Gems Main dining room

[seaman11]

Is it that you just walk in and wait to be seated or is it best to make reservations? also is the menu the same in both main dining rooms? thanks all

Edited June 24, 2015 by seaman11

[cliffd64]

Is it that you just walk in and wait to be seated or is it best to make reservations? also is the menu the same in both main dining rooms? thanks all

 

If you are a party of 4 or less, reservations will never be required or needed, just arrive and you will be seated as soon as is possible.

 

Larger parties might want to arrange for reservations.

 

With the newish NCL Next menus, the main dining rooms all share the same menu.

[seaman11]

If you are a party of 4 or less, reservations will never be required or needed, just arrive and you will be seated as soon as is possible.

 

Larger parties might want to arrange for reservations.

 

With the newish NCL Next menus, the main dining rooms all share the same menu.

much appreciated thank you , will be a party of 2 only.

[Turtles06]

All good info above. I will add that on the Gem, I much prefer the larger MDR (Grand Pacific) because it's such a big, open, beautiful space with windows and you are clearly on a ship. I don't feel that way in Magenta (the smaller MDR).

 

 

Have a great cruise!

[fstuff1]

All good info above. I will add that on the Gem, I much prefer the larger MDR (Grand Pacific) because it's such a big, open, beautiful space with windows and you are clearly on a ship. I don't feel that way in Magenta (the smaller MDR).

 

Have a great cruise!

 

agree.. Grand Pacific > Magenta

 

also, it took a long time for food to come out at Magenta (the one time I ate there) even tho food comes from the same kitchen for both MDRs.

[seaman11]

nice tip , if anyone had an around the clock food option list for this ship that would be wonderful. also are there stil two formal nights in the /MDR?

[MICHLEV1974]

I just came off the Gem on Sunday 6/21/2015. We were a party of 5 and both Magenta and Grand Pacific told us that if you are a party of 8 then reservations can be made...anything short of 8 are not reserved.

 

We ate in both dining rooms for dinner...we found the service in both to be slow, but accommodating. The menus were the same in both. We typically dined between 630-730 and only waiting @ 15 mins or so to get a table for 5.

 

We loved the 24/7 service in O'Sheehans.... Buffalo Wings at anytime of the day! They have a pub menu so it's not buffet. loved it!! fast, quick, pub food: burgers, dogs, wings, chix sandwich, meatloaf, chix pot pie, dessert, apps...yum yum yum!

 

We also loved the Asian restaurant which is sit down dining-casual dress. You pay only for sushi rolls. Served family style. Very good...this one is like a step up from your local chinese buffet at home.

 

We paid to go to the Brazilian restaurant....can you say 'all you can eat meat'??? omg! people were dressed up but not formal wear. if you are a meat eater--you cannot miss this place!

 

Around the clock food options I would choose: Breakfast in Grand Pacific--views are amazing since it is AFT with full windows! Then head to the pool deck or buffet for lunch to enjoy all the activities outside. Snack time I would go to O'Sheehans, then enjoy dinner in Magenta. Late night desserts--you can usually find desserts on the AFT deck which is all the way through the other side of the buffet---we found this on day 3 and it's a lovely spot at night.

[DeltaOne]

I just came off the Gem on Sunday 6/21/2015.

 

We also loved the Asian restaurant which is sit down dining-casual dress. You pay only for sushi rolls. Served family style. Very good...this one is like a step up from your local chinese buffet at home.

 

We paid to go to the Brazilian restaurant....can you say 'all you can eat meat'??? omg! people were dressed up but not formal wear. if you are a meat eater--you cannot miss this place!

 

 

We were also on that cruise. The asian restaurant (Orchard Garden) was great. Two negatives: noise from Magnum's when the musician is playing makes conversation hard; cigar odor from the cigar store was not pleasant. Still, we ate there twice we liked it so much.

 

Moderno's, the brazilian restaurant, was a mixed bag. We felt the salad bar was fantastic, but the all meat all the time got old quick.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Paul from Maryland

[Turtles06]

nice tip , if anyone had an around the clock food option list for this ship that would be wonderful. also are there stil two formal nights in the /MDR?

 

NCL does NOT have "formal nights." They have a night that's called something like "dress up or not;" whatever it's called, I never notice it on NCL because NCL is a very casual cruise line. Yes, some folks get dressed up to have photos taken, but really, it's not a formal night, and there is zero need to dress up.

[Turtles06]

We were on the Gem in May (our second time on her) and were able to make MDR reservations for our party of five.

 

As for Orchid Garden, I'm glad people had a good experience there, but it was the only real negative on our entire cruise, so bad that I posted about it here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2207263&highlight=orchid+garden

 

As I said, we had a great cruise on the Gem in May, except for the Orchid Garden.

 

We'll be back aboard the Gem in February, and very much looking forward to it!

[MICHLEV1974]

We were also on that cruise. The asian restaurant (Orchard Garden) was great. Two negatives: noise from Magnum's when the musician is playing makes conversation hard; cigar odor from the cigar store was not pleasant. Still, we ate there twice we liked it so much.

 

Moderno's, the brazilian restaurant, was a mixed bag. We felt the salad bar was fantastic, but the all meat all the time got old quick.

 

I agree with the smell and the noise while in the Orchard Garden...

 

I agree with that awesome salad bar in Moderno's. But i did love the meat! haha.

 

It was a great cruise for our group! First timers with NCL. We usually go with Royal or Carnival out of FL.

[NYcruzzer]

We were on the Gem in May (our second time on her) and were able to make MDR reservations for our party of five.

 

As for Orchid Garden, I'm glad people had a good experience there, but it was the only real negative on our entire cruise, so bad that I posted about it here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2207263&highlight=orchid+garden

 

As I said, we had a great cruise on the Gem in May, except for the Orchid Garden.

 

We'll be back aboard the Gem in February, and very much looking forward to it!

 

Was on the 6/7 sailing. Dined at Orchid twice. Food was very tasty. Ordered multiple apps and entrees . I found the tables by the window much quieter. I actually enjoyed the live music. Reminded me of my earlier days on the Dawn where there was live music in the Atrium while we at the tex-mex restaurant on deck 8

[moonieelf]

The Gem is a little bigger than the Dawn, not much but a little. We were sailing with a party of four and we only had one night when we ate in a MDR (NCL's night out) where we had a wait. They gave us a voucher for a free drink while we waited for our table.

[earlbird]

All good info above. I will add that on the Gem, I much prefer the larger MDR (Grand Pacific) because it's such a big, open, beautiful space with windows and you are clearly on a ship. I don't feel that way in Magenta (the smaller MDR).

 

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Agree. We just got off our third cruise on the Gem, and the Grand Pavific is our dining room of choice.

It was, however, quite busy there the second night of the cruise. We spoke to Joseph, the maitre d', who we knew from previous cruises, and he made reservations for the two of us each night (although we really didn't need them).

If you find a server that you like early in the week, ask for him or her every night. It is nice to get to know your server, and you then seem to receive better service.

[MICHLEV1974]

Agree. If you find a server that you like early in the week, ask for him or her every night. It is nice to get to know your server, and you then seem to receive better service.

 

Thanks for mentioning this..i had no idea you could follow the server's schedule. i would have done that! i like the personalization in the dining room with Royal and felt that it was lost with NCL. Now I know how to go around that! thanks!

[earlbird]

Thanks for mentioning this..i had no idea you could follow the server's schedule. i would have done that! i like the personalization in the dining room with Royal and felt that it was lost with NCL. Now I know how to go around that! thanks!

 

Our server last week, Arish, was great.

Actually service was a little too fast (not complaining). We were usually finished with dinner in about an hour.

[seaman11]

All good info above. I will add that on the Gem, I much prefer the larger MDR (Grand Pacific) because it's such a big, open, beautiful space with windows and you are clearly on a ship. I don't feel that way in Magenta (the smaller MDR).

 

 

Have a great cruise!

 

 

thank you for the suggestion i ate all regular meals i could in GP. i also like the am-bonce better.

[Turtles06]

thank you for the suggestion i ate all regular meals i could in GP. i also like the am-bonce better.

 

Glad to hear that. And thanks for taking the time to come back and let us know!

[Demonyte]

Thanks for mentioning this..i had no idea you could follow the server's schedule. i would have done that!

 

This is almost a month old post but I need to clarify that you can ask for the same server every night but it might not happen.

 

On many recent cruises we have had great waiters that we have asked for later on the cruise but their work schedules do rotate (one time a waiter started their shift when we already were eating our entrees) and they are not necessarily even assigned to a specific station every night (we have had this happening too on several cruises).

[Studebaker59]

We prefer Magenta because it's midship and easier to walk to the theatre for the show afterwards. The theatre is on the same deck. On some NCL ships, it's called the Aqua restaurant.