kac0426

I am doing this same cruise with my Mom in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the review. I hope to do my own review after we return.

 

I would have loved to have seen some pictures!! :)

I didn't really take any pictures of the ship itself. But if you'd like to see the pictures I took in port, I'll be happy to upload some soon!

So I am sitting here with my wife in the living room and just asked her casually (after 6 cruises in a row on NCL) what the longest was we've EVER spent in a restaurant and her answer was "an hour?".

 

Don't doubt your experience at all, just surprised. Seen lot's of reviews that the food wasn't great (in the main dining room), but not a common complaint of it taking forever to eat. Spotty service, not having a consistent crew that remembered you and your quirks, but not that it was just slow as Christmas.

I was surprised as well since in all my other cruises, I've never spent longer than an hour to an hour and half in the dining room. I'm not sure what took so long on the most recent Gem cruise. If my mom and I ate at a table for just the 2 of us, and if we got to the dining room the minute it opened (at 5:00 or 5:30), we were fine. The meal would take about 1 1/2 hours. However, one night we went around 7:00, and there was a 10 minute wait to put your name in and get a pager. Then there was a 30 minute wait for the pager to go off. Then 10 more minutes to get our actual table. We sat with 4 other people and I'd say the meal was 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Add in the 50 minute wait time and you are up to 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Yes, if you went to eat right at 5:00 when they opened there wasn't a wait but who always wants to eat at 5:00? We ate in the dining room one day at lunch and I'd say it took about an hour and 45 minutes. And that was just for lunch! I overheard others complaining about the wait times. One night they even gave out coupons for free drinks because the wait was so bad. The free drink was definitely a nice treat but it proves that something isn't quite right in their organization for meal times, IMO.

Thanks for the thorough review. We are on this cruise Saturday. Hopefully by the third time on this itinerary, the staff will have correct port info and those things will be smoother. I have concerns about misinformation in the daily bulletin. That's pretty sad. And I sure hope dinner doesn't take 21/2 hours each night. I can't deal with eating at the buffet for all meals. Lots of folks love the Gem though. Hopefully we will, too!

I'm sure you will have a great cruise. I don't mean for my complaints to overshadow all the good parts of this cruise. I just figure when reading a review, people want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. I hope you have a great time! If you have any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer.

Just got off the Gem from the same cruise. The food ROCKED!!! Of course I ate Chinese twice, Le Bistro once, Teppanyaki once, and the buffet the night they had beef Wellington and Leg of Lamb.

 

My advice to people on NCL is always to just go ahead and budget $100 extra per person and do the specialties you think you'd like.

 

And in particular Chinese is really good (order 3 or 4 appetizers and soup) and you can almost always walk right in unplanned...

You are right, PokerDave. In hindsight, we should have just paid a little extra for the specialty restaurants. On previous cruises on other cruise lines, the food in the main dining room was good enough for us so we never felt the need to pay extra for the specialty restaurants. And really, the food on the Gem was good the 3 times we ate there. We just couldn't justify spending 2 1/2 hours on a meal every night. Live and learn. :)

I just returned from a 7 night New England and Canada cruise on the Gem! This review ended up being somewhat of a Norwegian (hereafter referred to as NCL) versus Royal Caribbean (hereafter referred to as RCCL) comparison, which wasn’t my intention, but it was a natural comparison since most of my previous cruising has been on RCCL. I’ve seen a lot of questions from RCCL cruisers looking to try NCL, so maybe this will prove helpful to them. Warning: It's very long, but I titled each section so hopefully you can just skip to whatever subject interests you.

Some background before I begin my review: I’m 31 and I traveled with my mother on this cruise. I have cruised 6 times previously, 5 times on RCCL and once on Holland America. My mother has cruised 4 times previously, all on RCCL. We love RCCL but liked the itinerary of this particular NCL New England/Canada cruise, and the price was right, so we were excited to try a new cruise line.

EMBARKATION: This was quick and painless. We arrived to the terminal a little before 11 and there weren’t many people in line yet. Check in was smooth and we were on board by about 11:30.

CABIN: We had an inside cabin on deck 9. We are very active and had all day excursions booked in most ports so we knew we wouldn’t be in the room much, and we weren’t. Basically just to sleep. So the inside cabin worked for us but I understand why it’s not for everyone. Our cabin was very small (to be expected) but it was cozy, clean, and comfortable. The beds were extremely comfortable and I slept better on the ship than I do at home! The bathroom was small, of course, but it actually seemed a little bigger than bathrooms on RCCL ships I’ve been on. The room itself, however, seemed smaller. RCCL usually has a loveseat of some sort but NCL only had a desk chair so your only real option of where to sit was on the bed. But, it was fine. Our room steward was Felix and he was fantastic! He knew our names on day 1 and addressed us by name every day. We got a towel animal every day and some of them were new to me. Even after cruising many times, I do still enjoy the towel animals.

SHIP: Other than normal wear and tear, the Gem was in really good condition. Crew members were constantly cleaning, vacuuming, polishing, dusting, etc. It’s amazing how clean everything is when you consider the number of passengers traipsing around. One thing I missed was having a nice, quiet bar to have a drink or listen to classical music. On RCCL, I love the Schooner Bar and other similar bars that are tucked into quiet places here and there where you can have a drink before or after dinner. I also love having a drink in the Viking Crown Lounge on RCCL because of the view. The Gem had no such place. There were always loud events like Bingo in the Spinnaker (NCL’s version of Viking Crown Lounge), so it wasn’t a peaceful place to have a drink. The bar in the Atrium is always packed and it’s so loud in there with football on the big screen, shopping, etc. Shakers and Maltings were always crowded and loud.

DEMOGRAPHIC: I had read that this cruise would be an older demographic, and they weren’t kidding. I’d say the average age was 50-60. Being 31, there were numerous times I was the youngest person in a bar or on an excursion but I didn’t mind. I don’t really go on a cruise to meet people (I’m somewhat of an introvert) and I enjoy talking to people my parents’ age as much as my own age. Someone who does want to hang out with younger folks might be disappointed, though.

CREW: The crew on the Gem were fabulous. They were kind, hard-working, always smiling, and greeted us everywhere we went. I can’t say enough good things about the crew. Dan Dan was quite possibly the best cruise director I’ve ever had. He was hysterical. I’ve never had such a funny cruise director. He could be a comedian. Nacho was the assistant cruise director, and he was fantastic as well. Other than the ports of call, Dan Dan and Nacho were the best parts of the cruise.

FOOD: Overall, I’d say the food was the biggest disappointment of this cruise. There were very few items we had that I would say were “very good.” I know you get what you pay for and a more expensive cruise will have better food and, if you want gourmet, you can pay extra for the specialty restaurants (which we never tried). We ate in the dining room 3 times and in the buffet the rest of the time. Overall, the food in the dining room was pretty good. However, the food in the buffet was not. I am not that picky of an eater but I sometimes had trouble finding anything I liked. The pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs were pretty good, but I hate to eat that type of food every day. And it seemed like there was always something “missing.” They had hamburgers but no pickles. They had a salad bar but only 3 kinds of dressing. I know it’s not possible to have all the condiments anyone could ever want, but the choices just seemed to be really lacking in the buffet. RCCL, in contrast, has NUMEROUS options in the buffet.

ORGANIZATION: I wasn’t sure what to call this section so I just went with “organization.” This was the other big disappointment of the cruise. On RCCL, the crew are impeccable and so well trained. On this cruise, however, the crew seemed completely uninformed or unaware of what was going on. I don’t blame the crew for this; I blame whoever is training them or keeping them informed. It was obvious throughout the week that the Gem had just switched from a Florida/Bahamas itinerary to the New England/Canada itinerary. I know a new itinerary takes some adjusting but good grief. They just did not have it together. The shore excursion talk was pathetic. The man giving the presentation had no knowledge of the ports we were going to and couldn’t answer the simplest of questions. Maybe he was an expert on the Florida/Bahamas ports but certainly not on ours. The shopping talk was also pathetic. The shopping consultant simply read from her notes and didn’t have much knowledge of the stores or ports she was speaking about. Her slide presentation was awful. It would have information about a restaurant or store displayed but without the name of the restaurant or store. Or, the print was so small you couldn’t read it. It looked like someone had thrown it together in 5 minutes. I would have been embarrassed to present that slideshow. The icing on the cake was the shopping handout they gave us which said that Nassau would be our best shopping port. Pretty sure Nassau isn’t included in a Canada/New England cruise! In contrast, the excursion and shopping talks on RCCL were alwasys some of my favorite events to attend! RCCL’s speakers truly are experts on the ports and it shows. The NCL staff simply had no knowledge to share. Some other examples of the lack of organization we witnessed: 1) On day 1, we opted to take the tour of the ship. We gathered in the Stardust Theater and Nacho came in to get us. He told us to meet him just outside the theater and we’d begin. As we were waiting for him outside the theater, a female crew member told us we were supposed to wait in the theater. Um, Nacho just told us to come outside! 2) The Daily for Bar Harbor said that Acadia National Park was closed. It wasn’t. It was obvious they had used a Daily from last fall when the park was closed due to the government shut down and forgot to update it. That’s a pretty big oops and it caused a lot of confusion for people thinking they needed to book a difference excursion with the park being closed. 3) The Dailies NEVER had the right weather forecast. I know weather is unpredictable but it was obvious they didn’t even try to get it right. One time they just copied the same weather from one day to the next - you could tell this is what they did because the sunrise/sunset time didn’t change. The Daily for Bar Harbor said the high would be 90. Um, try 63. Has it EVER been 90 in Bar Harbor? Luckily I had checked the weather before we left or I would have been dressed completely wrong every day. It’s just really frustrating to not be able to rely on the Daily forecast when you have no other way to know the weather each day. 4) We opted to do a post-cruise tour of New York on Debarkation day since our flight wasn’t until 4:30 and we figured that would be better than sitting at the airport. So, we were given special black luggage tags so our luggage would be put in a special area for the post cruise tour. We were told to only put the black luggage tags on our bags and not to use the special colored tags like everyone else, so we followed these instructions. Shortly after putting our bags outside our room on the final night, a female crew member knocked on the door and told me that if I didn’t put colored tags on my bags, I’d never find my bags when we got off the ship. I told her what we’d been told by the shore excursion desk and she had no idea what I was talking about. Turns out, I had done the right thing by using the black tags only, but once again it just caused unnecessary confusion. 5) The Navigation channel kept telling us the date was October 13, 2013 when it was actually September 19, 2014. Can’t they fix that? 6) While I like the CONCEPT of Freestyle Cruising (not having to dress up or eat at the same time every day), in reality I’m not sure it works. The wait for a table in a dining room each evening was about 30 minutes. You had to stand in a long line to get a buzzer (like what they use in restaurants at home). After 30 minutes you’d get buzzed and go stand in line for 10 more minutes to get your table. Then, dinner would take about 2 hours. From start to finish, eating dinner could become a 2 ½ to 3 hour process which is just more time than I like to spend on an evening meal. It also meant you might miss the show. This is why we rarely ate in the dining room. While the food was good, if you ate in the dining room, it meant that was the only activity you’d be able to do that night. I missed traditional dining on RCCL where you show up at 6:30, walk right to your table, and be served almost immediately. On a similar note, while our servers in the dining rooms (we ate in both Grand Pacific and Magenta) were very nice, they didn’t get much right. One night we ate with 2 other couples at a table for 6. Our server continually got our orders mixed up, giving me the appetizer meant for the lady next to me, giving my mom the dessert I ordered, etc. I am very understanding about mistakes such as these but what I didn’t appreciate is when my mom tried to tell our server that she had ordered a salad as an appetizer, not the French onion soup, the server said “Oh, you changed your mind?” No, my mom had always ordered the salad. Never the soup. She had not changed her mind. Another time, my mom and I sat at a table for 2. So, they have a 50/50 chance of getting our order correct, right? Nope. They gave my mom the entree meant for the table next to us. They gave me the wrong thing entirely. And they switched our desserts. Again, I understand things happen. But on a 12 night RCCL cruise, at a table for 6, not ONCE did our server get anyone’s order wrong. That is the type of service I’m used to and NCL just didn’t live up to those (admittedly, high) expectations. Finally, the buffet was so crowded at breakfast and lunch that it was nearly impossible to find a place to sit. I’ve found this to be true on RCCL cruises as well, so I can’t fault NCL for this. The frustrating thing on this cruise is that on a Canada/New England itinerary, it’s often just too cold to sit outside, so you lose all of that Great Outdoors seating. I’m not sure how to remedy that. I know people love the specialty restaurants, but it seems like such a waste for those to be empty all day, taking up valuable space, when there are nowhere near enough tables in the buffet. One final nitpicky complaint, and I feel like such an elitist saying this, but on RCCL the crew has their own dining area in their part of the ship. They don’t eat in the buffet. Not on NCL. The crew eats in the buffet alongside the passengers. I’ve never seen this before and it struck me as somewhat unusual. I don’t have a problem with the crew eating in the same place as me, of course, but one night they were taking up about 10-15 tables, and some passengers were having trouble finding a place to sit. That seems unprofessional to me.

ENTERTAINMENT: The shows were very very good, but with little variety. We saw 3 singing/dancing shows by the Gem singers and dangers, 1 comedy show with Jeff Harms, and 1 show with Second City. Plus the welcome and farewell shows. Don’t get me wrong, the 3 shows with the singers and dancers were all fantastic, but on RCCL there’s more variety. You might have one singing/dancing show, one comedian, one magician, one tribute band, etc. I just didn’t think NCL offered enough variety. I will say that the comedy show with Jeff Harms was amazing. I have a picky sense of humor, and I find very few comedians very funny. With Jeff Harms, I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard. He was truly one of the highlights of the cruise for me. I know everyone has different preferences for comedy, but I loved him. The entertainment in other areas of the ship (Spinnaker, poolside, etc) was not as good as on RCCL, in my opinion.

PORTS/SHORE EXCURSIONS: My mom and I cruise mainly for the ports. This was a port-intensive itinerary (only one day at sea on a 7 night cruise) and we spent a lot of time in each port. We always book excursions through the cruise line because I like the peace of mind of knowing they’ll get me back to the ship on time and not having to figure out things on my own. I have no sense of direction so I’m perfectly happy to have a guide and bus driver take care of all that for me. I know they are more expensive, but the convenience makes it worth it for me. I was very pleased with each excursion we did and all of our tour guides were fantastic. The following are the excursions we did in each port:

Halifax, Nova Scotia: Highlights of Halifax - Top 10. Peggy’s Cove and the Titanic Cemetery were the highlights for me.

Saint John, New Brunswick: St. Martins and the Bay of Fundy. The seafood chowder at St. Martins, included with the excursion, was the best chowder I’ve ever had in my life! Seeing the reversing falls and the sea caves at St. Martins were the highlights.

Bar Harbor, Maine: Acadia National Park. I loved everything about Bar Harbor. The food, the stores, the harbor, the park, everything! I only wished we could have stopped more often on our bus drive around the park to take more pictures.

Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Highlights and Salem with lunch. I am not a big city person so Boston just doesn’t do much for me. Salem was the highlight here. So picturesque and quaint and I find the witch trials fascinating. The lunch was okay, not great, but everything else was wonderful.

Newport, Rhode Island: Cliff Walk and the Breakers. We went inside the Breakers, and it was interesting, but I’ve been to Biltmore in Asheville, NC and honestly, the 2 are very similar. In hindsight, I would have rather done more of the cliff walk instead of going inside the Breakers, but oh well. (Lack of organization side note: We were an hour late getting on the tender in Newport because NCL didn’t realize how far the tender ride from ship to shore would be. Seems like someone could have researched that beforehand?)

DEBARKATION: I can’t really comment on this, since we had a post-cruise tour of NYC booked so we disembarked with our tour group, not with the others. Our NYC tour was fantastic. It was pricey but worth every dollar for the convenience and to not have to sit in the nasty Laguardia Airport for 6 hours!

In summary, we had a great time on our Canada/New England cruise. I loved the itinerary and each port we went to. There were things about NCL that really stood out: Dan Dan and the entire cruise director staff, the comedian, the crew, and some of the late night shows like Dancing with the Gem Stars, Newlywed Game, etc. But the bad buffet food, slow dining room service, and lack of organization became really frustrating after 7 days. Would I cruise on NCL again? I don’t know. If the price was right and the itinerary was good, I think I would. There were enough good parts about it that I think I’d try it again. But if RCCL offers a comparable price and itinerary, I think I’d have to stick with them. They are a step up in my book, and worth a higher price. I know everyone has different preferences, and NCL has a loyal fanbase so they are obviously doing something right. This review is, of course, just my opinion. I hope it proves helpful to someone. Any questions? Just ask!

I thought the TA owned the reservation and thus would not need the OPs log in info.

This must be how she did it because I definitely never gave her my login information.

I also thought it was weird that the TA listed herself as my emergency contact. I've cruised before but it's been awhile and I don't remember my TA at the time doing anything like that. I started second guessing myself thinking maybe it's common for TA's to list themselves as the emergency contact but all the responses on here are reaffirming my suspicions that something wasn't quite right. I'm pretty sure the phone number she listed was the office number. Like someone said, what if I was in an accident at night or on a weekend? They'd have no way to get in touch with her! (And she's not a family friend or anything; I barely know her. We only have a TA-client relationship.) I'm glad I went in and made the necessary changes, including my passport info and and changing my emergency contact to my boyfriend.

I know my TA caters to a lot of elderly passengers who may want her to do the online check in because they aren't computer-savvy, but that isn't me. I'm 31 and fully capable of doing an online check in. :) She never asked me if I wanted her to check in for me. Had she asked, I would have said no.

Thanks again to all of your for your responses. You confirmed that I'm not overreacting. The booking of the cruise has been a little chaotic due to her lack of response (seriously, it should not take 5 phone calls and emails to get something booked) so I hope it's all smooth sailing once we actually board. I won't be using her again. I live in a small town and she's really the only TA here so that's why I went with her but I'll do my research next time and find someone else.

I think she must have access to my NCL account in some other way - I definitely never gave her my username or password. I don't really know how it all works with TA's so I'm not sure how she has access to my account?

Thank you to all of you! You've made me feel much better. I've cruised before but never have I had a travel agent who did the online check-in for me, so that's what made me nervous. I won't be using this travel agent again - lesson learned - and I agree with what you all said about letting her know about the problems. Thanks!

I've been unhappy with the travel agent I used to book my New England Cruise. She's been very disorganized and unresponsive, and I think that's why I'm now paranoid that things aren't going to go right. I logged in recently and noticed that she had completed the online check in for myself and my mother, but there were some mistakes. For example, she listed that we would be using birth certificates as our ID but we'll actually be using passports. I was able to edit that section and update it to passport information, but will it matter that what she originally entered has been changed? Also, she listed herself as our emergency contact, but since she's been so unresponsive, I updated this to be my boyfriend who I know will answer his phone no matter what. Was this a bad move? Should I have left the travel agent listed as my emergency contact? I may be over-analyzing this but I've read so many horror stories about people being denied boarding, so I want to make sure I have my ducks in a row!