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I've been looking at the same up/down itinerary for next year. I'm curious, does the Zaandam still have the Piano Lounge, or has it been changed to The Mix on that ship?

 

Happy you enjoyed your cruise. I'm familiar with your cabin, and totally agree it's a great location.

The Piano Bar is part of Mix. On our cruise, and until late August, Jim Fischer plays every night. There is a bar style counter right around the grand piano so if you could get a seat, you could sit right up there with him. He is absolutely fantastic, one night he did Elton John songs for over an hour.

We are just off the Zaandam "Collectors" voyage to Alaska. I am not going to write a complete review but will be happy to answer any questions relating to the ship, service, food, entertainment, ports of call etc. This was our first cruise on HAL and first time to Alaska.

We are a retired couple ages 67 and 75 and cruised alone. We booked (last minute) an inside guarantee category MM and ended up in 3344, a very nice Category I large inside cabin midship on Deck 3, it was only a few steps to the Promenade Deck where we could be outside

Our cruise started and ended in Vancouver ( we live about 70 miles from the port) with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, cruising Glacier Bay, turnaround in Seward, then Glacier Bay again and Haines, Juneau and Ketchikan southbound.

We did not do any shore excursions, though we did ride the express shuttle to the fabulous Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

Although the weather was not good, we enjoyed our cruise very much.

We were on Zaandam for the last 2 weeks. The self service laundry in on Deck 3, has 4 washers and 4 dryers. It was very busy the last 2 days before Seward and first 2 days after, I guess from people doing land tours.

Our ship shows sold out on HALs website so I was not expecting much better than we had.

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our guarantee showed Category MM, which was aft inside on Deck 1 and we got Cat I midship on Deck 3, lower Promenade Deck, nice location.

Sailing on Zaandam 7/17. Got our guarantee inside assignment today, happy with our cabin. 9 days to sailaway

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If you like to relax and enjoy a few beverages on your vacation the UBP is a great deal. We were on the Gem last October and never had a drink over $15 and some nights my DH had premium scotch, I would have Bailey's or other after dinner drinks. All the wines were under the $15 Cap, even if you asked for the 9 Oz pour..... which means less frequent orders. As for water, I bought refillable bottles with a built in filter and filled them with tap water and ice from our cabin.

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Good! You are lucky. There is another thread that has the memo from NCL showing the new exchange rates for Canadian bookings as of Oct 3. It applies to all new Canadian bookings but a few have reported there are a few sailings with 'errors' that are programmed at a lower rate. If you booked one of those, good! You get to save (my cruise was unfortunately programmed correctly and everything extra would be billed at 1.33)

Do you have a link to the other thread you mention

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Not 1 person at Norwegian can explain this. They agree the exchange rate of $1.25 should be used on all pre cruise things being purchased but can't explain why $1.33 is being used for taxes, pre paid gratuities, beverage package or any pre bought OBC. I keep pushing for an answer as I am not paying more then I have to. I am going into my travel agents office today so she can call and try to get it figured it. I will let you know if I can get an answer.

They also recalculated my deposit of 800 at the rate of 1.33 so i had to pay an extra 146.00 when we rebooked to get UBP. Still a good deal but not as good as it should be.

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I rebooked our Oct 2016 Panama Canal cruise in order to get UBP, but the exchange rate went from 1.19 when I booked in September to 1.33. Something odd on their site right now. I will be calling again to check on this and if necessary will cancel and rebook, possibly via AC vacations.

We were on the Gem two weeks ago and on a 10 day cruise, the MDR had prime rib twice, rack of lamb, lamb shanks and beef wellington as featured free choices.

We never had an empty glass at dinner on our recent Gem cruise, nor did we have any problem getting drinks anywhere, even though the bulk of passengers on our cruise had the UBP. The barmen and waiters were fantastic

We ate lunch at Sheehan right after boarding. The Grand PA ific dining room was open, as we're the great outdoors and pool bar.

You can pay by the minute at 95 cents per. You would need a bit of time to do your online Check in prior to printing, could get pricey as I hear the Internet is very slow. We have never used it.

I have been sailing NCL since 1997. I have never had a problem with service or with the sailing itself. We always sail suites and we have always received service in line with the extra charges. Butlers and concierges have been fantastic. This January will be our first cruise with the unlimited beverage plan, and I have to admit I am a little worried. Unlike previous cruises I expect it to be a lot harder to get a drink, because MORE people will be drinking than on previous cruises and those people will be drinking a lot MORE often. Like an HMO health plan, the providers show more of a profit for the least amount of services rendered. In this case, NCL will make less money the more drinks that are served. I remember sitting on the pool deck and hearing the servers calling out every couple of minutes. I believe that will be a thing of the past. I am also concerned about a lot of short tempers on board, by both crew and passengers.

We were on the Gem last week, out of New York and it appeared the majority of pax were on the UBP. Having a high passenger load of East Coasters who like to live it up had me a bit worried at the start, but Except for right after sail away when the great outdoors bar was very busy, we never waited more than a few minutes for drinks, and the barmen were all friendly and happy to serve.

I think it was called ultimate st maarten, land and sea. which started on aircon bus thru Dutch side, then onto a boat and cruised through lagoon over to Marigot. They had rum punch drinks and music on the boat, but at 10am we dont drink! We had an hour there, it's a cute place, then back on the bus to Philipsburg. The guide was OK with lots of info about the island but we didn't stop at any places to take photos. $72.00 pp. Was a rip off.

I would get a taxi and ask him to tour you round, then go back to Philipsburg and either wander the town, lots of cute old buildings to see, or go to the beach which is walking distance from the ship, or short water taxi ride. Can rent chairs and umbrellas there.

Sorry for the typos above, darned tablet sent message before i proofread.

Captain was Steffan, cruise director Dan Dan and his assistant Luze. Don't know names of the rest, not important to us.

Happy to answer any more questions you have.

From another couple on this Gem cruise. We also didn't sit in the pool area, but enjoyed the very top sundeck 14 where we could always get a chair and had fab views of the bow and I can ahead.

We did most shows and thought they were very good.

Not casino people so came comment on that.

We ate in the main dining rooms every night and found the selections and quality quite good. Chef special and 3 other entrees different each night as well as good choice of apperisers and dessert.

As for ports.... we only did one ship shore excursion in St Maarten and we're very disappointed. Littleton value got the high price paid. Would have been better to just get a taxi once ashore. Do your research before you go

Thanks for posting the pics. We we also on the Gem that beautiful afternoon and it was a fabulous cruise.

This is what their website say's in regards to the UBP... "Ultimate Beverage Package:

 

Available for all stateroom categories on sailings through April 2016; and for Balcony category and higher for all sailings beyond April 2016

 

Applicable to guests 1-2 on the reservation."

 

 

 

http://www.ncl.com/termsandconditions/waveoct15?&cheetahid=AAAAAA&cid=EM_MKD_NA_PRO_EML_tc_EML_CHOSP15_OFSC102015_NA

 

 

 

 

 

When I select the inside cabin the "right panel" with all the good stuff gets greyed out but I can manually type in the UBP promo code and it accepts it. Again, this is for an August 2016 cruise, inside stateroom.

Did you finalise that booking?

I tried it too, selected CHOB but when I got further into the booking it showed Shorex credit on the right ( which I did not select). It. Would also show the Service Charge of 18% if UBP applied.

They have been making a big deal about now offering promos on ALL cabins. Before they excluded inside cabins and studios. So you will get your promo don't worry.

Where are you getting that info from? Perhaps you would share. NCL Web site clearly says on cruises AFTER May 1st the promos are soda package, internet, shorex credit or dining. Not Ultimate Beverage Package

Promos apply for all categories for sailings on or after May 1, 2016.

Are you referring to UBP. We are booked on a Panama Canal Cruise next October and I would happily rebook to get the UBP, its a great deal if you enjoy a few drinks, and who doesn't on holiday.

Where are smoking areas on the Gem other then in the casino? Thank You.

Just about everywhere, or so it seemed. This cruise had a LOT of smokers aboard, and even if they were not smoking inside, they still stunk!

This was our only real complaint, the staircases and hallways adjoining the casino were smelly, they should have doors on the casino to keep the smoke in there.

Deck 7, the Promenade Deck has ashtrays close to most exits and the smokers always hung around there, so if you want to do a few laps walking round the deck dont expect to breathe clean air.

I understand that the Bev Package does not include the gratuity. Is the grat applied to each drink ordered, and no more than that?

So when I look at my account, the statement will show the tip applied only to purchases...not a flat amount for the perk???

 

I'm worried

Don't worry, just be happy you have the UBP

When you order drinks they take your card and along with your drink you get 2 copies of the slip, one to sign and one to keep. It shows the price of the drink and a separate line for the Grat/Tax, bottom line shows total paid. You could add an additional tip on the slip if you wished. We asked the MDR waiter, who gave us excellent service, if we added a tip on the bill would be get it, he said sometimes yes, sometimes no, so on the last night we tipped him in cash.

If you order drinks before leaving port the tax on any drinks will show on your account.

I have attached a copy of one of our bills.

bar slip.pdf

When you get your cruise expense sheet at the end of the cruise, will each time you ordered a drink be listed just as it is each time you order one and pay for it without a package deal? Just curious.

We just got off the Gem, with UBP and when we booked the 18% was still included in the promo. The only bar related charges on our bill were taxes on a few drinks we had before and just after sailing. If you want to know how much you drink, keep the slips, we had an envelope full!

As for tipping the bartenders, we found most gave excellent service whether you tipped or not. We did tip the bar service waiter in the MDR on the final night as he ensured we always had wine with dinner, in fact one evening he saw our group coming in, looked over and said same as usual, and our drinks were there really fast.