I wanted to share a review of our December 29th 10-day cruise on NCL GEM. We were able to cruise in cabin 14500 (a 3-bedroom Garden Villa) with five people: myself, my wife, my 70-yr old father, and two teenage children. I wanted to provide a review of the cruise and of the 3-bedroom Garden Villa from the perspective of some regular people for anyone debating an upsell to the villa. Although well blessed, both my wife and I come from backgrounds where our parents worked in construction, factory, and table waiting. We live normal lives enjoying family times like these. Although we do have the occasional opportunity to travel well and have once stayed in the Haven, our time in the Garden Villas was certainly a special treat.

We arrived at the Manhattan Port Terminal at around 10:45 AM. The traffic at the port was very light, we were met at the car by porters who took the majority of our luggage. We walked through the doors and were directed to the front of the security line. Suite, Haven and Villa guests are directed to a priority security line, the entire security process took about 10 minutes and was very pleasant.

We were then directed to a special check-in line. Again we waited in this line for about 5-10 minutes. The NCL cruise check-in took about another 10 minutes for the five of us to process all the paperwork. The very pleasant young woman at the counter then came from behind the counter to personally walk us to the Haven pre-cruise check-in lounge. (I should note that the non-Haven check in area appeared very crowded and chaotic). Once we walked into the lounge we were personally introduced to Patrick (the concierge); he went through some embarkation details with us, then as Villa guests he showed us where to sit. We enjoyed some refreshments, and after about 10 minutes (one of the Haven Butlers (Leon) came to us to personally take our carry-on luggage (with my garment bag and enough basic carry-ons for 5 people; it was a lot, but he was insistent). My father and teenagers did not know we were staying the Villa and it was at this point they became suspicious since no one else had their carry-ons carried for them! We waited a little longer as Patrick kept all lounge guests updated about the boarding timeline. Once cleared for boarding, Leon and Patrick brought our family to the front of the lounge and Leon escorted us onto the GEM first. We were taken directly to Cagney’s for lunch, while Leon took all our carry-ons to the room so we would not have to be burdened by them. Read more