Back from the Gem and left questioning NCL

I returned on Saturday from the Gem and left questioning whether we will sail NCL again. My family sailed the Gem in August and had such a great trip we rebooked. This trip had such a different feel to it. The August sailing was filled with happy employees, nice stateroom attendants, helpful staff, and had a really fun vibe. This sailing was the complete opposite.

Before I get into the details, I will say, the food was excellent, the other passengers on this sailing were very, very nice(a calmer crowd, polite, no chair hogs, etc), and I was happy to see NCL supervision at the pool.

So I am left questioning NCL because the vibe on this ship was so "bah-humbug" to say it nicely. The staff basically did their job to get it done and not get noticed. 5-10 years ago, what would have been viewed as expected service felt exceptional because everyone else barely did their job. The standards have really come down. Our stateroom attendant wouldn't help us get the safe fixed in our room (he told us to call and take care of it ourselves) and was very bothered he had to make up the couch at night for my kids. He said he wanted to leave it open the whole time. He never once said welcome aboard, good morning, etc. throughout the week. We found dirty dishes under the bed from past cruisers and old socks and toys from previous cruisers in our cabinets. YUCK! In general, when we would try to speak to an employee on the ship, everyone was very matter of fact, nobody cracked a smile (except for the washy washy girl :) ) and everyone seemed bothered. Staff didn't know times of shows or restaurants, etc. the band didn't play by the pool until 4 p.m. (except on the last day when it was too cold to sit out anyway!) and I can go on and on. We had chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our room that were moldy and my daughter almost ate a molded roll (i mean the roll was already green) at the Garden Cafe. At night, my husband and i would have a coffee at the Garden Cafe watching tons of people walking through looking for food- most nights there was nothing out there. The Gem definitely scaled back on food and beverages (drinks by the pool are served in tiny plastic cups now) and it was felt throughout the whole week. Also, a little pet peeve of mine is that if the cruise line has policies they should stick to it. There were tons of babies in the pool with swim diapers and lots of people in the dining rooms with shorts. The diapers in the pool is just gross.

I don't mean to be so negative but I am curious to know if this was specific to my sailing or if this basic "go through the motions to get the job done" attitude is fleet wide. I love cruising and have been sailing for 20+ years (both RCCL and NCL). I always have fun sailing with my family but this cruise didn't have that fun feeling. Just came home very confused and trying to find reasons to stick with NCL.

Thanks.

Wow, that is not a good experience! It's been a couple years since I was on the Gem but it was not like that!

I was on Breakaway in February and that was not our experience. The crew was its usual pleasant bunch looking for ways to make things better for us. We did find objects left in the fridge from the last cruise -- but I think Breakaway is trying to get the ship turned around before noon and you can tell that they're hurrying. Our steward was eager to set things up just the way we wanted, and even suggested making up my bed with a bolster when I mentioned that it was harder to sleep on a flat bed when I have a slanted one at home.

I really hope yours was an isolated incident, though I can understand why you'd be reluctant to try NCL again after a cruise like that.

Wow, that does not make me happy at all! I am taking my family of 8 in August. I am getting very worried that this will not be a pleasant experience.

Can anyone else comment about their recent experiences?

Thanks.

Suprised to read, I believe Jenny is still HD on the Gem and she usually runs a great crew.

For this attitude to be so wide spread I would say that perhaps there is a new hotel director and they are not happy, or just trying to get used to him.

Sorry to hear of your perceived bad / negative experience on the GEM as we are planning to sail her again later in the year. Were you part of the sailing's CC's Roll Call and get to meet the senior officers & got their calling card/extension, and make an effort to contact & speak to those in the supervisory chain at all?

We had an issue with the in-room safe & I know that our stateroom attendant is NOT qualified nor expected to fix the issues, so calling the front desk & reporting it is the solution - and they dispatched maintenance & security to come over. We are all humans and mistakes happened and things overlooked, but if they aren't aware of it - they cannot fix it or address it. Some of the issues you mentioned like molded food are unacceptable, and that's a food safety issue that I would rather NOT wait till getting off the ship to complain about it here on CC - the forum is right there & then while sailing on the GEM.

We had a minor issue with service in O'Sheehan's on the Breakaway and we flagged down the manager/host on duty and resolved it, apology accepted and it never made it into our positive cruise review. I'm not defending NCL as we're not there, but we are all human beings and perhaps there are things happening behind the scene among the crew that we aren't aware of & it's affecting the overall guest experience - what's important is, SPEAK up and get the management's attention.

I really hate to hear this. I have found that every cruise the staff has been exceptional. I sometimes wonder how they can work so many hours and do so much and always seem so happy. I would be burned out.

I really hope yours was an isolated incidence as well. :(

I think I know what the problem is. They have just had two major new builds delivered to the line. Experienced crew members for the new ships had to come from somewhere. All the ships have lost crew to the new ships so they had to backfill. When they do, they get new crew that are not up to the task. These will get weeded out eventually. In a year she should be up and running at full 'happy happy.'

Meanwhile I will be on this ship in October and now I am a little worried.

This is not the Gem we were on a couple of weeks ago. I would have been discussing much of this with the managers onboard, especially the HD. The officers made it clear at our meet and greet that they'd rather hear about problems when you are onboard so they can fix them rather than hear about them on CC after the fact when there's nothing they can do.

Thanks for the report!

You were obviously unhappy about the service you received or more to the point, lack of service. Your heading is "Left questionning NCL". What questions did you leave with them and what answers did you receive? How many times did you report the problems to guest services?

Sorry the cruise did not work out for you.

Keith

Thanks for sharing and welcome home.

I am not making light of your post. But sometimes when you have such a fantastic cruise that you sail the same ship a several months can set up extremely high expectations. You find yourself saying "this was not like this on our last cruise, etc." My second Epic cruise had me comparing staff and standards and they indeed were different and not as excellent as before. Its hard to get out of your head but you must. Also crew not saying hello should not really impact the quality of the cruise. I know it was a different experience and it was surprising but those things are just minor details compared to the entire nature of the cruise.

I have been in this situation before so I can relate. When you have a fantastic cruise, the next one is not going to be the same. When you sail the same ship I found myself comparing things back and forth all the time. I am not saying the different or poor service was justified but sometimes you get stuck with poor service while others on the ship are experiencing what you experienced the first time on Gem.

OP: I'm very sorry that you had this bad experience. Stuff like babies wearing "swim diapers" in the pool is gross, disgusting, and a health threat to anyone using the pool, and should be reported up the management chain on board immediately.

We have two cruises booked on the Gem next year; I hope whatever the OP experienced is sorted out by then.

As far as the shorts in the dining rooms - they are allowed in all except the aft MDR and LeBistro so no reason to police anyone except at those two restaurants. Maybe you are not aware of the current policy?

As far as the swim diapers - that is just gross and should have been reported every time you saw it on the ship. No excuse for moldy bread or strawberries - they should also been reported immediately. I hope your next experience is much better!

The officers made it clear at our meet and greet that they'd rather hear about problems when you are onboard so they can fix them rather than hear about them on CC after the fact when there's nothing they can do.

This ^^^

This happened to us one time on the Epic - everyone was really friendly and 3 months later not so much - even asking around, I could not get a straight answer on what was going on. Some of your experience could be the bad vibe you got from your room steward - a bad room steward can cloud everything onboard. Most likely this one will be gone soon (I hope).

Sometimes it may be the weather: one time on the Pearl everyone in the Caribbean was really happy, etc. We got to Alaska and they same ship of crew were in jackets and not as peppy and happy as in the Caribbean.

Or as someone suggested it could be a change in management.

Don't give up on the ship, if you decide to cruise with them again it could be a totally different vibe once more.

I agree with those who asked if all or any of this was reported to senior officers. They correct problems very quickly when brought to their attention.

Perhaps OP had preconceived ideas about this cruise that were not positive. Royal may be a better fit for OP as stated in a previous post.

I was on the same Gem sailing which returned on Saturday and this was not my experience at all! We had about 24 people - all in different stateroom categories scattered around the ship (insides, oceanviews, balconies & 2 in suites) and not booked as a group - and no one had any complaints (which I was really surprised at as there were some serious complainers with us).

My wife I were on this sailing and had the one of the best room stewards (Magdid) we've ever had, the best butler we've ever had (Zahid) and the best concierge (Carlos, which we also had on the Pearl). The room steward was on his last cruise before his two month vacation and couldn't have done more for us, greeted us by name and was friendly all the time. All in all we were totally satisfied with our cruise on the Gem. Sorry you felt differently and I do feel that the room steward sets the tone for your cruise experience. From another post, yes Jenny is still the Hotel Director on the Gem and greeted us every time we passed.

With all that said, there's no excuse for all the mess you experienced when you arrived at your room. Our room steward told us that he had 14 rooms to take care by himself. In the past, when he had an assistant, they were responsible for 35 rooms which is hard for me to comprehend how he could tend to everyone's needs. No wonder things are overlooked on turnaround day.

We also filled out 8 cards for employees who went above and beyond on this cruise.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. It sounds like your room steward was not happy with his job, and set a bad tone for you for the week (and I totally understand that). We have found the Gem staff to be wonderful, and it's a shame that they had a bad week (let's hope that's all it was). I felt that way after my first sailing on the Breakaway - staff just wasn't happy. Don't let it sour you for sailing NCL again, on our second BA sailing, the staff was wonderful!

Robin

We were on the Gem two weeks ago. Fabulous. Time. Great food.

We also had a problem with the safe. All problems have to go thru the front desk so they have a written report. The steward should have explained that.

The locations of food are always listed in the Dailies. Some people do not read to know where to go.

The issues about the food should have been reported when they occurred. They should not have happened and should have been addressed on board.

We were also on the Gem last week, and couldn't have been happier with the service. Our room steward couldn't have been any nicer. Always gave us whatever we needed with a smile, and was always asking if we needed anything, and how our day was going. He was our go to guy for any info about the days activities.

The bartenders and wait staff were always very friendly also. We even had several conversations with some of them about life on board and what it was like for them. They always had a smile and seemed to be having a good time.

We found out that the Magenta allowed shorts, but the Grand Pacific did not, except for on day 1. We ate at the Grand pacific twice after day 1 and didn't notice anyone wearing shorts. Didn't notice the diapers in the pool, but we were at the adult pool the whole time.

We really did have a wonderful time, and were very impressed by the staff.

I'm sorry your experience wasn't as good.

I am glad this seems to be an isolated incident cruise in terms of my experiences compared to everyone's else's recent sailings. I agree that when you had a fantastic cruise, it is easy to compare, but I do hope that my vacations are nothing short of fun and relaxing. My family definitely spoke to management…multiple times. Thats why we got the (moldy) chocolate covered strawberries. And of course we delivered them right back to the front desk. :)

Honestly, there was not much management could do during our trip because it seemed to be the culture of the ship. It would take more than someone talking to one or two people. I don't think the stateroom attendant affected anything - was it rude of him to not even say hello in the hall, but I'm not one to let that ruin my trip. It was everything compounded. I thought the cruise director was terrible. He always seemed awkward. He spent a half hour narrating how the chefs were preparing the paella at the outdoor BBQ. It was strange to me. Another example is one night my family dressed up to take photos. The photographer took two pictures and i asked to see them to make sure we didn't need to take more. He said no that I would see them the next day and they were fine. Needless to say my dad's eyes were closed in one photo and my son was making a horrible face in the other. Things like that urk me because it is wasting our time and their ink.

Anyway, for those who were on that sailing and had a great time, I am glad you did! Sometimes on these cruises I think you roll the dice on who you will encounter and who makes up your experience. Glad to know this isn't the culture fleet wide! Happy sailing :)

Does anyone have the calling cards of the officers that they received at a recent meet and greet? I would appreciate it if you could post the phone numbers and names. We don't have enough people for a meet and greet so I won't be able to get the card. Thank you. Glad to hear that you can still wear shorts in all the MDRs on the first night.