Turtles06: my review of our 23 days aboard the Gem's B2B Panama Canal cruises, NY to Fuerte Amador and the return

[cruiseat50]

It had been a pretty long walk just from the Gem to the end of the pier and the entrance to the Taino Bay complex, and the hot sun did not help.  On our way back to the Gem, we discovered there was a free shuttle service – little three-wheeled tuk-tuks being driven back and forth from the ship to the entrance of the complex.  Please tip the driver.  🙂 

 

Thank you so much for this info. hubby and I can walk but have mobility issues so can't walk too far.  We are going here as well as Bermuda, San Juan, Phillipsburg, St. Thomas and Tortola so could you tell me what those ports will be like as well?  

[Turtles06]

55 minutes ago, NikiPinkston said:

Loving your review! Some of these ports are on our bucket list, so really appreciate the great narrative and photos.

 

Thanks for you kind words, I really appreciate them!

[Turtles06]

51 minutes ago, cruiseat50 said:

Thank you so much for this info. hubby and I can walk but have mobility issues so can't walk too far.  We are going here as well as Bermuda, San Juan, Phillipsburg, St. Thomas and Tortola so could you tell me what those ports will be like as well?  

 

You're welcome.

I covered our visits to San Juan in my posts above (comments 35 and 38). Old San Juan is very hilly.  The ship will dock at the bottom of the hills, and unless you are just walking down along the water, it will be steep uphills from there.  Taxis and Uber are good options for getting to where you want to go if walking is an issue.

 

I described our visit to St. Thomas in comment  20 above  -- we went to Magens Bay Beach via the multi-person "taxis" available at the pier.  (They are vans and open-air tram-like vehicles.)  There's more to St. Thomas, of course, than the beaches.  So how you get around will depend on what you want to do. 

 

The Gem skipped Bermuda as I mentioned.  I've been there before.  You can get around by bus, taxi, and ferry (and ship's tours of course). St. Maarten and Tortola were not on our itinerary.

 

May I suggest you head over to the Port of Call forums for each of your ports and do some reading there.  You'll get a good sense of them, and of course can ask questions about what your options are, given what you might want to do in each.

 

Hope that's helpful.

[Turtles06]

Puerto Plata: our second visit (Feb. 14)

 

On our second port call to Taino Bay, we had a private city tour of Puerto Plata that we’d booked with Marysol Tours.  They were an excellent company to deal with; all of my emails were answered promptly, they were ready to shift things around if we wound up at Amber Cove, and on the day of our visit, our guide was waiting outside the secure gate as had been planned.   

 

Our tour started with a visit to the local rum factory.  There was a mildly interesting video about the history of their rum production, but much of the time was taken up in the tasting room.  This was not really my thing (especially at 10am and especially not without Coke or the makings of a piña colada), but I could see that other folks who were there on a ship’s tour were getting pretty “happy,” since eight different rums were poured in order, and there were no dump buckets that we could see anywhere. Everyone got one cup to use, and if you wanted to taste another rum, you needed to finish the prior sample.  I’ll just say it got a little rowdy in there.  😂

 

 

After that, we visited a small Amber Museum, which was more about the Museum “guides” trying to sell us their amber products than anything else. But there were some interesting displays, including this one of a lizard trapped inside the amber:

 

 

At the Amber Museum, we also learned about a blue stone called Larimar, a rare blue variety of pectolite that is found only in the southern Dominican Republic.  I fell in love with the color, and on the way back to the ship, I bought a Larimar rock at the Blue Stone store in Taino Bay.   (There was of course ample  --- and pricey -- Larimar jewelry to be purchased for those so inclined.)

 

 

We also visited Puerto Plata’s small Central Park (really a plaza), and the cathedral, and walked through the colorful streets, including a paseo dedicated to Doña Blanca, who had been instrumental in the early development of tourism in Puerto Plata in the late 19th Century.  Everything in it is painted pink, her favorite color. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most interesting for me was visiting the Fortaleza de San Felipe, the small Spanish fort guarding the harbor, with beautiful views of the ocean.  Like other Spanish forts of the era, it has the iconic garitas.  Fortuitously, we were there during a temporary exhibit of some whimsical public art, which was sharing space with the cannons and fortifications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fort was just across the water from the ship, giving us a nice look at the Gem.

 

 

 

As we had after our first visit to Puerto Plata, we had a lovely sailaway, going right past the Fortaleza.

 

 

For some reason, Cruise Critic insists on re-inserting the rum bottles again.  I can't delete them, so let's just end the day with them! 🙂 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Turtles06

[PistolPete13]

Looks like the fort is within walking distance of the ship.  I'll have something to do now after my NCL excursion was cancelled this week.  Thanks for the great photos!

[KBMILA]

Thank you for the great review!

DH and I have done B2B as well, best cruise ever.

[cruiseat50]

3 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

You're welcome.

I covered our visits to San Juan in my posts above (comments 35 and 38). Old San Juan is very hilly.  The ship will dock at the bottom of the hills, and unless you are just walking down along the water, it will be steep uphills from there.  Taxis and Uber are good options for getting to where you want to go if walking is an issue.

 

I described our visit to St. Thomas in comment  20 above  -- we went to Magens Bay Beach via the multi-person "taxis" available at the pier.  (They are vans and open-air tram-like vehicles.)  There's more to St. Thomas, of course, than the beaches.  So how you get around will depend on what you want to do. 

 

The Gem skipped Bermuda as I mentioned.  I've been there before.  You can get around by bus, taxi, and ferry (and ship's tours of course). St. Maarten and Tortola were not on our itinerary.

 

May I suggest you head over to the Port of Call forums for each of your ports and do some reading there.  You'll get a good sense of them, and of course can ask questions about what your options are, given what you might want to do in each.

 

Hope that's helpful.

Oh, sorry I wasn't clear in what I was looking for as I just wanted to know if they had the little trams or pedicabs from the ship into the port.  If you or anyone else has this info that would be appreciated so that we can be prepared to either find those or just amble our way in. 

 

We are also going to Magan's bay beach but I think we will opt for a private cab as we have a walker we need to take and that ride sounds a bit much to keep us and it in the van. 😝  This is the port we are most looking forward to as that beach looks wonderful!

 

Anyway thanks again for your review and loving the pics!

[Turtles06]

Seen around the ship . . . 

 

At some point during the B2B, the ship ran out of little cartons of skimmed milk.  In Panama, we took on little cartons of whole milk, which I noticed had some interesting nutritional advice on them about breast milk ("la leche materna").

 

 

 

 

[peg013]

15 hours ago, Mrdell said:

Beautiful pictures… would you happen to know if there is any wi-fi available in the Taino Bay area?

 

I was on this cruise along with the OP. Yes, there is free Wi-Fi available all over the port area. We sat at the pool and logged in. You have to log in for 30 minute increments. Worked much better in AM before everyone in the port logged on. It remembered us when we returned on the way back.

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by peg013

[Turtles06]

8 minutes ago, peg013 said:

I was on this cruise along with the OP. Yes, there is free Wi-Fi available all over the port area. We sat at the pool and logged in.

 

Hi Peggy!  I'm glad you were able to answer that question.  (I usually just turned on my International Day Pass when we were in port.  😂)

 

Hope you had a safe and easy journey home.

[Turtles06]

11 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Looks like the fort is within walking distance of the ship.  I'll have something to do now after my NCL excursion was cancelled this week.  Thanks for the great photos!

 

Hi Pete, thanks for your kind words.

 

Out of curiosity -- what shorex did NCL cancel? 

 

Yes, the fort is within walking distance of the ship.  (According to Google, but please check that, it's about 1.5km from the cruise port.)  A few things to keep in mind: 1) it's very hot; 2) you will be accosted by people wanting to take you in their cabs, as well as by fairly aggressive vendors wanting you to buy things; and, most important, 3) from what I've read, robbery (including bag-snatchings by people on motor scooters [of which there are many in Puerto Plata]) is not uncommon in the DR, although I don't know the situation in Puerto Plata, and there were "tourist police" in some locations.

 

We did not walk into town or to the fort, as I said, so I can't comment personally on the experience, but as I'm sure you would be most anywhere, please be alert as to how you are carrying your camera gear (and any other valuables), and try to minimize their visibility. 

 

Enjoy your visit!  

[JIMESOPUS]

11 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Looks like the fort is within walking distance of the ship.  I'll have something to do now after my NCL excursion was cancelled this week.  Thanks for the great photos!

@PistolPete13We walked into town on our 1/2022 cruise be careful there are a lot of sketchy people outside those walls.

Edited February 24, 2023 by JIMESOPUS

[PistolPete13]

Good to know about areas outside of the port folks!  My excusion was the Hiking/Horseback riding and Kayaking tour.  I had no issues booking it in January so when it disappeared from my trip summary on the website, I was already suspecting that we may skip the port.

Then a few days ago an official NCL email came in saying it was cancelled due to "capacity issues".

Looks like there are nice port facilities in both Amber Cove and Puerto Plata, I'll figure something out.  I have to be extra careful at times due to my camera gear which I normally try to hide away discretely.  

[ggTexasGal]

2 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

Seen around the ship . . . 

 

At some point during the B2B, the ship ran out of little cartons of skimmed milk.  In Panama, we took on little cartons of whole milk, which I noticed had some interesting nutritional advice on them about breast milk ("la leche materna").

 

 

 

 

Don't worry!  It is simply a caution to NOT give to infants (younger than 1 year old)!!!

[Mrdell]

1 hour ago, peg013 said:

 

I was on this cruise along with the OP. Yes, there is free Wi-Fi available all over the port area. We sat at the pool and logged in. You have to log in for 30 minute increments. Worked much better in AM before everyone in the port logged on. It remembered us when we returned on the way back.

 

Thank you so much for this information!! Looking forward to our visit there! 

[Von & John]

17 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

If we'd known how lovely those pools were, we'd have taken our towels and bathing suits.  🙂 

 

Thanks for bringing back my memories...

Have they finished some of the additional expansion?

 

We visited Taino Bay March of 2022 on CEL Connie...

I was still recovering from surgery @ the time - so could not do the long walk!
The tuk tuks were so very welcome!!!
Inside I had to stop& rest along the way...
We spent a fair amount of time @ one of the bars next to the pool - made new friends (both @ the bar & in the pool) 🙂  
I did have my suit on & my sun jacket over it...

Removed my gauze pants & cooled off in the pool numerous times - the wet sun jacket kept me cool for long periods of time...

Also visited the beach.

Shopped a little & ate lunch at the restaurant.

I was not able to leave Taino Bay, due to recovery at the time - it was a wonderful day!!!

Edited February 24, 2023 by Von & John

[Turtles06]

20 minutes ago, Von & John said:

Thanks for bringing back my memories...

 

You're very welcome.  🙂 

 

20 minutes ago, Von & John said:

Have they finished some of the additional expansion?

 

Well, since this was our first visit, I don't have anything to compare it to, I don't know what it looked like originally.  🙂   But there was work going on behind construction walls, with a sort of "coming soon" signage.

[Turtles06]

Port:  Isla Catalina, Dominican Republic

 

After leaving Puerto Plata on January 31, the Gem sailed around the coast of the Dominican Republic, calling early the next morning at Isla Catalina, an uninhabited island off the southern coast of the DR.  This was the most “unknown” of all of our ports, as there’s not much information about it on the internet, and the shore excursions sold by NCL mostly seemed to take place on the “mainland.”  (I’ve used that word in quotes since the DR itself is on an island.)   As best we could tell, there would be a beach and free lounge chairs.  Oh, and palm trees.  😊   As things turned out, the beach was lovely, and we enjoyed our time ashore.  

 

Not surprisingly, Catalina Island is a tender port, and we took an early tender ashore.  This is a fairly infrequent stop for NCL, and we noticed the tender driver looking carefully at a map before he headed to the island. 😊 As we got close, we could see that there were hundreds of empty lounge chairs, and that we’d have no problem finding a good spot along the water’s edge.

 

 

 

The beach was beautiful, but when we arrived, the tide was out, and there was a very visible and steep drop off go to get into the water.   I’m pretty short, and I knew from prior beach experience that this could pose a real problem for me getting out of the water.  We carefully chose a spot where the drop off seemed to have the least slope.  After our first swim, I needed a little help to get out.  As the tide came in, I watched some folks coming out of the water along a careful, uphill diagonal; I was okay after that.

 

 

 

We had some great swims and even saw a few fish hanging around rocks near the shore. The water was gorgeously clear but surprisingly chilly, and you really had to keep moving to stay warm.  Weren't we in the tropics?  😂

 

Around 9am, small power boats began pulling up to the beach, dropping off locals working in the little retail stalls, as well as people who set up free umbrellas (please tip them).  There were so many tall palm trees that we didn’t even need an umbrella until much later. 

 

 

my happy feet

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing we did not know in advance was that there would be no food or water (or any other drinks) available on the island, a real shortcoming for a controlled-access beach, although there were clearly facilities there for a big buffet meal, the sort of thing you’d find on a private island.  (There was a tiny line in the Freestyle Daily stating that folks could pick up a boxed lunch that morning in the buffet, but no statement that no other food, and no water, would be available.)   As I understand it, the DR controls the island, so I have no idea how much blame can be placed on NCL for the lack of food and drink ashore.  I would think a cruise line could have negotiated better arrangements.  

 

We’d brought our own water, and did not let any food or beverage issues spoil our enjoyment of the day.  With the last tender scheduled for 2pm, we made sure we headed back a bit earlier, to avoid standing in line in the sun waiting for a tender. 

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely a nice day at the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Turtles06

[Birdnutty]

We were on the same cruise as the OP, although we got off the Gem a bit later.  The sun was already quite hot.   We did the snorkelling (and yes, the water was VERY chilly) and saw some pretty cool stuff.  Out away from the shore the water got a little clearer, and the snorkelling was quite easy.  We did enjoy that day - a very chill relaxing day with no real schedule, beautiful soft sand, sunshine and blue water.  No complaints from us!

Our beach area was walled off (with a fairly high, nicely built rock wall) from the rest of the island, leading us to believe that the rest of the island was jungle/national park. We took a walk down to the end and there were several DR men shooing us back to our area.  We were obviously not supposed to go beyond our boundary. But from our balcony once we went back on the ship, we could see that there were two other spots very similar to the one we were on, just further down the shore. They were quite a bit smaller than our area.  You could not see one from the other.  There may have been more on the other side of the island, but we couldn't tell.  I wonder if DR is trying to lease out these island cutouts to cruise lines to generate some revenue and give cruise lines more options within their shores.

 

These are the other areas I could see.  Ours is the arrow on the right.

The snorkelling area was a short way on the other side of the tender pier.

 

Turtles, your review has been very enjoyable. I hope you don't mind me hopping in to augment areas you didn't cover. It's not my intent to hijack. It's so good to see the cruise I was on through different eyes.  My own review is floating around, but yours is different, as we did different things.  And we got off in Panama City.  Would have loved to do the back to back, but not this time!  Thank you for taking the time to do this.  You take beautiful pictures. 

[Birdnutty]

For anyone that would like to see this cruise from a different perspective (non-Haven), see the link below for my review.  For the most part, it's similar, but we did different excursions that I reported on, and vastly different debarkation experiences.  Included are many tips and hints if you're considering going on this cruise.

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2917451-gem-review-12523-2623/#comment-64898010

 

[Turtles06]

40 minutes ago, Birdnutty said:

For anyone that would like to see this cruise from a different perspective (non-Haven), see the link below for my review.  For the most part, it's similar, but we did different excursions that I reported on, and vastly different debarkation experiences.  Included are many tips and hints if you're considering going on this cruise.

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2917451-gem-review-12523-2623/#comment-64898010

 

 

I'm sorry, but you're mistaken.  We were not in the Haven, we were in a non-Haven suite.  But putting that aside, and while I feel very blessed to have been able to sail in a suite, I think it's a real stretch to characterize my (in-progress) review as being from a "Haven perspective."   I've never spoken about suite-specific things like boarding in NY, or suite dining for breakfast and lunch (which we rarely took advantage of, btw), or having a butler, or anything like that.  My comments have focused on food throughout the ship -- in venues open to everyone -- on the entertainment -- open to everyone -- on what we did in the ports, choices anyone could make, and to things we did on sea days, once again choices anyone could make.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Turtles06

[Turtles06]

Port of Call: Oranjestad, Aruba x 2

 

Our first visit (Feb. 2)

 

Oranjestad, Aruba, was the fifth of our five port calls in a row on leg 1 of our B2B.  We decided to make it a “ship day,” since we’d just had a great beach day on Isla Catalina, and since we’d been to Aruba about a year before, when we took an island tour, something we didn’t see the need to repeat now.

 

We had a nice, relaxing day aboard the Gem, enjoying our favorite outdoor spaces.  Also, there was an interesting collection of ships docked in front of us:

 

 

Most obvious, of course, was the Carnival Magic, and we did some research to learn about the two smaller vessels whose names we could see, both of which were far more interesting than the Magic.  Closest to us was the grey naval vessel HNLMS Pelikaan (A804), which, according to Wikipedia, is “a logistic support vessel of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship was built and designed specially for the Caribbean Sea, and is permanently based in Curaçao.” 

 

Docked behind the Pelikaan (in the photo above) was the MV Freewinds.  Wow, this one was pretty (in)famous.  It’s a former cruise ship now owned by a company controlled by the Church of Scientology.  The ship serves as the headquarters of “Sea Org,” which Scientology calls a religious order but critics consider to be something far less benign.  Since this is my fun review of a cruise, there’s no need to go into more here, but if you’re interested, there’s plenty of information about the Freewinds and Sea Org to be found on line.  We certainly weren’t expecting to see this ship, that’s for sure.   (I’ve also included below a photo of the Freewinds that I took during our return visit to Aruba on leg 2, so you can see it better.)

 

 

The Magic left several hours before we did.

 

 

Just before our own sailaway, we had a beautiful sunset, a lovely end to the day.

 

 

[Turtles06]

Aruba, our second visit (Feb. 10)

 

 

On our second call to Oranjestad, we did not dock until 11am, which we decided was a bit late to head to what were likely already very crowded beaches.  Also, it was an extremely windy day, which often does not make for good swimming or even just sitting out and perhaps being blasted by sand.  (For those who did go to a beach, I hope we were wrong!)   We decided to spend some of the day exploring Oranjestad, and to have lunch ashore.  We thought it would be good to have a destination for our walk, and so we picked the Queen Wilhelmina Park, and headed out.

 

The nearby streets were filled with shops, restaurants, and souvenir stalls, and the blowing palm trees showed just how windy it was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the center of Queen Wilhelmina Park there is, not surprisingly, a statue of the Queen herself.  And there is also one of Anne Frank.   (Unfortunately, the direction of the sun was not kind for photographing the statues.)

 

 

 

 

A

 

 

 

Also in the Park was a family of iguanas, having evolved in their coloration to blend in with the landscape.  When they stood still (as they did whenever they heard anyone), it was almost impossible to see them from afar.

 

 

 

We decided to have lunch outdoors at a Mexican restaurant we’d passed on our way to the Park.  This turned out to be an excellent choice.  Good food and drinks, and friendly servers.

 

 

 

 

The AIDAbella had been docked in front of us all day.   She sailed away first, in the lovely evening light.

 

 

 

 

 

[Birdnutty]

10 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

I'm sorry, but you're mistaken.  We were not in the Haven, we were in a non-Haven suite.  But putting that aside, and while I feel very blessed to have been able to sail in a suite, I think it's a real stretch to characterize my (in-progress) review as being from a "Haven perspective."   I've never spoken about suite-specific things like boarding in NY, or suite dining for breakfast and lunch (which we rarely took advantage of, btw), or having a butler, or anything like that.  My comments have focused on food throughout the ship -- in venues open to everyone -- on the entertainment -- open to everyone -- on what we did in the ports, choices anyone could make, and to things we did on sea days, once again choices anyone could make.

 

 

My apologies for assuming.  It seemed to me like some of the things you spoke of were Haven-like.  But you are correct - you never did mention any of the suite-specific perks. You just didn't seem to run into the same crowd based snafus as us, or at least never mentioned it.

 Once again - I'm sorry to have jumped to incorrect conclusions.  

 

On another note - I do especially love your photos.  You have quite the knack for picking and framing great subjects.

[Turtles06]

Sea Days

 

After our run of five ports in a row on leg 1, we finally had a sea day (on Feb. 3).  My wife and I both love seas days (one of the reasons why we love transatlantic cruises).   On the Gem, we typically worked out in the morning; I absolutely love walking laps around a true promenade deck, while my wife hit the Fitness Center; sometimes we swam. 

 

After that, we’d do the usual things many people do on sea days (except sit out in the sun).  We’d generally have lunch on the pool deck or at the Great Outdoors, and often just hang out there reading or watching the water for hours.  Sometimes we’d sit out on our balcony, or wander down to the Atrium for trivia.  We never find sea days boring. 

 

In fact, you just never know what might happen.

 

On one of our sea days, the Gem was pummeled by very strong winds hitting her portside, just aft of the bow, causing a great deal of rolling.  The Nav Channel showed the apparent wind speed to be 51 kts. 😲  Apart from the winds, it was a sunny and beautiful day.  But because of the winds and the rolling of the ship, the pools had been drained and netted over.  The hot tubs on the starboard side were closed, but not drained.  This led to some great entertainment, as we watched the winds blow the water out of the hot tubs, and produce mini-waterfalls down the steps.  This went on for quite some time, and repeatedly flooded that part of the pool deck.  Crew members were constantly squeegee-ing the water.  I'm not sure why they didn't just drain the hot tubs. 

 

 

 

 

 

Never a dull sea day.