Norwegian Pearl Cruise Followed By Disney Magic Cruise

[DMMarla07860]

So my Dad and I are booked on the Parahoy cruise (www.parahoy.com) March 5th- March 9th, 2016. We were planning on driving from Miami to Disney World to spend a few days there, but since my birthday is March 11th and there is a Disney Magic 3 night that starts on March 10th and I want to cruise more then do the parks we decided we will do that. I'm pretty excited to try a new cruise line and then also cruise DCL again.

Anyone who cruise NCL and DCL have any tips. This isn't a regular NCL cruise it's a music one. And stops in Cozumel which we've been to many times

 

[tinkerone]

sorry i have no suggestions, just wanted to say that sounds like an amazing cruise. you and your dad have a ton of fun together and thats so nice to see.
have a great birthday cruise even though its not till 2016.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

We haven't done the Magic but have done the NCL Pearl and the DCL Dream. We got the week-long spa pass on the Pearl and spent tons of time in there in the whirlpools, in the steam room, on the heated loungers, etc. It was also a quiet, relaxing place to watch the boat pull out from ports because it is right at the front of the ship. I highly recommend checking it out.

Anytime dining on the Pearl is nice--eating whenever you want as opposed to assigned times like DCL, but I preferred the DCL main restaurants to the NCL ones. On NCL, we also ate at Cagney's Steakhouse and the French restaurant (can't remember the name right now), and they were both good. NCL has the casino, so if you want to gamble make sure you do it there because DCL only has bingo. I felt like there was a bit more to do on the Disney Dream than the NCL Pearl during our downtime, but not sure if that would be the case for the Magic. And the Disney staterooms are much more spacious than the comparable categories on the Pearl. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the Pearl!

 

[DMMarla07860]

We haven't done the Magic but have done the NCL Pearl and the DCL Dream. We got the week-long spa pass on the Pearl and spent tons of time in there in the whirlpools, in the steam room, on the heated loungers, etc. It was also a quiet, relaxing place to watch the boat pull out from ports because it is right at the front of the ship. I highly recommend checking it out.

Anytime dining on the Pearl is nice--eating whenever you want as opposed to assigned times like DCL, but I preferred the DCL main restaurants to the NCL ones. On NCL, we also ate at Cagney's Steakhouse and the French restaurant (can't remember the name right now), and they were both good. NCL has the casino, so if you want to gamble make sure you do it there because DCL only has bingo. I felt like there was a bit more to do on the Disney Dream than the NCL Pearl during our downtime, but not sure if that would be the case for the Magic. And the Disney staterooms are much more spacious than the comparable categories on the Pearl. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the Pearl!

cool thanks for the info, deff hoping to to Cagney's Steakhouse and I was deff gonna try the Casino once, not big on gambling, just to try it. The cruise I'm booked on is one of the music cruises so should be fun We booked a mini-suite since heard rooms were smaller on other ships and it wasn't that much more

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

cool thanks for the info, deff hoping to to Cagney's Steakhouse and I was deff gonna try the Casino once, not big on gambling, just to try it. The cruise I'm booked on is one of the music cruises so should be fun We booked a mini-suite since heard rooms were smaller on other ships and it wasn't that much more

A word of advice--if you wear a dress to dinner at Cagney's, be careful. The deck you walk through to get there can be very windy ;-). Not that I almost had an issue or anything ;-)

The mini-suites look nice. We had an oceanview, and it seemed smaller than an inside stateroom on Disney! Have a great time!

 

[jrabbit]

We were on a sister ship of the Perl - the NCL Jade.

Budget for dinners in the specialty restaurants. Our experience was that the service and food were both lousy in the MDR. For breakfast make it to a sit down breakfast - breakfast at the buffet was awful and usually very cold.

Remember, FreeStyle means that you are invisible to the crew of the ship, no one really cares about taking care of you (poor service), nor will they acknowledge your existence - even when going into a dinning room and they ask your room number and how many are in your group tonight (MDR's).

On DCL EVERYONE will ask how your vacation is going - even the Paint, Scrape and Varnish guys. If you say that anything is less than awesome, they want to know. You will be taken care of. Food is usually ok to pretty good (vs. NCL MDR awfulness). Room stewards are great. Oh yea, there are comfortable seating in your room and throughout the ship ... on NCL not so much - feels like a board covered in thin fabric.

So glad that you are doing NCL first and DCL second. You will get a first hand view of what a cruise can be.

 

[MPS516]

Well jrabbit, my continents exactly. We had to stop going to the MDR's the food was so bad. On our last night trying to tolerate the MDR (about 1/2 way through cruise) we were sat with a couple who had cruised nearly every cruise line out there, it was their 50th cruise, they were appalled by how bad the food had been. On our DCL Med cruise in 2010 we were on a tender coming back to the Magic and several groups on the bow were discussing different ships and lines they had been on, one commented they had been on NCL and the experience was so bad they would never cruise them again, even if gifted a freebie.

On ours, while we were sitting at the pool, a crew began scraping and sanding paint rust on the deck above directly over our location. We, long with all others in the immediate area were being showered with the shavings and sanding dust, of course we all had to get up and move. At no time during the 7 day cruise did a crew member smile and greet us passing in a hall or on deck, none looked excited about being there. The waite staff in the dining room basically asked what we wanted and then came back to clean off our plates, never had them stop back and refill drinks or check to see if we were pleased with the food.

Reading the boards I can see others have had very good experiences with NCL, this does not include us or any of our friends who are regular cruisers. Let me qualify my comments however, we had sailed Carnival and Louis before sailing DCL the first time, after Carnival we did not think cruising was our thing. When they launched the Wonder we came across a deal and thought we would try a land / sea just for fun, the experience was so great we were hooked. We have sailed 3 of the 4 ships and for various reasons have sailed RCCL, Holland, PG and Princess for itinerary or timing, we always look for DCL before even considering we may have to look at another line.

I hope you have a great time and on your ship they are committed to providing a good experience, when you transfer to the Magic I trust you will have the typical DCL magic experience. Too bad it will only be 3 nights, that seems so short when there is so much to experience.