Back on The Sea Again: Gem 08/29/2021 Review

[janpa70]

Love the review. Going on the Gem in October. Just wondering about how they are doing the buffets now and the drinks. Can you get your own water and juice or does a crew member do it for you? Thanks

[surfone]

We really like the Gem,  bringing nice memories back from when we sailed out of NYC to N.E and Canada a few years ago.  Great review

[hungry1]

I am enjoying your trip report so much.  Thank you for adding all of the detail.  I find it helpful and important.  I just purchased an insulated water bottle for my next cruise and it was nice seeing that you recommend bringing one along.  I appreciate all the time and work you have put into this.  Keep it coming!

 

[AKR2011]

22 hours ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

Loving the review! 

Thanks for reading!

 

18 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

Following.

Thanks for being here!

 

17 hours ago, OkieTO said:

Cruising on the Gem this Sunday! This review was very informative. Thank you!

Thank you. Enjoy your cruise!

 

8 hours ago, TSUmom said:

You are just like me.  I get up early all week for work (3 am) so even on vacation I am up looking for coffee because I don't want to wake my DH.  I also have everything ready to go with a bag packed and my clothes out!  After my coffee I like a mimosa, you know the healthy OJ.  

Loving your review - just over 4 weeks and I will be on the Gem!!

I usually drink mimosas myself, but I fell hard for all of the other drinks instead. The atrium bar crew is awesome. Enjoy your cruise!

 

5 hours ago, jezabel80 said:

Great Review!!   I'm really enjoying it.   Thanks for posting

Thanks for following!

[AKR2011]

1 hour ago, janpa70 said:

Love the review. Going on the Gem in October. Just wondering about how they are doing the buffets now and the drinks. Can you get your own water and juice or does a crew member do it for you? Thanks

Thank you! The buffet is self serve. The Washy-Washy crew is on point making sure that everyone sanitized as they walk in. And I always made sure to use a clean cup to fill my water bottle. They have always had that posted to follow.

 

42 minutes ago, surfone said:

We really like the Gem,  bringing nice memories back from when we sailed out of NYC to N.E and Canada a few years ago.  Great review

Thanks for following! We were on The Gem out of NYC in 2013. Canada/New England is coming up in 2023, but out of Boston instead.

 

15 minutes ago, hungry1 said:

I am enjoying your trip report so much.  Thank you for adding all of the detail.  I find it helpful and important.  I just purchased an insulated water bottle for my next cruise and it was nice seeing that you recommend bringing one along.  I appreciate all the time and work you have put into this.  Keep it coming!

 

I really appreciate your comments! Next installment is on it's way...

[AKR2011]

Day 3: Roatan, Honduras!! This was a new port for us, and I did  lot of digging into what we wanted to do. I like going off the beaten path a bit. I've also read a lot about reputable tour companies, and Victor Bodden always gets great reviews from cruisers. We are not the type of people who go out of their way to hold a sloth or hang out at a beach (although we did do that second one later in the cruise). We like culture and history, as well as local more secluded spots. My Escape Review has a few good places that we did in the Western Caribbean before. I can't wait to share our day in Honduras with you all, but I'll start with the morning. Another early one for me, but I slept in until 5:30am. I'll take that as a win. Another day of walking laps:

 

The sunrise was as beautiful as always:

 

This morning I fell in love with the staff at Garden Café. Doreen was my favorite, and she sang and played maracas each day as we came in. Then after we sat down in back at The Great Outdoors (the BEST place to eat in our opinion), the coffee girls come around chanting, "Coffee, coffee. Wakey, wakey. Makes you hot and sexy!" They would sing as well. I don't drink coffee, but Alex does, and we always looked forward to seeing them. Alex told me that later on the cruise he heard a guest complain about the crew singing. I guess she didn't want that in the morning or in the restaurant. That makes me sad, because they always put a smile on my face. But if you don't want to be sing to, feel feel to grab breakfast in the dining room or O'Sheehan's. I think there was a small buffet on the pool deck too. I want for sustenance, so here was my plate:

 

We weren't scheduled for Roatan until 10am, so there was time for trivia first. Alex decided to give the Daydreamer's Daiquiri a try and was quite happy:

 

I saw Crème de Menthe at the atrium and asked what could be done with that, and I ended up with a beautiful Grasshopper:

 

I actually ended up drinking a lot of Grasshoppers after this. They were quite yummy and always had a pretty pattern on top. After trivia I stayed long enough to grab a journal craft kit. I've always loved the crafts at sea. They're free and better quality than all of the trivia prizes that we all fight to win! I didn't do it at the time since we had to get off. If you wanted to stay on the ship, there were other things happening. Here is the daily:

 

Our tour in Roatan is coming up next!

 

~ Ashley

[AKR2011]

Most cruisers will choose a tour on the western side of Roatan. There you can hold a sloth, go to a beach, ide a zipline, or visit the Rum and Chocolate Factories. I'm sure there are other things as well, but that's what I saw in my research. I was instead drawn to the eastern side. I saw that you could take a small drury boat through the mangrove trees, and I was sold. Finding a tour for that proved to be difficult, but I contacted Victor Bodden, and he set us up with a private guide all day for only $45/person! The boat ride would be an extra $20/person, but I didn't care. That was still a bargain in my book. We met our guide at the port and learned all about the island on the way to meet his brother who would be captaining our boat. We learned from our guide just how difficult the pandemic has been on Roatan. They rely on tourism, and he wasn't sure where his next meal was coming from the past 16 months. He said that when a ship in is port he takes a taxi there and hopes to pick up a tour. He waits all day. If no one comes, he doesn't get paid and has to ask Victor for a loan to catch a cab home. He was thrilled that we pre-booked with him for this reason. I wanted to share this story knowing that so many people will book through the cruise line. I know that sometimes it may be nerve-wracking to not know if you will make it back to the ship on time. I book privately whenever possible and have NEVER been back late. Booking privately gives the money for the tours solely to the operators, so I always ty to do that and take care of them. Anyway, off my soap box....We had a relaxing time on our boat:

 

Soon we were floating past the quaint town of Oak Ridge:

 

If I could afford it, this would be my house:

 

Then we started going through the mangroves. Alex had his binoculars out and was counting all of the birds. I was just enjoying the beauty of the trees:

 

Our guides said that most cruisers and vacationers don't come to this side of the island at all. Most drury boat tours are locals. I knew we made the right choice. The guides were great and the boat was so relaxing:

 

Lunch is coming up next, but one thing I will point out is that we had no life jackets on board. I was alarmed when I noticed that at first, but the boat was very stable. I don't know if you could request them if you had kids or couldn't swim, but I did want to point that out. Lunch is next...

 

~ Ashley

[AKR2011]

I originally had a place picked out for lunch in Oak Ridge called BJ's Backyard, but our guides said that locals prefer another spot. I've learned that you just have to go where they go, so our boat pulled right up to a dock with a place called Hole in the Wall:

 

This was a fun spot run by an American named Captain Eddie. We didn't discuss politics, but it was clear where he stood:

 

I'm not actually drinking liquor here. It was canned water! I have never seen that before:

 

So no masks allowed, but it was outdoors, and no one else was there initially. We went for it. Alex whispered that he wanted to buy our guides lunch too, and of course I agreed. Alex had a full fish dinner, and I had a fried combo of conch, scallops, and lobster:

 

The food was pretty good, not the best in our opinion. Maybe we just expected more since our guides hyped it up? But it was definitely a good meal. Captain Eddie also had a monkey that he brought over to show us:

 

This was definitely a cool lunch spot, and I liked that we boated right up to it. We were sad to float away:

 

This part of our tour was about 3 hours, plus the half hour it took to get there. Our guide asked what we wanted to do next, and we asked for a grocery store away from port. I always grab local candy to bring back to co-workers, and we were looking for liquor too. We were led to a store filled with locals, and I grabbed lots of fun local treats. Our guide helps us figure out the prices. Then we moved to the liquor aisle. No Jameson for me, but Alex picked up a bottle of local rum for $4 and a 1-liter bottle of Bacardi for $6! That was the bargain of the day. Then our guide took us to a local shop so that I could pick up a Christmas ornament. We have one from every port and every ship, so this was a necessity. It was getting hot, and we saw everything that we wanted, so we tipped our guide and headed back to the ship.

 

Final Thoughts: I understand why Victor Bodden comes highly recommended. I was emailing with a few people, and he was great at getting back to me with details. The eastern side of the island is really cool, and I wish we had more time to explore in Oak Ridge. The port itself was much like a lot of cruise ports in that it was over-commercialized but also very welcoming and fun. Back on the dock, NCL was waiting with ice cold towels and flavored water. They have always done a great job welcoming guests back, and I was happy to see that this has not changed. Evening coming up next...

 

~ Ashley

[AKR2011]

My apologies, as I thought I had more photos of the evening, but I don't ☹️ I will summarize for sure, though. We had some drinks at the atrium when we got back and then headed to Spinnaker for the Compete Opposites Game:

 

All of the game shows were very fun, and they were held every afternoon before evening trivia and every night in-between the shows. We always participated in the afternoon shows and had a great time. Everyone is a little different on a cruise than in real life. I'm generally the same bubbly person all the time, but I do put myself out there more at sea and participate in all of these silly game shows. They are a lot of fun, and I met so many fun people playing along. We stayed for evening trivia of course, and eventually we had dinner at the main dining room. I forgot to take photos, but I remember ordering a few appetizers instead of a full meal, and it was perfect. We were also in and out within 45 minutes. That feels like a record for the MDR. I guess with one crew per passenger the galley moves quick. It was lovely. We later grabbed dessert at the Garden Café and enjoyed it at The Great Outdoors:

 

Tonight's show was Duo Quintessence, an aerial pair that met as dancers on Carnival and then learned how to do aerial so that they could have their own show. They're a married couple, and the tricks were great. However, there was also a lot of video in-between. That was my one criticism. I loved hearing their story and seeing how they traveled all over the world, but it also seemed a bit drawn out. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed watching them. We the grabbed a quick drink and headed up to bed. Another port tomorrow:

 

I will hopefully be back tomorrow with another installment. I am still playing catch-up at work, so we'll see when I actually get home. I'll definitely be doing more updates this weekend.

 

~ Ashley

Edited September 10, 2021 by AKR2011

[meatball_nyc]

Thanks for the review! It feels like I am actually on a cruise! 

Looking forward to more. Thank you!

 

 

[eileeshb]

Great review. I used Victor Bodden a few years ago so I’d agree his team is great, the tour guide showed us some of the local medicinal plants and even put one to use when someone picked up a scrape. At that time the island was going through a lot of development to improve roads to the touristy areas. 

[AKR2011]

20 hours ago, meatball_nyc said:

Thanks for the review! It feels like I am actually on a cruise! 

Looking forward to more. Thank you!

 

 

Thanks so much for your comment and for following!

 

1 minute ago, eileeshb said:

Great review. I used Victor Bodden a few years ago so I’d agree his team is great, the tour guide showed us some of the local medicinal plants and even put one to use when someone picked up a scrape. At that time the island was going through a lot of development to improve roads to the touristy areas. 

Thanks so much for reading. So good to hear about another great experience with Victor Bodden 😊

 

 

I have a long night of work ahead and will not be able to update again until tomorrow. Have a great Friday, and thanks all for reading.

 

~ Ashley

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, AKR2011 said:

Thanks so much for your comment and for following!

 

Thanks so much for reading. So good to hear about another great experience with Victor Bodden 😊

 

 

I have a long night of work ahead and will not be able to update again until tomorrow. Have a great Friday, and thanks all for reading.

 

~ Ashley

Your review is truly awesome, Ashley. I feel like I was there with you, you write very well and very descriptively. It's been a thorough pleasure to read about your trip. So well organized, too. You obviously put a lot of thought into it, I am so grateful. I like the blue text, too, it makes it easier to read. 😀 I'm dying to try a Grasshopper now. 😁

[Burrata]

Great trip report and photos Ashley!

the Gem was our last cruise in August 2019  ☹️

 

 We loved the Great Outdoors and the Spinnaker Lounge too.

 

thank you so much for posting! 

[AKR2011]

16 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Your review is truly awesome, Ashley. I feel like I was there with you, you write very well and very descriptively. It's been a thorough pleasure to read about your trip. So well organized, too. You obviously put a lot of thought into it, I am so grateful. I like the blue text, too, it makes it easier to read. 😀 I'm dying to try a Grasshopper now. 😁

Thank you so much for your sweet comments!! I love being able to relive vacation a little and hopefully help others out too. And yes, Grasshoppers are so refreshing and yummy. I miss them already.

 

48 minutes ago, Burrata said:

Great trip report and photos Ashley!

the Gem was our last cruise in August 2019  ☹️

 

 We loved the Great Outdoors and the Spinnaker Lounge too.

 

thank you so much for posting! 

Thank you for following. Definitely my favorite venues. Funny story, though. One of the mornings when I woke up before the sun I decided to go to Spinnaker for a different sunrise. It was pitch black and I used the flashlight on my tablet trying to find a light switch. No such luck. Instead, I bumped into a maint. person asking me what I was doing. I explained, and he could not find a switch either, so I left. Kind of creepy in the moment. I continued to go outside and watch the sunrise instead.

[AKR2011]

Day 4...Harvest Caye, Belize! We came here before in 2018 and took a ferry to the mainland, then a bus to ruins and a spice farm. I felt like we spent more time traveling get anywhere than we did actually doing anything, so I didn't want to go through that again. I would have been fine staying on the private island and going parasailing (it's on my bucket list), but Alex wanted a tour of some kind. But first, we had to get the day started. I was up before my 6:15 alarm, but I was ready only a few minutes before it went off, so I waited for Alex and he was able to enjoy a sunrise with me:

 

We grabbed a quick breakfast at The Great Outdoors before heading out. We were instructed to meet at the marina at 8:15am for the Monkey River Eco Tour. This put us in a boat with about 15 other passengers, floating down the river and looking at wildlife. Masks were required the entire time at Harvest Caye and on the tour, although I know they were not needed when swimming. Here we are enjoying the ride:

 

The tour made no promises of seeing wildlife, but we were definitely hopeful. We had really interactive guides pointing things out along the way, and they were excited whenever we saw anything:

 

The boat was only partially covered, so those in the back were in the hot sun. They did have a large jug of water and cups, and I refilled my bottle quite a few times. And we were able to see some cool things on the river, such as an anhinga:

 

And a great egret:

 

The river was very calm and peaceful:

 

Soon we docked on the mainland and we warned to put on bug spray. The mosquitos were pretty bad, so I'm glad that I had a small bottle with me, and someone else brought some as well. We offered some to others too. I don't remember the tour description mentioning a walk through the woods. I packed my trusty Crocs boat shoes for more active days, but I had my open-toed flat Crocs instead on this day. Luckily, the path was a boardwalk and very manageable:

 

We did have to walk into the woods at one point, but it was not bad and totally worth it. Alex's view through his binoculars was much better than this next photo, but it was SO cool. We saw holler monkeys!!

 

We also saw a couple of more creepy forest creatures. First was a snake wrapped around a tree:

 

Then a huge tarantula:

 

We were only in the woods for about half an hour. Then the boat made one more quick stop to a local shop where we could purchase things or just stay on the boat. Soon we were heading back to port:

 

We were able to get a nice picture of The Gem docked:

 

We walked around a little in port, but it was VERY hot, so we didn't stay too long. We did want a photo by the sign before leaving, though:

 

Back on the ship, Alex captured this nice photo of the port and the walk to the island. They do have a golf cart if you can't walk:

 

I'll be back in just a few minutes with the rest of Day #4.

 

~ Ashley

 

 

[AKR2011]

Final thoughts on Harvest Caye: It is a VERY commercialized port. I think we chose a better excursion this time, but it is still not our favorite place. The Monkey River guides were great and very knowledgeable. The island itself was clean and had lots of loungers available if you wanted a beach day. Unlike Great Stirrup Cay, no food or beverages are included on land, so it could get expensive quickly. We are hoping to get back to Great Stirrup Cay instead when we cruise the Caribbean again, but it was still a nice day.

 

If you chose to stay on the ship today, there was plenty to do as always:

 

I remember on The Escape they had a painting class. Maybe this is just for bigger ships? I would have enjoyed that. It was still early when we came back, so we hung out and played a board game at The Great Outdoors. We only packed one big game, and this was what we decided to try today. The wonderful game of Puerto Rico:

 

Next to the game you can see that we were getting our drink on of course! The drink of the day was Bahama Mamas, and they were yummy. We had several other drinks as well, and eventually we grabbed a quick lunch there. When we headed back to our room we had our first ever load of platinum laundry waiting for us:

 

This was the first time that we have ever had the ship do our laundry, and it was so wonderful! I mean, look at that cute basket 😍 The laundry was pressed and folded, and we were so impressed. We sent a second load out on Day #6 and had it back just in time for packing on Day #7. We spent some time in Spinnaker next, since it was nice and quiet. I read my book, and Alex listened to his...or maybe he napped:

 

There was a Music Mania Game Show at 5:00, and that was a lot of fun. At one point I had to sing karaoke, but the words never came on the screen. I winged it and had a lot of fun. Everyone had a blast at this game. Then we stayed for Trivia, of course. We went to the early show tonight and saw Blazing Boots. This was one of the best shows that we saw all week. Great cast, good dance moves, and awesome music. I wish there was more of a plot, but it was a super show overall. Then we stopped into Orchid Garden for a late dinner. I don't have pics, but Alex had beef lo main and really enjoyed it. I had steamed dumplings with spring rolls, and they were yummy too. Dessert did not look great to us, so we stopped by the MDR instead:

 

Bring me a cannoli any day, and I am the happiest girl alive. We bar-hopped after and I had my fair share of whiskey. Soon we were back in the room with a new friend waiting for us:

 

I will try to get back here later to post Day #5. Busy Saturday ahead. Thanks all for reading, and let me know if you have any questions. Or favorite port of all is coming up next!!

 

~ Ashley

Edited September 11, 2021 by AKR2011

[AKR2011]

Day 5: Costa Maya, Mexico!! This was our favorite port day, and I have lots of pictures to share. To start, we had breakfast at Sheehan's. I was so happy to see breakfast sandwiches on the menu - my favorite:

 

We saw Tony as we were finishing up, and he planned to stay on the ship. We were missing some trivia with him and apologized, but we didn't want to be late for our tour, and he totally understood. Fr those staying on board today, there was plenty to do:

 

When we were in Costa Maya in 2018, we booked a trip to see the Chacchoben Ruins and have lunch with a native family. It was a small tour with about 10 of us, and overall it was an awesome day. I highly recommend that one if you want to see ruins and meet a family. Because of that experience I looked at Native Choice again, and I found a tour that included the same lunch with a family and a visit to Seven Colors Lagoon, which looked beautiful from the photos. It was $80/pp and definitely looked like a relaxing day. Normally we are not beach people, but this pandemic has taken a toll on me, and a relaxing lagoon sounded wonderful. Like all guides that we had, every one with Native Choice was vaccinated. I think I forgot to mention earlier that I always inquired about that when booking.

 

Our tour was scheduled for 10am local time, and I think we arrived around 9:30. It's a maze to get out of port and then walk to Native Choice, but they do email a helpful map. RCCL had a ship in port with us too, and we saw some of their guests at Native Choice as well. However, they were all on other tours. No one else was on ours, so we had a completely private tour!! Our guide explained that usually lunch is first, but since we were the only ones, we were able to have lunch later and go to the lagoon first instead. Breakfast wasn't too long ago, so we were not hungry at all. It was a bit of a drive to get to the lagoon, but he pointed out things along the way. He also stopped to pick up a pineapple for us to try later:

 

Soon we arrived at Seven Colors Lagoon. It was a resort that they were using, and pics are coming in the next post. Here is where we went:

 

~ Ashley

[AKR2011]

Our resort was absolutely beautiful, and you can stay there as a regular guest, but no one was at the beach house at all:

 

We had the ENTIRE place to ourselves!! We dropped our things off at beach chairs and went off to explore a little:

 

Here is the entranceway coming in:

 

There was a bar and a tender that made us a many margaritas and pina coladas as would like:

 

Next to the bar were kayaks and life jackets that you could take out:

 

This was the front of the water:

 

The Lagoon had the most beautiful shade of blue to it:

 

We went on top of the deck to get a better look and take photos of us enjoying the day:

 

Of course we had to pose in the big chair too:

 

Soon Alex decided to take out a kayak:

 

There was no one else around us, no one else on the water...So secluded and beautiful! Meanwhile, I read Book #2 (The Boy From the Woods - Harlan Coben), and I enjoyed a couple drinks from our personal bartender:

 

The water was soon calling my name, so I went out to swing:

 

I just loved relaxing in the warm water:

 

Eventually Alex started to head back:

 

And I swam up to him so we could enjoy the water together:

 

Afterwards we enjoyed a few more drinks while we dried off and hung out on our loungers. What an amazing few hours and we still had lunch!

 

~ Ashley

Edited September 12, 2021 by AKR2011

[janpa70]

What is breakfast like at Sheehans? I've only ever ate there for late night snacks, meals. What kind of sandwiches do they serve for breakfast?

 

[AKR2011]

Next up...Lunch!! We tipped our bartender at the resort and drove maybe 15 minutes. We were excited to learn that we would be going back to the same house as before. I have never forgotten this experience, so it was awesome to do it again. First we washed our hands and made tortillas:

 

They were cooked on a griddle and served to us warm with the most amazing salsa. I have never forgotten this salsa, and honestly it's probably the best thing I ate. It's tomato, ground pumpkin seeds, and cilantro. I need to save my seeds when we do Jack-O-Lanterns this year so that I can make it. A blurry picture unfortunately due to my excitement:

 

Next, our guide took us over so that we could see our lunch spread:

 

These are the dried herbs and spices used:

 

Everything was served in this beautiful pots:

 

We had tamales:

 

Rice:

 

Beans:

 

Chicken:

 

And root vegetables:

 

I know what I like, so here is my plate of tamales and chicken:

 

Alex loves everything and ate it all:

 

We had our very own table for two set up with warm tortillas and hibiscus water:

 

After the main course they offered flan for dessert, and our guide brought out some of the pineapple for us to try. It was very sweet and juicy, and he had a spice mix to sprinkle on as well:

 

We then had a tour of the garden and saw how the family grew all of the food right in their backyard. We left a tip in their basket before heading back. Native Choice is not associated with the port, so they are not allowed to pick up there, but they can drop off. We left our guide and driver a tip and then grabbed a photo with them before heading back into the maze of Costa Maya:

 

It was SO hot, and I remembered seeing Mexican popsicles during our last trip here, but I never bought one. I didn't want to miss out this time, but unfortunately, I could not find a vendor anywhere. Instead, I saw a Gelato stand and went for that instead. They gave me the wifi password for buying it, so Alex was able to use his birding app for a bit and put in yesterday's count while I enjoyed my treat:

 

We had nothing else that we needed to do in port, so we headed back to the ship an hour before all aboard. Once again, NCL had cold washcloths, flavored water, and a towel exchange right at the pier. Way to go!!

 

Final Thoughts: I will always recommend Native Choice. The guides are great, and the tours have plenty of culture mixed in with whatever else you are looking for. I am so happy that we chose the lagoon this time. It was very relaxing, and although it was private for us, I don't think it would ever get to be too crowded. They were also very flexible about doing a later lunch for us, which was really appreciated. We could not have asked for a better day!!

 

~ Ashley

[AKR2011]

Back on The Gem, we headed back to our cabin to shower and saw the saddest thing so far:

 

We still had a couple days, and our luggage tags were here already??? I read the letter and learned that red was for the airport transfer. A couple days before I signed us up for a land tour to the Everglades. Two weeks before our trip, our flights were changed to 5pm out of Fort Lauderdale. Not wanting to spend the day at the airport, I signed us up for a tour to delay us. After my shower I stopped by the desk and learned that they did not have enough participation for ANY land tour to run. I was so disappointed. Now we would have a very long day at the airport. So what do you do when you receive sad news on a cruise? You grab a drink of course! I grabbed a few cocktails from the atrium bar while I played the unscramble trivia, and we did well on that. Then I changed our dinner reservation for tonight to a later time and headed to Spinnaker for the Know it All Game Show. We did so well at this that we finally won a deck of cards:

 

We then went to Bar City for some more cocktails. I had been teasing Alex all week about making him try Grass Clippings. On The Escape, I could not drink it. It really was a glass of what looked like cut grass. Alex never tried it, so when I saw it on the menu at the whiskey bar, I knew he needed to do it this time. Unfortunately, it looked nothing like mine did before:

 

Grass Clippings on the left, my Old Fashioned is on the right. Even without the clippings, Alex was not thrilled with this drink and asked for a mojito instead, so we went up to Sugarcane for more drinks and a game of Catan on my tablet:

 

We went to the early show of magician Kid Ace. I wanted to sit towards the front, since I always have trouble seeing magic from the back, but Alex wanted the middle. There were times when a close-up camera showed the tricks on a big screen, but we definitely should have sat closer. However, it would not have helped the magic. We have seen some good magicians (like the last one the Escape), and a GREAT magician (The Thrillusionist David Davinci and his wife on The Dawn). I also remember having a great magician back on The Jewel in 2011. Unfortunately, Kid Ace was not very good in our opinion. His tricks were weak, and his stage presence was lacking too. Only our opinion of course, but we really hope that the shows this week were just NCL's way of easing back into shows.  We then headed back to Bar City for more drinks and music with Nathaniel Reed. I needed more whiskey, so a Manhattan was in order:

 

Then I wanted another Limoncello Martini, and Alex asked for a glass of wine:

 

We had Cagney's rescheduled for 9:30. However, we were not very hungry. We went back to the room so Alex could change before going, and we left our phones behind. I don't have any food pics, but I do remember that Alex had prime rib and I had seafood. It was delicious, but we were too full for dessert. I wanted to have them send it to our room, but they said that it was too late. However, I could call when we got back and then they could send someone up? I'm not sure why they do it that way. Unfortunately I forgot to do that, but it's fine. We did get a photo tonight and decided to buy it:

 

We also had our next daily and towel animal in our room:

 

Cozumel is coming up next, but I need to work on dinner, and we have a virtual game night later as well. I will try to get the next day up tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

 

~ Ashley

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by AKR2011

[beadelc]

Thank you so much for all your information! I am going to be in the Gem in Oct. 10th and your information has been very helpful.

Thanks

Bea

[meatball_nyc]

What a great review, Ashley. Thank you again!

 

I would have “liked” every post, but CC is being a pain in the you know what with that. 

 

Hope to be back at sea on the Gem sometime soon. Thank you!

 

safe travels!

[TSUmom]

Thank you for sharing!  I am enjoying your detailed review and the pictures.