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Gem Review - Spring Break - 3/22/13 to 3/31/13

A1SusieQ

By A1SusieQ,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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A1SusieQ

A1SusieQ

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Review of our GEM Cruise from 3/22/2013 t0 3/31/2013

 

On this cruise was myself (Susie) my husband (Vic) and 2 daughters Madison (11 years old) and Juliet (8 years old)

 

This week is Spring Break for most New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Public Elementary and High Schools.

 

I knew to expect a ton of children under 17 years old. There were an abundance of families, but so are we, so we fit right in!

We stayed in a 2 bedroom Haven Suite on the 14th Floor. Cabin No.: 14010

 

This was not our first time on the GEM, nor was it our first time staying in a Haven Suite. This was however, our BEST Cruise ever.

 

Our children are at the perfect ages for cruising. They can go with the flow and Vic and I had plenty of dinners on our own while they were in the kids club and also he had time to take afternoon naps which he loves.

 

Kadek was in his first week of being Concierge and he did a great job. He performed his duties better than most seasoned concierges and I am so happy for him and his well-deserved promotion from Butler on the GEM.

 

Antonio was our Butler. We had Antonio on the Jewel 2 years ago. He remembered us and we were very happy to have him again. He is very attentive and provided immediate service to our requests.

 

We drove to the Port from our home on Long Island and arrived in the parking lot around 11 am. Cost to park for the 9 days was $344.00. It was very cold in New York the day we left.

 

The weather was EXCELLENT for 3 out of the 4 Port days. The 4th stop was at Samana, Domincan Republic. We purchased Cayo Levantado Beach excursion. It rained the entire day. We took an early tender to the beach in the pouring rain hoping it would let up, but it never did. We went back to the ship around 12 noon.

 

We never ate at the main dining rooms. We ate at the Buffet most days, but we went to Moderno, LeBistro, Teppanyaki, La Cucina and Cagneys for dinner. All the food at the specialty restaurants were good to great. Moderno being my personal favorite.

 

We used the laundry special 2 times during the week. We filled 2 bags each time and I came home with very little laundry. Money well spent!

 

I will be posting pictures and descriptions of what we did each day on the Islands.

 

The highlight of my time on the ship was winning 2 jackpots in the Casino. 1 was for $3,000.00 and the other was for $1,300.00. In addition, any time either my husband or I won over $400.00 on a machine, we cashed out our tickets and put them in the safe in our room. We then would put new money in the machine and not spend those winning tickets. We wound up cashing $4,000.00 worth of tickets in the end. We left the ship with around $8,000.00 in cash. We came on the ship with $2,500.00 for the casino. Making our winnings: $5,500.00 – A great win.

 

 

The entertainment was excellent, especially the hypnotist. The 4 of us laughed the entire show. The Man from Mars was the Kids favorite. The production shows were all shows I have seen before on NCL, but the kids and I went to them all anyway. Vic opted out of the production shows. We skipped Second City though. I never found them to be that funny.

 

There were a few negatives though:

 

1) The New Kids Crew closes on Sea days between 12 noon and 2 pm, then again from 5pm to 7pm. I had no intentions of leaving my children in the camp the entire day anyway. The problem with the closures were that when you want to drop them off to go to a specialty restaurant for dinner, the line is at least 1/2 hour long, because everyone needs to drop off at the same time due to the limited opening and closing times.

 

Those would most likely have been the times my kids would want to attend the club to begin with, but not every child would be on the same schedule. NCL really needs to fix this, as the line snakes all the way to the Garden Café for drop off on School Break weeks.

 

2) There were babies in swim diapers in the Haven Pool. I mentioned to Kadek, but they were never asked to not let the babies in the pool. I would not dare to start an argument on a vacation, so I never mentioned anything directly to them. After day 2, when I saw the diapers in the pool, I would not allow my kids in the Haven Pool (I let them go in the Hot tub). Who knows what was leaking out of those diapers. Ewwww

 

3) On the final morning as we were getting ready to debark, my husband pulled out from his pocket, a $60.00 voucher from a slot machine that he forgot to cash in. I went to guest services to cash it in because the Casino was obviously closed. The line was very long. I don’t know what everyone was doing on the line, but I do know what 3 different people directly in front of me were there for. They were getting their service charges removed!!!! They each had different stories of horrible service they received. There were only 2 employees working the desk, and each complaint took a long time. One angry complainer wanted the service charges removed for 4 days because they weren’t on the ship during the day and didn’t receive any services. The second one wanted the service charge removed for her 3 children because they didn’t receive any services. The third wanted every penny removed because he received terrible, rude and slow service everywhere he went on the ship. The Guest Service employee was asking for examples and he said that the waiters in the dining rooms were rude to them, they had to wait to be seated for a long time and that the food was terrible. He also said that his room steward did not speak English.

 

(Can’t make this up)

 

Each had a substantial portion of the service charge removed and I looked at them with disgust and felt so sorry for the guest services employees.

 

When it came my turn to cash in my voucher, it took a while and the Casino Manager had to approve it before they would give me my money. The line took more than an hour.

 

 

Pics to follow :)

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russianmom

russianmom

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Posted

Glad you had a great time! Can't wait to see the pictures.

 

I'm pretty bummed about the new Kids Club hours... I understand they did that because of parents who leave their kids all day. But it's pretty inconvenient to stand in a 30 min line every time my sons want to be dropped off or picked up...:mad::mad::mad:

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mommyto2girls

mommyto2girls

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Love the review and the photos.. Kadeek did not know when we got off the Gem on March 13th that he was going to be taking over for Florentina. That little secret was shared with us on the last day. We love 14010 it is our new home away from home. Not surprised about the diapers, we had a Haven full of them on our cruise along with a group that would have made your blood boil.

My husband is very jealous of your slot wins...he just cannot catch a break in the Casino..I stick to Roulette.

 

Andrea

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