Thoughts on our Gem 10 night cruise 3/9-3/19

[Momof3gurlz]

Just returned on 3/19 from the Gem 10 Eastern itinerary. I've posted a few questions here on CC but never done any type of review. I haven't seen a whole lot about the Gem here so thought I would just add my 2 cents worth for anyone considering this cruise. If anyone has questions I'll try to answer them. Unfortunately I'm not tech savvy enough to upload pictures so this will just be a narrative.

Some brief background, just husband and myself on this cruise; mid to late 50's. Our children are grown and out on their own and we rediscovered cruising again in 2013 after years away (focusing on kids, college, etc). We did the 9 night version of this same cruise in 2015 and wanted to give it another go with a full day in San Juan this time.

We drove from RI to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal the day of the cruise, using 95 South to 287 to Saw Mill Parkway which becomes Henry Hudson Pkwy and literally takes you right to the terminal entrance. COuld not have been easier. Left our house about 7:30 AM and arrived at the terminal at 10:30 AM, including some AM traffic.

[Momof3gurlz]

Well, I hope I'm adding to my original post the correct way (want sure how much I could type in the original).

We had the special Gem parking coupon and it was accepted no problem.

Breezed right thru security, paid corkage on my 3 bottles of wine and proceeded to check-in where we were in line for about 10 minutes. After completing check-in we waited about 30-45 minutes before boarding began. By the way, after security, there's a concession stand where you can purchase a few food items as well as....cans of soda and bottled water! So for those of you stressing about not being able to bring on bottled water/soda anymore, strangely enough you can purchase them individually at this stand & fill your carry on if you so choose (because no one checks your bags once you've gone thru security). We bought several cans of soda & a couple of bottles of water.

After boarding, we wandered a bit. Ship looks much brighter inside than in 2015. We then headed to Grand Pacific for lunch, not crowded at all & no wait. Food was pretty good, but honestly can't eve remember what we ate, I just know it was far less hectic than the buffet would've been.

[Momof3gurlz]

Shortly after lunch cabins were ready. We were in a balcony, 10650 which is port side, aft. Last time we were also in a balcony, starboard side, fwd. For some reason this room seemed a bit smaller, but we are not picky people and it was fine. As long as I have a balcony I'm happy! By the way, we chose the prepaid gratuities and 4 meal UDP as our perks.

I'm not going to drag this out to be a minute by minute review so I'll try to start condensing here. First night we were tired and decided to hit the buffet for dinner. Prime rib was being served ship wide and the one isn't dining room was delicious! Freshly carved while you stood there and with all the trimmings as well. For dessert, I had the best thing I've EVER eaten on a cruise ship...the freshly made crepe. Had mine with blueberry & brown sugar filling and a little caramel sauce & whipped cream on top.

For our specialty restaurants, we ate in Cagney, Teppanyaki, La Cucina and Moderno. IMHO, teppanyaki & Moderno were the best. Most nights we chose the Magenta dining room - we found it a bit less hectic than Grand Pacific. We also ate at O'Sheehans twice for lunch and once for dinner. The fajitas are very good as are the chicken wings. We're not big breakfast eaters so mostly went to the buffet for cereal, fruit, yogurt. On port days we had these same items delivered by room service so we could eat on the balcony before heading out to the island. No charge for these by room service, just a few dollars tip.

[Momof3gurlz]

I would say the main dining room food was "good", not great. Some things were very good & others just okay. The specialty restaurants were definitely a step above. We found service everywhere to be excellent. We would normally head to Magenta around 7-7:30 for dinner and never had a wait.

We would also hit the buffet and or Great Outdoors (LOVE this area of the ship) most afternoons for a snack and for lunch on sea days. Yes, they had a lot of the same foods every day (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc), but there was always something different too. They also had the poolside BBQ most days which was very popular, but I'm more of a salad/sandwich eater so that didn't appeal to me.

Chair hogs were out in full force and I saw no enforcement of any guidelines. But we were always able to find loungers on the upper pool deck which is a little quieter anyway. The first full sea day was cold and a bit rocky; second sea day was sunny and warmer but very windy. We were able to sit in the pool deck in shorts & sweatshirts but I had a towel over my legs because of the wind. The third full sea day was beautiful - sunny & very warm.

[Momof3gurlz]

As far as how people were dressed, I didn't see many people dressed up for Norwegians Night Out (night 2), but it was a bit rough that night and Inhave to say there were not a lot of people out and about the ship that night in general. I did notice a fair number of people dressed up on just about any given night, so seems folks are just doing it when they want -- perhaps based in when/ where they have specialty dinner reservations? Personally, we like to change for dinner into something a little nicer than what we wore all day but we didn't bring anything "formal" on this cruise. My husband wore a mix of khaki type pants or shorts with polo shirts or collared "tropical" type shirts along with Sperry type boat shoes. The dressiest thing I wore was a maxi dress with nice sandals and also wore cotton sundresses, skirts & Capri type pants.

We're not show types but we did enjoy comedian Tim Kaminski who just returned to the Gem on this cruise. The CD was Mark (don't recall his last name-started with a B) and he was fine. The ship party band was Great Ideas and we thought they were fantastic. Leo the guitarist was also on and maybe I just haven't seen enough time listening to him but I just don't get all the rave reviews he receives. But, to each his own!

[BostonGal35]

tim kaminski has been on board for awhile... he was on when we sailed over new years.

[Momof3gurlz]

Regarding ports, in San Juan we walked up to El Morro (and it is uphill a bit) and rambled around there for a bit. Gorgeous views from there. Then walked some of the streets of OSJ and into some of the shops (after a while it becomes " same stuff, different store". We stopped at Barrachina & sat at the bar for a pina colada. Ended up ordering some black bean soup with rice and mofongo with shrimp. Never had mofongo and this may not be the best spot in SAN Juan to get it but we thought it was delicious. In St Thomas, we took a taxi to Emerald Beach resort ( $ 7 pp each way), I think the chair rentals were $ 5 each. Had planned on doing the tram to Paradise Point after the beach but it got very windy in the afternoon and I wasn't into it so we just headed back to the ship and hung out at the Great Outdoors. Next was St Maarten where we took a taxi to Orient Beach ( $ 6 pp as long as you have at least 6 people in the taxi). Not sure but I think the chair rentals were $ 5 each here too. We were at Kakao area. Another beautiful beach day, a little breezy. We decided to try parasailing and walked to the spot down the beach. It was awesome! $ 90 for the 2 of use plus $ 20 if you want them to do photos/video and they give you the memory card. Also included jet ski ride to & from the boat we sailed off. About 10 minutes in the air, which was plenty.

[Momof3gurlz]

And my favorite - the Escape to Jost Van Dyke excursion in Tortola. I had booked this about a month before the cruise this NCL website. I cannot say enough good things about this. The catamaran trip to Jose was a blast and the crew were wonderful. White Bay Beach, where they bring you on the island of Jost Van Dyke is stunning. Small, somewhat secluded with a handful of beach bars and apparently a small hotel right behind the Soggy Dollar Bar ( but you can't eve see it). This was truly like being on a castaway island. Only sad that this was a short port day for us so we boarded the catamaran about 7:15 AM, had about a 45 min ride to Jose and they returned to pick us up a little before noon (I think). Had a couple of breakfast Painkillers from the Soggy Dollar Bar and just relaxed in their adirondak chairs. On the catamarans return trip back to Tortola, the rum punch was flowing freely! I would book this excursion again in a heartbeat. By 1:00 PM everyone was back onboard the Gem and we were headed back north.

[abfranklin]

Great to hear your review. We are sailing on Gem in one week. 3/29. Please feel free to add anything else.

 

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[Momof3gurlz]

Typically, the first full sea day headed back to the northeast is still warm enough to sit out by the pool but that wasn't the case this time around. It was still nice the day we left Tortola but we woke up on 3/17 to cold, cloudy, windy weather. The skies brightened a little around mid-day but it was still very chilly. Pretty much the same thing the last sea day, 3/18. It started getting a little rough & rocky in the early evening and by about 9 or 10 PM we were really rocking & rolling. I take meclizine every day to avoid getting sick, so while I never felt seasick, it was very hard to sleep that night with things moving around in the cabin, hangers in the closet banging and just getting jostled around in bed. This was nothing compared to our last night on the Gem in 2015 when we went through quite a storm - extremely high winds and 25-30 ft seas. I recall spray from the waves blowing over our balcony (on deck 10) and the captain"suggesting" guests remain in their cabins to avoid injury. Anyway, we pulled into port in NYC about 6:30-7:00 AM. We did self disembark which was quick and painless ( called about 8 AM). Other than our car being a bit snowed in, getting out of NYC was just as easy. We were home just before 11 AM. I suspect things were busier a little later on because the Breakaway had pulled in just before us from its 7 day Bahama itinerary. Just as an aside, we had a friend on the Breakaway who said they didn't feel much at all from the rough weather the previous night. I'd assume this is due to the difference in size of these 2 ships?

[Momof3gurlz]

To summarize, we had a wonderful time. Great service throughout the ship. We found all the staff to be friendly, helpful, courteous, etc. In fact about night 5, we noticed a creaking/knocking sound around the slider to our balcony which kept waking us up during the night. We notified our room steward who sent his supervisor who then called someone from maintenance. They ended up spraying all around the slider with WD40 which solved the problem. Guest services followed up with a phone call to make sure there was no more noise and the next day we had a delivery from Guest Services of a cheese tray and a bottle of wine, along with a note apologizing for any inconvenience! Completely unexpected & greatly appreciated because all we asked for was to see if they could stop the noise. Also, one night at O'Sheehans, the host struck up a conversation asking how the cruise was going so far, etc. At one point he asked if there was anything we were not happy with. My husband replied that although he wasn't unhappy about it, he felt that paying $ 2.95 for about 4 ounces of Diet Pepsi was a bit ridiculous ( by this time we had finished the cans we bought in the terminal). He agreed and proceeded to bring my husband 2 very large glasses of soda and brought me a glass of wine, on the house. This young man had several other positions about the ship but he proceeded to do the same wherever he saw us. We filled out a card at the end of the cruise making him our "Vacation Hero".

[Momof3gurlz]

Last part ( I promise, unless there are questions). Also want to mention that our room steward was excellent. He was departing the ship also on the 19th, heading back to India. We learned that he's married and has an 11 month old child that he has not seen since she was 2 months old because of his job with NCL. Even though he was leaving, his ervice never wavered throughout the cruise. So I think you can tell we were very impressed with the staff, even more so than our last Gem cruise. Ultimately I'm not sure we'll continue to do these long cruises out of the northeast. We like sea days, but when half of them are in cold weather, it seems a bit of a waste. But wherever we cruise to or from, we will definitely cruise with NCL again.

[gidgetgoes]

thank you for the review! we are also on the 3/29 sailing, hoping it might be just a tad bit warmer by then. may i ask what type soda in the terminal? are they coke products? that would be very helpful, since we aren't big Pepsi fans.

 

your trip sounds great! thanks again for taking the time to review!

[boopsahoy]

As far as how people were dressed, I didn't see many people dressed up for Norwegians Night Out (night 2), but it was a bit rough that night and Inhave to say there were not a lot of people out and about the ship that night in general. I did notice a fair number of people dressed up on just about any given night, so seems folks are just doing it when they want -- perhaps based in when/ where they have specialty dinner reservations? Personally, we like to change for dinner into something a little nicer than what we wore all day but we didn't bring anything "formal" on this cruise. My husband wore a mix of khaki type pants or shorts with polo shirts or collared "tropical" type shirts along with Sperry type boat shoes. The dressiest thing I wore was a maxi dress with nice sandals and also wore cotton sundresses, skirts & Capri type pants.

We're not show types but we did enjoy comedian Tim Kaminski who just returned to the Gem on this cruise. The CD was Mark (don't recall his last name-started with a B) and he was fine. The ship party band was Great Ideas and we thought they were fantastic. Leo the guitarist was also on and maybe I just haven't seen enough time listening to him but I just don't get all the rave reviews he receives. But, to each his own!

 

Oh we love Leo! We love his voice but his guitar work is fantastic. When he does sultans of swing if you close your eyes it sounds like the original. Sorry if you were disappointed.

[Dan095541]

Glad to hear you had a great time. My wife and I are sailing 3/29. This will be our second cruise & fir NCL. we're both excited to sail.

[cynski8]

Thanks for your review. We did the Gem in 2012 and loved it. Being from RI and no longer having access to the bus that NCL used to use its nice to know those directions and how easy it was to get there. Would love to do another cruise out of NY on the Gem so thanks for that info :)

[scapaflow]

Great review, we are on the Gem in just over 2 weeks on the 8th April, some great tips. Many thanks. Although in a balcony we only got 1 perk the drinks package. Did you have to wait long to be served. We have purchased dining package so hope Tepynaki and Cagneys live up to the hype, we hope to do the Italian also as we are pasta lovers

[df5250]

We were on this cruise too! The service was great throughout the ship! The 21 foot waves on Friday heading to PR were crazy, but being at full speed and the high winds the last night headed home practically knocked me out of bed a couple of times!! Completely agree about the Great Outdoors.... my favorite place on the ship besides my balcony. We were in a mini suite on deck 11 and had our Room Steward bring a lounger! Our neighbors were jealous!! We were on the Jost Van Dyke excursion with you... ended up on the front of the catamaran heading back to the ship and got soaked... I think I drank more sea water than rum punch!! I would absolutely do this excursion again... the island was beautiful!

 

 

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[crisp1]

Enjoyed your review. We are on the 4/18 11day. Your review brought back memories of our last Gem cruise.

The itinerary for our cruise has us arriving back in NY at 10 am- what time did your cruise docs have you arriving. We are using a car service- less expensive than driving/ parking. I don't want to get thrown off the ship and end up waiting around for our driver

thanks

[callmebetty]

Thank you for the review...and never apologize for thinking it's long...it give the rest of us something to do while we not so patiently wait our turn. 15 days until I can start compiling mine on 4/8, also on the Gem.

[Momof3gurlz]

Thanks for all the comments and glad you enjoyed reading. I certainly enjoyed writing it and may just make a habit of this! Now if I can only learn to upload photos - maybe next time. We're booked to do (dare I say it on the NCL board?!) Oasis of the Seas Western Caribbean itinerary in November - always wanted to try one of that class.

Anyway, to answer a few questions and make a few corrections to my own comments ( guess I need to use the preview button before posting).

BostonGal35 - yes I believe Tim Kaminski is pretty exclusive with the Gem; what I meant was he was just returning from a hiatus on this particular cruise ( at least that's what he said during his first performance). We also attended. Q & A he did on one of the sea days and he explained that he does something like 3 or 4 months "on" and then has 2 months "off".

 

Abfranklin - any specific questions you have, I'd be happy to try to answer.

 

Gidgetgoes - we purchased Diet Pepsi. There may have been other types ( ginger ale, etc) but I don't recall seeing Coke products.

 

Boopsahoy - can't say we were disappointed in Leo and to be fair, we probably just didn't spend enough time listening to give him a fair shake. Just kind of preferred the band, Great Ideas.

 

Cynski8 - not sure it shows in my profile but fellow Rhode Islander here! Seems the Gem will be leaving NYC in 2019 so don't put off sailing her too long. I think I read she's moving to New Orleans.

 

Scapaflow - we never waited long to be served at any bars or restaurants. Granted, we had made reservations online for our specialty choices about a month prior to cruising.

[murfette]

We where there also. I enjoyed the Gem and would do another 10 day but not out of NYC. I agree the cold the first couple days and back also feels like a rip. I want warmth. Since we have to fly where ever we go I would opt for Miami and stay a few days and do a 7 day if 10 was not an option.

 

The other thing lacking on the mid size ships are evening entertainment. I love dueling pianos which is only on bigger ships.

Although there is no such thing as a bad cruise. [emoji3]

 

 

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[Momof3gurlz]

Crisp1 - I believe our cruise docs showed a 10 AM arrival back in NYC, but as an earlier poster who was on this same cruise with me stated, we were "full speed" on the return trip. At some point shortly after departing Tortola I recall the captain making an announcement and saying they plan to arrive around 7 AM because it makes their " turnaround day" easier. Not sure why they don't just change the official arrival time if that's the case, but maybe it has to to with potential for bad weather slowing them down out in the Atlantic. Anyway, you may want to plan on arriving before 10 am.

 

As for my corrections, I think I was unclear about prime rib on night 1. It was being served ship-wide. We were feeling tired and lazy and decided to eat at the buffet, where they also had carved to order prime rib which was very good. I also had prime rib on night 10 at Magenta and it was not good. It was cooked medium as requested, still hot and tender enough - just had an odd taste, almost like it had been cooked in the microwave.

My other correction is regarding the excursion to Jost Van Dyke. Apparently autocorrect objects to me calling it " Jost" and kept changing it to Jose!

 

And this is just an addition. Officers were very visible around & about the ship. We made a habit of visiting the Atrium bar each evening, usually anytime between 6 pm and 7 pm, where my husband would enjoy a specialty coffee and I'd have wine or a cocktail. Almost every night there'd be groups of officers in attendance in the Atrium to pose for photos. On the last night of the cruise, before we started rocking & rolling (and I don't mean to the music), they put on sort of a crew talent show and it was quite enjoyable. Several crew members performed with the band and the CD took a turn as well. The highlight was Captain Roger playing guitar and singing and he was pretty darn good!

[Gershep]

Such a great review, thanks for posting. Do you know how much they were charging for the water in the terminal? This is great information to know that we can purchase a couple of cans of soda or bottles of water.

[crisp1]

Momof3etc- Thanks for your insight as time of arrival back in NYC- I get where they are coming from- but I have never been on a cruise that ending in NYC/ NJ that got into port after 8 am- although I saw a couple ( from the beach in NJ that didn't)