Gem March 22-April 1 Long Review~Great Cruise!!

[razzzbere]

This is our 1st sail with Norwegian, having sailed with mostly Carnival. My family of four got off to a good start heading into Manhattan from South Jersey...a pretty smooth 2 hr drive. We parked at the port using the $100 off coupon. We like parking here, yes it's pricey, but it's easy on, easy off. Unfortunately, we had a 3 hour wait to get on board due to the heavy duty cleaning that the crew had to do because of the sickness from the prior cruise...they said that they fogged the entire ship.

 

When we finally got on the ship we were starving!!! Went to the buffet and grabbed some food....even tho it was a buffet, the crew handed you everything from the knives and forks to your drinks....it made it a little slower, but they weren't taking any chances on people getting sick again which was fine with me.

 

We found our room....a mid ship mini suite on deck 11...originally we had booked a balcony room and at the last minute I got a free upgrade...it was great! I liked having a tub and it was nice to have the curtain to separate the sleeping areas. The bed was very comfortable, plenty of room under it for luggage and the closet and drawer spaces were good. We had no complaints about our room or the service as it was spotlessly cleaned everyday by our steward Johnny.

 

Due to getting on the ship pretty late, we had the muster drill pretty quickly. We went to the Orchid Garden for that...we were in and out in less than 10 minutes and then we had sail away. Fastest muster drill ever!!

 

We spent sail away in our friends Aft Penthouse...it was a beautiful day and a great place for sail away! I got some great pics of the sun setting. Considering the weather that we had been having, I think that this was a good omen for our cruise.

 

For the rest of my review I think that I will put everything in categories, ie: food, entertainment, etc.

 

FOOD:

GRAND PACIFIC main dining room: Very good food, very good service...we never had a bad meal here and highly recommend it. I loved the high ceilings and we often dined in front of the windows at the back of the ship...what a great view!

MAGENTA main dining room: very busy, I think everyone goes here because you don't have to dress up at all...the food was good, but the service we had was awful...we had to beg for bread...and then butter, it was ridiculous! We only ate here once.

BUFFET: Get your drinks first then find a table....set out your silverware...I learned this on the last day, lol! We didn't eat at the buffet often, but when we did everything looked fresh and they had different themes, Italian, Asian, Indian. They always had pizza/burgers/salad bar. Plenty of food for everyone...I especially liked the roasted chicken. We ate here for breakfast once, the sticky buns were very good....they had all the standard breakfast fare.

POOL BUFFET: Continental for breakfast, grilled food for lunch...I especially liked the teriyaki pineapple burgers and the sausages were very good too!

O'SHEEHANS PUB: Went here a few times, dinner, lunch and late night dessert. Service was a bit surly from one waitress...but she eventually warmed up and we got a few smiles from her. Our kids ordered apps/entrees for lunch one day and the entrees came out first...weird!! We all pretty much liked the food tho...wings, pot pie, bangers n mash, etc. Great mashed potatoes! If you want an irish coffee this is the place to get a good one!

 

To be continued:

[myra711]

Looking forward to the rest! Thanks!:)

[fiftyguy]

We were on the same cruise and also had a great time. Embarking was a little rough with the extra time we had to spend in the terminal. I think at one point the whole ship was waiting in the terminal. There was a hot dog vendor in the terminal and I'm sure he had a banner day.

I look forward to reading the rest of your review.

[renata102]

I was on that sailing. It's my second with NCL and I think 9-10 with other cruise lines.

 

It was an average cruise. We had a good time. I paid a small price for our cabin of 4 It was a last minute purchase. Even though I had better cruises we made the best of it

 

We were dropped off by my BIL We were #5 to be called to board.

 

The sea was a little crazy but we were fine.

 

All in all I got what I paid for.

 

The islands were amazing.

[skynyrd]

Great start, looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

[razzzbere]

ROOM SERVICE: This is free for continental breakfast.(we did tip tho) We got room service for all 4 ports since we wanted to get off the ship pretty early. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate and juices. Croissants, pastries, cinnamon buns...honey/jam. Everything we needed for a good continental breakfast. If the time frame chosen was between 7:30-8am, they always came right at the earlier time. I wish I could get room service at home!!! If we had leftovers I wrapped them up in a napkin and put them in the fridge and had them later...we also had some fruit that we got from the buffet.

 

We had the UDP included with our free upgrade so we were able to choose 4 restaurants. This was only for 2 of us, the kids could order off the regular menu, but we had to pay for them, or the kids menu for "free".

 

MODERNO BRAZILIAN STEAKHOUSE: This was pretty cool as we had never done this before. We joined our friends here and since we couldn't get a table all together the adults had one table and our kids shared the other table. We watched them get there food...it was pretty cute watching them choose the meats that they wanted and knowing when to say that they were full. They are 10, 9 & 8 and were very well behaved and were the only kids in the restaurant at that time...AND the Captain was sitting right behind them, which they thought was pretty cool!

The food was very good....the first part was the antipasto/salad bar...still kind of weird because you followed your waiter around the bar while he served you what you asked for...but the wait staff was really good, they had fun with it! The bar had meats and cheeses and roasted veggies and breads..very good variety. Then the waiters came around with the meats on skewers...I loved the chicken drumsticks! They also had bacon wrapped chicken, lamb chops, sausages, filet mignon, ribs...a lot of food! Dessert was light, they had ice cream and fruit..etc.

 

CAGNEY'S STEAKHOUSE: This is a nice quiet restaurant...I liked that. It was very comfortable as well. Soothing in a way. Our waiter was good, altho they must've been short staffed as he had to bus his own tables...I thought that was weird. I liked the open kitchen...nice to see what was going on inside the kitchen. We were told to pick 1 app, 1 soup or salad an entree/2 sides and a dessert. We had some really nice shrimp cocktails for apps...entrees were filet, NY strip and sea bass..truffle fries!..cheesecake, creme brulee. They only charged us for one extra entree and one app. I would definitely go here again.

 

TEPPANYAKI: I wasn't too excited to go here because it wasn't a new concept for us, we have a few local teppan restaurants BUT it turned out to be really good and entertaining. Great value for the money if you are paying for it as you can get lobster and filet mignon as well as other seafood, veggies and chicken. All entrees came with salad, miso soup and fried rice and dessert. It was a lot of fun and tasty!

 

LE BISTRO: French food....I love Paris, before we got married it was our first vacation together, so we have great memories. My kids were the only ones in the dining room (we were on the early side), but our server was so nice to them...asking them their names, etc. We had champagne with dinner and they served salmon mousse with toasted bread ...not for me, but my husband and daughter liked it. Apps here were awesome! Escargot in garlic butter, mussels in Pernod broth, scallops gratinee...plenty of baguettes and butter. For entrees we had duck, salmon and my son and I had the cote de bouf for 2, a 32 oz. ribeye carved tableside. My son is 10...and I told him that this was my first time having tableside service...so he was really lucky. So much food! We had other diners watching our waitress carve up that ribeye with lust in their eyes! For dessert we had creme brulees and a chocolate cake. Again we were only charged for one extra entree and an app...$28! This was our longest meal, 2 hrs....not for everyone, but we had a great time.

 

I also wanted to mention that we had the UBP included with our cruise. We aren't heavy drinkers, had a few cocktails/wine every day.... but the waiters were great when we asked for smoothies or Shirley Temples for the kids...no charge, no problem. If you like Sangria they have red & white in the casino...really good! I think the pool bar was the busiest, but that is to be expected on a nice sunny day!

 

That's it for the food portion of my review. I'm still waiting for those room service croissants!

 

TBC.....

[Gershep]

Great review. The Gem is my favorite ship.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[razzzbere]

ORCHID GARDEN: Chinese complimentary. If you like fried calamari this is the place to go!! Also really good spring rolls. Pan fried pot stickers were just OK. For entrees we got Orange Beef, Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet n Sour Pork. They tell you to order rice/noodles with each dish...but unless you are huge eaters, one or two dishes are enough. Dessert was kind of weird...runny tapioca, wontons with chestnut and red bean puree...I did like the green tea ice cream tho. Nice way to break up the 10 days and the service was fairly quick.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

CASINO: We aren't big gamblers, even tho we live close to Atlantic City, but we did go to the casino almost every nite for an hour or so. I was really surprised that we did good there....I put $20 in a slot machine and it actually lasted a few nites, shocking, I know! We don't smoke and of course the casino is smoky...but not in all areas. Keep moving around and you will figure it out. I heard that one night a fight broke out between 2 seniors...one of them was sitting in a window seat smoking and the people playing slots next to him weren't smoking...so they told him that he could only smoke if he was playing...fisticuffs and verbal abuse ensued as they called each other "IDIOTS!" Wish I had seen that, lol!

 

THE MAGIC SHOW: I did not care for it as he did way too much talking and was hard to understand...and then he was plugging his video before he even did anything. I left early...my husband and kids stayed to the end and said he did a really great trick at the end. They went to the matinee show another day and said it was best at the end as well.

 

DUO BALSKAT/DANCE/ACROBAT: This couple was very engaging. The show was in the style of Cirque and pretty good. Rebecca was amazing the way she could bend and do splits...ouch!!! Philippe was French and also very talented. It was a good family show.

 

COMEDIAN TIM KOMINSKI: He was the best part of the ship!!! His first show was AWESOME! I wish we had brought our kids, but they were in the kids club. He is so good with the audience...he did a show about the Wizard of Oz and that's all I'm going to say. Go see it! We saw his late nite stand-up show and it wasn't as good as the Oz show, but still funny. He did a Q&A session one afternoon and it was great...he has a gift with people and seems to be a truly nice person. He engages people everywhere...he did a card trick for my son while we were waiting for the Deal or No Deal game...when we were disembarking he was walking around the crowds and the Waldo guy was behind us and he started talking to him...if you see Tim ask him to do an impression of the Captain...hilarious!!!

 

DEAL OR NO DEAL: This was fun to just watch...the kids loved it. One day a guy went home with over $600, another day just a penny! You have to pay to play, but grabbing a drink and watching is just as fun!

 

BINGO: I like the way Carnival does it better...near the pool where I won the the spa facial, lol! The spinnaker lounge is beautiful tho....even tho I did not win!

 

We didn't go to any of the musical production shows, they did do a 70's music nite, the musicians/bands in the lounges and pool area were all very good tho.

 

Next up, ports...TBC

[Jim The Lizard]

Nice review. Gem was our first NCL ship.

[Sizzlechest]

MODERNO BRAZILIAN STEAKHOUSE: The food was very good....the first part was the antipasto/salad bar...still kind of weird because you followed your waiter around the bar while he served you what you asked for...but the wait staff was really good, they had fun with it! The bar had meats and cheeses and roasted veggies and breads..very good variety. Then the waiters came around with the meats on skewers...I loved the chicken drumsticks! They also had bacon wrapped chicken, lamb chops, sausages, filet mignon, ribs...a lot of food! Dessert was light, they had ice cream and fruit..etc.

 

The antipasto/salad bar is no longer self-serve? That's interesting. Did the servers make sure not to duplicate meats to ensure you got to try a little of everything?

 

CAGNEY'S STEAKHOUSE: We were told to pick 1 app, 1 soup or salad an entree/2 sides and a dessert. We had some really nice shrimp cocktails for apps...entrees were filet, NY strip and sea bass..truffle fries!..cheesecake, creme brulee. They only charged us for one extra entree and one app. I would definitely go here again.

 

I'm assuming you paid a la carte for this? Regardless, why did they say, "pick 1 app, 1 soup or salad an entree/2 sides and a dessert?" Whether or not it's SDP or a la carte, those aren't your only options.

 

TEPPANYAKI: I wasn't too excited to go here because it wasn't a new concept for us, we have a few local teppan restaurants BUT it turned out to be really good and entertaining. Great value for the money if you are paying for it as you can get lobster and filet mignon as well as other seafood, veggies and chicken. All entrees came with salad, miso soup and fried rice and dessert. It was a lot of fun and tasty!

 

Yes! I had the same initial expectation but pleasantly surprised how good it was, too. The menu seems limited, but you can add more items to your order like noodles and lobster, etc. You can also swap in vanilla ice cream if you don't like green tea flavored ice cream, too.

[Lisalk12]

Wonderful review! Love hearing about the Gem. Will be aboard in a mini-suite in June!

[razzzbere]

SIZZLECHEST:

The salad bar at Moderno wasn't self serve because of the illness on the prior cruise.

 

We had the free dining plan at Cagneys which is ala carte, so when you have that you get one item from each category, not unlimited.

[Sizzlechest]

SIZZLECHEST:

The salad bar at Moderno wasn't self serve because of the illness on the prior cruise.

 

Ah, makes sense now. Did any of the servers come by with previously served items before you got a chance to try them all?

 

We had the free dining plan at Cagneys which is ala carte, so when you have that you get one item from each category, not unlimited.

 

Sorry, is this the free dinner you get if you're platinum or is this a SDP?

Edited April 4, 2016 by Sizzlechest

[razzzbere]

PORTS

 

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico: the day started off with a bit of rain/drizzle, but quickly turned to the most beautiful day. We took the free trolley to the ocean front cemetery next to El Morro. I have seen it many times from afar and have always wanted to go inside. The trolley dropped us off right in front of the tunnel that you walk down to get into the cemetery...it might sound weird, but it was such a beautiful place to walk inside, got some great pictures. After that we grabbed another trolley that took us right up to the door of El Morro. I think this was our 3rd time here and it's still worth going to ...the kids love it and the views are spectacular.

After El Morro we walked down the lawn and flew the kites that we brought with us...it was a beautiful day so we sat on the lawn and watched the kids have some fun with our kites. If you don't have your own they sell them at the foot of El Morro.

Starving, we walked into town and found a great little place for lunch, a Spanish tapas cafe with excellent seafood dishes...what a find! It was called Rosa de Triana and we ate outside in a beautiful courtyard. I highly recommend it! From there I had to go to The Poets Passage, its a gift shop that makes custom wall hangings...they are ceramic "doors of OSJ" and they will customize them for you. I had to add another one to my collection. Stopped at a few gift shops and the little grocery store for coffee (the best place to get it as its super cheap!) We also got some Easter candy for the next day.

By then we were pooped so we headed back to the ship, got our duty free booze and then chilled out at the pool.

 

I read a review recently that said OSJ only has CVS....I feel so sad for people who think that way. There is so much to see there if you do your research!

 

TBC....

[razzzbere]

Ah, makes sense now. Did any of the servers come by with previously served items before you got a chance to try them all?

 

No they did not...they all came around once and then back again if you wanted them to....but we were stuffed!!!

 

 

 

Sorry, is this the free dinner you get if you're platinum or is this a SDP?

this was the SDP, not sure how they did it for platinum.

[razzzbere]

You will love the mini suite, we were in 11554, right in the middle of the ship. If you have kids it's a good spot, close enough to the kids club, but not close enough to hear them, lol!!

[Clarea]

Very nice review, thank-you.

[Sizzlechest]

this was the SDP, not sure how they did it for platinum.

 

You shouldn't have been limited to the number of appetizers on the SDP. The only time that applies is for the free specialty dining meal you get as a Platinum cruiser.

[jaja]

Enjoying your review...thanks for posting..:D

[gsc500]

Enjoying your review!

 

Thanks!

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[KevinsCruising]

Great review.

Two questions. How do you get the 100 dollar coupon for parking at the pier and dos they call you about your upgrade or find out at pier?

 

Thanks

[razzzbere]

You shouldn't have been limited to the number of appetizers on the SDP. The only time that applies is for the free specialty dining meal you get as a Platinum cruiser.

 

This is what we were told when we asked, and honestly we had plenty of food.

[razzzbere]

Great review.

Two questions. How do you get the 100 dollar coupon for parking at the pier and dos they call you about your upgrade or find out at pier?

 

Thanks

 

http://www.nycruise.com/manhattan-terminal/parking/ This is only good 'til 4/21/16, but I would check often for discounts.

 

I'm an at home travel agent and I was checking pricing daily for myself and my customers...I just stumbled upon this. About a week out I paid for an upgrade from an OV to a balcony and then when I was looking at the mini suites I did a double take when I saw that it was only going to cost me $5.60 more, plus I got the free dining...I had to pay the extra tax for the dining, about $30. They tried to charge me for the tax etc. on the bev plan as well, but I had already paid that about 6 mos. earlier. It pays to pay attention.