Norwegian Gem Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The ship was not large, but the room was good. Very good drinks. Steak was good, fish was good, but lacked the fancier dinners. My biggest issue with this cruise was the service. We almost always had to wait for drinks, and the majority of the staff was not real friendly, while some were borderline rude. I do want to give props to Shane in the Spinnaker and the entertainment staff, especially Shreta.

First ill start by saying 8 years ago i swore to never do norwegian again....and after this sailing i remembered exactly why. The service was horrible. Right from guest services straight to the dining staff. Noone is willing to help when there is an issue. We were a group of 12 on this sailing. We never ate dinner together. Not even when we were the first ones there or when we made reservations. The staff in the magenta were miserable. No personalities at all. Service was terrible. At a table for 4 my brother in law was done eating and the rest of us were just being served appetizers.The kid and teen program was horrible. My teenage son has been cruising for 11 years with us. He has never been bored on a ship. EVER!!! the main activity for the 13-17 year olds was watching movies. The room was horrific. It was dirty upon arriving to it. Old and smelled of mold. The boat seemed under staffed. We had the ultimate beverage package and had to wait at least 20-30 minutes on lines everytime we wanted a drink. There were very few bars open after 8pm. Mali lai was the only one on the outside deck at all. There was not any nightlife on the ship after the main show except for the spinnaker lounge. Which most nights had a horrible excuse for a band. The nights they had a dj were ok. Being so seasoned in cruising. I really ha e to say i have never been on a cruise that didnt have a sailaway party or that closed the entire pool deck even the bar at 10pm. This cruise line is definately the bottom of the barrel. Save ur money. Go on royal caribbean or carnival if you have children

the food, help and the shows were amazing. the port stops were great, our favorite was st. thomas. I would recommend this cruise and ship to any one interested in these stops. Of all the cruises my husband and I went on, this compares as great. We are very happy. The shows were amazing, we wish we could have seen more of them.

Wonderful ship, family really happy, crew member are excellent, stateroom are nice and clean.food is plenty. Will travel again................................""so happy"...............................................................................

We had a wonderful trip.  The food was good, the night life kept us busy.  We enjoyed the parties.The ports were good.  Only a few things we didn't care for.  We had no church services for Easter and Palm Sundays.  When I asked the main desk about that I was told they couldn't get anyone to come.  These cruises are planned at least a year in advance why couldn't we get someone to have church service.

First and foremost I am a gold latitudes member of NCL therefore I have traveled many times with this fleet, this past trip was absolutely awful! The food was horrible, the servers were miserable as if they didn't want to be there and worst of all BJ's false advertised that I would get a 50 dollar onboard credit that I never received when I called to inquire why? I was told it was due to me not being a rewards member and just a regular member! That information was not conveyed to me before the trip! The ship was clean and nice but food is not the same you used to get lobster one night you don't get it unless you pay and then it's overcooked like eating a rubberband! The chocoholic buffet is no longer they put out a few pieces of chocolate cake and one ice sculpture and expect you to enjoy that! Room Fees 12.95 per person 52 per cabin is highway robbery! You pay enough to get on the damn boat then they sock you for extra and honestly if the service was good I probably wouldn't complain about that, but the service was awful and John in the Java café needs to learn what good customer service skills are! we saw the cruise director twice on an 11 day cruise, not cool, not sure where he was hiding or what he was doing, but he sure wasn't directing!!! I am going to try Holland America I hear they are very good and I am also going to book via cheap , DONE with lies as this happened not once but twice this is not baseball there are not 3 strikes, two and your OUT!

I loved my 10-day cruise on the Norwegian Gem.  We did not explore in New York before or after the cruise, so the only pre/post cruise experiences we had were at LGA airport and in taxis to and from the cruise port in Manhattan.  Embarkation was easy, debarkation was a bit delayed.  I bought spa passes for the week, and these were the same price as two excursions.  It was the best purchase I made all week... having access to warm, quiet, padded loungers at the front of the ship was worth every penny on the four days that the ship is at sea.  The weather is cold and rainy until the ship gets to the Caribbean, so being outside is not pleasant.  I loved having a semi-private, heated pool and hot tub, and the tiled loungers are heavenly.  Many people fell asleep using them, myself included.  The best part?  No children allowed.  Everything is clean, towels and robes are plentiful, and the hot tea/citrus water was a delight. I am now considering only booking spa cabins from now on.  It was that good.  The service was inconsistent in regards to restaurants/staterooms.  Our cabin steward would knock on our door at odd times, and we often felt pressured to leave the room when he would do this.  I say that because if we didn't, we wouldn't receive any service that day.  This happened twice.  I never have had that happen before on a cruise.  In the restaurants, some nights we would receive great service.  At times, when there was a delay, we would be offered a glass of wine or champagne.  However, at one of the specialty restaurants our service was terrible.  And sometimes we would have to leave a restaurant because it was so loud.  I realize that I can't control other diners; but on more than two occasions we left before dessert, due to tables near us almost shouting at each other to be heard.  The star of this cruise?  The captain.  He was more personable at events than the cruise director.  Captain Lars would have us in stitches, and we looked forward to his afternoon "ramblings" over the loud speaker to see what he was going to say.  At the cruise officers Q&A, he was cracking jokes and telling stories for almost an hour.  We played some bingo, gambled a little, went to the shows, and watched a great comedian named Jeff.  I loved San Juan, St. Thomas, and Tortola.  Maho beach in St. Maarten wasn't worth the time and money... it really is overrated.  I wish I had gone to any other beach.  In comparison to our previous cruises, I missed the connection that we had with having the same waitstaff every night for dinner.  The specialty restaurants were not worth the money.  The food was much better overall than the food on Carnival, and the live music was fantastic.  Carnival really is missing the mark by not having live bands perform, and using karaoke as the filler.  Just terrible.  People on the Gem would arrive early and save seats for two bands, because they were that good.  When they would perform in the Atrium, you could have lunch/dinner in the O'Sheehan's pub and hear them from below.  The Gem also showed the Final Four games on the big screen, as well as new and old movies. (Gone With the Wind was very popular on the third sea day.)  While there were almost 500 kids on this cruise, due to spring break/Easter week, I rarely had to dodge them.  That says wonders about the programs for kids and teens.  When the teens don't like a program, then they will be everywhere on the ship:  running through hallways, playing on elevators, messing up buffets/ice cream machines, etc.  This only happened after 10:30 or 11 PM that we noticed.  The late night buffet was on the aft deck, and after seeing that it was the teen hangout (due to them not being able to go to any clubs or have anything organized for them) we avoided it every night.  Little kids?  Never saw them.  So the Splash program must be just outstanding.  And they are asleep after the program ends, so parental supervision isn't a problem.

I am from Louisiana, so I am going to put this in here for non-New York/New Jersey residents:  don't expect people to say "Excuse me, Thank you, Sir, or Ma'am."  Don't expect people to hold the door as you are passing through behind them.  It isn't anything that you can change... it just isn't how they were raised.  While I knew this ahead of time, it was a bit of a culture shock for me.  I just had to remember that it isn't expected where they are from, so I shouldn't hold that against them.  Everyone's ideas of manners are different.

We enjoyed getting away from daily life.  The Norwegian Gem is a well maintained ship.  The cruise was smooth.  The ship was crowded with children due to spring break.  The food in the main dining room was inconsistent.  Items on the menu were not explained well.  The wait staff in the main dining room needs more training and improvement.  I had to explain on more than one occasion that I would like hot water for my tea.  Something needs to be done to keep children and teenagers occupied so they are not nuisances on the stairs, elevators and hallways.  Our room attendant always took great care to please us.  Entertainment was good.

This was my first time with NCL and boy was I pleasantly surprised, from the cabin staff always cleaning and attentive to the wonderful and delicious food to the various activities in the ship everything was top notch. Loved it when we got to the ports and they where waiting for us with drinks, water and cleaning supplies when we returned to ship. I cant wait to go back again, I really enjoyed myself.

This was an amazing cruise vacation, and the price was unbeatable, with the Free Style Cuisines, throughout the ship.  Non stop activities, and the cleanness was great! Truly recommend it for any family.

Also, the medical staff was amazing for any problems that may occur....truly state of the art services!

Loved the eastern Caribbean, great staff (although apparently overloaded with a FULL ship), food was good but becoming lesser in portion, shows were excellent, customer service needs some added training, internet café was good, a better map of the passages by floor is needed (6th has poor inside flow, 12-14th floors are broken up with pools, dead ends are possible).  The continual bombardment with retail sales items is getting out of hand.  Cruise lines need to reduce the influence of their accountants and raise the voice of their customers.

I suppose I could start with our staterooms. I had booked a balcony room (9016) for my husband and I, and an interior room (9011) for my mother-in-law and our two children.  When I called and booked our rooms, I was told they were directly across from each other. When we boarded the ship we found out that the rooms were actually diagonal, and down the hall from each other.  Both rooms had a horrible stench, and our balcony room was in need of repairs, BIG TIME!  The weather stripping on the door was pulled off ¾ of the way, finally after complaining for about 6 days they sent a maintenance worker to repair it. Prior to it being fixed, it sounded like we were in a wind tunnel while inside the room and it also caused an issue with our balcony door not opening half of the time because of the air pressure in the room. Even worse, the floor boards (where the bed meets the corner of the couch) aren’t connected. So every single time we stood up out of bed, or the kids played on the floor-the floor board would slam down, and then slam down a second time once you stepped off of it. Not only was it highly annoying for us having to watch where we walked; but the people in the room downstairs were constantly yelling and banging on the ceiling every time the noise occurred for us to stop. The rooms are tiny enough, and not being able to walk in the largest “open space” in the room was a nuisance.

Seven out of the ten days we were all sick with the stomach bug. Word got around the ship that it wasn’t only us, numerous people had it. My family was perfectly healthy when we boarded, but missed a great amount of time doing activities because we were so sick.  Whether it was from a previous passenger(s) on the ship, dirty common areas, the rotten fruit that was served in the buffet or the water, we aren’t sure what caused it-but it was clearly an issue on the ship. Now that we are home, we are all healthy like we were before we boarded the Gem.

Our 1 year old was very sick with diarrhea for 9 days on the ship. One day she had an accident while taking a nap on our bed in room 9016. We tried cleaning it the best we could, obviously there was still a bit of a stain on a white comforter. Instead of our room steward washing and replacing the comforter, he flipped it upside down as if we wouldn’t notice. This dirty, feces covered comforter stayed on our bed for FOUR days! I’m completed disgusted!!! This makes me wonder if Norwegian actually changes the sheets/comforters if they “appear” clean between guests.

Our next issue was the lack of control of the children/teenagers on the ship. I understand it was spring break for some states, but I honestly feel that Norwegian overbooked this tiny ship.  Unless you were out at the pool area by 7am, there wasn’t a seat to be had on deck 12 or 13 surrounding the pool. The hot tubs and pools were jam packed with young children/teenagers, at one point we counted TWENTY-SEVEN kids in ONE hot tub! The only day we were able to enjoy the pool was while we were in Puerto Rico and the ship was docked. Relaxing in a chair by the pool wasn’t an option the entire trip. The kids ran free all over the ship the entire 10 days. Half of the time you couldn’t get into an elevator because they were sitting on the floor eating their ice cream as entertainment, and wouldn’t get out. They ran up and down the hallways and common areas all hours of the night disrupting everyone, and your “no child out after 11pm without an adult” policy was never implemented.

The entertainment on the ship was lacking BIG time. Most of it was geared towards either teenagers or the much older crowd. The activities were the same every single day… Bingo, Deal or No Deal, the out-dated shows-how much of the same activity can entertain you for 10 days?? Karaoke was taken over by the teenagers, the Bliss lounge was like a teeny-bopper club until 10/11pm every single night, and the kids took over all of the game shows in the Spinaker Lounge.

We were completely misinformed about Captain’s Night. We received the daily itinerary on the 28th(second day on the ship) stating it was Captain’s Night, but were all so sick from getting the stomach bug that afternoon and we weren’t feeling that great(if we knew it would be the only one, we would have sucked it up just to experience it). I called down to guest services before making our decision and was informed that there would be a second Captain’s Night, which NEVER took place! Had we known it would have just been that one night, we would have got ready and made the best of the situation.

The food on the ship was God forsaken AWFUL! When a one year old and five year old refuse to eat the pizza and pasta served, you know it was horrible! We were served the same exact meal for breakfast for 10 straight days. And our lunch and dinner was left overs from the previous day with a piece of cheap cheese slapped on the top. Dinner in the Magenta dining room was disgusting, and was spit out after a bite was taken. The fruit was rotten almost every single day on the ship, the food served was ALWAYS cold and there wasn’t a variety at all.

The only good places we ate were at Teppanyaki and Moderno(which is another problem itself). While making our reservations for Moderno, I specifically asked if flip-flops were allowed-otherwise I wouldn’t have made the reservations and wasted the $50, in which I was told “yes, just no baseball hats or short shorts”.  Upon arriving to our reservation, the rude hostess came out from behind the desk to look at our shoes and told us we were not allowed to eat at the restaurant with flip-flops on. I explained to her that was the only thing that I had with me and the reservation desk told us it was ok. She then replied with, “Well, I suppose I can just tuck you two in the corner”. I was appalled!!!! Last I knew I was on vacation, not in elementary school. She then seated us, literally in the corner of the restaurant. About two minutes later she came back over to tell us that she informed her manager that we had flip-flops on, in which he came to the table to check. Never in my life was I as humiliated as I was over a pair of flip flops. You should be ashamed of your employees treating guests like that.

Your beverage “attendant” Vilbert(I think that’s his name) located in the Garden Cafe at the corner of the salads/dessert area is incredibly rude. Every single time we stopped there to get a soda we presented our room key showing our soda package sticker, he either ignored us completely or snapped at us telling us he “just needs to see, put it away”. Maybe if he had acknowledged that he looked at it, we wouldn’t continue to hold it up for him to see.

The last issue (that I can think of at the moment) was that we were misinformed about the soda package. When purchasing it we were told it included bottled water, only to get on the ship and be charged $4.50 for each bottle of water we purchased.

I would NEVER recommend cruising on this old ship that is falling apart!!

Well this is my third cruise. the first being on the gem, the second being on the Breakaway.  We loved the gem on our first ever cruise and were very disappointed with Breakaway on the second, so we went back to the Gem to see if it was just the new experience of cruising that was so attractive or was it the ship.  It was the ship that was all the difference. 

The level of luxury on the Gem far exceeds that of the Breakaway in just about every character that is not listed on any of the brochures or media.  I'm talking about the little attention to details that make the Gem a grand experience and spectacle in itself, a destination a grandeur and sophistication rather than just an ordinary run of the mill experience.   The first thing that grabs your attention is the theater with looks and feels like a grand opera house and not a movie theater.  Complete with balconies, not just one, but FOUR (yes 4!) grand entrances complete with murals and statues.  I bring attention to this no so much as a must see but as an example of the attention to detail that exists in the ship throughout that I sorely missed in the breakaway.  

The main dining room was of similar grandness, complete with curved staircases and statues on its entranceway, Fine mahagony chairs overlooking the seas and even booths with full luxury sofa seating vs benches for tables of 8 or more. The bars had quiet nooks with huge sofas and laydown areas for private informal groups, just the thing for friends to get together.  

The other thing that I noticed as an engineer is how much better the Gem was able to distribute the 2000+ guests throughout the ship without ever feeling crowded.   I was pleasantly surprised about this on my first experience on the Gem with some 2200 guests, Was VERY aware of the crowds on the Breakaway (reservations for everything are required) and on this cruise I was again treated to open spaces wonderful ocean views, pocket sitting areas for ocean views all over the ship and never a need for a reservation and always open seating in the grand theater.   Imagine my surprise when I found out that this cruise didn't have 2200 passengers but 2800!!!!   This ship is just laid out so well it naturally sends different groups of people to different areas of the ship so they are not tripping all over each other.   With 3 banks of elevators servicing some 10 levels, there was never a crowded elevator or a wait for one. On the Breakaway they had 2 banks of elevators to service 14 levels with twice as many people. the result of the 4 extra decks and 1/3 less boarding areas of  elevators was horrible on the Breakaway.  

In conclusion on returning on our 3rd cruise back to the Gem after a disappointing cruise on the Breakaway, I am happy to report that the Gem is everything a luxury cruise should be.    

Our experiences on the Norwegian Gem were excellent.   The crew was great and the food was awesome.   Cabin crew did a great job caring for us.   Everyone on board was friendly, caring and helpful.   

Would recommend this cruise as it's quite nice and a good value......thanks Norwegian Gem!   was also good to deal with...helpful and accurate...

This was a trip to celebrate my lady friends birthday. She said it was the best birthday she ever had. I need to thank Linda for her  help in arranging the trip.

The Norwegian Gem is a smaller ship, but seemed more difficult to find my way around. The biggest thing that I would ask is that they make available a small map of the ship to carry around. The signs by the elevators are helpful with which deck things are on, but it doesn't say whether it's fore or aft or midships so I still felt confused most of the time. The buffet was great, roomy, with lots of good selections with good food. I have to say that I am not a fan of "Freestyle Cruising"---I would rather have a set time for dinner in the dining room with the same table-mates and the same wait staff. I so enjoy getting to know everybody and the wait staff getting to know us and what we'd like (e.g. my husband always gets 2 escargots if it's on the menu, and I always have coffee with dessert and our wait staff would know that and bring it automatically.) It just feels more special. The dining rooms on the Gem felt like very high end restaurants, with that kind of good service, but not the intimacy of other ships' scheduled dining. Just my opinion. Our steward was exceptional, the bar tender that we got to know was excellent. All in all, a very good cruise.

The food was great (once we got it) service on board was great, shows were great, overall experience great BUT rooms too small as 3rd and 4th bed overhung making the room smaller and the king size bed was superb but no room to get off or on. The other complaint was that the service for dinner service was horrible and very slow (even though I would try to go after show when there were less people and servers were in slow motion

cruise pleasant, however, staterooms too small and difficult  to move about.  Shower the size of a phonebooth.   Departure long wait.  Food was wonderful   Dining was great.   The steward assigned to our room was so professional and nice.  When leaving i had difficulty walking one of the crew supplied a wheelchair and escorted me to  my car.thank you very much.   Grace Peterson

the dining in the main dining room was top rated from service to quality of food. best of all our cruises  including a few trips on the GEM great menue diversity.the LE'BISTRO was disappointing  the BRAZILIAN experience was worth going back . perfect both times. our cabin was dirty apone  arrival, never was dusted in 9 days. empty can under bed was still there when we left. also cut back on breakfast room service.  little luxuries we where use too no longer applied. we just cruised 3 months ago on the BREAKAWAY we cruise 3-4 times a year all in all we would go back but we will be more selective in the ship  still love NCL

A little chilly the first days out of NY but better then being at home. Stops in San Juan and Tortola are too short to really do any thing on the islands. Food and entertainment were good. The crew was very good and the captain's announcements were informative and funny. Been on the Gem 3 different times. Much better ship then the Breakaway.