Turtles06

Google is your friend. It’s 4.6km

We’re on the Gem now. The internet is horrible. There are days when it’s down for hours on end, or when it’s so slow nothing will load. The internet mgr is unsympathetic. I’m only able to post right now because we are docked in Puerto Plata and I’m using my $10/day AT&T International Day Pass.

I’m not sure exactly where in Taino Bay the Escape ran aground last March, but you can see from the breaking waves just how shallow the water is.

After months of speculation, I’m happy to report that the Gem has docked at Taino Bay today. Here’s a photo I took a few minutes ago from the beautiful Great Outdoors.

I’m so sorry this happened to you, and I hope you are feeling better. Could you tell us please what ship you were on? You should not have been treated the way you were.

Just a point of clarification — there’s only one Panama Canal. It now has two sets of locks. The historic (original) locks, and the newer ones built to handle the neo-Panamax ships.

On the Gem right now. Nightly turn down is still alive and well. Photo taken about 6:45pm.

My wife and I are on the Gem right now. The listing in the Daily is “LGBTQIA+ Meet and Greet,” no Dorothy used. I wrote to NCL years ago to urge them to drop that closet (and gay male-centric) name; it took them a while to do it. I agree that it’s important to go the first night, as you can generally get a good feel about whether you want to go back. In our experience, the folks at the gatherings have been mostly male. There’s a large group of gay men on board this cruise. I think they may be with Daddy Cruise. (Looks like a Pied Piper competitor.) I’d never heard of them till I saw one of the guys last night wearing a “Daddy Cruise” lanyard.

Since we got past that first really windy day, the weather’s been great. Sunny, and increasingly warm as we make our way to St. Thomas tomorrow. (Our first port.) The pools are open and people are out and about. The food is sort of hit or miss as exemplified by the bizarre item below from the dinner menu the other night in the MDR. An iceberg wedge with turkey, cheddar cheese, and vinaigrette? (And grilled?) Not a bacon bit or blue cheese crumble in sight? We ate at Cagney’s last night, and while the iceberg wedge on their menu said it had bacon, there was no bacon. (There is bacon on board, I’ve seen it at breakfast.) We did enjoy the pork spare ribs in the MDR the first night. As for the entertainment, we haven’t gone to anything in the main theatre yet, but there’s a singer named Tania (who accompanies herself on the guitar) who plays in the evenings in the Atrium or Magnums, who we enjoy listening to. I always feel sorry for the performers in those spaces, who have to compete with the noise from the nearby bars. The bottom line for us is that we are happy to be back at sea. 😊

OP here. I grew up in Brooklyn, definitely a part of NYC, as are the other four boroughs. But when you’re going from Brooklyn into Manhattan, you say you’re going “into the city.”

Thanks! It was actually so windy today the outside decks were closed and the barf bags were out. 🤪 It’s a gorgeous evening though, this was right after sunset.

Thanks folks for the good wishes. The Gem really did sail at 3am today, pulling quickly out of Pier 88 and making the fastest sail down the Hudson we’ve ever experienced, going under the Verrazzano in 42 minutes. The rain had stopped and it was beautiful out, albeit cold and extremely windy. It was very special to sail past the Statue of Liberty at 3:25 in the morning. (I’d upload a few more photos, but the internet speed is really slow right now, especially for Cruise Critic.)

That too. I was already taken to task earlier in the thread for bringing that up.

So the ship wide, in-person muster drill that we had this afternoon on the Gem was a cluster bomb imho. At 3pm, the CD announced that there would be a muster drill at 3:30 (and this was in the Daily as well). She repeated this during the next half hour. Our muster station was in the Stardust Theatre, and as we’ve always done for muster drills, we arrived about ten minutes early so we could get seated. So did many hundreds of others (also typical). However, the crew did not open the doors to the Theatre until 3:30 (that’s never been the case before), by which time there were huge lines and crowds on both sides of the ship. When the doors opened, it took a really long time for folks to get in and seated, a problem exacerbated by the fact that crew had told some folks while they were waiting in line (including us) that our numbered muster station within the Theatre was on one side of the ship when in fact it was on the other. This led to a bunch of folks entering the Theatre on one side and then being directed through entire rows of seats to the other. At some point, while people were still filing in, and amidst the loud din of humanity in the Theatre, the CD starting making the safety announcements, which could not be heard. (That is typical on NCL and I commented about that earlier in this thread.) The crew member responsible for our numbered muster station demonstrated how to put on a life jacket, though what he was saying could not be heard. (The video that folks have to watch for check in was more useful.) About the only really useful thing of the entire drill was learning where our muster station was, which was also the case for the past year or so when you boarded and had to report there, just not as part of a ship wide drill. NCL needs to do a better job with these in-person drills. Most of the problems today existed before covid.

We boarded the Gem this morning. In about 15 minutes, we’re about to have the pre-pandemic muster drills in the inside muster stations. Off we go to the Stardust Theatre. …

Thanks Paul, we wish you were too!

We’re on board now. Letter from Captain announcing winter weather change. We’re not leaving till 3am tomorrow, and we’ll be skipping our Friday port call to Bermuda. (Frankly, the Friday forecast for Bermuda is not good, so I’m happy with the sea day.)

Thanks for the beautiful photos from St. Kitts. We were there a year ago; what a lovely island.

I don’t think you will find too many folks yet who’ve ended an NCL cruise in Panama. Tomorrow, the Gem is leaving out of NY for its first cruise ending in Panama City. (I’ll be aboard. 😊) I know that a number of folks on our Roll Call who are flying home from there would love to see an excursion that ends at the airport, but so far nothing. I think it’s really a new thing for NCL. Good luck!

Have a wonderful last night, and thanks again for sharing your cruise with us. Be prepared for a wet home-coming.

I agree with the points you made in your post. It’s not just NCL, though. HAL, for example has cabin categories called Vista Suites and Signature Suites that don’t really have suite privileges. RCL has Junior Suites, no real suite privileges.

Perhaps you might re-read what I posted. NCL needs to make these drills meaningful by eliminating the noise and distractions and making sure the crew are seen and heard.

I have no issue per se with in-person muster drills, but I do have an issue with them when they turn out to be a total waste of time because people are talking over what is being said, and/or you can't even see or hear what is going on. In my experience, NCL has done a very poor job in these crowded venues, be it the theatre or an MDR, in keeping people quiet and making sure that what the NCL staff are saying and demonstrating can be seen and heard. Also, because these indoor muster stations are so large, it takes a very long time before everyone arrives. And because of those negatives, right now at least, there does not seem to be a really good reason to create a crowded, mandatory, indoor event that could be a covid-spreader.

I can’t believe the ship is allowing anything like what you’ve been showing to remain in the passageways. They are hazards.