My husband and I have been on other cruises in the past, the Gem was perfectly satisfactory with just a few bumps. Embarkation in NY was awesome, so easy to get to the pier and park, just had to wait in the terminal until boarding because we got there early. We must have been finished with check in within 10 minutes and arrived about 10:50 am. Great seas even around Cape Hatteras, which we were told is unusual! Thank you Mother Nature! Florida, extremely windy but luckily my husband and I had already seen that area so we stayed on board. Had to miss the private island, Great Stirrup Cay due to sea swells, bummer, but we had been there before also so it wasn't TOO bad. We found pool deck EXTREMELY crowded and A LOT of chair saving was going on and we didn't see any 30 minute time limits happening. We did find a nice quiet deck on 14, rear above the basketball court. No drink service, but so peaceful and lots of room. The shows were fine. I really enjoyed the music/dancing ones, especially the 70's show. Colorz was also great. I didn't really agree with the extra charges for the specialty restaurants because we already had to pay for the cruise so we mostly ate in the Grand Pacific dining room. Very nice. Garden Cafe breakfast buffet seemed to be a disaster. SOOOO crowded after 9. One morning we had to do 5 laps back and forth to find a table with plates of food that weren't hot once we found a table. We missed the big central atrium or mall area like on Carnival or RCCL, there was a central location, the Crystal Atrium, but not really all that large. Smoking in the casino, big downfall. Our cabin was awesome, most comfortable bed ever, loved the storage space and the separate areas in the bathroom. Santos and Cheryl, our room stewards were awesome. A downfall, my husband was injured while on Nassau, wanted the medical center to take a look and they were only opened on VERY limited hours. We found out $78 charge would apply if they WERE opened, $125 if a doctor had to be called in!!! Didn't we already pay enough for the cruise? Debarkation, awesome and fast. We had to get colored tags the night before leaving based on our deck or when we wanted to get off the ship, our scheduled departure time was supposed to be 11:30 am but we were sitting in the atrium around 10am and someone came and told us we could get off then. SO simple. We would probably cruise NCL again but really do prefer Carnival.