The staff were friendly and helpful. For the most part, waiters were attentive, but the food left a lot to be desired. I’m not a picky eater, but I had trouble finding one entree that appealed to me each evening in the main dining room. The best dessert was usually the sherbet or ice cream choice. I got food poisoning the third day of the cruise as did another guest I talked to. Since the food is ...
We have sailed with Norwegian in the past and enjoyed our cruises. This one was the size ship we prefer ( medium or smaller) with a nice itinerary and a good length for us. We decided to get a club balcony suite so we could spend more time outdoors and watch the activity in port. Also we got a few extra perks for booking it. The cabin and our cabin steward’s service were excellent. Most of the ...
My wife and I have cruised on Holland America, Carnival, Princess, and now Norwegian (NCL), and I can truthfully and adamantly state that our Norwegian experience was absolutely the worst.
A long list of complaints and grievances will follow, and I’ll start at the beginning…
I. The bait and switches.
Our cruise was originally booked in late August 2022 with a sail date of February 17, ...
POOL…lounge chairs are only around pool on 2 decks…guest towels out at 7:00am…no one sits til 11:00…nowhere to sit. All upper outside decks away from pool have no chairs and all of deck 7 has no chairs…plenty of space…nowhere to sit.
SHOWS…we’re told 2 shows nightly…only 4 nights had 2 shows & 2 were repeats…so…6 nights had 1 show at 9 so all ate early…so….no seats for the show & with ...
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 ...
Embarkation: No problems in Manhattan, took the train to manhattan, and $20 for a cab to the port. One of the fastest initial embarkations i've ever had... I say initial, because at Port Canaveral, all passengers were required to disembark and sit in a waiting area for several hours with nothing to do, especially if you had a late morning excursion. With hours of mindless waiting (in a Royal ...
I will start this review with the caveat that we booked this cruise very late in the game and would not have booked the cabins we booked if others were available.
CONCLUSION: We were 38 hours delayed leaving. This was not NCL fault but left 1/3rd of the ship disgruntled and you could feel that vibe throughout the trip. Having said this, after 11 days I understand why Royal Caribbean did not ...
We chose this cruise for the holidays as a family of 8 and for the itinary.
Gem is a smaller ship and was ill equiped for a Xmas- NYE+ cruise. We never left the port of Manhattan for 2 days , one for "high waves" and the other because the NY Port Auth. said we couldn't. ( not sure that was true but I degress).
The ship was cold in NY, The heat was not up to the task. It was bitter ...
We all understand during Covid and the resuming of cruising again that you have to be flexible with the itinerary changes. We all sign and agree in the fine print under terms and conditions that the cruise lines has the right to change itinerary at will. I have status with both NCL and Royal Caribbean and have been on dozens of cruises. On my most recent cruise in March 2022 on the Gem, two ...
I debated writing this review for sometime for so many reasons. The one thing that can summarize this review is that Norwegian Cruise Line Isn’t ready. They aren’t ready to sail after COVID 19. I just got back yesterday from a 7 night cruise to ports in Belize, Cozumel, Honduras and Costa Maya on the Norwegian Gem. This cruise was by far my worst experience with any cruise line. I love cruising ...