This was my first cruise aboard the Norwegian Gem which is now the 17th ship in the Norwegian fleet that I have now experienced as a passrnger. The goal is to experience all twenty (20) ships before the new Aqua comes out in 2025
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation was quick, efficient and without incident. It took less than thirty-minutes to complete the entire process and get onto the ship and complete the checking in at the muster station.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food and Drink was very good in all the restaurants both complimentary as well as the specialty dining.
Cagney's Steakhouse
5 out of 5
A personal favorite regardless of the ship. The Cagney's Steakhouse on the Gem was no exception. Delicious food, Excellent service and a spectacular oceanview window seat.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Plenty of lounges available at the pool area on both decks.
Plenty of activities in the Atrium. Cruise Staff were all friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, polite, and prompt in the hosting of activities and events.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Theater shows were fun and entertaining and performed by the ship's onboard entertainers performing a variety of singing and dancing numbers. No big Broadway productions like on the bigger ships. The bands around the ship were good.
The comedians were funny
The magician/juggler was a magician/juggler. He did what he was hired to do.
Bliss Ultra Lounge & Night Club
5 out of 5
The Bliss Lounge was a great place for listening to live bands or nightly Karaoke. Very nice setup. Bar staff and Bartenders were always friendly, attentive and prompt in their serving and refilling of the unlimited alcoholic beverages!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Very hard working dedicated crew and staff. EVERYONE was friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, polite, prompt and professional in providing great service.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The Gem is an older ship but has been very well maintained. A few quirks in the design whereas you have to go up a deck and then go down a deck to sometimes get where you want to go but that's part of the fun of being on an older ship where flow wasn't always a priority as it is now with the bigger ships. Ship was constantly being cleaned and issues were addressed promptly.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Stayed in an Oceanview Cabin (4514) and had an outstanding Cabin Steward Wayan. Cabin was adequate size with more than enough storage. The bed was comfortable (added egg carton topper) and the view of the ocean was very relaxing.
Ship tip
Remember a smaller older ship has less bells and whistles than the newer ships but the trade off is there's nearly half the less people onboard. Enjoy the extra space at the pool and shows.
Enjoyed walking around Puerto Limon. There's a local open air Bazar located right outside the cruise terminal with artists and their creations, coffee farmers with their products and various local foods and drinks to enjoy. A little further away is a nice local park that has plenty of sloths high up in the trees that if you're patient enough and take your time you'll be able to see them in all their splendor. A little further past the park are some local shops and restaurants where you can go to pick up some sundry items, pharmaceuticals, and shop for souvenirs. Nice little port town.
Friends & Family ALWAYS said I was going to HELL and it looks as though they were finally right! Took the NCL excursion to "HELL" and saw the exposed coral reef as well as visited a Turtle Sanctuary that bred Sea Turtle in order to help replenish the species. They had Sea Turtles of all different stages in various ponds at various stages of development depending upon their respective ages before they received the right stage of development to be released out into the sea.
Arrived a day prior to the cruise. Stayed in South Beach planning to enjoy some of the local nightlife but it was raining quite hard and the streets were pretty vacant. Decided to eat next door from the hotel at an Italian Restaurant that had very good food at very reasonable prices. It was a very nice surprise.
Post Cruise I took an NCL excursion that drove us through town highlighting some of the different neighborhoods and some of the local attractions and highlights before dropping us off at Miami Airport.
Norwegian Cruise Lines private island that required the use of tenders. Many beach activities to do on the island as well as take a ferry to the mainland or other islands to do various excursions. Chose to stay on the private island and relax with a beach day. Unlike Norwegian's other private island that they own at Grand Stirrup Caye in the Bahamas, the drink package does not work on this private island under the agreement that Norwegian Cruise Lines has with the Belizian government to provide economic growth and employment opportunities for the locals in terms of purchasing food & drinks from the locals.
Although I've done five(5) full transits through the Panama Canal, both Eastern & Western, this was my first time going through the original locks albeit only the Caribbean portion into Gatun Lake. Still it was fascinating to see the Canal that was built over 100 years ago and the extraordinary engineering accomplishment of its day. Also the contrast between the original locks and the newer locks that were recently completed within the past decade and the differences between the two sets of locks.
Certainly a bucket list item that you never get tired of seeing.
Could have been a little better. Luggage was put out on a conveyor belt like at the airports and on a continuous loop rather than each color groups being lined up in groups of their respective colors and passengers go to their corresponding luggage tag colors to grab their luggage. The conveyor belt slowed things down and if you missed your luggage you had to wait for it to do the loop and comeback out and around again. Granted each conveyor belt only had 2-3 different colors and there were 2-3 different conveyor belts but still the process is much more time consuming but requires less manpower than the standard sorting & grouping of luggage by colors that I'm accustomed.
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