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Norwegian Gem Extended Hurricane Sandy Cruise Review with Photos!


YankeeFan4Ever
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Better late than never right? I wasn't planning on writing up a review but since I've read so many helpful reviews here in the past, I decided I would attempt it. I will try to have everything wrapped up within the next 2 days, but no promises!!!

 

Brief introduction

 

My wife and I sailed the October 20th Norwegian Gem cruise out of NYC. It was our 8th cruise overall, second on the Gem. We are 31 and 35, married with no kids, from Canada.

 

Here we are all tanned from our last cruise aboard the Carnival Miracle!

 

Me

 

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My beautiful wife

 

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We made the 8.5 hour drive from Canada a few nights before and stayed at my dad’s, who lives in Edgewater NJ, right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. We always love to cruise from New York since I don’t like to fly and we can park at my dad’s place for free. Plus I get to spend some time with pops!

 

We spent a bit of time in the city before the cruise.

 

The High Line Park

 

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Times Square

 

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More to come!

Edited by YankeeFan4Ever
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Day 1

 

Embarkation

 

We arrived around noon and proceeded through security without incident. After a brief lineup to check-in, we were on board by 12:45. We proceeded directly to the Grand Pacific dining room for lunch. Overall, embarkation was very smooth and efficient.

Grand Pacific dining room

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Norwegian Gem docked in NYC

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At 1:30, the announcement was made that our rooms were ready. We had a regular, midship inside cabin on deck 9. It definitely wasn’t huge, but it was clean and comfortable. We don’t spend too much time in our cabin anyway!!!

 

Cabin 9079

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More to come!

Edited by YankeeFan4Ever
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Sailaway

 

Since this was our 8th sailaway from NYC, we decided to avoid the loud party on the lido deck and spend some quiet time on the promenade deck instead.

 

Sailing away from NYC.

 

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Statue of Liberty

 

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Sailing alongside the Celebrity Summit

 

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More to come!

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Day 2

 

Sea Day

 

A pretty uneventful day. Lounged around in the sun on deck 10 for most of the day and went to dinner at Grand Pacific, followed by a trip to the casino for a donation and some jazz music in the atrium.

 

Ready for dinner

 

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Towel Mouse

 

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Day 3

 

Sea Day

 

Basically an exact re-peat of day 2!!! Very relaxing! :)

Edited by YankeeFan4Ever
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Day 4

 

Puerto Rico

 

We docked at 3:00 PM and just walked off the ship to explore on our own. We made our way to Barrachina’s and ordered a few drinks including a cucumber mint blended mojito and the original Pina Colada. It was awesome!

Arriving in Puerto Rico

 

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Norwegian Gem docked in San Juan

 

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Fort

 

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DH and I were on the Dawn in Boston when the Gem arrived in port. We had started out in Quebec City and were enroute to Tampa when we had an unscheduled stop in Halifax to avoid the storm. We then proceeded to Boston and by that time had missed most of the hurricane .

 

As we got off the boat the Gem arrived along side us and you never heard such cheering and hollering. I wondered what was going on and it wasn't until a few hours later that I learned about their delays, trials and tribulations with the storm. We continued on later in the day but unfortunately our New York City stop was cancelled so a visit to the Big Apple remains on my bucket list.

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DH and I were on the Dawn in Boston when the Gem arrived in port. We had started out in Quebec City and were enroute to Tampa when we had an unscheduled stop in Halifax to avoid the storm. We then proceeded to Boston and by that time had missed most of the hurricane .

 

As we got off the boat the Gem arrived along side us and you never heard such cheering and hollering. I wondered what was going on and it wasn't until a few hours later that I learned about their delays, trials and tribulations with the storm. We continued on later in the day but unfortunately our New York City stop was cancelled so a visit to the Big Apple remains on my bucket list.

 

I'm guessing people were cheering because we had been out at sea for 5 straight days. Passengers were given the option to disembark in Boston and try to make their way back to NYC but we chose to stay on board until we could sail back to New York. Apparently nearly half the passengers chose to disembark in Boston.

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Sailaway

 

Since this was our 8th sailaway from NYC, we decided to avoid the loud party on the lido deck and spend some quiet time on the promenade deck instead.

 

Sailing away from NYC.

 

21o1pnr.jpg

 

vfgzz9.jpg

 

Statue of Liberty

 

ok50fq.jpg

 

Sailing alongside the Celebrity Summit

 

17wwa8.jpg

 

More to come!

I was on the back of the Celebrity Summit taking pictures of you guys chasing us that day. We were also in St. Marteen together and I did a lovely day sail with a bunch of passengers from your ship who were having a great time..... (love the GEM!!!!)

 

My ship docked in San Juan on October 27, 2013. I was scheduled to fly back to Kennedy Airport on 10/29....Needless to say THAT didn't happen.......

 

 

We were all very worried about our friends on the Gem when we heard you were left out to sea and delayed........because of our friend SANDY.

 

We felt connected to you because we all left at the same time and were being chased by you.....then you guys blew passed us.....in a BIG RUSH:)

 

Looks so far like you had a great time........I would have preferred to be caught out at sea on the Gem rather than be in the San Juan airport in the middle of a near riot trying to get home.

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I was on the back of the Celebrity Summit taking pictures of you guys chasing us that day. We were also in St. Marteen together and I did a lovely day sail with a bunch of passengers from your ship who were having a great time..... (love the GEM!!!!)

 

My ship docked in San Juan on October 27, 2013. I was scheduled to fly back to Kennedy Airport on 10/29....Needless to say THAT didn't happen.......

 

 

We were all very worried about our friends on the Gem when we heard you were left out to sea and delayed........because of our friend SANDY.

 

We felt connected to you because we all left at the same time and were being chased by you.....then you guys blew passed us.....in a BIG RUSH:)

 

Looks so far like you had a great time........I would have preferred to be caught out at sea on the Gem rather than be in the San Juan airport in the middle of a near riot trying to get home.

 

 

What a cool coincidence! Do you have any pictures of us as we're sailing past you? ;)

 

My wife and I would love to sail on a Celebrity cruise one day. We're big-time foodies and from everything I've heard, the food on Celebrity is to amazing!

Edited by YankeeFan4Ever
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Day 5

 

St-Maarten

 

My wife and I both really love St-Maarten and this was our first time back to this beautiful island in nearly 5 years.

 

We docked in St-Maarten just after 9:00 AM. The weather was absolutely perfect and we proceeded off the ship and towards the water taxi stand. We paid the $7 fare and were at the shopping area on Front Street in no time.

 

Water taxi

 

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Front Street

 

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We checked out the boardwalk explored a few shops before finding a cab to bring us to Mullet Bay beach. I believe the fare was $18 for both of us. Our driver was a character! He drove us to the beach while giving us a funny yet informative mini-tour of his island.

 

Once on the beach, my wife and I relaxed and enjoyed the surf and sand. Mullet Bay is close to Maho bay so we could see a few planes landing at the nearby airport.

 

Mullet Bay beach

 

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Air France A-340 coming in for a landing at Princess Juliana International Airport

 

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After a relaxing day on the beach, we grabbed another taxi and proceeded back to the ship. Once onboard, we showered and got ready for dinner in the Grand Pacific dining room followed by the comedian in the main showroom and some great live jazz in the Spinnaker lounge.

Ready for dinner

 

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Day 6

 

St-Thomas

 

We woke up early to watch us sail into port. It was a little overcast and very warm and humid…more perfect beach weather! We had a quick breakfast, disembarked the ship and went looking for a cab. We eventually found an open air taxi and asked the driver to bring us to Emerald Bay beach.

 

My wife and I are beach bums...we like to check out as many as we can when we're on vacation. We had already been to Sapphire beach and Magen’s Bay on previous cruises so we decided to try a different beach this time.

 

Overall, Emerald beach was decent but next time we’ll stick with Sapphire or check out Coki beach. Themain advantage of Emerald bay was that it was quiet. It's usually much less crowded than Magen's bay although the sand and the water isn't as beautiful.

Emerald beach

 

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Trying to get my wife a coconut!

 

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After our dayof relaxation on the beach, we made our way back to the ship. While relaxing and enjoying some drinks at the Great Outdoors at the back of the ship, we heard the Captain announce that due to Tropical Storm Sandy (she was just a TS at the time) we would be skipping tomorrow's port of Samana and heading straight back to New York at full speed in order to get back to NYC ahead of the storm.

 

Captain Roger Gustavsen also informed us that he would keep us updated regarding the storm's path and status and that although we would definitely feel the boat rocking, he would keep us at a safe distance of the storm.

 

Obviously the mood on board quickly changed once people learned that we would be skipping Samana. Personally I was a little bummed out as well since we had booked an excursion to Cayo Levantado beach, but I agreed with the Captain that the best and safest course of action was to get ahead of Sandy.

 

Norwegian Star Departing St-Thomas ahead of us

 

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Next stop, New York! (or so we thought...)

 

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Edited by YankeeFan4Ever
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