Gem dry dock?

[pookel]

On 12/9/2022 at 9:20 AM, pookel said:

 

Well I have short and have knee problems, so I will report back at the end of January and let you know how it went. Thanks for the answer

 

Ran into this thread again and it reminded me that I dreamed last night we were on the ship and the bathtub was literally over my head (like six feet high walls) and I was like, "Oh, so that's why everyone complained about the bathtubs." 

[mking8288]

FYI only - Dine With Officers (Latitudes Sapphires & up only) - unconfirmed as to whether it actually restarted as the GEM sailed about 80 nm south of Bermuda this afternoon, according to email update from our CC friends onboard.  Over 500 Latitudes members onboard and 49 being Sapphires.  

 

Ship sailed a very southerly westbound toward the warmer Caribbean waters, temps in the 70's to steer clear and has been a fairly smooth ride.  WiFi has been nearly unusable for the past few sea days since leaving the port, until earlier today.  NYC arrival expected to be on schedule this Thursday.  

 

No complimentary Behind The Scene tours offered or conducted yet, according to the source. 

 

(above is an indirect summary report of key / positive highlights ...) 

[mking8288]

As of 10 am this morning, updated live onboard the GEM - 

296nm today to pick up the harbor pilot. Temperature had dropped about 20 degrees. Still blessed with calm seas. 

 

Who's who - the senior & managerial rank onboard for the last 2 weeks: 

 

[Birdnutty]

Thanks for that listing of officers.  I haven't cruised NCL for awhile... I gather they changed the name "Hotel Director" to General Manager?

Hearing some pretty depressing things about NCL in general and Gem specifically... hope they get the fixable kinks worked out.  Have been on Gem numerous times, and am Sapphire on NCL - I'd hate to see my opinion of both become tarnished.  That being said, I always go with reasonable expectations and a large amount of tolerance/understanding in tow.  I always have a good time.  I'm cruising.  What's not to love?

Edited December 23, 2022 by Birdnutty

[CruisinMaterial]

On 12/20/2022 at 10:11 PM, mking8288 said:

FYI only - Dine With Officers (Latitudes Sapphires & up only) - unconfirmed as to whether it actually restarted as the GEM sailed about 80 nm south of Bermuda this afternoon, according to email update from our CC friends onboard.  Over 500 Latitudes members onboard and 49 being Sapphires. 

Dine with the Officers and Chefs Table are gone. They're not coming back per an update from NCL on December 16th.

 

I've appreciated the updates and the photos this thread has provided! Merry Christmas.

[CruisinMaterial]

On 12/22/2022 at 10:30 PM, Birdnutty said:

Thanks for that listing of officers.  I haven't cruised NCL for awhile... I gather they changed the name "Hotel Director" to General Manager?

You are correct. The handy phone number is still the same but the title was changed before COVID from Hotel Director to GM. 😎

[ellewoods]

On 12/22/2022 at 10:30 PM, Birdnutty said:

Thanks for that listing of officers.  I haven't cruised NCL for awhile... I gather they changed the name "Hotel Director" to General Manager?

Hearing some pretty depressing things about NCL in general and Gem specifically... hope they get the fixable kinks worked out.  Have been on Gem numerous times, and am Sapphire on NCL - I'd hate to see my opinion of both become tarnished.  That being said, I always go with reasonable expectations and a large amount of tolerance/understanding in tow.  I always have a good time.  I'm cruising.  What's not to love?

Currently aboard Gem, 5th time, 1st since COVID. Its reputation is not tarnished in the slightest. Same great food and service. 

[mking8288]

@Birdnutty NCL changed the HD title to GM about 4 years ago, before Covid, in recognition of his/her broad responsibilities.  

 

Agreed about not wishing to lost faith in NCL's products and specifics about some of our favorite ships, including the GEM/class .. some can be attributed to difficulties of crewing the ships with newbies, understood that a # of seasoned pool from India did not return.  Unclear whether crew shortage issues are related to the massive backlogs with issuing visas at US embassies abroad,  nationals from many countries must schedule ahead (2 to 3 years) & get approved after a face-to-face, etc.  I recognized the F&B Manager onboard the GEM, he was on the Escape/Breakaway in recent years ... however, below the passenger decks in the Gallery, the Exective Chef & his/her team are in charge.  F&B are also personal, subjective and without question, YMMV with biased preferences, i.e. whether it's sodium & spices are excessive, etc. 

 

What I see is a fair degree of inconsistencies among ships, services and food quality, entertainment, embarkation and disembarkation issues this year - we've seen it on our own 3 sailings this year and I understood the sound reasons to isolate and protect the "bridge team" and keep them away from direct passenger contacts.  CD getting sickened isn't new lately, like the production casts - that's what the Asst CD is there for, and having a understudy for the shows.  Whatever ... it is what it is, wasn't there on that day to say otherwise.  

 

A time-lapsed (Go-Pro) video of the GEM sailing up the Hudson to her berth at Pier 88 last week, docking on the south side (next to the Interprid at 3:30 am)   The Queen Mary 2 arrived almost at the same time into NY from Southampton TA crossing, managed their turnaround and sailed out late to St. Thomas later that same evening, apparently somehow evaded the worst of the storm, whereas the Gem and the Getaway ... 

 

 

 

( Posting for/from our Sapphire friends: verbatim with permission, snipped certain sections & details, etc. ) - 

  Last update on our cruise on the Gem ... had a surprisingly delicious dinner at La Cucina with decent service ( still room for improvement) ... expecting Gem to slow down overnight but we kept on top speed of almost 21 kgs. At exactly 0230 we passed the Verrazano Narrows Bridge ... pulled into Pier 88 at 0330. The ship was cleared at about 750 and our section ( yellow priority tags ) was called about 810. Customs was a breeze but there was face to face interview with US Customs ( not just going thru facial recognition ). We called our Car Service and was home by 930.

 

( Post-cruise, this is appearing to be fairly common & almost expected ) - 

  - - - - had a sour throat then spread to a cold ( probably because we got soaked in Gibraltar and Lisbon. In fact many passengers were coughing on the Gem and may be less than 10% worn mask ( we did ).  We will wait a few days and then test ourselves.

 

Slightly off-topics: for our upcoming cruise next month, will be packing more than a little extra healthcare & wellness products into one of the packing cubes, just in case - ships are no longer stocking any OTC meds at the gift shops.  

Edited December 25, 2022 by mking8288

[snorklinbarb]

2 hours ago, CruisinMaterial said:

Dine with the Officers and Chefs Table are gone. They're not coming back per an update from NCL on December 16th.

 

I've appreciated the updates and the photos this thread has provided! Merry Christmas.

On. Oct./Nov. B2B Escape they had Dinner with the Officers both weeks.  First time back.

Now they were 11 and 16 nights, respectively, so possibly only doing them on longer cruises.

 

I did see that notice from NCL and thought the same as you did.  What Chefs Table are you talking about? The other item mentioned was Behind the Scenes which ASAIK has not returned.  At the recent Q & A on Escape a guest specifically asked the GM and he was not aware of any plans to have it return.  Nor did Cruise Next desk have any further info.

 

Dinner with the Officers may be a ship by ship thing at this point and possibly depends on duration as I haven't read any reports here about it happening on a 7 nighter.

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, CruisinMaterial said:

Dine with the Officers and Chefs Table are gone. They're not coming back per an update from NCL on December 16th.

 

2 minutes ago, snorklinbarb said:

I did see that notice from NCL and thought the same as you did.  What Chefs Table are you talking about?

What notice/update from NCL are you talking about? Thanks. 

[CruisinMaterial]

16 hours ago, snorklinbarb said:

16 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

What notice/update from NCL are you talking about? Thanks. 

 

16 hours ago, snorklinbarb said:

On. Oct./Nov. B2B Escape they had Dinner with the Officers both weeks.  First time back.

Now they were 11 and 16 nights, respectively, so possibly only doing them on longer cruises.

 

I did see that notice from NCL and thought the same as you did.  What Chefs Table are you talking about? The other item mentioned was Behind the Scenes which ASAIK has not returned.  At the recent Q & A on Escape a guest specifically asked the GM and he was not aware of any plans to have it return.  Nor did Cruise Next desk have any further info.

 

Double quoting posts doesn't seem to like to work on Cruise Critic today!

 

The communication was not done publicly. It was buried in a message to TAs and was dated in December so if you had it previously, you were fortunate. It listed both as discontinued: Dinner with the Officers & Chef's Table. It came out the same time they launched the price hike for Teppanyaki and Moderno.

 

Chef's Table wasn't all that popular for the price they were charging anyway. Dinner with the Officers was far more popular and pre COVID I enjoyed the two times I had the opportunity to do it. I don't know if this is being done as a COVID precaution or as a result of their constantly running Latitudes promotions for people who haven't sailed as much getting into higher tiers faster, thus making it impossible on some sailings to have enough officers available to do it if all Sapphire or higher were to ask for it.

 

Personally, I think NCL dropped the ball on their Latitudes revamps. Items should've been moved to higher tiers and dropped from lower ones, especially if they were going to continue to give out Latitudes points like water. There is very little incentive to keep moving up the tiers once you've got what everyone else has at Platinum.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, CruisinMaterial said:

The communication was not done publicly. It was buried in a message to TAs and was dated in December so if you had it previously, you were fortunate. It listed both as discontinued: Dinner with the Officers & Chef's Table. It came out the same time they launched the price hike for Teppanyaki and Moderno.

 

 

Thanks! That explains why most of us are not aware of this news. 

 

1 hour ago, CruisinMaterial said:

Personally, I think NCL dropped the ball on their Latitudes revamps. Items should've been moved to higher tiers and dropped from lower ones, especially if they were going to continue to give out Latitudes points like water. There is very little incentive to keep moving up the tiers once you've got what everyone else has at Platinum.

 

I agree.   There's that old saying, "if everyone has priority, no one has it."  😂

[mking8288]

We're fortunate to be on, I believe, 1 of the 2 Getaway sailings early this Spring to actually made it to the Dine With Officers (split us into 2 groups, table of 8 to 10 each in the MDR w plenty of complimentary "bottomless" wine to go around.)  There's a live TR/blog onboard the Jewel now, also reported they are signing up Sapphire members for Dine With Officers ??  - not yet confirmed that it is really taking place (was supposed to happen on the GEM on this T/A crossing).   Story told, that they should / will restart the complimentary BTS tour sometime in 2023 ... probably going to depend on trifecta trending, but not with folks coughing all over.  It would be informative to get a hold of that TA partner communications as mentioned above to read about it.    

 

Latitudes tiers, as said, really don't mean much above Platinum, on our way toward Diamonds but no desire to chase points for it, not much in terms of any meaningful perks & useful recognitions ... Let's just hope that they won't follow the routes taken by airline's FF programs.  As for these "older" ships, hard to believe & true, the Dawn is almost 20 years old, after several dry docks.  Gem and Jewel aren't far from it - wish NCL has the cash to update the stateroom interiors, but we understood how those go - look close enough in out-of-way places, signs of aging do show up - not much difference with more recent mega ones like the Getaway, salt water spray will rust & leave metals nasty looking quickly, constant maintenance & care are a must. 

[Sim1979]

Gem has always been our favorite ship, perfect size we will be doing the 2nd leg Panama to NY in February.

 

Do they still do bbq in the afternoon on sea days on pool deck?

[LdyOrla]

On 12/8/2022 at 9:21 AM, Diana68 said:

 

I'm missing the fish too, but my DH thinks I'm silly. 

wait the Gem used to have fish??? I just assumed that was one of the differences between the Jewel class ships and the Breakaway class ships.  I spent the entire 14 days missing those fish!  But then I massively disliked the layout of the Gem compared to the Breakaway anyway.  I can usually keep a basic map of a ship within the first 24 to 48 hours but even at the end of the transatlantic cruise I was still walking the wrong direction to get to places.

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, Sim1979 said:

Gem has always been our favorite ship, perfect size we will be doing the 2nd leg Panama to NY in February.

 

I agree about the Gem -- perfect size!  Are you on the Feb. 6 Panama to NY sailing?  If so, please come over and join the Roll Call:

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Turtles06

[LdyOrla]

2 hours ago, Sim1979 said:

Gem has always been our favorite ship, perfect size we will be doing the 2nd leg Panama to NY in February.

 

Do they still do bbq in the afternoon on sea days on pool deck?

They didn't on the transatlantic cruise.  But then the pool itself was closed all but one or two days (hot tubs still open) and the only time I saw the restaurant on the pool deck open at all was for lunch on the day we boarded.  Other than that it was closed even when the daily said it should be open.

[AwesomO]

I've seen it posted elsewhere that they no longer grill on the pool deck as it's considered a fire hazard.