Recent cruise on NCL's GEM out of NYC

Norwegian Gem Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

dmcknell

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 0

Helpful Votes: 21

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

10 Night Eastern Caribbean (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 21, 2016

Ship: Norwegian Gem

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8520

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Overall the cruise was ok. The vessel was in fine condition and kept well. Everything worked in the cabin and public/common areas with little or no issues.

Except the sports deck area, needs help with fixing broken baskets, shuffle board supplies and times you can use it.

Ships crew were pleasant enough and helped us on several occasions with questions/issues. Seems we had problems with communications from the beginning on transportation, paperwork and once on board, I kept getting contacted to activate my account card with a valid credit card. This happened five times with repeated trips to the Guest Services Desk to correct it.

Overall the service was good but not with the dining at the upscale restaurants. Very slow getting drinks to the table and entire food orders had to be given at once. Felt rushed to finish and move on- We ate at five of these restaurants and with one exception dishes were being cleared and the bill presented while we were still eating our meal. At the "Nicest" restaurant I ordered glasses of champagne for my wife and I, as the steward (use that term very loosely) poured our 9 dollar per glass champagne; he kept saying 3 ounce pour. I understand portion control as I run a restaurant establish, but that is bad manners. I would not recommend the Ultimate Dining Package even though the food was very good in most cases (Cagney's and Moderno) the service diminished the experience.

Bar Service and product was very good throughout although it seemed that at peak times more bar tenders could have been deployed. If you like to drink at least 4-5 drinks per day I suggest getting the Ultimate Beverage Package as the price per drink is downtown NYC....

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

See comments above

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

The staff at the children's program are outstanding. My 8 year old had a blast when she was there and we always felt safe dropping her off -

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Jerry, Mervin, Melon and Eduardo were excellent. Jemmy at the pool bar needs to go-rude and not friendly at all.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Typical cabin with normal features. Love being able to sit and watch the ocean from the balcony, my kids really enjoyed spending time with us doing that. Our cabin steward Eduardo was excellent and treated us as welcomed guests.