Gem 7/20 Review

[callmebetty]

Here is the beginning. I am trying to make sections. There was nothing negative that would keep me from cruising NCL again, just some oddities that made things more interesting. Take my sarcasm throughout the review as good natured humor! We will be looking for a new itinerary for the next trip since we have done this one 3 times. I am literally sick after leaving this time, sniffles turned into full blown head cold overnight so I have come crashing back into reality :(

Without further delay...

 

Embarkation

We left Wallingford, CT at 8:30 on Saturday. After a quick trip to the gas station where I realized I committed a CC sin and left without our tickets and slot play coupons, we came back home, gathered the documents I left on the coffee table so I wouldn’t forget them, and we were on our way. Traffic wasn’t too bad, though we got lost and took a detour through Harlem. Crack kills (I’m not talking about the drug folks…). That’s all I will say. Checked our bags and a shrink-wrapped 32 pack of Diet Coke with the porters and headed inside. Security was quick and while waiting I met a fellow CCer that recognized me by my blue beads. There was no wait for the suite check in and we made our way to the little room. We were escorted on board after a very short wait, I had enough time to use the restroom and have a little sandwich quarter. We were taken on board and up to the concierge lounge. After about 5 minutes we were shown into Cagney’s for lunch. More on that to come in the Food section. Immediately following lunch, our room was ready! We made our way to 10164 and got into vacation mode.

Sail Away, Muster, and Luggage

DH really wanted a shower so he did that while I popped up to Bali Hai bar to look for roll call members. I didn’t find any, but the party was in full swing! Keep in mind while in NYC and Florida, you will be charged taxes at the applicable state rate. A Corona Light and a Grolsch came to 11.59 with tax and gratuity. I returned to the room to find DH sporting a lovely waffle weave robe since luggage had not yet arrived. He ended up putting his travel clothes back on since wearing a robe to the muster is probably frowned upon….

Muster was quick, but the organization was a little strange. We were in the back of Grand Pacific. It was difficult to maneuver around all the chairs and tables to get there. The informational portion was about a minute long and we were done.

After muster, I hopped back up to Bali Hai and did another check for roll callers. I got some nice video and actually got teary-eyed as we passed the Statue of Liberty to the music of Lee *********. I think I was the only sap to cry on Day 1 of the cruise….

Watched NY disappear from our little slice of heaven in the aft corner. My luggage arrived at 4:30. DH was not so lucky, he finally got dressed around 5:30, and the Diet Coke arrived sometime between 6 and 10 with one can having escaped.

Stateroom

We were in PH 10164. This is a beautiful suite since there is a neighbor on only one side and nothing but boat on the other. We met our butler and asked for some pillows that were a bit more firm. The pillows and the bed were heavenly! I love the double entry closet. We had a coffee maker with pods and a wide array of tea and espresso. The fridge was stocked with half and half. Our balcony had 2 lounge chairs, a small table, and 3 regular chairs. Since there were only 2 of us, we brought one of the chairs into the room to give us a bit more space out there. The only strange thing about the aft balcony is that we would wake up to random items out there each morning. Butter seemed to be a recurring offender. There were definitely 3 days where I awoke to a few packages of butter on the balcony. After waking up late the first day and finding little pools of melted butter, I was careful to get up before the sun to inspect for others! Another day was an empty nip of Jim Beam, some straws, etc. Nothing major, and it was kind of fun to see what I would find! Either someone was having a party on our balcony each night, or they were droppings from the food realm, which was 2 decks above.

The room is also located across from a storage closet. It was generally quiet and I heard very little noise. I have to ask...whose idea it was to put a scale in the bathroom????

Balcony door note- in order to keep the door closed when out on the balcony, you have to open the door and the pull the handle to so it is vertical. This makes it a little harder to close, but will keep it from banging around.

[francina]

Nice so far. Can't wait for more.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[DPurcell58]

Waiting for more!

[spidybabe]

More please more....

We are leaving this sat--happy dance, and again in Jan

Do you remember any staff basically casino bar staff??

We have balcony this trip and aft balcony in Jan... last time we had aft balcony we used to find bread...guess they sent you the butter lol

Safe sailing

[Two@Sea]

We have 10164 on the Gem next year... so am anxiously awaiting every single word!!! :)

[callmebetty]

Ports

We only got off the ship in Nassau. As I said, this was our third time doing this itinerary. For the third time in a row, it rained during the afternoon while we were in Florida. Thunder and lightening closed the pool, foiling our plans to swim on a quiet ship. We chose not to do GCS because the tender process is just not our cup of tea, even with priority tender tickets.

Nassau…how I love this port! We got off the ship around 11 and headed directly to Junkanoo beach. This is a beautiful public beach, dotted with little beach bars. We looked forward to returning this year to see Keisha, but she is not there. The people that are now there were nice, but it just wasn’t the same. Inflation has driven the price of coconut drinks (fresh coconut split open, mixed with alcohol and juice, and poured back in) from the 3 for $10 that we paid last year to $8 each. They did have a deal that gave 3 beers and 3 shots for 10, which seemed to be a decent price. We ran into some fellow CCers and decided to make the journey to the mac and cheeses mecca called Candies. We walked a bit and asked a security man where to catch a bus. He brought us across the street and we immediately got on the #2 bus headed to the Fish Fry area. For $1.25 a person this is a great way to travel. We got to Candies and opted to sit outside. Between the 4 of us we had 2 orders of Conch fritters, 4 sides of mac and cheese, a diet coke, a coke, a Kalik beer, and a mixed frozen drink. The guys ended up eating mot of the fritters. They had a kick to them and the pieces of conch were a bit rubbery for my liking (I don’t generally do seafood). Oh, the mac and cheese. It is just so darn good. I can’t explain why a tropical island makes such awesome mac and cheese, but don’t miss it. I was shocked to find the bill was $25! Unbelievably cheap ☺ Beware of the ladies with necklaces. They remembered me from last year and left us alone, but they put a "free" necklace around your neck and then tell you there is a recommended donation of $10 for the disabled children.

We waddled back to Junkanoo beach, choosing to walk the mile, which went by very quickly! At one point we veered off the sidewalk and onto the sand because there was crane moving a big metal bar. DH and I swam for a bit, bought some Canips, which are tiny little limes that have a very interesting inside. You have to pop them open and scrape the fruit off of the pit with your teeth. It is kind of like trying to eat the pulp off of a mango pit but 10 times smaller. We enjoyed these, hit the straw market, and got back on the boat.

 

Pools/Hot Tubs

I have to say, there was not a single time I saw a child in the adult pool! One young boy attempted to get in, but his mother put him in his place and sent him on his way to the proper pool. She said something to the effect of “Boy, you need to get yourself out of this pool. You ahve your own over there” Three cheers to that Mom!. One of the hot tubs was not bubbling, no big deal, moved to the other. I was enjoying myself until a couple joined me with another lady that was video taping their every move. They then go the idea to prop the camera next to the steps and tape the entire hot tub. Being in a bikini, with my hair all straggly, and no make up on prompted me to exit this video. I probably wrecked every chance I had to make my YouTube debut and become ridiculously famous (or infamous).

 

The Waterslide (or was it?)

I am not a small person, but I am not a large person either. I am probably a medium sized person, on a good day hitting 5 foot 5.5 and wearing a size 6. Somehow, I got stuck on the waterslide. I had to propel myself with my arms and legs and crab walk my way down the slide. I did everything my husband told me to, I gathered momentum and flung myself from the bar at the top, but came to a screeching halt. I was not the only one to do this. There was one poor gent with his daughter on his lap that encountered the same problem.

 

Back to the pools- On a rare occasion, DH joined me. We felt as if we were Thanksgiving turkeys being brined, it was that salty. After about 20 minutes, DH had to get out because his sensitive eyes were swelling. I found that I could not touch and keep my head above water. Luckily there are railings you can hook onto around the sides of the pool. you can also use them to propel yourself like a rocket across the pool, effectively beating a significant other in a race! I did enjoy laying on the edge where there was about 3 inches of water.

[callmebetty]

Shopping

We did all of our shopping on board. We got a 4.5 liter bottle of Johnny Black with swing stand for my dad. We bought this the first day for a total of $143.99 after the 10% discount. We also purchased liters of the following

Absolut- 2 for 35

Jameson 2 for 39

Great Stirrup Rum 2 for 20

Baileys Caramel and Biscotti 2 for 30

 

Camel Crush- 34.99 a carton

Marb lights- 34.99 a carton

We wanted Parliaments but they only came in a 2 carton pack for 74.99 which was one carton too many for our friends at home.

 

I collect Swarovskis. My collection started 6 crisess ago when DH surprised me with the Gangs of New York dog collection. I am now up to 28 pieces and to my dismay, the selection was rather meager on board. I did not get a new piece this time around.

 

Casino

 

We booked through CAS. We had a letter in our room telling us to get our free drink card in the Casino. We went down and got our card, which was good for all house brands. This meant no Jameson and we were limited to Merlot or Cabernet for red wine. Once we got to know the bartender and server, the rules occasionally relaxed, but I was more than happy to drink modified Dark and Stormies that fit the criteria. DH had Seagrams or Jim Beam instead of Jameson. We tended to stick to Mojitos, Corona Lights (I think they are classified as light because they are smaller than the regular Cornoas lol), and Mimosas.

 

We played, we had a good time, and we drank. We met some fun people. We had a slot pull with some of our CC friends. We ended up playing 65 spins on the Wheel of Fortune. Out of those spins, we got one bonus spin. To me, it was worth the $21 per person to have a little gambling fun where interaction with others was more important.

I heard a few jackpots (1200-9000) announced throughout the week. We didn’t do any of the tournaments. As I said during a previous review, I think it is a bit crazy to extend the tournament through 3 sea days. Something new this year- they do not guarantee a $500 prize, they now say you can win up to $500. First prize for the Hold Em tournaments ranged from 1100-1350 which we did not play. Again, the rakes during the cash games were insane.

More Hearts and More Chillies were gone. There were some fun Oriental inspired games involving beasts and dragons by the Wheel machines. They were much more enjoyable once we figured out how to change the language from Chinese to English!

I ventured over to the Craps table one night while DH was playing Hold Em. I was having a grand old time until some of the male players kept trying to take my turns at rolling. Granted I rolled a 7 six times in a row at the beginning of my roll, but if they had bet the pass line like I did, they might not have complained so much. I turned my 10 into $100 during this time and had a great time apparently being a female that is not as skilled as my male counterparts.

I enjoyed speaking with the beverage servers, slot attendants, and bartenders. It was so nice to be welcomed into the casino every day and have time to chat with them. Again, we did not meet the casino host. We were definitely smaller fish this trip. We are just shy of making the next tier. Due to the April-March constraints, we will not make the next level since I have a crazy little thing called teaching that won’t let me cruise until next summer. Considering how low our charges were, taking the chance to win while drinking for free worked out for us. We still came out ahead when taking into consideration the discount on the room, the ridiculous amount we drank, and the credit to our bill (which will arrive as a check sometime this decade).

 

Martini Tasting

 

We attended with the super fun ILOVEVAC people from CC (shout-out to our gamers!). DH and I spilt one because in the past, 5 martinis have done me in. We were confused at first, moving from chairs, to the bar, back to chairs, to a table. Eventually we got the first martini which was a Melon Ball. It did not come in a standard martini glass like in the past, but a stemless kind of martini/rocks glass. The second was the Classic Cosmo. The third was a pear pleasure. The last was a Chocolate Raspberry. The host tried to lure us back saying there would be 4 different martinis (while holding up 5 fingers). Due to the fact both men needed a nap after this tasting, DH and I opted out.

[callmebetty]

I almost forgot..

We were onboard waiting to leave Nassau when the captain came on over the loud speaker. He announced a passenger had an accident and they were awaiting an ambulance, which should delay us 20 minutes and that we would be on time to return to New York (who really cares about being on time when there is a medical issue?). An hour later, the cruise director came on and said "As the captain announced moments ago, we are waiting for an ambulance to disembark a passenger that had an accident".

I did not care about the delay. The only thing I kept asking DH is that if this passenger needs to be disembarked, why has it been over an hour for the ambulance to get here? A member of the purser's desk kept coming out to check and at one point told us "The medical services work on Bahama time".I sincerely hope that the delay did not affect the passenger. An hour and 20 minutes later, an ambulance arrived. It was very sad to see their bags being loaded onto the golf cart and the whole family coming out to leave with the ambulance. It appeared to be mom, dad, young son, and a passenger/patient. I hope everything turned out well and my heart goes out to them. We never did hear anything else, but no news is good news in my opinion.

[boopsahoy]

Gem is our happy place, especially the casino! Enjoying your review-any new games?

[callmebetty]

Boopsahoy- there were the new dragon games with some fun bonus features near the wheel of fortune machines. They are bright, loud, and crazy!

There were some new quick hit machines, both 1 and 2 cents.

 

Keep us updated- we did see some wooden crates in Florida being loaded onto the boat addressed to the attention of Demetrius in the casino. He confirmed they were waiting for new machines!

 

I was sad to see More Hearts and More Chilis be replaced with Whales of Cash, Tiki Torch, and Sun and Moon. Banana King has been spread out and multi-game machine put in their place by the bar.

[boopsahoy]

Boopsahoy- there were the new dragon games with some fun bonus features near the wheel of fortune machines. They are bright, loud, and crazy!

There were some new quick hit machines, both 1 and 2 cents.

 

Keep us updated- we did see some wooden crates in Florida being loaded onto the boat addressed to the attention of Demetrius in the casino. He confirmed they were waiting for new machines!

 

I was sad to see More Hearts and More Chilis be replaced with Whales of Cash, Tiki Torch, and Sun and Moon. Banana King has been spread out and multi-game machine put in their place by the bar.

 

 

Thanks for the info! We did see those machines that could be set to Chinese! It took us a while to figure out how to change them:o

[NayRN]

Boopsahoy- there were the new dragon games with some fun bonus features near the wheel of fortune machines. They are bright, loud, and crazy!

There were some new quick hit machines, both 1 and 2 cents.

 

Keep us updated- we did see some wooden crates in Florida being loaded onto the boat addressed to the attention of Demetrius in the casino. He confirmed they were waiting for new machines!

 

I was sad to see More Hearts and More Chilis be replaced with Whales of Cash, Tiki Torch, and Sun and Moon. Banana King has been spread out and multi-game machine put in their place by the bar.

 

Finally....new games! I'm boarding in 12 days and while I don't gamble enough to get free drinks or cruises, I gamble enough to get tired of the old slots!!:cool:

[tee99]

Thanks for the review! It was great! I can't wait till we set sail

[callmebetty]

There is more to come..namely the food...and the shows...

This head cold I have obtained is miserable. I am either allergic to my cat or not cruising. I am pretty sure it is the latte as it started the day after we visited Nassau, I have convinced DH to make me pasta which will be cooked and then mixed in a frying pan with olives and tomatoes while I drink a dirty martini. If you plan to do this on board, you need to get the olives from the salad bar and bring them over to the pasta station. I have a Bahamian dollar to tip him when he delivers my plate.

[callmebetty]

Food (day one)

I will begin with Cagney’s embarkation lunch- I ordered the strip(rare) with the truffle fries. DH ordered a burger with cheese (also known as a cheeseburger).To start, I had the chilled peach soup and he had the shrimp corn bisque. The first thing I thought was that I must notify cruise critic about the chilled soup! I could not detect the peach through the frapped liquid. It was like a thin milkshake with millions of bubbles! His soup was full of chewy corn and some rehydrated shrimp. The bread was crusty (aka stale) and made a mess of the tablecloth. The strip was barely pink in the middle and about a ¼ inch thick. The fries were limp and pale. I was not impressed. If I had a truffle pig along with me, they might have jumped overboard in search of a truffle scent since there were none oe my plate. DH’s burger was well done, but one would think this temperature would guarantee the cheese would be melted. The cheese was a perfect triangle and was cold, as was the burger. We did not see our server from the time after she took our order. We chalked it up to embarkation madness and left.

We had dinner delivered to the stateroom- I had French Onion au Gratin soup DH had the mushroom soup. There was no au gratin to speak of. There was a soggy crouton that sank like a wooden board at the end of Titanic. DH enjoyed his soup. The surf and turf (I traded my lobster tail for his steak) left us wanting more. I had 2 bites of the steak because again, my rare was just above well done (figured it had to do with coming from the dining room to our room)and the size of a clamshell. His lobster tails were overdone and could bounce off the walls (though I asked DH not to throw them!) I did enjoy the broccoli, but the potatoes were not cooked enough. Skipped dessert and called it a night foodwise.

 

Food (day 2)

Had breakfast at the buffet, I had some bacon, grilled tomatoes, capers, and cheese on an English muffin. I thought it was delicious. DH asked where I found such lovely bacon and I told him I sorted through the pieces until I found what I liked. They used to have crispy and soft bacon stations, but this time they did not I am a crispy person, and I will hunt for perfect pieces, much to the dismay of those behind me. In the future, I should probably send the butler down to do the dirty work for me. hahaha I am not a typical breakfast person. I hate eggs and pancakes and all the typical breakfast stuff. I was really looking forward to the chicken served during the poolside BBQ, but they ran out before I got there. Lunch was unremarkable. Not great, not terrible. Dinner was at Modernos. This deserves its own section

, which will come later. This is all for tonight as I have to go tip my cook!

[tee99]

Looking forward to hearing about Modernos- we are booked there one night also

[callmebetty]

Modernos

I absolutely adore Modernos. We made an 8:00 reservation. It was not very crowded, but there were a few bigger parties when we arrived. We were seated and ordered a bottle of Malbec after soliciting an opinion from a gentleman in a suit. I don’t think he was the sommelier because his phone kept ringing, but he definitely steered us in the right direction. I was stuck between the Diseno Malbec and the Estancia Meritage. The wine arrived and we headed to the salad bar. I have been looking forward to the salad bar since that year. There is a good selection of cheese, I loved the Bleu and the brie. There were artichoke heart, hearts of palm, some fish salads (DH liked them, I don’t like seafood), a roasted corn salad (the corn was a little chewy), roasted red, yellow, and green peppers, olives, herb roasted tomatoes, and some other standard salad bar stuff. There was also an assortment of different cured meats (I avoided them in anticipation of the meat that would be coming to the table). The dressings were bleu cheese, caesar, Italian, and a few others. I loved the Italian because it appeared to be a puree of some herbs and vegetables. I wish they would offer an option for just the salad bar during lunches. I would gladly pay a service charge for just this portion! There was also a seafood chowder and a Tuscan bean soup (which wasn’t labeled) with beans and perhaps chorizo in it.I added a bit of brie to the cup before adding the soup which made it a little creamy and really worked well! I did not eat any of the bread or rolls because I knew saving room is something I didn’t do last year.

After the salad, the meat parade began. DH liked the lamb chops (lamb is not my thing). We tried the two types of sausage (chorizo and linguica) by each getting one and swapping (again, trying to save room). I didn’t detect much of a difference between the two. There was filet mignon which was good, my piece had a lot more fat than the one DH got so I ended up commandeering his. The bacon wrapped chicken was not too salty and very tender. The garlic beef was just what the name implies. They sneak little bits of garlic into the meat before cooking it. It was delicious! There were pork ribs and beef ribs, both were good, though I preferred the pork and the way they were dry and stringy instead of fatty. Maybe I am strange, I like my pork to be more like jerky when it comes to ribs. The show stealer was the last cut of beef (a whole roast on a skewer that they sliced ).It was medium rare and to die for.

On to the sides. Rice, beans, mashed potatoes, and fried bananas. I skipped the rice and potatoes, again trying to save room. The beans had cilantro in them so I did not eat those either. There were also two sauces, one looked like chimichurri and the other a pico de gallo. Cilantro and I are not friends and the meat did not need any condiments in my opinion. Back to the bananas. I would eat these for a week straight. They were so kind to bring another side of them, and these were hot out of the fryer. Crunchy panko outside, gooey hot banana inside. Heaven in a side dish. The pineapple followed shortly after, but my heart belongs to those bananas. We left with the last of our wine in our giant wine glasses and ere pleasantly full, not over-stuffed and uncomfortable like we were last year. We did not see our waitress besides when she pointed us towards the salad bar and then collected our check. I think she was busy with the larger parties that arrived. It didn't bother us, but I did not leave an additional gratuity for her. I should also mention that because we were in Port Canaveral, we did pay tax on the wine, somewhere around $3.50 on top of the auto-grat.

[jaja]

absolutely loving your review...we will be on the Gem in October :)

[callmebetty]

Shows

We went to Donovan and Rebecca. Oh my goodness. They were incredible! They defy logic and are so very talented I cannot explain it. I want to to be as awestruck as I was so I will just say….Do not miss them!

I went to the retro show (can’t remember the name of it) and thought it was pretty good. We attended the Farewell show and again saw Donovan and Rebecca. Again they were fabulous. I wish I could delete the Fountains show from my brain. Dan the assistant cruise director has an amazing voice, and Phil Tag (the comedian) was pretty funny.

 

Chocolate Buffett

DH brought up a good point…is NCL truly trying to test the passengers by having the chocolate buffet the same night as the white hot party? We went to the buffet early, thanks to having a suite. We ran into our little CC group and snagged a table for the 7 of us. Took some pictures, enjoyed the chocolate sushi (not chocolate of fish involved), and tried a bite or two of other items. We chatted and had a little down time. There were some mind blowing chocolate sculptures, but they got a little melty pretty quick. A few of us decicded to head to the White hot Party.

 

White Hot Party

We popped in for a bit around 10:30. We watched the Flash Mob and the Angel dancers and then headed out. There were a lot of people that were all having fun, but dancing people generate heat and it was rather toasty in there! Everyone seemed to be having a good time though and if DH was more of a dancer (or even willing to set foot on a dance floor) we would have returned later when the adults only time rolled around.

[Fins2theleft]

Love the review, looked like lots of fun.

[Sauer-kraut]

The fries were limp and pale. I was not impressed. If I had a truffle pig along with me, they might have jumped overboard in search of a truffle scent since there were none oe my plate.

 

Cracked me up! The mental image formed in my brain is priceless....:D

[callmebetty]

Cracked me up! The mental image formed in my brain is priceless....:D

 

Thanks for the image. I was not quite sure what a truffle pig in water would look like! You are too funny!!!!

[tee99]

You said that you drove to the pier and we are also planning on driving ourselves and parking there. I was wondering about the security. Since anyone who parks there will obviously not be returning to their car for a week, are there locking gates or a guard on duty? I really loved your review! thank you~ now I'm super excited!

[Mr Robberts]

You said that you drove to the pier and we are also planning on driving ourselves and parking there. I was wondering about the security. Since anyone who parks there will obviously not be returning to their car for a week, are there locking gates or a guard on duty? I really loved your review! thank you~ now I'm super excited!

 

The gates to the pier are locked as the ship pulls out the guards cruise the dogs around one last time then the lock it up. I've also had to park out side the gate on the ramp and never a problem

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[tee99]

Me Robberts- Thanks for the info on the parking - puts my mind more at ease