You are subscribed to this thread May 25 Gem trip report-part 2 (Tues-Sat)

[DaveNH]

Tuesday

 

First off I should mention the coffee on board. I understand that tastes vary, but I can't imagine anyone liking the coffee that comes out of most of the coffee makers on the Gem. The good thing is that there some coffee makers that grind the coffee while you wait and it is infinitely better then the rest. I found 2 of them on the 12th floor, one on the right as you exit Garden Cafe into the Great Outdoors and another on the right of the beverage dispenser behind the bar in the GO. You'll now them by the button that says "press once and wait". You'll need to wait as it takes a good 20 seconds or so to work, but it is MUCH better. They tend to run out of coffee and clog sometime, but when they are up and running hey are worth searching out. Everyone I spoke with about the coffee said the same thing.

 

Day 4 was Great Stirrup Cay. We had rented a cabana so we had priority tender tickets.If you didn't have them you went to the pool and they handed them out first come first serve. It took about 20 minutes to get the first tender loaded and away from the boat. A short ride later got us to GSC.

 

Our boys had hooked up with a group of young ladies and invited them to join us. It was quite a bit of fun to have someone to gab with. We ordered a 12 pack with the $50 cabana credit and mostly hung out on that side of the beach. The cabana area is secluded from the man area that includes the large beach, barbecue area, a "straw market", volleyball area and the large slide. One of us used the slide once, but it is not included in the price of the cabana so the rest of us passed on it.

 

The BBQ was quite good and had plenty of choices. The market accepts cash only which we didn't carry all week. One of the boys mentioned he wished he had brought some as there were some cool shirts available there.

The weather turned rainy in the afternoon and everyone had to huddle under the food eating areas. We, of course, stayed in the cabana. The cabana had a few loungers, a bunch of towels, a fridge with a bunch of bottled water, towels and 4 water rafts. I would say it's kind of a tough call whether the cabana is worth it. If the budget is tight I would pass on it but if not it is really nice. They were all sold out.

 

The last thing I'd mention is that towards the end of the day there were some really annoying little bugs that showed up and hastened our departure.

 

GSC was a fun place to check out and even if the weather is iffy as it was this day it is worth making the trip.

 

That night we had dinner at the Grand Pacific and had a great eal and excellent service. I didn't see the value in spending an extra $60 to eat at La Cucina so we decided to stick with the MDRs for the rest of the trip.

 

I think the band (Kenosis) was supposed to play a rock party by the pool that night but I see to recall it was cancelled because of the weather. They played a lot all week and were terrific. There were certain things they were great at. They did the rock show later in the week and the Whitney Houston tribute which were both really great. I I kind of thought the Beatles tribute must have been a necessity because it didn't seem to be their sweet spot.

 

I can't really remember what the heck we did this night. I know we passed on the variety show and Dancing with the Gem Stars (which looked kind of fun on TV). I guess we just bar hopped and listened to whatever music was going on. We did that a lot.

 

Wednesday

 

Another bad weather day and we had excursion tickets for the Atlantis Aquaventure. Since it was main reason we came on the trip (our youngest boy's graduation present) we were going to suck it up and go unless they cancelled it. They did cancel a few of the excursions but not this one. You may remember how I praised the precision of the folks in Port Canaveral. If they got an A, these guys got a D+. It was a total mess. There was no plan at all. Maybe it was because a lot of people who cancelled other tours jumped on this, but getting off the ship and onto the shuttle was a mess. Please stop saying "form a single line" without explaining where the line should start and where it should go to a couple hundred people huddled in a small area in the rain. That said, they did get us there and back so they get a passing grade, just not a good one.

 

Atlantis was really cool and the weather held off long enough for us to go on all the rides before it started POURING. It would have been much better f we had all day and nice weather but what can you do? There were some really fun rides and the lines were not too bad because of the weather. They must be really bad on a good day though. I was kind of surprised that there were not more rides though. For some reason I thought it was bigger than the parks at Disney, but I think each of them has more rides than Atlantis.

 

I didn't do the "lazy river" because it was pouring by the time they got there, but the rest of the family loved it. It apparently is not lazy and has rapids and drops and was quite fun.

 

The biggest tip I would give here is to go straight to the lockers as fast as you can when the group arrives. We did and had to wait about 10 minutes for a locker. By the time we got ours the line has to be at least an hour long.

We grabbed some food at the fast food joint by the lockers and it was really good junk food. The chili cheese dogs were great (and big) and the fish sandwich my wife got looked really good.

 

We may have missed some stuff because we took off early because of the weather. At $89 it was well worth it and would be a great deal if you had time to use the beach and check out the aquarium etc.

 

Back on the ship we had dinner at Magenta. Again the experience was great. Good food and good service.

 

We went to see Phil Tag after dinner and he rocked the place. He was funny as hell. The kids went as well and they all said it was one of their favorite things of the week. After the show we saw Kenosis do the Whitney and Tina Turner tribute (really good) and the Liars Club game before heading to the Blue Lagoon before bed.

 

Thursday & Friday

 

Since both days were sunny sea days and we did the same thing for most of the day I'm going to combine the 2. Both days we had breakfast at the Great Outdoors (a fantastic place to sit outside and eat during good weather) then spent an hour on the treadmill. Then both days we spent 4-5 hours outside by the pool. It was indeed tough to get seats on these days if you did not get out early. By this time we were going with the flow and would reserve a couple chairs upstairs after breakfast. It still wasn't easy finding a couple at 10 AM.

 

We spent the day ordering drinks or buckets of beer. The continually have bands playing or are doing games or contests by the pool. The girls loved watching all the action and we read or listened to podcasts the rest of the day. We ate from the BBQ each day and really enjoyed it. We had a lot to drink and a lot of sun. 2 days was enough of it though. Another sea day would have been too much for us.

 

Thursday night we had dinner reservations with our new friends at the Grand Pacific (they take reservations for 8 or more I believe). We had a blast. The food was good and the service was great. One of our waitresses had to leave before dessert to work the buffet and apologized profusely. When we were walking trough the buffet later she pulled me aside and put together a tray with 10 chocolate covered strawberries to bring to the group.

 

Thursday was the White Out Party and it was fun to see all the women on the ship decked out and having a good time.

Friday night we had dinner at Magenta. We did not see the Farewell Variety show but people we spoke with said they really liked it.

 

We spent the night in the Spinnaker Lounge. The Beatles tribute was just okay, but they squeezed in the postponed rock show and it was great. But the Quest Game Show came up next and it was not to be missed. A lot of the younger people who had been spending time in Bliss showed up in the Spinnaker Friday and they all seemed to do this game. It was just hilarious and everyone had a great time. Then Second City finished the week for us with a scriptless show that was also fun. We enjoyed them ore than we thought we would.

 

Saturday

 

We chose to walk of with our luggage Saturday so we were packed and ready to go in the AM. I had everyone up by 7 AM. The Great Outdoors, which I had pretty much to myself all week was really crowded. We kept our luggage in the room until about 8:30 at the suggestion of our steward, had breakfast and were ready to jump online at 8:30. The line to get off the ship took about 20 minutes then the line to get through customs took about a half hour. Once we got to the car it was amazingly easy to get onto 95 north and end our vacation.

 

The last thing I will mention is that we spent a ton of money drinking. Not enough to warrant the beverage package for the adults because of the 3 excursion days, but it was a lot closer than I would have thought. Beers were $6 (or $30 for a bucket of 6) and drinks ran from $7 to $10.

 

Oh yeah, one last word for NCL. What's up with the beer selection? Can't you throw a couple decent microbrews on the menu somewhere? And a hint, Blue Moon does not qualify. I was really disappointed with that, but I did manage to soldier on with a mix of Molson, Heineken, Blue Moon and Corona. But beer drinking is a big part of my vacation and I would have loved to see something more interesting.

 

All in all we really had a great time. Thanks to all on the forum for your tips. I hope people find this useful. Feel free to post any questions you have.

[NoName]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts. I am not cruising on the Gem until December, so reading about her helps me pass the time.....

 

Kim