Loong 2/23 Gem Review - Part 2

[Mooder]

My cabin. These boards are full of praise for the upper-end suites, etc. so I thought I would give my thoughts on the cabin I choose. I have sailed in an inside and a mini suite (when upgraded), but my favorite is the oceanview. First, I travel with my sister so we do not want or need the beds pushed together. With an oceanview (or an inside for that matter), the beds are set perpendicular to the length of the ship and against the walls. This means that the cabin is roomy and easy to maneuver in. When we were upgraded to a mini suite, and I assume the same would be true with any balcony, the beds naturally must sit parallel to the length of the ship so as not to interfere with the balcony. As a result, the cabin, though larger, was much more difficult to maneuver in and felt much less roomy because you had to walk around the bed and it stuck out in the middle of the room. As an aside, I also did not like having the tub because it was so much more difficult to get in and out of than the shower stalls which I love in the lower-end cabins. I choose the oceanview because I like to see the sunshine in the morning, but other than that find no reason to upgrade and I thought I would share that for those in a similar traveling situation to mine. Finally, we always choose a forward cabin near the forward elevators so we never have far to walk at the end of the night since most nights end for us in the Stardust or the Spinnaker. In any of the cabins, I find there is plenty of storage and they are lovely.

I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on how fantastic our cabin steward was, even though I never got to chat with him. Our cabin was always perfect and his timing was amazing – uncanny really. He changed our towels twice a day and changed our pool towels whenever we had used them. We received lovely towel animals all but the first and last nights.

Dinners: This was my first cruise with the new rules for making reservations. In the past I have always made all my reservations the first day for the entire week. I was concerned that I would not be happy with the new rules. As it turns out, since my sister is a Gold member, we had access to Claudio, the concierge, and could have made all our reservations for the week through him, but we chose to try the new system. We had no problems whatsoever. And we ate at all different times – and always our choice of time. Sunday night, we ate at Cagney’s at 9 p.m. to take advantage of the 2 for 1 special, another night, Tequila’s at 7:30, Le Bistro at 5:30, Magenta at 7:30, Grand Pacific at 6:30. Another passenger mentioned to us that they didn’t think the ship was full which might explain our good fortune, but I don’t know. The first part of the week, I called the reservation desk at 7 am to make reservations for the following night as I was nervous. But by the end of the week, I felt more confident and waited until the night before to make reservations for the next day. This could be done at desks they have out in the evening hours for this purpose. And the night we ate at Orchid Garden, we did not make a reservation at all – we simply walked in. I found all of the food to be good, some great, nothing bad.

Breakfast: Our first breakfast was at Teppanyaki as I was very excited to try out this new option. Fortunately or unfortunately, not too many people are aware of this yet (though there are signs everywhere) so Sunday morning we walked down there and they had a lovely waitress standing out front to let people know about it. We were the only diners that morning. So, we had our own personal waitstaff and chef. The chef was excellent and very friendly and Annabelle, our waitress was adorable and efficient. We had grilled mushrooms, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. You can choose to have your eggs prepared any style (we made it simple and had scrambled) and you get a very nice sized thin, tender steak prepared to your liking. It was all very good and so fun. The $15 cover charge includes unlimited breakfast cocktails. My sister and I each had 5 Mimosas! We were very happy. Annabelle told us that their experience is that more people come later in the cruise, but I have no idea if that occurred. For us, it was personal and fun and relaxing, and I would recommend it to anyone at all interested.

We had most of our breakfasts at the Great Outdoors, but some in the Garden Café (almost the same thing) and one in the Grand Pacific. The Great Outdoors is my favorite part of the Pearl and the Gem. The morning in Nassau was particularly nice as the weather was perfect for sitting outside and you have a spectacular view of Atlantis and the surrounding area. We found the breakfast selection to be amazing and everything to be the correct temperature. I was a little disappointed because I associate cruises with crispy bacon and the bacon was a little floppy until the last day, but that’s just a personal thing for me since I don’t eat bacon all year and look forward to NCL bacon. On Monday morning, as I exited the main buffet area, a waiter approached me and offered to carry my plate and beverage and find me a table. This was an excellent touch which did not reach everyone but I saw quite lot of it each morning. The Garden Café was also always full of crew to clear tables and provide refills for the condiments, napkins and flatware.

We didn’t take a lot of photos since we relaxed so much on this cruise, but attached is a link to an album of what we have. (You will see we enjoyed NYC after disembarkation as we had Broadway show tickets – a great way to finish out a vacation.) I am still working on the Dailies and will post them shortly (I hope). Part 3 (final part, I promise) will include our excursions and other activities such as the tastings and clinics and the spa.

http://picasaweb.google.com/baross76/2008GemCruiseToFloridaBahamas

[Kingmaker_inc]

Thanks for the info! It make things even more exciting for those who are about to embark!

 

Libby

[snorklinbarb]

Hi bermuder,

 

Oh, don't stop too quickly - keep it coming! Your review is full of good information.

 

Interesting to read about your private breakfast.;):D Your mimosa intake is commendable.:eek::)

 

Your take on the OV cabins was also a different slant. DH and I were just in an OV on deck 5, but we were a little aft. I agree with you that a little forward isn't bad - as you say you often end up all the way forward at the end of the evening.

 

Thanks for the fun review.:cool: Hope you put it in the "official" review section, too.