NCL Gem is beautiful but......

[Maya57]

I know I am going to get flamed by die heart NCL cruisers but I must be honest

 

I was on the NCL Gem a week ago and will tell you the ship is beautiful. I got the opportunity to see the Garden suite which is very large. My junior suite was one of the smallest junior suites I have ever seen on any ship. The standard outside cabin was the same size as a junior suite

 

The food was very good but the service was horrible. It ran from OK to terrible never excellent. Most nights the food was lukewarm to cool when it should have been warm to hot. I was once told that if food comes out hot after a long wait then it’s the kitchen at fault, it is cold then it’s the server who is at fault. Talking to others on the ship it was a mixed bag. I would say that 50% thought service was very good while 50% thought like me that it was terrible.

 

The waiters were pushing us to eat in the specialty restaurants for reasons that escape me. Don’t know if they get a commission (I doubt) or they figure less work for them but we all felt inappropriate

 

We enjoyed seeing the bowling ally’s on board, it was another entertainment option. Reservations not needed and the coat of $5.00 per game was reasonable, although some thought tacky to charge.

 

Overall we had a good time on a new and beautiful ship

 

I am far from a new cruiser and have been on NCL before so I know what to expect. I think NCL better work long and hard improving service. Several people thought that the non-refundable automatic tipping give the waiter and staff no incentive to give better service.

 

OK, start the flaming

[Grandpaul]

I believe the automatic tipping is refundable.

[juried]

No flaming required. NCL should thank you for the head's up. If it were my business I would hate to lose you as a customer (passenger) due to warm food and poor service. These are things that are well within their control.

Well said.

Juried

[cello8619]

Im sorry that you did not have the service that you are accusmed to onboard. I was on the Dawn a few weeks ago and I had some of the best service afloat. I will admit that the service was not as consistant as I am used to, however I think the main reason for that was that I was traveling with 8 of my friends on spring break, so there were only a couple of waiters that I would say were not up to par on the ship, but then again we were college kids and I think they thought that we did not know better. However, the 95% of the time we had great service from one of the best crews afloat, they were a very warm crew that really strived to make everyone's vacation special. I hope that you can give NCL another chance and see their crew shine. The NCL Majesty also has one of the best crews afloat, I was amazed at how great they were, and the crew really made up for the older Majesty not offering all the ammenities that the newer ships have.

[BeachBumMama]

No flames, my flame thrower is in the shop for repairs, damaged from the last 'smoking' thread!;) Glad you had a good time overall.:)

[Mich1121]

I know what you mean. I had a great time on the Gem but in certain restaurants I did find the service to not be that great. In Magenta the service was very slow-even though the meal was good. For dinner we were in there for 3 hours and we ate at 5pm. (I'm not sure if that is a busy time). Our waitress was serving our table and 6 others at the same time. There was one woman getting alcoholic drinks for everyone and it took her forever to come around. I didn't put it in my formal review because it didn't upset me that much that I would have complained. The waitress was very friendly and brought everything we asked for but very slow. In Cagney's our waiter was not friendly and messed up on orders a bit but since the meal was great it slipped my mind. Believe it or not-the one eating place I didn't experience a problem was the buffet. Everyone helped me and said hello and were really friendly. Go figure. In my opinion I wouldn't say it was the fault of the staff-I think NCL assigned them with too much to do that they could only do the best of their ability.

[slotaddict]

Sorry the service on your cruise was not good. Can you give me an example of the waiters pushing you to eat in the speciality restuarants.

 

I have not been on the Gem, but I am sure she is alot like the Pearl, and indeed she is a beautiful ship.

[coffeebean]

Just off the Gem today. DH, sister, BIL and me all had a great time. The week started off very rocky, however. We went to the Grand Pacific main dining room for embarkation lunch and waited one hour for the main meal to be served. Don't ask me why we waited so long because in a land based restaurant we would not have waited. We spoke to the head waiter of restaurant and they compensated us with a bottle of wine for the four of us.

We found out later in the week that the Grand Pacific usually has about 300 guests for embarkation lunch and the day we embarked they were "slammed" with over 700 passengers.

 

The rest of the cruise was great all around. Sis and BIL are sold on Freestyle and are booking the Dawn out of NY to Bermuda for next year.

[elron]

When we were on the Gem, we thought the service in the Grand pacific was actually slow for dinner at times.

 

One night we had to order our coffee and tea before we finished our meal as to not wait so long for it.

[newmexicoNita]

I know I am going to get flamed by die heart NCL cruisers but I must be honest

 

I was on the NCL Gem a week ago and will tell you the ship is beautiful. I got the opportunity to see the Garden suite which is very large. My junior suite was one of the smallest junior suites I have ever seen on any ship. The standard outside cabin was the same size as a junior suite

 

The food was very good but the service was horrible. It ran from OK to terrible never excellent. Most nights the food was lukewarm to cool when it should have been warm to hot. I was once told that if food comes out hot after a long wait then it’s the kitchen at fault, it is cold then it’s the server who is at fault. Talking to others on the ship it was a mixed bag. I would say that 50% thought service was very good while 50% thought like me that it was terrible.

 

The waiters were pushing us to eat in the specialty restaurants for reasons that escape me. Don’t know if they get a commission (I doubt) or they figure less work for them but we all felt inappropriate

 

We enjoyed seeing the bowling ally’s on board, it was another entertainment option. Reservations not needed and the coat of $5.00 per game was reasonable, although some thought tacky to charge.

 

Overall we had a good time on a new and beautiful ship

 

I am far from a new cruiser and have been on NCL before so I know what to expect. I think NCL better work long and hard improving service. Several people thought that the non-refundable automatic tipping give the waiter and staff no incentive to give better service.

 

OK, start the flaming

sorry for your bad experience but I always am amazed how people can be on the same cruise and have such different experiences. Others have posted the opposite in the last few days. As for the non refundable, if your service is bad and you do make attempts to correct the problems by talking to management no matter what is said, you can have it removed plus, believe me, the crew knows a few complaints and their contracts will not be renewed. We had horrible service on our Princess cruise in January but I am not about to make comments like, Princess needs to work long and hard to improve services. We had a bad cabins steward and our wait staff seemed overworked; so it may have been a bad week.

 

I am glad you thought the bowling charge was fair, of course it was, I can't understand why anyone would think it was tacky to charge. Are these the same people that think the game arcade where the teens love to hang out should be free>?

 

Nita

[roboref]

I am never amazed at how different cruisers feel their cruise went. Things stand out to certain people. I once had 2 co-workers go on the same cruise, one experienced with cruising and the other having never been on a cruise. The experienced one came back and said it was the best cruise ever and the newbie cruiser hating it. Newbie cruiser for some reason had yellow water coming out of taps in room, didn't enjoy the food, didn't like the shore excursions and on and on as well as fighting with his wife. The newbie has yet to go back while the more experieinced one still goes once a year. This story is not from an NCL ship.

 

Our Gem experinece was very inconsistent. We would have outstanding examples of service in one restaurant, poor, then mediocre, to very good to outstanding. Overall service, I would rate average, several very poor service evenings to several outstanding. So average. I have had outstanding service on other NCL ships (Star and Dream). But it doesn't compare to others I have been on. But then none of the other lines compare in Iteniaries and Compass Rewards, so I take the good with the bad.

 

Another example, on Gem in Palma de Mallorca, there was a near riot among passengers as the promised shuttles were so few in number that at least a 1000 people were left waiting after the first bunch left. THen everyone was moved to clear the driveway and as it turned out those who were at the front of the line ended up in the back of the line. I have never seen so many upset passengers. Luckily we had Hop on/ Hop off tickets so we were not affected, but I am sure depending on where a passenger was in this line would have affected their outlook of NCL.

[Cosmopolitan]

 

The food was very good but the service was horrible. It ran from OK to terrible never excellent. Most nights the food was lukewarm to cool when it should have been warm to hot. I was once told that if food comes out hot after a long wait then it’s the kitchen at fault, it is cold then it’s the server who is at fault. Talking to others on the ship it was a mixed bag. I would say that 50% thought service was very good while 50% thought like me that it was terrible.

 

Thankfully, never received a lukewarm dinner in any restaurant on NCL ships. And, I would send it back.

How many "others" did you talk to on the ship?? 50% is a large amount! Did you talk to 10 passengers or 1000/2000 passengers? It is all relative.

The waiters were pushing us to eat in the specialty restaurants for reasons that escape me. Don’t know if they get a commission (I doubt) or they figure less work for them but we all felt inappropriate

 

What waiters in which restaurants "pushed" you to eat in specialty restaurants. NEVER happened to us:confused:

You "ALL felt it was inappropriate"...how many is ALL?

We enjoyed seeing the bowling ally’s on board, it was another entertainment option. Reservations not needed and the coat of $5.00 per game was reasonable, although some thought tacky to charge.

 

I believe they charge the $5 for bowling alleys to keep the lines short:)

What percent thought it was "tacky" to charge?

 

Overall we had a good time on a new and beautiful ship

 

Happy to hear you had a good "overall" time.

 

I am far from a new cruiser and have been on NCL before so I know what to expect. I think NCL better work long and hard improving service.

 

We have sailed NCL eight times in the past four years.

Service has always been excellent.

 

Several people thought that the non-refundable automatic tipping give the waiter and staff no incentive to give better service.

 

OK, start the flaming

 

"Several people"? What percent of all the passengers on-board:confused:

 

This is not a flame....but you keep refering to "other people". What percent of the passengers? How many "other" people did you speak to?

Most of us post our own thoughts..but you keep refering to "other people":confused:

[beachchick]

I agree (at least in our experience) that NCL's cabin sizes are some of the smallest in comparison; the NCL mini-suites are close in size to the RCI cat D balconies. However, I would like absolute confirmation that on the Gem a "standard oceanview" is the same size as a minisuite (not counting the balcony of course).

 

I don't recall a huge difference between the ones we looked at on PoH (now Jade and sister to Gem), but I do remember that the minis (about 230 sq ft) were somewhat larger than both the standard oceanviews and standard balconies (both ranging 160 to 170 or so).

 

I understand your sentiment. We were booked in an AF partly because we like the RCI Radiance and Voyager class cat Ds for the two of us. We ended up in a full suite, but made it a point to look at other categories for future reference. The balcony cabins seemed small, but well laid out; the minis were pretty much what we're used to on RCI.

 

Other than that, I don't doubt your experiences at all. Each of us has our own personal opinion and expectation. That's why two people can have disparate views of the same cruise. Every cruise is unique for each person.

 

We didn't ever had any waiters (or anyone else) trying to "sell" us on the upcharge restaurants. I find that weird, but perhaps it's a new thing.

 

I agree with Cosmopolitan that vague references to "other people" and so forth really don't help anyone. You could be referring to your traveling companions or you could be referring to every pax on the ship (which would mean that you spent your entire cruise polling other pax--now that's a real waste of cruise time, IMO).

 

Hope you have better cruises in the future.

 

beachchick

[Marco69]

Check out my report on a new thread in this group.

Marco69

[greywillow]

The food was very good but the service was horrible. It ran from OK to terrible never excellent. Most nights the food was lukewarm to cool when it should have been warm to hot. I was once told that if food comes out hot after a long wait then it’s the kitchen at fault, it is cold then it’s the server who is at fault. Talking to others on the ship it was a mixed bag. I would say that 50% thought service was very good while 50% thought like me that it was terrible.

 

The waiters were pushing us to eat in the specialty restaurants for reasons that escape me. Don’t know if they get a commission (I doubt) or they figure less work for them but we all felt inappropriate

I guess things were better on the 3/29 cruise. From brovol's review on a different thread:

 

"the gem would have rated extremely high with us, even if we were not in the suite. the food was excellent, and comparable, in my mind, to any cruise i have been on. [My experience comparing HAL and Celebrity dining with NCL, as well.] the dining service, and service in general, was fantastic. i was overwhelmed by the positive disposition of the wait staff in all dinning venues; with the sole exception being the mexican restaurant on day two. the grand pacific was excellent in every respect, all four nights we ate there. we ate lunch and breakfast at cagneys several times (a suite perk), and left each time saying how wonderful the food and service was."

[newmexicoNita]

I am never amazed at how different cruisers feel their cruise went. Things stand out to certain people. I once had 2 co-workers go on the same cruise, one experienced with cruising and the other having never been on a cruise. The experienced one came back and said it was the best cruise ever and the newbie cruiser hating it. Newbie cruiser for some reason had yellow water coming out of taps in room, didn't enjoy the food, didn't like the shore excursions and on and on as well as fighting with his wife. The newbie has yet to go back while the more experieinced one still goes once a year. This story is not from an NCL ship.

 

Our Gem experinece was very inconsistent. We would have outstanding examples of service in one restaurant, poor, then mediocre, to very good to outstanding. Overall service, I would rate average, several very poor service evenings to several outstanding. So average. I have had outstanding service on other NCL ships (Star and Dream). But it doesn't compare to others I have been on. But then none of the other lines compare in Iteniaries and Compass Rewards, so I take the good with the bad.

 

Another example, on Gem in Palma de Mallorca, there was a near riot among passengers as the promised shuttles were so few in number that at least a 1000 people were left waiting after the first bunch left. THen everyone was moved to clear the driveway and as it turned out those who were at the front of the line ended up in the back of the line. I have never seen so many upset passengers. Luckily we had Hop on/ Hop off tickets so we were not affected, but I am sure depending on where a passenger was in this line would have affected their outlook of NCL.

ok, maybe amazed isn't the word to use: if you read my review closely enough you would realize I wasn't doubting what the OP said, I used the word "amazed" because of our experience on Princess. As I said, among our group and there were about 30 of us from Roll call that hung out together we were the only ones who seemd to get consistantly bad service with total lack of communication. That is what I mean, it happend to us. A few had some issues, a few thought the overall service on Princess had gone downhill but no one had the problems we did. that is why I said amazing. It is amazing if you think about it. BTW, I am not quite sure why you seem to often pick apart my posts, but that is your right. It is an open forum and we all have our views.

 

Nita

[suzimack]

"Several people"? What percent of all the passengers on-board:confused:

 

This is not a flame....but you keep refering to "other people". What percent of the passengers? How many "other" people did you speak to?

 

Most of us post our own thoughts..but you keep refering to "other people":confused:

 

 

Are you a Math teacher??? Very picky!

[CruisnGram]

From cruisedeckplans.com:

 

Gem outside room: 161 sq feet

 

Gem balcony room: 162 to 167 sq feet. Balcony is 38 sq. foot.

 

Gem mini-suite (there's no jr suite listed so assume it's a mini): 231 sq feet. Balcony 54 sq. feet.

 

So mini-suite is definitely a good bit bigger then both outside and balcony cabin.

[Ask4Jay]

Maya57 -

Having been moved from the Jade to the Gem for our November crossing, I have read your comments (like all Gem reviews) with great interest. It seems to me that your main complaints are about the horrible service and very good, but cold or cool, food.

Our problem in the GDR is usually one of communication. We like a couple of strips of bacon with breakfast - not a quarter pound. We like rye bread, not what the server thinks is rye bread. Maybe a small portion of honey as topping for our rolls? Half hour later she arrived with a pint of honey, God knows how far she had to go to get it. No ill will on either part. It is so much easier for us to eat in the buffet. If they don't have rye, at least we can pick an alternative ourselves. So we wind up having most of our meals in buffet. With Freestyle 2.0 and tablecloths at dinner time it will even be nicer than in the past. And don't forget the impeccable service with a smile - self service. LOL

[llachance]

dining room service on the SUN last week was friendly but poor. On the last night of the cruise, our table of eight, spent almosst 3 hours eating dinner. For the most part we all ordered the exact same dinner! Our waiter was very friendly but it took forever!

 

The previous night we were in the 7 seas dining room at a table for eight and again it took over 2 hours to eat. Took several times for everyone to get what they ordered and coffee took longer then dessert to get :) All served with a smile!

 

My experience in the pay as you go restaurants, except for Teppanyaki, was horrible! I may as well have eaten in the main dining rooms. In Le Bistro the tables on either side of us were offered very attentive service, my husband and I got our food thrown at us. The upcharge side of the menu wasn't explained at all and even though the tables around us were offered dessert menus the waitress offered us three things. Wonder if it was because we only ordered tap water and no wine?! In the italian restaurant the waitress questioned me three times about where I bought the bottle of wine. I am certain she wanted to charge me a corkage fee but I spent $60 on the wine through room service - don't know why she finally decided it was ok - but after that her service was completely lacking (BTW the friends I was sailing with agree with a lot of what I am saying and at least a couple will be posting their thoughts).

 

So there are people on the same cruise that had amazing meals in the french and italian restaurants (my friends included) but my experience was completely different and except for Teppanyaki I will probably avoid the up charge restaurants on my next cruise.

[flashdog_1]

My junior suite was one of the smallest junior suites I have ever seen on any ship. The standard outside cabin was the same size as a junior suite

 

Operative word here is MY. I was in a sky suite once on Century that WAS much smaller than the others. Same price, smaller balcony, smaller cabin because of the hall turning, the cabin WAS smaller. Therefore I believe the poster. He didn't say ALL jr suites are smaller. He said HIS was.

 

Likewise, he could possibly have been in the largest 'standard' outside cabin on his last ship. Another of those anomalies. On some Celebrity ships the very forward OV cabins that look out over the helipad ARE much bigger, and are the same price as others in their category.

 

The brochures, websites etc. will TELL you they are 162 sq ft but in reality may be 200 sq ft. I've heard people say that some handicap cabins are double the size of the last regular cabin they were in.

 

There ARE a few variations in size regardless of what the brochure says. That's why we have these cruise critic boards.

 

You can see from my signature that I've cruised more Celebrity than any other, and haven't yet stepped foot on an NCL, but am booked on 3 this year. But I come to this board to learn. Is there not a thread somewhere where someone has compiled a list of the "best" cabins in their category? I'd love to see that, if so. It's a big help on X.

 

The waiters were pushing us to eat in the specialty restaurants for reasons that escape me. Don’t know if they get a commission (I doubt) or they figure less work for them but we all felt inappropriate

 

I doubt the commission, too. I'd go for the "the specialty restaurants are practically empty. My shipboard roommate works in one and asked me to get some more customers over there." Something like that. The main dining room waiters were overworked and the specialty waiters the night before had been underworked. This may have changed immediately & for the rest of the when the passengers learned they could go there for a minimal surcharge. This could explain why no other poster heard this. Just one individual waiter who had experience with the relative busy-ness of the regular vs. surcharge or reservation restaurants. :)

 

I think NCL better work long and hard improving service. Several people thought that the non-refundable automatic tipping give the waiter and staff no incentive to give better service.

 

The automatic tipping (service charge) has been in effect for years now, both on NCL and HAL and I keep hearing the above over and over. I think it reflects the poster trying to understand a downgrade in service more than the server slacking off. If you actually SEE workers just hanging out instead of working, they are slacking off. If they have twice as much work to do because there are half as many staff, they are not slacking off. We're just accustomed to better, faster, service.

 

Here's why I have that opinion. If YOU, yourself, were in a terribly demanding job, NOT working for tips, would you work any less hard than you currently do because there was a company freeze on raises? A person who is proud of himself will continue to perform well, don't you think? The slackard is a slackard and may lose his job over his lackadaisical attitude, anyway. So go ahead and write him up (the NCL service person) if he doesn't seem to be trying. If he's trying but spending his time waiting for the food, that's something else, such as the following.

 

I read on another post that on embarkation day there were 700 people in the dining room for lunch, when they'd only anticipated having 300. Stuff like that can certainly affect the service when a man has to serve more than twice the usual # of people. Had they known that cruise critic has been advising people to go to the dining room, perhaps they'd have had more servers there :)

[Nekochan]

I agree with charging for the games in the Arcade. What I don't agree with is charging for air hockey and foosball games in the teen room. NCL could have easily installed games that don't require money, but they do their best to squeeze every dime out of you. I also felt that they did their best to skimp on food and service wherever possible. I would go on NCL again, but ONLY if I had to leave from the NYC area without flying and they were the only ship available the week I am going.

[newmexicoNita]

dining room service on the SUN last week was friendly but poor. On the last night of the cruise, our table of eight, spent almosst 3 hours eating dinner. For the most part we all ordered the exact same dinner! Our waiter was very friendly but it took forever!

 

The previous night we were in the 7 seas dining room at a table for eight and again it took over 2 hours to eat. Took several times for everyone to get what they ordered and coffee took longer then dessert to get :) All served with a smile!

 

My experience in the pay as you go restaurants, except for Teppanyaki, was horrible! I may as well have eaten in the main dining rooms. In Le Bistro the tables on either side of us were offered very attentive service, my husband and I got our food thrown at us. The upcharge side of the menu wasn't explained at all and even though the tables around us were offered dessert menus the waitress offered us three things. Wonder if it was because we only ordered tap water and no wine?! In the italian restaurant the waitress questioned me three times about where I bought the bottle of wine. I am certain she wanted to charge me a corkage fee but I spent $60 on the wine through room service - don't know why she finally decided it was ok - but after that her service was completely lacking (BTW the friends I was sailing with agree with a lot of what I am saying and at least a couple will be posting their thoughts).

 

So there are people on the same cruise that had amazing meals in the french and italian restaurants (my friends included) but my experience was completely different and except for Teppanyaki I will probably avoid the up charge restaurants on my next cruise.

this is similar to what I had said about the Golden Princess. It seemed most everyone had great service or certainly good service, ours may have been as bad or close to as bad as any ship we have cruised and that takes in every mass marketed line, a few lines that have gone to their grave and many, many cruises. It was just one of those things. I have read some people complain because they went to the main dininh toom on NCL at 6pm or earlier and missed the 7:30 show, heck on Princess there were some who missed the 8:15 show. It can happen on any cruise ship, any hotel, any restaurant, etc.

 

Nita

[CruisnGram]

I agree with charging for the games in the Arcade. What I don't agree with is charging for air hockey and foosball games in the teen room. NCL could have easily installed games that don't require money, but they do their best to squeeze every dime out of you.

 

I'm not sure I understand. Aren't there organized teen activities that don't cost money? And, if there is a teen club, isn't it just a place for teens to hang out, listen to music etc? Seems to me that if they want to do something in the teen club, that isn't involved in the regular teen program, it woud cost additional. If there were no charge for the games in the teen club, I would think that it would be massive overcrowding...just like the bowling on the Gem.

 

I was also under the impression from the teen that traveled with us that there were times when both the video arcade and the games in the teen room were free. This was during an organzied teen event tho, not just at any time.

[TWELVEOHONE]

I thought I would add my opinion and knowledge on this subject.

The OP is not wrong but then neither is most of the posters

I asked my wife who is a travel agent about the posting and the comments. The agency she works for calls all clients returning from their cruise (or trip) asking the good the bad and any problems they encountered, if any.

Comments from NCL cruisers about service are mixed. Some say overall it was good while others say overall it was bad. It is not consistent where one day the waiter is excellent while the next day the waiter service is bad. This is true in some respects to other cruise lines as well but more so with NCL

The second issue concerning waiters pushing the use of specialty restaurants is also partially true. Although not a major problem there were some comments that some waiters did suggest to passengers that they would better off going to a specialty restaurant. This was not dining staff wide but does happen.

A possibility of why this happens is the collateral damage caused by any time sitting. There is an inconsistent number of passengers wanting to dine at a particular time on any day. The dining room that holds 300 may have 200 one time while at another time or day they may have 500 wanting to eat at the same time. The dining staff which may be set up to handle 300 will give excellent service when 200 arrive but when 500 arrive service starts to go down when a waiter has more tables and people to serve. Also when 500 want to eat there is a wait which can vary from 10 minutes to 1 1/2 hour and more. At this point when a passenger is unhappy about the wait and/or service the waiter may suggest a specialty restaurant where they will not encounter these problems.

Just another thought and analysis