Just back from the gem👎🏽

[Tatka]

We sailed on Gem in April and were pleasantly surprised with food in MDR. Better than on our previous cruise on Breakaway.

Overall it was a nice cruise.

Sorry it was not up to your standards.

[mjkacmom]

We were also on the same cruise as the OP and wonder how she managed to have such a bad cruise. (Is there such a thing????) A little research would have solved most of their problems. We enjoyed the food, entertainment and most of our fellow passengers and all staff and crew members. We had a super friendly roll call and a great Meet and Greet where people actually stayed and talked after the officers left. We also hung out after the slot pull which we actually made a little money on thanks to Gershep spinning for $160 on the Wheel of Fortune.

 

I'm wondering if the language barrier was on the OP's end? We had no problem communicating with any of the crew members. Yes, you have to sometimes listen carefully due to different accents but we found no one we couldn't communicate with. The fact that the same hard to read review is both here and on FB tells me the OP is not concerned about grammar or spelling but is complaining about the crew not being able to communicate????? I'm just glad the majority of us had a fantastic cruise as usual. I especially loved my Cabana at Great Stirrup Cay. Bar service was so much better than the last time we rented a cabana. It was a most enjoyable day with two other couples and 2 kids. It's the only way to do GSC in MHO.

 

 

 

They announced that we would be docking at Pier 88 and we left from Pier 90. I guess you missed the announcement. We always get a porter to take our luggage off to be able to use the shorter porter line at Customs and laughed that we would surely use the porter once they announced we were docked at the other pier from our car. It's well worth the $2 per bag to use the porter and we only had two large bags and 2 carryons.

 

 

 

Wow! I am so glad we didn't take the bus to Cocoa Village. We also "purchased" the transfer to Cocoa Beach and Cocoa Village knowing full well that they are about 30 minutes apart but thought it was a loop - ship to cocoa beach to cocoa village and back to the ship. Once we discovered on the bus that we would have to go back to cocoa beach after the village in Memorial day traffic, we decided to just look around at Ron Jon's and the Cocoa Beach Surf store and return to the ship. I would have been livid if we got to Cocoa Village and the shops were all closed. I was hoping to find the shop I bought a bunch of Precious Moments at the last time we were there in 2011. Cocoa Village is the only place we wanted to go but were willing to go via Cocoa Beach since our transfers were free with the $50 shore excursion credit. I am so glad we decided not go to Cocoa Village now

We always get a porter, too, but we went crazy fast off of the ship and through customs. Staff was yelling at everyone to hurry up, no stopping, my kids were jogging towards our customs guy. Right as disembarkment started, the captain was making an announcement apologizing about something, but it was hard to hear. You could only get a porter after customs, and since we are 7 very able bodied people, and we thought we just had to go up the elevator and get into our van, we didn't even think to stop and find one (saving us $20). It really was quite comical, most laughed about it.

[BDevilCruiser]

I'll jump in and say that I never saw much of what the OP apparently did during the cruise. I'll also note that the OP had a very similar post back in 2008 about another Norwegian cruise. We clearly were in different parts of the same ship. (And since I made it to just about every public part of the ship other than the cigar room, I think I would have noticed things.)

[mskaufman]

They announced that we would be docking at Pier 88 and we left from Pier 90. I guess you missed the announcement. We always get a porter to take our luggage off to be able to use the shorter porter line at Customs and laughed that we would surely use the porter once they announced we were docked at the other pier from our car. It's well worth the $2 per bag to use the porter and we only had two large bags and 2 carryons.

 

The people in the terminal guided us to parking on pier 88 and we had to walk to pier 90 to get our car. No big deal.

 

Did not see much of what the OP reported.

 

Wow! I am so glad we didn't take the bus to Cocoa Village. We also "purchased" the transfer to Cocoa Beach and Cocoa Village knowing full well that they are about 30 minutes apart but thought it was a loop - ship to cocoa beach to cocoa village and back to the ship. Once we discovered on the bus that we would have to go back to cocoa beach after the village in Memorial day traffic, we decided to just look around at Ron Jon's and the Cocoa Beach Surf store and return to the ship. I would have been livid if we got to Cocoa Village and the shops were all closed. I was hoping to find the shop I bought a bunch of Precious Moments at the last time we were there in 2011. Cocoa Village is the only place we wanted to go but were willing to go via Cocoa Beach since our transfers were free with the $50 shore excursion credit. I am so glad we decided not go to Cocoa Village now

 

Walked around, took some pictures. The donut place and the ice cream place were open.

[peg013]

We always get a porter, too, but we went crazy fast off of the ship and through customs. Staff was yelling at everyone to hurry up, no stopping, my kids were jogging towards our customs guy. Right as disembarkment started, the captain was making an announcement apologizing about something, but it was hard to hear. You could only get a porter after customs, and since we are 7 very able bodied people, and we thought we just had to go up the elevator and get into our van, we didn't even think to stop and find one (saving us $20). It really was quite comical, most laughed about it.

 

You must have done "Easy Walk Off" if there wasn't any porters until after Customs. I didn't know you could even get porters out there. There were plenty of porters in the luggage area to help find our luggage and get us thru customs and to the correct pier where we were parked.