Back from NCL Gem 4/2/11 sailing

[SuzieQ123]

First I will say, we are easy going and can have fun in a cardboard box, therefore had a really nice time. We have been on the Gem before and on the Jewel also so we knew what to expect.

 

We had perfect weather other then being a little cool on the trip down. Florida was perfect and hotter then Nassau I think. Days at Sea were nice, Sunday we had a Med-Evac via Coast Guard helicopter, it was pretty uneventful and you really could have missed it had you not heard the captains announcement and not been near a window or outer deck when the Chopper came and went. I hope whoever this person is, is doing OK, we felt very badly for them, scary for the family I am sure.

 

We went to Epcot, its a long bus ride about 1 hour 15 minutes, however we had a lot of fun and had some aweseome pizza in "Italy"

 

Great Stirrup Cay we stayed onboard, we had been here before and quite frankly not real impressed with the Island. Not enough to get off, the ship was so quiet! There were quite a few of us who stayed onbard and enjoyed the pool decks all to ourselves. I did hear they have made some improvements at the Island though and this should all be completed by November 2011.

 

Nassau, another beautiful day weatherwise, we've been to Nassau at least 10 times, on many cruises and we spent our honeymoon here at the Sandals Resort. We headed to Dunkin Donuts for some much need coffee.. the coffee onboard is pretty nasty. We shopped a bit and left some money at Atlantis Casino. Had lunch at the Johnny Rockets at Atlantis then headed back to the ship again to enjoy the quiet.

 

We ate at the specialty restaurants all but 1 night. We did not enjoy the dining room food at all...

 

Le Bistro- very good, I am not a steak person, but I had French Onion Soup which was delicous and the Beef Tenderloin which melted in my mouth.. it was fantastic, and I don't typically eat steak. My husband had the Salmon, he said it was good.

 

Cagney's Steakhouse. My husband had T bone steak, I had 5 oz Filet Minon, Crabcakes and shrimp cocktail for appetizer, all very good. The best dessert award of this cruise goes to Cagneys, the Warm Brownies over Icecream. My husband had the Cheese cakeI .

 

Asian Fusion/Orchard Garden: Suprisingly one of our better meals. I wish I could remember the proper names of the foods. For appetizer I had a crab wonton dish, excellent, my husband had the calamari, also excellent. We both had Shrimp Fried Rice and the Lemon Shrimp for main course. My husbands favorite dessert was here, the Banana Pancakes with Icecream, he loved it. I had the Spicy Chocolate cake, never met a chocolate dessert i didn't like :)

 

Tequila we ate here several times, this was a favorite from our last 2 NCL Cruises, the Chicken Fajitas and Sangria

 

Entertainment, was a dissapointment, we have had very good entertainment on our last 2 NCL cruises, the singers were awful. The comedia Ross Bennet we had seen previously, he is a funny guy. Nadean the hypnotist, was kind of a bore if you've seen shows like this before, my husband gets a kick out of it, thinks its hysterical. Several people were very funny, and we enjoyed it. George Salomon, a one man show, he was entertaining.. nothing spectacular but we enjoyed it.

 

The ship itself seems to be showing some wear and tear... which suprised me a ship being only 3.5 years old. Our balcony was pretty gross and dirty I have to say. The cabin itself was clean and our Steward was great. The public areas of the ship were noticeably dirty, the womans bathroom on several occasions was downright nasty, paper on the floor, no soap and no toiletpaper.

 

Casino staff was very nice, we spent most evenings in here for a few hours. The staff was all very friendly throughout the ship.

 

NCL is a great value for the money. For what we paid we cannot complain. We definately lucked out with perfect weather. Will we cruise with NCL again? Maybe, if the price is right, its why we've done it 3 times, convenienet, inexpensive vacation. I'm hoping NCL brings a newer ship to NYC... I'm not sure this will happen as the Epic doesn't fit in the Pier comfortably, but hopefully, maybe they cant make it work someday, as I hear they are building another in the class.

[vols_159]

excellent review just a quick clance at ncl website and seems that the pearl and star are sailing from newyork in the future.. also i think ncl is building 2 more ships for 2013 2014 not sure where they would sail from maybe newyork maybe orlando ? who knows till that are actually sailing for ncl!

[KyleClark]

Who was the cruise director?

[SuzieQ123]

Jill was the cruise director, she arrived on 4/2. Not sure of her last name. It seemed her assistant was around more then she was, I think the assistants name was Meghan???

 

The captain was great, he was singing and playing guitar last night in Mangnum's ( I think thats the name, right next to the Martini Bar.

 

Glad to see they are changing the ships... new scenary at least even if they are in the same class. I would love to see an Epic class ship in NYC if they could, they would have no problem filling that up weekly.