Gem_Canada New England_Oct 8-15_2016

[NorthernHiro]

Ahoy!

 

Ok, we are back to real life, work, etc but wanted to share thoughts on our experience on the Gem last week.

Firstly, we are Canadian, so our take is probably a bit different than most. We are 50 & 51 years old, fit, active, love to eat (quality over quantity), don't drink very much. I'm a vegetarian/pescatarian but my DH eats meat or pretty much everything.

 

Please feel free to send any questions, I'm happy to help.

 

Things We Were Impressed with:

 

- ship was very clean and well taken care of

- enormous amount of staff on board, very friendly, we left with nothing but good feelings for the crew

- entertainment was great, especially the production shows in the Stardust Lounge. We also saw the Second City show and Harry Mauer, the magician. All very entertaining!

- we had interior cabin 9551...an excellent location, highly recommend

- we had 3 specialty restaurant meals, per UDP. Two at Le Bistro, 1 at Cucina. All excellent though I really love Le Bistro. The cream of mushroom soup was the best!

 

Things We Were Surprised At:

~ the casino was really busy....like all the time! There were some really die hard gamblers on board. I think quite a few were casino guests, so they 'earned' a free cruise by spending in a casino. Sometimes it was quite smoky, other times not so bad.

~ we had expected a predominantly older crowd but there were quite a few younger, 30's & 40's on board. Only a couple of dozen kids though..maybe more, hard to say as they didn't really congregate, thankfully.

~ the seas & therefore our ship were really calm, all but the night we sailed from Halifax to Portland, when there was a storm and things were rockin' and rollin'. Otherwise, nice and steady and DH survived very well.

~ O'Sheehan's was kind of lacklustre. Nothing really on the menu for me to eat, but my DH loved the hamburgers (here and everywhere on the Gem) so we stopped in at night a couple of times for him to 'top up'.

 

Now for the Not So Great Stuff

 

~ I didn't care for the giant video screen in the atrium. Much preferred the atmosphere on the Jade, with live music etc. At night they were either showing NFL games (even though the MLB play-offs were happening) or movies. Movies could have been fun but the sound was too low to really hear properly, and the seating wasn't conducive to movie watching.

~ the desserts situation is still pretty poor. I'd heard they'd made improvements but I couldn't tell. Desserts in the buffet were pretty bad. Mostly sliced cakes, with little flavour. Lots were labeled 'cheesecake' but I don't thing any had real cream cheese or dairy. Even simple but delicious desserts like rice pudding, bread pudding, etc were missing, so IMO buffet was a sweet bust. MDR was ok, but nothing great there either. Desserts in Le Bistro and Cucina were good to excellent.

~ Dining in the MDR (we went to Grand Pacific twice) was just ok. I like the atmosphere but the food was meh...

~ and lastly (& feel free to write hate mail when you read this) the crowd was, for the most part, ridiculously casual. There were many times when we felt we were walking through someone's family room, where it would be ok to wear jeans, flip flops, track pants, t-shirts with holes in them, hats, the same outfit from dawn to dusk, shorts, muscle t's, etc. But it wasn't a private home, it was: in the casino, in the lounges, in the Grand Pacific for dinner, in the theatre, and the absolute worse: track pants, t-shirt, sandals and socks in Le Bistro for dinner. Good Grief!

I guess people embrace the 'free style' ideal on NCL but come on, have some class. Look around you...you're not in your living room, you're on a beautiful ship, in a gorgeous room, where the wait staff are in classic black &white, shirts with ties, the menu is obviously geared to a high end experience, there's a sign at the door 'suggesting' proper attire and still you don't have the energy to put some frickin' pants on?

Having said that, there were some guests that did dress up on sea day evenings (I saw one man in a tux) Overall, in the evenings, I'd say about 1/4 of the guests over the entire ship were dressed appropriately. So, if you're doing to do this sailing, don't be scared to pack your 'fancy' duds, but beware, you're going to look like celebrities compared to everyone else :rolleyes::rolleyes:

That's not necessarily a bad thing....

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for taking the time to share your review with us.

[mollybloomers]

Thank you so much for the review! I'll be on the Gem in just 3 weeks. Tick tock. Tick tock.

 

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[www3traveler]

I was just on The Jewel and saw many of the same types of clothing descriptions. A number of people were turned away from some restaurants because of what they were or were not wearing. Saw lots pajama type clothing being worn by young and not so young.

[WashyWashyHappyHappy95]

I can't believe they let that guy in sweat pant and flip flops into Le Bistro, meanwhile they gave me sh*t for just wearing a hat in the Magenta MDR.

[easyboy]

Thanks for your feedback.

[dexddd]

What times were the shows at night?

[NorthernHiro]

What times were the shows at night?

 

Hi

 

Production shows in the Stardust theatre were always 630 and 830pm.

We had our specialty restaurant reservations for 7 to 730 and still made it to each show.

 

(see my review under general NCL board, Ultimate Dining Gem)

[rsato]

My wife and I recently sailed on the Gem (Sep 10-17 sailing), and would agree with your observation of the casual attire by the guests. I don't know if you experienced other lines, but if the relaxed dress "codes" bother you then NCL is probably not a good choice as it is pretty casual throughout the fleet (I have been on 6 NCL ships). Holland passengers tend to dress up more and the staff was pretty strict about attire for formal nights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahoy!

 

Ok, we are back to real life, work, etc but wanted to share thoughts on our experience on the Gem last week.

Firstly, we are Canadian, so our take is probably a bit different than most. We are 50 & 51 years old, fit, active, love to eat (quality over quantity), don't drink very much. I'm a vegetarian/pescatarian but my DH eats meat or pretty much everything.

 

Please feel free to send any questions, I'm happy to help.

 

Things We Were Impressed with:

 

- ship was very clean and well taken care of

- enormous amount of staff on board, very friendly, we left with nothing but good feelings for the crew

- entertainment was great, especially the production shows in the Stardust Lounge. We also saw the Second City show and Harry Mauer, the magician. All very entertaining!

- we had interior cabin 9551...an excellent location, highly recommend

- we had 3 specialty restaurant meals, per UDP. Two at Le Bistro, 1 at Cucina. All excellent though I really love Le Bistro. The cream of mushroom soup was the best!

 

Things We Were Surprised At:

~ the casino was really busy....like all the time! There were some really die hard gamblers on board. I think quite a few were casino guests, so they 'earned' a free cruise by spending in a casino. Sometimes it was quite smoky, other times not so bad.

~ we had expected a predominantly older crowd but there were quite a few younger, 30's & 40's on board. Only a couple of dozen kids though..maybe more, hard to say as they didn't really congregate, thankfully.

~ the seas & therefore our ship were really calm, all but the night we sailed from Halifax to Portland, when there was a storm and things were rockin' and rollin'. Otherwise, nice and steady and DH survived very well.

~ O'Sheehan's was kind of lacklustre. Nothing really on the menu for me to eat, but my DH loved the hamburgers (here and everywhere on the Gem) so we stopped in at night a couple of times for him to 'top up'.

 

Now for the Not So Great Stuff

 

~ I didn't care for the giant video screen in the atrium. Much preferred the atmosphere on the Jade, with live music etc. At night they were either showing NFL games (even though the MLB play-offs were happening) or movies. Movies could have been fun but the sound was too low to really hear properly, and the seating wasn't conducive to movie watching.

~ the desserts situation is still pretty poor. I'd heard they'd made improvements but I couldn't tell. Desserts in the buffet were pretty bad. Mostly sliced cakes, with little flavour. Lots were labeled 'cheesecake' but I don't thing any had real cream cheese or dairy. Even simple but delicious desserts like rice pudding, bread pudding, etc were missing, so IMO buffet was a sweet bust. MDR was ok, but nothing great there either. Desserts in Le Bistro and Cucina were good to excellent.

~ Dining in the MDR (we went to Grand Pacific twice) was just ok. I like the atmosphere but the food was meh...

~ and lastly (& feel free to write hate mail when you read this) the crowd was, for the most part, ridiculously casual. There were many times when we felt we were walking through someone's family room, where it would be ok to wear jeans, flip flops, track pants, t-shirts with holes in them, hats, the same outfit from dawn to dusk, shorts, muscle t's, etc. But it wasn't a private home, it was: in the casino, in the lounges, in the Grand Pacific for dinner, in the theatre, and the absolute worse: track pants, t-shirt, sandals and socks in Le Bistro for dinner. Good Grief!

I guess people embrace the 'free style' ideal on NCL but come on, have some class. Look around you...you're not in your living room, you're on a beautiful ship, in a gorgeous room, where the wait staff are in classic black &white, shirts with ties, the menu is obviously geared to a high end experience, there's a sign at the door 'suggesting' proper attire and still you don't have the energy to put some frickin' pants on?

Having said that, there were some guests that did dress up on sea day evenings (I saw one man in a tux) Overall, in the evenings, I'd say about 1/4 of the guests over the entire ship were dressed appropriately. So, if you're doing to do this sailing, don't be scared to pack your 'fancy' duds, but beware, you're going to look like celebrities compared to everyone else :rolleyes::rolleyes:

That's not necessarily a bad thing....

[UPNYGuy]

The casual dress is one of the things I LOVE about NCL. I will wear the same outfit dawn to dusk if I feel like it, and usually wear jeans or trousers with a polo shirt. In the NCL dress code, it states that jeans are totally acceptable, as are shorts and t-shirts. So I'm one of the ones that NEVER dresses up. I'm on vacation, and don't feel like it.

 

 

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[UPNYGuy]

My wife and I recently sailed on the Gem (Sep 10-17 sailing), and would agree with your observation of the casual attire by the guests. I don't know if you experienced other lines, but if the relaxed dress "codes" bother you then NCL is probably not a good choice as it is pretty casual throughout the fleet (I have been on 6 NCL ships). Holland passengers tend to dress up more and the staff was pretty strict about attire for formal nights.

 

 

Not any longer. Holland America has relaxed the dress code. Formal nights are now called 'gala' nights. It is perfectly acceptable now on HAL to wear a polo and trousers on formal night.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Turtles06]

Hi

 

Production shows in the Stardust theatre were always 630 and 830pm.

We had our specialty restaurant reservations for 7 to 730 and still made it to each show.

 

 

Welcome back, and thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

 

Those show times are not typical for NCL; shows on the Jewel class ships are generally 7pm and 9pm. I wonder if these earlier times were just for this itinerary, or whether there's been a change overall in the past few months?

[dexddd]

Hi

 

Production shows in the Stardust theatre were always 630 and 830pm.

We had our specialty restaurant reservations for 7 to 730 and still made it to each show.

 

(see my review under general NCL board, Ultimate Dining Gem)

 

Thanks.