Norwegian Gem Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,594 reviews

Disappointing Compared To Previous Cruises

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Norwegian Gem
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marcs1
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

Rating by category

Cabin
Embarkation
Dining
Entertainment
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Additional details

Sail Date: Jun 2017
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

We are Platinum Plus members and so have multiple NCL cruises to compare this cruise to. It seems to us (a married couple) that both service and food has gone down in quality, The service we received in the main dining room was disappointing. We ate twice in the main dining room (lunch and a dinner) and on each occasion it took over twenty minutes for any server to come to our table. During both lunch and dinner we never encountered a maître d’. On all previous cruises a maître d’ had always stopped by our table to inquire if all was well. The meals were just okay; nothing to return for. While dining at Cagney’s and after about fifteen minutes of waiting to view the iPad wine list we needed to “flag down” a maître d’ to obtain one. During our meal the maître d’ did not return to our table to check on the service or food. On one day we attempted to change our existing Cagney’s reservation to a later time on the same date. We were informed that to accomplish this we would need a much later dining time than what we had reserved as all tables were reserved. We kept our original time. Throughout our dinner we observed numerous empty tables. I asked the maître d' why, with so many empty tables, we were unable to get a reservation. The reply was that that the galley could not handle dinner if all of the tables were filled. How can that be? After finishing dinner at Le Bistro we ordered coffee. It was poured from a carafe. I asked if Le Bisto has stopped serving French press coffee. The waiter said I had to request that. How is a guest to know that? Another disappointment was the seemingly indifferent staff members we encountered in many parts of the ship. On previous cruises we were always greeted by any crew member we met in any part of the ship. Not so on this cruise. Another source of distress was the amount of smoke in the casino. The level of smoke is unhealthy for both passengers and staff in the casino. The WiFi was very slow making it more of a burden than a pleasure to use the service. Our other concerns involve the Latitudes Rewards Program. It seems that the new tier benefits are of very limited value. Guests receive 30 more internet minutes, dinner with officers, priority restaurant and entertainment seating being Platinum Plus rather than being Platinum. Another reduced benefit is that Issue nine is that now the Platinum Plus complimentary dinners at La Cucina and Cagney’s offer less menu choices than are received using the UDP.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

Cabin BA

The cabin struck as small when compared to an NCL mini-suite or to a Celebrity Veranda cabin. The cabin Is near the elevator but there was never any noise with the exception of kids running in the hallway. There is adequate storage. The TV is small and the content is very limited. During the cruise we were asked by the room steward if NCL could access out cabin to change the carpeting. We gave our okay and were told they would do this the next day. Later that day we received a letter informing us that this would take place from 3:00PM to 5:00PM the next day. On the next day we returned to our cabin at 1:15PM ti discover they were changing our carpet and we could not access the cabin.

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