Gem review - 1/25/23 - 2/6/23

[Birdnutty]

Embarkation was a breeze.  We were on the ship within about 20 mins of arrival. (Being Sapphire level helped get us on a little earlier). Travelling with hubby on the 9th deck in a balcony.  We sailed the Gem quite a few times before, so were familiar with her look.  In her latest dry dock, they refurbished the public spaces and they are beautiful. However,  they took away the hallway fish, and I missed them.   Rooms, they haven’t touched and it shows. Black ring in toilet which we couldn’t quite figure out, but after a few days, it lessened considerably. Looked like it could have been charcoal residue? The safe worked, but you had to push the buttons in really hard. There’s lots of storage space but it’s weird, and being somewhat short, I couldn’t reach a lot of it. For us, the the shoe bag  and extra storage hooks on the closet door were essential.

 

Only two plugs in the room, plus one over the sink, way up, for electric shavers, I guess. Certainly not good for charging devices, and it was so old and loose that nothing would stay in it anyway.  Being an older ship, the Gem doesn’t have built in nightlights and was quite dark (that’s not a negative), so we put our little LED nightlight in the loose socket in the bathroom and taped it in so we didn’t have to use the overhead light, which was blinding in the middle of the night.  It worked perfectly.  Just enough light for an overnight visit to the loo, but not enough to blind you.  REALLY wish I had brought  2 three way plugs and/or multiple USB port chargers for the two plugs that were there. We were constantly swapping out chargers for our devices.  Also, make sure you have charging cords with adaptors, not just USB plugs.  There are NO USB ports in the room.  One woman we spoke to was so upset because there were no USB ports.  She'd only brought cables.  I guess she hadn't experienced many older ships, or she just doesn't travel as well prepared as she should.

 

There were 12 boxes of water on the vanity table, which took up an enormous amount of horizontal real estate int ehroom.  We relocated it wherever we could so we could use the vanity.

 

The hair dryer was attached to the wall in the bedroom there by the vanity.    Ours burned up (literally) the first time I turned it on.  Smelled like electrical fire and smoked pretty badly. Couldn’t unplug it because it’s hard-wired into the wall. Turning it off stopped the smoking process, thank goodness.  Terrified that we’d set off some smoke detectors and have the entire ship up at arms, we opened up the balcony door and the bedroom door, which gave the room a true colonic.  Whoosh!!!!  We told our room steward about the dead hair dryer, he contacted maintenance and we got a new one two days later.

 

Due to weather, they cancelled Bermuda and gave us an extra sea day. Stayed in NYC until 3 AM which got  us through the worst part of the storm.  Quite cold and blustery, and they closed off the outer decks.

Ate at Modernos, early, with our friends.  It was raining outside, and quite pretty to see NYC lights from the ship. Felt like we were eating at a fancy New York restaurant overlooking the waterfront.  Which we were, actually.  Moderno had the best exposure for this.  All those windows are looking out over the deck of the ship toward the city.  

 They’ve changed the menu from plantains to yucca, from lamb chops to lamb roast, we weren’t offered any sausage, but we saw some at a later time.  The beefs were excellent. Had my first pork belly which was tender to a fault and tasty but not my fave. The pineapple was wonderful, as always.  The servers were attentive but not hovering, the meat arrived hot enough.  Don't care for the metal serving dishes they bring the sides in, though, because the food inside gets cold far too quickly. But that's an item easy to forgive.  It was an excellent meal, typical of our experience in Moderno, regardless of which ship we’re on.  We rolled out after dinner, having eaten far more than we should have.  This is why we do Moderno on our first night if possible.  We're too full later on in the cruise to enjoy it.

[Turtles06]

Glad to see your perspective on our shared cruise!

 

We'll have to agree to disagree about Moderno.  😂

[DinaS]

6 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Glad to see your perspective on our shared cruise!

 

We'll have to agree to disagree about Moderno.  😂

What did you think of Moderno?  We tried it on the Joy in November, but our experience wasn't great.

 

We thought the best part of Moderno was the salad bar with sushi!

[Birdnutty]

15 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Glad to see your perspective on our shared cruise!

 

We'll have to agree to disagree about Moderno.  😂

I guess so.  It's one of those YMMV things.  But we agree with your assessment of Cagney's and Le Bistro.  That being said, it's still 100% better than anything I would cook at home, so it's wonderful.

[Turtles06]

5 minutes ago, DinaS said:

What did you think of Moderno?  We tried it on the Joy in November, but our experience wasn't great.

 

We thought the best part of Moderno was the salad bar with sushi!

My review of our Gem cruises is at the link below. I’m still adding to it, but I’ve already covered the food, including Moderno. (We’re not fans, but I agree about the salad bar.) 

 

 

[Birdnutty]

To continue...  Part 2

Thursday, day 2 Jan 26 at sea.   On sea days, most times there was a “fun fitness class” around 8:30 AM in Spinnaker. Was happy about that. First of all for the class, and secondly the venue.  So many ships, if they have it at all,  are now transferring that activity to the Atrium, which I really don't like. I go to exercise, not to be on display in front of all the less energetic folk.. The first time was a dance fitness, aka Zumba, that was led by Emir/Aymir/Eymir - I don’t know the spelling of his name .  But he was my favourite of the entire CD staff.  Funny, an EXCELLENT dancer, put himself 150% into whatever he did.  Saw him everywhere, but he never did another fitness class.  Which was really a shame because he was that good.  Others took too much time teaching the steps (like we were in first grade) so that by the time the dance was taught, the class was over. Or they were painfully slow.  No fitness involved.  Some of the staff clearly were not adept at the fitness class thing (always to Latin or Caribbean music) but were good at games, etc.  Perhaps more experience or education is in order?.  As someone else mentioned, there was a bit of a language barrier with just a few of the CD staff.  They were friendly and energetic as could be, smiling, happy, but understanding what we were trying to say or us understand them could be challenging.  To be fair, they speak my language a helluva lot better than I speak theirs, but when it makes for an uncomfortable or frustrating activity, well….

 

M & G was at 10 in Bliss.   Officers came and introduced themselves, then left.  No mingling that I saw, or passing out of business cards, or encouraging folks to call if they needed something. That was a real departure from previous M&G’s (Have attended over 25). They used to make a real point of saying that if there was any kind of problem that a passenger was having onboard, they would prefer to know about it and deal with it at that time, and not read about it later on Cruisecritic.   A Covid thing, maybe?   It was well attended, maybe 100 people or so, and since there were seats for everyone, some of us got stuck in the back. Especially back there, nobody really mingled.  We tried, but the folks we tried to talk to either didn't speak English comfortably and therefore withdrew, or were not terribly interested in mingling in general.  NCL put out a nice spread of beverages and danish, which they refilled as needed.

 

The show was a comedian named Alex Ortiz, a funny guy who declared himself as being half black and half Latino -  so he said he was automatically born a suspect. We found him really very funny and kept us rolling for quite a while. He was funny without being dirty and wasn’t terribly derogatory toward anybody.  He poked most fun at himself.  We saw him literally all over the place during the whole trip. He was a familiar figure at karaoke, and made himself very visible and noticeable everywhere. Enjoyed conversing with other passengers.

 

The bed has been comfortable, especially after our room attendant changed out the 2 inch thick heavy comforter for a regular blanket. Why is it that we’re sailing to the tropics and they give us a blanket worthy of Antarctica?   We noticed this seems to be the norm even if not starting or ending in NY.  We’re down in 100 degree heat in the Caribbean and the blanket is worthy of Alaska.  It makes little sense to crank up the AC just to counteract your blanket. 

 

Figured out internet, which is simple to use once you understand it, but you have to remember to take the extra step to turn it off each time. It’s not intuitive.  We ended up using much of our time by mistake, but the internet guy was amazing, extremely patient and always got it back for us. He could tell how much time was actually USED by examining data flow, and would refund the minutes that ticked away while idle. It was very flaky however, and would be down for extended periods.  Days even.

 

To be continued....

[Birdnutty]

Second day At sea. With Bermuda cancelled, there wasn’t a real lot planned as far as activities.  This was quite disappointing.  I thought that having several voyages previously changing itineraries drastically, dropping ports and adding sea days, that there could have been some activities schedules they could re-use.  That seemed to be a recurring theme.  I wished there was more activity scheduled.

 

Ship’s time changed overnight but the phones didn’t always. The elevators and pool clocks did not always reflect the time that “they” told us to set our clocks to.  That didn’t bother me much - “stuff” happens.   I use a watch and don’t rely on outside sources.   

Much warmer today. They have food at the great outdoors, and without wind, it’s capris weather. Sunny and smooth seas.

Hubby went to bed early, so I went to play at the casino for a while. I only play poker slots, and some of the machines were in horrible condition. One was so yellowed out, you could tell that it was very old, the buttons stuck like crazy, It sucked down my $10 at 50 cents a pop without a single win. Decided to cash out and try another machine, but it wouldn’t release the print out ticket.  Finally got that out, tried to put the voucher into another machine, but it just kept spitting the voucher out. Nor would it take any cash.  What’s up with that??  I tried three other machines, and each of them wouldn’t take the voucher that I had just gotten out of the first machine, nor would they take money.  This was perplexing and frustrating. Tried to get the attention of an attendant, but I swear they were  deliberately ignoring me.  Finally had to get up and walk over to a suit who directed one of them to help me.  The attendant was curt and not helpful, shrugging off my inquiry as to the unwillingness of the machines to take my money.  I guess I should have been grateful.  Finally found another machine that did work, was fairly new, and of course it was stingy. Gave up and went to bed.

 

Sunday, Jan 29 St Thomas.  $15 ea taxi to Secret Harbor in an overstuffed taxi where 3 people were stuffed into a two seat backseat, and half my butt was hanging off the edge of the back seat. It took great effort to keep me in the seat (no set belt to be found) and praying that the door did not slide open and empty me into the street. Driver was a mad man. Thankfully, we were the first stop.

The sun was out in patches, so not the best, but the rocks were close and easy to get to without getting smashed. It rained on and off, then the sun would come out.  Very calm water and warm enough for extended times. Nothing extraordinary, nothing really big. Most notable was cowfish, baby puffer. Lots of anemones spiny urchins, cushion urchins, and soft corals. Second time out we saw a turtle - a highlight. Others saw squid but we didn’t. Water was clear as a bell and deeper than it looked.  The sun came out once in awhile, making snorkeling beautiful. The water was so clear!

 

There is a hotel and dive shop here. The dive shop has its own boat moored off shore. We wanted chairs, so we had to rent them from the dive shop, which also had a supply of other stuff from sunscreen to Advil. We had to leave a $5 cash deposit which we were supposed to get  back after assuring that their chairs were dragged back to their homes.  The lady behind the counter said the dive shop closed at 4. We went to get our money back at 3:50, but the dive shop was already closed, so there went our deposit.  Word to the wise - be early.    

The restaurant, Sunset Grill seems to be very busy but the beach was not at all crowded.  We went into the lobby of the hotel to ask them to call for a taxi (which they willingly do), but there was a taxi waiting outside, so we got a private ride back.

 

That evening, we went to the one showing of Swing. The performers were fabulous (and were consistently that way through the entire cruise).They really put all of themselves into each performance.  Wish we had had a chance to see them more.

[Birdnutty]

Tuesday, Jan 31  Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. We had docked in Taini 

We had purchased the NCL Ocean World day pass.  Bus ride to get there, don’t remember how long.  Once there, told the schedule of events and let go.  Dolphin, sea lion, shark show, bird aviary, aquarium in which you could snorkel, man-made beach, slides.  We were surprised that it was such a commercial man-made place, much more like a Seaworld in FL. We were expecting a more natural environment, but this was beautifully done. You could walk on wooden boardwalks to get to the beach area, all the way in back, and passed between the dolphin enclosures.  The dolphins were very curious and friendly - they came right up to the edge to check us out and would keep returning.   The ocean on the other side of the sea wall was very rough. The aquarium that you could snorkel in had good size fish, with see through spots so they could be viewed from outside the tank.  It would take as long to get suited up and briefed as you’d be in the tank, so we didn’t participate.   Even though we had about 5 hours, time was shorter than we thought, as we had to arrange everything around the shows. We thought we could snorkel off the beach, but once we saw the beach we decided against it.  It’s strictly an inner lagoon, beautifully cordoned off from the rough ocean, but nothing there to see in the way of snorkelling.  We lugged all our snorkel gear for nothing.  But it was an ideal, safe kid area in the shallows.  Some big kid water toys to play on if you wanted in the deeper areas.  We did go part way into the water before we left, and the water was delightful.  Not enough time to really swim and dry off.  There were changing rooms and lockers available.  Had tall circular slides that did not appear to be in use.

 

There was a gift shop there through which you walked to enter and exit (of course).  There were no other vendors otherwise anywhere on the premises.

 

The shows were good, quite typical of a Seaworld or other aquarium quality.  The shark show consisted of  the sharks allowing themselves to be held.  The whole show was to watch people holding the sharks.  It was a lot of sitting in the sun, depending on the time and sun direction to wait for this to happen.  Fun for the first few, but then a yawner.

The other shows were typical but very good.  Dolphin especially, and they picked a little girl from the crowd to be in the show.  She with the trainer got pushed through the water, got kissed by both dolphins, gave directions to the dolphins, fed them, etc.  There was an excellent bird show - three Macaws that had been taught to do some unusual things.  They were amazing, and beautiful besides.

 The aviary was my favourite part - full of lovebirds that crawled all over us as long as we had food, which an attendant handed out readily.  (She did appreciate tips.)  On our heads, our hands, etc.  Very cool.  And Macaws that were on perches, that if you tipped the guide, you could take a posed picture with.  We opted out.  A pair of toucans in a cage. Flamingos in a separate area.

 

Had an ok, typical buffet lunch included, drinks were separate, but plenty of tasty food. We were given tickets in advance, and it was a one pass through only.  No returning for seconds.

It was a good way to spend a beautiful day, especially if you know what to expect..  The walk back to the port after the bus ride back was lined with shops, We had not walked through this on the way to the excursion.  Macaws, cockatoos, out on perches that you could get close to and take pix. A beautiful port area.  Wish we had more time to enjoy that part.  The pool looked so inviting.

[Birdnutty]

 

Wednesday, Feb 1 Catalina Island. Dominican Republic.Tendered in, took only about 5 minutes.  Tenders ran constantly all day.  A beautiful small island, with a walled off island for tourists, clearly set up for large cruise ships, as there was a buffet area available to be set up, a bazillion lawn chairs and umbrellas that they set up for a tip. Tenders were met with native dancers,  and they kept the music going all afternoon. Loved the Latin music background   Smallish snorkeling area off to the side, that was decent once you got out far enough, we saw the typical suspects as well as Bally hoo, a flounder , big blue parrot, eve saw a skate, more of the typical. Not the best and nowhere near as good as St Thomas.  But the water was crystal clear in the swimming area, a bit cloudier in the snorkel area. There is apparently a barrier wall just off to the right, as there have been snorkel boats there all day. But the water is so clear and blue. And chilly. Chilliest of tropical waters that I can remember.  From our balcony, looking back at the island, there appear to be at least 2 other clearings to be used by other ships. That’s on this side of the island only. Can’t see the other side. Back on the boat before 2.

 

 

Feb 2, Thursday, Aruba DePalm island Beach & Snorkel ship tour, NCL tour.  Different pier than we’d been to before. Busses right off gangway Meeting at 10:15  bus to ferry to island.  Left port at 10:15.  25 min ride to ferry.  The open air ferry boat/ skiff was loaded to capacity, and I was thankful it was a short ride.  5 minutes to the  island.  Very built up.  Chairs were included, and there were places where you could find shade.  There were private areas where palapas and chairs were available for a fee.  There were big water slides, free food & drink all day.

Walk in snorkeling area via metal stairs but today the waves were rough and water was cloudy, so not pleasant.  They said they provide a group snorkel tour but due to the waves I don’t think they did it. It was so shallow and rough  that I was apprehensive about being dashed into the coral. Got out after about 15 mins.. Normally it’s like glass, both smooth and clear, and given the quantity and size of the fish, it would be awesome. Huge parrots, lots of other larger sizes.  Coral is pretty beat up and sand covered, due to shallowness,  They feed the fish, keeping them around the stairs. Not great corals but it was shallow and would have been terrific.

Food was ok. Had a decent buffet in one building with salads, chicken, fruit, rice, potatoes.  Other building had hot dogs, burgers, fries & chicken tenders.  Self-serve soda machines, somewhat weak alcoholic drinks, but were endless and tasty. I had a Sex on the Beach.  I told the server I was old but not dead - she thought that was funny.

Water shoes are needed for swimming! There was a great deal of broken coral pieces and rocky areas near the shore that made getting into the swimming area of the cove difficult on the feet.  Note to self for next time!  We had about 5 hrs here. With the lack of snorkeling or swimming access, it was not as great as it could have been.  But I’d love to try it again with calmer water, water shoes and a blow up swim float. One guy brought a float with him and floated in the water literally all day.

They had a little enclosure with some turtles and tortoises in it, and quite a few hermit crabs of all sizes, both in the enclosure and wandering around the beach.    Great for the animal lover. The cute little cheeky bananaquit birds were ever present, stealing sips from unattended drinks, and grabbing food morsels everywhere.

[Birdnutty]

I'm not reporting on sea days.  Pretty much same ol', same ol'.

 

 

Feb 4, Saturday, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. Unusually beautiful day, no rain.

Debarkation was absolutely crazy. They didn’t let us off right away, then funnelled everyone through one gangway all at one time.  The did not stagger any departures.  Took forever.   No organization at all. I’m sure if we had been Haven guests, we would have a different experience, but from the steerage point of view… oy.   Same for the pier area.  There were all kinds of busses lined up, but nobody directing the passengers as to which bus to go to for their excursion, and it looked like the private tours were mixed in with ship’s tour busses. The helpful shore excursion staff people with their directional signs were missing completely.  It was a free for all.  Took a long time, and the pier was chaotic.  We were 2 of the last 4 on the bus, and we weren’t sure if they might have left without us.

Bus ride was about a half hour to the canal ride.  Saw a lot of wildlife, including yellow crowned night heron, caiman, kingfisher, yellow billed cuckoo, both types sloths, howler monkeys with a baby, grackles.   Canal trip took about an hour. They turned around at the half hour point, not at a specific geographical spot.  So we missed part of what could be seen because we spent a great deal of time on certain areas, eating up time from the rest.(we’d done this before and had expectations of a similar experience). Went for a short-ish walk through the rainforest there, had some fruit for snacks, then returned to the bus.  Stopped at a coffee demonstration and banana plantation. The banana plantation was neat, and they had examples of other kinds of tree including cacao and breadfruit, and jackfruit.  Once back on the pier, getting back on the ship was long too.  One point of entry for everybody.  At some ports, the ship used the facial recognition software instead of “binging” everyone back in.  This took about three times as long per person.  Can’t remember if they did it here or not, but whenever they used it, it took much longer to get folks back on the ship.

Leaf cutter ants

 

Howler monkey and baby

 

Fruit snack

 

Find the iguana!  He's huge!

 

Guide with a banana flower

 

Busses lines up.  Sorry - this turned out to be a screenshot.  I thought I was taking a picture!

Yellow crowned night heron

 

Reception area before boarding canal boat.

 

Orchid along the path

Long, slow line getting back on. This is only the beginning of it. Only one line for everyone!

[Birdnutty]

I'm skipping to the end of our cruise, as the other reviews are very similar EXCEPT that this review is from a non-Haven experience.  We did not have priority anything, so our experience was somewhat different in certain areas.

 

February 6 -  Disembarkation: those of us on the starboard side were treated to a landing in Panama City at 3 AM combined with an outrageous metallic clanking, scraping, unbelievable noise, people yelling to each other as they were starting to put up the gangplank and all the other associated disembarkation procedures.   3 AM!!!  No sleeping could happen during that for us. Port side apparently did not have any of that.

Note: Port side also was the side that we docked on most frequently, so if you want to see the town and the pier, (and the pier runners) port side might be the better choice for room selection.

The CD started calling colored luggage tickets LOUDLY, in your stateroom, at 5 AM and continued every 10 to 15 minutes for several hours. We were supposed to have breakfast with our friends at 7:30, because our luggage tags were supposed to be called for 8:15 departure. But they called our color at 7:15!  Frantically, we downed a little breakfast and then left our rooms to disembark.  And then…we waited. 

 

Debarkation was not fun. The halls were a mass of people. Not unruly, thankfully, but there was no room to even turn around. One poor woman had lost track of her husband, and really did lose him. She didn't know if she should get off and wait, or if he was already off, their cell phones didn't work, and there was no staff anywhere to ask for help. (she did eventually find him, but she was close to panic.  I felt so bad for her.)

We were finally able to get an elevator down by going up first, but the elevator would not go below the 7th deck on the way back down.  They programmed it that way.  We all had to get out and walk down the next two flights of stairs. They stopped the line at some points, and let another line through, then maybe 10 minutes later they'd let our line move a little.  Just like in Costa Rica, they funneled all 1500 or however many there were of us through the same one exit to bring us out. Stood on the stairs for I’ll bet close to an hour as we inched our way down. I wish I had taken a picture.

 

NCL could do a much better job with this.  It was by far the worst debarkation I'd ever experienced, and had the potential for dangerous situations to arise.   We were informed the night before that we were to put ALL luggage outside our rooms, just to keep a personal bag for PJ’s etc.  Some people didn’t listen, so they were dragging their suitcases down the stairs, tripping people, taking up valuable room.  No social distancing here!!  I do understand the need for not wanting us to have any luggage.  They needed to put all of us on a bus for the bumpy ride down the unfinished pier to the convention center, where we picked up our luggage. There was really no room for luggage on the busses, and they didn't want to take the extra time to load and unload it.   

Once we got to the convention center, there were many very helpful Panamanian workers, mostly younger people there to help you find your luggage, and port it if you wanted.  Very friendly and helpful, not pushy.

Unfortunately, one of the bags our traveling companions had had was not there.  Every single porter went through that center looking for the lost bag.  (Long story short, it had been taken in haste by another passenger and returned by mail in about a week.)

 

Another note:  NCL asks for your home phone number on your color luggage tag.  Use your cell phone!!!  That could be instrumental in getting back a mistakenly taken bag a lot more quickly.  

 

Another note:  To get to Panama City hotels or the airport and if you’re not using NCL transfers, schedule an Uber rather than a taxi.  They really take advantage of unknowing tourists.  We had heard this before, but were so frustrated after the lost luggage episode that we just did it.  Costly mistake.

Our experience was still wonderful.  Our dining experiences were great, in all the venues we chose.   We love the food just about everywhere (altho the buffet food could be cool on occasion), the service staff was fantastic.  The specialty restaurants were amazing and fabulous.  Nothing is ever perfect, of course, but this cruise was close, although they really do need to work on those few ports where getting on and off the ship was nightmarish.  I’d say that was the only real down side.  Looking forward to doing it again soon.

[sailingships]

On 2/20/2023 at 9:22 PM, Birdnutty said:

  Also, make sure you have charging cords with adaptors, not just USB plugs.  There are NO USB ports in the room.  One woman we spoke to was so upset because there were no USB ports.  She'd only brought cables.  I guess she hadn't experienced many older ships, or she just doesn't travel as well prepared as she should.

 

I was on this cruise. Going through the Canal I discovered that the front wall in the Spinnaker only had European outlets, no American outlets or USB ports so we couldnt plug our cell phones in to recharge them as we took photos through the front windows. Luckily I had a regular plug with me and had recharged fully the night before in my cabin but some others hadnt. My phone lasted just to the end of the Canal. I was amazed that a ship with mostly American passengers wasnt set up to accommodate them. But as you said the Gem is an older ship.