mesci14

Does anyone have fairly current daillies for the Gem 7 day to Bermuda?  Thanks!

15 hours ago, ttrmom said:

thank you for all the information!  I printed out the review and the daily planner.

a few questions:

1) what deck do we get on

2) where are those kiosks- is it only right at the entrance or on other decks as well?

3)what time does boarding begin- we have 12:30

4) for the dinner time it says early dining but no time.  How do i find out the time?   

5) does the drink package kick in on boarding day (and if yes, where is the closest bar? 😜)

6) any reviews on what pool area is better? looking for the least amount of children(been there done that!)

7) when it is time to get off for the ports- do yacht club rooms have priority or are they with us, the unwashed masses (LOL)

1) deck 6 you enter in on.

2) Just about everywhere but you can use your onboard as well.  When finished making specialty dining reservations as you walk out there was a kiosk right there...no wait.

3) We arrived at 9 and was on board just before 11 30

4)  When you checking and you get your key card it is on there.  Just because you sign up for early dining does not mean you will get it.  Ours said early on paperwork and we got late but was able to change it 

5) yes it does and right where you walk in. 😀

6) Horizon pool ...it is adult only and they enforce it.

7) YC has priority disembarkation...cut to the front of the line.

22 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Sounds like your Meraviglia experience was very similar to ours in April, with the exception of smooth embarkation and debarkation. Glad they seem to have worked the kinks out with those. I was on the repositioning sailing to Brooklyn and then the first 7-day out of Brooklyn, so they definitely were not running like a well-oiled machine at that point, but my onboard experiences were similar to yours. Great crew! Great food! And just a generally positive experience overall. In fact, I am now booked on three more MSC sailings through February.

We are going again on 7/9!

On 7/5/2023 at 8:34 PM, Anastas617 said:

Thanks for the review. I'm taking this cruise 7/16 and this helps a lot.

 

Did you happen to notice if Hola! was extremely busy on embarkation day for lunch? It seems the craziness of the buffet is a recurring theme for Day 1 and I hope to be on board and able to get a seat there instead.

 

Are there plenty of kiosks to book your shows or are there long queues for those? Am I to understand that you have to book the free shows as well as the two paid shows?

 

Thanks so much.

I am sorry I didn't notice.  I am not sure they were open as they were doing specialty restaurants and paid shows.

MSC DAILY Planner.pdf

MSC Meraviglia Review.docx

What is the musical entertainment like in the top sail lounge?  Is it instrumental or a singer?  Genre of music?

We will be on this cruise as well!

EMBARKATION NYC:

This will require a lot of patience on the part of the passenger. If you have any leg, hip, or back problems it can become a nightmare. First of all we signed up for the 9:00-9:30 arrival time. This is a misnomer. They did not even begin security check in until 9:30 or later. We arrived at 8:50 and waited in an already decent size line of people until they opened up security at a little after 9:30. Once it was opened we were through security in about 15 to 20 minutes. Just an FYI there are 2 additional security lines (one to the left for supposedly walker, wheel chair, and scooter people) and one to the right for Haven people only. Once through security because this was a Bermuda cruise there is an additional checkin. This line was the longest and most frustrating. There is also no perk here for platinum and up members or people who paid for priority access (we are platinum); the only people with a perk are the aforementioned walker, wheelchair, and scooter people, and Haven people. The other difficulty with this line is no one is monitoring the line. So all of a sudden you had people who were at the back of the line but saw a friend or family member at the front jump the line to these people making this checkin take even longer (they now became groups of 8-14 people). At this check in they are checking Bermuda TA, Vaccinations, COVID 19 testing, and that you are booked for the cruise. Have all paperwork out and ready to go as this does speed up the process. They will put a sticker on your passport if you have met all of the requirements. Then you move to a 3rd and final check in area (pre-covid this was the only checkin area you had after moving through security) this provides the perk for Haven, Disabled, Platinum and up, and Paid priority. That said it really didn't matter as there were no lines here because it took so long in the previous lines. Very quick here and were seated in the priority seating. Sat for maybe 5 to 10 minutes and then boarded at that point. So patience is the key for getting through the first 2 areas and soon you will be relaxing on board with a drink in hand.

CABIN:

We were in 8146 which is a club balcony. We loved it and the location. I use to laugh when people said they got the club for the bathroom....I was like how can that be worth it? The bathroom is SOOOO worth it. The shower alone was fantastic. Having a double sink was convenient and room for legs for taller people when sitting on the toilet is fabulous. Highly recommend a Club Balcony.

DINING:

This is where my review is split. Because we are Platinum we ended up with 4 specialty nights. Specialty restaurants are amazing in service and food. We went to Cagney's 2x, La Cucina, and Le Bistro. Cagneys and Le Bistro were superior in service and food choices and quality. La Cucina was very good (this is a change for me because on other NCL ships LaCucina was not very good). Highly recommend these restaurants on the Joy. Our greatest disappointments came from the Main Dining room. We have always loved all complimentary food on board, but this restaurants service and food quality were underwhelming. Someone mentioned that they were training a lot of people on this ship (not sure if this was true or not) which could explain the service issues.The food lacked flavor and was not an adequate temperature, and sometimes were not what was listed, for example, my husband ordered the ravioli with lobster sauce and received ravioli with a tomato sauce. Presentation of food was still very good, but did not have flavor. We started going to Taste and Savor instead. Service was a little better while the food still was not very flavorful, but a better temperature. Another disappointment was The Local. This has always been one of my favorite restaurants due to their chicken wings. They were not very good. They were not crispy and the buffalo sauce was definitely not buffalo sauce ( I ordered this 2x); it was more of a spicy chili sauce....very disappointing. All other food we ordered from there was good. I am hoping that the ship will return to their pre-covid quality in their complementary restaurants

ENTERTAINMENT:

This was very good! Footloose was very good. I found it not to be of the quality of say Jersey Boys on the Bliss. They acting was good, but the projection of the singing was a little weak. Some of the best characters were the supporting cast members. All in all very good and definitely entertaining. So most of the main characters do a Broadway Cabaret show in the Q. This was amazing. The voices were outstanding. This was one of the best shows we saw...definitely a must see. Elements was excellent as well. There were some extreme talents in the production. It was an acrobatics and magic presentation. We did not see the magic show but if elements is any indication it would be fantastic. Another must see would be the Beatles Story. They have done an amazing job replicating the members of the Beatles in voice, action, and playing of instruments. LOVED IT! Several music groups on board were excellent...nightlights, the piano guy, and the latin duo were all great. Did not enjoy the band I think it was called Four nor the piano player called Zoe. Our other disappointment was the country band Frank and North sound. They are VERY musically talented, but seem not to be in touch with what their audiences enjoy listening to. They are posted as playing country music, but what they really play is old country music Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell etc. The female singer once in a while will throw in a new country song. When she does the crowd goes wild because that is what they want to hear, but Frank always insists on playing the old stuff and nobody claps when he sings. not because he isn't talented because he is. It is because of his choice in music. The population listening is under 50 and want new country music; we even asked them to play new country. We heard 3 somewhat fairly new songs in one set, but mostly old stuff. NCL needs to replace them if they aren't interested in playing to what their crowds want to hear...too bad because they are VERY talented

THINGS TO DO ONBOARD:

Go-Karts: If you are a go-kart person who likes to go fast, this is not the ride for you. You will pay 15 dollars to be very frustrated. NCL tells people to stay right if they are nervous and going to go slow, but every time I have been on this (Bliss and Joy) there is a parent who block the whole lane so that their child who is going slow is protected from getting bumped. NCL really needs to have an experienced driver session and a novice session because you feel like you have wasted your 15 dollars. It is unfortunate because it could be amazing and fun, but 9x out of 10 if you are an adult, you will leave very frustrated.

Laser-Tag : did not go on, on the Joy. Did this on the sister ship the Bliss. It is lots of fun...best time is at night. Once was good for us, but I can see how people would love to do this multiple times.

Galaxy Pavillion: we did not do this, but heard it was worth the money!

Pools and Hot tubs: We would go early morning to get in the hot tubs and the pool. If you are a person who likes to hang out at the pool, the chair hogs are prevalent on this ship. We saw chairs with towels on them at 7 am with no one in sight. Staff did not remove any...We heard people bragging to others. "We reserved these 5 chairs and those 4 over there for ____because he likes it in the shade" One person holding 9 chairs with no one else in sight and staff not moving towels etc.... For us it didn't matter because like I said we used the pool and the hot tub first thing in the morning. The hot tub we liked to use was in the H2O adult area. First thing in the morning usually not a problem, but if you are not a smoker or sensitive to smoke H2O is virtually unusable. Unfortunately they made the smoking are on the starboard side on H2O the only adults only area. The smoke becomes overpowering and unusable for people who are non-smokers or are sensitive to smoke. Hot Tubs in the main area have been used by very young children (1-4) making it very unsanitary to use.

Waterslides: Drop slide (my husband did this one) was fast and fun. Be aware at the end a bucket load of water will be shoved in your face...hold your breath. The other waterslide was ok. Not very fast, but definitely a good family waterslide. There is also a kids aquapark that was always busy with kids and they looked like they were all having fun.

SERVICE: With the exception of the main dining room, service was excellent.

PROS: Service, Specialty dining, Beatles, SHOWS, non smoking casino, and club Balcony room

CONS: Adult only area is a smoking area, Frank and the North Sound plays mostly oldies, and Main Dining Area food and service. There is also no thermal spa on this ship.

Overall a great cruise.

On 8/25/2021 at 8:15 PM, DCGuy64 said:

I’m not a fan of their coffee TBH, but that wasn’t your question. I think the Gem has at least one dedicated Starbucks cafe and would expect them to honor the gift card. One option would be to add the gift card to your Starbucks app and I believe they can just scan the app when you’re on the ship. I don’t know when you’re traveling but I plan to be on the Gem next month and can try it out. 

What did you find out?  Did it work on the Gem?

On 2/14/2019 at 10:45 PM, Oceangal711 said:

Those who have been on the Bliss curious to know if the casino was crowded in the non smoking. I do think that smokers are not cruising as much as they use to. I know we aren't, didn't cruise at all in 2018 went to Turks and Caicos instead. Did the Escape in January on CAS comp and with the smoking restrictions we couldn't convince any other couples to go with us.

non smoking was fairly full when we went on it, but smoking area casino was not as full.

This is actually why we booked this cruise because it contains where smoking can occur.  We avoid smoking areas for health reasons, but on most ships that is very challenging.   We are looking forward to having more ships that are like the Bliss.  Perhaps cruise lines should consider having smoking and non smoking cruise ships if there are enough people who need to smoke on cruise ships.

On 11/10/2019 at 5:22 PM, hallux said:

Guarantee balcony gets perks, sail-away does not.

We have done guaranteed balcony several times, but the perks are never included.  We don't mind because we always get a great location and we don't drink enough to make even paying the taxes/gratuity on a drink package worth it.

Did you buy the beverage package because the guarantee balcony does not get any of the perks?

2 hours ago, EeyoreRN said:

I left off at our last evening in San Juan, which was Saturday, May 25, and I will get back to there, but first I want a little feedback. My husband is scanning the Compasses so I can share them, and I'm trying to determine which format is best for CC.  I have PDFs which include the 4 pages together and JPEGs for individual pages. Here's my scientific experiment.

CC Day 1 0526001 (1).pdf 12.55 MB · 12 downloads

 

 

 

Looks like the PDF link works, everyone OK with the PDFs?  Thanks!

Thank you for posting this!  We are very excited for seeing the rest of them!

I think you have actually hit the nail on the head, so to speak....

You talk about the fact that the "problems" were caused by people who were inexperienced/not knowing how to drive or what to do - I agree 100% - BUT nowhere in the NCL marketing that promotes the track does it suggest that you SHOULD be experienced. Thanks to these boards I now know that my kids would not be ok to drive these go karts, but had I not researched this I would happily have allowed them to ride, thus endangering not only themselves, but others who were racing. I totally get it - people have paid to race and expect to race BUT parents have also paid for kids to "drive" and non-experienced passengers have also paid to just have fun....so the issues could be solved (maybe) by having different levels at different times...racing / fun/ kids / etc / etc / etc ??????

I understand your issue, but the nature of the ride is one of competition(racing)....just like the nature of a rollercoaster is to go fast and have high drops. I don't go on rollercoasters because I don't expect them to slow it down or change the drop for me, but accept that is not a ride I will go on. Ride restrictions are for everyones safety as you mentioned and that is great...you want the ride to be safe. Everyone is not going to be able to do everything on board and that is ok. Choose what best fits who you are and are capable of managing. I cruised with my son and he did not do everything on the ship...perfectly fine. We adhered to the nature of the event and if it wasn't meant for him, he didn't do it. I understand disappointment, but you are wise to do your research in advance as you have done. Enjoy the ship! We absolutely loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat. So much variety in what you choose to do and eat...no crowded feel at all.

I went on both the Go Karts and the Laser Tag and enjoyed both. Signs are posted about no bumping and the video shows it as well. This is referring to intentional bumping not incidental. If you ride in the middle of the track you will have incidental contact as people go by you. The biggest problem that caused frustration were people going super slow in the middle of the track. It is a race and people paid money to race so if you are uncomfortable in that situation then you should not sign up for it. Honestly young kids who were inexperienced drivers seemed to cause the biggest issues. There was one kid who kept putting it in reverse and caused tons of issues and was removed from the track. They do remove drivers who are causing major issues. The track is well designed if you are used to go karts. The corners are laid out so that you don't have to slow down to make it with out hitting the sides and areas are available that allow for passing if the people aren't in the middle of the track. Laser tag leaders actually tell you not to run (for the person who warned about running) It is not meant for running, but rather a more strategic approach, ie stealth, using what you have, and hiding. Lots of fun!

Hello, All! I'll be sailing on NCL Bliss this December to the Caribbean and have been reading some alarming reviews of its Alaska sailings. I am an inexperienced cruiser heading a large family gathering and hoped this beautiful new ship would blow us away, but the reports of rudeness, boring food, over crowding and nickel and dimeing have me concerned. Is it possible that all of these kinks can be worked out by December?! Is this typical of a Norwegian cruise?

Just got off the Bliss a couple of weeks ago. It was easily the best ship I have been on. The service was impeccable, food was amazing, shows unbelievable. I typically don't like large cruise ships because of it feeling so crowded....but I loved the Bliss because it never felt crowded. Everyone on the facebook groups I am on for the Bliss loved it I have seen very limited negative comments. I haven't done my cruise critic review yet, but will soon. Not sure what you mean about nickle and diming because you pay for what you want to do extra so no to that concept. Definitely no rudeness experienced on the Bliss including my experiences with other passengers. The food variety was more than I had seen on any of the other cruises I had been on and delicious. I am not a buffet person, but this one was a stand out and drew me in several times.

BirdTravels, can you please tell me what deck is used to embark on? My brother and I want to make Kart reservations as soon as we get on board however, we'll have my 87 yo dad (mobility issues) with us and want to try and get him seated and settled somewhere so we can run to get signed up.:o

 

I would appreciate any advice you could give.

You will board on deck 7. Go to the right (front of ship) for the box office. I personally went to the Q on the 6th floor again to the right to the stairs, go down stairs, take a left and enter the Q Computers will be set up to make reservations for dining, laser tag, race track and comedy. We already had play reservations...

Definitely Cagneys. We have booked it on our 25th anniversary cruise!

The Dawn does not have a waterfront. However, we love the Dawn and enjoyed the quietness of the promenade. They have shuttleboard and chairs on the promenade. It is a great place to sit under some shade and watch the waves. We love the Dawn and that area.

Yeah, I want a straw as my favorites are mojitos and frozen drinks.

Are items with an asterisk extra cost?

My guess is food not cooked enough warning

We had shrimp cocktail in the main dining on the Breakaway within the year. Not every night, but it was offered. I am from Maine and the price has been fairly steady for lobster. What I really notice is the lobster you might get on the ship is NOT Maine lobster...you can tell the difference and typically they are not a boiled lobster;p I can be rather particular about my seafood...

Thank you Doug and Sue!