Norwegian Gem Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I can't even begin to thank the staff aboard the Gem.  It was my first cruise ever and I will be back.  Everything was done so well and the staff was always pleasant.  There was something for everyone to and the flexibility for dining was great. 

This was the worse cruise I have ever taken.  The service was poor in the state room, as well as the dining room. We waited over a hour for dinner to be served. I have young children and to dress them for a nice dinner and wait so long that I had to take them to the buffet to eat because they were so hungry.  I am totally disappointed in Royal Caribbean.  This is not my first cruise on this cruise line, or even this ship.  The service had gone down so much.  Carnival would have been a better choice. I have always thought Royal Caribbean to be a step up, but not anymore.

This is our second cruise with NCL.  Both times we were VERY pleased with the rooms, service, food, entertainment, and activities.  The shows are AWESOME, a lot of different foods, and many restaurant's to choose from.  This time we picked a room without a port or balcony.  You are not in your room very much, and we took our 14 year old daughter.  Three is the room was a little crowded, but comfy.  Your not in your room a bunch anyway.  Beds were NOT rock hard, and comfy.  Our Stuart was AWESOME, and made sure we were taken care of.  The crew is all friendly, and oh so funny.  The food was awesome.  Buffet with just about anything you would like, plus other eating places on board.  We ate at O'Connels.  Great Irish pub on ship.  And had our celebration dinner at Magnolias'.  Very good food....  The entertainment was great.  Dancers and singers had you rocking in your seat.  We had a Hypnotist show that also was AWESOME.  The bands were great.  Activities keep you busy, from pool parties, trivia games, bingo, deal or no deal, outdoor movies,  to art auctions.  We took our 14 year old daughter, and she joined the teen group.  They had lots of activities to meet other teens, and even have their own lounge.  (Leopard Lounge)  The smaller kids paraded around in costume, and seemed to really be enjoying themselves too.   Two pools, one adult - one kids.  Nice slide, and hot tubs for family or the adult hot tubs. The excursions were smooth, and a lot to choose from.   I would HIGHLY suggest this trip for a couple or a family. 

I took a lot of time on planning and picking this specific cruise for myself and my family, in addition to a lot of money being spent. I was disappointed because of all the changes made to the itinerary of the trip, it cause major changes in our vacation. First we lost an hour in Florida, without any explanation as to why. Our days were switched in Bahamas due to their election day, however with as much travel this cruise line does back and forth from there, they should have been aware ahead of time. This caused many of the excursions to be cancelled, that we were looking forward to taking apart in. And we never even were able to make our final stop to Great Stirrup Cay. Very very disappointed due to how I carefully picked this trip for the excitement it offered. Very upsetting as I have only heard great things and this was my first cruise, I was overly excited as I am now greatly disappointed

There was a change of itinary and never stopped at Great Stirrup Cay island.  The food was very good but the changes in itinerary caused you to spend everyday by pool instead of beaches in Nassau and great  Stirrup Cay. Shows were great. Overall I would have given a higher rating if it weren't for the changes in destinations. Pool area.was overcrowded.   

First me and my wife get on the ship and have been told due to elections going on in the bahamas our itinerary has changed. We Boarded from new york and were supposed to go to port canaveral then to great stirrup cay then nassau, Instead we were going to nassau first then great stirrup cay and our shore excursion in nassau was cancelled forcing us to book something else. we get to port canaveral everything goes fine, then nassau everything goes well. We were supposed to arrive at great stirrup cay at 8am, the captain decides to make an announcement at 7am stating that due to conditions being unsafe we won't be going to great stirrup cay. I go to the service desk on the ship and they state that we will be heading back to new york, we already had booked 2 excursions for great stirrup cay. The seas were not bad they were calm the captain made it sound like there was a storm but it was 80 degrees and water was as calm as can be. I talk to a manager to see what can be done for us as i paid almost $2,000 for this trip and had my itinerary changed, my shore excursion cancelled and only got to visit 2 of the 3 ports i paid to visit. The manager stated theres nothing they can do and dont give on board credit to customers and stated that i would have to call customer relations and speak to them. I call customer relations and they tell me i have to submit a claim on the norweigan website, so what exactly was the point of the supervisor telling me to call customer relations? was it to get me out her face so they wouldn't have to deal with their mistake? The gentlman i spoke to said there has been times that ships have pulled into a port to dock and have turned right around. This is definitely a company you dont want to deal with, I'm not rich by any means at all so playing around with $2,000 isn't exactly the thing to do for me. I dont expect all if my money back and i dont want credit for a future cruise as I WILL NEVER EVER BOOK A CRUISE WITH NORWEGIAN, but i would at least like a third of my money back as i only got to visit 2 out of 3 ports i paid to visit. oh and there was actually a couple on board who was supposed to get married at great stirrup cay, so go figure.....smh, shame on norwegian for not caring about there customers and not doing anything to work with them.

I've been on the Gem before but it was very different this time. Usually there is someone asking if you'd like something to drink. Waitstaff was scares always needing to go get your own drinks at the bar.  Our Stewart Joel was very nice. All I can say is we did't feel as Platinum as we have before they restructured there rewards program. They didn't let there platinum members know that we wouldn't be going to Nassau for the day just 4hrs. This was because of the election in the Bahamas's for there new Prime Minister. I'm sure they new this a year in advance. They switched our day there out. Then on the last port day they canceled our beach day at Great Stirup Cay. The water looked like glass completely smooth not a ripple. We ended up at sea for 3 days instead of two. My husband and I feel that we have put our cruise eggs in the wrong basket. Platinum?

Everything was per much perfect except for 2 things.  There is smoking in the Casino even though 90% of the people on the ship don't smoke.  The Second City Comedy Troupe was terrible.

My vacation was amazing all due to Amy at she has made my vacation one the best so far...if u want a good vacation at a good price and one you can afford and still get all you want this is the place you want to go and Any is the one to call...Thank you so much Amy the boat and stops was amazing talk to you soon for another get away....

Food was so so, activity was not as expected, port was ok. Will recommend for old people to spend their free time there.  Night show was good tho, worker are nice and work very hard.  Overall 3 out of 5.

we had a great time. the food was great.  i guess the only thing that was bad was the itaian reastreaant  that we had to pay for is that we had to wait over a hour for the food to come.  i think that was on a wed. night.  we were late for the show. 

really enjoyed the specialty dining. food served in the main  dining room was excellent along with very attentive service staff. refurbishing ot the GEM was beautiful and we felt very comfortable in all areas of the ship.we have sailed several times on NCL and each time it gets better.hats off to management for doing a wonderful job in paying attention to the customers needs.we look forward to our next cruise on theESCAPE.thankyou all for doing a great job.

Staff is excellent. Food enjoyable.  2-Bedroom Suite was incredible.  The pool deck was the highlight with tons of space.  Plenty of activities for all ages.  Plenty of drinks and food 24/7.  Room service food is so good.  The dining restaurants are great but the restaurants you pay extra for are superb.  The Islands were also the highlight.  My only negative, but had to put 5 stars as this is my own observation for Norwegian and it in no way should reflect on the ship or staff is that the staff was noticeably exhausted.  After speaking to 15+ staff members it was clear that they do not get enough time off to relax and recoup.  They work 12-15 hours per day, 7 days week.  As much as they try so hard to be happy and excited quite honestly they are so tired and it shows.  Norwegian needs to understand that they are very much a part of the guest experience and having consistent happy, well-rested staff would only add to the overall enjoyment guests deserve to have on what is many guests' only vacation in years.  It should NOT be so obvious how overworked their employees are to the guests.  

Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Great ports of call with great beaches.  Lots of fun activities to do on the ship and the kids really enjoyed the Splash Academy.

Cruising in general on the Gem was nice.  We go to relax, not to party, or do many excursions.  Would rather spend time sunning on the deck or being at the beaches in the countries we visit. At times, we may not leave the ship if we have been to a certain country numerous times.

What we didn't like about the GEM is the café on deck 12 were we would have our breakfast.  Very noisy , not a well planned area.  VERY dark, and crowded. Not well planned out. Unlike the DAWN which has the entire area set aside for the café, with plenty of seating , no so on the GEM, clear views of the café, situated on both port and starboard,  ( GEM is only on one side of ship ) and on the DAWN never noisy  as  on the GEM. We will most likely not sail on the GEM again.  Other restaurants were great.

The ports, excursions, shopping, people were wonderful.  NCL Gem was a great size and entertainment was out standing.  I would not like a ship that held 5000 passengers.

Enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and a great variety of activities available on board the ship.  Every ship employee we encountered was professional and helpful.  The ship is a marvel of technology, decor and design.  This was a great experience.  We will definitely go on more cruises with Norwegian.  Loved our time on our shore excursions and the guides we had were knowledgeable and well trained in their areas of expertise.  Would recommend this cruise to others.

My room for sure was fabulous. Food was better than other cruise lines I've been on.  Great staff! Great leaving out of NY.  We never had to really wait for an elevator considering some of other ships I've been on. Only reason I gave it 3 stars is because it's just an older ship with nothing real exciting to do in comparison to other ships.

Some of the shows were very good and others weren't .  The food selection in the dining room was awful.  The food in the buffet was somewhat better.  There was no lobster on the ship so for the first time in 31 cruises, we didn't have surf and turf.  We were disappointed.

They had a good dance band and sailaway party.  However, we would like to have seen the band play more during the evening that wasn't during dinner.

The ship itself was not in tip top shape as the paint on our balcony was pealing so much so that our balcony floor was almost covered with paint chips every day.  One of the dance floor in the "Bliss" was so sticky that it ruined a pair of my dance shoes.  

The evening movies were shown in the atrium where there was often a lot of noise and light with a lack of seating.  

Even after paying a hefty fee for the drink package, we found out that it didn't cover bottled water or fresh squeezed orange juice.  What a disappointment, again. 

Most cruise ships have dance lessons on all sea days, not so with the Norwegian Gem.

Getting on the ship was a joy.  Not so with getting off.  The worst system in all our cruises. 

the four island that we when to. my disappointment was the entertainment the band didn't move the crowd the shows in the main auditorium sucked nothing to do with the kids. the cruise director didn't do anything on deck to entertain the crowd by the pool area.