Norwegian Gem Cruise Reviews - Reviews

confined in our room for 2  days because of Nero virus no fault of the ship but  lost 2 days  and 2 days of specialty restaurants that were include in our cruise. 

Our trip was ruined due to filthy conditions of the ship. A norovirus outbreak left us missing islands and deathly sick. We will never cruise again and would appreciate a refund.

The Gem is a comfortable and clean cruise liner. We have 6 people in our group and all said the food is great in all restaurants throughout the cruise. The fitness center is equipped with different exercise machines to suit everyone's physical requirement. There are many shore excursion selections to choose from with detailed description of each. The cruise staff members are very friendly. Our party of six really enjoyed the cruise.

I really have the outlook that there is no such thing as a bad cruise but this cruise came close to changing my mind.

There have been many changes on NCL.  There seemed to be less crew and the restaurant staff was less friendly.  The restaurants and buffet were generally dirty and for most of the cruise there was no enforcement of hand washing.  There were exceptions we had some great waiters - Shaik M. Harris, Samir Shaik, and Gina Batacandolo.

There was an outbreak of Noro that the captain blamed on drinking water in San Juan.  Many people were sick on the ship and we were turned away from St. Maarten.  The staff would never say how many people were sick but it was a very large number.

The entertainment on the ship was excellent.  Great shows especially Tim Kaminski.  However, this though great didn't overcome the issues with cleanliness.

Given this, we will think seriously about cruising with NCL again.

I booked NCL based on great reviews about it. IT was a great ship, great service from all the employees. Food were great in all of the dining options, although the some of the foods at Garden Cafe were a bit greasy. We had a great time until we were not allowed entry to St.Maarten due to a number of passengers contracting what they suspected to be a Norovirus. Thank God, my family were spared. Last night at sea headed home was a bit rocky, all for us skipped dinner due to the boat being at its roughest at sea as we hit a cold front. The captain was very good in keeping passengers updated with information. Cruise Director and his staff were amazing. Shows were all a delight and truly an enjoyable experience. Our kids enjoyed the Splash zone for both their age groups. The passengers were friendly and approachable, I made quite a few friends. We saved our deposits for 2 future cruises in the next four years. Love NCL and despite the incidence of GI issues, the staff onboard were truly dedicated in isolating the case. Also, there was an emergent health issue that arose and seeing the number of staff trained on rescue and immediate who responded were commendable! Our room exceeded size and occupancy expectations - it was pretty large for a family of four. 

nice ship,crew was excellent,food very good,entertainment overall fair,comic very good,jersey boys very good,second city fair at best. could use a second location for expresso bar. 

Very nice cruise ship, wonderful room, stuff always ready to please, food better than I expected, I was never bored. Overall I wasn't disappointed. But if you enjoy smoking a cigarette, even electronic, it is only possible in selected areas, not as at used to be: right side smoking, left not or vice verse. So all the smokers stuffed in that little outside bar, that I finally found, smoking, drinking, laughing out loud and l had meet wonderful people, who like many, feel discriminated.

I found the cruise to be very relaxing. The crew were very pleasant. The  food was fantastic. Almost everything was perfect until one night my husband and I went to see a show at the theater and they close one section only for The Haven reserved group. The Theater is for everyone on the boat The Haven Group already have their space and all the amenities that comes with the The Haven package. I found that very disturbing and very unpleasant. Clean that bad part and is super great.

Very disappointed  in quality of food and it's flavor and portion size, I know you can ask for another but at that point why bother. Food came out cold soup warm not hot espresso machine broken for 3 days. On this ship 4 yrs. ago much better.

This cruise would have been great except for the fact that I got sea sick after a

few days on the GEM.  After this illness past I got sick....had to visit the medical

dept.  Dr. Nikouc Bogdan and nurse Roland Tupal  took great care of me.  I was

diagnosed with the flu. I could not have been more pleased with their care.  I felt

I was in a big medical center.  I was quarantine for 2 days until I left the ship. I

certainly want recommend them for an commendation. They were both very

professionable.  You should be very proud of your Employees.  I also Had a great cabin steward Jose; he was very polite and helpful.  My cabin no. was 9045. 

Sincerely,

Maureen Harris

We had a great time. Everyone worked hard to make our trip nice.

We did notice a slight downward tick on quality since our last cruise. It seems like some belt tightening only repeat customers would notice, and they have. It was a common subject of conversation among repeat Norwegian cruisers. In simple terms "the shine is off the apple". The big disappointment was the restricted "unlimited premium dining". We took it up with the front desk where the acronym on the room key was explained where it was limited to five times. None of our documents showed that.  There is no one other than a Norwegian employee would know what the acronym would mean. This issue was discussed with management to no avail. We were made to feel like we were interrupting them. Very disappointing. 

After three happy cruises I guess It is time to shop around.

We were very pleased with the itinerary. We chose an inside cabin to make it affordable given the Canadian exchange. The Beverage package and upgraded meals were a true bonus. The food in the dining room was OK but service in the dining room was slow. The service in the upgraded restaurants slow but expected given the volume of food served. The quality of the food was excellent at Cagneys and Le Bistro. The variety of entertainment was very good. The Four seasons tribute was excellent. We chose not to participate in a lot of activities as we wanted time to do nothing but read and relax. There was a lot of sea time to do this. Leo the entertainer in the lounge area was wonderful.

We just returned from our Feb 21, 2016 sailing on the Norwegian Gem and had a wonderful time.  The staff were all sooo friendly and accomodating!  Our stateroom steward, Richard, was always totally thorough and made sure our room was always stocked with plenty of towels, ice and anything else we needed(like wine glasses.)  Our initial first few days were a bit rough and windy, but everything went according to plan on board.  We did have an out break of influenza on board, so the staff had to go into super clean mode and everyone had to be served by the staff  for the buffet and constant "washy washy" mode was instilled by all staff to all the passengers.  I guess my only complaint was the very, very slow service in the dining rooms.  We are seasoned cruisers and I have never waited  so long for service and between courses as I did on this ship.  It all seemed a bit disorganized, with our servers constantly changing between every course.  Really strange!  The food was awesome when we did get it, but service was very slow!  Everything else was awesome!

First, it was and is the same food over and over and really you got frustrated with r hat and personal to me Elvis or alvin he need to be main full to treat everyone with respect and courtesy .not only the people that he likes. Other than that I do liked the cleanliness, and  organization that they have when you arrived to the ports and all the staff is really nice with everyone. And it you drink a lot of water bring your own water cap and you can just fill it up, st Thomas beautiful beach magens the name  we did a short excursion all the island are beautiful

We've taken 3, 5, & 7 day cruises with awesome service, shopping & entertainment.   We had the hopes that a 10 day cruise would have loads of things to do.  There was 2 shops & 2 jewelry stores on this cruise with the same sale every day 2 shirts for $20.  The staffing for restaurants and lounges were very inadequate on this cruise.  We would have to wave staffing for drinks at the lounges & restaurants.  Waiter/Waitress were not concerned with their service for cruisers.  The food choices were the same each night, very little changed on the dinner menu.  The entertainment was the same music every day, I feel they should have had a different set of music every other night.  Our room steward was awesome always making sure the room was cleaned and supplied with fresh towels. 

We liked the Norwegian Gem. The first couple days were a little cold but we are always so glad to be out of our winter that 60 degrees isn't so bad. The inside stateroom wasn't designed very well. When the beds were pushed together, it was hard to get around the cabin(I don't know how the cabin steward cleaned in there). And the toilet was way too close to the bathroom wall.

None of this spoiled our vacation, because we always have fun when we're cruising.

Everything ran smoothly, but wasn't outstanding to recommend. Not enough to do during sea days. I wish there were more activities to do on sea days. Even quiet areas were hard to find because those spaces were being used. Charging for bingo and movies and anything else to do is tacky. Other options were to buy tanzanite?? Holland America cruises have so many FREE activities that there isn't enough time to do them all. 

My family and I had an amazing vacation on board the Norwegian Gem. It was smooth sailing and the weather improved as soon as we made it to the Carolinas. The weather in the Caribbean was PERFECT and every single island was beautiful and offered a lot to do and see. I would do this itinerary again in a heart bit. 

Overall the cruise was ok.  The vessel was in fine condition and kept well. Everything worked in the cabin and public/common areas with little or no issues.

Except the sports deck area, needs help with fixing broken baskets, shuffle board supplies and times you can use it.

Ships crew were pleasant enough and helped us on several occasions with questions/issues.   Seems we had problems with communications from the beginning on transportation, paperwork and once on board, I kept getting contacted to activate my account card with a valid credit card.  This happened five times with repeated trips to the Guest Services Desk to correct it.

Overall the service was good but not with the dining at the upscale restaurants.  Very slow getting drinks to the table and entire food orders had to be given at once.  Felt rushed to finish and move on- We ate at five of these restaurants and with one exception dishes were being cleared and the bill presented while we were still eating our meal.  At the "Nicest" restaurant I ordered glasses of champagne for my wife and I, as the steward (use that term very loosely) poured our 9 dollar per glass champagne; he kept saying 3 ounce pour.  I understand portion control as I run a restaurant establish, but that is bad manners.   I would not recommend the Ultimate Dining Package even though the food was very good in most cases (Cagney's and Moderno) the service diminished the experience.

Bar Service and product was very good throughout although it seemed that at peak times more bar tenders could have been deployed.  If you like to drink at least 4-5 drinks per day I suggest getting the Ultimate Beverage Package as the price per drink is downtown NYC....

Had an excellent time on this cruise! Food was great, entertainment was excellent, staff was very pleasant and courteous!! Would definitely book another cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines.