Background This was my ninth cruise, second on Norwegian. First time on the Gem, but this past June-July, we went on the Dawn. We have also been on the Explorer of the Seas the past two Februaries, the Carnival Pride in July 2011, the MSC Orchestra in February 2009, Holland America's MS Noordam in February 2008 and December 2006, and the Majesty of the Seas in December 2003.

Embarkation

If you read my past reviews, I wrote that in my past two cruises, out of Boston, MA and Cape Liberty, right here in New Jersey, were both extremely easy. Manhattan, not so much. The terminal is supposedly still facing some difficulties as a result of Hurricane Sandy, but we felt this was only seen during disembarkation. We arrived at the pier at the normal time we do, around 12:30. We were not on the ship until 2:10-ish. Finding a porter was nice and easy, and from there we headed upstairs to the check-in facilities. Pier 88 had recently undergone a very big renovation, and it was hardly recognizable from when we were last in there, back in 2008. We got onto the security line, which took about 25 minutes to get through it and the security check. From there, we waited about 1:05 minutes on the check-in line to get our passports checked and we (finally) received our SeaPass cards (or whatever Norwegian calls them.) From there, we waited on a 10 minute line for our embarkation photo, and then we finally got onto the ship. Read more