Norwegian Gem Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Embarkation was a breeze. Disembarkation is wonderful! The best. You can stay for b'fast & lunch. The ship is small so you feel more movement. It's clean and well maintained. The maps are well positioned. The jr suite is incredibly small. The cruise director does not have a lot of free family things listed to do. Free shuffleboard w you are fellow passnegres. Bingo at $30 & $50 per game. Bowling w your fellow passengers at $10 per game per person. No belly flop contest, no line dancing, no clalipso, reggae band poolside. $12 to see a movie in your room. Satellite Tv w channels TCM, TNT, cartoon network, FOX, CNN do not always work. Funny they always work at the bar.

CONTINUOUS SELLING OF RAFFLES TICKETS EVERYWHERE ON SHIP.

Very large. Staterooms had plenty of storage space. Very nicely decorated. The entertainment, for the most part, was very good.

Nice ship, interesting design!

Very good on board staff and service... but the bahamas outings were limited and not that out of the ordinary... was hoping for more.

Good overall organisation. Corteous and professional staff. Good quality of restaurants. Excellent shows. Unecessary and counter productive decision to have guests paying soft-drinks and water. Too high charges on excursion packages

Overall the cruise was ok. Out of the 4 ports we stopped at (Cape Canaveral, Great Stirup Cay, Nassau and Freeport) only the Great Stirrup Cay was right on the beach. The other locations required taking a cab to the beach. Other then that the food was alright but pretty much the same at all restaurants and buffet, we got sick of it by the 4th day. The drinks were weak and expensive. Also they charge a $10 per person perday service charge. No one ever mentions this untill the last day when you see it on your bill. You cant even dispute it without having to speak to atleast 2 managers. I feel that if you like the room service you should be able to tip the house keeping staff yourself. Dont just charge me a fee for it.

While we generally liked the ship and the cabin, the service level was less than average, lines everywhere. It was a challenge to find a seat in the cafe. Buffet hours were inconvinient. The freestyl cryising did not really work. Entertainment was average. We had to pay for almost everything. It seems that it is getting worse with every year.

The ship decor was nice, the strange bends in the hallways were a bit confusing. They had a skeleton crew, it took more than an hour to find and order a drink on deck! We waited 45 minutes in the Blue Lagoon and never even got a menu! Ordered a coffee at Java bar was ignored and never got served until I complained. Bowling cost 10$ per person a game...2.50 at home. So many specialty restaurants taking up all room, pool table out of order, nothing to do except listen to people give speeches or play bingo, the comedy, cabarette shows were the same old thing! All the fun things to do, planned by personel were absent. No movies in the theatre, instead 11.99 to rent one in your tiny cabin. TV kept locking up and poor reception all the time. Room service menu was cut back to nothing. They sucked your money like a vaccuum at every turn except when you wanted a cocktail, then you had to hunt for a waiter or bar tender yourself. I have never been treated worse on a ship and many other passengers felt the same including first time cruisers who usually never dislike their first cruise, but they said they were bored to tears!

the only problem was the food, the majority of the staff do not know the ingradient of the food? eg does it has nut, wine meat etc. The excursion staff are not friendly at all with exception of the tall genteman YIN. Otherwise everyjting was perfect

The ship's check in was smooth and we were on within 30 minutes. Our room (mini suite) was nice and the ship was laid out well with nice public areas. The casino was fun, pool was great. Only a few things could make it better for our experience. Live music by the pool was so loud - no one could hear eachother speak. Some of the speciality restaurants weren't worth it. Le Bistro and Teppenyaki were the exceptions - very good. Disembarkation was a nightmare - reception had no idea on how to explain it to you. We had no checked luggage, so they were struggling with how to catch the bus to the airport. That was a free for all - no bus reservations, busses leaving an hour late. Its too bad that's the way it ended but it did. Not sure why you can't reserve a bus seat. Would make it so much easier.

It is a brand new great comfortable ship. The service quality, the staff, the food are all excellent. The Garden villa we stayed in, is better than any 5 stars hotel in Europe or the Middle East, The Garde villa came with a private very experienced and pleasent concierge and buttler. This made a huge difference. We felt that we were cruising in a private Yacht. If you can afford this luxury dont settle for anything else. The major disadvantage was the crowd on the ship they were many kids that were very loud and messy. The ship had a great gym but unfortunatly they allowed kids below 14 to ply around and there wasnt much supervision, they made the gym visit not comfortable and very noisy.

A very disappointing first NCL cruise. I will be writing a personal letter to your CEO to report details.

Terrific ship and crew provided and outstanding vacation experience.

I would recommend this ship to anyone looking for a cruise. We plan on cruising again and I will never use anyone other than Norwegian again!!

Fabulous new ship with plenty for everyone to do.My 12year old son had the time of his life in the kids club.He has talked about it every day since we have returned.The staff were so friendly and helpful in all aspects.The gem is like a floating city in size. I would highly recomend it for couples and families alike.

The ship is very confusing and the directions are even worse. The directions tell you the floor the restaurants are located but not the part of the ship (AFT, Foward, Midship). The concept of freestyle cruising is good but NCL has missed the mark. Restaurants are always filled and close very early so when you get back from an excursion there is no real place to eat.

The ship is just beautiful, everything is new of course. Service overall on the ship is not that great, other than at Garden Cafe. Much of the staff was not too knowledgable about locations of things on the ship. Shows were great, not too many things to do during the day if you didn't leave ship on ports of call. TV had nothing to watch for the children, (when you're in the room). Everything has an upcharge. Freestyle cruising is just another way to get more money out of you, I'll take the structured cruises.

We don't cruise for the food. So we were surprised that we did not even like the food. We never met our room steward and the crew was busy talking among themselves so there were few smiles or hellos for passengers. The buffet area was like a zoo and grill out by the pools never had fresh food. They would get down to 1 burger no buns and would have nothing going to replenish the grill. This was at lunchtime. Just was not organized. Sometimes the breakfast buffet would be open at 6:00am sometimes 6:30 didn't matter what day but you could not figure out their schedules. We has reservations at Cagney's Steakhouse at 5:30 and they weren't ready until close to 6:00 . Ship was new and seemed clean.

The ship is beautiful but lacks a lot of luster. Our first 36 hours was appalling. We have cruised on Royal Caribbean several times before and should have stayed with them! The staff aboard the Gem is rude and unattentive. They will not so a thing for you unless there is a major problem and then they start to kiss your feet. There is a limit to the term 'freestyle cruising' . There are little to no planned activities during sailing times and you have to pay for every little item aboard ship other than one or two restaurants. And speaking of restaurants...the food is great in Magentas and the buffet but go outside of that and it is lackluster cafeteria food. If it's between the two stick with another cruiseline and let the Gem work out all of its 'kinks'