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BensonFan711's Personal Log - NCL Gem


BensonFan711
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When going on a cruise, the very first thing you should pack – before your swimsuit, cruise docs, or even passport – is your good attitude. Cruising is what you make of it, period. Will there be crew members you don’t think are giving 100%? Yes. Will there be food you don’t care for? Yes. Will the sun deck be crowded? Yes. Will there be people smoking? Yes. Will they be able to give you that absolutely magical upgrade on a full ship? No. Is your room going to be absolutely perfect? No.

 

Can you take all of these situations and find a way to put a positive spin on it? Absolutely!!

 

What better way to spend a birthday that walking onto a beautiful cruise ship destined to Florida and the Bahamas? Luckily for me, that’s exactly what I did on my birthday this year. After a long and exhausting train ride (Amtrak) from Boston to New York followed by a night on the hardest mattress in Manhattan (Skyline Hotel), moonieelf and I grabbed our bags and schlepped the few blocks from the hotel to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal to board the “beautiful Norwegian Gem.” I’ll digress for a minute to mention that it was never referred to as “the Norwegian Gem,” it was always “the beautiful Norwegian Gem.” Yes, the ship was beautiful, and yes, there is a certain magic abound when on a cruise, but it’s become something of a running joke in my house, several weeks after the fact. Back to the cruise…

 

Embarkation

The Manhattan Cruise Terminal is certainly bigger than the Boston Cruise Port, which I have also sailed out of. There was some chaos finding the porter, checking bags, and figuring out which floor where were supposed to be on. But, moonieelf and I are Bostonians. It takes more than a little Manhattan chaos to confuse us! We managed to get our bags check, and upstairs to security. We selected the earliest possible arrival time, thanks to our giddy inner 5-year-olds, so by 9:30am, we were ready to go. Security was a breeze, and we were through in 15 minutes or less. At that point, the line at security must have been building because the NCL folks were looking to move people through, and moonieelf and I found ourselves being checked in at the VIP desk (though it may have had something to do with the bright pink “Birthday Princess” sash on my chest).

 

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We were originally assigned Boarding Group 5, but instead, were bumped to Boarding Group 2, right after all of the guests with special needs. We spent about 2 hours already checked in waiting for the “all clear” from the ship, during which time we had a bagel with cream cheese and people watched. Of course the Reservations representative came out and the line started forming for all of those specialty restaurants. I personally don’t think they’re worth the extra expense, but they seem popular with other cruisers. That just means better tables in the MDR for me! Then I heard a female – very loudly – “6:00!? What am I going to do? I can’t wait until 6:00!” Now, she wasn’t actually at the Reservation area, but in line. I spotted her reading the “first day literature,” and realized that she must have been shocked that it can take up to 4 hours for your luggage to show up at your cabin. NCL posts this everywhere, and a million people on Cruise Critic have covered this. Travel tip #1: Do your homework! I honestly don’t know why folks don’t know this when they get to the pier. By 11:40, we were walking up the gangway, doing the “Hey Baby!” dance as we went. Yes, we’re those kind of nerds.

 

 

Day 1

First thing we did onboard was get moonieelf’s spending account set up (she really likes her cash and doesn’t really trust plastic). Two steps away was the shore excursion desk, and moonieelf wanted to sign up for the Stingray City shore excursion (more on that later) on GSC. Again, the sash came into play. Since she was doing the excursion, *she* was eligible for priority tender tickets, but the guy at the desk gave me a priority tender ticket, too. Since our staterooms weren’t ready, and the Atrium was turning into a bit of a funhouse, we went to the Grand Pacific for lunch.

 

 

Goodness! My fried chicken and fries tasted like the standard fare, but there was this orange chocolate mousse-thing that I had for dessert...if I could have fit my tongue in the glass, I would have licked it clean! I didn’t have high expectations for Embarkation lunch due to the insane madness it surely must take to turn the ship in a single morning by the crew. And yet, the do it every single voyage. Our room was ready after lunch, so we went to check it out.

 

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Ok, moonieelf and I are a little crazy. Actually, we’re a lot crazy. When we booked, we decided to play the “stateroom lottery,” and booked a guaranteed interior room. Yep, give me any room on the ship. I don’t care, as long as I have a bed and a shower. Stick me on Deck 5 under the casino or right under the Garden Café. Put me next to a bar or lounge. I’ll sleep through anything, and so will she. Lucky for us, we were assigned room 4583, which was midship on Deck 4. It was near the gangways, so things got interesting on port days, but at least we were near the action! My brother had ordered the Party Package as a gift, so the stateroom was decorated in birthday decorations and there was a cake waiting (birthday cake #1) Luggage came a few hours later, right on time. I still wonder what time the mystery lady in the terminal got her bag.

 

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Moonieelf and I decided it was high time to flex our keycards and cash in on our Ultimate Beverage Package. For you first timers reading this, NCL’s UBP covers all drinks up to $11, excluding bottled water, specialty coffees, and something else I can’t remember off the top of my head. Booze (from the bar) and soda (fountain only)? You’re good. Just don’t make the classic mistake of cracking into the mini-bar…that is NOT free! In the event that you find a beverage over $11 (which is hard), you get the $11 discount. Be warned: some ports charge a tax on alcohol served in port. On our cruise, we got charged in New York, but it was less than a dollar per drink, NBD. We had drinks at Bali Hai, and I enjoyed a cigarette onboard (moonieelf doesn’t smoke, but will happily sit with me).

 

 

We met up with some other Cruise Critic folks at 1:30 prior to sailing, and then we were off! Sailing out of Manhattan is just wonderful. You can see so many of the highlights as you sail down river towards the open sea. Empire State Building, Chrysler building, the new Freedom Tower, Ellis Island, and then practically on top of the Statue of Liberty herself. Now, I happen to be a Law & Order buff. The show’s studios (both the original and Special Victims Unit) are located in Chelsea Piers. Yep. ☺ Sailed right past it. Happy birthday to me!

 

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I stayed in the sun as long as my glow in the dark Irish skin would let me before we decided to go unpack and dress for dinner. Because it was my birthday – and ONLY because it was my birthday – we decided to splurge and had reservations at Cagney’s, and this is where it get a little disappointing.

 

Cagney’s

 

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I started off my dinner with a Speakeasy Martini, which was…ok. I don’t think I would order one again, but I’m glad I got to try it. I had the 14 oz. strip steak, baked potato soup, gratin potatoes, and onion rings. For dessert, I selected the Oreo cheesecake, so I was rather surprised when there was birthday cake, involved, too (birthday cake #2)! The food was great, and the staff was friendly and nice as could be. Perhaps this was my own fault, but I didn’t realize that dining in a specialty restaurant can take far longer than in the MDR.

 

We made a reservation for 5:30, hoping to catch the welcome aboard show in the Stardust at 7:00. I love that show because they do a snippet of all of the acts onboard, making deciding what to see much easier. Well, 7:00 rolled around and we were still stuck in Cagney’s. We finally made it at 7:30 (even with having them bag our dessert), but that show was the one thing I wanted to see or do that day. And, unlike every other night, they only do it once, so there was no 9:00 one to catch instead. If I had to do it again, I’d probably have done Cagney’s a different night. To make matters worse, by the time I got to my cheesecake around midnight (after a dip in the hot tub and a run at the lounges), the Oreo was soggy and the cake itself had started to develop a weird texture. Too bad…I’m sure it was delicious when it was fresh.

 

Good thing I packed my positive attitude. Ok, show experience was ruined, and the cheesecake was bad, but I got a fantastic night’s sleep, and there was a huge smile on my face all night long!!

 

Day 2, coming soon...

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At that point, the line at security must have been building because the NCL folks were looking to move people through, and moonieelf and I found ourselves being checked in at the VIP desk (though it may have had something to do with the bright pink “Birthday Princess” sash on my chest).

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I thought it was because you and Moonieelf were probably more calm and rational than the other passengers - but the sash probably did the trick too. :D

 

Celebrating birthdays on a cruise ship are awesome - About to do it twice again this year and next.:p Birthday trips & cruise trips is what you make of it - if you come in with a crummy attitude and boulder-size chip on your shoulder before going, don't expect the trip to make it any better. But if you come in knowing that not everything is not going to go according to plan but that doesn't mean that entire trip is going to completely awful but actually wonderful and/or great - that's a great way to start and continue your trip. :)

 

You have to finish your review - that trip sounded like it was mostly awesome trip with some bumps / letdowns in the road. :) (But then again don't all trips have some letdowns in otherwise what would be perfect trips? I suppose its how one lets those downsides ruin it completely, is the difference between a good trip and a bad one.)

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BensonFan711

 

Thanks for sharing your vacation log. We don't often cruise NCL, so your info on Gem will be helpful for our Dec sailing.

 

You noted that your early Cagney dinner wasn't over before the Welcome Aboard Show. Do you remember what time that evening show ended? Based on your experience, how early of a reservation do you feel we could make if we left the show immediately after it was over?

 

Looking forward to reading about all your adventures!

 

Marge

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BensonFan711

 

Thanks for sharing your vacation log. We don't often cruise NCL, so your info on Gem will be helpful for our Dec sailing.

 

You noted that your early Cagney dinner wasn't over before the Welcome Aboard Show. Do you remember what time that evening show ended? Based on your experience, how early of a reservation do you feel we could make if we left the show immediately after it was over?

 

Looking forward to reading about all your adventures!

 

Marge

 

If I could go back and do that night over again, I would have gone to the MDR or O'Sheehan's for a light something around 5:30 or so, and then gone to the show. The show was over around 8:00, if I recall correctly. If you do an 8:30 reservation at Cagney's, you should be fine....although, if you're like me you will want to eat before then!

 

The Garden Cafe or the Great Outdoors, both up on Deck 13 (I think....whatever the pool deck is) would also be good options to grab a bite before the show, if you like the buffet thing.

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If I could go back and do that night over again, I would have gone to the MDR or O'Sheehan's for a light something around 5:30 or so, and then gone to the show. The show was over around 8:00, if I recall correctly. If you do an 8:30 reservation at Cagney's, you should be fine....although, if you're like me you will want to eat before then!

 

The Garden Cafe or the Great Outdoors, both up on Deck 13 (I think....whatever the pool deck is) would also be good options to grab a bite before the show, if you like the buffet thing.

 

Thanks for the quick reply and suggestions. MY DH is the ultimate snacker, so he'll love the idea of a pre-show nibble!

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Day 2

 

Moonieelf and I were both up early. I know, I know...vacation is a time to sleep in, but we both like to make the most of what we have, so at 8:00 we were up. Being in an interior room was a little disorienting, as it's ALWAYS dark. However, I flipped the TV to the bow cam, and my body quickly caught up to the hour. We decided to head to Grand Pacific for breakfast, where I had coffee and a waffle. Food was ok, again, not a meal to brag about, but it tasted just fine.

 

I'd like to take a minute to discuss dining options. Moonieelf and I are not buffet people. I'm a picky eater with a small appetite, so I find buffets overwhelming and wind up with nothing on my plate. Plus, they always seem to be so crowded. So, you will not find reviews of the Garden Cafe or the Great Outdoors here, but many other Gem cruisers prefer these venues, and I'm sure there are reviews for those places.

 

We decided on an easy morning, so after breakfast, we went back up to Bali Hai, which quickly became one of our favorite places on the ship. There, I could smoke a cigarette, journal, and enjoy a cocktail. For the non-smokers reading this, Bali Hai was really the only bar you could smoke in - and there were PLENTY of bars.

 

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Travel tip #2: for smokers AND non-smokers, read the smoking policy for the ship before you book. Decide if it's something you can live with. People are going to smoke, but the cruise lines do a fantastic job of enforcing smoking areas and there are plenty of non-smoking venues as well.

 

At 11:00, we had our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet where we were able to meet and get contact information for the officers onboard. This came in handy later on! Immediately following that, we did the slot pull another CC'er had set up. When all was said and done, the players only lost $7 out of the $20 they paid to play....not too shabby!

 

We went to O'Sheehan's for lunch and had the fish and chips. On my last cruise (NCL Dawn), getting an order right at the Blue Lagoon was practically impossible, and forget about getting anything that was hot. It was so bad, my friends and I avoided it for most of the cruise, so I was reluctant to try another 24 hour, comfort food type establishment on an NCL ship. But, given the limited options for lunch, it was worth a shot.

 

Thank goodness I decided to give them a second chance! The fish was crispy and flaky, and the fries tasted like they had just been pulled from the fryer. This experience was the complete opposite of what we experienced on the Dawn....so much so, that we ate at O'Sheehan's several more times during the week.

 

After lunch, we went to the Latitudes cocktail party, attended by the officers again. Captain Lars was a hoot, and Moonieelf and I won a bottle of champagne in the raffle. We weren't really sure what to do with it; with the UBP, we could have champagne any time we wanted, so a bottle wasn't really a perk for us. Still, winning something in a raffle was cool!!

 

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Then we made what would be our one and only trip to the pool deck. Ok, this is NCL: the pools are small and the deck chairs get claimed pretty early in the morning. Is it crowded? Yep. Should you know that going in? Absolutely. Think about it...2,000+ passengers, one tiny little pool (not counting the little kids area), and everyone wants to sunbathe. It will be crowded, and the only way to fix this would be to redesign the ship. Even still, we found two deck chairs. We had just gotten settled, when we heard an announcement at the band stand in front of us. There was a young girl...maybe 14 or 15, named Ashley, who was singing with the band, and her trip was sponsored by Make a Wish Foundation.

 

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I don't know anything about Ashley or her story, but all I needed to know was that she was there with Make A Wish. Moonieelf and I decided that we wanted to do something for this family because we knew that what they were facing was more difficult that anything we had ever experienced in our lives. We ran back to our stateroom, got that bottle of champagne from the Latitudes raffle, and gave it to her parents. They were a bit shocked by the gesture, but grateful. We didn't see them again for the rest of the cruise, but I hope they enjoyed it. :-)

 

While we were in the stateroom, I decided to give the Executive Chef a call to let him know how fantastic lunch was. Odd, perhaps, but I believe very strongly in giving compliments as well as complaints...and that lunch really was good!! Turned out to be worth it: he sent a platter of chocolates to our room and got us on the VIP list for the MDR. Any time we went for a meal, we were given prime tables as close to a window as they could get us.

 

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Note: It was much prettier before we ate a piece each and then said, "oh! we need a photo of this!"

 

Deciding the pool deck was far to insane for our liking, we retreated to the promenade to lay in the sun. It's much easier to find a chair there, and much quieter. No pool or hot tubs, but if all you want is to lay outside, the promenade on Deck 7 is the place to do it.

 

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On my way to dinner, I ran into trouble, and this is when I had my "accident" at the photo gallery. Ok, they sell a scrapbook and scrapbook kit that I knew I was going to purchase. I love to scrapbook, and the prices were reasonable ($25 for the book; $15 for the paper/embellishments kit). What I had not anticipated was walking away with a new digital camera. But, when I saw the exact same camera I had been drooling over online before the trip (priced at $220 at home) for $180 tax free on the ship? And it was waterproof? And I didn't have a camera other than my phone? Ship card, swiped. Oops. But, at least we had a waterproof camera for Stingray City later in the week.

 

Dinner that night was at the Grand Pacific, and it was "Norwegians Night Out" aka, Formal Night. Side Note: Some people get dressed to the nines, and there will be dancing and such at the Spinnaker. However, if formal isn't your thing, you won't be out of place. Plenty of people didn't dress up. Mooncalf and I did because we genuinely enjoy that sort of thing! For dinner, I had fried Brie wedges, which I didn't really care for, but I'd never had them before. This is what I love about cruising! I can try all kinds of new food. My entree was the prime rib, which was fantastic, and I had pecan pie for dessert. I also found a Moscato on the wine list that I absolutely loved...and consumed much more of as the week went on.

 

We camped in the Spinnaker lounge most of the night because this was the night they did Family Feud and the Newlywed/Not So Newlywed game. I wouldn't miss Newlywed for anything...it's absolutely hilarious! Dan Dan, the cruise director is an absolute hoot; we enjoyed everything he hosted. Afterwards, we did a little bit of dancing.

 

Even though the curtains were closed in the Spinnaker, we could still see flashes of lightning, and we knew we were in for a storm. I love thunderstorms, so Moonieelf and I we to Bali Hai (yes, again) and watched the storm while chatting with a lovely couple from Reno, NV. Afterwards, we had more fish and chips from O'Sheehan's (hey, I have weaknesses!) and tucked ourselves into bed, ready for what Day 3 (Port Canaveral!) would bring.

 

Day 3 coming soon...

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When going on a cruise, the very first thing you should pack – before your swimsuit, cruise docs, or even passport – is your good attitude. Cruising is what you make of it, period.

 

I LOVE your attitude!

 

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

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Loving this review :) Your attitude is wonderful, and you sound like the kind of person my husband and I always enjoy being around. We are booked for our first cruise, New Year's on the Dawn, and we will enjoy it no matter what!

 

Three of my friends and I sailed the Dawn on our first cruise last October. We were supposed to go from Boston to Bermuda, but Hurricane Gonzalo decided to hit Bermuda when we were supposed to go there :eek:. When we got to the pier, we discovered that NCL had changed our itinerary, and we were sent to Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay instead :D.

 

I thought it was fantastic...the Dawn was a beautiful ship, and I would happily sail her again (and plan to someday). The worst part about that cruise was the insane complaints from other passengers :cool:! My friends and I were just happy to be out of Boston for a week!

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Day 3

 

Day 3 was our first port day (Port Canaveral). Moonieelf and I are big Harry Potter fans, so we decided to book a shore excursion for Universal Studios. We did it through the ship because it made life that much easier.

 

We were up at 7:00 to have time for breakfast in the Grand Pacific (croissant, omlette, hash browns, English muffin, and coffee). It took us until Day 3 to pay attention to the trivia schedule (not sure why we weren't on this earlier in the week), but we made a decent showing at the Early Risers trivia at 9am. We went back to the stateroom and gathered what we would need for our upcoming trip into Florida.

 

Remember that "accident" I had in the photo galley? Well, I had been reviewing the Latitudes future cruise program since I got on the ship. I wasn't sure if I wanted to fork over money for future cruises, but you have 4 years to use the deposits. The more I read it, the more sense it made, so before we left for Universal, I stopped by the cruise consultants office and put down 2 deposits ($500, $250 each) and received $250 onboard credit. That camera I bought wound up being absolutely free by the end of the day...along with the scrapbook and embellishments! Good program, and I highly recommend it. If budget allows, the $500 is a better buy of the $250 deposit ($250 OBC vs. $100). In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if I found myself doing this on every cruise from now on.

 

Shore excursions were really organized. Our tickets had the meeting location printed directly on them, so we knew we had to be in the Stardust Theater just before noon. Not sure what to expect as far as food went off the ship, we figured lunch was probably in order first.

 

Dear NCL, if you are reading this, 11:00-11:30 is a REALLY bad time to shut down the only sit down open during lunch hours on a port day. Normally, I would have been perfectly happy to wait until noon for lunch at O'Sheehan's, but with our shore excursion, that didn't work. Grand Pacific and Magenta are also both closed for lunch. Ok, no problem....there's always the Garden Cafe, right? Wrong! While we did manage to find food there, they were in a transition phase from breakfast to lunch, and what was left was pretty slim pickings. Considering our port times were noon-9pm, I found this to be extremely poor planning. Cleaning/switching over should have been done from 10:00-10:30 in order to accommodate passengers who may wish to have lunch prior to disembarking for the day. This does not seem particularly unreasonable, and I can't believe I was the only person who didn't get a proper lunch that day and was disappointed by this.

 

Universal Studios

 

Disembarking was really easy, and there were plenty of crew members guiding us to where we needed to be. We boarded a bus and were given our park admission tickets. The ride from the pier to the park was right around an hour.

 

It's been a while since I've been to Universal Studios, but there is now a row of shops and restaurants between the parking lot and the front gate, so it will take a good 15 minutes or so to walk from the drop off point to the park. Also, Islands of Adventure is on the same piece of property, so it is possibly to bounce between parks, if one chose to purchase admission to both.

 

Express Pass -- Universal Studios offers something called and "Express Pass" that puts you in a special line for all of the rides. These can be added on in the park for $50, if one chose to, so there's no reason to purchase the Express Pass shore excursion. The regular one will do just fine. As far as how they work, I didn't see much of a difference. We waited just as long in line without one as we would have with one. Needless to say, we didn't find the expense worth it.

 

We took some photos as we walked the park, eagerly searching out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. On our way, we stumbled on Disaster, which was Moonieelf's favorite ride when she was little, so we stopped for that. My favorite ride when I was a kid was the Jaws ride, which was sadly decommissioned years ago. However, the shark statue remains, and we had to at least get a photo op since the ride was no longer around.

 

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We found the Knight Bus and Number Twelve Gimmauld Place, but then we found ourselves surrounded by Simpsons stuff. We originally planned to eat at the Leaky Cauldron, but we were near Krusty Burger, so we gave that a shot.

 

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Oh. Boy.

 

No. No, no, no...it was packed, which would have been ok, had it not been crammed full of the absolute rudest teenagers ever. No one was paying attention to anything, so we turned around and left immediately, with renewed determination to find the Leaky Cauldron. We thought, "maybe we're just too Muggle to find Diagon Alley..." as we back tracked over to "London." Found the entrance, hidden among the street facade, and were transported into the magical world of Diagon Alley. Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron was pretty good (albeit expensive) for theme park food, and I got to try a nice, ice cold butterbeer with my stew. It was fantastic!! Butterbeer tasted a bit like a liquid butterscotch candy with a slight hint of carbonation. After our proper lunch, we wandered around Diagon Alley, poking at all of the trinkets before heading over to E.T.

 

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The E.T. ride has gone downhill over the past several years. The ride is largely the same, but if anyone remembers the personalized touch where you were thanked by E.T. at the end, that's gone. Also, the Express Pass thing was screwed up. Outside, the Express Pass line was on the right and once inside it was on the left, causing a bit of a traffic jam. Bad planning, Universal! Still, it was a nice bit of nostalgia for both of us, seeing as the ride had captured our imagination when we were children.

 

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Looking at our watches, we decided we had time for one last ride before we took the bus back to the ship, so we decided to give the Simpsons ride a go. While I enjoyed the Simpsons clips playing on monitors while we were standing in line, I did not appreciate the party in front of us who acted like they had been raised in Buckingham Palace or a barn - I'll let you decide. It started as a part of two, and gradually grew as we got closer to the ride. At almost every turn, they were calling to more people to join them. There was a sign that said "please don't sit on the wall" (line barrier); they sat on the wall (one of them on my hand...ouch!). By the time we got to the actual ride, the group had swelled to eight, including a child who was way too short to go on the ride. A staff member finally pulled Moonieelf and I forward, asked us how many were in our party, and sent us ahead of them.

 

The ride itself is a simulator - but a very realistic one. I don't like roller coasters, so I spent the majority of it with my eyes closed! After I got off that ride, my feet were in excruciating pain. I'm a diabetic, so I'm easily prone to tired feet that get extremely painful, in spite of heavy duty sneakers. There were two shuttles back to the Gem - one at 6:30 and one at 7:15, and we had about 45 minutes until the first bus back. We popped back over to Harry Potter and got butterbeer ice cream (tasty, but very rich) and limped our way back to the bus.

 

Got back to the ship around 7:45, showered and changed clothes, and went to dinner in the Grand Pacific. That night I had the Caesar salad, chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes and green bean, the warm chocolate volcano, and 2 glasses of Moscato. As much as we would have liked to have gone to the lounges for some drinks and dancing or one of the lounge shows, we were just too tired, and quickly realizing that our bodies were no longer teenagers. We turned in early, knowing that we would have to be up early for GSC in the morning.

 

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Day 4 coming soon....

Edited by BensonFan711
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Day 4

 

On Day 4, we knew we were going to have to be up early. Moonieelf really wanted to do the Stingray City shore excursion, and earlier in the week, I had booked it as well - right through the interactive piece on the TV. That was great...you could check your account, book shore excursions, even book future cruises (with the Latitudes deal described on Day 3). We tend to keep a very close eye on our money, so we enjoyed this feature as it meant that we didn't have to go get our account balance from the pursar every day. Because we were booked on the first Stingray City excursion of the day, we had priority tender tickets, but wanted time for breakfast first.

 

Breakfast again in the Grand Pacific (see a theme yet?). Enrique, the maitre d, knew us pretty well by now. He made a point of coming over to chat with us every morning. It was one of the things I started to look forward to when I got out of bed every day. This was a man who truly loved his job, and wanted to make sure the guests in his care had a wonderful experience in the dining room. This was the morning I tried the poached eggs, toast, bacon, and hash browns, which became my regular breakfast. It was delicious!! I also ventured into the world of early morning drinking with a mimosa.

 

After going back to the stateroom to double check that we had everything we needed for the day in our day bags, it was time to catch our tender. For the first timers reading this - or at least those who have not tendered - GSC is a port that requires tenders. The ship is large and heavy, and will sit relatively still with the anchor dropped. The tenders, on the other hand, are tiny boats by comparison. Every wave and movement of the sea will jostle that boat to some extend, including what's left of the wake from the ship maneuvering into position to drop anchor. While the crew will do everything they possibly can to make your tender boarding smooth, they can't control the pitching of the sea, nor should they be expected to. When it comes to boarding the tender, listen to the crew, follow their instructions, and don't get mad. They may ask you to wait for a minute to let a swell pass, or they may quickly assist you over the gangway, but remember, they are well trained in this process. Just do it. The more cooperative everyone is, the quicker you will get to port.

 

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Believe it or not, I heard people complaining about how rough the water was. *sigh* Last time I checked, only Poseidon or Neptune could control the seas.

 

Tendered over to GSC, just about off the boat, and the skies opened up. Hey, guess what....it's the Caribbean. It rains DAILY on most islands. We're New Englanders, who are used to cold, icy, pelting, miserable rain. A warm shower felt refreshing. While everyone else was running for cover, I was dancing in the rain. Why not? It was warm, and I was already dressed in a swimsuit and cover up. And yes, people complained about the weather.

 

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Stingray City

 

The interesting part about this was that as we were tendering over to Stingray City (about a 5 minute ride) you could see dark clouds over some of the surrounding islands, and you could actually see where it was raining on one island, but not another. In fact, after the rain cleared on GSC, we saw another cloud open up and dump on Coco Cay (Royal Caribbean), so even going on another cruise line won't stop weather!

 

Before we left the dock on GSC, we had a safety briefing and minimal anatomy lesson about the stingrays. One of the staff members said that in the three years they had been running this tour, only one person had been stung, and that was a teenagers who was horsing around and doing exactly what they had instructed folks NOT to do. So there you have it...follow directions, and you'll be fine.

 

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The enclosure for the stingrays is 2.5 acres of natural sea floor, and the stingrays are all female. When we asked about that, we were told it's because the males can't be trained; they want absolutely nothing to do with it. So, they're allowed in twice per year for breeding purposes, female babies are kept, and all males are released to the sea. The rays brushed up against guests' legs, and they felt a bit like wet mushrooms. A handler assisted anyone who wanted to feed one and another handler assisted anyone who wanted to hold one. (Moonieelf did both). It's not a bad life for a ray -- safe place to swim around and do your stingray thing, plenty of food to eat, and all you have to do is flirt and play nice with the tourists. I think we were out there for about an hour and half...good long time for an experience. I would highly recommend it, and we're looking into doing it again on our upcoming trip on the Getaway in January (though we may do it in Grand Cayman instead of GSC).

 

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After our excursion, we had a cocktail and some lunch. One of the things I absolutely love about GSC is that it is an extension of the ship, meaning your food and beverage privileges transfer to the island. Cocktails? Free with our UBP. Lunch? Complementary...just like in the MDR or Garden Cafe. The only thing you'd need money for would be to shop in the tiny Straw Market staffed by Nassau locals. Lunch was a typical grill out/picnic menu: burgers, dogs, pizza, potato salad, other salads, etc with cookies and brownies and such for dessert. I'm not big on picnic food, but I managed to get a decent plate pulled together.

 

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After lunch, we played in the water (crystal clear and beautiful) before our pale Irish skin just couldn't take any more of it. Wound up with a slight burn, but it was definitely worth it. After a quick shower and clothing change, we decided to go to O'Sheehan's for some fish and chips (I was still hungry) and the brownie cheesecake. I've read rave reviews about that cheesecake and had to try it, but honestly? I didn't think it was that good. Fish and chips were stellar, as always.

 

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We went to the promenade to read/journal for a bit, and I wound up falling asleep in a deck chair on top of my journal! Although, it was a wonderful place for a nap. After we realized we had both fallen asleep outside, we did go back to our room and take real naps because this was the night of the Celebrity Dance Off at 10:30, and we didn't want to miss it. Woke up around 8:00 and went to the Grand Pacific for 2nd dinner.

 

There was this lamb dish that I had had on the Dawn that I absolutely loved, but I couldn't remember what it was, so when I saw "braised lamb shank" on the menu, I ordered it. Nope, wrong dish...but the "magical lamb" did show up later in the cruise. Salad and dessert was just fine for dinner, even though the dining room staff went out of their way to offer me something else instead of the lamb. Truth be told, since we had had fish and chips so late in the day, I wasn't really hungry enough for a full meal, and felt perfectly satisfied with my salad and warm chocolate volcano.

 

We grabbed mojitos on our way up to the Spinnaker from Sugarcane, and went to Spinnaker, where they were taking entries for the Dance Off. By this point, I had had a few drinks, so when Moonieelf poked me and dared me to do it, I did. Thought nothing of it, ordered another glass of wine. Just as my wine arrived, I heard the assistant cruise director call "Susan from Boston."

 

Well, that wasn't supposed to happen!

 

I went up onstage, incredibly self conscious, muddled through the best I could. I was remembering a cha cha class earlier in the week, and very much regretting that I decided not to go. My partner was fantastic, and helped me feel at ease, even though I was dancing in front of what felt like the entire ship. We were eliminated in Round 1, but then got to film the "Loser's Lounge" skit with Dan Dan. The experience was really fun, and I'm always up for anything, so I gave it my best. Of course, this is one of the events they televise on the Activities channel, so people were recognizing me for the rest of the cruise.

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Day 3

 

,I had been reviewing the Latitudes future cruise program since I got on the ship. I wasn't sure if I wanted to fork over money for future cruises, but you have 4 years to use the deposits. The more I read it, the more sense it made ... ...

 

Dear NCL, if you are reading this, 11:00-11:30 is a REALLY bad time to shut down the only sit down open during lunch hours on a port day. Normally, I would have been perfectly happy to wait until noon for lunch at O'Sheehan's, but with our shore excursion, that didn't work. Grand Pacific and Magenta are also both closed for lunch. Ok, no problem....there's always the Garden Cafe, right? Wrong! While we did manage to find food there, they were in a transition phase from breakfast to lunch, and what was left was pretty slim pickings. Considering our port times were noon-9pm, I found this to be extremely poor planning. Cleaning/switching over should have been done from 10:00-10:30 in order to accommodate passengers who may wish to have lunch prior to disembarking for the day. This does not seem particularly unreasonable, and I can't believe I was the only person who didn't get a proper lunch that day and was disappointed by this. ... ..

 

Regarding the buffet I think that you did not discover the buffet options in the section of The Great Outdoors just outside the regular buffet. When they start closing Garden Cafe they open the buffet area of The Great Outdoors.

 

About the Future Cruise Certificates we always buy one since even if we can't cruise within four years it is transferable to someone else. One of the best things about it is that, unless you are in a suite, it is good for the entire deposit. So on the current b2b we have booked, instead of paying the $800 deposit we simply used our Future Cruise Certificate, adding the balance to our final invoice.

For some people the drawback is that they are only good for cruises 6 days or longer. But we prefer really long cruises so that is no problem.

 

I am really enjoying your blog/review.

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Anyone who dances in the rain is my kind of cruiser...anyone who dances with the celebrities (stars) on a Norwegian cruise ship is my kind of hero. I wish I had the courage to put my name in the hat some day! I am loving your review and your pictures too. Looking forward to more!

coka

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Anyone who dances in the rain is my kind of cruiser...anyone who dances with the celebrities (stars) on a Norwegian cruise ship is my kind of hero. I wish I had the courage to put my name in the hat some day! I am loving your review and your pictures too. Looking forward to more!

coka

 

We didn't expect her name to be picked. The bucket with women's names was over flowing, and there were about five guys who put their names in. She got her wine just as her name was called.

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Day 5

 

Nassau, for us, was what we considered the "throwaway port," meaning if there had been some sort of freak itinerary change, we wouldn't have minded in the slightest. Ok, who are we kidding...Moonieelf and I are such adventurers, we find itinerary changes exciting.

 

No, we didn't go to Atlantis, and no, we haven't been there. We discussed this at length before booking shore excursions, debating between Universal Studios and Atlantis. We ultimately decided on Universal because there was far more to do and see in Nassau compared to Port Canaveral, assuming one doesn't book big shore excursions.

 

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We woke up around 8:00, went to the GP for breakfast (poached eggs for me again), did morning trivia (only 2 teams showed up...easy win!), and decided around 11:00 that we were ready to go into Nassau. There were 5 ships in port (us, NCL Sky, 2 Carnival ships, and a Royal Caribbean ship), so it was a bit crowded in town, though still far better than Universal Studios. Turns out, we were also in town for Bahamian Independence Day.

 

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Moonieelf and I have this thing with international fast food locations. In our experience, McDonalds tastes far better abroad than anything you would find here in the States, so we went to the McDonalds in Nassau for lunch. Definitely superior to our local Micky D's, though service was remarkably slow by American standards. I suppose this is what they mean by "island time." Interesting menu differences included: Double Jalepeno Burger, McWings, and the McFish (aka, Filet O Fish).

 

We never got to the Pirates of Nassau museum on our last cruise, so we made it a point to go this time, and too the opportunity to pick up some souvenirs for folks back home.

 

The museum was a blast, and a piece of trivia I took away from it was that the famous "skull & crossbones" flag we (and Hollywood) associates with pirates was actually the flag flown by two women pirates. They escaped execution by claiming pregnancy....guess that's an excuse the men can't use!

 

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After the museum, we shopped around Bay St, where Moonieelf and I picked up our traditional Alex & Ani bracelet. We stayed as long as our Irish skin would allow, then headed back to the ship for a drink. The pier party was at 4:15, so we got off the ship, specifically to dance on the pier with the crew. What fun!!!

 

Went to trivia afterwards, followed by dinner.

 

Oh. My. Goodness.

 

This was - by far - my favorite meal of the entire week. The meal started off with scallops au gratin, which was absolutely heavenly. There was just enough cheese without completely drowning out the scallops. And then....the Australian Rack of Lamb. THIS was the "magic lamb" dish!! The lamb was absolutely perfectly seasoned and falling-off-the-bone tender. Couple that with potatoes and bacon wrapped green beans....HEAVEN on a plate. I sincerely hope they have that on the menu at some point when I'm on the Getaway in January. Followed it up with a warm chocolate volcano, and then seriously contemplated whether or not I could eat a second dinner over at the other MDR...it was THAT good.

 

After dinner, we headed up to the Spinnaker Lounge to play Majority Rules. We wound up partnered with two delightful 17-year-olds who were sober enough to do the running around I wasn't sure I could manage without extreme embarrassment. This was followed by the Liars Club, which wasn't nearly as entertaining as it was on the Dawn. Although, the woman from Second City doing the impression of Captain Lars was a hoot.

 

Many drinks later, it was time to call it a night. And, at this point, the stark reality that we were eventually going to have to get off the ship started to set it....always does after the last port. But, we had two more glorious days at sea to go before that happened.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Day 6

 

This was a very leisurely day at sea. Moonieelf insisted on getting up early....again. Ok, so her motive was to make it to Early Risers Trivia, but still...that alarm was getting more and more painful as the week went on. Today we were on a mission: earn a "Norwegians have bragging rights" T-shirt...which meant lots and lots of cruise staff activities. I had my poached eggs again at breakfast, then we did trivia (of course). After trivia, there really wasn't a whole lot in the dailies of interest, so we decided to check out the casino.

 

Now, Moonieelf and I are not gamblers...AT ALL. I had throwing money away, so I grabbed $20, and that was all I was going to spend. Got my casino card, figured out the slots (yep, I didn't actually know how to do it until that day), and blew it in about 37 seconds. Ok, maybe not that fast, but it took me longer to smoke my cigarette than to lose that $20. Now, I know the odds always favor the House, but a little win *might* have baited me into spending more money. As it was, it was absolutely zero fun, and I left the casino with a lighter wallet and not even a good time to show for it. Ok, so I'm not a gambler. That's ok...

 

Grabbed lunch at O'Sheehan's (and another drink) and headed off to play charades. Charades was all about getting those activity signatures to get the T-shirt! After that was Name that Tune TV Drama Trivia, followed by Progressive Trivia...and we were only 3 signatures shy of that shirt.

 

This is where NCL fell short for me. There was literally NOTHING to do until dinner. Pool was open, but very crowded. Spa was open (of course), but definitely not free. No shows scheduled for the afternoon, and I wasn't particularly in the mood to journal, read, or take a nap....I wanted to *do* something!

 

Which is exactly how Moonieelf and I wound up playing bingo. Now, I normally avoid cruise ship bingo because the price tag is way too steep. But, at this point, we had actually spent less than we planned to, and Moonieelf is a big bingo freak, so we did it. It was insane...they went so fast I could barely keep up. Still, even though we didn't win, we had a good time....and plenty of alcohol!

 

This was Norwegian's signature chocolate night, so for dinner, I had the roast turkey dinner with some sort of chocolate Nutella dessert that was DELICIOUS! We went to the Spinnaker for the Second City Unscripted show, which was so much better than the one on the Dawn.

 

I overheard someone on the promenade say this was the worst cruise she had ever been on. I didn't get the details, but I think this is where attitude comes into play. If you are expecting Haven service, then book the Haven. But, don't have the same expectation if your in a lousy interior room on Deck 4. I had a balcony on the Dawn near some of the suites, and we had an absolutely fantastic room steward. Our room steward on the Gem wasn't fantastic, but he did his job. The room was made up every morning and turned down every night. He was pleasant and knew us by name in the hallways, and he was able to get anything we needed. But, there were no "little touches." It's the little differences I'm talking about here. There's an old adage: "you get what you pay for," and it rings true on NCL ships. Pay a little more, stay near the expensive rooms (or in them), and you get the best stewards. It's just human variation.

 

Anyway, enough of my rant about passengers and expectations. This was also the night of the White Hot Party! I love that party...the cruise staff was full of energy; we danced and danced (and drank of course) until we barely had the energy to make it back to the room. Collapsed into bed again, happy as could be, and a little sad that it was almost over.

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