Our family of four went on our third cruise with NCL in April/May 2008. Glenn (Dad), Jenn (Mom), Alex (13) and Nick (9) make up our family; we are from upstate NY. The cruise was a 15 day transatlantic out of New York to Barcelona. Ports of call were Ponta Delgada (Azores, Portugal), Lisbon (Portugal), Malaga (Spain), Cadiz (Spain), Rome (Italy), Florence/Pisa (Italy), Nice (France), and Corsica.

Having taken three cruises with NCL over the last three years to the Caribbean, we are familiar with typical NCL service and facilities. We were pleasantly surprised to find the new Gem to be well above our expectations, which were already quite high.

The kid's program was greatly improved since our last cruise a year before. On our last cruise, we had a major problem with the director of the kids program, although the other kids program workers were wonderful. The changes in the program this year on the Gem included greatly expanded hours. Prior to this year, the hours that the kids could attend were scattered throughout the day with no real logic; they could come for a few hours in the morning, then leave for several hours, come back for a few, leave again, come back for a few more, leave again, and then come back for a few more. It was very disruptive. This year on the Gem, the program opened up in the morning and was open until 10pm on at sea days, and the kids could stay as long as they wanted. This was great, as our nine year old would much rather hang with other kids and participate in their very well thought out activities than sit by the pool with the adults. The kid's club workers had a very creative, child centered schedule for each day, beginning to end, and they did not spend the whole day in the center. They went bowling, went to play Wii on the big screen, went to the shows, went rock climbing, and many other activities. My son loved it, and we appreciated that they put so much effort into entertaining him. We had to drag him out of the program to feed him or at the end of the day! Read more