NCL Gem Fell Short
Norwegian Gem Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
10 Night Eastern Caribbean (New York Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 22, 2016
Ship: Norwegian Gem
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review summary
sick crew, poor service, poor food, cold food, fatty gristly meat in pub, took 45 min. To get salad in Pacific, mixed up order, then only went to buffet to get good HOT food. Luggage came 9:30pm, still had to have beds separated and safe unlocked other crew filled in jobs stood in long line for hamberger then stood in the beverage /ice cream line to get ketchup that was stupid spoke with hotel manager Sonia & her advice was to try, pub, restaurant again!!!! She didn't even know that there were no cartons of milk on buffet staff was pouring pitchers of milk into water glasses. We got 2 dinners at Cucina & bistro could not order lobster or steak. CHEAP!! Nov. I could order anything I wanted I'm platinum and they are cutting back and serving inferior food. I did 3 cruises feb, nov 2015 and March 2016. NCL doesn't appreciate customer and didn't try to offer any compensation for poor meals
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
When you want 2 beds why do you have to wait to have it separated safe was not unlocked even though I mentioned it finally went to guest relAtions
Ports of call
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
11 Comments
SvetlanaS 8 years ago
cruisenurse 8 years ago
I am by no means a complainer and always try to make the best of a bad situation but I have to agree that the March 22 sailing on the GEM was not the best experience. This was my 5th time on the GEM and my 2nd Easter cruise on the GEM. The Easter cruise in 2015 was so lovely that we immediately booked the same for 2016. Unfortunately, they had none of the beautiful holiday displays and decorations this year. I'm guessing that this was due to the restrictions that were placed upon us do to gastrointestinal symptoms experienced by passengers and staff on the previous sailing. They did a terminal cleaning of the whole ship before we got on and I thought that would be sufficient but that wasn't the case. They restricted us from serving ourselves, anything, anywhere. Not only the main buffet but also the appetizer station at Moderno Brazilian Restaurant, which you have to pay a premium price for, and they removed the water dispensers from the spa. At the spa you had to drink water from a water fountain. They originally told us that this would only be in effect for 72 hours, which made it bearable. But 72 hours came and went and the restrictions continued with no explanation. The biggest problem with these arrangements was that they didn't have enough staff to serve in the buffet which caused lines to get ridiculously long and guests to become very impatient, which created a very uncomfortable atmosphere. Food kept running out because the chefs were serving as well and had to stop to restock. In the mornings they had only 1 or 2 staff serving coffee at the drink stations and they were also responsible for serving juice and dispensing condiments. These lines were like nothing I have ever seen before. If you had gotten your drink and then remembered you needed ketchup, you had to get right back on the line and by then your food was surely cold. They wouldn't even let you salt your own food. They had to salt or pepper it for you. Believe me, this experience was not pleasant, especially during a holiday sailing.
adiga101 8 years ago