pcreek

Hi Pamela,

I drove home from work this afternoon thinking about your review and looking forward to reading it. I am loving it so far and enjoying the pictures! The M & M ones are great... Even when Spider man joins! LOL

 

I notice your stateroom did not have a wheelchair ramp going out to the balcony. Do you know if Gem has a portable one they use if needed?

 

coka

hi Coka!

No, I don't know if they do have a ramp or not. There was about a 2-3" step up to the balcony (door jam part)...the actual balcony floor is raised to the same height as the door jam, so there is no step down on the outside.

There is a slight ramping into the bathroom - but it's under the carpet, so hardly noticeable.

The wine is probably from your TA. The suite amenities wouldn't be listed on your suite amenities list. In the suite you get a bottle of sparkling champagne and a bottle of Aquafina water.

You know, that is what I was thinking! We should have had 2 bottles of bubbly (1 for suite & 1 for Platinum) & one water. We were robbed! LOL LOL LOL We weren't drinking this cruise - so it really doesn't matter.

I think a lot of things were a little 'off' due to them getting in so late, and scrambling to try to get the ship cleaned AND ready to sail again.

Oh well...guess we'll just have to try again next year! LOL

I am enjoying a current review by a cruiser (pcreek) who just sailed in the suite we have booked for this Sat on the Gem. This comment had me wondering,

 

"Jayson, our butler stopped by – to introduce himself and show us around. I asked if this was our free bottle of water, next to the coffee machine (there were 2 there, the glass bottle, Pellegrino and another plain Aquafina bottle) – he said Well...he guesses we could have it if we really wanted it. Um...every other time in a suite we had a bottle of bubbly and a bottle of water?"

 

So while on the phone ordering a gift for myself, I asked for my amenity confirmation to be emailed. It lists a bottle of wine. I was thinking this came from our travel agent. Does the bottle of wine that usually comes with a suite show up on the amenity confirmation? (I didn't think it would for some reason?)

 

So, if I ask the same question as pcreek, I expect to have the same butler as pcreek, and therefore expect the same answer. What should I do in this situation?

I was just re-checking my lists of things - I am not sure the wine was for the suite - except with a booking perk. I think our wine came from me being platinum.

How we ended up with 4 bottles last year, I have no idea! But I know they included the Aquafina water. Was certainly not a big deal, as the tap water is just fine.

You can see from this photo (last year) - the wine & water on the table, the 3 bottles of win on the counter - with also the 2 bottles of water behind the 3 bottles (those 2 bottles had the re-order slip with them and were not included)

May I beg for some clarification about 9670? The Gem deck plan on NCL.com doesn't show that SF as handicap-accessible, only the neighboring 9672 (and 9172, three cabins starboard).

 

SO and I have been following this review avidly as we're booked on the Gem next year, but we certainly don't want to take up a handicapped suite without need.

You are correct - it's 9672 & 9172 that are handicap. I didn't catch that earlier - sorry!! The cabins on the outer corners are not handicap - and the 2 in the middle are not suites.

I know its been a while but curious if anybody knows why they don't do washy washy anymore? It used to put such a big smile on everybody face.

Umm...was just on the GEM and washy washy everywhere!

Hi. Your photo is what most aft SFs look like EXCEPT the two that are considered handicap-accessible SF, which are 9670 and 9672. The photos the OP posted are one of those two cabins. There is no dining table in either of these two cabins.

 

Also, only 9670 and 9672 have the switch-operated balcony door opener (picture in OP photos) as well. Other SF don't have this.

Exactly correct! :D

As you can tell from my photos, this cabin is set up a little differently. There is no actual empty wall space inside the cabin to put a table.

I'll try to get some more posting done on here tomorrow afternoon. I have some pre-op testing to do in the am.

I am not going to do a day by day - just a couple of other actual 'days'. Most of our days were relax, relax then relax some more! Read a little here, then read a little there, etc! We played trivia several times (Fun reminders of how little we do know! LOL That Michael Jackson trivia - with music clips - think there were 20 questions and I think we totaled 2 correct!! LOL)

Thought I'd try to do a grouping of meals, menus, food porn. I need to unload more photos - edit a little - then upload to photobucket.

Meanwhile, Here are a few other photos. We asked for M&Ms and plate of cookies from our butler, Jayson. DH had fun with the camera:

We got 2 separate deliveries of the Godiva chocolate boxes, one for me and one for DH...they really could have brought them together.

There was a fruit bowl and a flower arrangement. These were set on a small round glass table, there was little room for anything else on that table. Oh, there was a couple of napkins and silverware, as well.

Needless to say – no snooze! LOL

We were off to dinner in LeBistro @8pm. There was no wait, and it was not crowded at all – as we figured! We received no free bottle of wine for first night in Specialty – as they had offered on previous cruises. Like I said, because we weren't drinking, it did not matter to us. I know that DH had steak...and I had the pork tenderloins. It was an enjoyable meal. I don't recall too much else about it...so it must have been good! Oh I tried something different for dessert, as I normally get the chocolate fondue. I had the cream puffs. They were good!:)

We then wandered the ship a bit and headed to check out the casino. We played for a little bit and wandered some more on our way back to the cabin for the night.

We left to do our muster drill. Then back to try again at a short snooze before our 7pm LeBistro dinner reservation. We got a call from the LeBistro hostess – they would have to change our time, as they were not opening until 8pm..so we took that time.

Someone stopped by to deliver our casino cards. We did have the drink cards included...we were both 'Lucky green'. There was a welcome letter from CAS, but no mention of a welcome party?

We had various envelopes of information. Gold for DH, Platinum for me – with various offers. One from accessibility dept., and I think one from Carlos. We had invites to a latitudes party, the silver, gold & platinum cocktail party and another cocktail party from the Captain, in the Haven. Somehow, we ended up missing all of them this time! I think it was because we were not drinking and it's always best to stand & mingle and I just wasn't doing much of that standing thingie this trip. Also, we brought absolutely no dressy clothes at all. Difficult to look even a bit 'dressy' when I have to wear these clod hopper sneakers – only thing that will fit over the brace I have to wear on my foot. We didn't exactly look like slobs, but we were definitely cruising casual this time. :o

More thoughts on day #1:

We had thought to get a short rest before Muster drill (in Grand Pacific). It was not to be. As they were so behind on getting everything ready for us, our doorbell kept ringing with folks delivering stuff!

Jayson, our butler stopped by – to introduce himself and show us around. I asked if this was our free bottle of water, next to the coffee machine (there were 2 there, the glass bottle, Pellegrino and another plain Aquafina bottle) – he said Well...he guesses we could have it if we really wanted it. Um...every other time in a suite we had a bottle of bubbly and a bottle of water? We left it alone as we didn't want to be charged. We also only had one bottle of bubbly (with absolutely no label??) – last year we had 3, plus a bottle of red, plus 2 bottles of water upon arrival. No big deal, as we were not planning on drinking this cruise anyway(medication issues). He is very nice and VERY soft spoken.

Our cabin steward ( think his name was Jorgi? I didn't quite catch it and every time I tried to look at his name tag, he was moving!) was there a couple of times. Carlos the concierge stopped by to introduce himself.

Nothing was there from the casino.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post these photos of your cabin. I am so excited as this is our cabin for the 12/14/13 sailing......(5 days and counting!) I have been looking and looking for pictures without success until I stumbled up on your review...thanks again. And that is exactly why I knew I had to take some pictures & post upon my return. I could find pretty much nothing when I was searching!

 

I have a couple of question on this cabin. I am sad to see that there isn't a small dining table. I had heard that rumor and your photos confirmed it. Do you think there is sufficient room to add one? This is our first "suite" and I was really looking forward to a nice meal in our cabin...... Well, maybe a folding card table could be used and then taken down when done? Or ask Jayson (butler) if they have a table to bring in & out with the food. We had a breakfast and a lunch in the cabin. DH sat at end of bed and had the small round glass table. I sat in one of the chairs I requested at the vanity and ate there. There is a wall of mirror over the bed - you can watch tv from there, too!

 

Also, is there a DVD player in the room? Our 3 year old grandson is joining us and a dvd player would help. Yes, there is a DVD player. It's behind my scooter in the photos...to the left of the tv, in the cabinet. There is also a DVD list that you can pick movies from and Jayson will bring them to you.

 

Thanks again.

No Problem, I'm happy to help!

A lot of folks on here helped with my questions, nice to return the favor.:D

Great review so far. Looking forward to more

Thanks! I hope to get to adding more tomorrow! :D

You're Lucky! You got to leave the snow, I got to come home to it! LOL DH and I live not far from Rochester in Farmington. We were on the 11/16-11/25 Gem cruise, it was interesting to say the least! Enjoying your review and pictures.

hey, Neighbor! What a small world..we should have waved at each other in the terminal! :D

Welcome home Pamela

Cant wait to read more of the review!!!!

Thanks, David! :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Very interesting review with photos!!! Love it!:o

I lived in Syracuse and Buffalo. I feel your pain! (with the snow and ice...)

Thanks, Tracie!!:D Snow was pretty much gone by the time we got home.

I just had this cabin!!

My review With photos!! - just started:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1953868

Please let me know if you have any questions - I'll do my best to answer!

We asked our butler for a couple of straight back chairs, as there was a small couch (leather) and 2 padded stools that slid under 2 separate desk areas. Well, I guess one of these was the make-up place, as there was a lighted magnifying mirror (attached almost in the middle of the desktop area) and the hairdryer was there.

Anyway, nice chairs arrived within the hour.

There were mysterious red & green buttons near the door. We tested them and nothing appeared to happen. Moments later, our butler, Jayson, arrived and we asked him about them. He said they were for emergencies and not to push. Oops..too late. Would have been nice if there were a sign? There was an emergency cord in the bathroom, and on either side of the bed, as well. I think there was also a button on the balcony, too.

The door to get into the cabin was not automatic. That would have been helpful to get into the cabin by myself when on the scooter. Fortunately, seemed like whenever I was needing to get in, our cabin steward was nearby and rushed to unlock & open the door for me. :-) Good thing, as my key card never worked in the door. Yes, I had it changed and immediately went to the cabin and it still didn't work there. It did work everywhere else on the ship, tho. :-\

Please see the next few posts for more photos of the cabin.

The handicap features were great and definitely appreciated!

The bathroom was roomy and no steps. It was rather dark in there. Only one light over the mirror, over the sink. There was a handle, with a cord to adjust the angle of the mirror. Not very much storage here, but small issue.

The shower was very nice. There were grab bars all around 3 sides. Just be careful to grab the grab bar, not the bar the water goes through – it gets HOT! LOL Not that I did that, or anything.

The water did run out of the shower area, by the toilet. The towels soaked it up good, tho. This happened especially when the captain was driving erratically and hitting every pothole there was to be hit.

There were Elemis shampoo, conditioner and shower wash – in those little travel bottles. We ran out after about 3-4 days and requested them to be replenished – they never were. There was also a shampoo / shower wash dispenser on the shower wall. It worked. <shrugging>

There was one grab bar on the wall next to the toilet and another one on the other side that could be moved up against the wall if not needed. This also was the 'divider' between the toilet and shower and worked as grab bar while in the shower. There was a seat in the shower that folded up against the wall.

Cabin:

We finished lunch about the time they announced decks 9-11 cabins were ready. We trudged (okay, I trudged) to our cabin – 9672, Penthouse Suite – aft. It was our first Aft cabin. I was looking forward to seeing if it was all it was cracked up to be! Some folks on CC really, really rave about the aft cabins! Apparently, NCL noticed, and I believe they are higher priced than others in the same category.

Well, it was nice, but I would rather have a balcony midship. My favorite part of cruising is coffee & sunrise on the balcony. I mistakenly thought that while being aft, we would have awesome views of both sunrise and sunset on both legs of the trip. Wrong. We never did get a really full-on decent sunrise or sunset from our balcony. I had to lean over and sorta catch it off to either side of the ship. :-( This was my biggest disappointment of the cruise.

My scooter was there, as promised. All charged and ready to go!

The balcony was larger than a regular balcony, in width, not depth – had a lounger, 2 wicker chairs and a small table with a wooden top that was in bad shape. ( that was replaced with an all metal, smaller one sometime during the cruise – no, we didn't mention it or complain about it at all – it held my coffee!). The sliding doors to the balcony were push button. You pushed one to open and one to close. They were slow..but that's ok.

Embarkation / Disembarkation:

I was checking online to watch the GEM sail in – and she didn't get to port until almost 10am – the time stated on our itinerary. The past couple of cruises, she was always in hours early. Cruise critic is always handy to check out what is going on, with current passengers posting updates from the ship. Apparently they had run into some bad weather and were going slower than expected. CC member said they were VIP and not off the ship until 11am.

We had local news on the tv and they reported an accident on the George Washington bridge – causing about a 90 minute delay. Our car service – Dial 7 – called to let us know he would be late, due to the traffic. Since the ship was late, we didn't care! :-) He had originally called our home phone (not cell?)& left a message – then called the hotel to be transferred to our room. Very good customer service on their part! It took us almost twice as long to get to the pier as usual, due to the traffic. We ended up going via the Holland Tunnel, instead of the Lincoln Tunnel – which our driver said was also backed up.

Since we were booked as 'special needs', we got wheelchair assistance on and off the ship. We entered the pier and to the left was the desk for special needs and events. We signed in, letting her know that we were also VIP, she took down our cabin number as she hadn't been provided the VIP list yet. We were directed to a couple of rows of chairs to wait. This was some time about noon.

After more than an hour wait, we were the first group called to be transported through Security to the VIP Check-in, then to the VIP lounge. We had a short wait here, then onto the ship. The driver wheeled me onto the ship to the elevator. I got out and we went up to Cagney's for lunch. We were seated right before 2pm.

There was conflicting information about how/when/where to meet to get off the ship. I think this was because not only was I VIP, but also needed wheelchair assistance. The special needs letter said to go to Orchard Garden and wait there for escort at 8:45 – no wheelchair pickup at cabin. Another letter told us for priority, to meet at the Stardust Theater at 9am. We called Carlos, the concierge, and he cleared it all up for us. We were to have a driver pick us up at the cabin at 9:15, to be escorted off the ship, through customs and out to the curb for our Dial 7 pickup @ 10am. Carlos is awesome! :-)

The wheelchair driver arrived at our cabin @ 9am....got us to the head of the line getting off. We found our luggage and secured a porter. It was no problem getting off. If you get a porter, they have a special line through customs - easy peasy & FAST!! 9:30 we were curbside waiting on our car to show up.

We did not have to cross the street to get our pick-up, as some have mentioned on here. I was thankful for that. :D

Handicapped Accessibility:

I am having ankle fusion surgery on 12/12 and will be totally off my foot for min of 3 months – then a couple months of PT afterward. We considered skipping a cruise this year, but decided to go ahead and take our annual cruise anyway.

We secured a scooter, through Special Needs at Sea (http://www.specialneedsatsea.com/). Easy and convenient ordering. It was ready & waiting in the cabin. Then we just left it in the cabin for pick-up.

I had no problems going anywhere onboard the ship! Last year was a struggle for me, those corridors were looonnnggg!

I had been warned that elevators were a special problem for scooter and wheelchair passengers. I did not find them a problem.

Most everyone I encountered was very helpful. There were a lot of folks who were just oblivious to their surroundings! One woman started walking backwards and almost landed in my lap! She turned around and said “I almost fell over you!” With a surprised look on her face. What I wanted to say, but didn't was 'Umm... yeah, well until you grow eyes in the back of your head, maybe you should at least glance over your shoulder?' LOL I just laughed and she looked insulted. Another time a little boy – maybe 5yrs old – was in the back of the elevator as I pulled in. He looked scared and I told him not to worry, I wasn't going to run into him. His dad then told me that someone had run over his foot earlier that day – without so much as an apology!

The scooter even fit down the hallways with the stewards carts all over – no problem!

For access to the Grand Pacific (after embarkation day) via elevator, you need to get your cabin card coded to use that elevator. You can do this at the customer service counter in the atrium.

There was a letter in the cabin with more information and about contacting the special needs coordinator onboard if we needed it.

Background:

This cruise was just my DH & I. We are in our mid-late 50s. I am Platinum & DH is Gold. We have only cruised on NCL.

I book through CAS. Currently we are only eligible for a discounted cabin. We were given a 'free' inside cabin for a couple of years – that we upgraded. Guess we haven't lost enough in the casino lately! Strictly through CAS, as our land based casinos are not affiliated with NCL. We normally cruise around Thanksgiving time. This was our first time actually onboard for Thanksgiving. First time on the GEM.

It had snowed overnight and we had about 2-3 inches of fun stuff to run away from! (for those of you who have read previous reviews of mine - our buddy 'Y' has a friend along this trip - Spidey! Our 6yr old triplet grandsons insisted we bring him along.)

We drove to Elizabeth, NJ and stayed at Country Inn & Suites. We got the 'park & fly' package. We used Dial 7 for car service from hotel to port and return. All this cost us about $40 more than just parking at the pier. To us, it was worth it - made us feel like we got a little more for our money than just vehicle storage. Oh yeah, plus my DH won't drive in the 'City'. ;-)

11/25 – 12/4/13 GEM Cruise Review – Mini version (well, it started out as a mini version – I will post this in installments)

'Code Red': Since this seems to be what everyone is interested in lately, I'll start with this. While some state they were given a paper informing them about the Noro scare at the pier, and given the opportunity to cancel & re-book another date – we were not told anything prior to boarding. We did know about it – thru the boards here – before going. It would not have changed our minds to cruise this date.

Actually no more 'washy-washy' than usual. There were no self serve food stations anywhere on the ship. At the buffet there were crew handing out plates, bowls, silverware & napkins, servers for all the food and for the beverages. This was at all buffet stations – Garden Cafe (beverage stations were closed throughout the cruise – yep, the 'good' coffee machines were not available), Great Outdoors, Poolside Grill, Moderno salad bar, and breakfast buffet in Cagney's, as well. Salt & Pepper were given on a plate of small individual packets, by request only. Creamers & sweeteners were served on a small plate – enough for 1-2 cups of coffee/tea as well. All public restroom doors were propped open – so you didn't have to actually use the paper towels to open them.

Captain talked about the precautionary measures being taken (on San Juan day 4) and that the ship would be scrubbed while we were ashore. However, later that night, the sanitizer bubble stands were in all elevators as well and we had a notice in our cabin about the necessity of washing, washing and more washing.

All bar / lounge menus were removed. I asked at Java Cafe to see a menu, and was told I could not. I suggested he hold the menu and just let me see it – but no, sorry, I can't do that. So, I just got a latte. I thought this was slightly inconvenient, as I like to look at the choices and pick something different for a coffee drink. Seems funny that all the restaurants still were able to use menus?

Was in inconvenient? Maybe slightly. Did it ruin or destroy or disrupt our vacation? Nope. We were grateful that they were doing whatever necessary to stop the spread of germs. We did feel bad for the crew, as they were working round the clock on cleaning and cleaning again. But, as NCL crew are known for, they always had a smile!

We did not get sick from any kind of gastrointestinal disease. I was sick the last sea day, however. I just had a headache, aches all over and sure I had a fever. I slept 20 out of 24hrs and woke up back in NY and felt much better – just tired? Maybe too much sleep! LOL