beachys

I called NCL and got ours changed to add dining plan to UBP. Increase of only $26!

Whenever I linked reservations together I've seen no benefit. I was able to make reservations for dinner for more people than were in my cabin though, so there was that benefit.

So I'm looking at parking prices at the terminal and was almost blown away as we would probably have 2-3 cars so we were looking at taking a train to Grand Central and taking a cab. My only concern is how hard is it to get a Cab once the cruise gets back, will we be standing outside waiting hours to get a cab or is it relatively easy. Has anyone had any difficulty??

I found a website that had a coupon for a significant parking discount to park at the pier and although its expensive I would never do it any other way. You literally walk off the boat and are heading out of NYC in a very short time frame! We do it this way every time.

I will hunt for the coupon site...

Something similar happened to us. Changed person number one on the reservation two weeks before cruise.

This happened to me back in June! It was a obc gift for my mother. I had the confirmation and everything. Saw the hold on the cc and then no charge. I'm glad I was there also because I just gave my mother the cash.

We sailed on the Gem this year. There were several of us. Our balcony stateroom had plenty of room to sleep 3 adults and it frequently hosted multiple others as we were the only ones on the cruise with the benefit of a balcony. We had others in ocean view staterooms that had 3 in it.

I would say this. If you are three tight knit people and one is smaller stature and less maintenance (unlike me!) it would be fine. The one bathroom thing and less storage per person would be the challenge for me. What ended up being a challenge for others in our group is that one person was an extreme early bird and the other two were late nighters.

We cruised twice recently and had a combination of both passports and birth certificates.

We got off the boat at all ports, even Nassau, had no problems getting back on.

Last cruise there were 12 of us and only 4 of us had passports. In fact one of my children has one and the other didn't. None of our parties were treated any differently and check in did not take longer, nor disembarkation.

It's a hard choice between Disney /Universal and a cruise for me! I love love love Harry Potter world and Epcot!

Cruised with 12. For of us had passports, rest had birth certificates and my kids only had birth certificates. We had no problems. In fact have Done that twice and no problems.

Went balcony for the first time on our last cruise. Will never go back!

There is a very old post similar to this but at 5 years old I am sure many things have changed. Let's put together a spot to help those sailing the gem soon get to know her best hidden gems.

 

 

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We have sailed the Gem twice now. We love it.

I totally agree about the Great Outdoors. It is the perfect place to start your day and end your day.

The coffee in the Java Cafe is far superior to the free coffee! I discovered this towards the end of the second cruise. I mean come on, why pay for coffee when its free right?! Boy was I wrong!

The UBP made having a drink quite the horrendous experience initially; that is until we discovered the area around the Magnums/Shakers/Maltings. This area became our favorite place to hang out! It is quieter and has a slower pace. There are quite a few tables to sit and socialize. (We were a group of 12 and used this area to gather, play cards, games or just sit and read.) Eddie at the Maltings bar was one of the best bar staff on board. He would remember your favorites, suggest drinks, make them weaker if they were too strong, AND entertain you!

Spinnaker was also a great place to hang out. Be warned that this venue gets VERY crowded during the entertainment there so you need to get there early for seating! Joanne and Ivan were also wonderful bar staff! They remembered our names and our favorite drinks. I mean come on what kind of bar staff remembers that you like Riesling after you only were there once?!

The best tip I can offer if you plan to enjoy a few drinks and the UBP is still a promo is to give your wait staff additional tips on top of what is already included. They do appreciate it.

Shreta, one of the entertainment staff was a doll! She remembers your name and greets you like family! Introduce yourself, and get to know her and she will give you all kinds of tips!

Another tip, sign your kids/teens up for the programs even if you do not plan to partake in them. Our teens only wanted to do the teens white hot party (teens get kicked out of the other white hot party at a certain time) and they were rejected because we had not signed them up for the program.

The Spa was a great place to relax and unwind, but be warned if there is something going on in Spinnaker you hear all of it as the spa is directly below Spinnaker. Not everyone in our party had a spa pass, so I did not use this as much as I would had if everyone could have been there.

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot! I will post again if I think of anything.

It's computer generated or "random". With either bingo or deal or no deal it's for entertainment. No big payout should be expected. The first time we played someone won $2,000. The next time $200.

Not totally relevant, but they played the NBA Playoffs on the tv's in the rooms and the large atrium tv which you could sit in O'Sheenans and enjoy.

We played bingo a lot on our last NCL cruise. It was so much fun! I recommend that you buy only one ticket per person because using more than one was too much. We went with the others in the family several times to get the larger package. We had two winners in the family. For is it was about entertainment, not winning. That was a bonus!