wilamina

 Were very disapointed with our last cruise. We sailed once with the Princess and 3 times with NCL, once with the Jewel, everything was awsome! The princess was fantastic! the service and food were out of this world, but the Gem is another story!!! The second sail was with the Gem, the room service was so so, the food was not that good and the choices at the buffet were quite skimpy compare to the Jewel. On our THIRD and last sail with the Gem, the room service was so pettyful, found an old coffee bag in the coffee machine from the previous sail in our room, had 1 creamer, 1 sugar and no sticks to stirr the coffee. we asked for more creamers, sugar and sticks, it was a battle to get creamers everyday day and we never got the sticks, we asked for an ashtray for the balcony, we got it on the first day, we had to ask again on the 2nd day then it was never brought back on the balcony for the rest of the cruise. The dining room experience was just awful, we waited 45 minutes to get our soup and it was cold when we got it, waited 1/2 hour to have our bottle of olive oil filled up and brought back, most of our meals were served less then warm, it took for ever to clean the table for dessert, the waitrice did not even know how to open the botlle of wine, WE had to show her, every waiters looked so confused and lost, the food was also way too salty... For the buffet, again the choices was so pettyful, lack of taste and also very salty this time, the different Italien dish were tasting all the same, much lack of variety in all the stations and I could go on and on...Most of the people ( I would say 90%) we met on the cruise were very much disappointed, talking about how bad and tasteless the food was, the very poor choice at the buffet and how bad their room service was, same for the dining room service, compare to other ships on NCL, we all agreed that the Gem takes a 2 out of 10, So I am glad we were not alone. We found out later that most were new crew without experience, the experience crew were transfered to the Breakaway to help out. It is too bad because lots of the people said they will never sail on the Gem again, they rather pay more and satisfied on other cruise ships. We all wished they would bring another ship in New York, the Gem is too pettyful and getting worst. Not at all very pleasant for NCL lovers to return to the Gem since it is the only ship leaving from New York !