

Finally we arrive at Ft. Lauderdale around 9:15 pm, where we get our luggage (which is absolutely soaking wet!), but we didn't care, we had missed our 6:30 reservations at Tiramasu, we called them and told them what had happened and they couldn't have been nicer about it. They said they would have a table ready for us when we got there. We wanted to get a taxi and get the hell out of there. A woman approached us and asked if she could share a ride with us, she would pay (it was a business write off for her anyways) she just didn't want to be alone. I could understand, and we dropped her off at the Doubletree in downtown Miami about 10:15, the cab drops us off at the Ocean Spray Hotel in Miami Beach at about 10:30pm (just a reminder that our original flight plan had us in Ft. Lauderdale at 1:15PM).

THE OCEAN SPRAY HOTEL

We booked this for $120 and we didn't use the services of Denny Crane, but after I booked it through another discount website I had something orbiting around my head, I don't what the heck that was, but here we were at the Ocean Spray...FINALLY!

I gave the guy at the counter my name and waited for the room key. Then I think I heard "I'm sorry Mister Heck but there was a flood today and your room won't be available." I was pretty shocked, but not nearly as shocked as the guy at the counter when my head did a full rotation like Linda Blair. I didn't know what to say, I started looking around the place, my wife was wondering what I was doing, "where are the camera's, this has got to be a joke, where's Ashton Kutcher, I'm getting punked right, this can't be real."

He tells us the Days Inn up the street always has rooms available...so I called them, and they DIDN'T HAVE ROOMS AVAILABLE! I ran across the street to the Best Western, no rooms available. I ran to another place and another...nothing. I get back to the Ocean Spray and the guy in the red suit (at least I think it was red...though it may have been white and turned red after the blood shot out of my eyes) says he has a place called the Paridise Hotel that has rooms available.

So we take the room and the cab driver, who had never heard of the place pulls out in front of the hotel. We weren't sure if this was the place or not. It could have been the place it did say "HOTEL" in big letters on the side, then a strange man came out of the "HOTEL" and start yelling at our cab driver to move his cab. I asked the man if this was the Paridise "HOTEL" and he said yes, so I asked the cab driver if HE would stay there and he said "yes". So I go in and the guy who yelled at our cab driver was the counter guy. I think he was confused though, he wasn't dressed like a hotel counter guy, but I left that up to my imagination (Ohhh, I work tonight and get drunk and watch soccer tomorrow...ohh, my mistake). I didn't care at this point and it was up to our room, we tried the elevator...soccer guy tells us it's not working, so we carry our bags up two flights of stairs and into the hallway, where we find what we think is rat poop. Gil Grisson wasn't available for comprehensive testing of what we found so I can't verify that it indeed was rat poop, but we got into the room.

My wife broke out in tears, I had decided we were only going to be here for a few hours and this room was fine. I went down to the lobby to have a smoke (I've pretty much been chain smoking since we got off the flight.) and came up with a movie idea, it's called Paradise "HOTEL" and stars Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th. After realizing how perfect the location was for a horror movie I decided my wife was right and we needed to get the hell out of there.

We found a room at the doubletree by the port for $231 dollars...it could've been $1000 a night, I would've taken it, so we hop in a cab and he drops us off at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Miami around midnight (yes, the same exact hotel we dropped the other girl off at an hour and 45 minutes ago.

We check in and the guy says, "well if you stayed at a doubletree before you know we give you a chocolate chip cookie when you check in.....but we are all out of chocolate chip cookies." And the hits just keep on coming...........

(BTW...we never did make it to Tiramasu)

My next post will actually be about the cruise.