I had the opportunity to cruise on the NCL Pearl with my wife about 6 weeks ago. This was our first cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines. We flew from BWI on 10/29/11 to Ft. Lauderdale airport on Southwest Airlines. Even though the cruise left from the Port of Miami, the flights into Fort Lauderdale on SWA were cheaper. We stayed at the Comfort Inn on Stirling Road in Hollywood, FL as is usual for our cruises out of South Florida. That hotel has nice rooms, free internet, free breakfast (including fresh, made-to-order waffles), free shuttle between the airport and hotel, and shuttles to both Port Everglades and the Port of Miami (either included with some room rates, or available at an extra charge).
The weather was terrible leaving BWI, with cold and rain, with a prediction of light snow coming, so we were happy to leave. The weather in Florida was equally bad as far as the rain goes, but much warmer of course. There would not be any swimming in the pool on this trip. Rather than struggle with the rain to eat somewhere nice, we settled for the Taco Bell next door. We did enjoy our free drinks at the bar, and then headed back to the room to watch Georgia Tech beat Clemson on television. As I am a GT graduate, that was a great start to the trip!
The next morning we were up early, as we had to catch the shuttle to the Port of Miami at 9:15AM. Needless to say, we arrived at the port with plenty of time to spare. In fact, we had to wait in line just to get to the check in area, as it was not open yet. When it did open we were among the first to check in. That allowed us to reach the next waiting area, as the ship was not yet ready for boarding. There were still people gtting off the ship up until almost noon. Apparently that is typical for this ship, as you'll read later.
Finally, they started boarding passengers a little after 12:30PM, starting with the passengers that had suites, and those that were well-traveled on NCL. We managed to get aboard around 1PM. We went to the buffet to eat lunch, as the staterooms are not available until after 2PM. By the time we were done eating, we received word that we could go to our cabins.
Continued in Part 2.
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