As soon as my husband and I found out that we were expecting our first child, we booked a Mediterranean Cruise on the Norwegian Gem for our "babymoon". We wanted to go to Europe and figured that a cruise was a great way to avoid some of the high hotel / restaurant expenses associated with the current dollar to Euro conversion rate. It also enabled us to visit a lot of sites in a short amount of time with limited hassle and guaranteed comfort - ideal when pregnant.

In the last three years we cruised on the Norwegian Jewel (NCL), the Crown Princess (Princess), and Jewel of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) in the Caribbean. We enjoyed all three ships but really liked the flexibility of NCL, particularly the Freestyle dining. We decided to book on the Norwegian Gem due to our previous past positive experience with NCL, the 7-night itinerary (one of the few one-week Mediterranean cruises), and the reasonable expense. We also liked the fact that the Gem is a new ship. Before we booked, I checked the pregnancy policy. You must complete your cruise before entering your sixth month of pregnancy, and a doctor's note is needed to attest to the fact that you're in good health to travel. (We had friends who booked a cruise on NCL during their 6th month of pregnancy and were told that they couldn't take the trip. They ended up losing money when canceling their reservation.)

STATEROOM - We booked a Balcony Guarantee room (where you're guaranteed a balcony but don't have the ability to pick the actual room - this approach saves some money). We enjoy having a balcony room so that we can have some privacy outside and have flexibility to easily check out the view / temperature from the comfort of our room. We were assigned room 8530. I wouldn't recommend this particular room. The room itself was very nice - it's fully updated with a flat screen TV, sofa, comfortable bedding, good storage space, and a well-designed bathroom. However, the room is directly above the Stardust Theater (which is on decks 6 and 7), and we were able to faintly hear the music from the shows each night. In addition, the balconies on deck 8 had smaller openings that most of the balconies on the other floors (while the size of the balcony was the same as other floors, the opening to the outside was more limited). Read more