Norwegian Gem Cruise Reviews for Fitness to Bermuda from New York (Manhattan)

We chose this Caribbean cruise as it sailed from New York and we wanted to spend 3 days before joining the ship. Also the drinks package and speciality dinning for 2 nights was a factor. First the good points: The staff are super friendly and we had good service on the whole. Cagneys and Moderna speciality restaurants were superb. The complimenary Asian restaurant was also very good. Our ...

We have cruised on other lines before, and this was our first experience on NCL. We are now huge fans! First of all, I loved the Gem - the ship is perfectly sized for me. It was easy to get around, and there were lots of areas to sit and hang out with a book and a drink. My favorite was the Spinnaker Lounge early in the morning with a book and a cup of coffee (you can get coffee right around the ...

I won't reiterate what so many others here are saying, all the detailed step-by-step comments. I'll just fill in where I think I can add to what everyone else has already said: The crew is very overworked. Surprisingly, almost all of them still seemed to want to be as helpful as possible. I wouldn't have had the grace. But still, their collective efforts can't fix everything. Bar staff often ...

11 nights sailing the Eastern Caribbean on the Norwegian Gem was my very first cruise experience. I kept my expectations low, but I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously, I have some pros and cons as a first-time cruiser so let's start with the embarkation experience from the NYC port. Embarkation: NCL should list the pier number for NYC embarking cruise ships in advance. When I called ...

The departure from NYC was convenient and went well. Having sailed several times with Norwegian we were quickly disappointed with the cleanliness of the rooms. Cup rings and greasy spots on furniture and bad smelling old bedding. Not a good start coming out of a pandemic. The staff was professional but seemed to have a lack luster attitude. Rooms are no longer serviced for turn down since the ...

We have been cruising for 20 years and thought we would give this ship a try Yet again Grand Turk was cancelled about 3 months before sailing and Bermuda was replaced We had been to most of the places on our itinerary but thought oh well let’s go !! The ship is nice even though there are a few thousand people on there quite a few places to hide and keep yourselves to yourself The ...

The Ncl ship used to be good to travel in. However my recent experience (March 2023) was a total disappointment. See below some notably drastic changes we experienced before, during and after the trip to 5 ports from nyc: 1) kids ages 5 and under were in one of 4 hot pools without parent supervision 2) this ship used to have 2 hot pools on upper deck and those are now gone 3) the ...

Background We are a couple in our early 70’s who have been on about seven cruises, most with Norwegian, but also with Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. We had a balcony cabin, Deck 9 midships on the starboard side. We traveled with another couple, also seasoned cruisers. This sailing elevated us to Latitudes Gold status with Norwegian. We secured what we thought was an excellent ...

This cruise had a great itinerary that started by leaving from NYC (no flying for us) and doing some really good ports including Turks & Caicos, the Dominican Republic, Curacao, Costa Rica, and a full transit of the Panama Canal. Then I learned from CruiseCritic (not from NCL!!) that Grand Turk and Curacao were replaced by Bermuda (which we missed anyway, due to weather conditions) and Catalina ...

This was our first cruise and we booked it sort of at the last minute because it was cheap and some friends were going. We were told it was a weird itinerary - NYC to Bermuda, just a half day in Bermuda, then on to Nassau, Great Stirrup Cay and a long day in Port Canaveral (7 am to 1 am). We were also told it would be cold in Bermuda and the seas would be rough in January. But everything turned ...