Princess Cheerleader Sails the Gem

DH and I are usually diehard Princess cruisers, but we wanted to sail the Med this summer and all the Princess itineraries were longer, 12 days or more. When you add in the night flying over and at least a day pre cruise, that was just too long to be away from home/jobs/family. So we looked around for a 7 day cruise, and settled on the Gem (RCCL just didn't do it for us a couple years back, so we ruled them out.) However, as time went on, we were a little dubious because NCL seems to get slammed on the other boards. Now that we are back, I though you might be interested in a few comparisons.

THE SHIP: The decor of the Gem was a little too loud for our taste, we prefer the soft, subtle blues and greens on Princess, but I realize that is a totally subjective area!! The pool area was lovely, and we also were impressed by Le Bistro and Grand Pacific. Overall, though, Princess gets the nod here.

THE CABIN AND SUITE PERKS: Once again the color scheme comes up, we just weren't too pleased with the greens and hot pinks. However, we booked an AE penthouse and we LOVED the perks that came along with it: the butler and concierge, breakfast and lunch in Cagney's, VIP cocktail party and priority embarkation and disembarkation. Princess doesn't offer any of those things, so NCL gets the nod here.

THE CREW: We have never had a problem with the crew on Princess, and found them efficient and helpful, even at the pursar's desk and at anytime dining. But the crew on the Gem just seemed to go out of their way a little bit more. Two examples really stand out. Our butler, Putu, was earnest and effiecient and friendly, always ready to do what we asked but never overbearing. And we want to mention Officer Ricardo Brown, head of the housekeeping dept., who was so generous with his time at the VIP party, answering all our questions and giving us information about NCL. Both these gentlemen are a real credit to the line.

THE FOOD: Well, all of you NCL fans probably knew that there would be an issue somewhere. Our breakfasts and lunches in Cagney's were very good, and consequently we never ate at the buffet or the grill, so I can't comment on those. But we both felt that the food for dinner in the regular DRs was not on a par with Princess, both in quality and choice. Also, the steaks we had for dinner in Cagney's were not as good as we have found in Princess' Crown Grill. Of course, this area is subjective, but it did seem as if NCL is pushing its passengers to the specialty restaurants for a really good meal. On the plus side, we enjoyed dinner in Le Bistro and Teppanyaki, and we did like the choide of so many specialty restaurants. And the tables for 2 in Grand Pacific, arranged in 2 rows by the side windows, were better than anything Princess offers. But in our opinion, Princess wins out in this area.

ENTERTAINMENT: This was such a port intensive cruise that we didn't sample the entertainment anywhere near as much as we usually do on cruises -- we were just too tired. I saw the show by Elvy Rose and felt that was excellent, and we both enjoyed the Spanish guitarist and singer. But we felt that the lack of movies on NCL was a disappointment --- none were shown on the TV or in the theaters except for pay per view. Princess has free in cabin movies and children's programming,shows daily movies in the theaters, and has Movies Under the Stars on many ships--- a really nice diversion for both day and night showings. Overall, this area is even.

FREESTYLE: We like the freestyle concept of dining, and always do anytime dining on Princess. We missed the option to make a reservation for the main DRs that Princess offers, and we did hear people complaining that they couldn't get the days/times they wanted in the specialties (thankfully we didn't have to worry about that with the concierge available to us.) But we had a problem with the dress of some of the other passengers, and we are usually the ones who laugh at threads about dress codes here on the boards. Some of them took freestyle way too far, in our opinion -- I have never seen anyone on a cruise ship before in torn and dirty and shabby outfits, but they were there on our sailing of the Gem. We didn't dress up for formal night and brought less clothes than we usually do, but I was still amazed at some of the outfits I saw. Advantage: Princess

TOURS: We actually have never had a problem with Princess tours, but we felt the NCL tours were especially well run and efficient, with excellent guides. I also liked the numbered stickers given to each of us to wear -- it came in handy in Rome when we were looking for our bus. NCL gets a slight nod here.

I could go on, but you all probably get the idea by now. We still love Princess but NCL beat them in some areas, and none of the concerns would stop us from sailing NCL in the future since we realize that no cruise line is perfect in all ways. I honestly don't know where all of the negative comments came from, they could not have been from passengers on the Gem.

Here is a link to our webshots in case anyone is interested:

http://community.webshots.com/user/cynbar101

What a great review, your comparisons where informative and honest. Thanks for taking the time to post. IMHO I beleive the suites that NCL have are the best in the cruise industry!:D

Thank you for a fair and well thought out comparison.

PE

I enjoyed your review. We were in a suite on Princess a few years back and we much prefer the suites on NCL. We find no comparison with the food either. NCL gets our vote there too. I think that food is just subjective. But your review was certainly fair for sure. Thanks, Nancy

I'm the DH of Cynbar and although I don't post a lot I'd like to say one thing. Although she seemed to have a small problem with the colors/decor of the ship, it didn't bother me at all. In fact I found it vibrant and refreshing. I'm in total agreement with everything else.

A very reasonable, balanced review!

Thank you for the fair review!

BTW on our recent Majesty cruise there were just released movies shown constantly on tv. The schedule was part of the info packet. We enjoyed seeing about 6 we had in our Netflix queue which we removed when we got home. Sorry they didn't have this on your sailing. Tell me this PPV business is part of freestyle 2.0 and there aren't any more free movies!! Anyone?

Thanks for those pictures...we leave Wed. for Barcelona for 3 days then the cruise...also thanks for the comparison...only been on Celebrity, Hal and NCL and we thought the NCL Sun was a good comparison to the other two...

Thank you cynbar for a great and fair review. I'm glad you had a good time!

It's so refreshing to read a well thought out and balanced review, especially when it involves comparison with another line. Well done! I also think you are to be commended for booking NCL regardless of the bad press they get on other boards (and this one, truth be told). I think it's just a case of people disliking difference. NCL does things a little differently than all of the other lines (although many are adding bits to provide similar experiences), so there are just always going to be those who don't like it and will find negative things to complain about because they're looking so hard. I would never let a negative post or review here keep me from sailing any line. Like you, I know none are perfect, but as far as vacations go, they're close enough for me!! :)

I can't make comparisons because I've never been on Princess, but the only things I could see myself differing on are the ones that you point out yourself are subjective, and I expect everyone's opinion to be at least slightly different on all of those points. We did have a different experience regarding movies on the Star, though... our daughter watched movies every evening in our cabin, and they were fairly recent - it was this past January and I believe some of the choices were High School Musical 2 and Stardust (I'm not sure of other titles, I only saw her watching those two). I'm pretty sure we also received a movie list for the theatre, but nothing ever appeared in the dailies. I think the movies on deck thing looks fantastic from the images I've seen. I would definitely love to try it sometime. :)

Thank you for the fair review!

 

BTW on our recent Majesty cruise there were just released movies shown constantly on tv. The schedule was part of the info packet. We enjoyed seeing about 6 we had in our Netflix queue which we removed when we got home. Sorry they didn't have this on your sailing. Tell me this PPV business is part of freestyle 2.0 and there aren't any more free movies!! Anyone?

On our Jewel sailing last month there were continuous movies running on the TV ... there were just too many other activities on board for us to watch them :o :D

DH and I are usually diehard Princess cruisers, but we wanted to sail the Med this summer and all the Princess itineraries were longer, 12 days or more. When you add in the night flying over and at least a day pre cruise, that was just too long to be away from home/jobs/family. So we looked around for a 7 day cruise, and settled on the Gem (RCCL just didn't do it for us a couple years back, so we ruled them out.) However, as time went on, we were a little dubious because NCL seems to get slammed on the other boards. Now that we are back, I though you might be interested in a few comparisons.

 

THE SHIP: The decor of the Gem was a little too loud for our taste, we prefer the soft, subtle blues and greens on Princess, but I realize that is a totally subjective area!! The pool area was lovely, and we also were impressed by Le Bistro and Grand Pacific. Overall, though, Princess gets the nod here.

 

THE CABIN AND SUITE PERKS: Once again the color scheme comes up, we just weren't too pleased with the greens and hot pinks. However, we booked an AE penthouse and we LOVED the perks that came along with it: the butler and concierge, breakfast and lunch in Cagney's, VIP cocktail party and priority embarkation and disembarkation. Princess doesn't offer any of those things, so NCL gets the nod here.

 

THE CREW: We have never had a problem with the crew on Princess, and found them efficient and helpful, even at the pursar's desk and at anytime dining. But the crew on the Gem just seemed to go out of their way a little bit more. Two examples really stand out. Our butler, Putu, was earnest and effiecient and friendly, always ready to do what we asked but never overbearing. And we want to mention Officer Ricardo Brown, head of the housekeeping dept., who was so generous with his time at the VIP party, answering all our questions and giving us information about NCL. Both these gentlemen are a real credit to the line.

 

THE FOOD: Well, all of you NCL fans probably knew that there would be an issue somewhere. Our breakfasts and lunches in Cagney's were very good, and consequently we never ate at the buffet or the grill, so I can't comment on those. But we both felt that the food for dinner in the regular DRs was not on a par with Princess, both in quality and choice. Also, the steaks we had for dinner in Cagney's were not as good as we have found in Princess' Crown Grill. Of course, this area is subjective, but it did seem as if NCL is pushing its passengers to the specialty restaurants for a really good meal. On the plus side, we enjoyed dinner in Le Bistro and Teppanyaki, and we did like the choide of so many specialty restaurants. And the tables for 2 in Grand Pacific, arranged in 2 rows by the side windows, were better than anything Princess offers. But in our opinion, Princess wins out in this area.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: This was such a port intensive cruise that we didn't sample the entertainment anywhere near as much as we usually do on cruises -- we were just too tired. I saw the show by Elvy Rose and felt that was excellent, and we both enjoyed the Spanish guitarist and singer. But we felt that the lack of movies on NCL was a disappointment --- none were shown on the TV or in the theaters except for pay per view. Princess has free in cabin movies and children's programming,shows daily movies in the theaters, and has Movies Under the Stars on many ships--- a really nice diversion for both day and night showings. Overall, this area is even.

 

FREESTYLE: We like the freestyle concept of dining, and always do anytime dining on Princess. We missed the option to make a reservation for the main DRs that Princess offers, and we did hear people complaining that they couldn't get the days/times they wanted in the specialties (thankfully we didn't have to worry about that with the concierge available to us.) But we had a problem with the dress of some of the other passengers, and we are usually the ones who laugh at threads about dress codes here on the boards. Some of them took freestyle way too far, in our opinion -- I have never seen anyone on a cruise ship before in torn and dirty and shabby outfits, but they were there on our sailing of the Gem. We didn't dress up for formal night and brought less clothes than we usually do, but I was still amazed at some of the outfits I saw. Advantage: Princess

 

TOURS: We actually have never had a problem with Princess tours, but we felt the NCL tours were especially well run and efficient, with excellent guides. I also liked the numbered stickers given to each of us to wear -- it came in handy in Rome when we were looking for our bus. NCL gets a slight nod here.

 

I could go on, but you all probably get the idea by now. We still love Princess but NCL beat them in some areas, and none of the concerns would stop us from sailing NCL in the future since we realize that no cruise line is perfect in all ways. I honestly don't know where all of the negative comments came from, they could not have been from passengers on the Gem.

 

Here is a link to our webshots in case anyone is interested:

http://community.webshots.com/user/cynbar101

If I had any real differences it might be with food. Basically I agree with selection and quality as they relate to the entrees, but we thought breakfast was much better on NCL and the buffets better (though we don't do buffets much either) We also like the salad and soup choices better on NCL. Again, entree wise, Princess certainly gets out vote, hands down or thumbs up, either way. Thanks again for posting.

NIta

And isn't Putu the best! I didn't realize he had other cabins other than the courtyard, unless there is another Putu. We just loved him and whole ship. It will be hard to come close our Gem Med. experience.

I wonder what the response would be if this review was posted on the Princess board as well :eek: :) .

I wonder what the response would be if this review was posted on the Princess board as well :eek: :) .

Let's just say, my review last year was very similar to this: We did happen to have very bad cabin steward or stewardess in our case, sevice but I made it very clear in my review, that I didn't think this was shipwide and it didn't affect our cruise that much, just gave us a comparison. Well, you would have thought I had just taken the entire ship to task, threatened them, had tried to blackball them from the waters etc. people think some on this board are loyalist, we can't compare with some of the other boards..

Nita

Let's just say, my review last year was very similar to this: We did happen to have very bad cabin steward or stewardess in our case, sevice but I made it very clear in my review, that I didn't think this was shipwide and it didn't affect our cruise that much, just gave us a comparison. Well, you would have thought I had just taken the entire ship to task, threatened them, had tried to blackball them from the waters etc. people think some on this board are loyalist, we can't compare with some of the other boards..

 

Nita

Oh, I read it on the Princess board :eek: I read all the boards, even if I don't post on other cruiselines boards. It is VERY entertaining reading. Those who blast the people on NCL's board really should read the other cruiselines boards. Every cruiseline has the same issues-food, dress-codes, nickle and diming :rolleyes: , tipping..and the list goes on.

Post anything that can be percieved as negative about any cruise line and the howling will begin ;) .

This was a nice, balanced review. It's nice to read one that doesn't have an agenda., i.e NCL is low class

We are going on our first Princess cruise in Jan. so I have been reading the Princess boards. Some of those Princess people scare me. It seems it is there way or the highway. I happen to like NCL and love freestyle dining but I am willing to try another line. Of course we are doing anytime dining so it should feel familiar. I dislike when someone has never done a certain cruise line but has only bad comments to make about that cruise line. All the complaints about nickle and diming on NCL and I find out I need a coffee card on Princess in order to get a good cup of coffee. How hard is it to make good coffee. I thought this review was very fair and I was glad to finally read where somone from Princess actually liked an NCL cruise.

We are going on our first Princess cruise in Jan. so I have been reading the Princess boards. Some of those Princess people scare me. It seems it is there way or the highway.

It can get worse on the X board :eek:

It can get worse on the X board :eek:

I didn't mention that, but yes, those are the two boards with the true, diehard loyalists. HAL has those who love the line and for good reason, but they are realistic and know nothing is perfect, same, even with RCI and Carnival just to mention a few of the other boards.

Nita

Thanks for a wonderful, well written, thoughtful review.

How refreshing - Maybe others who simply want to bash can learn something.

Great Post:) !

I too want to thank you for the great comparison. We are trying Princess for the first time in October, and I too was becoming a little nervous about it from reading the posts on the Princess boards. We were originally scheduled to go for a 4 night trip in May, but Princess offered us a longer cruise along with credits and upgrades to change to October. After reading some of the posts on the Princess boards I was beginning to feel that I may be out of place on their ship, and might should have stuck with the 4 day trip. After reading your comparison, I feel great about the upcoming trip!

I too want to thank you for the great comparison. We are trying Princess for the first time in October, and I too was becoming a little nervous about it from reading the posts on the Princess boards. We were originally scheduled to go for a 4 night trip in May, but Princess offered us a longer cruise along with credits and upgrades to change to October. After reading some of the posts on the Princess boards I was beginning to feel that I may be out of place on their ship, and might should have stuck with the 4 day trip. After reading your comparison, I feel great about the upcoming trip!

Please don't be nervous about Princess -- in my opinion, if you like NCL you should like Princess too. I see you're scheduled for the Crown Princess in October. We have been on her twice and she's probably my favorite of all the ships I've sailed. Be sure to check out the Cafe Caribe for themed lunch and dinner buffets (including 2 seafood buffets if you like that, great for appetizers even if you eat in the DR), Movies Under the Stars for a different experience day and night, and the International Cafe in the atrium where they bake fresh cookies all day and offer free salads and sandwiches also. I have never had a problem with the passengers on Princess, they have all been friendly to us -- have a great time!

Thanks, everybody, for your feedback. I am going to post this on the Princess boards, where I'll probably be slammed, but so be it. Some of the posters over there are really anti NCL. In fairness , though, I think that some of the older ships are not quite on a par with the Gem. We have the Dream sailing out of Boston this summer to Bermuda, and the feedback hasn't been too good. Anyway, I also wanted to address the coffee question. I forgot it in my original review because I am not a coffee drinker. DH is, however, and he loved the free cappucchino and espresso on NCL as well as the coffee maker in our cabin-- to him, that is a really big plus. Princess charges for those but they do have a coffee card you can buy, and the card also entitles you to unlimited fresh brewed coffee from the coffee bar in the atrium (price without the card is $1.00 I believe.) DH has never had a problem with the regular coffee on Princess which is free everywhere, but he loves his coffee card. Some lines charge for some things and some lines charge for others --only the premium lines have everything included.

Thanks we will watch out for you...I post occasionally on the Princess Board about the Red Hook terminal....the Gem is the nicest of the NCL ships so far....they do seem to be getting better with each new ship(IMO)