NCL LIED! No stop in Venice

Item: Norwegian Gem
Rating: 3.7
Author: SusanWestlake

Norwegian Gem Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

SusanWestlake

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 22

Overall rating:

3.7 out of 5

9 Night Greek Isles: Santorini Mykonos & Croatia (Ravenna To Athens)

Sail date: June 19, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Gem

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10160

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

NCL is fine usually. Don’t like how much the charge for laundry with no self service machines, how much they charge for water, how much they charge to use the spa facilities. They are constantly trying to get more money. This cruise the service and food was worse than usual.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

It was fine

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Garden cafe was closed a lot and no other options were available during their kitchen change over. The main free dining room was fine. I was disappointed with Cagney Steakhouse.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

They took the water slides off the Gem. The kids liked the climbing wall. Even if you book a massage, you can’t use ANY facilities. You literally undress and dress in the massage room. The pool is small and just a couple of jacuzzis. They are around the pool and you can’t see out well. They kick you out of them at 10 and you aren’t allowed to take a drink in, even in a plastic cup.

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Kids said Entourage was just ok. Not a lot of planned activities to get other kids to come to the club. No curfew til 1 am which they liked. I didn’t.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

It’s been nicely remodeled and was very clean

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

A little small but adequate.

Ship tip

They don’t stop in Venice! And they don’t tell you that until you board, even though they knew weeks ago! We would have planned a couple of days in Venice before our trip if we knew that!!

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Ravenna, Italy

3 out of 5

Venice, Italy Did not visit port

NCL lied to us

Thumbs Up 0

Koper, Slovenia

5 out of 5

Loved Lake Bled and the Postjana Caves

Thumbs Up 0

Split, Croatia

5 out of 5

Loved the walled city

Thumbs Up 0

Kotor, Montenegro

3 out of 5

Dubrovnik, Croatia

4 out of 5

Pretty crowded and far from the walled city

Thumbs Up 0

Corfu, Greece

2 out of 5

Santorini, Greece

5 out of 5

Oia was beautiful. Get a tender ticket early. We couldn’t get off until around 4 they took so long. We did the boat trip to Oia with a bus back to Thera because the line for the cable car was so long. Actually best to book a tour on this stop so you can get off on the earlier tender.

Thumbs Up 0

Mykonos, Greece

4 out of 5

Crowded but little Venice was cool.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

Took forever to get off the ship

6 Comments

Ladyjunecliff 1 year ago

Thanks for your review. Sorry cruise was disappointing with the latest changes.

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CruisedudeNY65 1 year ago

Thank for the review and I agree ncl is heading in the wrong direction trying to make up for lost time. Charging more for less. I hope they right themselves and get back to where they were before the shutdown. I started trying other lines due to ncl slipping. Been on the gem 3x.

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cruising2004 1 year ago

Sorry you were disappointed with some of your cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience.,

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cdavid46 1 year ago

Are you sure your cruise documents did not indicate no Venice port? Hard to imaging NCL just not informing pax about the Revenna change! 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Gwbigdog 1 year ago

Thanks for the review

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javawoody 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing

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Other reviews of this sailing

Great all around

Overall a good cruise, but the last-second itinerary change left us scrambling to adjust pre-paid excursions (very stressful) and we didn't get to see Venice at all, the very port we bought this cruise for. Total lack of communication by NCL.