Excellent activities and friendly staff great music
Norwegian Gem Cruise Review by cementhands
- Sail Date: Oct 2019
- Destination: the Caribbean
- Cabin Type: Balcony
We took the 14 night gem cruise because of cruise credits expirations. We were pleasantly surprised as last cruise on ncl was epic in 2013. Recently doing RCL and celebrity. Dining room staff excellent food decent. Activities staff outstanding. Zumba with Jeff was outstanding. Daily dancing activities. Every night a dance theme parties. Ports were excellent. Unfortunately quite a few drunks as this drink package thing is not controlled. The ship is a little worn out. Paint chipping etc. Prism band was outstanding. Production shows were excellent. Other acts were fair to great. We had an issue with chemical smell in our first ocean view room and after days of complaining we were switched to a balcony floor 8. Thankfully we enjoyed the fresh air but ceiling paint chips kept us out of balcony. Ncl activities staff were excellent and the dance parties were great as they added so much to everyone. Cruise came to an early end as a medical emergency had captain cruise full speed and we got off the ship with our luggage at 8 pm Thursday after dinner and show. I’m home writing review instead of waiting to embark on Friday morning.
Cabin Review
We enjoyed the room as our original room 5085 had chemical fumes and we complained for days until they moved us. 8518 was a great location first forward facing balcony on floor 8. Nice size room. Paint chipping on balcony limited our using it.
Port & Shore Excursion Reviews
Great place to cruise from as we’re 1 to 2 hours from our home. Parking garage next door was $200 for 2 weeks cruise. Boston is great for a visit. The north end has excellent Italian food. The port is a bit of distance from the tourist area. If you want take a cab or Uber to the sea aquarium and you can walk to the north end Hanover st great pastries and Italian food. Yelp for info.
Took a cab to sapphire beach. Very nice place and not crowded. Snorkeling from shore reef is off to the right facing ocean. I saw many different fish.
Cab ride to the boatyard beach bar. Paid $25 each for 2 chairs and umbrella drink each and snorkeling boat ride to ship wreck and snorkeling with sea turtles and ride back to ship. Happy hour 2 my gay rum drinks for $3.50. A little trouble walking after happy hour. Love this place. The owner and his mom are great.
Scary port. Only got off to shop. I wish they would stop going here. Beaches are filthy. We stopped going to the beach as the people are scary. If you read up on st Lucia murders and crime are a daily occurrence.
We took a cab ride to Carambola beach club. Not as clean as in the past but it was a Sunday morning. Water was nice.
We enjoyed a cab ride to cane garden bay. Wonderful place. Chairs and umbrellas $20. Buckets of beer red stripe for $20. Water was excellent. Live music from pussers beach bar can be heard while enjoying the ocean water.
Took a cab to sneaky Pete’s beach bar right next to Sandals resort. Great beach. Wonderful gentle waves.
St Martin we enjoyed mullet bay beach. Every once in a while a couple of big waves rolled in to wipe out a few people in the dead zone. We loved the waves. Maho Beach is washed away so we came here it’s great