The
Manhattan Cruise terminal was quite the busy hub on the late
morning/early afternoon we boarded our cruise. It looked like we
would sail right through (pun intended) but once you got past the
small security line, the check-in line was long. The Canadian form
you have to fill out confuses me every time. We had some mixed nuts
all individually packaged that we were eating on when we needed
snacks. We also had a large bag of pepperoni sticks we had gotten
from Costco before we left home. Well, you must declare items like
nuts, fruit, and meat, before entering Canada. Since we didn't know
what to do, we decided to just declare it and then
throw it away if it was a huge problem.
Oh man! What a huge problem. It turns out we should have been less
honest and just boarded the boat without declaring them. But, the
gals at the check-in desk were great and allowed us to get rid of the
items and fill out a new form saying we didn't have any of those
items with us. They decided to keep the small packs of nuts since
they were all still sealed. By the time the woman turned around,
they were gone. The workers had taken the nuts for themselves. We
are considering that our gift to NCL.
Our
cruise ship was the Norwegian Gem. Once
on board, the rooms weren't quite ready so we headed for the buffet
to wait. I was so excited for a salad bar and fresh
fruit, which
was at my disposal for an entire week.
I had missed healthy foods over our few days in NYC. It
didn't take long though to indulge in all the extra yummy foods and
boy did I enjoy it!
The
rooms were ready around 1pm and we got ourselves settled in and our
clothes put away. We really liked the upgrade to the mini-suite and
feel there was much
more room. Our room number was
11500 and was right outside the bridge area of the front
of the ship. It turned out to be a
great room. I did a lot of walking between the front and back of the
ships and also walked up/down a lot of stairs since our room was on
the 11th floor. Each day we both
easily walked 10,000+
steps.
Our
cruise had two at-sea days. On at the start of the cruise and one at
the end. On our first at-sea day, I was
looking forward to relaxing a bit since we had done
a lot of walking in NYC. Our
room steward Sergio was awesome and took good care of us. We also
met so many wonderful people aboard the Norwegian Gem. The ship had
quite a few people from the New Jersey/New York area but we also met
some ladies from Ohio and shared a table at dinner with a couple from
Canada. Each
night at turn down service you get the fun towel animals. Sergio did
a wonderful job.
We
are members of the NCL Latitudes reward program and as a silver
status member, we received a free bottle
of sparking wine in our room and we were
invited to a cocktail party at-sea...at
12:15pm. So, I enjoyed some day drinking. I
drank quite a bit on NCL's dime on this cruise between the wine and
the cocktail hour. About Day 5 of our cruise, we returned to our
room to find the maitre' d, Sandra Lobo, had left us another bottle
of sparking wine and some chocolate covered strawberries. I'm not
sure why we got the complimentary gift but it was very nice of her.
I ended up smuggling some orange juice into my room from breakfast so
I could mix it with the sparkling wine.
Our
second at-sea day was also pretty laid back as we were exhausted from
the abundance of walking at the four ports we had stopped at in the
days prior. I attended the Deal or No Deal game, which I lost, but
met a really nice couple from New Jersey. I also did a little
gambling at the casino and won a little money. I attended the last
session of Bingo, and also lost. It would have been nice to have
come home paying for the vacation in my gambling winnings but I
didn't get so lucky.
The
entertainment aboard the Norwegian Gem was just okay. We were tired
most nights and waking up early so we were often ready for bed by
9pm. I took in a show from the production cast that was rather
cheesy so I didn't go to any other of their shows. We skipped the
Second City comedy group but I heard they were funny. I did go see
the hypnotist and laughed a ton. She was great. Kenyon doesn't
often like to go to shows but I dragged him along one night to see
this duo that did some Cirque-type moves. It was awesome.
We
got a little tired of the food by the time our crusie came to an end.
I also really missed iced coffee and the coffee on board wasn't that
great tasting. I did order some iced coffees from the coffee stand
on board but it wasn't Starbucks quality. Each time we went into a
port, I immediately searched for coffee and Coke Zero. It is funny
the things you miss when they aren't available.
We
love cursing Norwegian Cruise Lines and this was our fourth cruise
with them. We do have plans to return to NCL in the future.
Up
next, ports of call...
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