This was a honeymoon cruise.  I am 28 and my wife 27.  Having never cruised before, I picked this transatlantic crossing because of its great itinerary and ability to relax during multiple days at sea.  I  booked my penthouse suite on deck 9 almost a year prior to the cruise.  I read multiple conflicting reviews about the Gem and NCL in general.  Being rather easy going people, my wife and I decided to give the cruise a try.  We are certainly not affected by minor nuisances and felt we could deal with any little issues, not allowing them to ruin the trip for us.  After all, 8 great ports sounded stupendous.Embarkation at the Manhattan cruise terminal was easy.  We arrived at 11 am, left our bags with the loading area attendant, and were quickly ushered to the check-in counter.  The VIP area was basically a holding area away from the other 2,400 or so passengers on the ship.  We thought the snacks provided were thoughtful and weren't very put off by the fact that they weren't particularly tasty.  We had no idea how many other bad food items we would have during this cruise.At 12:40, the concierge (Alex), started calling groups to be escorted onto the ship by their different butlers.  Ours was Andrew, and he was very nice.  We were lucky to meet another nice honeymoon couple that were in the suite right next to ours!  Andrew took us to our suite and gave us the rundown on the different channels, the portable phone that worked all over the ship, how to contact key people, etc.  He then gave us some free time to get comfortable while our bags were delivered (at around 5 pm we got all 3).  We were so pleased to find that we had a huge balcony right at the bow of the ship.  I had researched it, but never imagined the balcony was so big.  We then met up with our new fellow honeymooners and went the Cagney's steakhouse for a VIP-only lunch.  Everyone had the 10 ounce steak and I had the fish.  They were good, but not particularly stupendous.  This was now 2 mediocre meals in 3 hours time!  We left port at 4 pm and truly enjoyed the view of the city from our balcony.  Complimentary bubbly was included, which we enjoyed greatly.We had 5 days at sea at the beginning of the cruise, which proved to be a great time to make up for all the sleep we've lost during our regular busy lives. It was too cold and windy to really spend time on our balcony or on any deck, so we mostly stayed indoors.  Seas were relatively calm, and my motion sickness-prone wife had no problems the entire cruise.  Being suite guests, we had a selection of 100 DVD's to choose from, which were delivered by Andrew as needed.  We enjoyed relaxing in our very comfortable bed, just watching movies or visiting with our new found friends.  Something we did find bothersome was the frequent announcements made on the overhead PA system, which were easily heard inside staterooms from the hall.  These tended to interrupt our sleep early in the day, but weren't truly an issue.  Our suite was very comfortable for 2 people.  We had a full-size tub, a nice closet with hangers, a nice table with 4 chairs, a CD/DVD player, a loveseat, and seating for 7 people on the balcony.  Our only issue with our suite was the strong odor of smoke.  We are not smokers and were really put off by it.  Our steward, Felipe, sprayed some chemical all around the room, which merely masked the odor for a few hours.  We couldn't understand how smoking was permitted inside staterooms.  After a while, we got used to the odor.We signed up for a "spa pass" that was valid the entire trip, for $330 for the both of us.  This gave us access to individual whirlpool tubs, steam room, sauna, a large unisex hydrotherapy pool, and an average size jacuzzi tub.  With the temperature in the 50's and 60's most of the cruise, the outside pools weren't really an option, so it was nice to have the spa pass.  We used it almost every day.  We used the gym a few times.  They had all the latest machines available, with individual TV screens.The ship, in general, is very attractive.  There are lots of public areas to keep your interest.  There are lots of colors and bold designs, and we enjoyed the decor immensely.  It seemed like you could always find something new to admire on the ship.  This being a transatlantic crossing, we knew it would be an older crowd.  This simply meant that the trendy areas, such as the Bliss Ultra Lounge, were all but deserted the entire cruise.  Shore excursions/ports:We had 8 ports: Ponta Delgada (Azure islands), Lisbon, Cadiz(Seville), Malaga(Granada), Ajaccio(Corsica), Civitavecchia(Rome), Livorno(Florence, Pisa), Cannes(Monaco, Monte Carlo).  We took shore excursions in 7 of 8 ports.  We didn't take one in Ajaccio (I knew from reviews that there wasn't enough to see for a shore excursion, so we took a little sightseeing train available 2 blocks from the terminal).  We could have done without an excursion in Cadiz, as there is lots to see right in town.  We booked all the excursions through NCL, as we like to play it safe, trying to avoid independent tour operators.  Once we hit Ponta Delgada, getting lots of sleep was over.  We had to be up early in almost every port to be herded onto buses for the excursions.  Be aware that almost every major excursion requires an hour and a half bus ride to the location (e.g. Granada, Rome, Florence, Pisa, etc.)  We didn't mind it, as the sightseeing was nice.  Every tour guide was excellent, except for one in Cadiz that seemed to barely speak English.  We didn't know how she was allowed to conduct the tour.  Fortunately, the tour was mostly a view of the countryside, so we didn't mind it too much.  Overall, our excursions were great.Food:I could probably write a small book about our dining experience on the ship.  There are 2 main dining rooms open for dinner (Grand Pacific and Magenta) and one for lunch (Grand Pacific).  The buffet (Garden Cafe) is open all three meals.  The Blue Lagoon is a table service restaurant that was open 24 hrs. a day with a very limited menu (no fee required).  For suite guests, Cagney's Steakhouse has breakfast and lunch available.  There are several specialty restaurants, which all charge a fee of $10 to $25 per person.  In addition to the fee, some restaurants charge an additional fee for specialty items like lobster.  We found these fees to be excessive, surely a terrible value for what you received.  This being a "Freestyle" ship, the dress code was lax.  You could wear just about anything to eat, except all table service restaurants required pants and Grand Pacific did not allow jeans after 5:30.  Being casual people, we enjoyed the dress code.  80% of the food on the ship was mediocre.  10% was excellent, and 10% was not fit for human consumption.  They couldn't even get simple food items right.  The room service chocolate cake and brownie were the worst I've ever had.  My elementary school cafeteria was a gourmet eatery, compared to the room service menu items we had.  The bread in my club sandwich was stale/dry.  My wife had a chicken noodle soup that was simply some broth with a single noodle and piece of chicken.  We felt guilty leaving food uneaten, but we simply couldn't' stomach so many items we had.  The buffet was very average, but the bad food was only made worse by the fact that you could only find a table if you got there as soon as they opened.  After a while, we came to realize that people would send a single person to sit at a table before food was available, just so that they could have a place to sit.  Often times, there would be only 1 or 2 people sitting at a table that could hold many more.  One woman actually refused for my wife and I to sit at an 8 person table with her and her husband.  The nerve of some people!  Often times, we noticed single people simply reading a book at a table during peak eating times.  They really need a person to facilitate this area to move it along better.  The worst meal we had was at the italian restaurant (La Cucina) with a $10 cover per person.  Just about every item we had seemed like it was from a TV dinner box, and not a very good brand at that.  I had lobster ravioli which tasted like the only part of the lobster it contained was the shell.  Simply awful and fishy tasting, and I love seafood!  The maitre'd admitted that they bought the ravioli pre-made from Sysco.  This was the only place we complained, and they only comped half of our fees.  Incredible!  Le Bistro (French) was quite good.  I had a wonderful beef tenderloin, and my wife had the lamb, which was also delicious.  Tequilas (Tex-Mex) was quite good.  Cagney's steakhouse was quite average, with the lobster certainly not worth the extra fee on top of the cover.  The Teppanyaki was good (akin to Benihana).  Orchid garden (Asian fusion) was average to poor.  They couldn't get even the basics (chicken lo mein) right.  I had a lobster which tasted like it was cooked in fish head stew.  Awful!  The highlight of the food scene on the ship was the sushi restaurant.  The sushi was absolutely delicious!  We enjoyed sitting at the sushi bar and talking to the chef, John.  It was a great value, but was nearly deserted at all times, even at peak hours.  Most specially restaurants were half empty, but they never offered an incentive, such as half-price or buy one/get one.  Also, service at the table service restaurants was spotty at best.  Once we waited 20 minutes after sitting to have someone greet us.  Often, servers would forget to bring you something you ordered.  Drinks were not refilled, and sometimes appetizers and entrees would come out all at the same time.  I could go on and on about the food, but suffice it to say that it was simply a disappointment.  Without a doubt, food is the one area that will keep us from cruising with NCL again.Disembarkation was a bit confusing at first, but it actually worked quite well.  If NCL booked your flight back home, they delivered luggage tags to your cabin the night before disembarkation.  They were color coded, in relation to the time you needed to be of the ship to make your flight on time.  We received VIP tags, which didn't seem to serve any purpose.  You still had to carry your own luggage to the transfer bus.  We were really upset at the airport.  NCL booked our travel, so the airline had NCL's contact information instead of ours.  This was an issue, as our flight was changed while we were on the cruise, putting us home 4 hours later than we were supposed to be.  NCL should have communicated the change to us.  We only found out after waiting in line at the airport for an hour and having the agent tell us that our reservation was cancelled!  I then had to wait in a second line for a ticket agent to clarify the mix up.  Very frustrating.  We then had a 5 hour layover in Madrid, while waiting for our flight to Miami.All in all, we greatly enjoyed the physical ship.  The itinerary was excellent, if not exhausting, but we enjoyed seeing so many different things.  Food quality and service really need to be examined on this ship.  Were it not for these glaring flaws, we would likely cruise on NCL again.  We will definitely try another cruiseline in the future.