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Waste of Money by
Kathy G from Newtown, CT Sailing date: Apr 2011Pros: The ship's decor was brightly colored Cons: The food was awful! The pool area on the ship were very small and the pools were salt water. The slide was small and not pitched enough to get any speed at all. My 8-year old thought it was 'cheap'. An adult was not able to even slide down the slide....it took alot of effort. I felt like I was always paying for extras. Ship QualityThe ship was smaller than others that I have been on, but it was clean. You often had to walk through one lounge or food area to get to another part of the ship. Dining/FoodAwful. To get variety, we tried many of the restaurants where you had to pay a premium, however, premium service was not part of the package. $25 premium on a Disney cruise gets you food options and service that is unparallelled and never forgotten. $25 at the Steakhouse gets you a nice steak with no extras. I paid an addtional $10 premium to get surf and turf, which was a nice small steak and an overcooked lobster tail. When I paid $15 for the Chinese restaurant I also paid the $10 extra premium for lobster. The waitress covered me with sauce trying to get the lobster out of the shell, and it took me 1 hour and 15 minuts to get my entree. The vegetables were inedible. Stateroom QualityNice room. Mini-suite was not worth the price paid because it came with no extras even though they were promised. Total rip off. Ship Staff QualityThe room steward was great as were the folks on the bar staff. The waiters and waitresses were AWFUL. We were never offered a drink prior to ordering our dinner. If my son ordered off the kids menu, he was served his dinner before we even saw our appetizers. Entertainment & ActivitiesMostly boring. There was one guitar guy in the lounges that was awesome, and the shows by Second City were Wonderful. The rest was garbage. Children's ProgramsMy son didn't care for them very much. No beepers were given if the kids wanted to leave, so they had no way to reach you. Area was small and looked like a preschool even though it was for children up to 12 years old.  
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Great Stirrup Cay (Cruiseline Private Island), BahamasVery similar to any other private island on a cruise ship.
Don't Miss: My son enjoyed the Hippo Slide -- Extra $20 bucks for an all day ride. Port Canaveral, FloridaNASA Up Close -- We had a great time. Needed a little more time to see some of the IMAX movies available.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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  free to part with your money by
rene g. from philadelphia suburbs Sailing date: Apr 2009Pros: cleanliness of ship Cons: pay for everything staff not well informed about anything, room steward told me to get beach towels myself at the pool, everything is extra, specialty restaurants food very mediocre, dining room food poor, service poor, excursions pricey and staff unhelpful Ship Qualityno wow factor Dining/Foodno midnight buffets and only one place to get snack of micro portion Stateroom Qualitynice bathroom, good shower Ship Staff Qualitytold to get my own beach towels the first day, never enough towels Entertainment & Activitiesgood magician, no adult entertainment
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Freeport, Grand Bahama Islandwaste of time, there only 3 hors with nothing to do
Nassau, Bahamasgo to atlantis, dolphins fun, very disorganized for excursions
Great Stirrup Cay (Cruiseline Private Island), Bahamasweather was too bad and didn't get on went early to nassau where everything except the bars was closed
Port Canaveral, Floridaif you want disney go there
13 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
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Norweigan Gem by
George V from New York, NY Sailing date: Jun 2011Pros: The cabin staff were really good Cons: Food was horrible. Service was worse I do not have a lot of cruising experience but overall I thought that this was a poorly run ship. We waited (while seated) almost three hours for dinner one night in the main dining rom. Even the service on the "supplemental" restaurants (where you pay for a spot) was horrible, I waited half an hour for a glass of wine. Their "freestyle" dining is just nonsense. You are free to eat whenever you want, as long as you can get a table. In the end you need reservations anyway so what is the point? Plus it is basically the same menu everywhere that is not a "supplement" restaurant.
The children's programs were good however.
The cabin staff was great.Never in our way and always helpful. Ship QualityOverall plenty to do on the ship. Dining/FoodHorrible. Not at all what I expected. Drinks were really weak and expensive. Stateroom QualityVery good room. Could use a few more channels on the TV Ship Staff QualityGoos ship staff (aside from the restaurants) Entertainment & ActivitiesVery Good. Plenty to do. Children's ProgramsThis was great. Plenty for the children to do, 5 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
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great boat, average locations by
marisa a from philadelphia pa Sailing date: May 2012Pros: the boat was very fun, lots of entertainment, restaurants, large pool deck Cons: cape canaveral florida was a hole to vist. you pay for a bus because the ship is docked in the middle of no where, and once we got off the boat, we werent in much better shape. but of a run down area, not much good shopping, even the beaches were pretty empty. it was a waste of an excursion! the boat was beautiful, our room was nice, it was clean, well kept, great service. however the destinations were not what we anticipated. cape caneveral namely. the ship is docked in the middle of nowhere and so you have to pay to take a bus or cab somehwere else. we took the bus to downtown, and it was awful. very depressing. not many shops or restaurants or people. even the beaches were deserted, all run down hotels...etc. the private island was great, but get off early or you wont have anywhere to sit. nassau was alright, but after you walk around downtown, theres only paradise island which is all owned by the hotel. even going onto the beach costs money. the casino is gross and worn down, we walked around the city instead and tons of touristy shops near the boat.
boat was great though, we had some great meals, comedian was a bit "G" and lame to us, but overall a good cruise, just not as nice as some destinations we have visited on other cruises. Ship Qualitylarge, lots to do Dining/Fooddining room and buffets were both good, steak restaurant which was $50 extra was decent, not amazing Stateroom Qualityclean, well kept, good attention to detail Ship Staff Qualityexcellent service, everyone is overly friendly and helpful Entertainment & Activitiesbetter shows and comedian needed 2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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A decent cruise... by
M B from Norwich, CT Sailing date: Mar 2012Pros: Good entertainment, Cons: ports of call, food service, Interesting layout-- was not always forced to walk through duty-free shops. I didn't feel constantly hassled to purchase goods. Wish I knew before boarding that I could have brought on cases of soda instead of buying soda plan. Looked like they had some interesting, albeit non-essential programs for additional charges, including Deal or No Deal, Bingo and spa-lounge access for the week. I wish I had known about more of it in advance to budget my money and time better for what my desires were on board. Ship QualityBathrooms were typically okay. Never felt any public areas were dirty. Condition was fine. Dining/FoodPoor dessert options. Service was typically subpar - cold personalities and slow. I don't think freestyle cruising is for me - I'd rather sit at a table where the waiter gets to know me and my preferences over the course of my trip. Was not easy to get into secondary dining room (Magenta). Stateroom QualityInterior cabin was smaller than RCI equivalent on Explorer of The Seas. Otherwise average. Service from steward was excellent. Ship Staff QualityA few staff members went above and beyond. Entertainment & ActivitiesI loved having Second City Comedy. The game/interactive shows were enjoyable, but many of them were exactly the same as my experiences with RCI (Not So Newlywed=same questions as Love and Marriage). Lovely art auctions. Trivia was always fun. 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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perfect cruise by
Maurices from Brooklyn NY Sailing date: Jan 2012Pros: free style cruising Cons: kosher food was bad, real bad. Wish you had one kosher restaurant with a reliabble kosher orthodox supervision
( I personally can help give you ideas how to get it)
You will be taking away alot of business from kosherica cruises because they charge three times higher then you do. Ship Quality
Ship Staff QualityYour Executive sous chef Lee Nugas went above and beyond to help us. Entertainment & Activities
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Disappointed with Norwegian by
rob from Smithville, NJ Sailing date: Oct 2011Pros: Convenient Port; Overall friendly staff; Cons: Everything else This is my third cruise; first was with Carnival; second with Royal Caribbean; now this.
I would call it "ok" nothing to be excited about. There are some pluses about freestyle dining and some downside.
Ship quality was ok, layout ok... not great and some major shortcomings
Ship QualityMy first impression walking on the ship was "cheap"...there was nothing classy about this ship, unlike RC. The "gem" decor, the layout of the public areas (can say I didn't frequent the bars.. so I'm addressing the *other* areas), even our room.
The doors in the main atrium swayed when the ship rocked;
There were essentially no "really comfortable" chairs I found in any of the public areas that we frequented. Some were better than others, but the types of furnishings and the layout just didn't suit us (and we are not heavy, just average American size weight )
.
The layout of main entertainment areas was poor. The stardust theater has some wierdly arranged balconies and due to my wife's inability to navigate stairs we sat up high and there are very poor sightlines (read that as having vision blocked by the balconies).... the seating is crunched; poor accessibility for handicapped / wheelchair bound folks.
They had movies/entertainers in the attrium with poor seating and sightlines Dining/FoodThe food was average to good. I can say there are parts of the overall food service that were just plain awful. Worst coffee I can remember anywhere (except for the java express latte's), poor desert selection, outdoor buffets looked awful (wouldn't even touch any of that food)
There were 3 dining areas we frequented: the garden cafe (buffet style), and the 2 main dining rooms: the grand palace and magenta, which both had the same menus.
Of those, the buffet was poor to excellent depending on what your tastes are; the meal of the day (breakfast was better than lunch I'd say). The main dining rooms usually had something we enjoyed, though the quality between meals was inconsistent (for example steamed red snapper was dry and horrible, but a couple of their other red snapper dishes were about as good as I've had anywhere->excellent). The sherberts and sorbets were consistently good, the other deserts varied (my wife and I ordered differently for each meal and shared) fair to good.
Stateroom QualityOur room was, to be frank, noisy. You hear other rooms toilets flush, staff working in the hallways, we had a balcony room, and the sliding glass doors made noise at nights on our way down knocked when the ship swayed for some reason
We had a mini suite, with a couch and tub. The tub was very narrow to stand in, and very difficult to enter/exit. The couch was rock hard and the worst piece of furniture I've ever seen. I mean, this is inner city, garage sale quality stuff and frankly I'm doing a disservice to inner city garage sales by saying that. I was an ugly burnt orange velor and very uncomfortable even stacked with pillows. Ship Staff QualityWhile overall the staff is friendly, they were not as attentive as we've had on other ships. Perhaps the nature of the way tips are automatically built into everything you buy on board removes the incentive to go the extra distance. I recall the other ships explicitly asking us to consider giving extra for the non room specific support staff... anyway just a guess.
Our room attendant was ok and friendly enough. The front desk folks seemed stressed. Entertainment & ActivitiesLeo, the guitarist, was good (not awesome IMO :) ) but very good. The stardust entertainers were ok, standard ship type entertainment. They had a hypnotist who was excellent, and a couple advertized as "cirque de sole" type entertainment who were not that quality, but who were excellent in their own way. 17 out of 20 people found this review helpful.
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Really nice ship by
Darrylh35 from Bronx, NY Sailing date: Sep 2011Pros: Decor is nice and the Bliss lounge is the place to be. Stardust Theater is nice and the shows were great. Cons: Food could be better. Staff could be a little more friendly Ship is very nice. Nice decor, rock climbing wall, basketball court and the Bliss lounge were the best spots. Pools and deck are nice also. Ship Quality
Dining/FoodFood is not that great at the buffet or the dining rooms. Stateroom Quality
Ship Staff QualityMost of the staff were not very friendly. There we're not rude or anything they just went about doing their job and didn't really speak to the guests on board. Entertainment & Activities
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King's Wharf, BermudaThe port itself has a lot to offer. There's shops, restaurants, boat sightseeing tours, jet skiing and you can get the local buses and ferry service right form the port. Do get a breathtaking views of the whole island go to the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse. A must is the Horseshoe Bay Beach.
Don't Miss: Glass Bottom boat tour 0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Our Spring Break Cruise by
Debra N. from New Jersey Sailing date: Apr 2010Pros: The weather was perfect Cons: The quality of the food was a little disappointing Our spring break cruise aboard the Norwegian Gem was a full ship, and we had a wonderful time. We have cruised with Norwegian before and in fact, we had cruised on the Gem once before about 3 years ago, so we were able to make a comparison of the services offered on board the Gem this time around. What we found was that the ship still remains beautiful and pristine, and the overall cleanliness has actually improved, with careful attention given to avoiding the spread of germs. Our balcony room was perfect for us. What we did notice, however was that the daily menus in the free dining rooms were limited and disappointing. The quality of food was not as good as we remembered from our previous cruise aboard the Gem. Perhaps the effects of the economy and the cost factor has had an impact on the selection of food, it seemed that the paying resteraunts were the way to go, however that did not fit into our budget.
We love cruising and plan to cruise for many years to come. Perhaps our next cruise will be with Royal Carriabean or another line! Ship QualityNo complaints there! Dining/Food
Stateroom Quality
Ship Staff Quality
Entertainment & Activities
9 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
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Hidden Costs Everywhere by
Rick M. from Heidelberg, Germany Sailing date: May 2009Pros: Staff was wonderful Cons: No Euro to draw off ATM, fees to take money, fees to exchange money, fees on everything. ie - $12 a day per person not in original price. Excursions were 4-6 times more than just getting a taxi yourself. Ship was very clean, but NCL truly works to rip you off at every turn. Ship Staff QualityExcellent Entertainment & ActivitiesGood Children's ProgramsExcellent
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Cannes, France
Civitavecchia (Rome), ItalyNot enough time.
Naples, ItalyNaples is not recommended. Pompei is.
Valletta, Malta
21 out of 23 people found this review helpful.
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