xvp - NCL Gem New England (part 3 -- comments on the cruise)

[misscraps]

The NCL Gem is a nice ship, a sister ship to the NCL Pearl and NCL Jewel
which I believe I have written about before (NCL Pearl goes to Alaska). The
entertainment was quite good with three production shows with decent
(though not the world's greatest) singers and dancers. I found all three quite
entertaining. They also had seasoned comedian Jeff Harms, who was quite
good. Second City is also onboard, and this particular troop was a bit
better than others I've seen. The only problem with this improv group is that
they have troops on a lot of NCL ships doing very similar improv comedy and
one sketch show that is almost exactly the same on each ship. Most of the
other entertainers were Filipino but pretty good. There was also a trio of
folk/celtic-type musicians with an excellent violinist onboard. The
emcee/cruise director Dan Dan was better than most NCL directors I've seen.
This particular voyage had no magician or juggling act (yippee), and very very
very few children onboard (yippie #2).

The new NCL menus in the main dining rooms were good to see, and much more
interesting. We ate in several of the specialty restaurants, Moderno
Brazilian, Cagney Steakhouse, Le Bistro French, and Teppanyaki (Japanese
Benihana style). The food was generally quite good, but the service onboard in
the restaurants (even the specialty) continues to deteriorate. Service is
SLOW in all, even when you request faster service. I think the problem is
that the wait staff is spread too thin, and there seemed to be fewer
busboys/girls than ever in both the main dining rooms and the specialty
restaurants. We enjoyed the show and food in Teppanyaki probably the best, so for us
the $25 service fee was worthwhile. Cagney's strangely had the slowest
service, but my friends loved the strip steak. I thought the potato soup was
much thinner and not as good as on previous Cagney's, and the lobster and
shrimp dinner was not great (until you added some drawn butter). The
lobster at Le Bistro for $10 extra (over the base $20 fee) was really delicious,
but not all that big, unfortunately. Unless you get the specialty
restaurants free (we each got a $65 credit from NCL on this voyage) you probably
do just as well eating in the main dining rooms for free.

Since I have gambled too much on previous NCL ships, my NCL casino status
is Golden, and that provides some very nice extras, including the ability to
eat in Cagney's for breakfast and lunch with the Haven passengers. Those
meals were very good with good service.

I'm talking a lot about the food because the food is good and plentiful and
I gained 9 pounds! My thin (130 pounds when we started) husband gained 14
pounds. Oh god, I feel so fat! (Not that I was skinny before-hand, but
now - B L O A T. My diet started today.) You can order as many
appetizers, main courses, and deserts as you want, and you really should do that if
the ones you order at first aren't good.

I still love the pecan buns at breakfast (buffet) as well as the chocolate
croissants. The Blue Lagoon (free cafe on level 8) served great wonton
soup, good fish and chips, delicious brownie sundaes with ice cream, and a lot
more. Don't order the panini sandwich. The lunch buffet had a lot of
ice cream choices including sherberts and butter pecan ice cream (now you know
how I gained those pounds).

The weather was poorish for our voyage to New England - cloudy with a bit
of rain, but we saw a lot of lovely scenery. We booked our own Halifax
taxi tour, which was good and dirt cheap (about $50 a person including a heavy
tip for the driver and $16 extra for a fresh 1 1/2 pound lobster lunch),
but the 7 person "van" was very small, not the sort of van we were expecting.
In Arcadia National Forest we took the cheaper NCL 2 hour bus tour which
only had one stop on Cadillac Mountain and tinted windows that weren't so
good (the trolley might have been better). The Bar Harbor scenic tour was
excellent, with a great guide. Newport bus tour without stops at any
mansion was a bit monotonous and didn't stop for photos. The foliage was out
in New England/Canada but not at its peak. Boston was another stop.

The NCL Gem had a few more things going on during the day than on my last
Caribbean cruise on the Jewel, but still far too many were concealed sales
pitches of one sort or another. They had pay movies on the TV in the room,
but that meant that one free movie channel was missing. Internet service
was even poorer than on most NCL ships. Since we had 5 port days, often
you could connect to normal phone service instead of ship's expensive phone
service. Look for free internet in the Boston cruise terminal.

The 6 p.m. announcement every day could be heard in every dining room,
always interupting your meal if you ate early. Announcements outside our room
could wake the dead every morning at about 7:30 a.m. and kept on going.
Do not plan to sleep late on an NCL ship. I'd forgotten just how annoying
those morning announcements can be (last two cruises we were getting up
early so I hadn't been awakened by the ding dong this is your captain telling
you what you already know announcements). And why is everything beautiful?
Every time they mentioned the name of the ship, the announcer apparently
HAD to say "beautiful NCL Gem" and every announcement mentioned "beautiful
Bar Harbor" or "beautiful Newport" or "beautiful Boston."

The gambling onboard was apparently tighter than ever, but I did hear of
two quarter royals. And don't play bingo or Deal or No Deal - you might as
well toss your money overboard or to other guests (which would be more fun).

Some whales and dolphins were spotted from the ship. The Spinnaker lounge
in the bow of the ship was one of the good places to look. Some hearty
folks got into the outdoor jacuzzis, but New England is probably too cold for
most outdoor activities. That didn't stop NCL from having a by the pool
barbeque one day and by the pool events though! (brrrr)

Caesars gave its 7 Stars this Gem trip for totally free, which was good.
The best extra was the unlimited soda and bar Ultimate Beverage package.
The banana smoothies (with or without alcohol was the big hit). This ship
seemed more liberal with what you could order, since my husband was able to
order single malt scotch with the package. But if you have this package be
careful of ordering any hot cocoa or coffee drinks at the Atrium bar --
the booze is free but that bar will charge you for the cocoa or coffee.

We had to keep checking our bill carefully to make sure all charges were
correct. On this cruise Caesars gave us one free bottle of water per person
a day, and some got charged by mistake. The 3% convenience fee for
charging money to your room in the casino was also waved, and I had to correct
this charge twice on my bill. Some other drinks that were free under the UB
(ultimate beverage) package also got erroneously billed, and my sister got a
charge for a bottle of water from her room she did not use. All charges
we disputed were eventually removed, but we had to be vigilant. (And you
should be too if you go on one of these 7 Star Event cruise <or any cruise.>)

Generally speaking the cruise was a good one, though I had some annoyances
that other folks didn't have. Be aware that NYC cruise terminal is a
traffic nightmare. You might want to take the NCL bus transfers since these
buses definitely will be parked next to the terminal. Don't plan to take a
taxi away from the pier (even in good weather).

As I posted previously, anyone tall should double check the length (and
maybe width) of some of these beds on NCL! Handicapped folks need to check
the size of their rooms and realize that navigating the narrow halls of the
ship can be tricky. Also it may be hard or impossible to get on and off the
ship in some ports (two ports on this cruise are tenders with big steps,
and getting a wheelchair on and off is even trickier).

For New England, pack layers, a heavier coat, and rain gear. Be aware of
possible airline delays during the fall in almost any city (we were delayed
2 hours in Vegas because of rain in Philadelphia). Plan to arrive at least
one day prior to the cruise, and possibly leave one day after the cruise.
Fly out of NYC on cruise arrival day after 2 pm to be on the safe side and
use NCL bus transfer.

Personal note from me after at least 8 NCL cruises -- I don't plan to go
on NCL again.
All in all, if you are thinking of going on a cruise, I would not recommend
NCL unless the price is free (or almost free). Alaska is far more
interesting than any other route. The Caribbean is more interesting than Mexico,
Mexico better than New England. At least that is what I personally feel,
though others may have different tastes.

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[terry_loscalzo]

Hello, I also was part of the Harrahs group on this cruise. We cruise NCL quite a bit, and enjoyed the cruise itself - no complaints there. I heartily second the complaints about the Harrahs organizational skills (or I should say, lack thereof). Leaving AC - we were at the appointed location at Harrahs at about 7:30 AM. There was complete chaos - no one directing anything. We were told breakfast boxes were being provided and that buses were leaving promptly at 8. The breakfast box was a stale bagel, juice and an energy bar. The boxes fell apart when you tried to carry them. Around 8:45, our bus finally pulled out, went about 1/2 mile, and promptly broke down. We were transferred to another bus, and our luggage was put on an "overflow" box truck. In NY - Two buses were able to pull into port. Not ours -- our bus pulled over to curb at the corner of 12th and 54th street - the entrance to the port. Our ship was berthed at, I believe, the pier at 49th street - long cross-city blocks. Luggage for those who originally were on our bus was dumped on sidewalk. No porters or rep from harrahs on bus or anywhere to be found. Went through packet of information Harrahs provided, thinking surely we had a contact number for either a Harrahs rep or an NCL rep that could provide some assistance for those who were disabled. Nope, no contact information. One woman had a walker and was trying to pull her suitcase and manage her carry-on. My husband and I are both Seven Stars, so we had two guests: one of our guests had a portion of one lung removed and has significant respiratory issues. Just walking the few blocks to the pier wiped him out for the rest of the day. He would not have been able to do it with luggage. How hard would it have been for harrahs simply to inquire whether any of the guests were handicapped, and to place them on the buses that pulled into the port? Our Luggage -- About 20-30 of us had luggage on the overflow truck, which was no where to be found. We saw the overflow truck pull into port entrance at 54th street, but by the time we walked up to pier, he was no longer in the traffic line, and there was no sign of our luggage. The porters told us not to check in, because if our luggage was unloaded onto sidewalk with no owner present, it would not be loaded onto ship. We waited more than 2 hours - no place to sit down, or use facilities...... One gentleman and I went up to check-in area and searched in vain for a Harrahs or Caesars rep. No luck. It was only fortuitous that one of the women waiting for her luggage from the overflow truck spotted what she thought was her brightly colored suitcase on a porter's cart and chased after it, confirming it was hers. She then screamed across driveway to all of us to come check to see whether our luggage was on same cart. It was. Apparently, box-car truck could not pull into lane by piers because of security, and parked across street, and then had his company call for a porter to come across street and get luggage. Nice of someone to tell us. Harrahs Reps -- Never saw or heard from them for the duration of cruise. Never saw them in casino. Had no way to contact them. We didnt have their last names, or cell numbers, or cabin numbers. Left a message twice at guest services asking them to have the Harrahs rep call me about a minor issue or question, never heard back from them. They may have been at photo shoot, we didnt go either. On my last Harrahs cruise, there were a number of VIP Hosts on board, we had their cabin numbers so we could contact them, they had planned a number of events - just meet and greet and cocktail sorts of things which would not have cost Harrahs an additional nickel since we already had the beverage package. Here, nothing. On my prior Harrahs cruises, the Harrahs rep also called every guest by phone midway thru cruise and asked whetehr it was going OK, whether we needed anything etc. Never saw them or heard from them on this cruise. By the way, how did you know we got a bottle of water free every day. We paid for ours since we didnt know it was included. I think I spent about 60.00 for water.... Back to AC. - Told us to be in Bliss no later than 9:15. We were, and we were told to take a seat. And we cooled our heels for at least an hour. No announcements, no one telling us what was going on. How was this priority disembarkation? Finally, we disembark. Again no one directing anyone. A sign was held up pointing in a specific direction, but that was about it. I know we irritated some other guests waiting to board the bus - not intentionally, and I apologized but.... We hired a porter, as we always do because you get thru customs more quickly and they can manuever around more easily because people move for a big cart. So, we got thru customs, and got outside with the porter, and he directed us around masses of people clogging the walkway -- took us and our cart of luggage down the driveaway itself, coming around to our bus from the opposite direction. Driver took our luggage first and told us to board, and we followed that direction, but we could hear the grousing of the folks behind us who had been standing in line to board for an hour or more. And I dont blame them, I would have been annoyed too. Total lack of organization. Back at Harrahs -- buses drop us and luggage off at bus pick-up area at brigantine entrance. A number of wheelchair bound or handicapped people on buses. I call on my cell phone for porters, as a number of us were checking in. 20 minutes later, 3 porters finally show up. Go to check in - I realize it was only 1PM but Harrahs certainly knew in advance when we would be back - and big surprise, no rooms ready..... We had two suites reserved. I was able to get one about 2PM. The other wasnt ready until after 6PM. I will most definitely take NCL cruises again. I will most definitely continue to patronage Harrahs, because we like it there. But I'm not sure we will ever take another casino group cruise -- or maybbe it will turn on who is sponsoring it. Aside from the complete lack of organization by Harrahs, and the complete lack of accessibility to and availability of the Harrahs reps during the cruise, the casino was packed to overflowing every open hour and it was close to impossible to find seats at anything you wanted to play. For the record, however, I will say that I did a similar cruise last year organized by Harrah's Philadelphia, and it was absolutely flawless from beginning to end. Hosts available 24 hours a day, multiple group dinners and parties planned, bus transportation and travel to/from NY easy and on time; priority embarkation and disembarkation. Difference was night and day. Terry

[richard_d]

Just curious what company did the buses for them?

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[Harry_Porter]

Harrah's contracted with Academy. Can't help to feel that they could have contracted with a local school district and gotten a more professional result.

---In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, <cdgnpc@...> wrote :

Just curious what company did the buses for them?

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[richard_d]

Thank you.

I work in public transportation and the whole thing is tricky. Sometimes the bus company is put on a cheap budget that does not really work. Most clients don't want to pay for a dispatcher or think anyone can dispatch. Sometimes the budget is good, but a contractor that hires the company takes too much for their cut and pulls a Hail Mary on the prep work.

Almost anyone can dispatch when everything is good, The dispatcher is there to take action when things are going south. Sounds like they skimped on prep work and did not learn from the bad drop off.

I have worked with Academy before on events where they were the subcontractor and they seemed to have a shallow learning curve. It was more related to the outside professional event coordinator than anything else.

Rich

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