NCL Norwegian Pearl

We have cruised with NCL on four occasions and have, in the past found them very good. However on our last cruise to Alaska on Norwegian pearl we found that the standards have slipped so much that the cruise was spoiled for us. Free style used to mean the freedom to eat whenever and wherever you wanted, it now seems to have been changed to mean that you can also wear whatever you want. This is however not made clear in the literature which is sent out at the time of booking, as this clearly states that the main dining room is ALWAYS formal and that no shorts, jeans, t shirts or other casual attire will be allowed. As we like to dress up in the evening, we only packed formal evening wear, and were made to feel most uncomfortable as we were the only people who where dressed formally. They even allow beach wear in the restaurants.

Also the menu was the most boring I have ever seen with a choice of 6 starters 6 mains and 4 desserts. The menu was exactly the same every night except for a couple of extra options which were not very exciting. The lunch menu was even smaller and never changed.

The officers on the ship were conspicuous by their absence and the service was sloppy and lackluster.

The amount of retailing was extremely "in your face" and totally relentlass. To the point where we did not enjoy walking around the ship because everywhere you went they were trying to sell you some kind of junk and were quite aggresive about it.

We have decided that we will not cruise with NCL again and I would not recommend anyone else to.