NCL Newbie's Take on the Gem with Haven Upgrade

Hello CC peeps!!

This is going to be a not quite live report from the Gem, as we are currently on board and docked in FL, but I won't be able to report back once we set sail again until after our cruise is over. There was recently another awesome review on the Gem by mcking, but since it can't hurt to hear more experiences, I thought I'd add mine too. :) I won't post pics of dailies or repeat what was posted in the other review. I'll just try to add a bit of a different perspective. Here it goes!

To give you a little background on us, I booked the Gem to celebrate my 40th birthday (aaaah - 40!) and told my husband it could also be a bit of our 15th anniversary celebration. (Our anniversary isn't until December, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw that in there in case he needed any extra convincing.) I booked an aft balcony for our whole family, which also includes our two boys, who are 10 and 13. We are NCL newbies, but not new to cruising. Two years ago, our boys experienced their 1st cruise on the Disney Fantasy and loved it, and my husband and I have also sailed on RCCL and loved that too. I chose the Memorial Day sailing to Cape Canaveral, Nassau and GSC for this cruise because we had never been to the Bahamas before.

I was super excited for our aft balcony because we have sailed in balcony cabins but never an aft balcony. From all of the reviews on CC, it sounded amazing! It didn't take long though before I learned about the NCL upgrade program, and since we were past final payment and hit the 80 day mark for our cruise not long after booking it, I got the email to bid for an upgrade almost right away. I put in an early bid, but for any of you who have read my other posts and have a sense of how indecisive I am, you probably know that I went back and forth trying to decide if I really wanted to give up that aft balcony experience. There was no guarantee if I bid on a penthouse that it would be aft, and I knew I didn't want to be forward so I decided not to take that chance. I placed the absolute minimum bid on the H4 (2 bedroom Haven suite) and eventually decided to leave it to fate. 5 days before our sailing, I was quite shocked to find out that we had won our bid! We had never sailed in a suite before so when I tried to describe the Haven experience to my boys, you can probably imagine that they were beyond excited!

Fast forward 5 days.....The excitement was palpable as we packed up and made our way from PA to NY to board the Gem. I had learned from our roll call that it was fleet week in NY, but the traffic was only really bad outside the exit for the cruise terminal. We took someone's advice to cross over the GW Bridge, rather than driving through the Lincoln Tunnel, and I would highly recommend that route if you are driving and have the choice. We used the parking coupon for the Gem (yes - it works!) and saved $70 to park at the pier. At our muster drill later, another couple shared that they had parked a couple of blocks away to save money and ended up with the same rate - $210. Definitely worth the convenience to park right and seems like you can't get a much better deal close by.

When we headed into the terminal, we mentioned that we were Haven guests, but we somehow still got funneled into the long lines for security. We noticed a super short line right next to us so I went back to inquire about that line and found out that the short line was for Haven members (and maybe others too- latitudes? not sure). I was glad I asked because we were able to step out of the other line, and this is where our Haven perks began! We sailed through security and headed over to the priority lounge, where we immediately met our concierge and were taken straight to Cagney's for lunch. I will admit that my boys our somewhat picky eaters, as many kids are. The menu looked great to us, but my kiddos were not thrilled with the choices. No worries though! Cagney's was wonderful, and they were able to order "kid food," while we enjoyed the regular lunch menu.

Boarding the Gem....so excited!! ⚓️

Time for lunch....

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On the way to lunch, our boys had noticed a life size chess board outside of Cagney's and really wanted to play. The announcement that cabins were ready came not long after 1 so we headed over to see our digs for the week after the life size chess match.

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I'm not quite sure how to describe walking into the Haven and our suite for the 1st time....wow!!!!! The Haven area is so beautiful and peaceful, and the pictures of our 2 bedroom suite will not do it justice, though I will post them, of course, for those considering the haven. All of my indecisiveness about the aft balcony melted away. Not only was it beautiful, but the amount of space was just incredible! If anyone is debating whether to take the leap and either bid or simply book this suite, it is sooooo worth it! You definitely won't regret it.

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I say that I'm a bit of a germaphobe, and I did feel that the cabin didn't look or feel as clean as some of the other cabins we have been in on other cruise lines. My husband, who is not a germaphobe and is usually oblivious to those kind of things, felt that way too. I'm not one to complain, and I know how hard everyone works on board so I wasn't about to ask the crew to come back to re-clean it. Overall, I could live with it, and the boys could care less.

We mustered in O'Sheehan's and then decided to check out the sail away party at the pool. A yummy looking bbq was being served and some lively music was playing. We headed to deck 13 forward, right above the pool area, where it looked like there would be great views for sail away. Even though it was the end of May, it was quite cold so we decided to make our way back to the Haven as we began to sail out.

When I was first debating whether to bid on the haven or not, I will say that I was originally worried that we would miss out on certain things on board as we tried to balance our time in the haven with the rest of the activities on the ship. However, sail away from the sun deck in the haven and from our cabin balcony was amazing, and I realized that our Haven experience was only going to enhance our cruise. I normally love all the hustle and bustle around the ship and have never minded the crowds, but the calm of the Haven and the ability to access our own little pool area and sun deck was blissful.

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After sail away, our 1st priority was getting our boys signed for for Splash Academy and Entourage. We were ecstatic when we realized that the clubs were only 2 floors down, directly below the Haven, making it easy for our boys to find their way back and easy for us to check on them if we wanted to. On other CC posts about the kids' clubs, I had read that the NCL clubs were really wonderful and that some kids even liked them better than Disney. I was a little doubtful that the NCL clubs could be better than another cruise line that was specifically geared toward kids, but they definitely sounded like they would be fun. When we arrived to sign up, Splash Academy and Entourage looked completely empty - not devoid of kids, but devoid of things to do. If you have been on a Disney cruise before, you know that you immediately see all sorts of technology and equipment and kid friendly activities. We saw none of that, and right away, my husband was concerned that the kids might be bored or not enjoy the clubs. Again, we found that we had absolutely no need to worry, but more on that a bit later....

At that point we were getting hungry and decided to check out the Garden Cafe (the buffet), right next to the kids area. I will say that compared to RCCL and Disney, the food didn't look nearly as appetizing at first glance and the dining area kind of felt like it was missing a vibe that I can't put my finger on. Maybe it was just not as bright or colorful as other ships we had been on....I'm not quite sure, but the food ended up being very good, particularly for a buffet. My 13 year old loved the crepe station, which is not to be missed if you are on board. It is part of the dessert area if you are trying to find it. Yum!!

At 8:00, our boys were ready to head over to the kids clubs, while we went to see the Welcome Aboard show. I would say that the show itself was good, with a medley of acts that would be performed throughout the week, but it didn't really wow us. After the show, we headed back to our room. Our oldest son showed up just a few minutes later saying he was bored and didn't like Entourage that much. I decided to check on my younger son at Splash Academy and asked my 13 year to come down with me, hoping he would give Entourage another chance. My 10 year old didn't want to leave and was having a blast. He described it as "amazing." l was so happy to see that he was spending all of his time playing with the other kids, where on Disney, he was really drawn to just playing with technology. At that moment we lucked out because just as I was heading back out with my older son, we ran in to two younger teenage boys who were about to go exploring the ship. He happily joined them. By the time we rounded up both boys and were ready to wind down for the night, they were both raving about the clubs and saying that they liked them way more than Disney (unsolicited)! My Disney fanatic husband couldn't believe it...lol.

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By the time we went back to the cabin, we were all tired and ready for bed. I will say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree with my youngest son, who is also a bit of a germaphobe like me, and when he went to crawl in his bed, he noticed several yellow stains on his blanket. As a result, he wanted to sleep with no blanket at all. We ended up calling the butler to exchange the blanket. After about 30 minutes and no new blanket, I called down to check on its status and was surprised to get a very terse response saying they were still working on it. We had figured that it was a fairly simple request and that they would have other blankets stocked elsewhere, but apparently not since it took about another 20 minutes before new blankets arrived. They were much friendlier dropping it off than they were over the phone, and we were ready to crash for the night.

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Day 2:

I woke up bright and early (well....bright and early for me) and hopped right out of bed. This, of course, annoyed my sleeping husband, who normally has to drag me out of bed on weekends. To my surprise, when I looked out the window by the tub, there appeared to be a small boat speeding right at us. There was no land in sight, but that didn't seem to deter this little boat, nor did the size of our ship.

I decided to head into the Haven so I wouldn't wake anyone else up....what a wonderful way to start the day. There was softly playing music, little pastries and a relaxing place to just hang out. When my own crew was finally ready for breakfast, it was already after 10 and Moderno's was closed so we ventured down to O'Sheehan's instead. We were able to sit in a booth overlooking the ocean and my hubby was able to still get the omelette he desperately wanted. By the way, if you like bacon, the bacon there was delicious- crispy and not too greasy, perfectly made. We all enjoyed our breakfast, and my 10 year old raved about the hot chocolate.

Knowing that there was only an hour left before Splash Academy was closing, we dropped my 10 year old off for some hang out time with some kids his age. My 13 year old stopped into Entourage to check out what was happening, but only 1 other kid was there so he opted not to stay. It wasn't long before my youngest son needed to be picked up again, and I decided to stop for some drinks on the way back to the cabin. (Can you believe I haven't mentioned drinks once yet?? That's not because we weren't drinking them...lol.) The bartenders gave the boys free nonalcoholic drinks even though they didn't have a beverage package, and this occurred at least two more times that day. We certainly didn't expect that, but we really appreciated it! We headed back to the haven pool at that point, where we were also served food and drinks by the courtyard valet. This included soda for the kids, beverages for us, pbj's for the boys and ice cream too!

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Having read other posts about the Haven on CC, I kind of expected that it would be pretty empty most of the time, but that wasn't the case so far on our cruise. We even had to laugh when we realized some teenage girls who were swimming in the haven pool and eating the snacks had actually snuck in. They were discreetly asked to leave, and as they were heading out, one of them said, "well it was worth a shot." They were there for quite awhile so I guess it was....lol.

When we returned to our cabin, to our disappointment, we found out that our airboat excursion at Port Canaveral was being cancelled due to a drought. Since we had been to Cape Canaveral before, we didn't want to go to Kennedy Space Center (though I would highly recommend that if you haven't been there before). I headed to the excursion desk to try to figure out what other options we might want to consider. The lady was very nice, but didn't recommend we head to Universal or Disney with the short amount of time we would have there. Since we've also been to those places quite a few times, I wholeheartedly agreed with her, but my husband, who is a kid at heart, was still contemplating the idea. There weren't too many other options other than a beach day at Cocoa Beach or staying on board. Hmmmmmm.....what to do?

Meanwhile, we had reserved Teppenyaki that night for the four of us, but at the last minute decided to switch it to La Cucina since we have a hibachi restaurant close to home that we can visit whenever we like. I called the concierge to try to make the change, but he said we couldn't get a reservation until 9:15 and that he would have to monitor the situation and get back to us. Interestingly, when my husband turned on the activities channel later, it showed reservations for both la cucina and teppenyaki. Lucky for us, we got our reservation (for just the two of us), and I'm sure some other family was feeling lucky that they made it into Teppenyaki.

Dinner for the boys was at O'Sheehan's and the Garden Cafe. I sat down with my oldest at O'Sheehan's and was feeling quite hungry so I ordered the spinach and artichoke dip, while he ordered nachos and a burger. Both the nachos and the dip came with the same chips. I wasn't particularly fond of my appetizer, not because it was bad, but it just lacked flavor. The nachos were pretty good and the french fry that my son let me taste was really good. I tried not to eat much since we had our reservation later. My husband took my younger son to the buffet, where he apparently tried either oysters or clams (my husband wasn't sure which one), but he really liked them.

On a side note, quick little tip for anyone trying to make "date night" reservations: Splash Academy closes from 5-7 every night. If you want to have a nice adult dinner out, don't make you're reservations at exactly 7:00. When Splash Academy reopens, there is usually a line to sign the kids in. There is no way to make it to a 7:00 reservation if you are dropping your child off at Splash Academy. It wasn't a huge issue for us because they didn't mind that we were slightly late, but a 7:15 reservation would be the better option, and it still leaves time to see a 9:00 show.

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I wasn't sure how good La Cucina would be since it seems to be a less favored restaurant than others on board, based on the CC reviews I read. The atmosphere of the restaurant was very nice. I ordered the caprese salad and my husband had a caesar salad. The caesar salad was pretty good, but the caprese salad tasted like someone had accidentally dumped a container of salt on it. We also ordered risotto and the filet mignon. Both were delicious. I enjoyed some tiramisu for dessert, but couldn't eat the whole thing

because I was stuffed, and the portion was very generous.

At that point, we got a call from Splash Academy letting us know that our son wanted to be picked

up so we headed over to get him. Being in the Haven, we had a phone in our cabin that we could carry with us, but I also heard the counselors tell the parent of a younger child that they would give her a phone because her daughter was crying after she left. I personally loved that they would ensure that they could get in touch with you if necessary. We had originally planned to go see the 9:00 show, but our kids were wiped out so we decided to chill, watch the free movies that come with the Haven and call it an early night. My husband decided to donate some money to the NCL casino. Tomorrow would be our 1st port day...woohoo!

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I've cruised with NCL 5 times and never heard of an upgrade programme, can you tell me how to get information on this please ? Enjoyed reading all your posts [emoji3]

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I've cruised with NCL 5 times and never heard of an upgrade programme, can you tell me how to get information on this please ? Enjoyed reading all your posts [emoji3]

 

 

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There's a fairly new program called the upgrade advantage program. NCL sends out emails to people eligible to upgrade about 80 days from sailing and you can choose to bid to upgrade your cabin. There are many posts with a lot of info worth checking out. If you search CC for the program or for bidding, that may help. :)

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Having read other posts about the Haven on CC, I kind of expected that it would be pretty empty most of the time, but that wasn't the case so far on our cruise. We even had to laugh when we realized some teenage girls who were swimming in the haven pool and eating the snacks had actually snuck in. They were discreetly asked to leave, and as they were heading out, one of them said, "well it was worth a shot." They were there for quite awhile so I guess it was....lol.

 

When we returned to our cabin, to our disappointment, we found out that our airboat excursion at Port Canaveral was being cancelled due to a drought. Since we had been to Cape Canaveral before, we didn't want to go to Kennedy Space Center (though I would highly recommend that if you haven't been there before). I headed to the excursion desk to try to figure out what other options we might want to consider. The lady was very nice, but didn't recommend we head to Universal or Disney with the short amount of time we would have there. Since we've also been to those places quite a few times, I wholeheartedly agreed with her, but my husband, who is a kid at heart, was still contemplating the idea. There weren't too many other options other than a beach day at Cocoa Beach or staying on board. Hmmmmmm.....what to do?

 

Meanwhile, we had reserved Teppenyaki that night for the four of us, but at the last minute decided to switch it to La Cucina since we have a hibachi restaurant close to home that we can visit whenever we like. I called the concierge to try to make the change, but he said we couldn't get a reservation until 9:15 and that he would have to monitor the situation and get back to us. Interestingly, when my husband turned on the activities channel later, it showed reservations for both la cucina and teppenyaki. Lucky for us, we got our reservation (for just the two of us), and I'm sure some other family was feeling lucky that they made it into Teppenyaki.

 

Dinner for the boys was at O'Sheehan's and the Garden Cafe. I sat down with my oldest at O'Sheehan's and was feeling quite hungry so I ordered the spinach and artichoke dip, while he ordered nachos and a burger. Both the nachos and the dip came with the same chips. I wasn't particularly fond of my appetizer, not because it was bad, but it just lacked flavor. The nachos were pretty good and the french fry that my son let me taste was really good. I tried not to eat much since we had our reservation later. My husband took my younger son to the buffet, where he apparently tried either oysters or clams (my husband wasn't sure which one), but he really liked them.

 

On a side note, quick little tip for anyone trying to make "date night" reservations: Splash Academy closes from 5-7 every night. If you want to have a nice adult dinner out, don't make you're reservations at exactly 7:00. When Splash Academy reopens, there is usually a line to sign the kids in. There is no way to make it to a 7:00 reservation if you are dropping your child off at Splash Academy. It wasn't a huge issue for us because they didn't mind that we were slightly late, but a 7:15 reservation would be the better option, and it still leaves time to see a 9:00 show.

 

 

 

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Lol one of those teens was one of my dd's! One of her new crew is in a 2 bedroom, and she told me all about the Haven and gummy bears, but that they had to leave. They didn't exactly sneak in, but were brought in to see the suite, and I guess they decided to stay. I told her she could visit her friend in the suite, but that's it.

So far so good for us this trip, no complaints here!

Here is the setup of the 2nd bedroom in the 2 bedroom suite:

The bottom bed is quite large!

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Thanks very much for that, I'll look it up, we are in the UK are you ?

For next year I've booked with MSC as NCL have gone all inclusive in the Uk and the prices have gone up considerably, so going to try some new ships and new locations for next year. Enjoy your holiday :)

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Lol one of those teens was one of my dd's! One of her new crew is in a 2 bedroom, and she told me all about the Haven and gummy bears, but that they had to leave. They didn't exactly sneak in, but were brought in to see the suite, and I guess they decided to stay. I told her she could visit her friend in the suite, but that's it.

 

 

 

So far so good for us this trip, no complaints here!

Too funny....glad you are enjoying the trip too!!

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Loving your review! Did either of your boys actually sleep in the top bunk? They look pretty happy on the lower bed.

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Happy Memorial Day to you & all CC'er onboard, was watching the Gem on live webcam sailing into port early. We already missed the ship & next NCL booking is 5 months out.

Great pictures via Tapatalk, keep them coming & uphold whenever.

Try to get the Haven dining menus uploaded too. Nice in scoring that upgrade.

Elvina is a great concierge and do use those offers for priority disembark (in coming off the Gem, a world of difference - trust me,) especially later in the week, it will go by quickly (... my apology for bring it up.) Do post who's "serving" in Haven for those following this post - i.e. who's your butler. We had a "tiny" glimpse of the concierge services as VIP onboard last month, and I can easily imagine all the "goodies" treat delivered daily. Will be tracking tomorrow for GSC as tendering is always up to mother nature on the day of. How was the sea conditions sailing south, it's always "rougher" on the northbound return.

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Thanks very much for that, I'll look it up, we are in the UK are you ?

 

For next year I've booked with MSC as NCL have gone all inclusive in the Uk and the prices have gone up considerably, so going to try some new ships and new locations for next year. Enjoy your holiday :)

 

 

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Thanks! We're from the U.S. I'm not quite sure about how it would work in the U.K. Enjoy your other cruises!

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Loving your review! Did either of your boys actually sleep in the top bunk? They look pretty happy on the lower bed.

 

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Thanks! My younger ds did sleep in the top bunk, but only because his older brother kicked him out....lol

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Have just found out its only offered to US bookers, it's not offered in the U.K. [emoji24]

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Happy Memorial Day to you & all CC'er onboard, was watching the Gem on live webcam sailing into port early. We already missed the ship & next NCL booking is 5 months out.

 

Great pictures via Tapatalk, keep them coming & uphold whenever.

 

Try to get the Haven dining menus uploaded too. Nice in scoring that upgrade.

 

Elvina is a great concierge and do use those offers for priority disembark (in coming off the Gem, a world of difference - trust me,) especially later in the week, it will go by quickly (... my apology for bring it up.) Do post who's "serving" in Haven for those following this post - i.e. who's your butler. We had a "tiny" glimpse of the concierge services as VIP onboard last month, and I can easily imagine all the "goodies" treat delivered daily. Will be tracking tomorrow for GSC as tendering is always up to mother nature on the day of. How was the sea conditions sailing south, it's always "rougher" on the northbound return.

 

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thanks mking! your review was so helpful when we were planning our trip....Patrick is our concierge and Randy is our butler for this cruise, but i read a lot of great things about elvina.

We're really hoping to make it to GSC! Fingers crossed for calm seas. Here is the Moderno's menu for breakfast if you are going to be traveling in the haven:

Lunch is at Cagney's....will try to get that menu too when I get a chance.

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Have just found out its only offered to US bookers, it's not offered in the U.K. [emoji24]

 

 

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oh no....sorry to hear that! hopefully, they'll roll out the program for the U.K. soon too

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The sound of banging and scraping noises woke me up quite early. I have no idea where the sound was coming from since we seem far removed from everything, but my hubby slept right through it. By 8:30, we had everyone up and moving and managed to make it down to Moderno's for breakfast. We got a seat by the windows overlooking the pool, and there was a really nice selection of pastries, fruit and parfaits to choose from. We could also order off of the breakfast menu, and my oldest son and I had waffles, while my hubby had another omelette and my youngest had cereal. The staff was very accommodating with my son's lactose allergy and brought him almond and regular lactaid free milk.

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Since my youngest son wasn't feeling that great the night before and we were all pretty wiped out, we never displayed our "turn down cabin" sign so we were all very excited to see a towel animal waiting for us when we got back from breakfast.

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