Mlake09

7 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

While you were in Bermuda were you able to walk around with just a shirt or did you need a jacket/sweater?

We were there on Friday (one week ago). It was 68 degrees but windy due to impending storm. Ocean was also 68 degrees. I did go in, but it was definitely chilly! I didn’t stay in the water for more than 15 minutes. We are from New England though, so I don’t mind the colder water.

On 1/18/2023 at 2:15 PM, Birdnutty said:

I forgot to ask you last night to take a look today.  Our itinerary for the day depends on the ferry(s), so that's why I'm asking.  It would be great if you could find out.  I'd sure appreciate it!

Hello! We were in Bermuda port a week ago and NCL did run the St. George ferry. I don’t have a picture of the time but wanted you to know it was running. 

9 hours ago, cementhands said:

Any truth to the rumors of smoke stack issues? Folks who recently went on Getaway stated H20 was not useable due to smoke and maintenance ongoing. We’re scheduled to go onboard after your cruise. Many thanks for post of dailies. Very excited as info was great. Concerned about that smoke though.

This was a major issue for us last year in February. Not only was Spice unusable for the entire trip, we couldn’t use the ropes course or be on our aft-ish (not an actual aft balcony, just in the back) balcony and ultimately had to move rooms. At that time the captain said it was a problem they were aware of. There is an old thread with many posts about this. It’s a bummer if it’s still not resolved because we’re back on the ship next month. 

7 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

The more bad weather stories I hear the more I'm regretting my Feb. 1st cruise to Bermuda on the Getaway.  Before I booked I read all the forums which said the temp should be in the 60's and pretty comfortable for doing land excursions.  No one mentioned wind and rough seas.  I had just been to the ABC and other islands on a 14 day Princess cruise and had great weather at all ports so I just wanted a short trip out of NY to break up the winter.  I guess I'm just naive and realize that weather can be bad anywhere during the winter. 

I hope you have a great cruise. If it helps, we’ve cruised out of NYC a number of times in December, January, and February, and it’s not always this bad. Typically we go south to Florida or GSC or Nassau (unless we get a longer school break, then we try to squeeze in a longer trip) and the sea days aren’t always so rough. We did a short 4 day to Bermuda in November and had one sea day that was terrible, similar to this trip, and one that was much nicer. Bermuda’s weather is mostly warm (compared to New England!) and temperate all year, and it’s common for the winter to be in the 60’s. I think the sea conditions are typically smoother in the summer months but I’m definitely not an expert (we did have lovely sea days when we did Bermuda in August and October). I think it’s worth a shot if you’re looking for a quick getaway! 

17 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Thanks for the ride along!

Are you doing one of 12-day eastern Caribbean trips?  I'll be on the 2/26 sailing... 

I wish- we are doing an 8 day that fits into my school break! It goes from NYC to Orlando to GSC to Bermuda to NYC. At this time, Bermuda is listed as a port of call, but it was cancelled in November and then reinstated so we’ll see! Enjoy your trip!

Thanks everyone for following along! We had an easy early morning on the ship, with breakfast in the MDR and then a brisk walk on the top deck while we waited to get off the ship. There was no line to disembark and we found our bags easily.  We grabbed a cab to the Moynihan Train station, but interestingly, none of the cab drivers seemed to be turning on their fare counters. Instead they were just quoting prices and calling out to us. The first driver asked for $40, and we ultimately went with the $25 driver.  That was about the price we paid prior to the cruise so we went with it.  We had a bit of a wait until our train arrived but we went through our photos and caught up on emails, etc. We’re cruising on the Getaway in February and will look forward to doing another update then!

Also, I saw another person mentioned the $102 that appeared on Saturday- we received that too, but weren’t sure why.  Was it ever clarified? Is it in addition to the $50 for missing the overnight? Or was it due to the waves and poor weather? Who knows! We did collect that money before we left, which felt like a win!

5 hours ago, cruiseat50 said:

Thank you for this information as that is something I was trying to find out since we will be there for a day in March before heading down to the Caribbean.  We are taking an excursion on a boat to see the famous homes and hideaways of the rich and famous but that is only a couple hours and were wondering what to do with the rest of the day.  I really would have loved to go to the famous pink sand beaches but since it's early march it most likely won't be warm enough especially for a dip in the water.  Even though I do have mobility issues I would have tried to get my rollator down to the water to take a dip but don't really want to freeze my --- off.

Help! I think the water stays around 68-69 during the winter/early spring months. Depending on what you are comfortable with, you might be able to do it- we snorkeled but it was pretty chilly so I didn’t stay in as long as I normally would. The beaches are beautiful

on Bermuda. I hope you have a great trip!

Last Day! 

We made the best of our last wavy, windy, cold day, but we were a little tired after a mostly sleepless night. The wind on this cruise has been really something! When I’m home I’ll try to remember to post some videos I took. Due to the weather, all outdoors events and seating were cancelled and removed, so it’s been an inside day. The hot tubs were also drained today too. We went to MDR for breakfast and had a waitress who felt so seasick that she had to leave the room- I felt so bad for her, and really grateful that the movement doesn’t bother me, and that the dot works for my wife.  This morning was much worse weather/wave-wise than later this evening- it seemed difficult for the breakfast waiters to stay on their feet, and they had to hold on when pouring water or coffee, etc. I had the French toast and it was a sweet treat as always. Yesterday I had the salmon bagel which was served with a bagel on one plate, and all the toppings on a second plate; I haven’t seen that since prior to 2020 but like it better than the open faced bagel they’ve been serving on most of my recent cruises. It’s less messy to build it myself!

We hung around by Maltings for a while and played some games while others showed up to find a seat to watch the Bills game. The room tvs are small and the NFL games weren’t shown on any large screens, which was disappointing to some people. We had lunch in the Orchid Garden and that was tasty. There was about a 30 minute wait to get in so when we sat down, they had the smaller menu to choose from. This is a popular spot to eat and there was always a line whenever we walked by. After lunch we walked around inside for a while, returned to our room for some down time and the rest of the football game, and then headed out for another indoor walk before dinner. We didn’t have reservations, but showed up at Moderno and they were able to get us in after someone else cancelled. We used our OBC for dinner. It was great and we also enjoyed a mojito beforehand, too. After dinner we did a few inside loops just to stretch out, and now here we are about ready to put our bags out for pickup. I was able to get a load of laundry done today so we’re going home with all clean clothes! That is a score! 

We’re hoping to arrive on time tomorrow morning but aren’t in a rush to get off.  Our train isn’t until 11ish so we will enjoy one last breakfast in the MDR before we depart.  Thanks all for following along- this was fun to do! 

Also, the internet started working again today. It’s not fast, but at least we can connect. 

Day 4-

I wasn’t planning doing a live post, however it’s been fun to track everything we have been doing! I often read the live posts, especially when I have an upcoming cruise, and I hope some of you are enjoying these updates.

It has been EXTREMELY windy today. It was sunny and about 68 this morning but the weather deteriorated as the day went on, to showers, grey skies, rain, and more wind. It was 56 degrees a little after 2pm. The waves were also very large today. I wish the navigation channel still said wave height, but alas. Thank you to the other poster who said they are at 22 feet. Current apparent winds are 56 knots coming across the bow of the ship. We can really feel it. I’m super lucky I don’t get motion sick, but I’ve had to watch myself to keep from stumbling, especially on the stairs.  It seems like many people are motion sick, and I walked past an unfortunate person who got sick right outside the buffet doors earlier today.

This morning we had breakfast in the main dining room and then went for a wobbly, windy walk. We attended our first Wines around the World event (we became Platinum during the pandemic and these haven’t been offered) which only had about 10 people total, including the two of us. The wine stewards were very friendly. After that we stopped by the casino and after a few tries on the slot machine, we were up $60! We went for another walk and also had to stop at the internet desk for a partial refund.  The internet has been a challenge this trip and many people are complaining about it. For whatever reason I’m able to log in right now, although my emails won’t download and my texts aren’t sending. We did get $65 OBC because it’s been down for so many days, and we had upgraded to unlimited for my wife’s work. After that we went upstairs to Great Outdoors for a light lunch, and spent the afternoon lounging around in our room. Since I booked this cruise so last minute, we ended up in an ocean view picture window on the 8th floor (our first in this category), and it’s been lovely. The waves look enormous from our room.

Tonight for dinner we ate at Le Bistro. Food and service were both wonderful. We did ask about the $10 supplement for the filet, and if it would be removed if we ordered the filet without the foie gras (we don’t like it anyways), but the supplement still applied.  We loved our wine steward, and the hostess and the waiters were all great too. We had another good hit as the casino after dinner, and now we’re tucking in for the night. The waves and wind are still really rocking the boat quite a bit. The outside areas are closed and have been since late afternoon. Lookin forward to one more day of vacation before we’re back to reality on Monday!  

2 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Just checking up on Gem's live shipcam - seeing large waves ,probably 18' to 21' on average, may higher at times and white caps, pretty large sea swells.  As noted above, cruisemapper have the GEM tracking almost on a southeast heading, pointing toward Charleston/Jacksonville to basically sail around the big Atlantic storm, before turning north at some point tomorrow as the system pull further east away from land & coastal.  That's good, smart & safe navigation up on the bridge - expect things to be worsen somewhat in the next 16 to 24 hours (sorry, reading the predictive charts on Windy App.)  

 

Our last time on the Gem was Dec. 2019 just before the Covid shutdown and satellite WiFi wasn't too bad, slow as expected but usable - actually comparatively better to the "performance" onboard these days with some of the newest & bigger NCL ships in the fleet ... if only they bring on Starlink, a win-win for all.  

 

Uploading the forecast track ... Monday morning's arrival, sunny & breezy, morning temp about 35 degree with a high of 45, not bad for mid January.  It's possible that you are beginning (already ??) to feel gale and/or strong gale force cross wind, coming diagonally across the bow & starboard side.  Ship's navigational channel (11) gives very useful real-time info as it happen, unlike the newer mega ships.  BTW, do you know about & get a chance to visit the ship's Bridge Viewing Room - it's usually open, dust to dawn, on sea days, to visit, Deck 11 Fwd Port side, unless they choose to close it for operational & safety reasons - it's real cool, we always stop in there to see the Mermaid, Robbie. 

 

Just curious as to the fleet-wide MDR Lunch Menu, which hasn't been exactly exciting for us in 2022 - not sure if they changed out & substituted things again at the beginning of 2023.  If you manage to take a screenshot & upload (post-cruise is fine) ... it will be much appreciated b/c we will be eating off that a few times soon on upcoming sea days, just trying to figure out our options and/or split among O'Sheehan's & maybe with paid SD that's open, TIA.  

 

Thanks so much for the updates! Yes the winds and waves are very strong…the navigation channel says winds are currently 56 knots! It is definitely something! The main dining room menus on Gem are still rotating each day. They are the same as all the last cruises we’ve been on, with a few exceptions for some substitutions. I’ll try to snap a picture of the dinner menu tomorrow but we’re eating in Cucina again (we had $100 onboard credit to Sue as a result of the itinerary change). Thanks again for the forecast info, too- I appreciate it!

1 hour ago, SunshineGal2022 said:

20 foot waves would get my stomach rolling.  Are many people looking green??

Yes they are! The sick bags are out on every stairwell and I think many people are in their rooms instead of out and about this evening.

2 hours ago, Birdnutty said:

So happy you are doing this.  Too bad you didn't label your review as being LIVE, as many more folks would be following.  But maybe that's a good thing, meaning less dumb questions.  Hmmm

 

Sorry that your weather is less than ideal.  It's fun to be a little rocky, but crazy rocky can be nowhere near as much fun.  Hope it doesn't affect your stomach or your trip in any way.  If anything, it might send some people to stay in their cabins instead of being out and about, reducing the "crowd" factor.

 

Three questions:  On the days at sea, have there been any mention of Latin dance classes or Zumba in the Daily?  Lots of people, especially me, really love that.

Secondly, are there many people masking up at all?

And how was your day in Bermuda?  What did you end up doing?

2 hours ago, Birdnutty said:

So happy you are doing this.  Too bad you didn't label your review as being LIVE, as many more folks would be following.  But maybe that's a good thing, meaning less dumb questions.  Hmmm

 

Sorry that your weather is less than ideal.  It's fun to be a little rocky, but crazy rocky can be nowhere near as much fun.  Hope it doesn't affect your stomach or your trip in any way.  If anything, it might send some people to stay in their cabins instead of being out and about, reducing the "crowd" factor.

 

Three questions:  On the days at sea, have there been any mention of Latin dance classes or Zumba in the Daily?  Lots of people, especially me, really love that.

Secondly, are there many people masking up at all?

And how was your day in Bermuda?  What did you end up doing?

I haven’t seen anything related to Zumba, but I can keep an eye out tomorrow. Today the closest thing I see is “fun fitness” at 8:30am, and “Dance the Night Away with Sabor Latino” at 11pm.
 

There are some people masking but most are unmasked. We are masking in the casino because we don’t like the smoke, but haven’t been masking in most other places. We did start the cruise off masked indoors, but didn’t stick with it.  There are a lot of people who are sick (coughing, sneezing, etc) on board though, so we probably should have kept up with it to be safe (we got covid after we cruised last April, but were good after our summer cruise in Iceland/Norway and our short November cruise to Bermuda); hopefully the boosters are doing their job!

We had a great day yesterday in Bermuda. We changed our plans due to the itinerary change and cancelled our rental car as a result, but we got in some chilly snorkeling (so chilly!) and a nice walk. It’s always nice to be outside in the warmer sun in the middle of the winter. Today started off sunny but very windy, and it’s now raining and still windy. There were no chairs out anywhere except directly around the pool today, even when it was sunny this morning, and the wind is really rocking the boat!

8 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

So what did you wind up doing on your day in Bermuda?

Hello! We walked over to a nearby beach, swam for a short time (it was cold and we really had to work ourselves up to it!), read for a bit, and then walked back to the ship. We stopped at a few places in Dockyard and used the free WiFi for a bit too- the internet on the ship has been really slow and mostly inoperable for the duration of the cruise- we received money back because we had purchased the unlimited for my wife to check work emails, which she can’t do. On this moment, CruiseCritic and the NYT are the only things loading but I’m not complaining since I was able to get on!

Day 3

Today was great! It was a sunny but windy day in Bermuda, and the winds have definitely picked up since 2pm. The captain announced during sail away that they are expecting high winds (50 knots plus) and waves (3 meters or more) throughout tonight and into tomorrow night. When we got back on the ship this afternoon, both pools had already been drained and the vomit bags were already out on every stairway. We also noticed that all the furniture at the front of the ship on the balconies under Spinaker had been tied down. 

We ate breakfast in the main dining room, which was good. The service is a little slower than last cruises, but you can tell many of the staff are new and learning and doing their best. We ate lunch off the shop and had a drink and snack at the Great Outdoors when we got back on. We watched a number of folks amble toward the ship even though they were later than the all-aboard time, and many people clapped and hooted at them to run. I’m not judging because when we were here in November, I was so paranoid about the time change and didn’t trust my phone and Apple Watch that I brought us back a good hour and a half early, which is a lot when the stop is only 6 or 7 hours. For dinner we ate in Magenta. We spotted another minor menu change…the lobster ravioli appetizer is now ricotta ravioli with lobster sauce…they were still quite good. Service was a little slow but nothing too crazy, and we ate right around 6:30pm, in their rush hour.

Hoping it won’t be too windy/wavy tonight. We’re headed to dinner soon after my wife has just won us over $150 on the slots. It’s pretty Smokey in the casino today- was much better yesterday. 

*****the internet was super slow yesterday and I couldn’t post this last night. I’ll try another update later tonight.

Re: the waves and wind, yikes! Last night and right now- really wavy! We sailed in November right after that Florida hurricane and that was bad, but the wind is making this worse. It’s not as predictable to know where the motion is coming from. 
Heading to breakfast soon and will see how many people are out!

16 hours ago, AwesomO said:

thanks for the review so far! I've heard conflicting reports; is the pool heated? We're sailing the Gem next month, with a stop in Bermuda among others. Just wondering if it will be warm enough to enjoy the pool, or if we have to wait until we're closer to the Caribbean. 

It feels better than ice water but it was mostly just kids in yesterday…stuck my toes in but it was not that enticing! 

1 hour ago, Birdnutty said:

I heard a nasty rumor that the paper dailies are being discontinued.  Are you still getting them on this sailing?

Yes we are.

Day 2

Smooth seas for today! We had a quick breakfast in the buffet (sat in Cucina due to crowds), went for a long walk, and then went to the latitudes party.  There were a number of higher ranking staff members present. This afternoon we sat up on the sun deck for an hour or two to relax, then moved to Great Outdoors for a snack and an ice cream cone for me. The pools were open today and there were many people out on the deck, as well as in the hot tubs.  The weather was lovely- about 65 and sunny- and we really enjoyed being outside! We love to walk and spent a good chunk of time looping deck 7 as well as up top. No luck with ducks yet!  

For dinner tonight we ate at La Cucina. The food and service were wonderful. There were a few menu changes that we noticed (burrata replaced with mozzarella, seafood fra Diablo replaced with shrimp, berries removed from panacotta etc) but the overall food quality was great. Last night we ate at Moderno and that was also really good! We have the platinum vouchers and they have updated them so that you can eat at any specialty restaurant, but you can’t use the vouchers in the same restaurant.

Finally, the Gem is back to doing the latitudes wines around the world tasting, so we’ve signed up for that. The time change has caught up to me so we’re off to bed! Bermuda tomorrow! 

1 hour ago, uneamie said:

Maybe a nice port dock like Bermuda has would work. I never hear of them canceling Bermuda due to high winds.....maybe a hurricane but not wind

 

Howdy from the 5 day NYC to Bermuda cruise on the Gem! We were supposed to be overnighting in Bermuda tomorrow, and leaving on Saturday around 4pm, but our port of call was changed due to weather and the overnight was cancelled. 

36 minutes ago, Birdnutty said:

Please keep posting about your experiences on board. I, among many others, will be on board in a  few weeks and am interested in how things are going. 
Have they initiated the once a day turn down service on the Gem yet?  
As an aside, I’m sure it was very disappointing to have most of your Bermuda stay truncated. It sucks, but I guess from a safety point of view, it’s better to be out at sea.  Hopefully, seasickness aside, it’s still better than a day at home or work. 

Also, yes a bit disappointing about missing the second day in Bermuda. We have been a number of times but did have something new planned for this trip, however, I had to cancel our rental car yesterday when we found out, because we won’t have enough time.  I’m still looking forward to the few days away from real life! Hoping the weather stays nice for tomorrow and that we will have warm weather for the sea days back! 

35 minutes ago, Birdnutty said:

Please keep posting about your experiences on board. I, among many others, will be on board in a  few weeks and am interested in how things are going. 
Have they initiated the once a day turn down service on the Gem yet?  
As an aside, I’m sure it was very disappointing to have most of your Bermuda stay truncated. It sucks, but I guess from a safety point of view, it’s better to be out at sea.  Hopefully, seasickness aside, it’s still better than a day at home or work. 

It’s still twice a day on Gem- I think the rollout of that policy is starting now on some ships  but will take until March to be fleet-wide.

We had a great first day yesterday! We were able to board very early (around 10:20am) and we were in the first group allowed on board.  The early boarding may have been in part to the prior cruise doing customs in Florida instead of NYC (I saw that in another post).  The staff have all been very friendly and even though we’ve never ordered the boxes of water before (we typically just bring a reusable to each meal), the new FAS six liters per person has been a score! I think we’ve gone through two already!  For those of you that are platinum plus, last night in turn down our room steward also left us two half liter boxes, for the latitudes level perks. We are platinum currently but should hit the next level after our February cruise!

We had lunch in O’Sheehan’s when we boarded (burger was good, fries were good but cold, and wings were good but I do prefer the “old” wings and not the newer ones- I know there are other threads about this).  Even though the bar wasn’t supposed to open until 11, the bartender still was able to make some drinks (nothing with real fruit), which was great! After lunch we went for a walk, then a quick nap (we take the train in from western mass and got up at 4am), and then we went out for another walk during sail away. I really enjoy leaving out of NYC because there is so much to look at! We had dinner at Moderno and that was very good. The staff are all very friendly so far.

I can’t speak to the entertainment because we typically don’t do many of those activities while on board, but I’ll try to keep an ear out for what others are saying. There are more kids and teens than I would have expected for a random January sailing, but I’m guessing that it’s due to the three day weekend for MLK day. It’s cold and pools were empty yesterday. We’re headed out for a walk and then to breakfast now, but if the internet keeps up, I’ll try to post again!

18 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Disappointed as I'm sure, at least they are issuing non-refundable OBC for the short cruise.  

 

Brace for choppy seas, waves & strong (near gale force) wind, and a choppy ride, especially on the way back in, that's in the maritime forecast.  

 

Make the best out of it.  Cheers !! 

Thank you! We will! And good to know about the forecast- I’ll tell my partner to put the dot behind her ear tonight. We sailed in November on Pearl, on Veteran’s Day weekend, also to Bermuda, and were on the edge of a hurricane for the first sea Day. That was really something!

We boarded this morning before 11am, with no wait time for drinks and only a short wait for lunch at O’Sheehans. This is a quick 5 day cruise from NYC to Bermuda, with a planned overnight stay in Bermuda that has since been cancelled due to bad weather. We’re now just doing a day visit, which should still be nice (looks like sunny and upper 60’s!). We are making the best of it and are still happy to be on a vacation!

Here is the itinerary change notice, with $100 cabin OBC as a result.if I have decent WiFi I will share any other updates over the next few days. Also, I saw in another thread that there was supposed to be about 1900 pax on this sailing, but I will try to confirm at latitude gathering. So far everything is great, and the renovations of deck 6 look great!

7 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

Thank you for posting!   When did you book your cruise?

We booked this one on December 10, 2022.

I hope that helps! We’re on a 5 day to Bermuda from NYC, with an itinerary change due to weather (no overnight). Still happy to be on a quick vacation!