NCL Gem Review - June 4 to 12

[Lisalk12]

We decided to go back to the room and start getting ready for our photos. Getting four people dress and ready for pictures is a chore! I was very thankful for the extra small bathroom and our large master bath! I wish I had taken more photos of our room. I do have photos of our 2 bedroom on the Jade from March (And the rooms were EXACTLY the same) So this will give you a little bit more of an insight into what the cabin looks like. From the Jade... second bedroom made up for the day.

second bedroom turned down.

small bathroom master bedroom balcony (the gem didn't have the lounger only the two chairs and table.

[Kattus]

After lunch we were ready for sail away and went to our room to unpack and watch New York pass by. Room 11012 was directly to the side of the elevators at the front of the ship. The library was one floor above the room.

Living area

Master bath

Shower

The room has a separate bedroom with a full side couch that turns into a bed with a bunk bed on the wall. This room has a small bath with a shower.

The master bedroom has a large bed attached to the large bath.

 

That was our suite when we were on the Gem last year, LOVED the windowed bathtub and shower! :)

[Lisalk12]

Our photo session took us about an hour and Neda was amazing! Everyone enjoyed the time and I couldn't wait to see what the photos would look like. She said that we would be able to see them the next night if we wanted to make an appointment. So because we would have a long day at port we asked for a late appointment. She was able to put us down for 10:00pm.

 

We were all dressed up (well polo shirts and shorts is dressed up when we are on vacation) so my husband asked about going to the other main restaurant the Grand Pacific. In past sailings this was a a dress up restaurant and shorts were not excepted so I said they would have to put on slacks. (More info about in the past for tomorrow) At which I got the "no way" look so on to Magenta we went. We never had to wait for a table in the main dinning room. A few months prior aboard the Jade we would have to wait 30 minutes or so. Of course we would go to the bar right around the corner and get a drink and listen to the live music. The restaurant would page us when our table was ready. Aboard the Gem you have to go listen to Leo sing. He is AMAZING!!

 

We had a wonderful dinner.

Steak Frites

Poached Salmon (evenly he was hungry and didn't wait on the photo.. Sorry!)

Beef Wellington (Hungry too evidently.)

Each night the photographer would come around and take photos of us while we ate. Since we knew we would be shelling out big bucks on the photos from earlier in the day we didn't think we would buy any other photos. But we always took photos when asked.

[Lisalk12]

After dinner the boys went for dessert in the buffet and my husband and I went to the casino. Now my husband is a great blackjack player. On the other hand I can put a few dollars in and can play penny slots for hours ... A penny at a time. Lol! This night my husband had an amazing night. I found this one machine and managed to hit five of a kind on the first spin and made $70 bucks.

20 minutes and we were done... We know to walk away when we are up. We ran away with our winning and called it a night.

[boopsahoy]

Leo is outstanding! He has been on the Gem for years. I think they move him to other ships occasionally though. In December he wasn't there but they had this other singer/guitar player,Carlos, that was just as good as him!:D

[LAatl]

We're in the same two-bedroom suite but on the haven in December out of Puerto Rico. Can't wait. ThNks for the review!

[Lisalk12]

[Lisalk12]

Day 4 - Port Canaveral

We woke up this morning to a rainy morning. Tropical Storm Colin had passed through over the nighttime hours. After getting ready and enjoying a breakfast in Moderno the rain subsided and the sun came out.

 

We passed through the Port area which looked very well cared for. After exited the main door we crossed a street and went into a parking complex to wait on the rental car shuttle. Now I usually go with NCL excursions when on cruises but we were confident that we could cut cost and had PLENTY of time to get back to the ship. So we went out on our own this time. The shuttle ran every 15 minutes and the Enterprise site was only 6 minutes away from port. We rented a mid size car that happened to be brand new for $49.48. The shuttle driver said the last shuttle would be at 3:00 but there would be plenty of taxis and uber drivers to take us back to the port but you have to pay by the head.

The Kennedy Space Center was about a 24 minute ride from the rental lot.

Parking fee was $10/car and it was pretty close to the entrance.

Admission kiosks into Kennedy space center were set up at the front gate. We did 3 general adult admissions ($50 each) and 1 child age 3-11 ($40 each).

[Lisalk12]

The general admission allows you to have a bus tour. The buses run continuously from 10:00 to 3:30. Upgrades were available at $15 each but we chose not to get any of those. The bus ride is a must!! It was very informative.

[Lisalk12]

We had lunch at the Apollo/Saturn V Center. We had hamburgers (with GF/DF bun)/chicken strips with fries/chips and drinks. Very pricey but we did get two souvenir cups to take with us.

[Lisalk12]

The bus took us back to the Atlantis entrance.

The boys liked the the Shuttle Launch Simulators. I don't especially like "ride type things" so I didn't go. Boys said it wasn't anything just tilted your chair back and shook.

[Lisalk12]

We left the space center and stopped at an area Walmart to pick up some shorts that I needed. Then headed back to port. Which was clearly marked on the exits.

My husband dropped the boys and I off then headed back to drop the car off.

 

Going through port security was fast and easy. It appeared that some forgot that citrus fruit could not be brought back on ship. They had a large bin full of confiscate things.

 

Now my husband had to take the car to gas up $6 (which he said took forever to find a gas station) then back to the rental place. At this point his phone is dead and he luckily happens upon the lot. When he looks up he sees NO taxis NO uber NOTHING!! While trying to figure out what to do another NCL cruiser comes to drop off their car. My husband asks if he could use the app and get an uber driver. After a small wait they had transportation back for $5. So all together we spent $262.83 on the outing. With NCL it would of been $402. So we saved some and used it towards other things we wanted to do later in the trip.

[Lisalk12]

When we returned we found treats left from Roshan.

[Lisalk12]

For dinner we headed to Magenta. The hostess said we have no tables but hold on a minute. After phone call she said they could seat us at the Grand Pacific. I looked at all of us and said we aren't wearing appropriate clothes and she said that resort casual and shorts are excepted in all dining areas except LeBistro. My boys looked at me and just smiled... This CC mom had to say well I was wrong on that one.

 

Grand Pacific is indeed grand. It has large windows off the back of the ship. Because we were still in port we watched sail away from our dinner table and it was amazing. We had to pay port fees on drinks but really it was only about 60 cents per drink so not bad at all. For dinner we had:

Lemon Pepper Shrimp

Roasted Beef Strip

Steak Frites

I think he approved!!

[Lisalk12]

After dinner we went to the Thermal Suite. We had bought a week pass but hadn't been yet!!!

 

It was much larger than the one on Jade. I took a few photos in areas that there empty but it had much more than this. When you come in they would take your card and assign you a locker.

Sometimes the lockers were already in use but I would just pick another. The women's side had a robes, towels, small personal hot tub, rainfall showers, sauna, and steam room.

The coed area had a hot tub, wave pool, heated loungers, regular loungers and an amazing view of the ocean.

It is open until 10:00 nightly. When you are finished you go to the receptionist and tell her your locker number and get your card back.

[Lisalk12]

At 10:00 we headed to check out our photos. She had snacks ready and a slideshow to view the images she took. It was really hard to decide which ones to take home. In the end we chose the Parquet Canvas Cluster which gave us 4 10X31 and 1 20x20.

 

 

Then we got all of the photos on digital USB with copy rights. It was more than I paid for my wedding photos (20 years ago) but I am happy we chose to splurge and have this captured forever. The portraits will be delivered to my house in 6 to 8 weeks so they haven't arrived yet. But I walked away with the digital photos on a USB that night.

[Lisalk12]

[Lisalk12]

Day 5

Stirrup Caye and the sky is cloudy but no rain!!! Yeah!!! The night before we had been given a notice that the ship would be doing a laundry bundle deal.

For $19.99 they will wash and fold everything you can fit in a laundry bag. In the past we have had small paper bags. This time we had a nice large canvas bag.

By this point in the trip I had plenty of dirty clothes so I rolled and stuffed until it was full!

We laid it on the bed for our steward.

[Lisalk12]

We headed out for breakfast and then met up with Monica in Moderno. Because we had a cabana for the day we had priority tendering. But of course we were running late and this way Monica could take us down when we were ready and we could enter the line closer to the front.

The tender process was slow this day.

[Lisalk12]

Large Cabana came with:

Floating Mats

8 bottles of water

Fresh Fruit Bowl

Chips and Salsa

[Lisalk12]

Cabana

Views

[Lisalk12]

I tried to order a mango meltdown and the waiter said we could only order off the menu.

I'm not sure how true that is as others seemed to have different concoctions. But I'm good with margaritas.

We had $50 to spend on food and beverages and since we had the UBP (that works on the island) we decided to have sushi and shrimp cocktail. We pre-ordered the food a few days ahead of time. And requested that everything be GF/DF.

[Lisalk12]

After ordering a few drinks our cabana waiter said that our room cards were no longer working. Oh No!!!! My husband went back on the tender that took 45 minutes to get to the boat. After a few minutes talking with the service desk we realized that our credit card had stopped because of the large amount from our pictures the night before. John called them and all was well. Of course I was back on the island not knowing what was happening and thinking he was going to be really mad! It turned out he went to casino and won more ..before coming back out to the island as happy as a little lark.

 

The island is amazing but can be really HOT with very little shade. The cabana for me is such a wonderful perk. In the past we have had a small cabana but they had already sold out for this week.

 

The boys did walk to the buffet and found burgers and different types of salads there for lunch. I believe it was served from 11:00-2:00.

[Lisalk12]

We did see construction that had begun on the island. And know that GSC will be skipped for a few months because of improvements.

[Lisalk12]

We boarded the tender at 4:00 to head back.

The line to get on was very long and I took a few pictures of the straw market (this and tips are only thing you will need cash for on the island).

Everything else is off your onboard account.

 

When we entered security we noticed that rocks and shells were being confiscated or the passengers were at least highly scolded.