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Checking into Norwegian Gem
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This is our first time cruising. We don't really know how it works with check - in and everything. We arrived in Pier 88 around 10:45 AM. There's not that many people yet so check-in was quick. The waiting area was like in the airport. There's chairs inside the terminal where you wait. They served hot chocolate, OJ, pound cake and banana cake. My 7 yo wants milk. We requested and was able to get it. My daughter does not like the hot chocolate. It doesn't taste like the swiss chocolate that she's used to. OJ taste like Tang. I liked the banana cake better than the pound cake. We started boarding around 12:50. Since grandma, who's on a wheelchair was with us, we were first to board. We went straight to the Grand Pacific dining area for lunch. The place was really grand: big and elegant. The food was good. After lunch, we went to our cabin and was glad that it was ready although our luggage was not there yet. We were just glad that we were able to stretch in our room until the Muster Drill (Fire Drill). When we booked with NCL there were no longer suite available so we booked two cabins since there were six of us: DH and I, 3 kids ages 7, 10 and 12, and grandma. Norwegian Gem was built in 2007. It's new, it's huge and it's beautiful. Each of our cabin has 1 king size bed and a sleeper sofa and a decent size bathroom. The lavatory is in the middle. The toilet is on the left side with a door. The shower is on the right side with a door. We have TV, coffeemaker, fridge, hair dryer and a safe inside the room. There's enough drawers and storage area. If you use any type of equipment at bedside like cpap or nebulizer, your better off bringing an extension cord with you. We told our cabin stewards, Fidel and Wayan to empty the fridge whenever they can and found it empty when we came back after the Muster Drill. And we stocked it with coke that we brought.
We stayed on Deck 13 when we sailed away. It was nice to see the NY/NJ skyline, GWB, Brooklyn Bridge, Verrazano Bridge from the ship. We also passed by Liberty Island and saw the Statue of Liberty. Going under the Verrazano Bridge was a cool experienced. My 12yo son was really thrilled. It was so quick though. At that time, we really felt like we are on our way to our cruise vacation. We signed up our kids for Kid's Crew., the ship's kids program.
We had dinner at the Garden Cafe. It's buffet. The food was good. We watch the sunset while we were eating dinner. Although my husband is a soda drinker, we did not buy soda card. We brought soda with us that we kept in our fridge. The soda card is $6.49/day plus tax and gratuity. And you have to buy the entire package which is 7 days. Reading the cruise critic board really helped us a lot especially for a first time cruiser like us. We drop off the kids in the Kid's Crew and picked them up around 9pm. My DD loved it. My DS, being 12 yo does not really care about it. You have the option of picking up the kids or letting them in and out by themselves. We chose to pick them up. So far so good. They delivered luggages to it's specific cabin after 6 pm.
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Where I stayed:
Norwegian Gem - Balcony Cabin
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