Gem March 25th to April 1st.

[GMCOLT]

My wife and I sailed the gem on March 25th. We have cruised over ten times, most with NCL.

Here are some thoughts regarding this cruise.

Embarkation- fairly easy, well organized. We found the pier folks to be very freindly.

The Gem is well miantained, very clean with a proud and freindly crew. We always saw crew cleaning nearly 24/7 during the cruise.

The officers were very visible.

Thanks to Heidi, we had a very nice CC meet and greet. The ship's officers attended and we were given their phone numbers. Jenny, the Hotel Director is wonderful. She was very responsive to any issues brought up by guests as wittnessed by me.

I will not comment on food as this is very subjective. However, we enjoyed eating in all the venues. There is plenty of variety throughout.

At one dinner in Magenta our steak was tough ( things happen). Immediately corrected by staff. I could not ask for a more professional response to our concerns.

Service in the MDR was very good, minimal waiting.

Cabin service-excellent-we got some pretty cool towel animals during the week.

The private Island continues to expand, amazing improvement since my last visit in 2003. I was pleased to see the Norway's old tenders still in service at the island. We did a jet ski tour through the ship. This was an excellent tour, well run, very safety minded and professional.

At Nassau it was impressive to see NCL set up a tent with music and staff to greet us coming back. This stood out against the adjacent Disney vessel which had nothing to greet their folks.

The music offered was very good. There were plenty of activites. Many kids on board, who were well behaved. It was obvious the ship's Kids crew worked hard at keeping the kids involved and active.

There were even spring breakers on the cruise. We found most to be freindly and well mannered, just there to have fun without going crazy.

In summary-NCL offers a well balanced consistant vacation experience. We did not feel pressured to spend extra if we did not wish to.

Disembarkation is low key, easy and at one's own pace. Customs seemed to be a snag shoreside ( very slow). Nothing NCL can do about that.

[Frick_&_Frack]

Glad you had a great cruise Mike!

 

I still haven't had a chance to collect my thoughts (all of them good) on the cruise. :D

 

Hope to meet up with you on another cruise!!

 

All the best,

 

Heidi & Bob

[2Cruise4Ever]

Welcome home! One thing that continues to impress me is how NCL greets passengers as they are coming back on board in port. Last year on the Jewel, they had hand towels soaking in ice-water AND water to drink... it was a nice "Welcome Back" after being in the glaring heat all day...