I had a lot of interesting conversations during the cruise with various crew members. Alas, the Pearl does not take very good photos inside. I've included a photo of Claudia, the crew member who probably shared the most information about the ship's history with me, and who was also just very kind and gracious as were the other crew members.
The ship was built in Germany and made its test voyage to The Netherlands. After undergoing minor modifications and last minute changes, the ship made its first passenger voyage in a nine-day trip across the Atlantic. The trip was longer than scheduled as they changed course slightly to work their way around some storms. Nevertheless, the ship encountered some very rough waters, much china was lost, and of course some passengers likely lost their dinners as well.
The Saturday before I boarded, the ship was christened in Miami by Rosie O'Donnell. It then made a one-night cruise hosting a bunch of U.S. travel agents, then returned to Miami for my cruise.
The Pocket Guide to the Pearl also lists some interesting (if you're a geek like I am) facts about the ship.
Gross tonnage: 93,000
Overall length: 965 feet
Beam: 105 feet
Draft: 27 feet
Engines: Diesel electric
Cruise speed: 25 knots
Guests: 2,380 (double occupancy)
Crew: 1,154
To give you some perspective on the magnitude of the place, you only have to go around the running track on one of the top (narrower) decks 2 2/3 times to get a mile in. It also has twelve restaurants (eight of which are specialty restaurants such as a steak house, teppanyaki room, French restaurant, Italian, and let's snot forget the Latin place), 11 bars and lounges, a spa/fitness center, sports courts, climbing wall, two swimming pools plus a kids pool, four hot tubs, movie theater, internet cafe, kids stuff -- oh yeah, and the first bowling alley on a cruise ship. And while it wasn't noted in the quick guide, I also spotted a helipad on the top near the sports courts. Way cool.
I love this ship.