LynnKY

I was on the Gem a couple of years ago so I can answer some of your questions.

Does she need to make any advance reservations? Not for shows, main dining room or Garden Cafe. 

Shows? No.

Restaurants? Yes for the specialty restaurants, including the free Asian one (The Orchid Garden).

Activities? Not that I recall.

Is there a self service laundromat on the Gem? No.

I enjoyed the Atrium area on the cruise that I was on.  The bartenders and the entertainment were a lot of fun.  

O'Sheehans, is a free pub style restaurant where we ate breakfast just about every day.  It was never crowded and you have table service. 

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to this thread, there is a wealth of information here.  I read through the last 6 or 8 pages and contacted several of the folks mentioned.  I have heard back from Heidi and decided to go ahead and book with her for our trip next year.  I will report on the experience after the trip.

9 hours ago, don't-use-real-name said:

Hey LynnKY - did you get the double points on the Quebec Boston cruise ?

It was showing booked as a Past Guest Insider Offer cruise.

I got mine and it bumped be over to Platinum +.

Quite a wild cruise we had with those crosswinds trying to tip us over -

was not the instant replay of two years ago that I was planning on. 

Yes, we did get the double points on that one but still just bronze since it was just my second cruise with NCL.  And thankfully we didn't get the bad weather that you all did the week prior.  I just booked a Bermuda cruise for next year with the double points offer and that will bump us up to Silver.

4 minutes ago, tbo said:

 

Thank you! I see that I did book it as a Latitude's promo, so double points on an 11 night cruise-awesome!

 

Oh and HI

22 points!  Nice!  Enjoy your cruise.

1 minute ago, tbo said:

Where would I see that? I *think* that I booked a latitudes deal, but it was booked a long time ago.

I learned this earlier today from Jamie. It is at the top right corner on your PDF confirmation that you were emailed.  

And by the way, hello from a fellow Kentuckian.

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

The OBC should show on the Vacation Summary. The extra point per night doesn't show up until after you sail, but on your reservation PDF you should see "Latitude" in the upper right.

I did not know this!  I never really paid attention to what the reservation says up top.  We booked Bermuda on Friday because of the double points and yep, it says latitude right there along with EASYFARE which I assume is the on board credit.  It also says CHOBEV which is the beverage package.

Thank you, njhorseman, for your response.  We are cruising in October so we should be okay.

Do all NCL's sailings have a free ferry to St. George or is just the Escape?

If your hotel isn't an option there is one storage option in Honolulu from bagbnb.  I'm not sure how convenient this location would be for you logistically.  

Thanks for the review!  And thank you for the tip about continental breakfast room service being free.  We had to get up several mornings for early excursions and really wanted an easy, quick option and that would have done the trick.  We ended up doing the MDR those mornings and it was quicker and less stressful than the buffet but the room service would have been a great choice.

Just off the Dawn and didn't see any college games, only a couple of NFL games on Sunday.

We were looking to use our CruiseNext Deposit on a Cuba cruise for next fall but the dates for those cruises aren't on the website yet.  Any idea on when the schedule will be out?  The last day to use a CruiseNext Deposit for a 4 or 5 day Cuba cruise is October 31 and I was really hoping to book something.  

I just got off the Dawn and enjoyed the ship.  With NCL I have only had opportunity to sail on the Gem and the Dawn.  I liked the atrium on the Gem better but otherwise I thought both ships were fine.  

Nice review!  Thanks for sharing.

Nice review, thank you.  We were on the Dawn last week and in the same areas as you were.  We were at Bar Harbor on Thursday and the road to Cadillac Mountain was closed that day as well.  

If you haven't gone already, take a look at The Natural History Center.  Great tour and will be customized.

We just got back from our Canada/New England cruise and visited Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  We took a tour with Rich from The Natural History Center.  We took an all day tour which was about 7 hours and got to see the highlights of Acadia and many places on the rest of the island.  He also provided a narrative history of the island and area.  He is very knowledgeable about the area and provided us with a custom tour.  We asked him a variety of questions and not only did he know the answers but learned what our interests were and made sure to include information about our interests in his narratives. There were only 4 of us on the tour (we could have added a few more) and it was fantastic.  

We just returned from our Canada/New England cruise and ate a donair at Johnny K's in Halifax.  Since it was my first donair I can't compare it to another but I will say that it was darn good and the portion was generous.  We ordered a regular size donair and split it with two drinks and it was $12 something in Canadian Dollars.  We paid with an American credit card and it came to $9.76, American dollars and a transaction fee was only .26.  We got it dressed like the menu said the original was, with donair sauce, onions, and tomatoes.

I can understand why this is a great late night snack.  It has the meat and the pita for filling you up but the sauce is on the sweet side and satisfies those cravings as well.  Of course if I go back I will try a different restaurant because part of the fun is trying to find the best place for...

If you eat one then please fill us in on where you got it and what you thought! 

One of my favorite parts of cruising is trying different foods.  Thanks for all the pictures and commentary. 

D.W. Makes me.:evilsmile:

LOL! Good reason.

I hope that wasn't too much. I hope it was helpful.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Forums mobile app

That was very helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time. I have an iphone but it really isn't bad adding items into it manually. One weird thing is that one leg of my flight was automatically added in but the first leg wasn't. Also, when I downloaded the app and opened it my trip from Quebec to Boston was already there with the correct dates. Of course, the stops in between weren't there but I didn't even have to create a trip. I just edited the trip so that I could add in the ports in between.

What I really like is that I downloaded maps for each port city and they will now be available offline. This is important for me because I will not have phone service until I get back into the US. I just hope that it works properly when I need it.

Thanks again for tipping up on this app.

I am definitely going to check out that google trip app. I will probably still print everything out though. There is something comforting in having paper copies.

I have found my people! I love this thread.

Oh yes, it most certainly is.

Can you get tender tickets on any ship or is this just on the bigger ships? We are sailing on the Dawn next year and will need to get off as soon as we can at one of the ports. I apologize for not staying on topic.