May 25 Gem trip report-part 1 (Sat-Mon)

[DaveNH]

Since I got so much from other people's trip reports I thought I would share our experience this week. I don't call it a review as people look for and enjoy different things. It's merely my thoughts and observations. Hopefully some people will find this helpful or at least interesting.

 

The short story is that we (my wife, me and 18 and 19 year old boys) had a great time and met some great people. The boys spent almost all of the on-ship time on their own. We managed to steal them for shore excursions (Islands of Adventure, a cabana on GSC and Atlantis Aquaventure) and dinner most nights but that was about it.

 

So on with the report:

 

Saturday

 

An interesting start to the trip when our GPS couldn't find the cruise terminal as a point of interest. We entered the address and ended up about a half hour away by mistake. The smartphone had the terminal in it and took us through downtown which was actually a lot if fun. The kids got a kick out of it.

 

When we finally arrived at the terminal we were surprised when they had us park right on the street by the top of the escalator. Talk about a great parking spot.

 

The line to get to security was about a half hour, then the line to get to check in was about another half hour. Not a big deal as we were expecting it and we met a few people while we were on line. I was surprised at how long it took to get the drinking waiver for our 18 and 19 year old boys taken care of. They were really nice about it but acted like they had never done it before.

 

Very cold and windy in NY. It was raining as we went past the statue of Liberty which put a it of a damper on that.

 

We had eaten a late breakfast so really didn't eat any lunch. We checked out the rooms and met the steward. The bags were in the room by the time we got there the first time.

 

We had dinner at La Cucina. It was empty that night. Dinner was fine and the service good, but as it turned out it was the last dinner my wife and I paid extra for (one of the boys took a date there later in the week). We did learn that the apps and dinners are personal sized. Small portions but I guess you can order as many as you like of each. We liked that because it left room for late night snacks.

 

We went to the opening show later that night. The singing and dancing stuff is not really our cup of tea so I won't comment on it. The comedian (Phil Tag) did a short routine that was kind of weak (especially given that his full show was hilarious) and the acrobats did not make us want to come back to their show later that week.

 

I should mention that I am not including every time we stopped at one of the bars for a drink unless something of interest was going on. We saw numerous folks on pianos and in groups who I will try to remember as I go along. Some were better than others for us, but they are trying to reach a large target audience so I can appreciate that.

 

As an FYI, there was a great mix of ages on the ship. Lots of groups of young people traveling together, young married couples, middle aged couples and older folks. Our boys quickly hooked up with a couple different groups who they spent the week hanging out with to all hours of the night.

 

We found the ship to be in great shape. I guess newer ships may offer nicer amenities but everything was clean and showing no visible signs of age. We had two inside rooms on deck eleven aft. Sure they were small but perfectly functional and clean. No complaints at all with them. It is really dark though so you need to bring a clock that you can see or you will never know what time it is. I heard that you could tune the TV to the deck cam channel to simulate the sun coming up but that was down more often than not (as was ESPN International, which was down all week). Channels were basic cable news channels, BBC, a movie channel and a channel with TV shows on it. The rest were ship related channels.

 

Sunday

 

Not a great weather day so we spent the day learning our way around the ship. Being at the back of the ship on deck 11 worked great for us because it was one flight upstairs to the Garden Cafe, or more importantly to the Great Outdoors. The GO was awesome for us. Pop up for coffee and breakfast in the morning, a snack in mid afternoon and again on the way back to the room at the end of the night. We found it was really quick to go the entire length of the ship on deck 13 rather than fighting through the crowds on the lower decks.

 

I used the exercise room on each of the full sea days. The equipment was excellent and I never had to wait for a treadmill as there are a lot of them. No complaints there.

 

The best lunches we had were at the BBQ by the side of the pool.

 

We tried eating at Magenta for dinner but there was a wait and we were hungry so we tried the buffet. I can see how people don't like that for dinner. It was pretty uninspiring and forgettable. No big deal as we learned from that and ate in the MDRs for the rest of the week, which we really enjoyed.

 

The most memorable event of the day was the Not-So-Newlywed Game. I horrified my wife by raising my hand and then earning us a spot on the panel. This was billed as an 18 and older event but I apparently made Gem history with the first edited telecast on the cable channel. To be fair I didn't know we were being filmed for the ships TV channel. Sinan had them rewind the tape so if you were not there and caught the show on TV only you missed the good stuff. The people in the room sure seemed to think it was funny and my wife actually was giving the same answer when Sinan stopped her. I spent the rest of the week hearing people tell my wife in the elevator "Are you...? You are? I'm so sorry for you." We had a lot of fun with it all week and were stunned when we got back to the Room and saw it on TV (and a little disappointed it was edited but I understand why).

If you are wondering what this is all about just Google "funniest blooper in game show history". I don't think most of the people in the audience had seen it and sure brought down the house. I was so proud when my wife played along when they asked her the question.

 

Ah, good times. The boys got sick of hearing "wait, you're from NH, do you know...."

 

Monday

 

We had tickets for Islands of Adventure today. I know people think there is not enough time to do an entire park (especially on Memorial Day) but we have been there a few times and knew exactly what we wanted to do and had a plan so we were not too concerned. We wanted to hit Harry Potter (which we had never been on), do the 3 water rides and Spider-Man and were sure there would be no issue with that.

 

The big thing to know here is to pack a change of clothes, rent a locker and use the single rider lines. If you have to use the lockers at the rides it takes forever.

 

Anyway, the folks who do the tour have their act together. We were on the bus in a matter of minutes and an hour later were in the parking lot with instructions for heading back later.

 

We stopped for lunch at City Walk before we went it, then rented a locker. We walked over to Harry Potter, which was very crowded. The whole area was amazing to look at. There is no fast pass for the ride and I believe the sign said it was a 45 minute wait. We went through the single rider line and went right through with almost no wait at all. I think you need to be a HP fan to think the ride was great. It was dark and maybe it is purposely not too scary because it is aimed towards kids. I prefer Spider-Man or the Mummy any time. we then went on Jurassic Park (got a little wet), the Bilge Water Raft (got really wet) and the flume ride (got absolutely soaked). We went to the lockers and changed then did Spider-Man (again, the single rider line was basically a walk-on). After that we headed back to City Walk for a couple drinks and snacks before heading back to the ship around 7PM.

 

I can see that people may think that wasn't worth the money and I can appreciate that, but it was exactly what we wanted to do and planned on the expense so we enjoyed it. We were ready to get off the boat for the day at that point.

 

We did hear that people had a good day just paying the $7 to go down to the beach and shopping. They even bought booze to bring back on the ship and were not challenged by the crew.

 

Kudos to the crew that ran our excursion. It went off like clockwork.

 

We saw the Second City show that night and really liked it. We finished up in the Spinnaker most nights for whatever was going on. Bliss was for the younger crowd for the most part. We stopped in most nights but never for more than one drink.

 

We finished up at the Blue Lagoon. The food there is kind of blah, but who cares at 1 AM? They serve you food and that's all that matters.

 

More to come in the next couple days. Feel free to ask any specific questions you may have.

[coka]

OMG, I am laughing out loud because indeed that is the funniest moment on game show history...I always wanted to hear someone answer the same on a cruise ship so kudos to you and your wife!

 

Enjoying your thoughts on the Gem and the ports and look forward to reading more! Good tips so far!

 

coka

[sparks1093]

Howdy neighbor, thanks for the review! So if I am understanding things correctly you had 5-6 hours at Islands of Adventure?

[DaveNH]

Howdy neighbor, thanks for the review! So if I am understanding things correctly you had 5-6 hours at Islands of Adventure?

 

We arrived in the parking lot about 1:15 and got back on the bus at 7:00. The last bus left at 8:00.

[sparks1093]

We arrived in the parking lot about 1:15 and got back on the bus at 7:00. The last bus left at 8:00.

 

Thanks!

[jennyprovo]

We were on this cruise and enjoyed your game show moment:):)

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed this post.

 

Keith

[KJPG]

Thanks for this post. We'd wanted to do Islands of Adventure but the turn around time is shorter compared to other times we've had at Port Canaveral. Priced out the cost of the excursion versus doing it ourselves and it's only like $80 more (even less if we add in the cost of parking, rental car and gas). It's probably nearly even in the end with the plus side of extra time as we wouldn't have to pick up a car.

 

Just made our Large Fry a happy kid telling her that we were going to go. We went 3 years ago but got exited out of the Harry Potter section and didn't want to wait in the hour plus line to get back in.