Norweigan Gem - President's week 2011 -2 family bedroom suite - New York

[sunflowergirl66]

Sorry for the long post...my husband loves to write...and he wanted to get everything in.....(and sorry for any typos :))

All I can say is.....Suite sailing on Norweigan is very sweet!!!! :) They make you feel very special!!!!!!

Before going on the NCL Gem out of NY to the Bahamas I read a lot of information on CC and other sites that had either misinformation, heavily negative comments or confusing facts that didn’t quite give us the info we needed. Given we have cruised quite a bit with Royal Caribbean, Disney as well as myself going on RC, Holland America and the late Royal Viking line years ago, pre-wife, we were eager to try NCL and see how it compares. So here is my review with details that hopefully answers questions and addresses issues:

We went on the 2/19/11-2/26/11 winter break cruise, so it was very crowded with families. In fact the ship was at full capacity with around 3000 people. Given that, we were prepared for some negatives. Overall we were pleasantly surprised, and expect that on a normal week with 800 people less it will be even better. Here is our take and recommendations:

The Ship: The Gem is fairly new, built in 2007. Somebody wrote that it was refurbished in 2010..not true, but it is still looking new and is kept spotless. Constant shampooing rugs, cleaning, varnishing, painting, etc.

At 93,000 tons it is not small, but felt smaller than some significantly smaller ships we’ve been on. The pool area is one thing that feels a bit tight for the size. Like most ships there are not enough deck chairs…especially when you figure in all the extra kids and teens. Also the adult-only hot tubs still were filled with kids a lot of the time, but this was fairly minor as the days heading to Florida and back to NY in the winter were to cold to swim and the days in the warmth were in ports. During the summer this might be more of an issue…but again not more than any other ship IMHO.

Boarding in NY: We drove and parked at the terminal. No issues whatsoever. The only thing is keep in mind there are no porters in the parking lot so you need to take your own bags from the car to the manned elevator. Once there there are porters waiting downstairs to check your baggage through. Once you enter the building and are directed to a line speak up if you are in a suite. We didn’t assuming the NCL guide there saw our e-tickets and ended up in a long 30 minute line only to find out we could have bi-passed this for the priority lounge with it’s buffet and concierge to take care of your boarding passes for you..ugh. However, we met a nice family by waiting and hung out with them on the ship a bit..so not a huge deal.

Suite vs. mini-suite: We originally booked a mini-suite for my wife and I and our two kids (8 1/2 & 2 1/2). The mini-suite is a slightly larger balcony stateroom..that’s all. No suite amenities whatsoever. We decided to upgrade after hearing how nice the suites are on the NCL ships. If the extra cost is a factor the mini suites looked very nice and many families were happy with them, however, take money out of the equation and the suites are a must have. We have never had a suite before, but the experience was so far beyond what we expected we would only do suites on NCL (and possibly other ships) again.

We had the 2-bedroom family suite #11512 (not the villa). It is basically the same as the Penthouse suite but with a second bedroom. The main bedroom is a beautiful curtained-off area with a real queen sized bed (not too beds pushed together) with pillow-top and better pillows and higher thread count sheets than regular cabins. The second bedroom is small but has a full sized bed and a pull down single bunk, so 3 could squeeze in there. There is a full bath as well. Then there is the main bathroom off the master bedroom. OHHHhhhh the bathroom. Two sinks, a full sized tub with picture window and TV and a shower with a full length picture window overlooking the ocean (or the port…thus a shade is included). The shower is one of those with a rain shower head and multiple heads spraying water from everywhere. ..AMAZING! throw in the virtually unlimited hot water supply and it was the best shower I ever had. How many times have you heard that about a cruise ship shower?

Then there is a living room with a large flat screen TV. Now about the TV…the channel selection sucks and there are no dedicated children’s stations which is odd since they cater to families a lot. There are DVD players hooked up to the TV in the LR and main bedroom, but as opposed to some comments there are NO DVD’s available on ship for suites or otherwise. They got rid of that service. So bring your own. I have no idea about DVD players in non-suites..so ask.

There is a pull out sofa, so technically you could fit one or two more people. Our room had a connecting door to a mini-suite so keep that in mind if you have a lot of people. Those in the mini-suite technically don’t get suite amenities, but who says they can’t share…wink, wink.

Next to the LR is a small dining area with a nice table for 4. There is a minibar which is not complimentary, but we used it as a fridge. There is also a nice selection of wine glasses and tools for mixing drinks should you want to. The thing that really went over the top is the espresso machine. Let’s just say we may be buying one for home. No charge to use this and they supply all the espresso cartridges you need. Just pop in the cartridge hit the button and perfect espresso comes out. You can easily steam milk for a cappuccino and it worked flawlessly everytime.

A huge room by cruise ship standards and tons of storage. 2 safes as well for storing electronics, jewelry, etc.

Butler and Concierge: OK we heard a lot of comments about the butler packing and unpacking for you. Our butler never offered nor did we expect him to unpack for us. The Butler is there as a personal room service attendant..that’s all! When you call for room service, instead of going to the main line your butler answers and takes care of everything. You also get a better room service menu and he can arrange for in room dining with white tablecloth, wine and a full offering from the dining room menu. We didn’t do it but got the feeling we could have a special dinner from the specialty restaurants brought to our room as well. We did 2 full meals in the room and we had cheese and crackers, canapés or cookies waiting most afternoons for us. There is also a bottle of sparkling wine and water waiting for you compliments of NCL when you first arrive. Of course you can request almost anything you want.

The Concierge takes care of all reservations for shore excursions and dinner. He also has reserved areas for suite guests at shows and arranges for priority disembarkation at ports.

Suite guests get to have every breakfast and lunch at Cagneys if they wish. And what a meal they do there! The food is great and it is never crowded. You even get that upon check-in so you avoid the masses at the buffet upon boarding.

Staff and rudeness: We heard a lot of negative comments about indifferent staff and rudeness. Not once did we see this. All the staff was outgoing and friendly…even those just doing maintenance or serving food in the regular dining rooms. The only issue is that since a lot of the staff are Philipino or Indonesian there was a slight language barrier when it came to subtleties of the English language. For example trying to have a conversation with the bartender beyond ordering a drink was difficult. He was very nice but the answers I got didn’t necessarily match what I asked.

Tipping policy: Alot of confusion over this. Here’s the deal. You are charged $12 pp per day for all those over 3years old in the cabin. This covers all staff including the cabin steward. The Butler and concierge is not covered. So tip them. This is what we did. $100 for the concierge. He made some excursion and dinner reservations for us. This might be high, but you can use it as a basis. Personally $50-$75 might have been enough, but we tend to tip more normally. The Butler does most of the physical work. We had him make sure we had milk stocked everyday for our daughter as well as the in-cabin dinners and other specialties like appetizers. We gave him $150. I think anywhere from $75-$150 is good depending how you use him. Obviously a bit more if you have a party and he goes out of his way for you.

We did give the cabin steward and extra $40 for supplying us with some extras and doing extra cleaning we requested. Also we felt that he got paid the same gratuity for us as he did for a smaller stateroom, but that is completely up to you. We also gave $20 to the hostess at Cagneys as she always sat us and the first day we got there before she even knew we were suite passengers we asked her if there was someplace to get a diaper as we forgot to take an extra out of the suitcase before they were delivered to the staterooms. She left us and came back 2 minutes later with a diaper for us. Now that is service!

Upsell culture: We heard a lot about this. Honestly we didn’t see it here anymore than other ships and in some cases less. There were art auctions, photos, and the specialty restaurants, but easily skipped over. Bingo costs money, renting floats at NCL’s private beach costs money. They did try to upsell to a double on the hard alcohol at the bars. Prices for bar items were high, but in line with NY prices.

Food: Especially since the boat was so packed I wasn’t expecting too much, but was pleasantly surprised. The main dining room food was quite good, the beforementioned Cagney’s meals were great and even the main buffet had a really good selection and was excellent. There is even a great little kids area with Dora and Blues Clues playing if you have trouble getting them to sit and eat.

Laundry: There is no self service laundry onboard. If they did have it they got rid of it a few years ago. They do have a service where for around $24 you can put as much laundry into a provided bag and they return it to you 2 days later. Kind of a waste of time and money since you don’t need laundry normally until towards the end of the cruise and it takes 2 days. But hey, it’s there if you want it.

Ports: Port Canaveral – about 1hr from Disney so keep this in mind. You will get around 5hrs at the park which is not a lot and left little time for rides which can have 30-45 min waits easily. If you do fastpass some rides had you come back when the bus was leaving so that didn’t work. Still a nice quick trip for the kids. Great Stirrup Cay – We heard a lot about construction at the private island. Yes it is being built into something grand I think, but contrary to many comments you don’t hear much of the construction as the beach is situated a short distance away and they have lots of live music going. The construction in no way affects the beach area but doesn’t make for a beautiful entrance to the island. The BBQ on the island I thought was excellent. Typical burgers, but also ribs & chicken and lots of salads and fruit. Nassau – Lots of excursion options. We went to Atlantis. Nice place, cool aquarium but not a place I would want to stay likely.

Disembarkation: This is where the having the suite really paid off. We live 30 minutes from the terminal and went from our suite to our sofa at home in 1.25hrs. There is a choice to either carry off your own bags at 8AM or have your bags packed and outside the cabin by midnight the night before and then leaving at 8:45AM. We had the bags outside since we had a lot of stuff. Suite passengers can skip the “wait till your color is called” mess and just leave from a separate area when they are ready. Then a short suite-only customs line and a porters took all our bags up to our car and helped pack them in. Overall the best disembarkation procedure I have ever had on a cruise ship. Takes the stress out of the saddest part of the trip.

What we didn’t like: Only a few things bugged us. The spa charges a fee to use the loungers and whirpool and this is done as a pass for the week. That’s fine and expected, but they hiked the price to $120pp for the week because it is a holiday week. I think it is normally around $99. Come on..really? The cigar bar is a bit disappointing. It’s just a small room with seats and an air cleaner. Someone rarely comes in for drink orders so you have to go find a bartender outside. They do sell cigars but not sure who to buy from as there is no attendant. Royal Carribean had a great lounge with an attendant who served drinks, sold Cuban cigars and prepped your cigar for you. Not a big deal and I didn’t spend a lot of time there, but was hoping for something a bit nicer.

We would do NCL out of NY again in a heartbeat and definitely in a suite. Hopefully this answers many of the questions that are out there.

[buzzandjulie]

We will be sailing on her next week. Any thoughts are specialty resturants

[Carnac767]

Thanks for the review. We love the AB Penthouse. That shower in the main bathroom rocks. I noticed when we were on Gem that there wasn't a children's TV channel but Jewel had one. We also could still get DVDs on Jewel, but that was two months ago.

[RareBird]

Great review. We are in 11512 in Sept to Bermuda. Can't wait to experience the suite and perks. Thanks for heads up on DVDs, I'll pack a bunch. There is only 2 of us in the suite so I'm sure we will do fine. Quick Q: was there a glass window between the balcony and bathtub? How was the tub, did you use it?

 

Please post pictures!!

[rikatine]

Enjoyed your review, thanks for posting.

[Carnac767]

The bathtub in the AB does have a narrow glass window between one end of the tub and the balcony.

[sunflowergirl66]

Hi BuzzandJulie,

Regarding the specialty restaurants....my husband and daughter went to Teppanyaki and really enjoyed it. We realy wanted to go to Le Bistro and Cagney's for dinner, however....our daughters would not go into the kids club for the entire cruise so we were out of luck....oh well....I have heard that Le bistro is fabulous and the one to go to!!!!!

[sunflowergirl66]

Hi Rarebird....My husband used the tub and really enjoyed it..it's awesome to overlook the ocean and watch tv while taking a bath....I loooove the shower.....

[sunflowergirl66]

Hi again Rarebird,

Regarding the balcony and bathtub, there is a solid wall on the bathtub side of the balcony....there is no balcony outside of the bathtub/bathroom area..

[sunflowergirl66]

If you're in a suite and have breakfast at Cagney's.....the crabcake benedict is to die for....even my 8 yr old had it a few times!!!!

[Journey11]

Thanks for taking the time to post your detailed and informative review.

[Carnac767]

Hi again Rarebird,

Regarding the balcony and bathtub, there is a solid wall on the bathtub side of the balcony....there is no balcony outside of the bathtub/bathroom area..

 

That must be different on the Gem. The ABs on Jewel have two windows by the bathtub. The tub is parallel to the side of the ship with a big picture window over it. If you're sitting in the tub with the bodacious shower at your back, you're staring at your balcony through another window.

[JohnGaltny]

Thanks for the review from a neighbor (we're in Cortlandt Manor).

 

We're trying out NCL on on the Gem in may (but with the poor people - LOL). I'm glad the Gem seems a good ship.

[Suesan Jean]

If you're in a suite and have breakfast at Cagney's.....the crabcake benedict is to die for....even my 8 yr old had it a few times!!!!

 

I enjoyed your review very much!!!

I am so glad that you had a great cruise on the Gem!!:)

The AB's are FANTASTIC aren't they?!

Back in 2005 on our very first NCL cruise, I had booked a Mini-Suite then after reading all the glowing reviews on the AB's, I just HAD TOO switch!!!

From the moment we walked in the door of our first AB, that was it, we were HOOKED!!! EVERYTHING about an AB is PERFECT!!! The extra bedroom, the extra bathroom, the Master Bath!!! Seriously, you can't get much better then that gorgeous bathroom!!!

After that first cruise we have only been in Suites, AB's always on the Dawn. We will be in an AB on the Gem in May, it will be YOUR cabin!!! :) Do you have any pictures to share?

I have a question about the DVD player in the cabin. Is there a DVD player in the cabin and can you still request DVD's from the Butler from the DVD Library on the Gem?

Thank you for your reply.

 

We are neighbors! :)

[Pendragoncruising]

We would do NCL out of NY again in a heartbeat and definitely in a suite. Hopefully this answers many of the questions that are out there.

 

We were on the Jewel out of NYC last June, it's good to hear that the Gem is in line with our experisnce on the Jewel since I'm in the process of booking the Gem for early Sept, they seem to have changed the room catagories, we were in an AE penthouse Suite rear facing last year, that seems to be a mini suite now, so we'll prob go up to an SF (cant not have Cagneys for breakfast :)

[Suesan Jean]

We would do NCL out of NY again in a heartbeat and definitely in a suite. Hopefully this answers many of the questions that are out there.

 

We were on the Jewel out of NYC last June, it's good to hear that the Gem is in line with our experisnce on the Jewel since I'm in the process of booking the Gem for early Sept, they seem to have changed the room catagories, we were in an AE penthouse Suite rear facing last year, that seems to be a mini suite now, so we'll prob go up to an SF (cant not have Cagneys for breakfast :)

 

I have to get used to the new category numbers. An AB is now an SC. I guess things had to change with the newer ships that have the Courtyard Villas.

I will probably always call it an AB though. After six times in an AB, it will be hard to say "SC". ;)

[Carnac767]

The AB does have a DVD player. On Jewel it's connected to the flat screen in the master bedroom. Two months ago you could still get DVDs from the Butler but I've read some posts recently that said DVDs were no longer available.

[Suesan Jean]

The AB does have a DVD player. On Jewel it's connected to the flat screen in the master bedroom. Two months ago you could still get DVDs from the Butler but I've read some posts recently that said DVDs were no longer available.

 

Bummer......:(

I guess we will have to bring a few from home.

I wonder why they stopped the DVD Library?

We enjoyed it.

[sunflowergirl66]

There were 2 dvd players in our room....one in the master bedroom and one by the cappuccino machine (which I guess was hooked up to the tv in the living room)...Trying to post some pics now....

[materese]

Thank you for the detailed review. It was very helpful-sailing on the Gem w/ family in mini suite on 4/16. Can't wait!

[sunflowergirl66]

entering the cabin and kids bedroom...

[sunflowergirl66]

trying to post more pics but not working right now...will try again later....

[sunflowergirl66]

master bedroom and the most awesome bathroom.....(sorry the picture is sideways--couldn't flip it...

[sunflowergirl66]

closeup of the most awesome bathtub!!!!

[Suesan Jean]

 

Thank You SO MUCH for the pictures!!!

I LOVE THE COLOURS, they are MY FAVORITES!!!

I am REALLY looking forward to our cruise now!!! :D :D