Not too bad, but the lack of security staff to keep the kids in line kind of marred the experience for me and my family. It was my second cruise on the Gem and we did not have this problem last time. I would like to see a Laundry Room with reasonable costs. A port of call was cancelled before the ship departed. That was a scheduled half day visit, but being able to spend a full day on another Island instead was well worth it.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Waited in line for 4 hours to board. Very poorly managed. Although I believe that this was the fault of the Port Authority due to staff shortage, Norwegian could have been on hand to assist. Awful experience.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
I’m a Buffet fan and all was good with the food. It was noticeable that there were staff shortages in the buffet at times. On a few occasions there were no cups available for morning coffee and cutlery trays were often empty.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
This was my second trip on the Gem and the onboard activities were poor. I am referring to the activities that were facilitated by staff. It was often hard to hear and understand the facilitator. The free activities were of a very basic nature and definitely not aimed at adults. Simple kids games. The games that were aimed at adults such as Bingo and Deal or No Deal, were expensive to play.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
I watched a couple of shows and they were entertaining, but a couple were cancelled due to injuries and other reasons. There was one very good singer from the Philippines who stood in and he was excellent. He also played in some of the other venues on the ship and he was popular with all - Norwegian should keep him on.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
The staff were good. The only comment I would make was the obvious lack of staff to deal with a group of young kids who were Behaving in a very unruly manner - they were feral. I and those I were with became annoyed about this on a number of occasions. They were blocking the stairs and would not move when asked to let people pass; they were somersaulting in to the pool when people were trying to swim; they were changing the Do Not Disturb signs on the doors, and generally behaving in a mobish way. We did report this to a member of staff but she seemed uninterested and told us to report it to someone else.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
No complaints
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Not bad. The sliding door in the shower fell off, but it was repaired promptly.
Ship tip
Bring your own washing powder. The laundry service is very expensive
Completely stress free. A bit of advice, take your own bags off the ship. Do not leave them in the passageway for staff to remove for you. Doing that will cause you to have to get in line and wait a considerable amount of time once you get off. We walked past a load of people waiting to collect their bags, and they got off an hour before us.
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