Norwegian Gem Review

It was okay.

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Gem

We are truly people who appreciate a good value for money spent.  We tend to seek out the more modest rooms, but we do like to at least have a bit of a view and on this trip the porthole was all we needed.  For goodness sakes if you're on a cruise there is plenty of deck space and it doesn't mean just next the the loud musical combo playing poolside.  There were many places for us to be in the fresh air and not feel crowded or cramped.  In terms of the comfort our cabin was quite adequate.  We really liked the dark wood cabinets, the beds were comfortable, there was plenty of storage space for the way we travel...just don't bring steamer trunks.  Most importantly, we found the bathroom to be very usable in spite of the space limitations that naturally go with being in a modestly priced room.  The Norwegian Gem is nicely laid out and the unusually bright colors of fabrics and furniture was somewhat Alice in Wonderland in nature in the public areas.  This was the best part of our experience.In terms of Free Style Dining, I would not recommend it as anything more than college dormitory in quality.  Yes, the main dining room was visually pleasing and comfortable.  You really should ask one of the servers the hours of peak dining to avoid waiting in lines.  The servers are mostly very attentive and willing to please to the best of their ability.  Providing food for thousands of people in multiple dining facilities is no doubt a daunting task, but maybe they are just trying to do too much.  If you are not looking for a gastronomic delight the food has it's surprise moments and you certainly won't lack for quantity but stick with the Grand Pacific Dining Room because the specialty restaurants are not so special, they just add to your tab very quickly.  We were optimists and tried three of the specialty dining rooms thinking that we just hit a bad night.  The only one that seemed remotely worth the extra expense was the Bistro.  Absolutely forget the Teppanyaki restaurant and the Cagney Steak restaurant is great for those who like the flavor of frying pan steaks.  I understand that they don't want open flames, but my rib eye steak was not that appetizing especially when I could have had essentially the same thing in the main dining room and not paid the extra price.  So one can avoid lots of extra and certainly unnecessary additional expense by staying out of the specialty restaurants.  The best part of the buffet was the morning greeter who could put a smile on the grumpiest of faces.  The food was mediocre at best.  If you wanted capers with your bagels, salmon, and cream cheese you had to request it from a very busy attendant.  Ice tea stations were frequently empty and the dining area felt very cramped.  In general I would say that the best food we had was off the ship in the ports of call. Oh, by the way, you will be visited frequently by staff members assigned to promoting the specialty restaurants and they are very persistent and high pressure.  After being nice, I found that saying "go away" finally worked.If you like your cocktails, beer, and wine, brace yourselves for a really big bar bill.  Here is where they really make up for the teaser booking rate.  Most everything is $6 or more.  A bottle of wine will cost you a minimum of $25 dollars and we're not talking premium wine.  If you don't drink anything besides tap water, coffee, and iced tea, you will be just fine.  Whatever you do, don't buy the bottled water they are selling as you go on excursions.  At $4.50 per small bottle you are being charged more than double the price you can purchase out of a vending machine on shore.  Of course they are scaring you all the time about the dangers of going ashore without water to make the sale.  That is their catch and we learned early not to follow their advice.  Find an on shore market and you can buy a big bottle of water for half the price.Now talking about shore excursions.  Keep in mind that you really don't have enough time to see a great deal in any port.  The shore excursions are very expensive and I really suggest you stay away from them unless you are fortunate enough to have unlimited resources and you don't care.  Do some planning in advance and you can save a huge amount of money.  They again will scare you that if you don't take their approved tours you could end up missing the boat and be left behind.  We didn't do enough advanced homework and therefore we opted to take their offers in three ports.  The ports in Rome and Florence are too far away to walk to anything of interest, but you can do these cities without being fleeced...just be smart and alert.  If you plan to keep in touch with family while you are away, you will pay steeply for Internet availability and it is a satelite connection meaning something only slightly better than dial up speed.  Think you are bringing your own laptop and will be less costly?  Take your laptop on shore and find a free Internet zone at a coffee shop because they will charge you just as much on board to access their wireless connection as if using their 12 computer terminals.Don't get me wrong, the trip was fine.  It's just that I have great difficulty with matching my expectations developed from NCL's promotion with the actuality.  So their is my disappointment.  If I had expected to incur costs matching the cost of the cruise booking itself, I would have been fine with that.  I was not expecting that however, and therefore I'm annoyed more than angry.  I think this has put me off cruising for awhile.  For what it cost, I could have just gone to a couple cities in Italy and Spain, stayed in a nice hotel or apartment, found my own food and restaurants, and really enjoyed the cities more than the exhausting attempts to make it feel like I had actually been in the cities/ports of call.

Cabin Review

4500.  Very loud when entering or leaving ports.  It is the first room at the front and had an extra amount of space from the head of the bed to the port hole forming a large platform area.  That of course meant the porthold was something you had to climb to reach.  It was large enough for a all our luggage and probably could accomodate some type of mattress for a child.  Very few people walked past due to the end of the line, but there was some type of room next to us that we occassionally heard noises, presumably from staff.  Twenty wooden hangars in the closet and six drawers between the desk and closet adjacent space.  Nice flatscreen TV, but not much to watch without paying 11.95 for a movie, watching CNN, Fox Noise, or BBC.

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