Crusinmama Family Review of Gem to Bermuda 10/2-10/9 -The Suite Life with Dailies

[crusinmama06]

CHOCAHOLIC BUFFET CON'T

 

 

 

 

And in the midst of all of that chocolate, I decided to go to the "Made to Order" Pasta Bar in the Buffet and have them make me some Rigatoni with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and Bolognese Sauce - YUM!

 

[nikimouse]

the chocolate dragon looks amazing!!! :D

[Host Kewlguy]

Great review Michele. Very much enjoying reading it. We'll be boarding the Gem this Sunday. :D

[crusinmama06]

ROCKING n ROLLING

 

So the ship was a little rocky on Night 6, you can see some of the waves hitting the ship here...

 

VIDEO HERE

 

 

 

And because it was a little rocky...for the first time ever. My kiddos needed to take some bonine. But they didn't tell me this until AFTER I got them seated for the White Hot Party. They wanted to see it. And then they were so sad when they got to it and they were feeling too yucky to really stay for more than 5 minutes. It was ok, THIS White Hot Party was all adults anyway. I have seen some WHPs with kids. This one had 4 other kids, the rest were adults. So I was fine with leaving the Adults to their own party.

 

I would LOVE to see NCL create a "FAMILY White Hot Party" just like the Family Deck Party. In the kids club, they have a "White Hot Theme" crafts - but no dancing. So the kids crew said that the kids leave to go to the WHP to dance because there is no dancing at the White Hot Night at the kids crew. So it would be great to either see a Family White Hot Party (it can be on another night, I am not picky) -- or add a dance party to the Kids Crew schedule - not just white crafts & games for the White Hot Night in the Kids Crew

 

WHITE HOT NIGHT VIDEO, Click on photo to PLAY...

 

[nikimouse]

where was the party held? what time did it start?

im kinda glad thats its an adults, and not family party because im leaveing my kids at home! :D

I really cant wait to cruise NCL and im really enjoying your review.

[Sauer-kraut]

I have read threads here that say that they did have a 'family friendly' WHP and the adults were disappointed because they wanted an all adult one.

I think that I have also read where they had a junior one early in the evening so that the kids could dance and then be whisked away to bed before the adults only could take place.

[outtoseacruise]

Afraid? Eeek! I wouldn't be afraid. I don't know about your last experience but ours was on NCL Norway and our experience on Gem was far ABOVE the one on Norway, like comparing apples and watermelons. ;) How was your last experience scary?

Was just a bad overall experience embarkation which took 2 hours longer with long lines and staffing issues at embarkation all the way to the dining situation with cold soup and half a lobster tail. It ended with a prolonged debarkation because of an extremely low tide.

We would like to give NCL a try on the Epic. I will keep reading your posts.

[coka]

Still reading and enjoying very much Michele! Generally, the white hot party used to be adults only...however, in the last few years they have family and children for the first hour of the whp...then afterwards it becomes adult. I will take a guess that it depends on the number of children/families onboard. It appears your sailing did not have many children hence they did not do it that week. Again, it varies from week to week from ship to ship and the number. Even so, a request can be made (at cruise critic meet and greet...or through the "Ask Hotel Director" box at reception desk) and they can get one together if the current week's plan does not call for it.

 

Also good to see one side of the buffet was open during the chocoholic buffet. On my sailing the buffet was closed that evening...so we too had chocolate for dinner! Yummy!

 

coka

[mitsugirly]

WALK OF SHAME (with video)!

 

The "ALL ABOARD" was scheduled for 4:30pm "Bermuda Time"

 

**NOTE** Bermuda Time is one hour ahead of EST - so we all had to move our clocks ahead the day before.

 

So the entire family heads back to the cabin to watch what we have now dubbed, the "Walk of Shame".

 

At 4:35, there were some stragglers. Then NCL accounced the name of a couple "If you are onboard, please call"...

 

I see the gangway is still out. So that means that we have some no shows. We wait...and wait...and wait

 

A little after 5pm, we see the ferry pull in and 2 crew members jump into a little car and ZOOM over to the ferry dock - they hurry the two passengers into the car and then zip right back over the ship and then those two passengers have to now take their Walk Of Shame to the jeers and cheers of the entire waiting Gem...

 

 

 

I tried SO HARD to get one of these videos. Sitting patiently with my camera/video ready to roll....and....nothing. :( There were 2 ports that they were calling for names. We waited not only past the time we were suppose to be PULLING OUT but once there was several people that came later than they were suppose to and still 3 people missing. We waited an extra 30-45 minutes before pulling out. I was so sure that I was going to get some video of people running toward the gangway as we sailed away. :p

[coka]

Mitsugirly, I forgot to mention that I really think you would love the Gem!

 

coka

[FLSteve11]

Yes, you are absolutely correct. I could see this be VERY appealing to anyone who wants to remain close to the ship. And if the weather had been better, I could see that it would have been very nice there. :D

 

We didn't go onto the beach, but I saw it and took some pictures of it from on top of the wall of the Museum (the wall of the fort you see behind the beach/water in one of your pictures). If you're interested in that perspective I could email them to you.

[mitsugirly]

Mitsugirly, I forgot to mention that I really think you would love the Gem!

 

coka

 

I'm thinking you are right. I had originally looked at pictures of the STAR to go to Bermuda because I loved the look of it. Now I'm starting to doubt my decision.

 

 

Cruisinmama....have you ever been on the STAR before? :confused:

[elbodans]

you answered two of my questions--thanks! one was 'should i go to snorkel park' (no) and the other was 'will there be a chocolate fountain at any point' (it seems like the answer to that is no as well, as i didn't see one in your pics--and i know by now that you are very thorough...especially when it comes to food pics! though i suppose a chocolate fountain on a SHIP could end up being really messy--duh!)

 

in reading this, i'm getting more and more excited about my own trip...four days from now! :eek:

[crusinmama06]

Great review Michele. Very much enjoying reading it. We'll be boarding the Gem this Sunday. :D

 

Ohhh I wish I was going with you! Have a wonderful time!!! :D

 

where was the party held? what time did it start? im kinda glad thats its an adults, and not family party because im leaveing my kids at home! :D I really cant wait to cruise NCL and im really enjoying your review.

 

The White Hot Party for this cruise was held in Bliss and it started at 11:30 p.m (Night 6) and goes till "whenever"

 

Don't forget your white clothes! It doesn't matter if its just a white t-shirt, or a white dress - but its the white clothes that make the party VERY cool. ;)

 

I have read threads here that say that they did have a 'family friendly' WHP and the adults were disappointed because they wanted an all adult one.

 

I think that I have also read where they had a junior one early in the evening so that the kids could dance and then be whisked away to bed before the adults only could take place.

 

Yes, I agree and totally understand that the adults don't want the kids at their WHP. And I was talking to the kids crew about this. I think it would be great to see a "Junior WHP" - because then they could just make the WHP 18+ (which this one wasn't) and they could keep everyone happy. :D

[crusinmama06]

Was just a bad overall experience embarkation which took 2 hours longer with long lines and staffing issues at embarkation all the way to the dining situation with cold soup and half a lobster tail. It ended with a prolonged debarkation because of an extremely low tide. We would like to give NCL a try on the Epic. I will keep reading your posts.

 

Ohhh yeah that sounds like some unusual experiences. I would try Epic. I didn't have delayed boarding, long lines, or cold soup. ;) And I am excited to try Epic. :D

 

Still reading and enjoying very much Michele! Generally, the white hot party used to be adults only...however, in the last few years they have family and children for the first hour of the whp...then afterwards it becomes adult. I will take a guess that it depends on the number of children/families onboard. It appears your sailing did not have many children hence they did not do it that week. Again, it varies from week to week from ship to ship and the number. Even so, a request can be made (at cruise critic meet and greet...or through the "Ask Hotel Director" box at reception desk) and they can get one together if the current week's plan does not call for it.

 

Also good to see one side of the buffet was open during the chocoholic buffet. On my sailing the buffet was closed that evening...so we too had chocolate for dinner! Yummy!

 

coka

 

Thanks coka! As always, you are a wealth of information! I will try on our next sailing to see if we can get a junior WHP going separate from the adults. :D And yes, both sides of that buffet were open. It was a great night!

 

I tried SO HARD to get one of these videos. Sitting patiently with my camera/video ready to roll....and....nothing. :( There were 2 ports that they were calling for names. We waited not only past the time we were suppose to be PULLING OUT but once there was several people that came later than they were suppose to and still 3 people missing. We waited an extra 30-45 minutes before pulling out. I was so sure that I was going to get some video of people running toward the gangway as we sailed away. :p

 

LOL...I have been VERY lucky with those videos on my past few cruises. The last one I was laughing so hard my video was shaking because my friend was screaming so loud, she had the entire Deck laughing. {she's the bad one ;)}

[jazzinj]

Thank you so much. How did you know I was wondering about the courtyard as well? ;) I have a month to go, but can't help but notice that there are LOTS of cabins still left on our cruise so I am thinking an upsell is possible. It will be a tough decision because we love the B1 and have sailed in them the lat 4 cruises. But I'd love to get a look at that courtyard.

 

Me too!!!

[crusinmama06]

I'm thinking you are right. I had originally looked at pictures of the STAR to go to Bermuda because I loved the look of it. Now I'm starting to doubt my decision. Cruisinmama....have you ever been on the STAR before? :confused:

 

Nope, never been on Star before. I am sure it's just as wonderful as Gem. :D No worries!

 

you answered two of my questions--thanks! one was 'should i go to snorkel park' (no) and the other was 'will there be a chocolate fountain at any point' (it seems like the answer to that is no as well, as i didn't see one in your pics--and i know by now that you are very thorough...especially when it comes to food pics! though i suppose a chocolate fountain on a SHIP could end up being really messy--duh!)

 

in reading this, i'm getting more and more excited about my own trip...four days from now! :eek:

 

WAIT! YES, there IS a chocolate fountain!!! HOLY MOLY YES! And on the Chocoholics buffet night, they had TWO, Milk Chocolate and WHITE Chocolate Fountain. They dip things like HUGE marshmallows on sticks. It's located at the ice cream place in the buffet.

 

WOW - I didn't tell you about the ice cream did I?

 

ICE CREAM - HAND DIPPED - NO ADDED CHARGE! Flavors from Rocky Road (my kid's favorite) to vanilla, chocolate, orange sherbet, etc. And then you can add all of your favorite toppings.

 

I can't tell you how many times we stopped here because it would be downright embarrassing. :o Other cruise lines charge for their hand dipped ice cream - NCL does not and it was a nice surprise.

 

We didn't go onto the beach, but I saw it and took some pictures of it from on top of the wall of the Museum (the wall of the fort you see behind the beach/water in one of your pictures). If you're interested in that perspective I could email them to you.

 

Feel free to post them here Steve, would love to see them :)

[searoses]

bet i've read over 100 reviews over the years and yours is in the top 5. thanks so much for taking the time to take pics and give all the details.....

[mitsugirly]

Nope, never been on Star before. I am sure it's just as wonderful as Gem. :D No worries!

 

 

 

WAIT! YES, there IS a chocolate fountain!!! HOLY MOLY YES! And on the Chocoholics buffet night, they had TWO, Milk Chocolate and WHITE Chocolate Fountain. They dip things like HUGE marshmallows on sticks. It's located at the ice cream place in the buffet.

 

WOW - I didn't tell you about the ice cream did I?

 

ICE CREAM - HAND DIPPED - NO ADDED CHARGE! Flavors from Rocky Road (my kid's favorite) to vanilla, chocolate, orange sherbet, etc. And then you can add all of your favorite toppings.

 

I can't tell you how many times we stopped here because it would be downright embarrassing. :o Other cruise lines charge for their hand dipped ice cream - NCL does not and it was a nice surprise.

 

 

 

Feel free to post them here Steve, would love to see them :)

 

 

And the chocolate fountains look like this:

 

[crusinmama06]

And the chocolate fountains look like this:

 

 

Yep, thaaaat's it!!! Thanks mitsugirly! :D On the Gem, they had it behind the ice cream stand - so you just had to ask for whatever you wanted dipped. It was probably for sanitary purposes. ;)

 

And for those of you who have never been on a NCL cruise or haven't been on one in years (like me) - I didn't get all of the references to

 

WASHY WASHY - HAPPY HAPPY - SMILIE SMILIE

 

Until I stepped onboard. THEN I got it!

 

When you walk into the buffet area, you will encounter the MOST PLEASANT ladies with hand sanitizer sprays and they will greet you with...

 

WASHY WASHY -- HAPPY HAPPY - SMILIE SMILIE

 

and added variations of

 

COFFEE COFEE!

 

and to my kids...

 

NO SCHOOLY SCHOOLY!!!! :D

 

You would think it was annoying but it was endearing. We are still saying it around here.

[family cruisers]

I am at the best part of your review " Chocolate buffet !!!

 

We first tried this on NCL"S Crown twice to bermuda and it was fantastic and left me in the real chocolate heaven.

Then on the Dawn it was so disappointing as it was not well organized. Ran out of dishes while waiting in huge lines, By the time we got up front nothing good was left and nothing being filled in as well.

 

Your pics and comments make it seem as if it all went smoothly ?

I"m excited now .

 

And yes ~ I'm loving your entire review with pix . You have a beautiful family . Thanks for sharing them with us on CC !

 

Carrie

 

Nope, never been on Star before. I am sure it's just as wonderful as Gem. :D No worries!

 

 

 

WAIT! YES, there IS a chocolate fountain!!! HOLY MOLY YES! And on the Chocoholics buffet night, they had TWO, Milk Chocolate and WHITE Chocolate Fountain. They dip things like HUGE marshmallows on sticks. It's located at the ice cream place in the buffet.

 

WOW - I didn't tell you about the ice cream did I?

 

ICE CREAM - HAND DIPPED - NO ADDED CHARGE! Flavors from Rocky Road (my kid's favorite) to vanilla, chocolate, orange sherbet, etc. And then you can add all of your favorite toppings.

 

I can't tell you how many times we stopped here because it would be downright embarrassing. :o Other cruise lines charge for their hand dipped ice cream - NCL does not and it was a nice surprise.

 

 

 

Feel free to post them here Steve, would love to see them :)

[mitsugirly]

And for those of you who have never been on a NCL cruise or haven't been on one in years (like me) - I didn't get all of the references to

 

WASHY WASHY - HAPPY HAPPY - SMILIE SMILIE

 

Until I stepped onboard. THEN I got it!

 

When you walk into the buffet area, you will encounter the MOST PLEASANT ladies with hand sanitizer sprays and they will greet you with...

 

WASHY WASHY -- HAPPY HAPPY - SMILIE SMILIE

 

 

 

They did not do this on the Epic. Everyone told me about it and I waited for it on the Spirit. Then...it never came. All the ladies with the hand sanitizer just stood there with a smile and held the bottle up to spray your hands. I never once heard them say the famous "washy washy".

 

I found it very strange, the layout of the Spirit, because you would get off the elevators and if you were just trying to go outside to the deck, you had to walk a few feet into the dining room and out the door (which is where this washy hand lady stood, getting you to wash your hands). Just weird.

 

HOWEVER, the guy (I'm not sure what his rank was but he always had a white outfit on and went around talking and greeting everyone and at night he was dressed in a suit-this was the buffet area). In the mornings he would yell LOUDLY "wakey wakey, eggs and bakey". He was such a nice guy and always put a smile on our face. :)

[crusinmama06]

Your pics and comments make it seem as if it all went smoothly ?

I"m excited now .

 

And yes ~ I'm loving your entire review with pix . You have a beautiful family . Thanks for sharing them with us on CC !

 

Carrie

 

Yes, VERY smooth! We went to dinner at about 6pm, maybe a little later and encountered no real lines. (I have to say that is what I liked about NCL, it's comparable to what I am used to on RCI, I never found myself waiting in lines for anything)

 

The kids had their kids buffet dinner on the same night. So the Kids Crew took the kids to the Kids Cafe (no, they didn't get to eat the chocaholics buffet, I asked..lol. The kids crew said that they figured that mom and dad would bring them later, so we did)

 

So then later that night we picked up the kids at 9:30pm and we took THEM to the chocaholics buffet and everything was still full. Still no lines. We saw smeone take a plate of about a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, so we waited a few minutes and they refilled them.

 

We did not try the chocolate coverered SUSHI. Did you see that? :eek:

[mitsugirly]

 

We did not try the chocolate coverered SUSHI. Did you see that? :eek:

 

Let me start by saying 1) I've never ate sushi and 2) I don't like chocolate UNLESS it's white chocolate (yes, I'm weird. I don't eat steak either). Anyhow, for some reason, I decided to grab a piece that night. Let's just say I spit it out real fast. NOT good at all. :o

[family cruisers]

Sounds like this will be great (for me :) ) .

Re: sushi ~ YUK. I don't care what it's covered in , not my thing.

 

Thanks again !

 

Carrie

 

Yes, VERY smooth! We went to dinner at about 6pm, maybe a little later and encountered no real lines. (I have to say that is what I liked about NCL, it's comparable to what I am used to on RCI, I never found myself waiting in lines for anything)

 

The kids had their kids buffet dinner on the same night. So the Kids Crew took the kids to the Kids Cafe (no, they didn't get to eat the chocaholics buffet, I asked..lol. The kids crew said that they figured that mom and dad would bring them later, so we did)

 

So then later that night we picked up the kids at 9:30pm and we took THEM to the chocaholics buffet and everything was still full. Still no lines. We saw smeone take a plate of about a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, so we waited a few minutes and they refilled them.

 

We did not try the chocolate coverered SUSHI. Did you see that? :eek: