My family and I decided to take a cruise out of New York because it was literally right down the street to get on the ship. Let me just begin by saying, I was very skeptical for the following reasons; I get seasick and wasn't sure how my teenage children would feel and it is a very expensive vacation, especially if you have a terrible time. We sailed on the Norwegian Gem. After reading several reviews on here we decided that was the best fit for our family. We traveled with other family members, which turned out to be well worth it. The Norwegian Gem is very family oriented, so if that is not for you, I would find another ship. There were a LOT of little kids on our cruise. One of the staff told us that there were 400 more kids than any other cruise in the previous weeks. There were activities that were for teenagers and above and the staff was very good about removing those that did not belong.

The Cabins:

We had 2 balcony staterooms on deck 9 in the aft part of the ship. My husband and I in one and our teenagers in the other. When we booked our cruise we tried to get connecting but there were none available. I'm not sure why Norwegian doesn't hold the connecting cabins together. There were so many single cabins available on deck 9 when we booked our trip. The people next to us felt bad and said they would have taken a different cabin had they known that they were taking up a connecting one. But in the end, it didn't matter because our children are old enough to be on their own.The balcony was well worth it!! I had read complaints on here about people smoking on their balcony but we never encountered this. Maybe we just had non-smoking neighbors. The cabins had plenty of closet and drawer space for the two of us. Our luggage fit under the beds with ease. Two suggestions that I found helpful was to bring more hangers and to bring a plastic shoe holder. I used powerful magnets to hold it up and placed toiletries, suntan lotion, brushes and medicines in there. It was so easy to find things and kept things neat. The hair dryer provided in the room was more than adequate. I had brought my own, but never used it. We also never used the coffee maker which is provided. I brought a bar of soap for the shower, they only provide shower gel. I also brought my own shampoo and conditioner. The ship provides a shampoo/conditioner combo. Bring a small travel size can of lysol, if you can, it comes in handy in the toilet area. The television had a few channels and also had a classic movie channel which showed movies from the 80s and 90s like Sixteen Candles, Star Wars and Groundhog Day. We never watched much television. Read more