REVIEW: Gem NYC~ Port Canaveral ~ Great Stirrup Cay ~ Nassau 8/5-8/12/17

[lindseylu8]

Preface:We had a wonderful vacation and made lots of great memories. We will most likely sail on NCL again because of CAS but do not foresee going on the Gem again. I made a Flikr account so I will see about uploading some pics.

 

Us:We are a 38 yr old married couple with no kids. We live in AZ and flew to NY to meet our 18 year old niece who lives there to take her with us. This was her first cruise & was our gift to her for her high school graduation. This was our first NCL cruise, 4th cruise total -2 Carnival & 1 Royal. Sailing with CAS I would not choose the UBP again as our perk, as you can get free drinks in the casino & even water bottles. The ship water was not good IMO so I got bottled from the casino often & could have as easily gotten my drinks from them as well.

 

 

Getting There:Yes I know we should always get there the day before so I will not respond to any comments regarding this lol. When I booked the flight we were to land about 9 hours prior to last call boarding, which really should have been plenty of time. Flight times changed from booking to when our departure date finally arrived, but we still had over 6 hours. Boarded on time, got to NY and circled for over an hour due to weather & air traffic congestion. We were then running out of fuel so we had to go to Baltimore. By the time we refuel and were able to schedule to land at JFK we were about 3 hours late, we still should be fine. Well for reasons unknown ½ the flights luggage was super delayed and we waited for over an hour to get our luggage. The hour shuttle to meet our niece at the bus station & 20 min taxi to the port were expected but all this had us arriving about 2 min before 1pm-which was supposed all aboard. We asked the guy helping us and he said we actually could have arrived until 2:30 and been fine. We were scheduled to depart the port at 3pm but didn’t pull out until 4:30 so IDK. Regardless, that $%!+ was stressful and I will always come in a day ahead of time in the future.

 

 

The Ship:We loved our steward and his towel animals. He was always around and asking if we needed anything. Service throughout the ship was great. My husband enjoyed the casino and did a lot of poker tournaments. We actually left winners! Not huge but hey a win is a win! The ship was always clean and there were plenty of activities to do and places to lounge. The ship has a selfie machine that you can choose a ship border- this saved me paying the $25 for a similar one from the photo shop lol. The only thing we did not like was the lack of an adult only pool area. While it does have an "adults only" pool, it does not have an adults only pool AREA. This is different than the other cruises I have been on. Those 3 non-NCL ships had a completely separate area- you have to go through glass doors that are clearly marked "adults only" and the area had hot tub(s) and also a bar along with the pool. We LOVE this kind of area and spend a lot of time there so we were sad that the Gem didnt have this. I did see an NCL attendant kicking out a few young kids but there was always a group of teens. Also the shallowest part of this pool was 4’11 so the entire center of the pool was empty as many of us cant stand with our heads above water at 4’11. So everyone hangs on the edges making it all crowded.

 

 

Food: In general, the food was not quite as good as our previous cruises but it was good. Because of timing we did the buffet most days for breakfast & lunch & it was good, but I prefer the dining room when we can make it. We did the Caribbean buffet for dinner & it was very good. The seafood dinner buffet was pretty good. We really loved that O’Sheenahans (?) was open 24/7 and the snacks outside were available until 11:30 pm and had a great variety. On our last cruise, late night snacks were super limited & not very good. So that was really nice for DH & niece who enjoyed 2nd and 3rd dinners each night lol. We were happy with the main dining room dinners as well. We did not do any specialty dining. The teppenyaki place does have free Chinese but the sushi was not free. On Sea Days they had a BBQ lunch out by the pool that was pretty good. It was seafood paella, chicken, beef & maybe something else - I believe it was the same each day. That was the only bbq I saw going on- nothing in the evenings.

 

 

Drinks:I thought the drinks were stronger on this cruise than my previous. The featured drinks on the drink menus were great but the menus were the same all throughout the ship even though various bars feature other drinks. I like to try new things so that was sad for me (maybe happy for my liver lol). I did one time at one bar see one menu that had other options on it. The Gem had premixed containers of the menu drinks at the bars so that saves time for the bartenders I think. I did enjoy many of the menu drinks –mmmm.

Entertainment:Overall, I found the main shows not as good as my previous cruises, but the secondary shows much better than on my previous cruises. One night they had a country themed show that we didn’t even go to. I equate this to doing a rap themed show- many people don’t care for either genre. The acrobat air show was amazing. The Swing & the 70s shows were both very good! The 70’s was fun, they even did some TV show theme songs. It was all genres from the 70s not just disco. We all liked this. The hypnotist show was good but the same you will see anywhere & we didn’t love the hypnotist herself. The second city show was pretty lame. The secondary shows- later in the evenings in the Spinnaker Lounge were all hilarious! I would highly recommend not missing these. All were very entertaining.

Cape Canaveral, FL: we did an NCL excursion: Midway Airboat & Jungle Adventure. We all loved this and would recommend. Airboat rides was really fun & unique for us. Saw plenty of birds & water cattle. The Jungle Adventure had a bunch of rescue animals -which I didnt know at first so I felt a little sad for the animals but was happy to hear they had rescued them from lab testing, peoples pets, etc. The girls that guided the whole thing were a lot of fun. We did a pontoon ride and saw tons of gators, saw some informational shows, walked through to see the various animals, and got to hold a baby gator and saw some tarantulas & such. We also saw a gator feeding- live in the swamp the girls walk out there with buckets of meat & toss the food in the gators mouths. It was crazy!!! We had a great time & this excursion took all day which was what we were looking for.

Great Stirrup Cay: We brought our own floats & snorkel equipment and had an amazing day. The island is gorgeous and we saw a big beautiful sea turtle swimming around, a big stingray, and some awesome fish. We did book a clamshell that Im not sure was worth it. The shade was nice but the bar had a shaded area where we sat & ate our super amazing tacos from the taco stand. We planned to use the early tender that you get with the clamshell reservation but we docked way earlier than expected and werent ready to get off. We asked where to go for clamshells and walked all far but those were full and we had to go all the way back. My bag was heavy & it was hot so I am being a baby. We had an amazing day & would love to go back to GSC.

Nassau: we went to Junkanoo Beach & the Straw Market. The Straw Market we didnt spend much time but my niece found everything she ever wanted & more for decent prices. Junkanoo Beach is a great and free beach that I would recommend. The water was amazing and we brought our own floats & snorkel gear so we chilled and saw a few fish but not a lot. It rained that morning so I think many stayed away from the beach so it was empty which was great for us. i would definitely go back to Junkanoo Beach. Its only like a 10 min walk or $15 cab ride. We cabbed there because of the rain but walked back.

We rented chairs and did a drink package from The Tiki Bikini Hut (on Junkanoo Beach) - I would NOT recommend them. They have amazing ratings on trip adivsor and CC peeps recommend but we were not impressed. the drinks were like 0 alcohol content. The shots were something blue- your only choice. I dont even do shots but had them pour our final 4 into one glass before we left and downed the whole thing & didnt even catch a buzz and that was after drinking 4 of their drinks. Now the worst part- I ate the conch fritters and ended up with the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had. I spent all night in the bathroom-couldnt even leave the bathroom- with all the ailments you can imagine from food poisoning. I missed the entire next day as I could not even get out of bed. I couldnt sit up, eat, drink, etc. At least it was only a sea day or I would have cried lol. I did force myself out that night to see the 9pm show but looked & felt like death. I felt much better the next day and was able to get out & about & even eat a little.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to upload pics tomorrow.

Edited August 15, 2017 by lindseylu8

[lucyintheskywithdiamonds]

thanks for sharing! I almost missed the ship leaving from Barcelona , Spain because we flew in the same day... next time I will skip my cousins wedding and go out a day earlier!

 

I'm cruising the same itinerary, but on the Breakaway. did you book the tender for both stops in Bahamas, and should I book it on day one? thanks.

Edited August 15, 2017 by lucyintheskywithdiamonds

[mjkacmom]

We got most of our drinks from the pool bars, or spinnakers (tried many new drinks there), but discovered maltings and the martini bar towards the end of the cruise. Great drink menus, loved all of the martinis!

[lindseylu8]

lucyintheskywithdiamonds Nassau doesnt need tender, only GSC. I bought the day before and they were still available.

 

mjkacmom We also liked those bars but I only saw one day in one of those bars, one menu with different drinks. All other menus were the same as everywhere else. Though I did see the containers behind the bar with different concoctions that I did try :)

[lindseylu8]

Edited August 15, 2017 by lindseylu8
trying to upload pics.....not having luck lol

[poohdreaming]

thanks for sharing! I almost missed the ship leaving from Barcelona , Spain because we flew in the same day... next time I will skip my cousins wedding and go out a day earlier!

 

I'm cruising the same itinerary, but on the Breakaway. did you book the tender for both stops in Bahamas, and should I book it on day one? thanks.

 

 

As mentioned, only their private island (GSC) is a tender port if NCL is able to go there.

Most of the times, NCL were not able to due to weather.

[mking8288]

Between late April and now, except for 2 Canada/New England sailings, the Gem has a pretty good track record of tendering at GSC, we did in beginning of May - those on the week before, didn't and those following us - mostly made GSC, up thru this week (maybe 1 or 2 weekly sailing didn't)

 

Epic and the Sky (twice a week on its 3 & 4 day runs) also call on GSC - I don't follow those sailings that closely and can't speak about their averages.

 

It is disappointing for folks to missed the tendering port and I don't feel NCL intended to or planned it that way, just wanted to be fair ... without hijacking the track to go off-topic. Safety first and when they can't run the double decker boats - the Captain really has no choice. Not to mention that NCL has to cancel their shorex and refund them to the unhappy pax onboard.