Norwegian Gem Review
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We cruised from November 16th to November 25th, 2013. We departing from New York City to San Juan, PR, St. Marteen, St. Thomas, and Samana, DR. My husband and I had many concerns our first cruise experience.
First and foremost, I will mention that this was my honeymoon. We were hesitant initially to start our marriage on a ten day cruise, but it did that sound very relaxing. It also helped that we had heard rave reviews about NCL and how nice the ships were, various things to do, and the food was out of this world. Well, we were very disappointed from the start. When first boarding the ship, I personally had doubts. I saw various leaks throughout the ship and when sitting down for our first meal (prior to departing) we waited twenty minutes for our waiter to come over. My husband and I figured that it was the first day and that it was probably just very busy. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and believed that it would get better. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Not only were the servers very delayed, it was extremely hard to understand most of them due to their thick accents. I appreciate the diversity on the ship but if I cannot understand what the waiter is saying, I cannot properly order my meal.
I know NCL prides itself on the ‘Freestyle’ dining option that they offer. The problem with Freestyle is that no one in the restaurant remembers you. As I have been told about previous cruise lines, the wait staff and other service workers go above and beyond because they may receive a tip for good service. Knowing that they were already receiving a tip from us ($12 Service charge per day per person) may have been the reason no one seemed to care. The only person that seemed to make an effort was the cabin steward who introduced himself and took very good care of our cabin. There was then a sickness that spread through the ship causing the buffet wait times to double and become even more unpleasant, at both the sit down and buffet locations. I understand this is out of the cruise lines control but the response from NCL was poorly managed.