New Years on the Gem - a long review

[lukes]

Our sailing on the Gem's inaugural New Years Eve cruise, Dec 29 /07 - Jan 05/08.

 

Background: We are a family of four and this was our third NCL cruise in the last year, previously on the Spirit & Dawn, all sailing from NYC. We stayed 4 in an inside stateroom deck 10. All of these opinions and experiences are our own. The other 2500 + passengers will each have their own.

 

Embarkation: Embarkation took place from the new Manhattan cruise ship terminal, a much more cozy, nicer and clean facility then the previous terminal. Security & processing was quick and painless, however the ship had been late arriving and with the relaxed disembarkation (more on that later) passengers were still straggling off at 12:30, therefore we were not able to get onto the ship until 2:00. The photographers seemed to be late setting up which led to 3/4 of the passengers missing the embarkation photo. Not that our family cared too much. Traveling pictures aren’t always the best!

The staff was trying to direct us to the Garden cafe for lunch, however having learned from Cruise Critic we headed to the Grand Pacific for lunch instead. The Grand Pacific was fairly empty for lunch on this day, so we didn’t have to battle a huge crowd at the buffet.

 

Cabin: Having stayed in an inside stateroom previously we knew what to expect and were not disappointed. The room was small but the 4 of us made it work, utilizing every available space which included under the bed for luggage storage. The bathroom was again nice, with a separate shower with glass door. The room between the toilet and wall was limited so a side saddle approach was required. We really only used the cabin for sleeping, showering and changing and because of this the room was great for our needs.

 

Almost immediately upon entering the cabin we were greeted by name by the 2 best room stewards we have ever encountered. Melchor & Ritche. They had a great sense of humor, were always around. They were also very informative and helpful with all aspects of the ship. One of the first things they asked was if it was a special cruise (other than New Years) and I informed them that it was my wife's 50th birthday, upon which Melchor proceeded to sing happy birthday. I informed him that her birthday was not actually until the 31st, he stopped just prior to the last note and he said he would sing it on that day. Sure enough on the morning of the 31st upon seeing us awake he knocked on the door and loudly sang "you" completing the song.

Also on our previous cruises we were lucky to see a towel animal twice the whole cruise. I don’t know if this was because it was a new ship or our room stewards were just amazing but we had a towel animal almost every night maybe excluding the first night.

 

Food: Always the most subjective area, so again a little background. My wife and I are not fussy eaters, my daughters are a little harder to please. We do not eat out often and are not into 5 star gourmet dinning. I like almost anything especially if I don't have to prepare it, cook it, clean up after it. I found all the food to be quite outstanding. It was always delicious, presented exceptionally well, promptly severed and hot or cold (chilled soups) and selection was very good. Even if nothing appealed a garden salad and grilled chicken dinner with steamed veggies was always available. We ate in both the main dinning rooms Grand Pacific and Magenta, specialty - no fee restaurants La Cucina, Tequila, also the buffet Garden Cafe, great Outdoors, and Blue Lagoon. The Grand Pacific was large, airy, though I like the high ceilings of Windows better on the Spirit, however you felt very little vibration from the engines in the Grand Pacific as apposed to Windows. Magenta, we only ate here once. The menu is the same as the Grand Pacific, however the seating is very uncomfortable. The chairs are angled back so anyone shorter in stature will have a hard time reaching the floor, this puts strain on the lower back and hips. But the atmosphere was great, and it was pointed out to us that if someone in your party is shorter ask for a booth. The Garden cafe had excellent choices for breakfast, a wide variety, including eggs Benedict ; lunch had pizza, hamburgers, make your own sandwiches, etc. The Great outdoors is an outdoor, though covered, extension of the Garden Café. The Topsiders Grill is also basically an extension of the Garden cafe. Both of these areas serve a scaled down breakfast and lunch menu and offer alternative seating areas. The Garden cafe has limited space and at peak times can be fully packed. If you can not find seating here and if it is too cold to eat outdoors as it was on much of our cruise and certainly will be the first and last days sailing from NYC in the winter, there is an alternative - La Cucina. La Cucina's doors are open for breakfast and lunch as additional seating only. It is located a short walk from the Garden Cafe and offered plenty of overflow seating. We ate there both for breakfast and lunch when we were unable to find seating inside the cafe. Also, there is no need to get stuck in long lines inside the cafe. The same food is set-up in several stations, ie: in the morning there are several omelet stations. I saw 5 people lined up for 1 station where 10 feet down there was only 1 person at a 2nd station and again the Greatout doors and Topsiders also offer these same stations. There are no trays provided in the Garden cafe however there is no real need. If you require assistance there was plenty of staff offering to carry your items for you. One morning I was offered this service by 3 different staff and the place was quite busy at the time. La Cucina is a nice quiet Italian restaurant with an excellent menu. My wife and our dinning companions are all Italian and thoroughly enjoyed the menu and food here. Tequila offers a tex/mex type menu. The menu was the same as on the Dawn if I remember correctly. On the Dawn the sizzling fajitas were served actually sizzling, on the Gem they were served very hot but were not sizzling. As was once said you sell the sizzle, and it's true because that's what I remember not the quality of the food. Blue Lagoon is now a destination onto itself as apposed to a walk through on the Spirit and Dawn, hence the atmosphere is much better as it over looks the Crystal Atrium. Food again was excellent everywhere. I never had a problem making reservations for any of the specialty restaurants, ok maybe we got 5:30 instead of the 6:00 that we wanted, big deal.

We never had to wait more than a minute or 2 to be seated for dinner anywhere, except for the first night when a delayed piece of luggage placed us into the peak dinner time. We waited approx 30 minutes using a pager system. Not bad considering it was the peak of peak dinner time, we have waited longer in land based restaurants.

Entertainment: We are not into Broadway type shows, always find that type of music slow and boring. To that end World Beat was routine, and lacked spark, however Colorz that featured contemporairy music was very entertaining. Second City troupe was very good, very funny however the adult show was very short and somewhat disappointing. The magic of Duck Cameron was not very magical, we have all seen much better. Romano Frediani - this man was born to entertain. He seems like he is having the best time on stage, brings everyone into his world. We thoroughly enjoyed him hosting the Quest and participating in the Liars Club. Music wise, The Gem showband was excellent, Modal Magic very good as well. Both had great selections and a wide variety of songs and talent.

 

The Cruise Directors staff: - how to put this? They were merely ok, not outstanding as we have experienced previously on NCL, not as engaging as we have experienced before. This new ship is suppose to have the best of the best staff. In every area it did, expect here. Having sailed twice in the last year on NCL, we have seen very good cruise directors staff, these ones for the most part did not live up to that standard. They seemed to only be going through the motions, putting in the bare minimum. I don't know if they were coming off a tough week from the previous week's Christmas cruise or were gearing up for the extended 12 day cruise coming up next or maybe it was the poor weather that dogged this cruise, perhaps putting a damper on their spirits but something was lacking. They were friendly enough but that was about it. For example Clint Wells the cruise director was there to greet you after the shows but didn't even show up for the on deck New Year’s party, it was run by the assistant Matt. .

Another party, later on in the cruise known as “the deck party”, had to be moved indoors to the Spinnaker Lounge due to weather. OK no problem there, however I heard only 1 announcement regarding this, I was told it was announced 2 or 3 times. It should have been announced 6 -8 times, and with the bravado that "hey the weather has forced us indoors but we are going to have the best indoor deck party on the seven seas." With what transpired they should have cancelled the event and replaced it with something else. There was a lame attempt at a conga line and limbo contest and that was it. Most of the cruise directors staff was not even there. Clint showed for exactly 10 seconds. One staff member did try to teach a few lines dances to about a dozen kids, and at that the party quickly died. We have seen deck parties where they had various games and activities, such as Ms. Norwegian ‘Gem’, and various bartender talents, all of which could have happened indoors. At most of the other dance parties which took place in the Spinnaker Lounge, the cruise directors staff encouraged people to join them on the dance floor with mere gestures, basically just lining the front of the stage swaying watching the few passengers that decided to dance, dance. On our past cruises the staff has actually gone out into the crowd and gotten people up. Plus it seemed the staff left at the earliest opportunity. As I said they were ok, nothing great.

Traveling with an 18 and 21 year I will give some kudos to the Cruise Directors staff for trying to accommodate the college age bracket 18-21. This is always a group that feels left out, too old for the kids club to young to enjoy all aspects of the over 21 group. The cruise directors staff set up a college get together, however again it was poorly explained and followed up on. Great idea, needs tweaking in the execution. At first we thought it was some college reunion pre-setup by a group. They made only one announcement that in fact it was for the 18 -21 (people in college). The Freestyle Daily should have had an explanation as to what this was. Once we found out what it was our girls did attend, however they were basically left on their own to do whatever. One staff member showed up the first night encouraging people to talk, other than that one night no one showed up. The staff could have tried setting up darts tournaments at night, a night of bowling, dances, card tournaments etc. It was even suggested by an officer to have “wear your college shirt night”. Anything planned for this group would have been great, rather then letting them just sit there. Something to consider for the future. Of course they won’t see this type of crowd again until mid February. So kudos for trying, now take it to the next level.

Ports of Call: There is nothing much around Port Canaveral and Freeport in the Bahamas. At both you had to take a shore excursion or take a taxi/bus into town. Nassau is ok. Unfortunately cold weather greeted us at all of these ports. Temperatures were in the 50's to low 60's and it was extremely windy, forcing the cancellation of many shore excursions. Great Stirrup Cay was the only hot day, and NCL did not disappoint. The Island is a lot of fun, activities, music and a great BBQ lunch, the ribs were fantastic. My whole family loves this island and has enjoyed it all three times we have been there. We have never had a problem with chairs or prime beach location. However we always do take one of the earlier tenders over.

Amenities. The ship is loaded with amenities. Wii in the Crystal atrium was fun and enjoyed by many, here the cruise directors staff did a good job, allowing many to participate of all ages (not just for the kids) and keeping the fun going. Bowling on the high seas looked very fun however was very busy, $ 5 game per person. Rock climbing wall looked fun and challenging however due to the poor weather was never open that I saw. There is a full tennis court, lots of ping pong tables, even a pool table, darts and shuffle board table in the spinnaker lounge. There are 2 pools, 1 for adults only along with a hot tub exclusively for adults, whenever we were there this was strictly adhered to. The Gym is very large and full of modern easy to use equipment. The Spa was great. $20 a day or $ 75 for the week, for this you get unlimited access to the thermo pool, indoor hot tub, heated loungers, sauna, steam room, whirlpool tubs. Sharing 1 bathroom with my wife and two 2 daughters the use of the showers and bathroom facilities in the spa was worth the price alone.

Meet & Greet: The meet & greet was well attended by both ship’s officers and fellow cruise critic members. It was nice to put faces to names and continually run into these great people throughout the cruise. The officers included the ship’s captain Mikael Hilden, and Hotel director Klaus Lugmaier. The officers recognized our faces and often engaged us in conversation when ever we saw them throughout the ship. I encourage anyone sailing to attend their meet & greet or set one up. We had the attention of these officers and I found them very engaging. Klaus gave out his contact number and expressly stated that he reads these boards and would rather hear of an issue while onboard then to read about it later. We brought up the issue with the chairs in the Magenta and it was stated that they are aware of the problem and have tried to correct this, also our concern with the college group. My girls did see Klaus walk one night, obviously checking things out for himself. I believe they will look into both these areas further after our comments. Kluas was a man of his word as on one of the many times we ran into him he asked me about the cruise, sensing my hestiatation he stated “tell me”, he listened sincerely. These officers were very visible throughout the ship, we even saw Captain Hilden and Klaus at the buffet on more than more occasion greeting everyone and eating there, so you know the food must be good!

Disembarkation: Disembarkation is now basically set at your own pace. You had the luxury of selecting your own color luggage tag that corresponded to the time you wished to disembark. Express disembarkation – carrying off your own luggage - was available even for us non-U.S. residents. Disembarkation could take place as late as 12:30. We as a family expressed disembarked. This process was very easy. The Spirit and the Dawn did not offer this option to us in the past so we thoroughly enjoyed taking our time and having our luggage in our room the night before. This way we did not forget to back a change of clothes for the next day.

The Ship: the Gem is a beautiful ship, filled with rich vibrant colors, soft woods, expensive art work and much more. The ship has almost everything to offer. I say almost everything there only one major thing was missing. An adult, late evening venue for karaoke. There was early evening karaoke in the spinnaker lounge, but the Dawn offered late night karaoke. This was a very popular venue on the Dawn and a great money maker for NCL as drinks were often flowing.

There are so many other things I would like to share, but this is already a novel.

The Bottom Line: The Gem is definitely a 9 out of 10. Any issue we had was very minor. The weather did not cooperate but it did not stop us from having a great time. We so enjoyed our cruise that we are contemplating 2 more in the next year including a return to the Gem for next New Years. At one point we were relaxing in the hot tub drink in hand sailing on the open seas. Life doesn’t get much better that that. I salute Klaus Lugmaier and his staff for organizing and running a top notch floating hotel.

[tunseeker1]

Nice review, I would only like to add one thing. I was on the Dec 22 cruise (disembarking while you were embarking). The ship was on time into new york but we had some problems clearing customs because of non-us pax. They were calling for a few people for about a half hour.

I left on the first tag after self due to NCL travel and it was crazy. Customs shut down the disembarking process about 10 times before they called the first tag due to volume of people self-disembarking. When the announcement for my tag came up they had already disembarked 1200 people, and customs couldn't keep up with all the pax arguing and trying to sneak in undeclared stuff.

[dongordon]

Great review!

 

It was very objective and very informative.

 

I have always gone to the main dining room when we first board (good point)....we enjoy a relaxing lunch and a cocktail and as you described, it avoids the crowds in the buffet area. Most people do not know about the dining room option on the first day.

 

It was too bad you encountered such lousy weather. That is why having a great ship is so important. It doesn't replace bad weather, but at least if you have to be indoors, there are things to do.

 

Thanks for the update on the shows. We do not usually attend the shows unless we have heard on these boards that they are special and highly rated. However, we will try and make time for Romano Frediani.

 

Thanks.

 

Don

[snorklinbarb]

lukes,

 

Thanks for your excellent review. I hope you submit it to the Members Review section. Liked hearing how your family of 4 spent their week. You have some good suggestions for the college crowd and it's good you shared them with staff. Like you say, Klaus and his team listen sincerely and are always looking for ways to improve.

 

I'm surprised at your comments at Clint & staff as just being OK. On the transatlantic, I thought they did a really good job and Clint was very visible at all times. One time when I was passing through the Garden Cafe, he was even in there helping people carry their plates.

 

You mention your cabin steward Melchor. I'm betting there aren't too many of them named Melchor, so maybe it's the same guy I had on either the Jewel or Pearl (can't quite remember). I was on deck 4 in an inside cabin and thought he was the best. When he was cleaning, we could often overhear him singing and he always seemed so happy. Great towel animals, too. Nice that he remembered your wife's birthday.

 

If you have your Freestyle Dailies available, could you share the names of the piano/guitar "lounge" entertainment? I've asked this question on another thread but didn't get a response. We're going back on the Gem this Weds. and hoping for some new entertainment in the lounges.

 

Happy cruising.

[travelingwithfamily]

Barb, We were on the GEM with Lukes - many thanks to him for setting up our wonderful meet and greet! I just found one of our freestyle dailies and here is a listing of the jazz/guitar musicians that were on our cruise:

 

Kevin Hayunga - Relaxed Guitar Jazz

Stacy Ward McAdams - Piano and Personality

Kim Doolittle - Pops, Blues and Guitar Strings (who was amazing!)

Ariel Jacobe - Stylish Piano

Pablo De Luca - Guitarist Extraordinaire

 

Hope this answers your question

[sjbdtz]

Hi Lukes...

 

Great review, it mostly echoes our impressions.

 

But truly I could have told you at the outset of the cruise that you would have a great time....you showed up at the CC M&G smiling, with your Cruise Critic ballcap, and it just seemed that you had pre-determined this was going to be fun.

 

I'm glad that it was, and we really enjoyed meeting you & your family.

 

Cheers,

Stephen

[mississauga]

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

 

 

:D

[spanky]

Great review...makes us look forward toward our 4/5 sailing on the Gem...

[coffeebean]

Thanks for your indepth review of the Gem. We sail on her end of March. Is it March yet???

[electricron]

Thanks for the long, balanced review.

[snorklinbarb]

Barb, We were on the GEM with Lukes - many thanks to him for setting up our wonderful meet and greet! I just found one of our freestyle dailies and here is a listing of the jazz/guitar musicians that were on our cruise:

 

Kevin Hayunga - Relaxed Guitar Jazz

Stacy Ward McAdams - Piano and Personality

Kim Doolittle - Pops, Blues and Guitar Strings (who was amazing!)

Ariel Jacobe - Stylish Piano

Pablo De Luca - Guitarist Extraordinaire

 

Hope this answers your question

 

Thanks. Just what I was looking for. Sure hope Ariel Jacobe will still be on next week. Saw him a couple of times on the Spirit and think he's one of the best.:D

[rebeljohn]

Enjoyed the detailed review........Thanks for posting it.........

[Maryfrei]

Enjoyed your review, thanks for taking the time to include all the details. I'll especially remember the tip about the chairs and be sure to ask for a booth!:p

 

 

PS: Did anyone site the Gem It Mermaid?

 

PPS: If you still want to share more we like novels!;)

[bjinouno]

Thanks for all the great news of the ship, and of the inside cabin, Never hear about them, only the suiets and balcony, Guess we won't have a problem with the chairs, my husband will feel great since he is 6"5 nearly.

Can you tell us what peir number you boarded on? everyone says the new terminal, I only cruised once out of NY, Manhatten, and since we are first timers on NCL just wondering of the LINE status and wait (on our feet) We arrived early for our Carnival cruise, and lucky we did, We got to sit and wait instead of the cattle lines on the sides. Can't wait for 33 1/4 days to get here, Big snow storm heading our way tomorrow night, Just to remind us that it is still winter in NY. Did any one do Universal Studio's with the ship tour? (or is it easier to do it on your own)

Barbara.

[lukes]

Thanks everyone for your kinds remarks on the review. I was bound and determined to write one this time.

 

Snorklin'barb - you are right how many Melchor's can there be? Must be same guy, he was always smiling, hear him singing to himself many mornings.

 

Travelingwithfamily, thanks for the lounge acts info. Heard many of them, soem if only briefly and all were quite good. Pablo De Luca often placed in the atrium so he could be heard as you got pictures taken or were eating at either the Blus Lagoon or Tegulia.

 

sjbdtz - how could we not have a great time. We were sailing on a wonderful new ship and we got to meet many great fellow CC's including the two of you, Stephen and Daniel, you are 2 very interesting and intelligent young men and I enjoyed talking to you throughout the cruise.

 

Maryfrei - even though the review was long, I still missed many of the ships amenities and our many experiences. But I felt it was already too long that most people wouldn't read that much. Some of the ships areas I missed included the casino - nice and large and every game you can thing of - but too smokey for my tastes. I would love to see NCL have even just 1 day be non-smoking. They could compare the revenue for that day to the regular days and compare, they might be surprised by how many non-smokers would like to visit -drop money in the casino. Also you must try a pretzel in spinnaker - they were the best I have ever had, even had popcorn some nights.

 

bjinouno - 6''5 you husband will not have a problem with the chairs in Magenta. I didn;t have a problem and I am only 5"11. But my wife, 5", and anyone under 5"6 will have a problem. I believe we sailed from peir 90. But 88, 90 & 92 are all right beside each other. We did sail from the New Manhattan cruise ship terminal 55 & 12 th street is the location. If you sail from the new terminal seating is not a probem there were plenty of seats for all, right up until boarding. I found the lines moved fast this time because you were security screened and processed first, and then went into the lounge seating area. Much like airports. We did not do Universal however I did see 3-4 buses loading people for that excurision. Someone said it was a 60 minute drive from the port.

 

any other questions, let me know.

 

Thanks All

 

Mike