NCL Gem Review - Garden Villa 7/19-7/26 Bermuda

[havoc315]

Just returned yesterday from a week on the Gem. It was my third NCL cruise in total, but first cruise since the Covid pandemic and first NCL cruise in the last 10 years. We had 2 families traveling together as a part of 7 -- 4 adults and 3 young adults (ages 17-19).  Booked the Garden Villa, 14500.  I admit that based on my past experience and researching a lot online, I went in with biases and expectations. My expectations were high for the Garden Villa, fairly low for the cruise itself.  I still went in with an open mind -- In some areas the cruise exceeded my expectations.  Warning -- This is a LONG review. 

 

Digging in:

 

The Cabin - The Garden Villa -- Met or exceeded my high expectations.  The cabin is almost too big --  Even if half the size, I would have felt like the accommodations were luxurious. It's been recently refurbished. It truly almost felt like being on a private luxury yacht. After walking around the regular decks and suddenly entering your cabin, it was a moment of serenity. No crowds, wide open quiet space. Spent time in the large private hot tub almost  every day.  

A bit part of what made the Garden Villa so wonderful though, was the level of service. Our butler Rogin was phenomenal. For background, Haven butlers on the Gem cover 10 suites.  Non-Haven butlers cover 14 suites. But they definitely give extra attention to the Garden Villa.  He tried to accompany us to every meal, holding the elevator and getting us directly to the restaurant. He had a continental breakfast set up every morning at 8am.  Always available for anything we needed.  And the Garden Villa truly takes a whole staff-- We saw our room steward multiple times per day and he was great. There was a constant stream of people -- the attendant setting up the outdoor area, etc.  

 

Negatives of the Garden Villa (apart from cost) were very minor:  The private steam room stopped working a couple of times. They would shut down the hot tub at night a bit earlier than I would like.  When the ships engines are running, there were a few spots where you would feel really bad vibration.  But overall, the Garden Villa was a Haven within the Haven.

 

Garden Villa -- 5/5

 

The Haven/Suite experience

 

With a few more words about the Haven experience:  I know there is often a debate on whether the Haven is worthwhile on a Jewel class ship, as you don't get a private restaurant or bar.  Of course,  it depends on the cost differential, but I still do enjoy the Jewel Haven. I used the pool in the Haven a couple of times. One day when we had bad weather, it was nice to have the covered Haven pool and hot tub.  And given breakfast and lunch are at Moderno/Cagney's, just one floor below, it does feel like an almost full Haven up for the first half of the day.

 

Breakfast in Moderno was, by far, the best meal. Pastries, smoked salmon, shrimp toast, pleasant service. But a fairly significant negative -- Breakfast shut down at 9am most days. They would quickly start clearing the buffet right at 9am.  I don't understand the limited hours -- it's not like they are using that space for anything else in the morning. It's vacation -- Plenty of people are just getting up at 9.  They really should expect the breakfast hours to 10am most days. 

 

Lunch was quite good. Soup of the day was hit or miss -- Had an excellent tomato soup, but a horrible New England Clam Chowder that had the taste and consistency of chicken soup. Lunch service was often very slow. But the entrees and appetizers were generally fresh and well prepared.  The steak with the steak frites was well seasoned. French dip was tasty, the salmon was good. Portions were on the small side, but that's not really an issue -- always plenty of food. For dessert, especially if you want something on the light side, go with the Pavlova. 

Significant negative -- My kids are both vegetarians and the only vegetarian entree on the menu was a spaghetti squash, which my son said was just a horrible undercooked clump of squash. He avoided the Cagney's lunch the rest of the cruise. 

 

Prior embarkation and disembarkation was done well.  Very nice getting quickly through customs on Bar Harbor day.   

 

Couple negatives -- I rarely saw the concierge.  No concierge table set up at breakfast and lunch. Also at the Stardust theater, reserved seating was the left side balcony, with many of the seats partially obstructed. I remember years ago, Haven reserved seating was mid center rows, must better seats.  The reserved seats with not good views. Only advantage was you could enter the theater at the last second. 

 

Overall Haven/Suite experience:  4/5

 

Staff/Service:

 

The service was phenomenal at almost all times. Never encountered a rude staff member. Typically, everyone was working hard with a smile on their face.  Service was on the slow side at a couple of restaurants, but it was never rude. 

The one area where service was slightly wanting -- The bar service:  Between the drink package creating massive demand, and also removing tipping from the equation, I found the bar service to be "only ok."  Not bad -- No rude bartenders.  And they were clearly working very hard. But unlike other staff, the bartenders didn't go out of their way to be friendly or accommodating. It was very much just shout out your order. Some bars were understaffed at times. Could take a few minutes to get a drink -- Hours were often quite limited at many bars, so options were limited to get a drink in the middle of the sea day. 

Staff and service:  4/5

 

Dining:

Taking a step back, I rate dining this way:

Extraordinary -- Chefs are artisans, creating tasty innovative dishes you may never see elsewhere.  I didn't expect anything on the Gem to reach this level.  Which is fine. 

Exceptional -- High quality ingredients prepared exceptionally well, with excellent service. A restaurant on land that you truly look forward to returning to. 

Very good:  Fresh quality ingredients prepared without any real mistakes. Food may be on the generic side, but a place you're happy to return to for a predictably solid meal. 

Good:  Nothing is really "bad" -- Some dishes may be tasty, some may be forgettable. You wouldn't object to returning, but you wouldn't go out of your way to return.

Fair:  The food is basically edible, though there are flaws in the quality, preparation and service. You'd avoid returning, but you could eat there without starving.

Poor:   You'd rather skip a meal, edibility is questionable. 

 

So my expectations were for dining to range from fair to very good.  We had our first and last meals at Les Bistro -- Which exceeded my expectations.  I'd go with exceptional. Escargot, Mushroom soup, Dover sole -- all extremely well prepared. Had the filet on the last night, which was easily the best steak I had on the cruise. 

Only downside -- which I also experienced at other specialty restaurants -- wine steward really heavily tries to upsell wine beyond the drink package. By the glass, there are plenty of perfectly reasonable wines without paying extra. Overall, Le Bistro 5/5. 

We ate at Cagneys, which again exceeded my expectations. I've eaten at some of the best steakhouses -- it did not match those. But overall, "very good." Lobster bisque was not fantastic -- tasted a bit fishy.  But my ribeye was high quality, well seasoned, delicious. Sides of mushrooms and fries were generous and tasty portions. The desserts were fantastic -- OMG Cheesecake and the Chocolate cake were standouts. 

But a negative -- We advised the restaurant in advance that we had 2 vegetarians, told they would be accommodated. 

When we arrived, our server acknowledged we had 2 vegetarians noted on the reservation -- When we asked, "well, do you have an entree for them?"  The server looked at us like we were crazy, "just what's on the menu" -- Literally, the only vegetarian item on the entire menu is the French onion soup.  When we started to make a stink, that we had given them advance notice we had vegetarians -- they scrambled and came back with a vegetarian pad thai, that my vegetarian kids did enjoy.  Overall, Cagney's, 4/5. 

 

So those were the positive dining experiences -- It then went very very downhill.

We did not dine in the Main Dining Rooms at all.  So I won't review them except to say that the menus did not look particularly appealing.

I had very low expectations of the buffet -- It may have exceeded my expectations, but only because they were so low to start with.  Food ranges from fair to good.  The pizza and pasta were college dining hall quality -- edible, but not much more. There was typically a decent chicken dish every day -- jerk chicken, teriyaki chicken.  Our friends traveling with us really did like the daily Indian dishes, said the Dal was quite good, but that's not my preference so won't comment. I tried the pork from the carving station one day -- it was dry and terrible. They had BBQ spare ribs one day that were inedible. French fries and hot dogs were safe bets, but hamburgers tasted like mystery meat. 

Desserts were poor, looking like hospital cafeteria desserts.  Further, my son had a nut allergy and I swear there were days where every single dessert had nuts. 

As reported elsewhere, simple cookies are no place to be found (except in the Haven). Ice cream was Turkey Hill, which is a low quality was perfectly edible ice cream.  The soft serve machine -- tasted like the ice cream was being made with ice water instead of milk/cream.  Chocolate soft serve almost tasted like chocolate flavored ice, not creamy at all.  If I was grading the buffet alone, I'd give it a 2/5.

 

Orchid Garden -- I had low expectations but our friends were excited to do Chinese food. While we were immediately seated, and our appetizers came quickly, entrees took another 30-40 minutes. And honestly, the food was just bad. Tasted like grocery freezer microwaved Chinese food. Desserts were better, but not enough to rescue the rest of the meal -- poor -- 1/5. 

 

O'Sheehans -- Just had a burger and wings 1 night delivered to the cabin. So very limited experience. The buffalo wings had a bit of a vinegar type taste. Burger was ok, maybe a Red Robbin quality burger.  Overall, 3/5, but very limited experience.

 

La Cucina -- NCL recently dramatically reduced the menu here. Assumed in an Italian restaurant, there would be plenty of vegetarian pasta options for my kids -- Nope, only 3 pasta options, none of which were vegetarian. The closest thing was vegetarian Risotto, which both my kids found to be okay. I started with the Pasta Fagioli which didn't really have enough pasta, but was okay. The calamari was under seasoned, but also ok. 

The huge disappointment was the pizza-- We are a pizza loving group, and that should be a safe vegetarian option.  And even the pizza at the buffet was edible. But the pizza at la Cucina was so horrible, I felt like we were being pranked. A Margherita Pizza, by definition, has little clumps of fresh mozzarella cheese. Here, you had a soft mushy floppy crust, topped with pounds of thick cheese.  The cheese on a single slice of pizza could probably be an anchor for the ship. It was disgusting, it was inedible.  So yes, the upcharge pizza was massively worse than the "free" pizza at the buffet. 

My friend got the filet as a main which he regretted. I had the Gamberi Fra Diavolo, which was edible but forgettable. Desserts were one again better than the rest of the meal. But the pizza was so horrendous, I'd have to rate this dining experience as poor, 1/5.  

 

Dining overall comments:  At 10pm one night, my friend wanted ice cream. We were surprised to find that the buffet closed at 9:30, and there were really no dining options for the rest of the night apart from O'Sheehans.  Maybe my memories are wrong, I seemed to remember the buffet being open later, and more deck side food open later.  

Our Haven breakfast and lunch were very good -- 4/5. 

The "included" dining was fair at best -- 2/5. 

Upcharge restaurants -- which Cagney's and Les Bistro were well worth buying the dining package, La Cucina was truly terrible.  So upcharge dining ranged from 1 to 5. 

Guess I have to give dining overall, 3/5.  It would be lower if not for the Haven breakfast and lunch.

 

Entertainment:

Overall, exceeded my expectations.

The production cast was immensely talented -- their 4 singers had very strong voices. Blazing Boots was fun, and "Get Down Tonight" was great. They did a medley of television theme songs of the 70's which was especially fun.  (Partridge Family, Brady Bunch).  They debuted a new show -- 80's Broadway, which just had the 4 singers from the production cast. It didn't have much in production values, but they were great voices. They opened with a medley of Les Miserables and ended with a medley of Annie. 

One night was just a movie. They had a magician for 3 nights, over which he did 2 shows.   (Same show on first and last night).  My wife felt the magician's humor was a bit sexist and crass -- Felt the attractive female volunteer was made to feel awkward. The magician was fair, I definitely laughed at times. 

 

My complaints about the entertainment are mostly the lack of a Broadway style production. The 3 shows were basically just medley performances, but I still enjoyed them.

 

There was a decedent amount of lounge entertainment throughout the ship at various times. Caught a good jazz singer at Spinnaker's one afternoon. 

 

I was happy to see that the main entertainment venues were not constantly being used for pay-to-play game shows. 

 

Entertainment score:  3.5/5.  

 

Ship Common Spaces:

The Gem is a beautiful ship with some beautiful spaces. I really love the stairway that connects the bars on the 6th floor to the 7th floor. I always made a point of walking through the art gallery on the 6th floor, beautiful rotating pieces. 

 

But too many spaces felt too crowded too often. Long waits for elevators. The atrium would be beautiful if it wasn't always so overstuffed. It was constantly being used for trivia and game shows, it was hard to even walk across the atrium.  Bar hours were often too limited, leading to overcrowding at the open bars. 

Overall common space score:  2.5/5.

 

Summary of my thoughts:  I had a wonderful cruise, but it was greatly elevated by the Haven/suite/Garden Villa experience. 

Common areas were pretty but too often overcrowded, the included dining (and some of the upcharge dining) was generally poor. While the entertainment was better than I expected, it wasn't super memorable. The suite experience provides peaceful separation from the overcrowding, better dining at breakfast and lunch, and just a much more tranquil experience.  Allowing me to rate my overall trip at 4/5.  

 

 

 

 

[david_sobe]

Thanks for sharing.  It must be a dream to sail in a Garden Villa.  I would never leave the cabin.  I wish NCL would scrap La Cucina on the rest of the ships and put Onda.  I thought that was the plan.  I never cared for any of the food at La Cucina and always thought its quality was the same or worse than the MDR.  In 2015 we put in the MDR review card how much better the gnocchi was there compared to La Cucina.  The pizza at Onda is amazing.  The bread alone is a gourmet meal.

[Laszlo]

Nice review, strange the concierge wasn't set up Moderno. During our June 28th - July 5th cruise we saw him every morning set up and then again at Cagney's at lunch

[havoc315]

22 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

Nice review, strange the concierge wasn't set up Moderno. During our June 28th - July 5th cruise we saw him every morning set up and then again at Cagney's at lunch

Definitely a different concierge on board, we had a woman, Nasheera. We really only saw her at embarkation and disembarkation times. She did come by the villa on the first day to introduce herself. Noticed the “concierge lounge” sign stuck away unused in a corner of the Moderno/Cagney’s foyer. 

[drumming cruisers]

Do you have pictures of the villa?

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Have been blessed to sail since 1971 and with NCL since 1975. Countless times, countless ships throughout the world. Thank you for your excellent report. Your summary and ratings were well thought out and backed up with detail.  Welcome home! 

[umpisoccer]

The 3 bedroom Garden Villa is definitely on my bucket list.  You just made me want to book it even more now.  Thank you for the review.

[havoc315]

9 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

Do you have pictures of the villa?

 

I'll post a short video of the main areas soon.  

 

 

[dexddd]

Thanks for the review.  First I've heard reserved seats were not in the upper left and upper right balcony for Dawn or Jewel class.  Some people like them, some don't.

 

NCL is very consistent with inconsistent pizza.  I've only come to the conclusion that they have no standard recipe and leave it up to a prep cook to wing it.  I will say best in fleet was POA in buffet with special pizza oven.  Dawn in La Cucina way back close second.

[Barb Nahoumi]

The pizza at La Cucina, must have really been lousy, if that in the buffet tasted better.   Once I ordered Chicken Cacciatori at La Cucina, and it was good.

[havoc315]

1 hour ago, Barb Nahoumi said:

The pizza at La Cucina, must have really been lousy, if that in the buffet tasted better.   Once I ordered Chicken Cacciatori at La Cucina, and it was good.

 

I don't think I got a picture of it, I should have. 7 people unanimously thought it was absolutely disgusting. And we like almost all pizza.  

The buffet wasn't much better than supermarket frozen pizza -- But La Cucina was even worse than that. 

 

The pictures I'm seeing online don't look that bad.  Maybe the kitchen staff currently on the Gem in la Cucina just really don't know how to make pizza. 

 

The other huge problem was the reductions to the menu:

This was just their pasta section last year:

 

 

 

Now, they eliminated having a separate pasta section to the menu.  So appetizers, antipasto and pastas when from 14 dishes down to just 6. 

 

They went from having 2 vegetarian pasta dishes -- Gnocchi and Fettucine Alfredo, down to 0. 

They previously had 5 appetizer pastas (plus risotto) down to just  1 -- Onlt the Spaghetti Carbonara remains.  (Risotto remains as well, and the Lasagna got moved to an entrée).  

 

 

Edited July 28 by havoc315

[Ranasa]

Thank you for your very helpful review!  We have this room booked for April out of Boston.  We have two couples, two single adults and two children (aged 16 and 8).  We are trying to sort out the sleeping arrangements.  Could you comment on whether the crew permitted sleeping on the sofa or bringing in a rollaway bed?

[bookbabe]

31 minutes ago, Ranasa said:

Thank you for your very helpful review!  We have this room booked for April out of Boston.  We have two couples, two single adults and two children (aged 16 and 8).  We are trying to sort out the sleeping arrangements.  Could you comment on whether the crew permitted sleeping on the sofa or bringing in a rollaway bed?

We have the Jade garden villa booked for June 2025, and were allowed to book 8 in it based on sofa beds in two of the three bedrooms, the main and the third.  We are hoping person 8 can camp on the living room sofa instead of in our (main) bedroom, and just use our shower when needed.  I’ll be interested to see what the OP reports.

[Laszlo]

On 7/27/2024 at 11:43 PM, drumming cruisers said:

Do you have pictures of the villa?

 

 

 

[havoc315]

On 8/22/2024 at 10:26 AM, Ranasa said:

Thank you for your very helpful review!  We have this room booked for April out of Boston.  We have two couples, two single adults and two children (aged 16 and 8).  We are trying to sort out the sleeping arrangements.  Could you comment on whether the crew permitted sleeping on the sofa or bringing in a rollaway bed?

 

I believe those are viable options.  

We had 7 people --- The "extra" used the sofa bed in the master bedroom.  There is also a sleeper chair in one of the other bedrooms.  

Certainly, nobody is going to stop anybody from sleeping on a couch in the living room, but I don't think that would be very comfortable.  I believe they can bring in a rollaway but I'm not sure.