NCL Gem July 13 - July 20 Very Very Long!

[sghetrick]

For a little background, my husband and I are in our late 20's early 30s and have cruised with Carnival, Princess, and Holland America. We were traveling with my in-laws and this was their first ocean cruise. We encountered a few problems but overall had a great cruise.

 

July 12, 2008

We left Boston flying on Aer Lingus. After a little trouble with figuring out which gate was ours (they kept flipping between gates 4 and 5). We settled into our flight and ended up arriving in Dublin a full half hour early. The Dublin Airport is a bit crazy! You first have to go through customs (whether or not you are staying), then through security, then to get to your gate you have to go through basically it’s a mall with tons and tons of people. We found our gate and then decided that since we were in Ireland let’s have a pint of Guinness - at 6:00 a.m. Boarded our next flight and again arrived in Barcelona a full half hour early.

 

July 13, 2008 Barcelona

We went through customs, got in a cab and I had read on the boards to write down the pier and ship name for the cab drivers. What I did was learned how to pronounce and also wrote down the pier name but in Spanish. The pier in Spanish is called Muelle (pronounced Moya) Adosado. Our cab driver recognized it immediately.

 

We arrived at the ship and checked into the VIP line (both of us booked Romance Suites). After check-in we were escorted to the VIP Area where we met Claudio and Ivana. After reviewing our keys and our shore excursions we noticed a problem. Our excursion in France was completely wrong. We had to provide Ivana with our printed confirmations (always a good idea to print everything from their website) and she said she would remedy it and have our corrected excursion tickets delivered to us later that day. Around 11:30 we were escorted onto the ship and brought to the Bliss lounge until the restaurants were open at noon. For some reason not one person mentioned that we could go to Cagney’s until I asked about it.

 

We did have lunch at Cagney’s and it was very good. The menu offered a lot of options as well as lighter meals considering it was a steak house. After lunch we went to check on our rooms. Both rooms were "ready." Problem number two of the day - our bathroom was dirty, the chairs and the dresser with lined with dust. There isn’t a number for the room stewards so we contacted the butler who in turn contacted the stewards to come and re-clean our room. Apparently on embarkation day the actual room stewards do not clean the rooms.

 

Romance Suite 10664

Good - the room is of good size (small than other lines though), a great balcony, great storage space, with restaurant reservations you get window tables, daily treats are nice little snacks.

 

Bad - Occasionally there is a strange smell in the hallway upon entering the room. Our butler, Orlando was very inconsistent. We didn’t actually meet him until the 2nd day. The entire trip we only received one card to write down what daily snacks we wanted. The fruit bowl was not always replenished. My in-laws had the same problems with Orlando regarding their room. My husband did tip him and tells him it was going to be my birthday during the cruise so he did decorate the room and after that the service did seem a bit more consistent. Our Concierge, Claudio was nice when we met him. The only contact we had with the concierge was the first day to make dinner reservations for the week. Problem number 3 - we made all of our reservations for 9:00 p.m. one night the system listed it as 8:00 p.m. and so the hostess gave us an attitude and assumed we just were running late and didn’t show up until we felt like it. After dinner I contact Claudio regarding this problem and nothing was done and we were given a not so heart felt apology.

 

After exploring the ship a little jet lag finally caught up. We attended the life boat drill which was done efficiently. That evening we had dinner in Tequila’s. The food and service were terrific. After dinner we headed to the Casino and played some automated Roulette (very addictive).

 

July 14 2008 Sea Day

We ordered breakfast to our room (great tip on the boards to write in other requests). The activities planned on the ship sound great the one downfall is so many of them are at the exact same time and are only hosted for one time during the whole week. Therefore you really don’t get to do everything you would like to do. Having the AFT balcony is great not only do you get to relax in the sun without the wind but you have full view of everything around you. The only downside to the balcony is that you do tend to get ash from people’s cigars and cigarette from the Great Outdoors.

 

For dinner we dined in Cagney’s the food and service was again great. I still need to email NCL and get a few of their recipes!

 

July 15 2008 Malta

We woke to the message that Malta was having a transportation strike. Luckily for us we didn’t have an excursion planned. The view from our balcony was great, we arrived as all the fishermen were heading out for the day. We walked up to Valletta, and this is not an easy hike for some people especially when it’s 80% humidity out! The town of Valletta is nice within the main touristy areas. The architecture is beautiful, stores are both upscale and small craft shops, churches and museums are close. Once you get out of the touristy areas though that city is rather dirty and rundown.

 

After walking back to the ship for some much needed air conditioning, we headed across the pier to a restaurant for a couple of Cisk beers (local beer) and snack food. We met up with my in-laws and decided to order lunch from Cagney’s to our room. This is another area where Orlando (butler was inconsistent) we ordered 4 different lunch entree’s and he only brought us two sets of silverware.

 

That evening we went to the Spinnaker lounge for a pre-dinner drink. Another good tip from the boards was that you can see Mt Etna around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. on the port side of the ship. We headed to the Grand Pacific dining room for dinner. The service and the food were horrible! It took 15 minutes to get water and menu’s. The food was bland, dry, small and the service was nonexistent. It seemed that the main dining room is an after thought when compared to the pay restaurants.

 

July 16, 2008 Naples

Today we had booked the excursion Capri, Sorrento, and Pompei. All of us loved this excursion and at the end of it we were energized rather than exhausted like others have mentioned. The only downside is that there are many tours that head to Capri first thing in the morning. Therefore, lots of people loading on the boat and funicular.

[sghetrick]

Capri is very pretty, and the gardens and cliff views are spectacular! Capri is small and with so many people it can seem very crowded. We just wandered around, ordered some gelato, and people watched.

We then drove over to Sorrento where we had lunch at ristorante parrocchiano. We were seated in the garden area of the restaurant. Which had lots of flowers, lemon trees, and was picturesque. Lunch included water and wine. A first course of cannelloni, second course of chicken with roasted potatoes, and a third coarse of a lemon cake.

After lunch we were given some time on our own for shopping.

We boarded the bus and headed over to Pompei. Pompei is amazing! Enzo (our guide) was terrific when talking about life in Pompei. This is one location you do not want to miss when visiting this area.

 

That evening we went to the Orchid Garden for dinner. Service was really slow at first, the restaurant appeared to only have two people for wait staff. After 10 - 15 minutes more help arrived and from then on the food and service was very good.

 

July 17, 2008 Civitavecchia

Today we booked Rome on Your Own. I had previously been to Rome but only saw the Pantheon and the Vatican so I was hoping to see a lot of the other sights. The bus drops you off right around the corner from the Colosseum. Another great tip from the boards - go to the Roman Forum to buy tickets to the Colosseum (no line)! We ventured into the Colosseum - truly amazing and different from what we pictured based on movies. Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain. Here I found a little pizza shop (go to the shops where it isn’t listed in English) that had terrific eggplant pizza! Our next site was the Pantheon - this is one of my favorite places and has been since I was in H.S. A few blocks from the Pantheon are Gelateria Della Palma. It is a little touristy but very good gelato!

 

From here we walked to the Piazza Navona. We stopped at a restaurant for some wine, antipasti and people watching. We definitely got all three - as we were leaving a couple of men were selling purses in the piazza when all of the sudden two plain clothes officers chased them, tackled and arrested one of them. This was done literally 5 feet in front of us.

After that little excitement we walked to the Campo di Fiori (an open air market). Before we had to head back to the bus we went into the Roman Forum and in addition to seeing the ruins we were able to watch a team excavate new ruins.

 

In the evening we went for our pre-dinner drinks. We chose the martini bar tonight. The chocolate and key lime pie martini’s are really good. For dinner we ate at Le Bistro. We all agreed this was our favorite restaurant on the ship.

 

July 18, 2008 Livorno

Today we booked Siena and the View of Tuscany. The two-hour drive to Siena can be good and bad. You do get beautiful pictures thanks to the amazing scenery. The bad is that you are pretty tired from the previous days and therefore you tend to fall asleep on the bus.

 

I must admit I was a little disappointed with this tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and passionate about Siena but that also meant she was very long-winded. We spent about 2 and ½ hours seeing two churches and a courtyard. For lunch we went to La finestra where the food was terrific but lunch was definitely on Italian time! Lunch consisted of wine and water, a first course of asparagus risotto plus pasta with mushrooms, a second course of veal in tomato sauce (but they were kind enough to make me chicken), and a third course of a berry panna cotta.

Unfortunately, this left us with about 45 minutes of free time to shop. We ran over to a small store to buy wine, and olive oil. Next onto Nannini’s a bakery known for its panforte and riciarelli cookies. Finally, a quick stop for gelato at Brivido.

 

Tonight we had pre-dinner drinks at Maltings. My husband now loves Mythos Beer. We dined at the Teppanyaki restaurant. Where the food and service were also great but be warned this is not a health conscious meal! Lots of butter, oil, and salt!

 

July 19, 2008 Villefranche

Today we booked Nice and the view from Eze. Nice is a beautiful, friendly, and welcoming city! We were first driven through nice to see a few sites. The bus parked so that we could have some free time to wonder around the flower market. The produce here is amazing! My husband and I are both foodies so this was fabulous to us! We were able to pick up some truffle oils, jams, mustards, candies, herbs etc.! A definite must try are French macaroons!

 

We then drove over to Eze, the drive over has wonderful panoramic views of the coast and city. Eze is a bit of a climb but definitely easier than Malta. Our guide showed us a few sites along the climb and then gave us another hour of free time. The shops are so cute, some of them built right into the rock so they are like little caves. Eze is great for finding local crafts to bring home.

 

After the excursion we had lunch had a restaurant adjacent to the pier. Delicious French lemonade and seafood!

 

Problem number 4 - tendering back to the boat! NCL really needs to rethink their tender process! They are far behind other lines. After lunch the line was along the pier, through the building, and around the corner. We waited for probably 45 minutes - insane!

 

Back on the ship we tried another of the daily special’s drinks and some more automated roulette. We were able to go and retrieve our liquor purchases - unlike I had previously read they seemed very organized about this.

 

Since it was our last day, we decided to try out the Bingo. Honestly, kind of a rip off - tickets are a minimum of $30 and up to $50. You can also spend more money on instant win tickets. Each game has very specific symbols you have to make. Also, the game has lots of rules to help the house have the advantage. We have played on other lines and NCL really seemed out to just make more money rather than entertain.

For tonight’s pre-dinner drinks we headed up to the Great Outdoors where my father in-law made friends with a bartender throughout the week. The two of them together are good for some laughs!

 

We dined at La Trattoria which the food was good but the service was definitely lacking.

[sghetrick]

July 20, 2008 Disembark

THE VIP’S get to either take their luggage off or have it picked up and held in a designated area. We chose to have ours picked up. Claudio was there waiting with the luggage and of course my husband’s wasn’t where it should have been. No help was provided. Once we had everything together, we asked for help from a porter who loaded us into a taxi.

 

The Barcelona airport was insanely busy! I had read on the boards about confusion regarding where to check in for Aer Lingus. The problem is that Aer Lingus does not have a permanent check in area. They switch between Terminal A and Terminal B. Most airport staff doesn’t know where Aer Lingus should be. We did find one information desk in the airport that did know the location. It’s best to check all the screens (they are updated based on the flight departure times). We finally found our check in desk but it was still being used by another airline. We decided to just stay there and wait - it was a good thing we did because here came 50 students all traveling to Ireland together!

 

We boarded our flight and then Problem number 5 - delayed! Apparently the Dublin airport has been having radar problems for a week so we were grounded for 50 minutes. This left us with only 10 minutes connection time in Dublin! We asked the flight attended for some help regarding this and she was able to have the pilot contact the airport for help.

 

When we arrived in Dublin there was an agent to meet us. Aer Lingus was going to hold the plane for us and have this agent escort us to it. In 15 minutes we got another couple their boarding passes, went through Irish customs, security, filled out U.S. customs forms, went through Immigration, to another terminal and onto our plane. I really was overwhelmed with how helpful Aer Lingus was, most airlines wouldn’t have gone through this for us.

 

Problem number 6 - - I caught the flu! I was sick and in bed for the week after our cruise! Oddly enough the last time I went to Europe I came home and ended up with mono! See a pattern?

 

Summary

We chose NCL really based on the itinerary more than the ship and that’s why I think we were able to enjoy our vacation.

 

Food - Avoid the main dining restaurants! The specialty restaurants were good to great! Service really depended. There were those on staff who were obviously with NCL prior to freestyle cruising and they were the ones who went above and beyond.

 

Excursions - The excursion staff set up the meeting times and locations rather well. I don’t know if it was just our tours or that particular week but there was someone from the staff on all of our excursions. The excursions themselves were really terrific with the exception of us wanting more time to be on our own.

 

Staff - Almost all of the staff was friendly and seemed happy. When we compare NCL to Princess or HAL though they are definitely lacking in attention to detail, service, and consistency.