We booked out NCL Gem cruise to the Western Med online. At one time NCL was my favorite cruise line and I did my first 5 cruises with them, since they started the Freestyle cruising I do not care for them any more. In spite of that I booked this cruise because of the good price and the itinerary which included Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Gibraltar. I could not find another line with this combination of port stops.

We booked our own air and flew to Barcelona a day early; stayed at a nice hotel, the Barcelona Princess, which is just a few block from the sea shore and also next door to a shopping mall with plenty of restaurants. I do recommend the hotel ($155. Euro per night).

We took a taxi to the port around noon and check in went smoothly and quickly. We saw after check in that there were special windows for Latitudes members but we didn't need them. We were informed verbally and in writing after we checked in that one of the port stops, Casablanca, Morocco, had been canceled due to safety concerns. Many passengers were upset about this and especially since they had not been informed via email or otherwise before getting to the ship. Read more