natefish95

So glad to see you back to doing a live review! I'll definitely be following along!

It's definitely open embarkation day. When I'm wandering around, I'll see a couple people in there. Depending on the layout of the gym, you may get some traffic passing through exploring. For me, I try to schedule in runs while the ship is in port so there isn't as much movement. Either before I leave for the day or later in the day right before the ship leaves.

I would 100% not book that (I'm surprised they even offer them to be booked that early in the day). Usually boarding starts about 11am-ish. They do spa tours on embarkation so it will not be quiet outside the massage room probably with people constantly walking by. If you want to do it on embarkation day, wait until after sailaway.

I've scrolled through a bunch of posts, but has anyone seen pictures of the spa or gym locker rooms? I know it's doubtful, but just curious if there is a sauna and/or steam room in them or if the thermal suite is the only area with a sauna/steam room.

The best way to save calories at breakfast is to just sleep until lunchtime haha. I'm not sure if they can do egg-white omelets but that is usually a good choice in the morning.

I have never sailed Princess, and as a solo traveling mid-20's millennial I am far from their target demographic, but this ship seems really unique and I'd love to try it some day. Hopefully the spa isn't in the windowless depths of the ship like on the Royal class of ships.

Only 2 pictures from Hooters? lol Looking forward to your review! I've been having withdrawals of good, lengthy CC reviews since Greg wrapped his up.

Thanks for finding out the Alchemists! I don't know them, but looking forward to their drinks already? Since you mentioned the gym, how is it? Do they have sweat towels available?

Excited to read follow your review! I'll be joining you for the 8 day on October 8th. Whenever you get onboard, could you find out who the Alchemy bartenders are?

The Fantasy class ships were retired when they were 25-30 years old, and the shutdown of cruising was a huge factor. Start worrying in 5 years because Carnival doesn't even know what they'll do.

They actually don't owe you an explanation for why they choose to do certain things. Just because you're on Cruise Critic, that doesn't make you some type of onboard VIP (no matter what people on these boards think(. If I was an Officer, I wouldn't want to be in a room with a bunch of self-entitled guests complaining about cutbacks or there being too many/too few COVID restrictions onboard. Did you go complain to guest services about this traumatic event you experienced onboard?

Thank you for doing this review! It's so interesting to see all your pictures and experience a non-Caribbean cruise. I've never been to Israel, but I would love to go someday. Haifa seems like a really great city.

After my NCL Gem cruise in February, I spent the weekend in NYC exploring on my own. I stayed in Chelsea and walked all the way down to the 9/11 museum. It was a long walk, but a good way to see a bit of the city. When I was there, I saw Hamilton. Times Square is a giant cluster****, but I had a really great pre-show dinner at a place called Burger+Lobster. Really great food, great drinks, and a nice bar to sit at. I'd also recommend lunch or dinner at Eataly at some point. I grabbed lunch at the one by the 9/11 museum. It's a fun city. You'll have a blast.

Good afternoon people of Cruise Critic! I'm sitting at LGA airport after having spent a weekend in NYC after getting off the Gem on Friday 2/18. Since i have some time now, I'm going to put down a few thoughts about my cruise. As you can see from my signature, this was my fourth cruise since the restart, but my first back on NCL. I'll compare NCL to Carnival and Royal when I think about, but I'm going to avoid overdoing the comparisons. Who is this guy? Hi, I'm Nate 🙂 I live in Arlington, Virginia, love to cruise, and just enjoy being on the water. I always travel solo, so NCL is usually my preferred line. Last year I started dabbling with Royal, but no one does solo cruising quite like NCL. Booking Now NCL reallllllllllllly tried my patience during the pandemic y'all. My birthday cruise in April 2020 was cancelled obviously. No big deal. These things happened. I waited to book and when NCL announced they were restarting with the Gem in Punta Cana, I jumped on that for September 2021. Since cruises were starting to open up, I also booked the Jewel from San Diego to Panama. Now let me tell you, when these were cancelled the same week, I was SAD. I got the nice 10% discount for a future cruise, but you can only have one in your account. Oh you had multiple cancellations? Too bad. Sucks for you. I didn't agree with the way NCL did this, but hopefully this should all be behind us now. I rebooked on the Jewel from NYC to Panama (Im going to get to Panama dangit!). Welp, cancelled too. At this point I was cranky with NCL. I liked the idea of cruising out of New York, so I decided to book the Gem on a 10 day Eastern Caribbean. By this point, the Gem was back in service sailing from Miami and I was confident this time the ship would actually sail and NCL wouldn't do my dirty again. This is why I have trust issues. I booked an interior on Deck 9 with all the Free at Sea promos thrown in (beverage package, dining package, wifi package, shore excursion credits). I decided to upgrade the wifi package for about $150 or so? I also prebooked a 6 liter water bottle package and a thermal suite pass. I bid on an upgrade to a balcony and not surpassingly, got it since the ship was so empty. I think every single bid was accepted for this sailing. I was moved to forward balcony 10044.