Another long review of NCL Gem - Jan 22-Feb 1, 2016

[Carol++]

First, a big thank you to our Roll Call leaders and organizers! It was great to meet folks and to be involved with the Cruise Critic group -- definite perks! Shout-out to Freddie, trivia champ!

 

The weather was a huge factor, of course. Many activities and shows were cancelled, the pools in the thermal spa were closed until the seas calmed. At the advice of others on Cruise Critic, we brought Bonine and did not suffer a bit of seasickness. Very sad for fellow cruisers who suffered. My husband and I had an inside cabin on Deck 8 (near O’Sheehan’s) which was a relatively stable location in the ship.

 

SENIOR OFFICERS AND STAFF:

At our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet with senior officers, Cruise Director Alvin asked us to please let them know immediately if there was anything we did not like during our cruise, because they would rather hear from us immediately so they could try to fix the problem rather than to have us complain on Cruise Critic. I took this to heart and wrote many comments and observations – positive and negative, and some of these I think they truly found helpful. I got a nice thank-you note from the Hotel Director, Sonja. In general, all the Officers were very accessible and visible and seemed concerned with customer satisfaction. Although my comments below contain some negative observations, I love the Gem and will sail again. Here are some impressions:

 

Captain: Serene and reassuring. I enjoyed learning about his humble background.

 

Cruise Director Alvin: A great master-of-ceremonies, fun at parties, a nice guy and a good leader.

 

Entertainment staff: Sweethearts from top to bottom. Consistently greeted me by name and it felt very friendly.

 

Wait staff: Positive encounters throughout the ship.

 

Hotel Director Sonja: My mattress was horrible, saggy and lumpy. Two days on it gave me terrible back pain. I saw Sonja at the Latitudes party and asked her if there were any spare mattresses on board. I really did not expect to get yes for an answer. But in fact, she said there were lots of new mattresses, and that they had not had time to replace all the old ones. I gave her my cabin number and a few hours later I had a brand new firm and comfortable mattress.

 

Reception Desk: Pleasant enough, but not as knowledgeable as I would have hoped. They always had to go back behind closed doors to find out answers. Here is an example of mediocrity: Sometimes there were no comment cards, so I would stand in line to tell them they were out of comment cards. This always came as a surprise to them, that is, they were not aware that they were out of comment cards. I would think that restocking comment cards would be one of their responsibilities. But, no. So they would go to the back behind closed doors, then five minutes later emerge without any comment cards. “Oh, we will have to get some more. Maybe tomorrow.” For a cruise line that seems to genuinely enjoy feedback, it is rather shocking that so often they run out of comment cards and that reception desk employees are not mindful to restock them.

 

Cabin Steward. He was a little testy. My husband and I do not like a lot of service to the cabin, don’t need or necessarily want the bed made daily, and are accustomed to reusing slightly damp towels. We are in and out of the room a lot throughout the day (my husband takes a lot of naps). We often left the door sign on “Do Not Disturb.” This upset the cabin steward and seemed to present problems for him.

 

FOOD and FOOD SERVICE:

No one could eat outside those first couple days because of the weather, and that overwhelmed the buffet area. It was impossible to find a seat. Folks were walking back and forth with plates from one end of the seating area to the other and back again. People sat down to eat on the wide window sills. I asked if they could please open Magentas (secondary MDR) for breakfast, but was told that there was not enough staff for that. When the weather got warmer, it was easier to find a seat in the buffet, but by that time, my husband and I were enamored by the MDRs. We had no trouble being seated immediately if we arrived before 6 pm or after 8:30 pm. There was a lot of hubbub at the hostess stations because of many large groups.

 

In my opinion, the food in the buffet was a step down from the last time I cruised NCL. There seemed to be less of a selection, less variety. For example, there was potato salad and cole slaw every day, whereas last time I cruised there was more of a variety of prepared salads and different ingredients. Also, there was more duplication within the buffet line this time. Also, cheeses were more mundane -- last time there was brie, this time, not. Also, the buffet ran out of things that were not refilled. I think the kitchen ran out of food a couple times. I pointed to the empty serving bowls of walnuts, slivered almonds and cottage cheese and was told by chef assistants that they ran out.

 

The pool-side bbq was held on nice sea-days and it was great.

 

Our experiences in both MDRs were all excellent for both food and service. I recommend the striploin steak. We had prime rib twice, once on the buffet, and once in the MDR. There was the option to purchase lobster for $20 any day in the MDR; we never did that but saw some in the dining room and it looked fantastic. Coffee was a puzzle -- sometimes it was excellent, and sometimes burned and bitter.

 

O’Sheehan’s has many kinks that still need to be worked out. Service is ridiculously slow, and the waiters will forget to bring out part of your order.

 

 

ACTIVITIES, PARTIES and ENTERTAINMENT:

‘70s Party – The production cast does a fun number to open the party.

 

Fountains – They don’t do it anymore since a passenger complained about it to the CEO. By the way, I think that Alvin liked doing Fountains.

 

White Party – They don’t do snow anymore due to safety concerns. No flash mob on this voyage.

 

Quest – I enjoy and participate in this game, but I think now that it is 2016 we have moved to a new era where “two men French-kissing” should not be a challenge for points. There are a lot of gays (especially on this LGBT-friendly cruise line). A team that has gay guys has no trouble getting a point.

 

STARDUST THEATER: They have GOT to do something about the kids running around and all the late-comers. It is so annoying. The show is underway already for 10 minutes and you have to stand up to let latecomers cross into your row, or worse, maybe, they head all the way down to the front and boy, do they take their sweet time to get seated. Also, the supposed rule about children not allowed in the first two rows is completely unenforced. My suggestion would be that latecomers must be seated in the upper balcony only.

 

Production shows: Adorable.

Tim Kaminski (comedian): Very personable and funny.

Tenors of Rock: Outstanding!

Aerial Duo Balskat: Mesmerizing!

Magika: Super annoying!

Second City: Shout-out to Mark.

 

In general, I thought that many of the entertainers did too much begging for applause. “Are you ready for a good time? … I can’t hear you … you can do better than that…” Do other guests hate this as much as I do? Maybe some people like to be exhorted to cheer louder, I don’t know.

 

TV: Gets BBC, CNBC, FOX and MSNBC. Also, there is a channel where is shown entertainment events from earlier in the cruise. During the first sea days we watched a little news and both FOX and MSNBC International news was about how much snow was falling in Philadelphia and NYC. Even though we were having rocky seas, we knew that in a few days we would be in the sunny Caribbean.

 

The SLIDE: Is open. The night before St. Thomas the ship’s executives were all clustered around the slide and some crew members in bathing suits were testing it. The following day (St. Thomas), the slide was “verified” and put into use. I enjoyed it. It is not steep, but it is fast and fun. The line moved quickly except for when kids don’t exit the slide promptly at the bottom. The ship might need to put a crew member there at the bottom to direct traffic. I am sure they will figure it out. The pools on the Gem are great – big enough to swim “laps” and the water temperature was refreshing. TIP: bring goggles if you like to open your eyes underwater.

 

CIGARETTE SMOKE: I am very sensitive to cigarette smoke and found it to be a problem on this sailing. Especially on the first couple days because no one could go outside to smoke due to the weather, the cigarette smoke was very heavy inside. Sometimes the smoke permeated the bar areas adjacent to the casino, and into the theater. In fact, my lifeboat drill station was supposed to be in Magnums (Deck 7, above the Casino on Deck 6). Well, I could not sit in Magnums, so bad was the smoke. So I checked in and then sat in a different drill station to hear the instructions. Maybe they can do something with fans, I don’t know. Also, some people getting onto the elevators reeked of cigarette stench so much that I could not even ride the elevators with them. I would pay double for a smoke-free sailing.

 

CONDITION OF THE SHIP: Inexplicably, there was some broken stuff: broken coffee machine, broken ice cream machine, some broken seats in the theater, some light bulbs burned out, some old signage (Blue Lagoon, anyone?). Fortunately, there were mostly working coffee machines, light bulbs and comfy theater seats.

 

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Allow them to take your picture -- they have a quota. It is fun to look at the photos at the end of the cruise.

 

ART GALLERY (Park West employees): Obnoxious, officious b_tches. Hate them. The “auctions” are not really auctions because of the very high reserve prices, just a few dollars below the PW-established “retail” price. TIP: Don’t sign up for their credit card, despite the promise of a “free” work of art. They will charge you $35 to ship it to you. They say that there is not enough space for them to store the give-way artworks (to carry off the ship), but this is a crock of sh_t.

 

PORTS: I saw lots of people bringing food off the ship. Boxes of cereal and even oranges. Nothing was confiscated.

 

San Juan: Low key and it is easy to get around the old city for free. There are free trolleys and free trams to the forts. Admission is $5 and worth it. There is free WiFi at the Starbucks.

 

St. Thomas: Loaded with American ex-pats waiting to accost you to try to bring you into bars, sell you timeshares (um, excuse me – “Vacation Clubs”), jewelry, eye creams, etc., etc. They are on you like flies. We had booked a snorkeling excursion (through NCL) on a speedboat. The boat ride was fun and crew was great. There were two stops – one where we saw a few sea turtles coming up for air, and one with a few fish. Even though the undersea life is a bit sparse, the trip was fun and I enjoyed a good long swim in the ocean. Afterwards, we did contribute to the local economy and bought a necklace and a couple drinks. I recommend a Bushwacker – it is like a mocha milkshake but with a very powerful effect.

 

St. Martin: We went to Maho Beach on a tour booked through NCL. The beach, although kind of grody, was well worth it for the experience of planes landing above your head. A FedEx plane came in super low. We also had a couple 757s. There is a guy on the beach with a megaphone announcing all the incoming flights and takeoffs. He is also excellent at timing photos. I saw a group do this – they paid him $5 very well spent. I wrote a comment to NCL afterwards that the tour company (“Rendezvous”) and the "tour guide," (Lex) were terrible. In a bus ride of about 45 minutes roundtrip, he gave almost no historical information, but mainly just pointed out various businesses as we passed them. Literally: “This is a hardware store. This is a restaurant. This is a nightclub.” He also spent time listing (not once but twice), all the types of car dealerships. And how much he wishes he had an Audi. And he gave misinformation about an alleged freshwater shower (does not exist) and where we could find WiFi (again, wrong). We would have been better off with a cab. Traffic was no problem because of the new bridge.

 

Tortola: We had booked a snorkeling excursion through NCL. Very professionally run. The undersea life in Tortola is richer than in St. Thomas.

 

 

DISEMBARKATION in NYC: We had the last disembarkation time and had no trouble at all (well, except for the fact that we were waiting in our cabin until our number was called, and this was a problem for our cabin steward who needed to clean our room for the next sailing and he kept knocking. My fault, probably, because I forgot to switch the door sign to “Do not Disturb”). Our turn was called at about 9:45 am.

 

Getting off the ship was smooth, and we easily found our luggage and breezed through customs. One sort-of-amusing-mostly-annoying thing is that as we crossed the street toward the taxi stand, we were accosted by agents trying to sell us car service for double the cost of a taxi. Fortunately, I am not a rube in NYC. Take a metered taxi, folks. It cost us about $20 to get to the parking garage at 673 St. Nicholas where we parked for $16 per day.

 

Home now, where unpacking and laundry await. And work tomorrow, boo.

[2boyzmom]

Carol, thank you for the great review. Although we live on Long Island it has been many years since we have cruised out of NY and are so excited. It seems everyone agrees the entertainment is top notch. How were the chair hogs at the pool?

[Carol++]

Carol, thank you for the great review. Although we live on Long Island it has been many years since we have cruised out of NY and are so excited. It seems everyone agrees the entertainment is top notch. How were the chair hogs at the pool?

 

Chair hogs do not bother me, (a) because I don't lounge that much, and (b), I have no trouble whatsoever moving someone's towel. What was difficult is that all the lounges were packed so closely together it was hard to move around the pool deck. Stubbed my toe a couple times.

[kateissiobhan]

Thanks Carol for your review. We are sailing out next week on the Gem.

[lenquixote66]

We will be on the Gem Feb.21.We have a ride to the port but will likely be taking a car service going home.My wife fears being stranded.

 

Lenny

[Carol++]

We will be on the Gem Feb.21.We have a ride to the port but will likely be taking a car service going home.My wife fears being stranded.

 

Lenny

 

Hi Lenny,

 

Enjoy your cruise. I think if you arrange for a car service ahead of time you might be able to negotiate the right price. But if you allow yourself to be captured by the first fellow who asks if you need a ride, you will end up paying more than necessary. The "need a ride?" men wanted to charge us $45 for a ride that is about $20 by taxi. We offered to pay $25 but they waved us off then to find easier marks. Taxis are plentiful. How far a ride do you have from the port?

[lenquixote66]

Hi Lenny,

 

Enjoy your cruise. I think if you arrange for a car service ahead of time you might be able to negotiate the right price. But if you allow yourself to be captured by the first fellow who asks if you need a ride, you will end up paying more than necessary. The "need a ride?" men wanted to charge us $45 for a ride that is about $20 by taxi. We offered to pay $25 but they waved us off then to find easier marks. Taxis are plentiful. How far a ride do you have from the port?

 

There is always the possibility of getting someone to pick us up at the port.Therefore,we cannot book ahead of time.

We are about 60 to 90 minutes from the port depending on traffic.

 

Lenny

[jjikids]

Hey Carol

Freddie and Len say hi. We enjoyed meeting you.

 

The crew did try to alleviate the buffet crowds. Moderno opened for for lunch when we couldn't get out. They served soup , salad bar and sandwiches.

 

We did see security try to enforce the younger kids from the first rows in the theater. They should do more about not letting people walk down to the front. I give the entertainers credit. They made fun of those people. Unfortunately they probably enjoyed that.

What we saw were typical kids. The parents were the pushy ones.

 

I also spoke to Sonia about issues. She said many of the crew were new so didn't know how to react to serving special groups.

 

We were lucky having the dining package. We only ate in the MDR for the first dinner and the last lunch. That way we didn't deal with the crowds.

 

We did buy another cruise reward. After the changes in the last year and much negativity, we were happy to see many positive things.

[NLH Arizona]

Thanks for the review. I love reading Gem reviews, since I'll be on her this coming September.

[Barb Nahoumi]

First, a big thank you to our Roll Call leaders and organizers! It was great to meet folks and to be involved with the Cruise Critic group -- definite perks! Shout-out to Freddie, trivia champ!

 

The weather was a huge factor, of course. Many activities and shows were cancelled, the pools in the thermal spa were closed until the seas calmed. At the advice of others on Cruise Critic, we brought Bonine and did not suffer a bit of seasickness. Very sad for fellow cruisers who suffered. My husband and I had an inside cabin on Deck 8 (near O’Sheehan’s) which was a relatively stable location in the ship.

 

SENIOR OFFICERS AND STAFF:

At our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet with senior officers, Cruise Director Alvin asked us to please let them know immediately if there was anything we did not like during our cruise, because they would rather hear from us immediately so they could try to fix the problem rather than to have us complain on Cruise Critic. I took this to heart and wrote many comments and observations – positive and negative, and some of these I think they truly found helpful. I got a nice thank-you note from the Hotel Director, Sonja. In general, all the Officers were very accessible and visible and seemed concerned with customer satisfaction. Although my comments below contain some negative observations, I love the Gem and will sail again. Here are some impressions:

 

Captain: Serene and reassuring. I enjoyed learning about his humble background.

 

Cruise Director Alvin: A great master-of-ceremonies, fun at parties, a nice guy and a good leader.

 

Entertainment staff: Sweethearts from top to bottom. Consistently greeted me by name and it felt very friendly.

 

Wait staff: Positive encounters throughout the ship.

 

Hotel Director Sonja: My mattress was horrible, saggy and lumpy. Two days on it gave me terrible back pain. I saw Sonja at the Latitudes party and asked her if there were any spare mattresses on board. I really did not expect to get yes for an answer. But in fact, she said there were lots of new mattresses, and that they had not had time to replace all the old ones. I gave her my cabin number and a few hours later I had a brand new firm and comfortable mattress.

 

Reception Desk: Pleasant enough, but not as knowledgeable as I would have hoped. They always had to go back behind closed doors to find out answers. Here is an example of mediocrity: Sometimes there were no comment cards, so I would stand in line to tell them they were out of comment cards. This always came as a surprise to them, that is, they were not aware that they were out of comment cards. I would think that restocking comment cards would be one of their responsibilities. But, no. So they would go to the back behind closed doors, then five minutes later emerge without any comment cards. “Oh, we will have to get some more. Maybe tomorrow.” For a cruise line that seems to genuinely enjoy feedback, it is rather shocking that so often they run out of comment cards and that reception desk employees are not mindful to restock them.

 

Cabin Steward. He was a little testy. My husband and I do not like a lot of service to the cabin, don’t need or necessarily want the bed made daily, and are accustomed to reusing slightly damp towels. We are in and out of the room a lot throughout the day (my husband takes a lot of naps). We often left the door sign on “Do Not Disturb.” This upset the cabin steward and seemed to present problems for him.

 

FOOD and FOOD SERVICE:

No one could eat outside those first couple days because of the weather, and that overwhelmed the buffet area. It was impossible to find a seat. Folks were walking back and forth with plates from one end of the seating area to the other and back again. People sat down to eat on the wide window sills. I asked if they could please open Magentas (secondary MDR) for breakfast, but was told that there was not enough staff for that. When the weather got warmer, it was easier to find a seat in the buffet, but by that time, my husband and I were enamored by the MDRs. We had no trouble being seated immediately if we arrived before 6 pm or after 8:30 pm. There was a lot of hubbub at the hostess stations because of many large groups.

 

In my opinion, the food in the buffet was a step down from the last time I cruised NCL. There seemed to be less of a selection, less variety. For example, there was potato salad and cole slaw every day, whereas last time I cruised there was more of a variety of prepared salads and different ingredients. Also, there was more duplication within the buffet line this time. Also, cheeses were more mundane -- last time there was brie, this time, not. Also, the buffet ran out of things that were not refilled. I think the kitchen ran out of food a couple times. I pointed to the empty serving bowls of walnuts, slivered almonds and cottage cheese and was told by chef assistants that they ran out.

 

The pool-side bbq was held on nice sea-days and it was great.

 

Our experiences in both MDRs were all excellent for both food and service. I recommend the striploin steak. We had prime rib twice, once on the buffet, and once in the MDR. There was the option to purchase lobster for $20 any day in the MDR; we never did that but saw some in the dining room and it looked fantastic. Coffee was a puzzle -- sometimes it was excellent, and sometimes burned and bitter.

 

O’Sheehan’s has many kinks that still need to be worked out. Service is ridiculously slow, and the waiters will forget to bring out part of your order.

 

 

ACTIVITIES, PARTIES and ENTERTAINMENT:

‘70s Party – The production cast does a fun number to open the party.

 

Fountains – They don’t do it anymore since a passenger complained about it to the CEO. By the way, I think that Alvin liked doing Fountains.

 

White Party – They don’t do snow anymore due to safety concerns. No flash mob on this voyage.

 

Quest – I enjoy and participate in this game, but I think now that it is 2016 we have moved to a new era where “two men French-kissing” should not be a challenge for points. There are a lot of gays (especially on this LGBT-friendly cruise line). A team that has gay guys has no trouble getting a point.

 

STARDUST THEATER: They have GOT to do something about the kids running around and all the late-comers. It is so annoying. The show is underway already for 10 minutes and you have to stand up to let latecomers cross into your row, or worse, maybe, they head all the way down to the front and boy, do they take their sweet time to get seated. Also, the supposed rule about children not allowed in the first two rows is completely unenforced. My suggestion would be that latecomers must be seated in the upper balcony only.

 

Production shows: Adorable.

Tim Kaminski (comedian): Very personable and funny.

Tenors of Rock: Outstanding!

Aerial Duo Balskat: Mesmerizing!

Magika: Super annoying!

Second City: Shout-out to Mark.

 

In general, I thought that many of the entertainers did too much begging for applause. “Are you ready for a good time? … I can’t hear you … you can do better than that…” Do other guests hate this as much as I do? Maybe some people like to be exhorted to cheer louder, I don’t know.

 

TV: Gets BBC, CNBC, FOX and MSNBC. Also, there is a channel where is shown entertainment events from earlier in the cruise. During the first sea days we watched a little news and both FOX and MSNBC International news was about how much snow was falling in Philadelphia and NYC. Even though we were having rocky seas, we knew that in a few days we would be in the sunny Caribbean.

 

The SLIDE: Is open. The night before St. Thomas the ship’s executives were all clustered around the slide and some crew members in bathing suits were testing it. The following day (St. Thomas), the slide was “verified” and put into use. I enjoyed it. It is not steep, but it is fast and fun. The line moved quickly except for when kids don’t exit the slide promptly at the bottom. The ship might need to put a crew member there at the bottom to direct traffic. I am sure they will figure it out. The pools on the Gem are great – big enough to swim “laps” and the water temperature was refreshing. TIP: bring goggles if you like to open your eyes underwater.

 

CIGARETTE SMOKE: I am very sensitive to cigarette smoke and found it to be a problem on this sailing. Especially on the first couple days because no one could go outside to smoke due to the weather, the cigarette smoke was very heavy inside. Sometimes the smoke permeated the bar areas adjacent to the casino, and into the theater. In fact, my lifeboat drill station was supposed to be in Magnums (Deck 7, above the Casino on Deck 6). Well, I could not sit in Magnums, so bad was the smoke. So I checked in and then sat in a different drill station to hear the instructions. Maybe they can do something with fans, I don’t know. Also, some people getting onto the elevators reeked of cigarette stench so much that I could not even ride the elevators with them. I would pay double for a smoke-free sailing.

 

CONDITION OF THE SHIP: Inexplicably, there was some broken stuff: broken coffee machine, broken ice cream machine, some broken seats in the theater, some light bulbs burned out, some old signage (Blue Lagoon, anyone?). Fortunately, there were mostly working coffee machines, light bulbs and comfy theater seats.

 

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Allow them to take your picture -- they have a quota. It is fun to look at the photos at the end of the cruise.

 

ART GALLERY (Park West employees): Obnoxious, officious b_tches. Hate them. The “auctions” are not really auctions because of the very high reserve prices, just a few dollars below the PW-established “retail” price. TIP: Don’t sign up for their credit card, despite the promise of a “free” work of art. They will charge you $35 to ship it to you. They say that there is not enough space for them to store the give-way artworks (to carry off the ship), but this is a crock of sh_t.

 

PORTS: I saw lots of people bringing food off the ship. Boxes of cereal and even oranges. Nothing was confiscated.

 

San Juan: Low key and it is easy to get around the old city for free. There are free trolleys and free trams to the forts. Admission is $5 and worth it. There is free WiFi at the Starbucks.

 

St. Thomas: Loaded with American ex-pats waiting to accost you to try to bring you into bars, sell you timeshares (um, excuse me – “Vacation Clubs”), jewelry, eye creams, etc., etc. They are on you like flies. We had booked a snorkeling excursion (through NCL) on a speedboat. The boat ride was fun and crew was great. There were two stops – one where we saw a few sea turtles coming up for air, and one with a few fish. Even though the undersea life is a bit sparse, the trip was fun and I enjoyed a good long swim in the ocean. Afterwards, we did contribute to the local economy and bought a necklace and a couple drinks. I recommend a Bushwacker – it is like a mocha milkshake but with a very powerful effect.

 

St. Martin: We went to Maho Beach on a tour booked through NCL. The beach, although kind of grody, was well worth it for the experience of planes landing above your head. A FedEx plane came in super low. We also had a couple 757s. There is a guy on the beach with a megaphone announcing all the incoming flights and takeoffs. He is also excellent at timing photos. I saw a group do this – they paid him $5 very well spent. I wrote a comment to NCL afterwards that the tour company (“Rendezvous”) and the "tour guide," (Lex) were terrible. In a bus ride of about 45 minutes roundtrip, he gave almost no historical information, but mainly just pointed out various businesses as we passed them. Literally: “This is a hardware store. This is a restaurant. This is a nightclub.” He also spent time listing (not once but twice), all the types of car dealerships. And how much he wishes he had an Audi. And he gave misinformation about an alleged freshwater shower (does not exist) and where we could find WiFi (again, wrong). We would have been better off with a cab. Traffic was no problem because of the new bridge.

 

Tortola: We had booked a snorkeling excursion through NCL. Very professionally run. The undersea life in Tortola is richer than in St. Thomas.

 

 

DISEMBARKATION in NYC: We had the last disembarkation time and had no trouble at all (well, except for the fact that we were waiting in our cabin until our number was called, and this was a problem for our cabin steward who needed to clean our room for the next sailing and he kept knocking. My fault, probably, because I forgot to switch the door sign to “Do not Disturb”). Our turn was called at about 9:45 am.

 

Getting off the ship was smooth, and we easily found our luggage and breezed through customs. One sort-of-amusing-mostly-annoying thing is that as we crossed the street toward the taxi stand, we were accosted by agents trying to sell us car service for double the cost of a taxi. Fortunately, I am not a rube in NYC. Take a metered taxi, folks. It cost us about $20 to get to the parking garage at 673 St. Nicholas where we parked for $16 per day.

 

Home now, where unpacking and laundry await. And work tomorrow, boo.

 

You can watch maho beach anytime you want at mahobeachcam.com.

[Aldeya]

 

Fountains – They don’t do it anymore since a passenger complained about it to the CEO. By the way, I think that Alvin liked doing Fountains.

 

 

Great review. This part about the Fountains shocked me. We saw it on the Gem and absolutely loved it. Everybody we talked to on the ship thought it was hilarious and funny. It looked like both the passengers and the crew who participated enjoyed it very much.

 

We were looking forward to see the Fountains again on our next Gem cruise.

 

So someone complained (one person?) and they just canceled it altogether? Unbelievable.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Aldeya

[Clarea]

Nice review, thanks!

[Lisalk12]

Thank you for a great review.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[oldguysandgalls]

Thank you for that wonderful review.

We cruised on the GEM out of NYC in October/November 2014 and the four of us had a wonderful time before our cruise (one overnight hotel stay in NYC) and especially during the cruise.

 

One of us is confined to a wheelchair but the lay-out of the GEM made it very easy to get around and about.

Edited April 1, 2016 by oldguysandgalls