Gem NE Cruise 9/26 - 10/4

[CTSandy]

A few comments about this cruise - We were Harrah's guests for this cruise, but fortunate not to come up on their busses from Atlantic City. We live in CT and decided it would be more practical to have my friend's daughter drive us down and pick us up at the conclusion of the cruise. This was also the first time either one of us had cruised on NCL.

 

We arrived at the cruise terminal at 10:30, plenty of porters around and were checked in by 10:45. We were on the ship at 11:35 and headed to the Pacific dining room for lunch...a nice poached salmon on a bed of peas and green beans. After reading many negative comments about the regular dining rooms, we both felt they did a decent job with food and service. We also dined at three of the specialty restaurants - LeBistro (our favorite for both food and service); Cagney's (steak was good, service was a little slow - our server apparently was filling orders for suites); and LaCucina (disappointing, place was almost empty, server seemed confused,my chicken Parmesan was ok, but the pasta was overcooked and under sauced). The buffet was fine for breakfast, lots of choices.

 

We both thought the entertainment was better than other cruises we've been on. The shows in the Stardust Theater were very good and lots of options for entertainment at various lounges. The casino was way too smokey; I can't imagine what it's going to be like when they ban smoking on your balcony and the smokers all congregate in the casino. There were definitely not enough machines in the casino for a ship with a bunch of gamblers - people were sitting at machines half an hour before the casino opened.

 

We loved most of the ports. Booked cars in Halifax and St. John for about $55 Canadian; I used my own GPS which had Canadian maps. In Halifax we visited Peggy's Cove and the cemetery where Titanic victims are buried. Both rentals were through Costco and were with Budget. Did some shopping in Halifax at the pier shops; nice quality items and very reasonable prices. In St. John we drove to St. Martins and then drove the Fundy Parkway. Some very beautiful scenery, even through fog and drizzle. After returning to the pier in St. John we had a late lunch at Steamers, just across the street from the pier. I had a wonderful lobster roll and French fries with seasoning that was so tasty we asked our server about it. She said it was Knorr seasoning that came in a round container - ordered some from Amazon as soon as I got home:))). We did Oli's Trolley in Bar Harbor - the tour through Acadia. Enjoyed the two hours and had lunch at a place across from where the trolley dropped us off (can't remember the name, sorry). Lobster roll and chowder, yum. Boston and Newport were just short shopping visits for us. We live in CT and have visited these places often.

 

We thought the crew was very friendly and did not notice the lack of service that other people have commented on since NCL went to the $12/day service charge. Our only negative was the forms for Canadian customs - we filled them out in NY and handed them to guest services when we boarded - the next night we had a message at our door saying we needed to submit forms to disembark the next day. We called guest services, they couldn't find the original forms so they sent someone up with new forms - filled those out, back to the desk, go to disembark the next morning and they didn't have them! We told them we submitted them twice - someone went to check and finally located them and we were able to get off in Halifax.

 

Pulled into NY in rain and were happy that Dana had found a parking place on one of the parking areas between piers. Had a ten minute walk in rain to get to the car - felt sorry for the huge line of people waiting for cabs in the rain. A fun cruise and would definitely cruise on NCL again.

[INDIANA JOE]

Glad you had a good time on the Gem. We did a 10 day in 2012 and really enjoyed the cruise. We love the jewel class of ships (Pearl 2 times, Gem 1 time) and would cruise on them again.

[Adele1]

Thanks for the report. I took that cruise last fall (we had good weather)

and totally enjoyed it except for the gov't shutdown but did find the

free LL Bean sponsored bus to tour around the park.

 

just love the Gem and their crew.

[spidybabe]

Glad you enjoyed

The Gem is our favorite ship and has some of the best crew.

We will be aboard soon...

Safe sailing

[jeffregpuck]

My Mom & I were on that cruise with you!! Have to agree...some of the best entertainment I've ever seen on a cruise ship. (And I've been on the EPIC!!) I thought the food has really improved over previous cruises with Norwegian. Service was just a little slow at times, but overall pretty good. We did the exact same specialty restaurants you did, and as always LeBistro was my fave.

 

The cruise staff was amazing and the cruise director (Dan Dan) along with Nacho and the rest of the entertainment staff was top notch!

[AAAAmerican]

 

Thank You for your gem of a review of the GEM too!:cool:

 

 

 

[khaide612]

and LaCucina (disappointing, place was almost empty, server seemed confused,my chicken Parmesan was ok, but the pasta was overcooked and under sauced).

 

I was on the Gem in May. We were in a suite and called one afternoon to make reservations in LaCucina. They told us they had nothing available that evening. The concierge called us later to see if we needed any help with dinner plans. We told him what happened with LaCucina. He said he would see if he could get us in. He called back not long after and said he was unable to get us a reservation. About an hour later he called and said that he could get us a table for 5 at like 8pm - fine with us. There was only one other table with 4 people. Everything else was open.

 

Our server was great though & the food was good. We left without our leftovers to meet up with other friends and found them in our cabin fridge when we returned!