sghetrick

Following! We'll be in the haven in April!

10 hours ago, Cruising to Retirement said:

Were there any Production Shows that were cancelled or any other activities due to COVID issues. How about capacity- plenty of deck chairs, etc.  Thank you for any info-  going on the 1/19 Ten night sailing.. 

I don't know the details about capacity but it must have been pretty low.  We were always able to find deck chairs, seating at bars (with space from others), dining reservations, etc.  The most congested day was when the bahamas got canceled and even then it wasn't difficult to find space outside for the 3 of us. 

 

I'm not sure what the regular shows are on the gem. In addition to musical performers throughout the ship there was a variety show in the theater, line dancing in the spinnaker, glow party outside, and 80s dance party in bliss. 

2 hours ago, natefish95 said:

Thanks for the report! How was the evening entertainment? Can't wait to be on in less than a month! 

We're late diners so we didn't make it to many shows/entertainment. The guitarist on board (played at Magnums) definitely had the crowd involved and was enjoyable. There was also a band on board (can't remember their name) they were good but extremely loud. 

We just got back from a very relaxing trip. We felt very safe the whole time and had no issue wearing masks (We only encountered a couple people who weren't wearing masks) Here's a few thoughts about our trip. 

 

Leaving NYC - Parking and luggage drop off was super easy. You do have to prepay parking. Testing was well organized and fast. Check in was confused if you are in a full suite but not Haven. Luckily there were a couple staff members with room numbers so we were shown to the lounge area. 

 

Suite 11512 - The suite has a great layout and is very well maintained. Unfortunately, the living room gets noise from the treadmills, and the master bedroom gets noise from people dropping their weights above in the gym. The other issue we ran into was the last two days of our trip the toilet area was smelly. Apparently, the toilet was too dry. 

 

Ports - we made it to Charleston and Port Canaveral but got denied from visiting Great Stirrup Cay (after waiting 1.5 hours for the decision to be made). The shore excursions booked were refunded but to the onboard account not original payment method. It was a bummer to not go to the beach but with Covid we were expecting a hiccup so it didn't affect us greatly. 

 

Staff - Hands down the best staff we have encountered in a very long time. Almost every single person was happy, smiling, friendly, sociable, and took care of anything we needed. If I'm being critical our 2nd butler (1st got promoted to a different ship at pt canaveral) wasn't as good as the 1st and the concierge wasn't really necessary during this trip (we found it was easier to do things on the app).

 

Food- We dined at Moderno/Cagneys for our breakfast and lunches. For dinner we tried Moderno, Cagneys, Le Bistro, O'Sheehans and Orchid. We enjoyed all of our meals (too much so) with the exception of Moderno. We all agreed that Moderno was too salty. 

 

It had been over 10 years since we sailed on the GEM and while it's smaller than the ships we choose lately we really had a wonderful trip!

Thank you!

Thanks everyone :-)

No that was not what I was saying. If you received the UBP as part of a booking promotion the gratuities are included. There is no need for you to pay anything more although you will have to sign a chit as normal but it will be zeroed out on your account.

 

If you purchase the UBP then you will pay the 18% at that point and then it will be the same as above when it comes to actually ordering your drinks.

 

If you pay as you go, it will be the drink price plus the 18% at time of sale.

 

Hope that clears up any confusion.

 

 

Rochelle

 

I was just reading a recent cruise review and the writer indicated that they did have a gratuity added even though they had the "free" UBP. Can anyone else confirm this to be true? http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=501105

[quote name='LMaxwell']Yes, I have been directed to email their social media team with my questions, or which I had several very particular, but concise, questions. I do suppose they are swamped today, or someone is running around the offices with their hair on fire trying to figure out what to say, so I will be patient and wait 24 - 48 hours for a response, but I do not have much faith that the social media team can adequately address my concerns. They do not set, and probably have zero say, in policy.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you. I wrote two emails. The first was a quick question about Haven suites and I received a quick response. My second email was venting my frustrations about all the recent changes. I'm not sure I'll get a real response back on that one.

[quote name='jaja']OK..BUT when it goes fleetwide (and it will)...is it still only haven or all suites????????[/QUOTE]

Sorry I didn't think to ask about non haven suites. Unfortunately their not answering questions unless you email their social media dept.

I just received an email back from Norwegian social media:

"Hello Stacy

Thank you for reaching out! This service charge does not apply to Haven suites.

Thank you."

The same thing has happened with our May cruise. I had Cagney's booked, but now the reservation is gone and Cagney's is not showing as an option.

 

Fortunately, I printed our full itinerary and booked activities from the vacation summary page before it disappeared. We'll take that as proof for the cruise, in case they say it's full.

 

I was able to print our current reservations but downloading the edocs again. They show everything we booked before and today. :)

Might be an NCL website problem? Cagney's disappeared for my May cruise as well. My reservation for Cagney's also disappeared. I called and a rep told me it's still in my account and can send me a confirmation. She also said it is still available to book on other nights.

No, $11.

 

It appears the Terms of the UBP have been updated VERY recently to say $11.

 

http://www.ncl.com/promo/ultimate-beverage-package/terms

 

I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that this information is just a miss-communication from corporate and the ship bartenders and that maybe the CC is unfortunately caught in the in between pricing (from 10 - 11).

This will definitely be frustrating to us if it's true. Compared to Celebrity's program NCL is lacking (no water or specialty drinks). To now have an even more limited alcohol selection would be ridiculous.

Loving your review!

I didn't have any luck either. I tried upgrading and they quoted us the original difference in fares not the fare shown online. My travel agent said that she found a code for the online fare and believes it's for new bookings only.