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NCL Gem 3/18/2012 Sailing - day by day review (LONG)

cliffd64

By cliffd64,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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We've just returned from our cruise on the GEM. For those who like to skip to the back page, we had a great time! The ship and the crew were excellent!

 

Background: We are 40 somethings to 50 somethings, who are both platinum level with NCL. We were traveling with about 13 friends and a couple of kids.

 

DAY 1: EMBARKATION

 

The day started quite well, as we headed out to a diner in West Haven, Connecticut for a pre-cruise breakfast with some of our traveling companions. After a nice breakfast, we headed over to another of our cruise buddies' home and awaited our transportation to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. In this case, we all had chipped in for a party limo that could hold all of us and our luggage. We boarded at 9:00 and were on our way to the terminal, champagne in hand :)

 

Despite the traffic affected by the Half Marathon being held in Manhattan on 3/18, our alert driver got us right to the terminal with virtually no delays! We arrived at curbside at pier 88 by 11:00 AM.

 

Check-in was a breeze. Being this was our first time in a penthouse suite, we were directed to the appropriate line, processed quickly, and escorted to the VIP waiting room. Of our 15 people, six of us were in suites, and we were allowed to bring into the VIP room 2 more to keep families from being separated. In the VIP room we were greeted by the Assistant Concierge, and awaited the arrival of Florentina Popa, the concierge, who would give us our card keys and escort us personally to Cagney's for lunch. The Assistant Concierge was very nice, and informed us of certain special events like the Chef's Table Menu dinner... We decided we would definitely take him up on that offer later.

 

Florentina arrived at about 11:45 and efficiently distributed the card keys and began to escort us onto the ship and to Cagneys for lunch.

 

Cagneys lunch was delicious, and the huge shrimp cocktail was a big hit! We had the first of many relaxing meals in Cagneys, and then headed out to meet up with the rest of our gang and prepare for sailaway. Rooms weren't yet available, so we proceeded to get other first day business accomplished like getting our Casino At Sea registrations filled out, and showing some of the first timer's around the ship.

 

At 2 PM on the dot, rooms were ready, and we were able to see our rooms and unpack carry-ons. Luggage had not yet arrived in most cases. Aft Penthouse Cabin 9170 is the corner penthouse on the starboard side. It is a fantastic cabin for two. AFT cabins are great, with fantastic views and a bonus of being able to enjoy the aromas of breads baking below as well as they seem to vent the bakery from the back of the ship :) Bathroom is huge, a dressing area is very nice as well. Closet is accessible from either side, which is very convenient.

 

Muster drill was held in the Grand Pacific Dining Room for us... and it was relatively simple and straight forward and quick.

 

After the drill, we all gathered up on deck for Sail-Away. We were able to see the Statue of Liberty, but around the bridge, it was extremely foggy! It would stay foggy on and off for the next day or so... The sail-away barbeque was in full force, and we partied a bit before heading to get ready for dinner. Our luggage had arrived so we spent a few minutes unpacking.

 

All 15 of us managed to get reservations together in the Teppanyaki grill, so this would be a fun dinner! At 5:30 PM, picked up our CAS cards and proceeded back to our cabins before dinner.

 

We arrived at Orchid (for Teppanyaki) at 7:20 and we were immediately seated. As I said there were 15 of us and we were spread across two tables facing each other. This made for an enthusiastic audience for the Teppanyaki Chefs, so they gave us their best shows! We had an amazing dinner, and it was a great way to kick off the cruise! Food was excellent... I recommend the Land and Sea combo.

 

Finished the evening off with a little Karaoke in Bliss... good place for smaller events like that. After karaoke, headed down to the casino, which was unusually crowded for a first night.... Usually, people are exhausted after traveling to get to the cruise, but this time it was an active crowd. Might have had a bit to do with the larger number of Spring Breakers in the crowd, who by the way were very well behaved for the most part. Won a little bit on the black jack tables, met some great people and headed to Maltings for a nightcap. Maltings is a nice little bar, and not usually crowded, so its a good place to enjoy a drink during the evening. Eddie, the bartender there is very nice!

 

Second hand news: From some of the people in our group, the welcome aboard variety show was excellent.

 

All in all, the first day was excellent as we sailed towards Florida and the Bahamas!

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be4life182

be4life182

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Can't wait to read the rest! I know we had an amazing week, I am sure you did too.

 

My friend Travis sang at the first night Karaoke. CCR-Fortunate Son I believe. It had been a long day prior with several drinks so who knows.

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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DAY 2 - DAY AT SEA

 

Woke up at a reasonable time, seas were wonderfully smooth, but still foggy on and off most of the day. The bed in the penthouse suite 9170 is so very comfortable, you don't want to leave it! One of the nice features of the suite family of cabins is the great coffee/espresso machines... Once we figured out how to use it, we made ourselves a delicious cup of coffee and enjoyed our aft balcony before breakfast.

 

Another perk of suite passengers, and one that cannot be overstated, is being allowed to have breakfast in Cagney's. Not only is the menu good, and the food delicious, but the service and quiet atmosphere really makes it relaxing. No more stress of the buffet or the slower morning service of the main dining room. Today I tried the Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict... and it was fabulous. My wife put together her normal breakfast fare and really enjoyed that as well. The buffet section contains lots of items as well. fruits, pastries, cheeses, meats, salmon etc... very very nice. This was our only breakfast spot of the whole cruise... no need for us to look any further.

 

There was a full line up of events available for a sea day, and the only pre-scheduled events we had committed to were the latitudes party at 4:30 PM and the VIP Captains Party at 7:00 PM in The Haven. We decided to begin our day with Morning Trivia down in Magnums Champagne Bar. Always fun, trivia on NCL is a place to meet other interesting people and crew members. Our Australian crew member Jillian did not disappoint and gave us a challenging general trivia. Our team ended up with the winning score of only 13 out of 20.

 

Next up, we decided to try something we hadn't done in a long time, and we actually went to bingo. Hadn't played bingo since years ago on the Dream... back when they used to use those wonderful machines that could keep track of 120 cards at a time automatically... Apparently the machines are a thing of the past now, so its back to paper bingo. Thankfully, the largest package you could buy at this time only had 9 grids per game to keep track of, which was still difficult with the speed they call the numbers at. You also get a certain number of free pull tabs with your package, which for me usually does nothing for me. This time however, my wife opened them and found a winner for $500... Looks like Bingo was a good idea :)

 

After Bingo was over, we had lunch again in Cagney's. The shrimp cocktail really is good... Nice relaxing atmosphere and engaging staff in Cagney's. The concierge can also be found there at most times in the morning or early afternoon.

 

Next up ... a few hours by the pool. Gem has a nice waterslide. At first glance, for adults, it might seem like its a bit slow.... But given the proper technique, it can be quite fast. That being said, there are a couple of tables that are set up on the pool deck right at the end of the slide... If you look at them you will always see they are covered in water from the slide exit, yet for some stupid reason, people seem to always want to sit there and are shocked when they get soaked twenty seconds later. It was very amusing to watch people approach the table... towel it off to make it dry, and then leave a minute later wet and disgruntled. The crew member with a squeegee standing by should have clued them in. Here's a tip for the Gem... The pool deck surface is EXTREMELY slippery when wet in bare feet... Be careful or get a cheap pair of water shoes to wear while on deck. We saw two serious falls resulting in trips to the Infirmary. Due to the cloudy/foggy conditions on and off... we were all able to get seats poolside with no problem. This would not be the case on the way back :)

 

Later it was back to the cabin where we finally met our butler Teguh, and chatted with him for a while. We got dressed and proceeded to our first cocktail party of the day/night, in Spinnakers. Typical latitudes party really, raffles and such... and we couldn't stay long anyway as we all had reservations for an early dinner in The Grand Pacific that night together.

 

Dinner in The Grand Pacific was quite nice. There were 8 of us, and we had one large table. The MDR menus are organized with nightly items on the left, and always available items on the right... Some passengers we met seemed to be confused by this. in addition to the nightly specials, there was also a chef's specialty added for each night. On this particular night it was a spicy Red Snapper dish... and it was delicious. The dessert I had was a Kahlua Tiramisu... and it was so good I could have had 8 of them if I had ordered them. Fortunately I had only ordered 1 :) Service was excellent.

 

Next up was the Captains VIP party in the Haven. Quite a nice affair, and I had an interesting chat with several of the officers.

 

More Karaoke tonight, followed by more casino and more winning at blackjack, and closing the evening off at Maltings. Note: The casino now has these electronic signs announcing (sometimes) the table limits... Problem is, sometimes you have to wait for a minute as it contains advertisements you need to wait through until it tells you the table limit. Not sure I liked them. It was simpler before.

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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DAY 3 - PORT CANAVERAL

 

Woke up on this day to a gorgeous sunrise... and another fabulous breakfast in Cagney's. We had Florentina book us 4 spots for dinner at Le Bistro. These were our platinum perk dinners. We decided to take our first time cruiser friends to Le Bistro with us and enjoy a couple bottles of wine and a great meal.

 

But first, we had a morning to prepare to sail into Port Canaveral. Our plans for the day were to get off the ship and meet up with my youngest daughter who attends F.I.T. in Melbourne, about a half hour south of Cocoa Beach. We hadn't seen her since her winter break around the holidays.

 

Due to our VIP suite status, we met Florentina and all the other VIP and suite passengers in the Orchid Restaurant at 11:45 AM and we were promptly escorted off the ship via a crew stairway. No crowds at all getting off. We did save one family from making the mistake of trying to take off fruit in Port Canaveral. They are very serious about that in Canaveral, and this family was loading up a backpack of apples and bananas to take off the ship... Definitely not allowed. Up to a fine of $50,000 if you disregard the signs.

 

The Radisson runs a shuttle from the pier to Cocoa Beach for $3 one way, $6 round trip! It's very affordable and it runs every half hour. Once my daughter arrived, we hopped a shuttle to Cocoa Beach and had a great lunch at The Sand Bar in Cocoa Beach. Great place recommended by locals. Try the fish tacos... they are excellent.

 

Took the shuttle back to the pier and said good bye to DD, and went back on the ship. Enjoyed a few more hours at the pool and slide before people returned from their excursions. On thing about the pool: I missed having a live band out there for large amounts of time. Instead they had a DJ out there, but it wasn't the same as a live band. Band hours by pool were extremely limited.

 

Dinner was in Le Bistro, and for the 27th time it was fantastic. Recommendations: get past the fact that they are snails and TRY the escargot! It is delicious! The mushroom soup in Le Bistro is to die for... I wish they sold it in the gift shop it is so good! The Beef Tenderloin(Filet Mignon) is always perfectly cooked! And don't forget about the Chocolate Fondue! Truly one of the best desserts ever...

 

Tonight after dinner activities for me included a trip to the casino, followed by my nightly gathering at Maltings. This time, we thought we would try out the Pizza Delivery for $5 ... so we had the bartender call in a Pizza order and we waited for it patiently. Must have been a busy night, but finally it arrived and we tipped our delivery guy, and tried the pizza! It was great, and as soon as we opened the box we attracted a crowd of interested onlookers wondering where/how we had received a pizza? I guess they need to work on advertising this a little better. I had an urge to order another on a subsequent night and to have it delivered to us in a specialty restaurant or the gym just for fun... but I surpressed it. ;)

 

Another great day done :)

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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One little note about Le Bistro during Spring Break weeks:

 

Apparently Le Bistro will not accept reservations earlier than 7:30 on any night at all during spring break cruises as the ship is so overbooked they use Le Bistro as an overflow for Magenta. Usually the first reservation is for 7:45 as a result. keep that in mind if cruising in March.

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Hopes4

Hopes4

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It was great, and as soon as we opened the box we attracted a crowd of interested onlookers wondering where/how we had received a pizza? I guess they need to work on advertising this a little better. I had an urge to order another on a subsequent night and to have it delivered to us in a specialty restaurant or the gym just for fun... but I surpressed it. ;)

 

Another great day done :)

 

LOL Love it!

Great review, thanks for posting and please finish. I love the Gem. :)

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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DAY 4 - GREAT STIRRUP CAY

 

Waking up on this day, it looks ominous weather wise... it's windy... really windy. If you've ever been turned away from Great Stirrup Cay, 90 percent of the time it's the wind that prevents tendering there. But... we are still heading towards GSC, so we'll just have to wait and see. It's of paramount importance to at least a few in our group as we are supposed to have a marriage vow renewal ceremony (with me officiating) for one couple on the island as it's their 10th anniversary! Our wonderful concierge Florentina has told us to meet in the Orchid restaurant again at 9:45 AM so we may head down to the first tender if we are called at all. It's early, so we go to Cagney's for breakfast.

 

All 15 of us eventually arrive and relax in Orchid while we wait to see if the tenders come out... Thankfully, we soon see a tender heading toward the ship. Soon afterward, we board the tender and head toward the island. While a little choppy, and still windy enough to cancel most GSC excursions, we are still going there after all! The ceremony will be on the island as planned!

 

Here's a tip for riding the tender.... if you're on the covered deck on the bottom, don't sit all the way to the front or sides unless you want a cold shower.

 

We finally arrive at the new tender dock, complete with man made sheltered lagoon, and leave the tender through the new entrance to the island. I must say they have certainly done a lot of work at GSC! So many improvements since I was last there.

 

First order of business is to get clamshells for the day... Being the first ones there this was easy. However, apparently they can be pre-ordered, so the first two rows were spoken for.

 

Having secured the clamshells, we now turned our attention to the vow renewal ceremony. The couple chose a spot that allowed us to see the Gem behind them in all their pictures, and we began the ceremony. It was a nice renewal ceremony complete with ring exchanges and sand ceremony... Very great way to start our day on the beach!

 

The only downside to the day was that the wind canceled jet skis, and parasailing, and the hippo slide.

 

We decided to return to the ship at about 3 PM, mainly because we wanted some pool time before dinner. We hung out by the pool, and then went to dress for dinner.

 

Apparently my wife had far too much fresh air and sunshine and was exhausted before dinner, so she opted to go to bed early. I went to dinner at Magenta, It was lobster night and i didn't want to miss it. As it turns out I was so glad I didn't. It was really good!

 

Next up for me was a show in the Spinnaker, BANDAOKE. The concept is like karaoke only you sing with the live band Ocean Vibe from England. I looked through the book they provided, and found a song we perform in our band back home, and filled out my slip and turned it in to the staff. I was selected to sing first, and I had picked "Mustang Sally". The band began the song, I started singing and it went very well! They played quite well, and it was a huge amount of fun! There was another lady who was genuinely fantastic as well! Turns out she is a backup singer for Alicia Keyes.

 

Best part of the show was, it reunited me with a crew member from NCL Spirit - Eddie Spaghetti from the cruise directors staff... He recognized my wife and I on sight. He also told me he wanted me to be in the International Crew Show he was hosting on the last sea day. I had to provide him with a list of songs that I knew and he would run them by the Gem Show Band to see which ones they would know. I gave him a list with 10 songs and he was good to go.

 

Later on... a little more casino, then bed! Another great day complete!

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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Forgot to mention this for the GSC evening: We attended the game show "55 to Stay Alive" which is a send off of "Minute To Win It"... It was quite fun, and one of our group was the champion :) It was held in the Spinnaker Lounge.

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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Day 5 - NASSAU

 

This day started out very strangely. We received an announcement that we would be arriving in Nassau very early so that divers could do "maintenance" on one of the rear azipods... We arrived in Nassau at about 6:15 AM. What had apparently occurred that enroute to Canaveral, the Gem had some sort of line foul one of the azipod props. Divers were brought onboard in Canaveral, but Nassau was the first place they could actually work on it. Basically the task was for them to spend all day grinding the line off the prop as best they could. We watched them from our balcony dive down with 12 inch grinding discs and return to the surface with the discs looking like 4 inch discs... It appeared to have worked as we didn't seem to notice any problems heading back.

 

We had breakfast in Cagney's, and then we were escorted off the ship into Nassau a bit earlier than expected :) We decided since nothing was really open yet we would hire a cab to take us on a tour of the island for a couple hours, so that everything would be open when we came back. The tour cost us 20 bucks a person and lasted about 2 hours. It was very informative, and included all the major points of interest and even Atlantis, The Queen's Staircase, the various forts, wealthy section of New Providence, middle class section and poor section (for contrast). It was a good trip and we tipped the driver well.

 

Once we returned downtown, we did some shopping at the straw market and downtown areas before heading back to the ship.

 

We spent the remaining time of the afternoon watching the divers from our balcony as they labored below...

 

When we arrived back at our cabin in the afternoon, we had a little surprise from our butler: Earlier in the week we had told Teguh that we really enjoyed the "Pretzel Rolls" usually found in the Garden Cafe, but we were having trouble finding them. We asked Teguh if he could find them for us and bring us a plate of them. As it turns out, two weeks previously, the pretzel rolls were removed form the operating menus on the Gem, so they weren't currently being made. Teguh had the baker make up batch especially for my wife and I and had delivered it to our room while we were on shore! Now THAT is going above and beyond!

 

We had special dinner reservations for the Chef's Table Menu this night, and we were supposed to be in Maltings at 5:45. We arrived at Maltings, and we were given a glass of champagne while we waited to be taken to a private section of Le Bistro where we would have the dinner. The Chef's Table Menu was a nine course meal complete with 5 paired wines. It was truly wonderful, and the 8 of us who took advantage of this great experience all had a fantastic time enjoying the food and each other's company. I heartily recommend anyone who wants a truly memorable experience to consider this event on your next NCL cruise.

 

Dinner was actually completed with an after dinner cocktail at the Java Cafe, and we ended the evening's festivities at about 9 PM, time enough for us to catch the Magician show. Despite technical difficulties with the video camera for close up magic, we enjoyed the magician/comedian. His name was Chip Romero.

 

After such a fabulous dinner and so much wine... we headed back to our cabin for the night.

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greeneggbert

greeneggbert

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Day 5 - NASSAU

 

This day started out very strangely. We received an announcement that we would be arriving in Nassau very early so that divers could do "maintenance" on one of the rear azipods...

 

When we arrived back at our cabin in the afternoon, we had a little surprise from our butler: Earlier in the week we had told Teguh that we really enjoyed the "Pretzel Rolls" usually found in the Garden Cafe, but we were having trouble finding them. We asked Teguh if he could find them for us and bring us a plate of them. As it turns out, two weeks previously, the pretzel rolls were removed form the operating menus on the Gem, so they weren't currently being made. Teguh had the baker make up batch especially for my wife and I and had delivered it to our room while we were on shore! Now THAT is going above and beyond!

 

 

 

.

 

I am soooo loving your daily reviews. They are great! When we were on the GEM in Feb. we were at Nassau for 24 hours due to them doing maintanine on the azipods. It was very interesting to see then diving down.

Mmmmmm the pretzel rolls. I introduced my husband to them and he was in love. I am sorry to hear that they took them off. I wonder why? I have tried to find a reciepe to create them here at home, but not finding anything that comes close to the ones that are NCL!

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david_sobe

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Thanks for the detailed review. Florentina was the concierge on the Epic in 2010. She had told us that Gem was her favorite ship and she was returning there. She was really cool to us and surprised she spoke Spanish (her husband is from the Dominican Republic)

Many on my cruise said she was the worst concierge they ever encountered. But Epic is hard to keep up with the gross amount of suites.

We found her nice without being overly fake. I think that is why people did not care for her so much. She is not "pretend" nice ;)

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cliffd64

cliffd64

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Thanks for the detailed review. Florentina was the concierge on the Epic in 2010. She had told us that Gem was her favorite ship and she was returning there. She was really cool to us and surprised she spoke Spanish (her husband is from the Dominican Republic)

Many on my cruise said she was the worst concierge they ever encountered. But Epic is hard to keep up with the gross amount of suites.

We found her nice without being overly fake. I think that is why people did not care for her so much. She is not "pretend" nice ;)

 

Maybe she is more relaxed on the Gem... she seemed quite capable and efficient and always greeted us when she saw us and even hugged us on the way off the ship... She was very good at her job in my opinion.

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