My sister-in-law and I went on this cruise and we are both in our early 60's. I have been on the Gem before when she was new. We flew in a day early and stayed at the Marriott Downtown and did some sightseeing in Manhattan. I booked a car service to take us to the pier at 10 AM and the trip should have taken only about 15 minutes but we had a new driver and he had the wrong address and so we did not arrive at the pier until around 10:40. I am Latitudes so we got in that line and it was quite long and slow. Apparently there was another ship in and so they were short-staffed. We ended up in Group 7 and we were on board by 11:45. We stored our carry-on luggage in the Bliss Lounge and headed to the buffet.
Naturally that was insanely busy and crowded. We managed a table outside and had enough food to keep us going.
Our cabin #11078 (mini-suite) was ready by 12:30 which was very good. We dropped off our carry-on luggage and then had to head to the muster drill on Deck 8.
Very nice cabin for cleaniless but the patio door was hard to open. Very noisy cabin as it is under either the pool deck or the buffet which is on Deck 12. We were on Deck 11. Not recommended. Close to mid-ship elevators though.