It has been a LONG time since we have been on NCL and it will just as long before we return. While the Gem itself is a nicely appointed in the common areas and the main dining room was quite nice, service support outside of the room attendant who was excellent was hit and miss. Some of the wait staff in both the main dining areas and specialty were quite good and others acted like newbies which ...
We booked the cruise because of the great itinerary (as advertised), which included port calls at the 3 Japanese islands. NCL had then decided to consolidate the 3 stops to 2 - only in Okinawa. The extra day was turned into a sea day!
About 1 week before sailing, NCL elected to move the disembarkation port from Yokohama to Koto City in Tokyo. Despite of complaints, NCL's position was "too ...
Cruise assessment:
Ship feels cramped, lots of staterooms, poorly laid out for social settings. No quiet areas except in state room.
Smoking in open casino at atrium flowed smoke through whole ship
Smoking glassed area wasn’t sealed - pool area was smoky
Pools: 3 listed on ship description…
One was useable, one was the kiddy paddle pool/slide area
The third was private for ...
Took this cruise because of the itinerary, 14 days and 14 ports. Was a bit disappointed as 2 ports were changed. However from when I reached the NCL Hotel to getting back to Santo Domingo Airport I was not disappointed. Every one from guests to crew were very friendly. Hotel: Falcon Suites, only stayed for 6 hours, what a luxury. No information given by NCL about pick up time to port had to ...
I am platinum on my way to Sapphire with NCL. I'm also travel agent. This ship is the worst I have ever been on.
If you have mobility issues, and need to use a wheelchair or a scooter and are traveling alone this ship is NOT for you. The bathrooms that are labeled as handicap accessible do not have any automatic door openers. Nor do many of the decks, with the exception of deck 11. Beside the ...
We chose this cruise to get away from our cold weather and see a part of the world we've never been to.
The negative reviews (and we heard plenty on board also) are just so sad to hear.
I only ate at the buffet twice, but my husband had breakfast there often and was pleased.
The food was lovely in Taste, Savor, and the Tropicana. Sure it gets chaotic and you have to wait when you have ...
Our first NCL cruise was on spirit (amazing cruise) but all bigger ships since. Didn’t think we’d go back to a small older ship till we saw this itinerary. 13 Caribbean islands on a 14 day cruise, no sea days, leaving from Dominican Republic.
Took a few days to adjust to the layout and know our way around. Bliss lounge took the place of the atrium and we loved it. Much more seating but ...
Ths cruise was a 14 day Caribbean cruise that visited a different island every day. The itinerariy was fine, but two major things prevented being able to give a good review, which I always had done before on all of our past cruises.
The first was that they should NEVER sell a cruise with three adults in those tiny basic rooms. We could have made do with two people, but three were an ...
First of all, our family room veranda and balcony were very small and impractical. The food menu contained no variety and the food itself was below mediocre. The swimming pool for the entire ship was only one very small, uncovered pool for all of the passengers aboard. It was unusable for at least 5 days because of cool/cold temperatures. The public bathroom nearest to the pool was out of order, ...
This was my first time on an NCL ship after years of sailing Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, and I was apprehensive - but the price for my solo studio cabin was SO much less than sailing solo on either of those lines that I decided it was worth taking a chance. I obsessively read reviews of Getaway beforehand and was pretty worried about the smoke-in-the-atrium issue and the overcrowding issue, ...