bonniboo1

I always call NCL and make my reservations over the phone. The agents are always very helpful.

Thank you so much Keith, I appreciate you taking the time. Which line did you take?

I am also considering NCL as I am Platinum and love the

Benefits. I am also very comfortable on NCL and love the entertainment. If I take NCL I'll have to book a pre cruise tour. If anyone has any input it would be appreciated.

I was wondering if I can get some opinions. I am trying to find an Alaskan Cruise and would like 2-3 days of a tour before hand. I know that several lines offer this and several don't. At this point I am looking for a recommendation of a Cruise tour company. Any thoughts?

Bonni

Ah - good idea to look out to the next few sailing. $349 is a awesome price considering it is a holiday weekend.

 

This is our first NCL cruise and hope Gem is a good one to start on.

I've been on the Gem 5 times. It's a lovely ship with a wonderful crew! Read up on the ship and attend the Meet & Greet if you can!

This last cruise i found myself having breakfast in the buffet and either sitting in the Great Outdoors or La Cucina where it was never crowded. There was a large variety and it was good. I am not a food snob and I make my living as a chef. I can't understand the complaint! Enjoy your cruise.

What a delightful review and what a delightful family!

When I host a Meet and Greet I always mention on line to be complimentary and positive to the officers. The M&G is not an obligation, but a wonderful gift from NCL. I will never forget to mention this again.

The Hotel Director told us that after leaving Canada and arriving in Maine that we would have a very quick Customs check where we were to bring our passports. One lady started screaming that she has been on numerous cruises and this has never happened and it should have been listed on line. Apparently they had booked a non ships tour and needed to get off early. The hotel director wrote down her cabin number and promised that he would arrange for her to be in the first group so they would be off first. She kept on interrupting all of the officers speeches yelling about this. The HD kept on calmly reassuring her. She took up a lot of time with beating a dead horse and embarrassed the rest of us. To make matters worse she won the door prize that I had brought, lol! Anyways, I have no patience for rudeness like that. As they say, you can't fix stupid!

You need to start it. It won't show up til you start it. Have fun!

Jayson on the Gem - by a mile!!!!!! :D

 

Rogin on the Breakaway, honorable mention. (I think he's Assistant Concierge now.)

Had Jayson on the Gem maybe 4 years ago. He is an amazing

Young man!

We are taking a private tour on day one with Byways tours which comes highly recommended on the Ports of Call pages. Day two we are taking Bird Travels suggestion and using our voucher for transportation to my favorite, Horseshoe Beach. Definitely not to be missed.

Bonni

I went to the dollar store and bought several huge metal magnets to put on the walls. One was for notes to each other. The next one was the Gems newspaper with all planned activities highlighted. The last one held all other papers. Nothing was lying around no surfaces were clutter free.

I was just thinking about you the other day and I was wishing that you would cruise so that you would write again. What a pleasant surprise when I logged into Cruise Critic and saw your review. Unfortunately I was unable to pull up your photos. I just had to imagine your photos in my mind.

Thank you for your writing!

Bonni

Thank you so much for this review! When I board on 6/10/18 I will even be more excited now. I generally host the Meet & Greets just to make sure that we have one. It looks like you did a bang up job as did the

Staff of the Escape. Did you bring the door prizes yourself? I did on the the

Last M&G. If NCL had some prizes that would even be better! Thank you again.

Bonni

 

After Jovo and Tyler were done. We did some fun giveaways. Most active posters, 1st poster, Slot Pull organizer, plus several random ones. Then we did the gift exchange.

 

Gift Exchange gifts

 

 

The Meet & Greet was awesome. we had excellent participation from our roll call, and had over 50 to 70 people attend. If you were on our sailing ,Thank you for coming.

 

At 1 pm, we headed down to the Casino and 27 of us did the Slot Pull. Thank you Cyndi_at_home for organizing. Cyndi pictured with Fran who was helping her!

 

 

We had a lot of fun and made lots of noise.

 

 

No big jackpots, but we all had a ton of fun!

 

Mom, Dad, Susan and I headed to O'Sheehans for a late lunch.

 

 

Mom was leary of going back because they did not have a great experience the night before on the Prime Rib night. Her's was tough and not very good in her opinion.

 

Nacho's without Jalepeno's

 

I just checked and it hasn't been released yet. I believe that they have to pre approve them before they are posted. I will check back later. In a nut shell, I had a great time. Its different in some aspects than a Caribbean Cruise but still wonderful.

Just posted my Gem New England /Canada review in the NCL review section. If you have any questions I will attempt to answer them.

Bonni

We will be sailing on the Gem on June 10th and I was wondering who were the the current CD + HD? Thank you.

My first butler was Jayson. He was amazing. In fact he was so amazing that I only remember that I didn't care for the next one, nothing else.The following one was decent but he wasn't Jayson! Jayson set the bar too high.

You folks made my day! I had posted this years ago and when I didn't get a response I have up. She is amazing! Carnival had her tucked away in the back of the ship, big mistake! So glad she is still making people happy!

Thank you everyone!

I noticed that there was a New promo where NCL pays your taxes and port fees. Do you know if this is a true savings or of the cruise price was raised and the bottom line is the same? Thank you.

Thanks for finding my own post for me. I really need a vacation. I feel better about this cruise already. I like to research everything ahead of time. Apparently my friends don't and miss out on things.

Thank u for your help. I feel better about the cruise now.

June 10th. I haven't been on the roll call for a while but I thought that I saw you on it

i swear I posted this yesterday but I can't find it. Booked next summer on The Escape to Bermuda. Was told by friends that there aren't nightly shows on the Escape like there on the Gem. Please let me know your experiences. Thank you.

Bonni

Hope someone can help. I have sailed the Gem and other smaller NCL ships numerous times. I have always enjoyed the evening shows. I am booked on a 2018 Escape cruise to Bermuda. I have been told that there isn't much going on in the way of good entertainment in the evening. What can I expect?

Bonni