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Well all that's left now is 2 sea days ... bet you can't guess what we did?!
Yep... just lazed about, eating and drinking mainly.
We slept in the first morning and made our way out and about late in the morning. Kept running into the same couples so we had some great fun chatting with lots of lovely people. We spent some time in the casino where we gave back some of the money we'd won!!
We also found the Bridge viewing room for a quick look, there wasn't much happening as we were just sailing smoothly on our way back to New York.
I had planned to go to the Theatre for whatever the show was and then dinner but somehow I got started dancing at Magnums and ended up just dancing all night.... it was lots of fun but by the time I'd finished it was too late for dinner anywhere so we ended up getting something up at the Great Outdoors before heading to bed.
31st Jan .... Last sea day, well just last day really!!
Next morning I was a little worse for wear. I did get up for breakfast and actually managed to eat so I knew I wasn't too bad but had to go back to bed straight after eating! We had a massage booked for 11am so I dragged myself up there and really enjoyed having the massage but I'm sure I would have liked it more if I hadn't been feeling like I was about to throw up the whole time!
Last day on the ship and I spent all afternoon sleeping. Rodd went to the Slot Pull that was organised with the CC group and had a fun couple of hours, once again they didn't win the big jackpot but got half the $15 ante back at the end so you can't complain about that!
I did get up around 5 so we could have one last night together on this beautiful ship, but only after I'd packed our bags. We went up to the Sugar Cane Bar - Mojito bar.... I'd been wanting to check it out since the first day but somehow we'd never made it in before. It's a lovely quiet little spot that overlooks the pool deck. Rodd had a couple Mojitos ( he's quite taken by them I think ) but I just had a soda water ( or club soda as I've had to call them here.... no-one seemed to understand me when I asked for soda water ). Once again we bumped into Maryanne and Jim, I think they must be stalking us, hehehe!
Fairly early we went down to the Grand Pacific dining room but as it was busy there they gave us a beeper and a voucher for a free champagne each so we popped into the Bliss Lounge for a pre-dinner drink. I wasn't going to drink but did have a glass of Champagne, which I actually didn't finish cos it was so sweet. While we were in there we noticed a group of about 6 young boys, I reckon they were about 9 or 10 years old, just hanging around sprawled all over the lounges and one of them swinging off the chain walls. We started talking to the barman about them and he just shook his head and said he'd had trouble with them the whole cruise. I was horrified, this lounge had been destroyed by these little hooligans over the course of the cruise.... so many of the chains had been snapped. Anyway it took me about 5 mins, watching everyone else also shaking their heads, before I marched over there and told the little degenerate to stop swinging off the chains as this is a lounge NOT a playground and if he couldn't behave he should leave!!! He did stop but I noticed a couple times afterwards he would go to swing on the chains and quickly look over at me so I just slowly moved my head from side to side ... he must have found me intimidating enough because he didn't do it again.
A few minutes later the slightly older degenerates turned up and the bartender told us one of them had deliberately smashed a glass cocktail shaker the night before. I saw one of the older boys trying to break one of the chains so I just gave him the death stare with raised eyebrows and before long they all disappeared!!
After all that fun it was time to go in for dinner.... service was a bit slow tonight but finally we had our dinner. I was fading fast so went straight to bed after dinner... back on land tomorrow.
Not sure if I've mentioned this before but I was a little disappointed with the renovations on this ship. I haven't been on the Gem before so had nothing to compare with but just thought the interior design choices were a bit strange. On every stair landing between floors there was a weird picture of various jewels which ok, I get it ... the ship is the "Gem" but given how much Norwegian pushes the "Colombian Diamond" company (or whatever it's called) for me it looked more like tacky advertising than artwork.
There were other things that just didn't work too. The atrium is so small and they have a huge screen in there so they have activities in there but there just isn't enough seats for everyone so a lot of people go upstairs to O'Sheehans which would be fine except they have that huge light hanging down from the ceiling so you can't see half the screen anyway!! That light is gorgeous but just doesn't seem to fit in the space. Then there's the lounges in Spinnakers, if you were 6 ft ++ you could sit comfortably but otherwise they are so deep you either sit perched on the edge or like a kid with legs stuck out in front..... and they've got no back so with the lounges placed back to back you are leaning up against someone elses' back. These are not complaints but merely observations btw!!!!
I have no complaints at all about the food, as a vegetarian I always found great options available and certainly didn't go hungry. The Spa was very pricey.... I'm glad we had the massages but I'd never do it again, was definitely a luxury.
All in all we had a fabulous time on the Gem, yeah sure the unruly group were annoying but we didn't let it upset us or ruin our time on board.
Norwegian, we will be back............ well we have to cos we paid $250 deposit on another cruise!! Ohhhh alright!!
- comments
Lyndal Loved that you told off & did the death stare to the little degenerates (must be a Michell line thing - I got those genetics too LOL) ...shame the older degenerates didn't take responsibility for their offspring and teach them manners/the word 'NO' !! BTW - where are you cruising to next then?!
footloose_llr Thinking of a 14 day from LA to Mexican Riviera and then up to Canada... we can dream!