AstoriaPreppy

You won't have a bad time! Alaska is amazing, and there's so much to experience we've been back multiple times, on a range of lines.

I'll throw in my 2 cents: don't do NCL your first time in Alaska. I know this is the NCL board, so people will be tripping over themselves to tell you how great NCL does Alaska, but TBH, we've found the experience pales in comparison to Princess/HAL when compared head-to-head. There's a few key things NCL doesn't do for Alaska sailings, that the other lines do. Princess/HAL have a full time naturalist onboard every ship in Alaska. We've found this invaluable, as they will lead wildlife viewings on deck, give talks on the best place to see animals, and narrate on the PA system when animals are spotted. The only place you'll get this sort of content on NCL is during Glacier Bay, when the NPS provides rangers. The other lines bring Alaskan food/beverages onboard. With a Princess/HAL beverage package, you've got a range of Alaskan beers to choose from, the MDR menus feature alaskan food every night, and the quick service spots will offer local food in each port (Tracy's Crab Shack bisque, etc). The other lines also feature a ton of culture brought directly on the ship: Libby Riddles comes on board to give a presentation about being the first woman to win the Iditarod, the Ketchikan lumberjacks come on board for passengers to try axe-throwing, etc. Princess is famous for bringing sled dog puppies in-training onto their ships for socialization and photo-ops with guests. For a lot of passengers, stuff like this may not be important, but we've found it to be really worthwhile sailing somewhere like Alaska.

If you plan on doing this, I'd encourage you to get writing in advance from NCL, don't just wing it. Japan, while very welcoming to westerners, has pretty detailed regulations for visitors you wouldn't want to run afoul of... especially since you're visiting South Korea by ship before returning to Japan on this trip (this would likely flag you in the system if you went missing in Japan). There's also a general culture of following the rules that Americans tend to find perplexing, so striking out on your own would be frowned upon at best, and illegal at worse.

To clarify, we’re talking about two different ferry services in this thread: The “official” NYC Ferry is run by Hornblower. Service operates between the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, and takes you to the cruise terminal in Red Hook: https://www.ferry.nyc The ferries that run to NJ are run by NY Waterway: https://www.nywaterway.com As mentioned, NY Waterway also operates a free IKEA ferry that runs from midtown/Wall Street to IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn, not that far from the cruise terminal. At least as of my last riding several years ago, the IKEA ferry restricts passengers to only bringing on what would fit in an IKEA blue bag, nothing larger. This was specifically done to prevent passengers from dragging flat pack furniture (or suitcases) onto the ferry.

@Brighton Line responded much more thoroughly than I could have… TLDR: no assigned seats, and the ferries are almost never that busy unless you’re going to DUMBO. You’ll queue up based on your ferry line/destination, and it’s largely orderly.

It’s a bit like the subway… there’s no prohibition about bringing big bags on the train, but it’s certainly an acquired skill if you’re not used to it, and you might be an annoyance to the regulars. That said, ferry use in NY is way lower than the subway, so you’re much more likely to have plenty of space near your seat to tuck your bags away. Wall St - Red Hook isn’t exactly a booming route.

If we didn’t have to transfer ferries, we 100% would be taking the ferry from our neighborhood to Red Hook for our January sailing. Knowing we’d have to do an outdoor wintertime transfer in lower manhattan, with bags, we’ll probably just do an uber/lyft.

Also, W 24th Street in Brooklyn is in Coney Island. Not close to Red Hook or the cruise terminal at all.

MSC really needs to improve their terminal facilities 🤣 Jut kidding… this is close to the port but is definitely an industrial garage in Red Hook, not the terminal address.

I don't remember specifically. It did smell much better than the rest of the casino space, but I assume that this was because it was new (smoke hadn't permeated the carpet/walls yet).

This happened on Royal Princess on the first sailing back post-pandemic (Alaska 2022). We expected Club 6, and instead the nightclub had been gutted and some random slot machines plopped down in the space... and every time we walked by, it was completely abandoned. Sadly, there was no real replacement for the nightclub, other than the DJ playing music in the Vista lounge after the band wrapped up each night.

As someone who flies several times a week (and also takes the subway regularly), I would not recommend attempting to take public transportation from JFK to the Red Hook cruise terminal. Getting to Red Hook via public transportation (other than the ferry) is already challenging. If you can make it to Smith/9th Street on the subway, you'll have to struggle with your luggage down 90 feet of escalators and stairs (they didn't install an elevator during the renovation). You're then looking at a 25 minute walk from the subway to the terminal. These days, just getting to the subway from JFK is a mess right now. They're doing total rebuild of Terminal 1, meaning the AirTrain (to the subway) is running shuttle service that is super unreliable. AirTrains have been running with ~20 minute headways... at that point, you'd be almost 1/2 of the way to the pier in a taxi/Lyft.

It’s appreciated! I guess the real question now is what beers will be out of stock because of “supplier issues” this January. On our Gem cruise this summer, finding anything that wasn’t Michelob Ultra onboard was challenging.

Could you post a beer menu (or recount the beer options) at Brass Anchor? We're on the Meraviglia in January, and would enjoy knowing what we're going to be facing 🤣

Princess tends to feel more "traditional" than NCL, with old-school stuff like a champagne fountain made out of hundreds of coupe glasses, etc. NCL is a lot looser: shorts at dinner, no formal nights, etc. We've done both lines a bunch, and enjoyed ourselves on each. One note on Harvest Caye: it's not a private island in the traditional sense (in that food and drinks are not included. It's more like stop that only cruise line passengers go to, and you still have to buy food and pay for beverages out of pocket (even with a bev package). Another note: Princess' "Medalion Class" experience really blows anything NCL has out of the water technology-wise. The internet is flawless, you cabin door opens automatically when you walk up to it, you never have to hand over a keycard when ordering (you just pop up on the tablet behind the bar), and you're able to order drinks/food throughout the ship via the medallion app, and they can literally find you anywhere. It's actually astounding, and no other line has anything like it yet. From our experience, NCL ships seem to feel more crowded than Princess ships do, which I think occurs because of the number of spaces given over to dinner-only specialty dining on NCL, along with chunks of the ship being only available to Haven guests. Activity-wise, Princess ships have multiple lounges where games/activities take place, so things can be more spread out. On the NCL ships lots of activities tend to get put in the atrium on the big screen (which becomes completely packed), but there's not really a more conducive place to hold them. Either way, you'll have a great time!

We're also booked on the Meraviglia out of Brooklyn this January. We've done the Gem a bunch of times as a winter cruise out of Manhattan, but post-pandemic NCL seems to have scaled back the 9/10/11 day itineraries that used to be common. Last year, we ended up doing the Anthem out of NJ down to the Caribbean, and this year we're trying MSC and the Yacht Club for the first time on one of their longer sailings down to Cozumel. I know people have mentioned entertainment as being sub-par on MSC, but over the past month or two NCL seems to have made dramatic cuts, especially in the main theater. On our recent 13 night sailing, the Gem only had two production shows (the broadway musical Swing was removed because of what I assume are licensing costs). Even worse, there were *three* fly on performers for the entire cruise, all musical acts, and they all had to do two nights of different shows. Since that was still only eight nights of entertainment in the theater, the theater was either dark, showing a second run movie (Coco?), or offering a "show" from the pool reggae band (which was really poor). I'm willing to take cheesy production shows on MSC, at least knowing they're going to be offering main theater entertainment each night.

Curious to hear how other lines handle this compared to Carnival. I know they all have limited menus out of Galveston, but when we did the Vista, the Red Frog pub ran a pre-departure discount pitcher of tropical drinks happy hour that was unadvertised, and also mobbed with repeat cruisers who knew about it.

Not to hijack, but we’re just off the Gem, and can speak a little bit about the Santorini cable car/donkey situation. There’s actually two tender docks in Santorini: the old port and new port. The old port is below Fira (Thira). This is where the cruise ship tenders drop you off if you don’t have an excursion, and where the cable car/donkey trail terminates. There is no vehicular access to the old port. If you don’t book an excursion, you’ll need to wait for the cable car or take the path up. The other option is the new port. The new port is up the coast a bit, and is accessible to vehicles via a *very* twisty road. If you have an excursion, you’ll take a special tender to the new port, and take your bus from there. This can be a huge benefit, as you don’t have to deal with the cable car up to Fira. At the end of your Santorini excursion, (like going to Oia), you’ll be dropped off back in Fira and given a cable car ticket for the trip back down to the old port and tender back to the ship. All tenders back return from the old port. The cruise lines are militant about sorting out excursion people from non at Santorini, as getting to the wrong port would be a major issue. All tenders are run by locals (not cruise ship lifeboats). Locals also ran the tenders in Mykonos… both were incredibly efficient compared to NCL staff and lifeboats. The issue arises with multiple ships in port, and everyone trying to leave simultaneously. The cable car can only hold 36 passengers per trip, so thousands of people trying to leave at sunset is a major issue. The other issue is the donkey path, which (poop aside), is steeper, more slippery and more dangerous than it looks. Several passengers on the Gem who decided not wait for the cable car took nasty spills on the way back down the donkey party after sunset; the medical center was busy post-Santorini. We’re younger and more fit than many cruise passengers and still almost wiped out multiple times, so caution is warranted. Just be prepared that a wait is likely on the cable car, but it really is the only safe/sane option back down.

Just off the Gem last week, and the MDR was open 6:30-8 am the last day. On the Gem, the 8 closing time was a HARD stop… everyone not in the door at 8 was absolutely being turned away by the Grand Pacific restaurant host. The menu was downsized from the normal MDR breakfast menu: I asked for sautéed mushrooms and was told it wasn’t an option by the server because of the reduced options. Starbucks was open until 8:30, and I believe the buffet was open until 8:30 as well

Comparing NCL and HAL is challenging, since they’re very different. First off, NCL ships tend to be much more crowded, regardless of the size of the vessel, compared to HAL. This can go from moderately more crowded to “queues everywhere” experiences on the mega NCL ships. NCL allocates a ton of space to the Haven, and their specialty dining. This means main spaces like the theater or music venues tend to be undersized, and people line up/pack in for everything. Also, the things we like about HAL (the music walk with nonstop performances at night, elevated MDR dining, an app buffet at happy hour, amazing pool deck pizza/burgers/sandwiches), aren’t things you’ll find on NCL. You also won’t find a lot of enrichment activities on NCL: if you’re looking for someone to give a talk on the culture of Iceland or the Norwegian fjords, you’ll want to stick with HAL. HAL also tends to do more culture onboard: local beers, food, etc. You won’t get that on NCL. The service on NCL tends to be more efficient than anything. The warmth and personalization you may find on HAL might not be present on NCL in the same way. That said, there’s a lot to like about NCL, specifically the laid back vibe. If you’re looking for a vacation where shorts and flip flops are okay in the dining room for dinner, you won’t find a better cruise line. We just did an Adriatic, Greece and Med sailing on NCL that we enjoyed: after sweating so much all day on land it was great knowing we didn’t need to put on pants for dinner. It certainly wasn’t a HAL/Celebrity experience, but we knew this going in.

With visas, NCL will "do it for you" onboard, and charge you a lot for the service. It's almost always a better deal if you spend a bit of time securing the visas on your own. Before our Southeast Asia cruise was canceled in 2020, cruisers on early sailings reported the Jade was charging $65 pp for the Vietnam visas onboard that cost $12ish if you obtained them in advance on your own.

We were also surprised at Cagney's... it can be so hit/miss, and absolutely delivered on food and service both times we dined there. Also, I hear your points on Le Bistro, we seem to be in the minority of people who like the redesign. From our experience, generally cruise lines offer smaller servings than shore-side restaurants, knowing people often order multiple apps and mains. This is the only time on 30+ cruises where finishing a single main dish was often impossible because of sheer volume of food on the plate... I can not overstate how large these servings were. That tour sounds awful, especially since you planned ahead. I think the hard part is that we were sold (and other passengers received) a sea/sun day, and instead got stuck inside what one person called a "turbo lifeboat 😂." It's likely the provider was over capacity and just wanted the NCL money, so they put us on boats they should not have used for this excursion... still, frustrating that NCL acknowledged the issue, promised a resolution, and the did nothing. For context, here's what the other NCL excursion boats looked like: Here's what we ended up in:

There were a few that we appreciated, and tipped additionally. Overall though, the staff was more focused on providing efficiency, not personalized service. This was especially notable with the bartenders who are just constantly cranking, so it's understandable. One of the other issues seemed to be the huge turnover of staff in Kotor. The day we boarded, we met a stellar bartender in O'Sheehan's, who remembered our names, and would ask about where the other was if only one of us ran into him. He left the ship in Montenegro, and we got a ton of newbies still trying to figure out the beats of service on the Gem. The service was rarely bad, but it wasn't as warm as you'd find on most other lines. We went in with clear perspectives on the pros/cons of NCL, but the main theater entertainment (or lack thereof) was shocking. Thank goodness they forced the party band (who was excellent) to do multiple sets in the Spinnaker each night, which really help save the evenings onboard. Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad to know we weren't out in left field with some of these perspectives. We also did Venice pre-cruise, and are glad we did. And to be clear, as bad as the vomit boat to shipwreck cove was, it in no way ruined our trip... if anything, it became a fun joke as word spread on the Gem about the excursion: "oh, you were on that boat?" We were in a family balcony, so our TV was located near the closets (not near the balcony door). There was one US plug near the balcony door table area, and another near the small area beneath the TV. The hairdryer was hardwired into the wall near the balcony door outlet, so it didn't take up plug space. There was one euro plug in the large space where the drinking glasses are stored, near the closet. There is also the standard bathroom plug, but that's low power and only designed for charging/using an electric razor. We really enjoyed the redone Bar Central space (Magnum's, Shakers, etc). O'Sheehan's has a bar that we discovered is usually deserted, so it's a good spot when everything else is packed. Moderno got mixed reviews on our cruise... we didn't go, so don't have first-hand experience this trip. We've never been on a cruise where the MDR servings were so consistently oversized. I can see getting a half chicken at Boston Market where you have leftovers, but I've never experienced this on a cruise line. It was especially notable with pasta dishes; I ordered a linguini and shrimp main one night, and received almost 4 cups of pasta... the portion was actually incomprehensible. Even weirder was the service staff's insistence that this was just how it was: there were no half portions, appetizer sizes, or any downsizing. I tried ordering six wings in O'Sheehan's, half BBQ and half chili, and the server was baffled, telling me repeatedly that they only came in servings of six and I needed to get 12 wings.

We’ve been back about a week from the 13 night Adriatic, Greece, and Italy sailing on the Gem, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the ship, the itinerary, and our experience. There don't seem to be many Gem reviews on CC these days, so I wanted to provide some coverage so future passengers know what they're getting into. This is a longish review, so apologies in advance for rambling. My husband and I have been on the Gem two times prior to this sailing (2013 & 2018), so we’ve experienced all iterations of the vessel (mostly positive changes). Full disclosure: we’re not loyal to any one line, sailing on every mass market and premium line depending on pricing, itinerary, and timing. In this case, we booked this cruise because of the itinerary, with a new port every day. We also had some CruiseNext certificated that had been extended multiple times by NCL and needed to be used. Overall, we had a positive experience, with a few snafus that I’ll mention below. Itinerary: The cruise was slated to start in Trieste, anchor in the lagoon and tender passengers in Venice, and then sail over to Ravenna, before bopping down through Croatia and Montenegro, through a bunch of stops in Greece, before heading back over to Sicily, Naples, Livorno and ending up in Civitavecchia. Of course, this all changed multiple times in advance of the cruise: first, NCL abandoned the 90 minute tender boat rides into Venice, and suggested they’d replace them with 2.5 hour bus rides into the city from Ravenna. They rejiggered the ittineray, removing Venice entirely and sending us to Ravenna a day early on 15 August (Assumption of Mary) with a new port of Split, Croatia replacing Venice. Of course, someone at NCL was notified that everything in Italy essentially closes for Assumption, so we were instead rescheduled to visit Rijeka, Croatia on the 15 Aug, with Ravenna on 16 Aug. On boarding, we discovered that the busses from Ravenna to Venice were canceled, meaning anyone who didn't stop in the city pre-cruise would miss out. Although disappointing, we realized this was likely and spent two days there prior to boarding. In the end, because of all of the ridiculousness with itinerary changes, NCL credited all guest with $121 in refundable OBC to their account, essentially a port charge and taxes refund for missing Venice entirely. Most of the ports were as-described, and we had a good time in most of them, with the exception of Rijeka and Zakynthos. Rijeka doesn’t really have much to see (and things were closed for Assumption), and Zakynthos was hampered by NCL screwing up tendering, a pretty poor downtown area, and truly awful shore excursion experiences for many guests. Corfu was also a bit of a miss, and seemed aimed more at Albanian day-trippers taking the ferry over than cruise ship passengers. Also: (in true NCL style), the line changed our embarkation dock in Trieste the morning of boarding without notifying passengers. Trieste has an amazing downtown cruise terminal a 10 minute walk from the train station. Per our cruise docs, the Gem would NOT board from this terminal, and instead would embark at the industrial port south of downtown, requiring a transfer/taxi…. which most passengers booked in advance knowing the industrial port wasn’t walkable or accessible from public transit. We were shocked when our shuttle arrived in Trieste to discover that NCL had misinformed everyone with the Gem was tied up at the downtown port, and everyone had spent way more time/money than needed on a pointless transfer. (As I said, very NCL). Ship: We found the Gem to be relatively well-maintained. Our balcony stateroom was fine, but the rooms are starting to show their age (and have not been renovated like some of the other Jewel class ships). Water pressure in the shower was a bit low, but adequate. I still find the standard Jewel class bathroom setup confounding: the shower/sink/toilet divider setup means squeezing into an oddly-angled toilet cubicle… it’s turns a relatively large bathroom space into a claustrophobic contortion experience. NCL recently did a gut renovation of the bar central (Magnums/Shakers/Maltings) area, along with Le Bistro. We really liked these changes… the old Le Bistro was like dining in someone’s idea of a classy 80s French restaurant, and both of the areas were brightened with more neutral, modern colors and lighting. The Spinnaker was also renovated, with more lounge seating outside of the main sofa area to expand capacity. The rest of the ship was similar to our last sailing in 2018, post-renovation. Dining: Our MDR experience was good, with only one major service issue (no food after 45 minutes). Notably, shorts and casual wear were explicitly ALLOWED in the aft MDR for dinner (Grand Pacific). We enjoyed this, and hope this becomes a fleet-wide change… especially after a day of blisteringly hot temps in Europe while touring, putting on pants for dinner was not top our list. Our biggest issue with the MDR was absolutely insane portion sizes. We’ve sailed on 30+ cruises across many lines, and never experienced such large portions… one night a cuban chicken dish was offered that consisted of an entire half chicken (in addition to included sides). Pasta dishes were almost overflowing, including an asian “noodle salad” appetizer that just was an entree-sized bowl of noodles. On top of this, the servers/kitchen seemed confounded at requests for half orders, or smaller portions. That said, the food was generally warm and well-prepared, if a little under-seasoned. Notably, the complimentary asian restaurant on the Gem was mobbed… we’ve never been on an NCL ship where the venue was packed from opening to close. Specialty dining was generally very good. We dined in Le Bistro and Cagney’s, and both food and service in both were very good. As I mentioned above, the new Le Bistro is a welcome change from the very dated impressionist painting vibe from the prior iteration. Our only major dining issue came when we tried to dine in Teppanyaki with an 8:30 reservation time. We showed up at 8:25, and were told by the restaurant host that the grill was “just being cleaned.” We were directed to the attached bar, where we waited, and waited, and waited. At 8:53, the restaurant manager showed up, and apologized and said that the table was just “finishing their dessert.” At this point, I walked over to the teppanyaki window and saw that the entire room was filled, and none of the tables were even eating dessert yet. At that point, we decided to cancel the reservation, leave, go to guest services to lodge a complaint, and then to eat in the Grand Pacific. Of course, this started a chain of panicked responses and we were flagged in the system immediately. The MDR manager came over to check on us, double check what happen, and then directly teppanyaki restaurant manager to rebook us several days later (when there were no reservations “available”). Eventually, the teppanyaki restaurant manager came to our MDR table with our new reservation for later in the cruise, along with a detailed explanation: apparently a party with a reservation of six showed up with eight people, and demanded to be accommodated earlier in the evening. Inexplicably, the restaurant manager decided to do this, which meant that every other reservation after them was thrown off… it was a major screwup on their part, and completely not acceptable. Other than getting a reservation several nights later, there was no other compensation or apology offered. Shore excursions: The shore excursions we did through the line were generally fine, although when issues came up, the shore ex staff didn’t seem really invested or engaged in problem solving. We did an on your own excursion in Dubrovnik where we were given a map in German and no information on how to return to the ship… eventually we figured out we needed to get back on the cruise line shuttle bus. Our guide in Ravenna to see the Byzantine mosaics was excellent, but we skipped two of the five sites listed in the description, including the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. When we pointed out these issues to the shore ex staff, we were met with a shrug and no compensation. This was especially notable during our port stop in Zakynthos, Greece. The entire port seemed unprepared for a ship: tenders ran behind schedule from the start, with some tickets not being called until noonish, and there wasn’t really anything of quality walkable from the ship. We booked the NCL excursion “Shipwreck Cove Beach Tour,” and it was absolutely the worst excursion we’ve ever taken, on any line, ever. We started with an hour long bus ride to a port (our guide was reading off notecards, and didn’t seem to know what she was doing). At the small boat port, multiple busses were overloaded on to what can best be described as a modified tender. Once the seats ran out, passengers were left sitting on stairs and on the floor of the boat. We stuck were inside, with the windows above eye-level, so we were unable to see anything for most of the excursion. We then started an awful 45 minute ride to shipwreck cove, stuck inside the boat with no ventilation or access to the outside. Multiple passengers started vomiting, as the boat started to take on water, drenching the people sitting on the floor of the aft deck. Eventually, we reached the cove, and rotated for 5 minute while we attempted to get pictures from inside the boat (the outside spaces were packed with people). We then turned around and drove 40 minutes up the coast (with no narration), before stopping for 15 minutes to allow people off the boat to swim. To make matters worse, while we were swimming another NCL excursion pulled up in a boat that was open, with plenty of seating and no enclosed space… apparently the boat quality and passenger load was completely luck of the draw and bus number. We then went back to the marina to wait another 20 minutes for our guide to find our bus, to take the hour long trip back to to the cruise tenders. By the time we made it to the shore excursion desk to complain, they had already complied a large list of people who had had issues, and said they were “negotiating” with the provider to process some level of refunds for the 100+ people on our boat. As of disembarkation morning, we had not received any sort of compensation or apology for the experience… and assume we won’t get anything. Entertainment: The other thing I’d mention is that the entertainment on the ship was definitely… mixed, and budget cuts were absolutely noticed in the main theater. The party band, Hot Wire, did multiple sets most nights in the Spinnaker. They were generally excellent. The reggae/pool band was New Generation, and were less good. They performed most nights in the Bliss nightclub, before the DJ took over for late nights. Lounge performers (piano, Randon the guitarist) were generally very good. Full disclosure: we enjoy going to shows in the main theater on a cruise. Even if we leave, we appreciate the variety of acts and talent presented. This became an issue on the Gem, especially on a longer cruise. There were only two production shows for the 13 day cruise, Blazing Boots and Get Down Tonight. Neither of these are great shows (especially compared to 2023 main theater shows on other lines), but at least they were something. The licensed broadway production of Swing: the musical, was cut by NCL in July, which meant the rest of the time would need to be filled by fly-on entertainment. During the 13 day cruise, there were three (3) fly-on entertainers: Martin Kaye, a piano/singer guy, Glenn McNamara, a Rat Pack tribute guy, and a popera quartet called Ancora. For what we can only assume were budgetary reasons, every fly-on performer had to do two nights in the theater, meaning there wasn’t a lot of variety. Kaye was very good, but had a habit of over-performing. His Elton John tribute show ran almost 55 minutes as he spent countless time doing flourishes to remind us what a great piano player he is (he needs to edit). McNamara did a fine job with his Dean Martin act, but we skipped his Michael Bublé tribute. Ed note: why are there so many Bublé tribute acts proliferating across the cruise line universe? For an artist known mostly for his covers, it seems like a weird exercise in branding... but this is the third one we've seen on a cruise in as many voyages across multiple lines. The real stinker was Ancora, a pop-opera quartet. First off, the sound mix in the Stardust was awful; I grew up going to very very loud nightclubs and concerts, and this show was painfully and confusingly loud. Secondly, the performer were… bad. Off-pitch? Oversinging? Cheesy? Yes, yes and yes. We made a hasty retreat for the exit after one of the quartet performed Heart’s “Alone” in a key that can best be described as "incorrect." We did not return for their second show. The repeat acts became an issue because if you didn’t like a performer, you’d immediately have to X off their second night of shows in the theater… it absolutely decreased the variety of entertainment on a smaller ship with fewer options. With only 8 nights of entertainment scheduled for a 13 day cruise, the cruise director got creating in filling the other nights in the Stardust. Some nights, they’d just show a movie in the main theater as the show (James Bond, Coco). Some nights, the theater would just be dark (no entertainment, which was a first amongst all cruises for us). One night, knowing they needed *something* to put on the stage, they had the reggae band do a Motown tribute, which would be fine if it was in the background on the pool deck, but not as a main theater show. Notably, we found cruise director Emma Dalton to be one of the weakest we’ve ever had. She seemed deeply uncomfortable in her role, often appearing exhausted, disengaged or just going through the motions. I get that this can be a grueling job, but there's some expectation of being convincing at enjoying your role. While absolutely working on a limited budget for main theater programming, she certainly could have been more creative (staff talent show, guest talent show, anything). Oddly (and unlike many cruise directors we’ve encountered in the past), she seemed to actively dislike speaking with guests or public speaking in general. While you’d see her walking through the ship, she never stopped to speak with anyone… it was noticeable and strange. At the latitudes party, both she and the senior officers sprinted out of the room immediately after their introduction, leaving only the Cruise Next woman to socialize. Especially compared to the other lines where officers are out and regularly engaged with the passengers, the Gem's officers were MIA for the entire voyage. Crew: The crew onboard seemed hard-working and generally efficient, although a large number ended/started their contracts in Kotor, Montenegro. Occasionally, service could be exceedingly slow, especially in the Bar Central area in the evening. There were also random head scratchers... after we asked for shots and Michelob ultra, one server brought us shots and two glasses of merlot. Still, things like this were the exception and not the rule. We did find guest services to be more dismissive on this ship than any other mass market cruise line. Their initial response was almost always "you've done something wrong" and not "how can I resolve your issue." One night on returning to our room at 1:30 am, we discovered that our air conditioner was broken and our room was blisteringly hot. On calling guest services, we were told “That’s how air conditioners work, they shut off when they get to the correct temperature.” After explaining the room was hot, the guest services phone rep asked if we could just deal with it, or needed someone to take a look at it. Later in the cruise, our air conditioner started spewing out black soot onto our bed, and again guest services asked if it was a real issue and if it actually required maintenance to investigate. The only guest services person we interacted with us who was concerned and not accusatory off the batt was the one who was shocked we hadn’t been seated for dinner at teppanyaki after 30 minutes of waiting. Disembarkation: This was another very odd operational decision from NCL. First, our room steward didn’t leave us any disembarkation information… we had to go to guest services and request opening times for food, etc. There were three color luggage tags (outside of NCL transfers) with the earliest disembarking at 7:15ish and the latest scheduled to be called at 8:45. We picked late disembarkation. At 6:45 am, cruise director Emma came over the PA system saying the ship had been cleared, and walkout disembarkation could commence. At 7:03 am, she announced that the first luggage tags had been called, and around 7:15 announced that all three of the publicly-available luggage tags had been called (including 8:45). She then spent the next two hours exhorting passengers to leave via the PA system… it was like nothing we’ve ever experienced on a cruise. This included suggesting that massive lines were expected after 8 am, reminding us that there were no lines at 7:15 am to get off the ship, implying that anyone still on the ship would be forcibly ushered off around 8:30 am, and telling remaining guest that everyone else had left and we were basically the only people left. As we’d scheduled a pickup from the port at 9:30, we had a leisurely breakfast in the Grand Pacific, and then decided to find a quiet spot to hang out until 9. We were shocked to find that the public areas of the ship were *packed* full of people… apparently we weren’t the only people who had planned to hang out until 8:45 when we expected the luggage tags to be called. Although the ship had an official “everyone off by 9 am” policy listed, there were hundreds of people still on the ship, many waiting for their NCL transfers to be called. Conclusion: All taken, we had an enjoyable time on this cruise, a number of snafus notwithstanding. Our biggest misses ended up being evenings in the Stardust theater. The entertainment really left something to be desired: compared to almost every other aspect of the cruise, the budget cuts were very apparent here. Having a screening of Coco in the main theater is not what I’d consider acceptable evening entertainment, and having even one or two more fly-on performers would have helped to round out evenings on the ship a bit more. Our shore ex experience was also mixed, with onboard staff often unwilling or unable to address issues... we're still waiting for a partial refund of the nightmare excursion that will never come. That said, it wasn’t enough to dampen the great ports and amazing sights spent on land, which was our primary reason for booking the trip. Please feel free to ask any questions if I've left anything out!

Negative experience is one thing. A ship the company knew needed to be gut renovated (and because of the pandemic, is not) is a totally different story. I’d rather people be prepared than shocked, as we were. Again, we’re elite Celebrity passengers, and the Infinity was not remotely up to our experiences on the entire rest of the fleet.