Our Thanksgiving on the Gem - long review

[cruiserjt]

Thanksgiving Cruise on NCL GEM - please excuse any typos

First – we are a family of four – and older Mom and Dad (50’s) with 8 year old twin DDs. We have cruised as a couple twice on NCL Dawn and as a family on Celebrity in 2010 and both the Carnival Legend (2010) and the Miracle (May 2012). We were cruising with 2900 other passengers – approximately 600 kids. Pretty crowded.

Embarkation: We traveled from NH to Boston and on the bus to NYC arriving at 11:40AM. Having done this before – we walked right out to our cab and straight to the pier. Unbelievably easy and cheap! Short line through security and then our first Platinum advantage – (DH acquired platinum status during first life!). We were sent off to a separate line and checked in – boarding group #3. They were just beginning to board when we finished checking in and we waited. Some computer problem on board, it was a little painful and VERY slow. I really felt sorry for the large groups waiting. I assume things were eventually straightened out. But it was tough having suite guests escorted straight through – must have been worse for the hundreds of guests behind us.

Straight to the MDR for lunch. Seated by the back window and enjoyed a nice lunch of burgers, soup and club sandwiches. Then to kids club for sign up and to check out the room. We went to Spinnaker for sail away – we love this part of the ship. We were delayed about an hour and our departure was timed with the NY sunset. Pretty nice. No sail away music in Spinnaker – just outside – but it was too cold so we missed “Proud to be an American” by Lee *********.

Ship – layout was a little awkward in places. – The single door leading to the pool from the buffet, kids club, and midship elevators was usually very crowded. Other ships let you out on both sides so this felt tight. Casino on deck 6 – very easy to avoid and having only walked through once – I was relieved that DH and I agreed to save our $$ and avoid the VERY smoky atmosphere. Generally easy to navigate but a little tough to find a quiet space. The library and card rooms were full on sea days. We enjoyed the Atrium and Magnums spaces.

Itinerary – San Juan – late arrival with rain showers looming, Nothing scheduled and we decided to stay on board. We were hoping to go for a walk and see the ship lit up at night, but with the time change it didn’t work out. It was nice to have the ship to ourselves.

St. Martin – Bernard (tours) made this a great stop, Beach tour was fun and informative. We enjoyed Orient Beach and our time there. Warm water, nice waves a $5 chair with a free drink. Clothing optional was not too exciting – a couple of scary speedos but that is about it.

St. Thomas – very expensive ship excursion to snorkel. Three tours there and it was crowded. My DD needed larger fins and the young man said hers were fine, I asked again and he said the bigger ones will fall off. (My DD is a twin and her sister had the larger size). We got them on her feet but they began to cut the top of her foot as we snorkeled. After about 15 minutes we came back to change them and they said there was no more time. Kind of disappointing. They really enjoyed the excursion last May and this was not so great. We didn’t dock at Havensight and were pretty limited in the shopping when we returned. Didn’t really need a T-shirt anyway!

Samana – other than tours with Terry – is there anything worthwhile to do here? It was our ship day. Cayo was discounted quite a bit – but having been there before – it still didn’t seem worth it for four people. $60 to just get to the beach…. Nice day on the ship except the family pool was closed (a poopy problem!)

Food: Enjoyed dining room – service was definitely hit or miss. Thanksgiving dinner was done VERY well, real turkey, nothing overdone and it tasted excellent. Anytime dining is usually fine for us. We quickly learned that with so many families and large groups – we needed to eat early or would have to wait. By 6PM – there was usually a 30-40 minute wait, so we dined at 5PM. Skipped lunch and had a nice early dinner. Late night snacks were plentiful so this worked. I was surprised as to the number of reservations they held in the MDR – party of 34!! Many of these large groups came in at 6PM so we learned quickly to go early. The quality of food was barely okay – I would say about 50% of the meals were as good as a local restaurant chain. My DH had ordered rib eye steak with the lobster on the first evening. He orders meat rare and was served the most hideous, dry piece of beef we both had seen. Now we are not big foodies but enjoy good food. The server did not return to the table during the meal so no option of sending back. Kind of left a bad first impression. But that was the worst of it. Generally – the food was acceptable. (Carnival and Celebrity were definitely better) We ate at Teppanyaki which was very good – excellent filet and shrimp. Their dessert choices are just awful – reminded myself to choose off menu next time. DH and I enjoyed a great meal at LeBistro (platinum perk) EXCELLENT and quiet.

Kids Club – Okay, DDs are very experienced in organized children’s activities, day care and after school programs since they were born etc. I think they are probably too fussy. The age group was 6-9 – we thought it was 7-9 and there were several 5 almost six year olds in the club. The age differences were noticeable as they tried to organize games and projects. My girls turned 9 when we returned and didn’t always enjoy the younger ones in their group. VERY slow processes to check in and out. Kids only wear their bracelets when in the club – they are kept in a notebook page protector with their name – one night we waited almost 15 minutes to check in kids. Another night they went out on parade scheduled to be back at 9:15 and didn’t return until 9:30 (not able to sign out until 9:45) – the buffet closed and ice cream shut down. A little unfortunate as this was our favorite part of the night before bedtime! The girls certainly didn’t love the kids club but were willing to spend short times there to give DH and I some time to enjoy the ship. Over 600 kids – 160 registered 6-9 year olds and 150 registered 10-12s! Our next cruise will probably be based on age groups of the kids club. Starting to feel like I have real ‘tweens’.

Cabin – We knowingly booked an obstructed view oceanview room. We were in 8550 which is on the forward end of OV rooms. Yes, the lifeboat was in front of the room and we could see easily beyond it. However, my warning about these rooms is not the obstruction but the distance to the water and the lights from the promenade. These rooms are set back above the promenade. At night the lights from the promenade shine into the room. You could look out and watch people walk by – not much noise but I think an inside room would be just as good. Fluorescent lighting was bothersome. They also spent nearly a half a day doing repairs on the lifeboat in front of us – so we kept the curtain closed! I still had to get up and crawl over my DH to look out the window and see if it was daytime yet! The quad set up is cozy – we knew this in advance and actually made the best of it. Three across with a bunk above my head – not the best but absolutely would do again for the right cruise. Steward was Anthony and he was wonderful. Very efficient despite a very full assignment.

Pools and Hottubs – kids enjoyed it – on warm days it was crowded. I was able to snag a chair (not a recliner) and keep an eye on them while they tried the slide and pool. Salt water is a little tough when it gets splashed all over!! We tried the hot tub on the last night – temperature was extremely hot and we were unable to soak. During the day – it was kind of nasty with about 10 kids jumping in and out so we skipped it. Apparently in Samana, there was a “mishap” in the kid’s pool and it was closed. I really wish there were consequences for parents who allow non-potty trained kids in the pool. Few kids ventured into the adults only pool – there were some glares but no child was injured by swimming in that pool.

Entertainment – we missed most shows because of our choice to eat slowly and early. A couple of attempts to get in with the kids was didn’t work as seats were filled up. I sure wish people would sit next to each other instead of skipping a chair! We did see the 70’s disco show which was very good as well as the final show – I cannot believe how funny the Fountains skit was. Never have I laughed so hard!!! Overall, Sinan the Cruise Director was quite entertaining but not over the top. Few announcements every day only. They played movies in the Atrium during the day – a few odd choices for a cruise with so many families. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a good movie – just not for my 8 year old girls. Nintendo Wii was fun; Bowling was expensive and never went on sale. I had seen 2 for 1 specials on other Freestyle Dailies but not for this sailing on the Gem.

Debarkation – Well we were told we had priority tags and to meet in LeBistro which we did dutifully at 7:45. I believe half of the ship must do walk off. Next time we probably will. Because of problems in NYC terminal, we needed to debark on the 4th floor. By 9AM the walk off line was still in the photo studio. We thankfully were escorted off at that time. Luggage was easy to find and out we went to the Taxi stand and to the bus.

Bottom Line: NCL worked for us this time – but just barely – Kids preferred Carnival as did my DH. I think the Platinum perks added great value for our cruise but I think it would take a suite to make me go again.

Any questions or specifics – just ask. I do not have copies of the dailies – or kids club.and now realize that it doesn’t really matter if it is pirate night or castle building night. Same games – different theme. Music and some party everynight. One of our biggest problem was that we forgot a watch or clock. The phone was difficult to access in our room to see the time – there are very few clocks on board. We tried to not worry about time – but between kids club pick up schedules and activity schedules - we really missed our watches.

[mking8288]

Welcome home & thank you for sharing - don't worry about the Dailies - we scanned & posted ours from the prior week, unless there is something different or unique - folks do have something to reference & start their planning for upcoming Gem sailing to the East Caribbean.

 

When we sailed the Jewel in Feb. 2011, we had 500 children onboard just before winter break - with 1,000 boarding as we disembark, so it could've been even "wilder" with more running around - still, 600 is a lot for the ship - those poor crew members ...

 

I'm glad that someone else shared the highly (my) subjective opinion that MDR and buffet food on the Gem is just okay, edible but not good to great - it's mass quantity and not gourmet, fine dining - i.e. no more warm-water 1/2 lobster tails for us. Shrimps were cocktail sized and not jumbo, as expected. I ended up ordering Mahi Mahi twice over other specials in the MDR & the Prime Rib cut served was 25%+ in fat and not very appetizing as presented. I withheld those out of our review to not "sour" things up.

 

Agreed 100% about the lopsided layout of the public area, including the buffet (b/c of Kids Club & Italian Dining on port side) and atrium (internet cafe blocking access to the mid ship elevators) - find it interesting that the Spa is Ying & Yang, but yet for the rest of the ship - it isn't exactly balanced neutral or in harmony, creating crowds & making some of the function space more crowded than necessary - more foot traffic going thru the Photo Gallery to the MDR vs. the Art Gallery (typically an English Pub for the Dawn class of NCL ships in years past - before remodeling.)

 

Your info about Kids Club will be appreciated by one of our niece who's planning to take their soon to be 5 and 2 years old children to sail NCL in 2013. There're many Nick-themed events being promoted last year on the Jewel and it was listed on the Gem's Daily, but we hardly heard anything about it, let alone seeing it - the only time we saw Sponge Bob was briefly during the Stardust Theater Special Farewell by the Captain, officers, staff & crew - with a bit of song & dance on stage.

 

How was your Latitude reception and functions? Ours were pretty boring & self-catered as the senior leadership didn't stay that long & only made very short & brief remarks, aside from lining up near the entrance offering their generic greetings.

 

Our stop at St. Maarten was practically useless as it was a major/public holiday and nearly everything closed, so we did what we could w/o overpaying. St. Juan was a self-walking tour with stops at Starbucks & CVS for supplies, and St. Thomas was for gift items. Samana is the big what ... as everyone is scratching heads on what to/NOT do.

 

With electricity just restored last week, embarkation & disembarkation for us were equally challenging but it's mother nature & beyond NCL's direct control, so I credit them for doing the best & "A" for efforts to improvise - we had Priority Check-in and #3 Boarding Card with laptop terminals working, so it was a breeze - getting off the ship was slower than normal, but we're lucky for being on Deck 4 portside, knew the shortcut + Priority Disembarkation.

 

All in all, it was 9 days of no cooking, cleaning, washing & being pampered somewhat - so it was a value-added & good vacation for us, plus we had a crazy ride out of NY - did the Captain maintain his speed run records of 23+ knots over the waves?

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[jdvmd]

Thanks for sharing!

[mizLORInj]

Love the GEM!

So in St. Thomas--did you dock at Crown Bay? I guess if you did the Havensight docks were full of other ships. I thought only Princess/QM2/HA dock at Crown Bay. I prefer Havensight over Crown Bay too.

Thanks for sharing.

[Adian80]

Was the kids club closed from 12-2 or 5-7? There have been reports that on Epic that they closed the clubs during those times on the Thanksgiving sailing. Someone was told that those were going to be the new hours fleet wide. We are headed on the Star in a little over a week and were curios if we were going to have to shift some of our planning.

[Tiger55]

Nice review fellow Granite Staters! We must of been right next to each other in the MDR for lunch as we were by the back windows also, and we were boarding #5

 

Where did you take the bus out of? We took one out of Albany NY that put us right at the pier.

[cruiserjt]

The Kids Club did not close for lunch or dinner. I have to admit - I am glad. The whole concept of Freestyle is you can do whatever - whenever. I was already feeling scheduled and worrying about picking up and dropping off kids would have been tough. So hard to understand why someone would just leave their kids all day without worrying about feeding them...

 

We took the express bus from Boston to NYC - Port Authority to the pier was about $12 taxi ride. We took the bus from Concord (free parking) to Boston at 5AM and 7AM to NYC. Arrived 11:40AM. Long but tolerable.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to do a review of your cruise.

[mastmi]

Hi Tiger55, Another Granite Stater here! Can I ask you for details on the bus from Albany direct to the pier? We have family there, which might make that very convenient for us! Thanks in advance!

[Tiger55]

Hi Tiger55, Another Granite Stater here! Can I ask you for details on the bus from Albany direct to the pier? We have family there, which might make that very convenient for us! Thanks in advance!

 

Hiya fellow Granite Stater! Yes the bus company was Yankee Trails (called the Cruise Express). It leaves from the Rensselaer NY bus station. Plenty of free parking at the bus station. It was $80 per person round trip for adults. We arrived at the pier around 10am, and picked us up around 1030am when you disembark. Just take your time getting off the ship so you don't have to stand out in the cold like we did:eek: We were back at the bus station around 215pm!

 

Bus company was very professional, will book with them again when we sail out of NY or NJ. They also have a travel agency to book the cruise through to compare rates. I left my brand new iPhone in the seat pouch, and the driver found it, and the return bus driver had it in an envelope for me when we got on.

[mastmi]

Thanks for the details! I will check it out! :)

[efoote01]

Do they give u a beeper for the kids club so they can contact you if your child wants to be picked up?