Would Cruise On The Gem Again

[Momofpuppy]

We are a retired couple in our 60s. Our Sail dates were February 1 thru February 11, 2016. Traveled from Boston to NY on Amtrak the day before the cruise. We stayed at Doubletree Suites in Times Square and highly recommend this hotel for its proximity to the cruise terminal. We could see the ship from the window in our room. Lauren, the concierge was very friendly and very helpful.

 

Traveled to the port from the hotel via taxi. The route the driver took caused us to get backed up at a traffic light which would only let 3 cars through the turn to the cruise terminal at a time.

 

Once at the terminal check-in and boarding were swift and painless. We had booked through Casinos at Sea and therefore were among the first to board after Haven, suites and special needs passengers.

 

This was our first cruise on the Gem so I cannot comment on the changes made during dry dock. We have previously cruised on Norwegian Majesty, Norwegian Dawn and Norwegian getaway in ocean view, balcony and inside cabins.

 

Once on the ship, we ate lunch in the main dining room (Grand Pacific). Lunch was very good and service was quick. We then dropped our carry-on luggage in our room. We had a mid-ship mini suite #11054.

 

The room was a nice size with a balcony big enough for 2 chairs and a small table with room to spare. We did not like the tub/shower in the bathroom. We felt the side was too high and made entry and exit into the tub/shower difficult. The room had ample storage. The closet doors are a little awkwardly placed with not a lot of room on that side of the bed. The bed was comfortable. We did not experience any noise from the floor above. Did hear the ship creaking and closet hangers clanging together during rough seas. TV had limited stations. Our room attendant, Elme, was excellent. She kept the room immaculate, was very friendly and responded to all of our requests in a timely fashion.

 

The ship was very clean, the staff was for the most part friendly, polite and responsive.

 

There were lots of public areas and quiet places on the ship. We are not pool people so did not hang out much in that area.

 

The atrium is a small area and was often too congested. When movies were playing it was difficult to converse, hear or be heard at the guest services area because the movie volume was so loud. Even walking through that area, the volume was too loud.

 

We loved the spa and used it frequently.

 

Dining: We felt the food was hit or miss. The food in the Garden Buffet was repetitive, sometimes the coffee machines were not working. I did love the crepes which were offered nightly. Tea selection was limited (I recommend looking for the pure black tea bags in the total lime green package as I do not like flavored teas and find Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea too weak). Seating in the garden buffet is extremely limited at peak times. There is a long walk to some of the seating and we felt that the amount of food stations in the buffet area were fewer than on the Dawn which is actually a smaller ship. The great outdoors was a nice area to sit and eat on good weather days. Overflow seating was sometimes available at breakfast in La Cucina which is a long walk from the buffet stations.

 

Some days there was a complimentary lunch special of soup salad and sandwiches offered in Moderno (listen for the PA announcement). This was a nice quiet alternative to the buffet and less formal than the main dining room.

 

We ate 6 nights out of ten at Magenta which is the smaller complimentary main dining room. We chose this because the Grand Pacific has a dress code requiring collared shirts and no shorts for men.

 

While most nights the food was tasty, the portions were small. For example if the dish said it came with broccoli, there was a very small single broccoli floret on the plate. The dining room seemed to be severely understaffed and the staff while friendly and trying to be as accommodating as possible were many times clearly overwhelmed. My DH felt that both in the buffet and main dining room the food quality had diminished from previous cruises to an almost fast food quality.

 

We had dinner 3 nights in specialty restaurants.

 

Cagneys: The only place on the ship that has Shrimp cocktail on the menu each night. The foodservice were good but not great. The raspberry crème broulet was soupy and tasted terrible.

 

La Cuccina: Osso Bucco was excellent. Chicken Parmesan was OK.

 

Le Bistro: This was my favorite meal on the cruise. Onion soup was good. The filet was excellent and the crème broulet was divine. DH had the duck which he said was good.

 

We had lunch at O'Sheehans once. The place was deserted. I had a salad and it was more of a side salad than and actual meal sized salad. DH had a corned beef sandwich which was very dry and came without any condiments.

 

Entertainment was varied: Leo in Magnums was very talented, we saw one production show which was very good. Saw Tenors of Rock which was excellent. The bands that performed at varied locations around the ship were all good.

 

The casino: Although we did not win on this cruise, we felt that the casino staff were excellent. Especially Jay the bartender in the casino. Dealers Jesse and Jose. The pit bosses were some of the friendliest I've ever seen.

 

We had been to all of the ports before. On this cruise we did 2 shore excursions:

 

Segway on the Boardwalk in St. Maarten. This was fun and a good value for the money.

 

Escape to Jost Van Dyke in Tortola. This was a very good excursion. My DH was a little disappointed in the breakfast service info. It does say the you can purchase breakfast and when we arrived at the Soggy dollar bar at about 8:00 AM he went to the small covered seating area and asked when they served breakfast, he was told that they would start serving breakfast at 9:00 AM. At 9:00 AM we went to the covered seating area and were denied seating. The covered service area is reserved for their hotel guests. You can order breakfast but it is served in take-out boxes, you have to eat on the beach or at a couple of outdoor picnic tables if available. If this had been more clearly stated in the shore excursion description or if communication had been clearer when he first inquired about breakfast he would have been better prepared. We did get breakfast and it was good. The staff of the Rebel Yell were informative and friendly. Overall we felt the excursion was worth the money.

 

We had great weather and relatively calm seas sailing out of NY and down to all the ports of call. Sailing back to NY we had moderately rough seas some people were sick. Luckily neither DH nor I have ever gotten seasick.

 

Due to severe winds sailing back to NY we did not arrive back at port until almost 9:00 AM.

 

This caused the whole disembarkation process to be delayed. For those doing easy walk-off with all of their luggage it was simple and easy. For the rest of us it was not. There was no clear indication of what we should do. No announcements were made as to whether we should stay in our cabins (some stewards told people they had to leave their cabins, others said they could stay until their color was called). No announcements were made as to where people could wait if they did leave their cabins. The only announcements that we heard were not to congregate in public areas and not to get in line until your color tag was called. We had priority debarkation tags (yellow) which was the first color called after easy walk-off and we could not get our luggage until 11:00 AM.

 

In summary, this was a very good cruise. Felt that the biggest pluses were the cleanliness of the ship and the hard working staff who did their best to make the cruise as enjoyable as possible. None of the items mentioned in this review would keep us from cruising with Norwegian or on the Gem again. 

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks for your well-rounded, informative review. I enjoyed reading it. :) I love the Gem, but have not sailed on her since her extensive dry dock and am looking forward to seeing her changes soon. However, on our last Gem cruise, we identified with your comments about portions seeming rather small. This was the case especially at Orchid Garden, which we immediately decided we'd never do again. Thanks again.

Edited February 18, 2016 by AlexandNessa
Typo

[earlbird]

We are a retired couple in our 60s. Our Sail dates were February 1 thru February 11, 2016. Traveled from Boston to NY on Amtrak the day before the cruise. We stayed at Doubletree Suites in Times Square and highly recommend this hotel for its proximity to the cruise terminal. We could see the ship from the window in our room. Lauren, the concierge was very friendly and very helpful.

 

Traveled to the port from the hotel via taxi. The route the driver took caused us to get backed up at a traffic light which would only let 3 cars through the turn to the cruise terminal at a time.

 

Once at the terminal check-in and boarding were swift and painless. We had booked through Casinos at Sea and therefore were among the first to board after Haven, suites and special needs passengers.

 

This was our first cruise on the Gem so I cannot comment on the changes made during dry dock. We have previously cruised on Norwegian Majesty, Norwegian Dawn and Norwegian getaway in ocean view, balcony and inside cabins.

 

Once on the ship, we ate lunch in the main dining room (Grand Pacific). Lunch was very good and service was quick. We then dropped our carry-on luggage in our room. We had a mid-ship mini suite #11054.

 

The room was a nice size with a balcony big enough for 2 chairs and a small table with room to spare. We did not like the tub/shower in the bathroom. We felt the side was too high and made entry and exit into the tub/shower difficult. The room had ample storage. The closet doors are a little awkwardly placed with not a lot of room on that side of the bed. The bed was comfortable. We did not experience any noise from the floor above. Did hear the ship creaking and closet hangers clanging together during rough seas. TV had limited stations. Our room attendant, Elme, was excellent. She kept the room immaculate, was very friendly and responded to all of our requests in a timely fashion.

 

The ship was very clean, the staff was for the most part friendly, polite and responsive.

 

There were lots of public areas and quiet places on the ship. We are not pool people so did not hang out much in that area.

 

The atrium is a small area and was often too congested. When movies were playing it was difficult to converse, hear or be heard at the guest services area because the movie volume was so loud. Even walking through that area, the volume was too loud.

 

We loved the spa and used it frequently.

 

Dining: We felt the food was hit or miss. The food in the Garden Buffet was repetitive, sometimes the coffee machines were not working. I did love the crepes which were offered nightly. Tea selection was limited (I recommend looking for the pure black tea bags in the total lime green package as I do not like flavored teas and find Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea too weak). Seating in the garden buffet is extremely limited at peak times. There is a long walk to some of the seating and we felt that the amount of food stations in the buffet area were fewer than on the Dawn which is actually a smaller ship. The great outdoors was a nice area to sit and eat on good weather days. Overflow seating was sometimes available at breakfast in La Cucina which is a long walk from the buffet stations.

 

Some days there was a complimentary lunch special of soup salad and sandwiches offered in Moderno (listen for the PA announcement). This was a nice quiet alternative to the buffet and less formal than the main dining room.

 

We ate 6 nights out of ten at Magenta which is the smaller complimentary main dining room. We chose this because the Grand Pacific has a dress code requiring collared shirts and no shorts for men.

 

While most nights the food was tasty, the portions were small. For example if the dish said it came with broccoli, there was a very small single broccoli floret on the plate. The dining room seemed to be severely understaffed and the staff while friendly and trying to be as accommodating as possible were many times clearly overwhelmed. My DH felt that both in the buffet and main dining room the food quality had diminished from previous cruises to an almost fast food quality.

 

We had dinner 3 nights in specialty restaurants.

 

Cagneys: The only place on the ship that has Shrimp cocktail on the menu each night. The foodservice were good but not great. The raspberry crème broulet was soupy and tasted terrible.

 

La Cuccina: Osso Bucco was excellent. Chicken Parmesan was OK.

 

Le Bistro: This was my favorite meal on the cruise. Onion soup was good. The filet was excellent and the crème broulet was divine. DH had the duck which he said was good.

 

We had lunch at O'Sheehans once. The place was deserted. I had a salad and it was more of a side salad than and actual meal sized salad. DH had a corned beef sandwich which was very dry and came without any condiments.

 

Entertainment was varied: Leo in Magnums was very talented, we saw one production show which was very good. Saw Tenors of Rock which was excellent. The bands that performed at varied locations around the ship were all good.

 

The casino: Although we did not win on this cruise, we felt that the casino staff were excellent. Especially Jay the bartender in the casino. Dealers Jesse and Jose. The pit bosses were some of the friendliest I've ever seen.

 

We had been to all of the ports before. On this cruise we did 2 shore excursions:

 

Segway on the Boardwalk in St. Maarten. This was fun and a good value for the money.

 

Escape to Jost Van Dyke in Tortola. This was a very good excursion. My DH was a little disappointed in the breakfast service info. It does say the you can purchase breakfast and when we arrived at the Soggy dollar bar at about 8:00 AM he went to the small covered seating area and asked when they served breakfast, he was told that they would start serving breakfast at 9:00 AM. At 9:00 AM we went to the covered seating area and were denied seating. The covered service area is reserved for their hotel guests. You can order breakfast but it is served in take-out boxes, you have to eat on the beach or at a couple of outdoor picnic tables if available. If this had been more clearly stated in the shore excursion description or if communication had been clearer when he first inquired about breakfast he would have been better prepared. We did get breakfast and it was good. The staff of the Rebel Yell were informative and friendly. Overall we felt the excursion was worth the money.

 

We had great weather and relatively calm seas sailing out of NY and down to all the ports of call. Sailing back to NY we had moderately rough seas some people were sick. Luckily neither DH nor I have ever gotten seasick.

 

Due to severe winds sailing back to NY we did not arrive back at port until almost 9:00 AM.

 

This caused the whole disembarkation process to be delayed. For those doing easy walk-off with all of their luggage it was simple and easy. For the rest of us it was not. There was no clear indication of what we should do. No announcements were made as to whether we should stay in our cabins (some stewards told people they had to leave their cabins, others said they could stay until their color was called). No announcements were made as to where people could wait if they did leave their cabins. The only announcements that we heard were not to congregate in public areas and not to get in line until your color tag was called. We had priority debarkation tags (yellow) which was the first color called after easy walk-off and we could not get our luggage until 11:00 AM.

 

In summary, this was a very good cruise. Felt that the biggest pluses were the cleanliness of the ship and the hard working staff who did their best to make the cruise as enjoyable as possible. None of the items mentioned in this review would keep us from cruising with Norwegian or on the Gem again. 

 

We were also on the February 1 sailing. We were practically neighbors, as we were in 11060, and last year we had 11054.

I totally agree with your "hit or miss" comment regarding the food. Also, one night in Cagneys the service was excellent, and another night it was terrible.

LeBistro did have great onion soup. This was our favorite restaurant.

Very interesting that some nights the so called "dress code" was enforced and other times it was not.

We felt that the Gem has gone downhill from our two cruise on this ship last year - not major things, but a compilation of many minor items (which all add up). Several other passengers who had previously sailed on the Gem also stated the same thing.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[kprice1218]

Thank you for the unbiased review, we will be traveling on the Gem on March 12, it will be our first NCL Cruise and I am a bit apprehensive, so I was pleased to read your review. I am a firm believer in "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" and some people tend to dis one cruise or another because of a single bad experience. Your honest review pointed out the good and the not so good, yet you still put a positive spin on it, thank you.

[MICHLEV1974]

Thank you for the unbiased review, we will be traveling on the Gem on March 12, it will be our first NCL Cruise and I am a bit apprehensive, so I was pleased to read your review. I am a firm believer in "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" and some people tend to dis one cruise or another because of a single bad experience. Your honest review pointed out the good and the not so good, yet you still put a positive spin on it, thank you.

 

The Gem was my first time with NCL (I had 9 other cruises with either Royal or Carnival) and after reading reviews, i set my expectations pretty low for The Gem on our June 2015 sailing. I was super impressed with the hospitality extended to us on the ship. I loved the little details of the iced towels and the iced beverages right at the tender as we waited to head back to the ship from their private island...nice touch as it was 90+ degrees. The food is a hit/miss but there are so many things to choose from, i knew it wasn't going to be a deal breaker for us. We are pool people--we are there from sun up to sun down and there was always something fun happening out there! Bar service, at times, was a bit scarce, but the servers were very personable each time. We didn't have any unpleasant experiences on this ship. We loved The Gem so much, we are heading back on her this April! I loved the fact that you could sit in the 'lobby' and see the ocean to your right and to your left...it's not a mega ship, but it certainly is a beautiful ship!

[CateW]

Our first cruise on the Gem was February 2015 in an aft Penthouse suite. We had the UDP and UBP, a $300 shipboard credit and free internet. We had such a good time that we booked it again as soon as we got back and we leave on Sunday. It is my understanding is that although the carpeting was replaced, none of the furniture was. We have the same perks on this sailing since we booked last year. The price was considerably less when we booked last March than it is currently, although I know there have been some up-sells. We would probably do the Gem again because it is driving distance to the port for us (we live in Connecticut) and no flying involved. We are doing the Breakaway next though, for the first time (14 days).

[Turtles06]

Our first cruise on the Gem was February 2015 in an aft Penthouse suite. We had the UDP and UBP, a $300 shipboard credit and free internet. We had such a good time that we booked it again as soon as we got back and we leave on Sunday. It is my understanding is that although the carpeting was replaced, none of the furniture was. We have the same perks on this sailing since we booked last year.

 

We were on the same cruise as the OP, in an SF aft-facing penthouse suite. I have a thread with photos at the link below about how shabby, worn and ugly the furniture in these suites is. Truly in need of a refresh, and really a shame that NCL has left the suites like this. I hope you enjoy the great balcony and your cruise!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2314292&highlight=10164

[CateW]

We were on the same cruise as the OP, in an SF aft-facing penthouse suite. I have a thread with photos at the link below about how shabby, worn and ugly the furniture in these suites is. Truly in need of a refresh, and really a shame that NCL has left the suites like this. I hope you enjoy the great balcony and your cruise!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2314292&highlight=10164

 

Thanks for sharing this; ugh I am just going to have to close my eyes, it is such a great spacious room, I am going to ignore the furniture. We are on deck 10 this time, in 10666.

[tinadago]

We were in 11062....great cruise! had a great time!

[Keith1010]

I enjoyed your very thorough review.

 

Keith

[Mack704]

I'm a bit of a foodie. I have a couple of questions about your comments regarding portion sizes in the complimentary food venues:

 

When you received the one small piece of broccoli on your dinner plate, did you request more broccoli, or not and just complain about it here oc CC?

 

In O'Sheehan's, when you received your dinner salad the size of a side salad, did you request an additional one, or just bit your tongue and complain about it here on CC?

 

It's my understanding in the complementary dining venues you can order as much of anything they serve that you desire. Is this not correct?

 

Harvey

[tinadago]

If you can make it to the Grand Pacific dining room for breakfast....amazing Salmon benedict! Yummm!!! Only made it 3 mornings because they stop serving at 9:30 I think. Paoched eggs were done perfectly everytime!

[Momofpuppy]

I'm a bit of a foodie. I have a couple of questions about your comments regarding portion sizes in the complimentary food venues:

 

When you received the one small piece of broccoli on your dinner plate, did you request more broccoli, or not and just complain about it here oc CC?

 

In O'Sheehan's, when you received your dinner salad the size of a side salad, did you request an additional one, or just bit your tongue and complain about it here on CC?

 

It's my understanding in the complementary dining venues you can order as much of anything they serve that you desire. Is this not correct?

 

Harvey

 

While it is correct that you can order more food, it took forever to get the original order because the staff was so overwhelmed. I would not wait for additional vegetables. I have relatives who used to work in restaurants and I never send food back or tell them the portions are to small and ask for more because of the things I have heard done to people's food who do that sort of thing. The point of my review (not complaint) was that the single piece of broccoli was the norm for what was being represented as a broccoli serving. This to me is a representation of the cutbacks that NCL has made in food service. It was an honest statement of my experience.

[Mack704]

While it is correct that you can order more food, it took forever to get the original order because the staff was so overwhelmed. I would not wait for additional vegetables. I have relatives who used to work in restaurants and I never send food back or tell them the portions are to small and ask for more because of the things I have heard done to people's food who do that sort of thing. The point of my review (not complaint) was that the single piece of broccoli was the norm for what was being represented as a broccoli serving. This to me is a representation of the cutbacks that NCL has made in food service. It was an honest statement of my experience.

 

Just to be clear, I was not suggesting that you send anything back. On the contrary, I was suggesting you could have requested more.

 

Also, not to suggest your report was untrue, but I find it hard to believe that NCL has cutback to the point where one small piece of broccoli was representative of a serving of vegetables.

 

Did you find that to be true with all side dish servings in all of the complementary dining venues? How about the mains, the appetizers? We're the servers overwhelmed in O'Sheehans and the other complementary venues as well? Did you order extra veggies the next time?

 

I'm trying not to give you a hard time. DW and I are sailing with NCL in May. And I appreciate your report. I will use this info to help us in our ordering in the complementary dining venues. Thank you!

 

Harvey

[Mack704]

One more thing:

 

What did your relatives tell you happens when people in restaurants send back food or request more? Really? Do the waitstaff or the kitchen staff get so pissed about it that they would cause the food to be unsanititary? How often did they say it happens. Eewww!

 

Am I being naive to think it doesn't happen a lot? I believe if any cruise ship personnel got caught doing this, they'd be fired and put off the ship at the next port. Land restaurants too. I don't believe management would condon this type of behavior. They'd be fired immediately.

 

Harvey

Edited February 19, 2016 by Mack704

[Jezo]

Thank you for the unbiased review, we will be traveling on the Gem on March 12, it will be our first NCL Cruise and I am a bit apprehensive, so I was pleased to read your review. I am a firm believer in "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" and some people tend to dis one cruise or another because of a single bad experience. Your honest review pointed out the good and the not so good, yet you still put a positive spin on it, thank you.

 

We were on the same cruise as the OP, there is nothing at all to be apprehensive about. People will come on this message board and complain about everything, they start their trips cranky and never relax as they spend the whole trip mad at things.

 

It's all how you view things. On our ship people complained about the slow service at O'Sheehans and how they would never go again because it took so long to get food. Our take on that? O'Sheehans was a nice relaxed place that we got the chance to sit down in and look out the window, unrushed. It's a ship in the middle of the ocean, where does anyone need to be? I always love reading the negativity people spew after the same cruise I take. We love it and are already booked with Norwegian for 2017 yet these people come home, get online, and just start typing about how bad everything is in life.

 

Meh.

 

You are on a boat in the Caribbean in blue water and hot weather, it would be very hard to make that bad for me.