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This was one of the best excursions we did in Alaska! Our trip was 4 years ago, but the whole family still talks about this train ride.

The beautiful sites & scenery you see are second to none. Depending on the time of day you might even see bears right near the tracks. Don't forget your camera!

If we ever get back to Alaska, we would take this awesome train ride again😄

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We sailed on the Gem in February & never had a problem getting a lane when my son wanted to bowl. It is first come, first served and remember to check the Freestyle daily for the hours it's open each day.

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We sailed on the Gem in February and had reservations for 13 in the MDR. We had one table for our group each night and it was no trouble. You just have to contact them and let them know in advance.

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As was mentioned, NCL has no true formal nights. If you want to dress up just do so whenever you want, that's the beauty of freestyle cruising:)

In regards to photo packages, I'm not sure if they're the same on every sailing or not. On our Feb 8th, nine day GEM cruise they offered two different ones. Any 10 pictures for $129 or any 20 for $199. If you paid an extra $20 they would put your package photos on a USB drive with a phot release letter.

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Im also looking at this cabin. Hopefully one of you will see this and let me know if you liked the cabin

We just sailed in this cabin at the beginning of this month. I'm surprised you found my post:)

My wife & I both loved this room & the layout. It just seemed like we had more room to move around. My wife liked the fact that the bathroom & closet were around the corner and not right by the entrance door.

This room is steps away from the mid-ship elevators. We both said we would book this same room again.

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I'm not sure when it changed but it was better to shop in St. Thomas or St. Martin on our cruise on the NCL Gem. Both islands had plenty of duty free shopping.

If you want some liquor tho, the duty free store at the pier in Old San Juan had some deals that were way better than even St. Thomas had to offer.

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We were just in Old San Juan on board the Norwegian Gem & we docked in the same area. Unfortunately, the only duty free shopping in all of San Juan is in the building right next to the ship. All the main shops in Old San Juan charged sales tax on anything you bought:( My wife waited to buy her jewelry but the duty free shop had good deals on liquor:) Sorry I don't have any maps of the downtown shopping area.

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I vacation in Florida every year & would recommend you use the turnpike for this trip. It will be well worth the money spent in tolls to avoid the likely congestion on I-95.

When renting your car you should ask about renting a transponder for tolls on the turnpike. I was told they started offering this service, for a fee, & then you just get charged the tolls when you return the rental. (I've never done this but it's worth asking about, then you wouldn't have to stop at any toll boths.)

Our final stop was in Samana, Dominican Republic. I had done a lot of reading about this stop (which is a the only tender port on this cruise) and took the advice of booking an excursion in advance. I can understand why folks don't recommend "winging it" in Samana. We booked with Tour Samana With Terry (http://www.toursamanawithterry.com/) and selected Excursion#3a: Quad ATV+Walk the Plank Zip Line.

 

I had never driven an ATV before, but after a little while (and only briefly scaring other drivers!), I caught on. The zip line was fantastic & long and the local food served for lunch was delicious. We also enjoyed learning about the foods, medicines, and local artistry of the Dominican Republic. For some, the poverty of this area may be shocking, but seeing how the locals lived provided an opportunity to discuss cultural and economic disparity with my kids. I'm glad we spent the day in a less touristy destination & expressed our gratitude to the local community by purchasing wares from local vendors who partner with Terry. This is another excursion that we would absolutely book again.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing. I'm getting ready to go on this same cruise very soon. I wanted to ask you about the tav & zip-line tour you took. I booked this same tour with Terry and was just wondering how long the actual zip-line portion of the tour was? I read on his website that the zip-line only tour has 12 different zip-lines but couldn't find out how many this tour will do. Thanks for any additional info you remember.:D

Hi everyone! Hope all is well. My wife & I are sailing on the Norwegian Gem Feb 8, 2014. We have a few others going with us from our local congregation but would always like to meet up with more of you:) Email me at cruisecrazy@rocketmail.com if your interested in joining us.

Safe travels on your upcoming cruises:)

Dan

My DW just booked our next cruise on the Gem for Feb 8, 2014.Nine whole days on ship! I know it's a long time off but Wohooo!!!! Truly a great way to start off any week:D

The best part is we are getting a group of family & friends to go with us. We are introducing all of them to NCL & a few of them are new to cruising. Even my DS who's 6 is exited since for the first time he's going to have a BF along:)

Now the research begins:D Thank you to all who share their wealth of knowledge on CC, it is such a great site to be part of.

I was wondering if anyone has photos of the inside cabins that are sideways from the Gem? I read on CC that people really like the sideway cabins so I booked cabin 10583, the first time in a sideway. Was this a great move?

What things should we not miss on the Gem?

Hello to all,

My wife & I are from the Shenendaoh, PA congregation. We have been cruising about once every other year since being married in 97. We are getting ready to go on the Norwegian Sun to the Western Caribbean Feb. 4, 2012. This will be our first cruise w/o our 6 year old son. He has been on 4 cruises already:D

It is always nice to meet up with friends while on board & have been able to do so a few times. We also have met various ones in ports of call that had small shops selling local goods:)

Dan