Norwegian Gem Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,589 reviews

High Marks for the Gem

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Gem
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VKNJDevs4
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jan 2008
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

This is the first time I have been compelled to write a review of a cruise I have taken. I thoroughly enjoyed my cruise Norwegian's newest ship, The Gem. I was on the January 16th, 2008 sailing of the Gem from New York City to St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, St. Maarten, and Tortola. The ship and staff were top-notch. I have taken four cruises on Royal Caribbean (loved all of them) and have cruised on the Norwegian Jewel, Crown, Dawn, and most recently the Gem. Of the NCL ships I have cruised on so far, this one was my favorite. I LOVED the bright colors and dEcor of the ship. It was extremely bright and gaudy, just perfect for a cruise ship.

Embarkation: I live about 30 minutes from the pier in NYC and love the convenience of not having to take a plane before I start my vacation. My friend was picked up first (in Rockland County) at 12:00 pm. The car service got to my house by 12:30 pm and we were at the pier probably about 1:00 pm - 1:15 pm. We arrived at the terminal with no traffic despite the fact that Holland America's Noordam (another large ship) was docked at the pier across from the Gem. We quickly dispatched of our large pieces of luggage and headed into the terminal. Here we found the usual lines waiting for the security screening, but the line moved very quickly. Once past security, there were two lines, one for Latitudes and one for all others. After initially getting in the "all others" line, we quickly moved over to the Latitudes line and made it very quickly to the front of the line. I originally thought it took us about 45 minutes to get on board, but thinking back on it, I believe we were on the ship by 1:30, so it took us 15 to 30 minutes to board the ship. The longest line was waiting to actually get ON the ship. In any event...it was a painless process!

Cabin: Once on board, we received our complimentary glass of champagne which was very nice. We were asked not to go to our rooms until 2:00 pm, but we begged the staff "guarding" the elevators to let us at least drop off our hand luggage even if our room wasn't ready. As it turned out, our room WAS ready and we met our cabin attendants John and Allen. We had an outside balcony cabin, 10088. Unfortunately, the people who had our room before us must have been chain smokers, so the room reeked of cigarettes. This problem was very quickly rectified, but more on that later... The room was fine and as expected. I traveled on the Dawn in April '07 and stayed in a regular mini-suite which was not all that much bigger than our balcony room. The room is cramped and I spent plenty of time bumping tushies with my roommate. (My advice is to REALLY like the person you are traveling with!!) But, it was not worse than the same class of cabin say on a RCI cruise ship. There is plenty of room to store clothes. A nice sized closet, a dresser with four drawers, and an area near the safe with 5 cubby holes. There is also a large shelf above the TV. We had no problem unloading our gi-normous suitcases.

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Mid-Ship Balcony

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