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Norwegian Gem 7/26/2023-8/4/2023 - Greece/Croatia/Italy - Things I wish I knew ahead of time

Wellington

We sailed on the NCL Gem from 2/16-2/19.  It was just hubby and I, we’re experienced cruisers with NCL and Royal Caribbean.  For starters, I love the size of the Gem.  I have been on the Getaway few years ago which at the time was one of the biggest, and since then only sailed on medium-sized ships.  

THE POSITIVES FIRST

The Embarkation process - we embarked in Miami, and it was a breeze.  The terminal was beautiful and the process was well organized.  We checked in around 11, and boarded around 11:45.  

Lunch - we went straight to the main dining room because we don’t love eating at the buffet.  Grand Pacific was the room that was open, and the food was excellent.  Our servers were great.  They ran to the Atrium bar to get us bottled water and champagne.

Specialty dining - the highlight of our trip.  Hubby and I are self-proclaimed foodies and we love to travel and eat.  The main dining restaurants all were excellent.  The services were outstanding.  I knocked over a wine glass at Moderno and broke it into pieces, multiple servers rushed over to clean up the mess and gave us new table settings right away.  

The room steward - Although we didn’t see him much, I thought he did a great job cleaning the cabin and was very friendly when we ran into him in the hallway.  

Cleanliness - The ship was really clean!  I loved that.  

We can’t comment on the ports of call because we didn’t care to get off the ship, we just wanted to relax and be pampered.

THE NOT-SO-GREAT

The Atrium bar - the servers there were so unfriendly and quite frankly, a little rude.  One of them did not even smile, made no eye contact, and didn’t say one word to us. He also seemed really annoyed that we wanted mimosas with the premium Prosecco instead of regular Prosecco.  I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that the bar was always super packed.  But still, a smile would have been nice.  AVOID ATRIUM BAR at all cost!  There was a platinum level customer that was furious because she waited at least 30 minutes to even get acknowledged.

The change to premium plus beverages - specifically the champagne selection.  The Veuve Cliquot was indeed only available at Le Bistro.  There was an uproar about this, but we were able to get as many glasses as we wanted.  But I can see why some people would be upset that they can’t get Veuve in other bars.  

Overall service - Although there were standouts when it came to service, overall I felt the crew was tired and it showed.  I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy, and felt the crew saw us as being annoying tourists.  

I would still sail NCL again, we have two more cruises with them this year.  One out of NOLA and one in Europe.  I wish they didn’t cut corners on certain things and would staff the ships better so the crew are not so overworked.

Mostly hits but some misses

The staff were friendly and helpful. For the most part, waiters were attentive, but the food left a lot to be desired. I’m not a picky eater, but I had trouble finding one entree that appealed to me each evening in the main dining room. The best dessert was usually the sherbet or ice cream choice. I got food poisoning the third day of the cruise as did another guest I talked to. Since the food is an important part of any cruise, this was a big disappointment.

   Disembarking for tours often entailed long waits and seemed disorganized. The tours we booked were enjoyable, and the tour descriptions were accurate.     

   The cabin steward did an excellent job each day. We asked for ice one day and he brought ice every day after that.

   I don’t know that I’ll sail with NCL in the future. Our experiences with other cruise lines have been much more positive.

Not the Best Cruise Experience

The good to great-staff and food in Moderna and Cagney’s for Exclusive breakfast/lunch! Our cabin steward and butler were amazing as we had a Club Penthouse Cabin. Our concierge was amazing!

The Panama Canal Lock viewing was fantastic from our forward balcony. The rockiness of a forward facing balcony however, on the first night was a bit terrifying and sea rockiness does not usually bother me.  Ship heading directly into waves out of Miami was rough! But, the PC experience from the front definitely worth it.  Would not choose forward otherwise.

Food in Asian Restaurant as well as upbeat smiling staff is always good! 

Garden Cafe and regular dining options were good if you only eat fresh fruit, veggies, omelets with fresh eggs etc,  Anything with sauces etc. full of salt! For those with sensitivity to flavor enhancers, salt, additives etc., watch out! 

Staff in general smiling, friendly!  Crew and officers, captain top notch, professional, handled situations like a well oiled machine!

Great, had a great cabin, fresh food.  

this was our 6th cruise and we always wanted to go to Panama.

Everything was fantastic from start to finish, the crew, staff, food excurtions, weather

we had cruised on Royal Caribean Harmony of the seas in 2018 and we felt it was too big for us, Norwegian Gem was a better size , we got to know a lot of people , we want to go back tomorrow.

First time my wife and I had a cruise alone without children, we could dance the night away , also first tim we had an interior cabin and  we now prefer that, Very relaxtion 

There was 13 bars on board and we tried them all. we ended with two favourites because of the waiters/waitresses and every night when we came we were greeted by our names.

 I am now looking for our next cruise,only been back 10 days, my wife dont know about it, so it will be a surprise.I am retired so low budget but prices are fair so hopefully later this year

Outstanding experience

This was a celebratory cruise for my 60th.   A once in a lifetime to be totally ruined.

Main restaurants had same menu in both for all 11 nights.   Waiting time was over 30 minutes.    The food was raw and had to be sent back.   By now husband had finished his meal.   Finally arrived and there was more fat on the meat than meat.

The total disorganisation of getting people off the ship in Panama left us 1hr 3o mins late for tge excursion on the ferry and therefore half way through was abandoned as we had missed it.   Everyone around 300 people were nit happy.    As compensation we were given 50% refund but the way they calculated was so confusing 4 people at the excursions desk trued to work it out and convince us we were refunded correctly.

Excursion to Cozemel again 1hr late setting off and was taken to places not on the itinerary.    Yet refused to compensate on this excursion.  They claimed the tour operator had said all had gone to plan.  Yet tour operator on the bus assured us NCL had been made aware of the late departure.

Food in the buffet was poor and seats lacking.

Entertainment was worse I've seem.   A magician who preformed tricks seen before.   A very unfunny comedian we thought it was because we were English but speaking to several Americans they also thought the same.

We have it in the end going to the theatre and webt to Spinnaker to listen to the band,

All they ever do is press to get more money off you by playing bingo and other games.   The ones that were free the prizes were a plastic bag.

No complaints over the cabin.

Word of warning despite how many minutes you have left on WiFi they turn it it off when reaching final destination.

This was our 7th cruise but 1st and last with Ncl

Worse cruise ever

We had the best time on our Panama Cruise on the NCL Gem. The staff are reallly the gems of this ship! Everyone was so friendly and helpful. You really had the feeling they all just wanted you to be happy and have a good time! The ship itself feels cozy and warm. It's beautiful and has so much entertainment. We had wonderful musical acts, magicians, comedians. Entertainment on this ship is so varied and awesome! The room steward, Egi, kept our room so clean and neat and we always felt welcomed back after a day of exploring. We stayed in an inside cabin and had as good of service as other times when we stayed in a balcony. Vivec, Amali, Alan, and the rest of the staff at Magnums and the center bars were so fun and always remembered what we liked! The food was wonderful in the main dining and we had two special meals at La Cuchina. The ports were interesting and the excursions so fun. We highly recommend this cruise!

Small Ship Big Charm

We have sailed with Norwegian in the past and enjoyed our cruises.  This one was the size ship we prefer ( medium or smaller) with a nice itinerary and a good length for us. We decided to get a club balcony suite so we could spend more time outdoors and watch the activity in port. Also we got a few extra perks for booking it. The cabin and our cabin steward’s service were excellent.  Most of the evening shows were good. The food was okay but only the specialty dining at the steakhouse, Cagney’s, stood out. 

   We were told we would have “free room service” from the standard menu. Not quite true. There was a $9.95 charge to deliver the food. That is annoying. 

    A bigger frustration was trying to find venues on the ship and to actually get there. Two are accessed from deck 6 but only one bank of elevators served Deck 6. On some decks, you can’t walk from the back of the ship to the front: you have to jog up or down go to a different floor to do that. Signage is subtle and not always clear. Everyone was complaining about trying to find their way. It was the main topic in elevators. 

    The worst thing was the communication with passengers. The daily bulletin had errors. It would list lunch for a main dining room, but when you got there the room was closed. Many activities were listed only by a title - an example was “When they were young” but no explanation. I think it was a trivia session , but the event never took place ( no announcement) so I am not sure. At the end of the cruise there was no advance notice of the time to set bags in the hall at night, the time to vacate the cabin in the morning, or where to wait for your disembarking time. Two couples told me the had booked future NCL cruises but will cancel them. I was planning to book, but won’t.

Frustrations with NCL cruise

Had bary bad experience with this company, reserved shore trip and could not make in time due to delayed arrival.  Rhys would not refund my fool cost or give my credit. Don’t book anything with these thieves, use local guides onshore or use Expedia instead. Room cleaning is 40$ per room per day . You can skip few days and get refund. Service and shows betę actually priory good . Ship was also  in  a good shape. Shame  on you  NCL for not refunding my money. 

Wish they treated us better. 

Beside this whole cruise was proty good. Food selection and quality was very good. Dinner menu stayed the same for each day with minimal change, so after few days it gets boring, so you need to change venue.

Water pressure was very good, not signs to conserve water.  I think whole service got worse since my first  trip  5 years ago. Philippines working here are very nice .  From music band to room service.

Shore excursions and room service

This was our first cruise ever. We enjoyed the Norwegian Gem. We had chosen a balcony room on the 11th deck. We did get the room we chose and it was much bigger in person than what the pictures had shown. Our room steward was very accommodating and friendly. When your room says DO NOT DISTURB, they wont even knock for anything (EX room service).  I did NOT like the tub though. It had such high sides to climb over which was a huge struggle for me and the tub curved where it normally would've been flat. But I'm also under 5'. We hated the 1 ply toilet paper, we will bring our own toilet paper next time. The bed was 2 twin beds pushed together for a king, however the beds kept separating. Huge negative there, but we figured out on day 8 that there was a zipper that was missed enclosing both mattresses so they wouldn't separate. Too bad it was our last night before we found that. The activities were plenty to do. Their Deal or No Deal game show was held in the atrium and the amount of participants were plenty. Too small of an area for all that wanted to play. In my opinion this wasn't a good ship for kids (This was our honeymoon, we didn't bring our children) as I only saw a small arcade and the ship offered what I would call a daycare center. It was more for the kids to meet other kids and play. I can't leave an honest review on that part obviously as we didn't have our children with us. But if I were to bring my kids I would look at a different ship. This ship was GREAT for relaxing. I did get sick 1 night after eating at the buffet. So we chose to stay away from the buffet after that. Our favorite place to eat was The Grand Pacific. Waiters/Waitresses were great in every place we ate at. I thought they were VERY accommodating with our party of 5 and 1 being Gluten Free. We enjoyed every place asking if there were any food allergies before we placed our orders. We did have 2 specialty dinning in our package and we choose to eat at Moderno's Brazilin Steakhouse and Teppanyaki. We did enjoy both of those places. We also very much enjoyed our Starbucks packages. Only thing I would do different on that would be to purchase just 1 package and not one for each of us as they allow you to order 2 drinks per transaction. We would gladly cruise with Norwegian again, but will choose a different ship as we'll bring our kids next time.

Stunning

They need to continue to market the beauty of the ship, because that's all they have. The ship entertainment is horrifically bad. By far the worst cruise I've been on. The cruise director and his staff were incredibly terrible. There weren't but a couple of activities per day (that weren't self led) and they were dumb things like cup flipping and popping balloons etc. The professional dancers and singers did three shows in 11 days. They outsourced a magician and American idol singer. In my subjective opinion they were both so-so. On New Year's Eve they had the band play until 12:30am. 12:30am! 30 minutes after midnight the party was over. They should have been scheduled until at least 2:00am. They gave out hats and party materials, but only had enough for about 25% of the passengers. Eating in the buffet was fine, but the seating was terrible. You could rarely find a table. The restaurants were okay, but the wait times and ticket times for food were 1-2 hours. So slow that they apologized on three separate nights. They never, never refill water glasses without being asked. They are obviously trained to push alcohol up sales, but should still fill water glasses once alcohol is declined. Positive was the ports, but most of the excursions all started between 6-8am and ended mid afternoon. Worst cruise I've been on. These are systemic problems. I'm done with Norwegian cruise line. The other lines are better.

Bored with Stupid "Entertainment" 

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