When I made the reservation for my friend and I and our husbands, I mentioned to NCL agent that we are celebrating my 44 year anniversary. Big year right? Who can say that these days! The agent told me they will send us a cake with a card to celebrate our special occasion..We were left empty!! Our mattress was so uncomfortable that my husband and I received back pain. One week later, we are still experiencing pain..... We tried the food at different restaurants and everything we were served was very cold. Also, the menu was same every night. Overall quality of the food within the Buffet was unacceptable. The ship had over 2000 passengers and all of us could not be accommodated in the dining halls. There were not enough tables to sit and this left us all wandering around to find a table to sit. It was a very uncomfortable experience for all of us. All PA announcements were not clear and we could not understand the anything said. This is worrying in times of emergency. WIFI was part of my package at the time of reservation and I was not able to use it. I personally went to the front desk asking for help but no one knew how to do it. Let’s just say I’m a veteran. I’ve been on 20 cruises in my life and overall this was the worst experience I’ve had to date. Both my husband and I along with our friends were disappointed in taking Norwegian. I chose this cruise to celebrate an important anniversary and it did not meet any of our expectations. I will not recommend this to anyone especially those who want to celebrate an important occasion. Read Less

We chose this cruise secondary to the itinerary. The cabin was quite small compared to other NCL ships we have been on. Our steward did not turn down our bed three nights out of seven and did not receive our usual towel animal five of the seven nights. The food in the formal restaurant was inedible much of the time, had to go to the buffet or O'Sheehans for food after disappointing meals. The entertainment was the best thing on this cruise, professional and talented performers. The rest of the staff was either average or below average, not friendly, did not go out of their way. We did most excursions on our own as they were either half or one third of the price of going through NCL. I received a card as we celebrated my birthday on one of the days we were on the ship. They sent me a card and asked if there was anything they could do to make more day more special, please let us know. I asked for a reservation for 2 at the main restaurant and their response was it's their policy not to give reservations for a party of 2, so much for them making my day special. I will not be cruising NCL again. The final blow was that we had to wait almost two hours to disembark as there was a barge in the GEM's parking space, almost missed our flight. Horrible cruise. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the dates and destination. Cruised over 30 times but this was our first time on NCL. Not impressed at all and found them to be sub par compared to other cruise lines. Entertainment is not very good, food is lousy and cold, crew is unorganized, and the ship is a bit outdated. Food at the buffet is always cold and low quality, with the exception of the hamburgers and hot dogs. Buffet area does not have enough tables so you will always be fighting for a place to sit down. The Irish Pub service and food is questionable at best. Entertainment fails compared to other cruise lines. Most of the crew does not seem interested in their jobs. Tendering system is a complete failure as the crew does not even follow their own tendering policy. The itinerary is nice for a 7 day New England and Canada cruise but doe not expect much from cruise its self. Read Less

I chose this cruise for it's itinerary, and because I'd heard and read only positive reviews. While the cabin, cabin steward and ports of call were all great, those aspects of the cruise were overshadowed by the bad food. The buffet lacked any variety or pizazz, and everything tasted bland or bad. The main dining rooms also carried bland or downright spoiled food, as did the specialty dining restaurants. We were served spoiled, canned crab (crab cakes), mussels that were inedible and bread/rolls/croissants that literally turned to dust when touched. While some of the staff expressed concern (most were laissez-faire about it) it was obvious they weren't empowered to do anything about it. The on-board internet was also bad; very low bandwidth made it unusable. The on-board entertainment was mediocre at best (wouldn't pass the first test of American Idol!). This was our first, and sadly our last Norwegian cruise. Read Less

My travel companions and I (we were a group of 4 in two cabins/ 2 people in each cabin) chose this cruise for the itinerary, price and the fact that we had never before sailed on Norwegian and wanted an opportunity to try the Norwegian cruise line. Unfortunately we were extremely disappointed with just about the entire experience. Specifically, 1. Cabin steward never came by to introduce himself. 2. Bathroom floor not cleaned for several days 3. Dirty glasses left in cabin for several days 4. Food in all dining areas (Magenta, Grand Pacific & Garden) constantly cold had to ask the waiter to make certain food brought to us was hot. 5. No waiter service in Atrium/lobby area 6. Housekeeping never cleaned tables in Atrium/Lobby area, we sat in lobby area 2 times an each time dirty empty coffee cups and glasses were left on table from previous guest for an hour and not removed until we complained to Guest Services. 7. Toilet in cabin stopped working twice!! 8. Shower hose in my sister's cabin broke while she was taking a shower. 9. Toilet on very weird angle, literally when you sat on it you had to twist your body so as to face the shower...strange...peculiar, but mostly very uncomfortable. 10. Bartender in club Bliss was clearly drinking and trying to cover it up by sucking on lemons which he grabbed from the garnishment dish with his bare hands as a staff person in a suit looked on unconcerned. 11. Waiter in Bliss lounge never came over to take drink orders and never cleaned the tables. The waiter did however go behind the bar to cover for his friend the bartender who was drinking liquor he poured into plastic cups and then went into a back room to drink. 12. Over a 7 day cruise only saw one lone housekeeper wiping down one stairway rail..on other cruise line housekeeping crew are out in numbers and constantly wiping, washing and cleaning but not on Norwegian. 13. Freestyle dining was a disaster, as a party of 4 we were not allowed to make reservations so for the 3 times we showed up at Grand Pacific/Magenta we had to wait to be seated one time we were given an electronic buzzer to alert us when our table was ready just like eating at some cheesy chain restaurant. 14. At one dinner time in Pacific or Magenta (can't remember which one) we were seated right next to table where waiters were depositing dirty dishes but that's not the worst part, the absolute worst was the right next to the dirty dish table was the "clean" table were our waiter was sorting our meals...talk about yuck we had to sit near dirty dishes and then watch as our food was inches away from literal garbage. 14.Day before debarkation went to Guest Services to ask a question about luggage tags and the Guest Services crew person acted like we were bothering her, which maybe we would have understood if she had been busy, but she was just standing there doing nothing . 15. After disappointing meals in Grand Pacific/Magenta we ate most of the rest of our meals in Garden (buffet) where we had to wait or hunt down seats after which we had to beg someone to clean the tables and supply silverware. 16. During meals in Garden housekeeping crew came over, while we were still eating our meals, and asked that we move our feet so they could clean/sweep under our table. We were appalled but also confused because why they didn't seem to mind interrupting our meal to clean under our table we had to beg someone to clean the top of the table before we could sit down. 17. Crew person designated to spray hand sanitizer at entrance Garden dining area was a woman who appeared to be of Asian descent. Each time when we entered she would say "Washee, Washee" which to us sounded like some play on an Asian stereotype. Even though the crew member was Asian it made us very uncomfortable...why on earth does Norwegian allow the obvious use of such negative stereotypical phrases. 18. Every cruise line I've been on including Carnival, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean supplied bath robes...but not Norwegian, we were unpleasantly surprised to not have bath robes when we checked the closest in our cabin. 18. Given how health conscious everyone is trying to be these days we were disappointed yet again at breakfast when my sister asked for lactose free milk only to be told that they had run out. 19. There were red biohazard containers in our cabin bathrooms (which we did not request none of us use any kind of disposable needles) which the cabin steward did not remove...seeing the red containers was not only unsettling it was downright creepy. 20. The lighting in the cabins was so dim you could barely see anything including no extra lighting around the vanity mirror how on earth are you supposed to apply makeup or do anything! Read Less

We did the New England/Canada cruise to see something different. Loved loved loved the ports we visited. As to Norweigan, staff was wonderful. Food- disappointing. Buffet was ok, but the freestyle dining doesnt work. Had to wait to get a table every time. Nothing exciting on menu, no seafood, no filet, etc. Mediocre at best. You want a good meal, you have to do the specialty dining which is expensive. Royal Carribean's food was 10x better. I think this concept was done to get you to spend money for better food. Money...they really dollar you to death. Constantly trying to sell you lottery tickets and such. Bingo was $39 but you couldn't win the cover-all jackpot unless you did it in less than 47 numbers. End of the week they raffled off a cruise for everyone that paid. Woman that won was furious. $600 cruise for 2??? Lol. She would have to pay service charge, drink PKG, etc. Drink package was worth it. Good wine and liquor. Didn't like how they segregated everyone by the floor level/room class. We had a tour purchased through a private tour company for Bar Harbor. We couldn't get off the ship until everyone who purchase a tour through Norweigan got off and everyone who spent more on their cabin got off. We were late. Rooms.....incredibly small. Cleanliness....very clean, staff worked very hard. Entertainment.... The couple of stage productions we're good. Others not so much. Will cruise again, but not on Norweigan. Read Less

Great cruise. Parts and excursions were great Price was acceptable Cabin was terrible. End of hallway on 5th floor (5609) Below the kitchen for Magenta dining room. Noise all night. Pans dropping on floor, carts going back forth and banging. Very little sleep Bathroom flooded second night. Repaired and cleaned up quickly. Door at the end of hall was grew entrance. There was smoking on the other side.Every time door was opened smoke came into the hallway and into my room. Told the cabin steward and he said there was nothing he could do about it. Disembarkation was a Chinese fire drill. Shio was 1 1/2 hours late docking in a pouring rain. Having an auction for an upgrade is an insult. I paid enough for the cruise and sailed enough with NCL to get an automatic upgrade. The cost would have been at least $50/person. Whom ever came up with this idea should know I will probably never sail NCL again. Read Less

Went to guest relations five times during this cruise regarding my account credit vs a balance they were showing. Each person told me somethng different. On the last night of the cruise, I was told to spend a certain amount of money in order not to lose non refundable credit. However, the next day, my account was then showing a balance. That fifth person I tried to talk with on Saturday, had me in tears. Then 2 other people got involved. After having to return merchandise I bought in order to not have a balance, I finally asked to speak with the head of the department. Alfie was great and she did give me some onboard credit, but I could have certainly done without all the drama while I was on vacation. Regarding other aspects of the cruise, I got charged for an excursion I missed because of health issues. I understand it is their policy to charge if you don’t give a 48 hour notice, however I think they could take the reason for missing the excursion into consideration. It wasn’t like I just changed my mind. I COULDN’t go, and my health reasons didn’t give me a 48 hour notice. Food was great! Only had one night of slow service with cold asparagus and bloody medium well steak. Cabin steward was good. My rating for service was strictly for guest relations. All other service, except one night of dining was great. I miss the days when there was good service at guest relations. They used to care if you had an issue, now it seems like they don’t care if they give you the wrong information or jerk you around. My opinion based on my experience.... Read Less

We picked this cruise for the destination and ports and because we like the smaller ships (we did a trans-Atlantic on the Epic in the spring and can now say we were on the Epic -- too big and too odd of a ship). This was our sixth cruise on Norwegian, two trans-Atlantic crossings and two 7/8 day cruises, so we had an idea of what to expect, but we were a bit disappointed in our experience on the ship. The port visits, though, were excellent and a driving trip to visit those areas is in our future. I tagged this "Random" because of a number of things -- the random selection of when movies and TV shows were shown on the cabin TV, the random choices of meals in the Grand Pacific, the random choices of themes in the Garden Cafe, and the random times that there was a 30-minute wait for seating in both dining rooms. I also added the "Sailing with the B Team" subtitle since the service, meals, and offerings weren't up to what we have seen before on our past cruises. Breakfast was fine since it is hard to screw up eggs, omelets, etc. on the buffet or in the dining room. The issue of service and food came up with dinner in the Grand Pacific. The standard choices were the standard choices that are on just about every Norwegian menu (steak, flounder, chicken, pork, and pasta). The daily variable menu choices on a couple of days weren't outstanding or exciting, leading my wife and I to comment, "Well, we can find something to eat, even if it is just appetizers." The option was to find nothing we liked on the themed buffet. Both my wife and I were disappointed several times, me with a steak without much flavor and her with the veal that also had no flavor. At one meal at a shared table (which we enjoyed) several appetizers were served cold (especially the spinach dip that should have been hot). Some special requests for the entree didn't get communicated well so substitutions for vegetables or other sides didn't show up. Most of the table asked for coffee with desert but it took action by the maiter de to get the coffee served -- after everyone had finished their desert. The service just wasn't there at times. Outside of the dining room, the singing entertainment seemed to be made up of lower-level performers. A number of people we talked to mentioned the atrium piano player who couldn't sing. We briefly listened to another group and didn't seek them out again. This was disappointing because we enjoyed listening to good performers in the evening in the atrium on other cruises. Other activities that were available seemed limited and didn't really appeal to us. Deal or No Deal is fun to watch the first time but is more of a racket at $25 a card to play with limited rewards. Another failure (and a Norwegian trait on other cruises) is the control of guests when there is a need to appear/line up for something. When we arrived in Bar Harbor everyone had to line up for the immigration officers. There were set times for different groups and decks to show up but there wasn't any type of check to see if someone was in the appropriate group, which meant anyone could show up at any time. This has happened on past cruises, too, which makes for longer lines filled with people who aren't supposed to be there. The staff never enforces who or when someone should or shouldn't be there. The same went for lining up for the tender trips in Bar Harbor and Newport. People grabbed early tickets (1, 3, 5, etc.) but didn't show up until they were calling 12, 14, 17 ticket numbers late in the morning. The feeling among those who were bumped by these late arrivals was that if you didn't make it when your number was called, you went to the end of the line. The ultimate failure of this was at the end of the trip in New York. Because of problems at the dock (not of Norwegian's making) everything was an hour late. When they finally started calling for the self-supporting people to disembark, there was a rush for the exits. At one point there was an announcement that if you were in a color group and your luggage wasn't available, you would be sent back (don't know if that was enforced). We ended up joining the "shuttle" group ahead of our color group because we needed to get to Penn Station in time to catch our train home (yes, we did what we complain about by jumping the line but the delay shortened what had been a comfortable window of time). Bottom line as far as the ship goes is that is was a nice cruise despite the little things and we are still keeping our reservations for a future cruise on Norwegian. As to the ports and excursions, we were very pleased -- although the excursion selection was tough to work through to balance interest and cost. In Halifax we chose the Hop On-Hop Off bus excursion. We got a good overview of the city and had an excellent guide for the first section who was knowledgeable and provided good commentary. We hopped off downtown to walk around and have lunch (and had a wonderful meal at Stayner's Wharf). The return to the ship also had an excellent guide; kudos to the company for their selection and training of their guides. We did a walking food tour in St. John and again had an excellent guide. We started with a beaver tail (a "Canadian donut") then cruised the City Market where we were given samples of Dulce, maple butter, candied and smoked salmon, a lobster roll, and a wonderful lobster tail pastry. In addition to the food, we learned the history of the city and area, had various architecture features pointed out, and worked in a visit to a restored theatre. When we were done, we had some free time to walk around a bit more. We booked another foodie tour for Bar Harbor and again the guide was very good (unfortunately my wife didn't make the tour; something from the buffet didn't agree with her and she wasn't up to the walk in the cold). The guide covered the history of the area as we walked to the first stop where we were served a delicious lobster bisque. Next stop was the Independent coffee shop, with a wonderful lobster roll, blueberry coffee cake, and a cold coffee delicacy. We visited the Bar Harbor Popcorn Shop for a tasty snack, then went to the Episcopal Church to view the Tiffany stained glass and hear about the Astors. Last stop was the Acadia Country Store and a slice of blueberry pie. None of the excursions for Boston appealed to us, so we opted for a Hop On-Hop Off bus tour. The service had a kiosk on the pier and the ticket price was the same as the on-line price so it wasn't a bad deal. The first bus shuttled us from the port to the Quincy Market area and stop 1 on the loop. We walked around Quincy Market and marveled at the variety of food stalls. We then picked up the bus for a 2-hour overview of Boston. Sully was an entertaining and knowlegeable driver/guide who provided a lot of background information. It was a quick overview that convinced us we need to return to Boston for an extended visit. A late lunch at the Quincy Market compled the day, followed by a down-to-the-wire return to the ship right at 3:30 (although we didn't leave until after 5 p.m.). Newport was a surprise -- we didn't pick from the limited list of excursions but didn't know what to expect. After a wait for a tender, we started a walk around the downtown, which turned out to be a nice place to visit and shop. On recommendation from a shop clerk, we made our way to The Mooring restaurant for lunch -- one of the best meals of the trip. We walked off lunch going back to the landing, where we had a bit of a wait for a tender. Bottom line for this is we accomplished our goal for this cruise -- to visit some places we haven't been to before. As mentioned, a road trip is in our future to return to this region for an extended visit now that our appetite has been wheted by this trip. Read Less

I traveled with my husband and my mom. We stayed in a 2 bedroom Haven villa. The room was beautiful. The Haven pool area was beautiful. Made, was the Valet in the pool area. He was wonderful. Great service and great personality. Our butler's name was Teo and cabin stewart was John. Loved them all. We chose this cruise for the scenery, which did not disappoint. The New England coastline was beautiful. Being in the Haven, embarkation was great. No lines, private sitting area. Once onboard, we were escorted to Cagney's for lunch. The food on the Gem, was very good, however, we had better food on the Pearl in Alaska in August of 2017. The soups all tasted the same - bisque and chowders should be thick. Both were runny and tasteless. The corn chowder tasted like pulverized canned cream corn. Watery, flavorless. At every meal, with the exception of two, our coffee was cold. At Moderno for breakfast, they bring a french press coffee pot to the table, even that was cold. The shows were good and the three of us enjoyed them. However, if it wasn't for being in the Stardust Theatre, we would have NEVER seen our cruise director Lorena. I have been on 20+ cruises and she is by far the worst cruise director I have ever had. She would announce the show and beat it. You never saw here anywhere on the ship, ever. When she made announcements over the PA system, you could not understand her. I never saw (except on the TV in the room) the assistant cruise director. Tours - Poor offering. This is the first cruise I booked my own tours, with the exception of Boston - and I wish I would have booked that on my own as well. We chose the Salem Witch Museum, which is NOT a museum. It is a bad enactment of the witch trials. Hooky, stupid, boring. Our tour guide Cathy (thank you NCL, NOT) spent the entire time on the bus yelling at the driver. How he kept his cool is beyond me. Every other word out of her mouth was Etc., Etc., Etc. Waste of money. Stop doing this tour. I can't believe it would even appeal to a young adult or child. Gift Shop - Hello, does anyone who is purchasing items for the gift shop realize that you are cruising to New England and Canada, and not a Caribbean Island? All summer clothes, beachware, flip flops. The temperature was COLD. How about a sweatshirt or t-shirt from one of the actual stops on the ship? All in all, I love Norwegian Cruise Line. I love their dining options. I did feel that the food on the Gem was not as good as other NCL ships I have been on, but I went on this cruise to see the scenery, which was beautiful. We will definitely cruise again, on NCL, however I will try to find out prior to booking who the cruise director will be. They make or break your trip. Read Less